Going green is beginning to weave its way into the fabric of organisations, with environmentally conscious companies initiating efforts to balance what is good for business with what is good for the planet.
So says Janine Buckley, marketing assistant at enterprise print management solutions provider Actnet. She adds customers are also challenging organisations to find better ways to protect and preserve resources.
"All of us are looking for ways to reduce the impact we have on the environment. Vast resources are utilised by businesses every day to produce, print and post paper documents such as invoices, statements, delivery notes, purchase orders and remittances. What we don't always add into this equation are the high quantities of waste produced during their disposal," says Buckley.
Fortunately, she says, this can be eliminated by replacing a slow, unreliable and expensive manual service with a faster, more efficient electronic solution.
"With this in mind, just imagine the amount of energy and resources you could save by taking your document delivery online?"
According to the environmental awareness organisation Greenworks, it is estimated that one tonne of carbon dioxide is offset by every five or six new trees planted, provided they live for 50 to 100 years.
Yet with an electronic distribution delivery system, Buckley explains, an average-sized company issuing 12 000 invoices per month could save up to 14.4 tonnes annually (based on the established industry standard that producing and delivering a single paper invoice leaves a 100g carbon footprint).
She says with an electronic distribution delivery system, an organisation could reduce its carbon footprint over each month of the year, ensuring significant environmental and cost savings by eliminating paper and replacing the wasteful "print-send-archive-dispose" document cycle with a faster, greener process.
Buckley points out an electronic distribution delivery and payment system is a comprehensive, scalable and affordable solution for companies to send invoices, statements and other financial documents such as payslips, contracts or policies electronically, while providing an easy electronic payment solution for customers.
Getting vital financial documents out to customers quickly, and payments in just as quickly, is critical to business survival, she says, adding the time and cost to process the data for print or to send these documents is often very high.
Buckley explains an electronic distribution delivery system is not just about sending invoices and statements electronically; it needs to have intelligent archiving, a secure storage database, document linking and a sophisticated distribution system at its core, allowing quick access to customer records and real-time response to queries, thus improving customer service, satisfaction and loyalty.
"With an electronic delivery system, you are able to deliver financial documents to customers safely, quickly and affordably - with the added benefit of significantly reducing your company's carbon footprint for generations to come."
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