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It`s not just about saving trees

By Warren Buss, ECM Solution Manager at Nokusa Engineering Informatics.


Johannesburg, 16 Feb 2012

Companies that use electronic document and content management systems are likely to reduce their spending on paper, printing and variables by at least 50%, which makes it a no-brainer to be going green in the business environment, says Warren Buss, ECM Solution Manager at Nokusa Engineering Informatics.

While it`s tricky to calculate how many trees we save by reducing our paper consumption, ballpark figures gleaned from a number of sources suggest that one average-sized pine tree can produce 160 to 180 reams of standard copier paper. Indeed, a small business employing less than 10 people could easily save one tree a year.

Green document management involves using IT systems to replace the use of paper as the primary means of recording and disseminating information in the business environment. But going green in the office is not just about saving trees, or about reducing our carbon footprint. It is also about introducing efficiencies into the workflow, increasing productivity, and seeing a difference in the bottom line - all good reasons to be implementing green IT strategies.

Technology is making it easier and easier to move towards a paperless environment, provided that we are smart about how we organise our electronic documents and content. The wheels can come off very quickly if we do not have strategic electronic storage systems in place.

It is estimated that professionals spend 5% to 15% of their time reading information, but up to 50% of their time looking for it because they do not have the right electronic filing system. Furthermore, 7.5% of all documents get lost and another 3% get misfiled. So green document management, if it is to improve efficiency and reduce the risk of losing critical information, requires IT systems that enhance business processes.

Electronic document and records management (EDRMS) and enterprise content management (ECM) systems are specifically designed to enable reliable capture and organisation of data and documents, as well as easy access to these resources. EDRM relates specifically to keeping records in electronic files rather than on paper and ECM deals with the capturing and organising of the many streams of electronic information that we deal with every day - e-mail, Web content, SMSes, digital images, electronic documents, and much more - flooding in from the cloud to both our PCs and to portable devices such as mobile phones and tablet PCs.

Some may argue that it`s not realistic to have a paperless society. Nevertheless, we have already made phenomenal strides in reducing the amount of paper we use, in relation to the amount of data that we access every day. Most e-mail users now receive an average of 28MB per day of data. The size of the digital universe passed the milestone of 800 000 petabytes (at one million gigabytes per petabyte) in 2010 and is expected to reach 35 zettabytes (35 million petabytes) by 2020, according to a study conducted by US market research company, IDC. All the trees in the world would not be enough to put all that data onto paper.

A significant benefit of green document management is that it can produce considerable cost savings through efficiencies in business processes. Some examples are that it`s quicker and easier to search for and find what users need; managers can easily ensure that their staff are reading what is current and correct; once developed, content can automatically be published in a number of mediums and reused in a variety of scenarios; workflow processes become more efficient; and record-keeping becomes much more efficient and secure, which is a vital part of reducing corporate risk.

An additional benefit is that we can facilitate the integration of IT systems between companies and organisations. The potential for expanding efficiencies and services when using systems that can "talk to each other" - known as interoperability in the industry - is phenomenal. This is a business process that remains somewhat neglected in South Africa, but where it is being implemented, interoperability is transforming the face of business. A good example is how manufacturers and logistics companies, which transport their products, can automate and integrate information about the flow of inventory, track and trace units in the supply chain, generate data analysis on demand and supply, improve lead times, and so on.

Some challenges remain around reducing paper consumption. Certain legal documents still need to be done on paper, in particular wills and testaments and the transfer and sale of fixed assets. However, since the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act of 2002 was passed, digital signatures are acceptable on most transactions and some organisations have embraced this concession in order to reduce their consumption of paper.

The introduction of green IT strategies in companies that are very paper-intensive, such as law firms and financial institutions, is a welcome contribution to protecting our environment. The banking sector has taken the lead in joining the digital age, but its sub-sectors, such as dealerships that handle vehicle finance applications, now also need to come onboard. Another leader is the SA Revenue Service (SARS), where e-filing has transformed the process of submitting tax returns. On the whole, though, we need to see more government departments, especially in local government, introducing electronic forms and providing kiosks where electronic forms may be filled in and submitted.

Above all, it is now time for the business sector as a whole to be embracing green technology strategies. The capital cost of implementing ECM or EDRMS need not be daunting, as these products are scalable and can easily be tailored to meet the needs and the budget of a small enterprise. Most of the cost of EDMRM or ECM lies in the initial capital investment; once in place, the overheads and operational costs are minimal.

Consider the wondrous impact on business growth and environmental sustainability if every company could set a green target of reducing paper consumption by 50%. A cherry on the top for each company`s corporate identity would be that it could state that it saves so many trees a year.

Warren Buss is the ECM Solution Manager at Nokusa Engineering Informatics (NokusaEI), a leading international ECM consulting company. Based in South Africa and also operating in Australia, NokusaEI is fully BEE compliant, and consults to more than 170 clients in South Africa and internationally. For more information, contact NokusaEI on (011) 791 1028 or visit www.nokusaei.com.

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