Going Green is more than a trend; it’s now an everyday reality. Organizations of all types, regardless of industry, are finding that reducing their carbon footprint makes good business sense – it’s good for the planet and the company bottom line.
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and document management systems have long offered the ability to realize quantifiable business benefits, efficiencies, and savings. If your goal is “Green IT,” you should know that ECM systems can support corporate-wide environmental initiatives while positively impacting the bottom line.
Consider the following:
The costs involved with paper-based file cabinet storage such as the space itself, the energy to heat or cool it, and the building’s upkeep can be significantly reduced by archiving documents using an ECM system.
Do you have further thoughts or comments? If so, let me know!
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and document management systems have long offered the ability to realize quantifiable business benefits, efficiencies, and savings. If your goal is “Green IT,” you should know that ECM systems can support corporate-wide environmental initiatives while positively impacting the bottom line.
Consider the following:
- Through a Web-based ECM interface, workers in the next cube, on the floor below or across the globe can share business critical information inside the company as well as with partners, vendors and clients – all using just an Internet connection and browser. Costly ECM hardware and software at each workstation is eliminated, as is the need for hard copy documents. Paper use is dramatically decreased, saving trees. The energy, chemicals and costs associated with manufacturing, shipping and delivering paper-based documents is also reduced.
- Capturing information electronically, at its source, can eliminate shipping costs associated with moving and transporting paper to a central location for processing. Using a traditional hardware/software ECM system, or the latest capture system built for the Web1, companies can still take advantage of centrally located "knowledge workers" to handle, index and process scanned documents. Not only is money saved by eliminating shipping costs, but fuel consumption and emissions are reduced or eliminated as well.
- By implementing business process management, a common component in most ECM systems, users can work faster and smarter by automating business processes and working with documents electronically (in some cases viewing electronic documents simultaneously, eliminating the need for copies). This can reduce the time it takes to process work from weeks to minutes.
- Web-based ECM and document management systems support mobile workforces and telecommuters - reducing travel for employees, allowing them to be located anywhere around the world. By working with documents electronically in "virtual office" settings, workers can freely connect with each other, collaborate and share documents, and minimize waste. With a robust Web-based ECM system, documents transmit over a secure internet connection individually or in bulk, allowing people at any location to work together to accomplish sophisticated document capture tasks.
The costs involved with paper-based file cabinet storage such as the space itself, the energy to heat or cool it, and the building’s upkeep can be significantly reduced by archiving documents using an ECM system.
ECM System Green IT Benefits
- Eliminate transportation and fuel costs (lower carbon emissions)
- Eliminate shipping and handling costs (lower carbon emissions from your shipping partners)
- ECM in the Cloud means you don’t need to buy server class computers – no unnecessary computer rooms and BTUs production, no HVAC requirements, lower power consumption
- Distributed Capture means you’ll leverage lower power consuming desktop scanners rather than using big, bulky, centralized, power-hungry mainframe or departmental scanners
- Reduce paper consumption: paper is captured at the point of origin, no copying/faxing/filing necessary (plus reduced printer and toner cartridge usage)
- Looking at and processing information and documents electronically, beginning at their source, becomes a new way of doing business
- Manually filing papers and files is replaced with scanning and indexing documents electronically, increasing efficiency and speeding workflow
Whether using traditional or Web-based ECM systems, many companies are realizing these benefits and more. One day, our first response to view and process information will be to access information through a browser on our computer and not a file cabinet. Until then, it is great to know that you can reduce expenses and while acting environmentally responsible.
Do you have further thoughts or comments? If so, let me know!
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