The pioneers of transactional filing recognized that their agency management systems could be used as the sole source of client information and that a conventional filing system was no longer necessary. They didn't view t-filing as a goal in itself. On the way to the goal–a cultural change in which the agency management system became the primary source for documenting activity–the streamlining benefits of t-filing were a useful, though secondary, consequence. Agents who didn't understand this approached t-filing as if it were the destination. As a result, some agents failed to reach the real goal.

Similarly, some agents misunderstand the concept of "going paperless." They think it's just about getting rid of paper. For example, one agent recently asked my advice on purchasing a scanner. As we spoke about different scanners, I realized that he thought buying the scanner was all there was to going paperless. He intended to keep his paper files and add the scanner so he could find any missing paper documents in an electronic database. All this would have done for him would have been to create more work and more potential for an E&O claim, without improving efficiency. Scanning documents into a database should never be equated with going paperless, and it should never be undertaken simply to create a second filing system. Scanning paper takes time, even with a high-end scanner. Scanning alone will not bring about a net gain in efficiency.

Real gains in efficiency come from integrating a paperless model with such tools as Microsoft Outlook, desktop faxing, electronic form-filler programs and Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems. Combining all these tools into one streamlined system should be the real goal of a paperless effort, and the disappearance of paper will be just a secondary benefit.