That has been the case at Bank of New York, where users have adapted to viewing document images and PDF files on screen instead of printing them. "I've seen how readily some folks who have more than a few years in this industry have embraced the ability to pull up a record on their desktop. People printing it is truly the exception," says Thum. Nonetheless, there's a difference between viewing transactional documents on screen and reading large reports and other knowledge-intensive documents in that way, says Harper.

At appliance maker Whirlpool Corp., product manuals are an area where paper remains the superior technology, despite the potential cost savings of digital documents. A paper manual can be attached to an appliance, where it is more immediately available to the customer than electronic documents on a CD-ROM or Web site. Paper also has certain tangible qualities that are attractive for marketing purposes.

"[Marketing] may want to use a certain type of paper that conveys our brand image," says Thomas Ehrman, director of global enablement services at Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool.

At a software company like Microsoft Corp., however, printed manuals aren't very useful. "There's no way you could print a manual for Windows, because it changes every six weeks," says Harper.

Compliance by hard copy