Earth Day and Content Management (ECM)

For many of us who are at the office and won’t have the opportunity to plant a tree today, here’s an idea – why not save one instead? The net benefit to the environment is about the same and you may even discover ways to continue the process in the future, which could yield even greater earth-friendly benefits.

So, what’s the catch, you’re probably wondering? Nothing sneaky. I promise. Just some tree-saving ideas I’ve collected from my ECM colleagues here at Xythos that could help get you and your business greener without too much pain or suffering.


Easy ECM Steps to Greener Document Management

• Use duplex printing – in theory, this can reduce paper consumption by up to 50%!
  
• Eliminate banner printing – according to our friends at Gartner, this can yield savings of up to $33,000 per year for a typical 1,000 employee organization.
  
• Exchange documents via the web vs. courier services – this can cut $10-$15 per transaction, depending on your service contract fees.
  
• Adopt a print on demand office policy (vs. print and distribute) - a variety of industry analysts estimate this can produce up to 30% cost savings in mid-larger-sized businesses.
  
• Print to fax servers – for legal and healthcare organizations this is a great way to eliminate printing those pages that don’t require client or patient signatures.
  
• Use web conferencing and ECM to collaborate on important projects and documents – the average business trip can cost over $400 per day per employee and that doesn’t include airfare. Web technologies can reduce the carbon impact of business meetings by over 80%, Gartner researchers estimate.
  
• Store documents and records online – Sure, servers consume some energy but its nothing compared to the amount required to transport, cool, heat and protect physical documents – which of course, had to be printed to begin with!

The best enterprise content management (ECM) solutions have migrated to the web and are easier than ever to use. Web services, like Xythos on Demand make getting started a simple, five-minute task. It’s a lot less work than digging a hole in the ground and you can enjoy the benefits as much as the environment will. Why not get greener and give it a try? Visit the free Xythos Test Drive today.