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.

Escape the Cold with ECM and Online Collaboration

At Xythos we sometimes joke that the popularity of online document and content management applications is directly related to an organization’s geographic location. Those closest to northern latitudes have a natural incentive to seek alternatives to personal travel, at least during half the year we laugh. After all, doesn’t that help explain the longtime popularity of ECM vendors like Hummingbird and OpenText?

As I warm my fingers above my MacBook’s CPU this February morning I can’t help but think there may be some truth to this joke. Though if we believe Punxsutawney Phil, the joke’s on us all because “six more weeks of winter it will be”. For those of us who use ECM systems, I wonder if we’re ready to change? Do we feel confident we can accomplish most, or maybe all our assigned tasks without traveling? Are we more comfortable conducting business remotely or from a home office than we’ve been in the past?

I’m not suggesting that ECM systems and web collaboration tools can eliminate the need for human interaction or attending business meetings altogether. Those of us engaged in customer-facing roles know the process of establishing relationships is key to business success. I imagine that still remains true both inside and outside organizations today. Yet, it is still cold out there …

Once we get to know our co-workers and customers and have established a degree of trust and cooperation, I think the potential for productive and potentially long distance collaboration is significant. In fact, simply doing our jobs in environments that don’t introduce myriad interruptions (possibly like the office?) has proven to significantly increase individual performance, according to analysts. Of course, that’s assuming you have access to such an oasis.

So, how can ECM help fight off the winter doldrums and maybe keep us warmer too? Why not test your system and discover how much it can help you get done without visiting the office every day of the week? If you live in a colder climate, that might be one less day of stepping outside and being miserable. If you live in a warmer place use your ECM system to enjoy it a little bit more. Get out on the patio and do some creative project planning. Just don’t brag about how nice it is, or you might get the next consulting project in Duluth.

The combination of ECM, Web 2.0 collaboration tools, and pervasive web connectivity not only helps reduce travel costs, it can limit our impact on the environment as well. The cost of transportation and exchange of documents can migrate from the physical to the electronic universe with consequent benefits. According to the US Energy Information Administration, transportation accounts for 33 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. That’s far greater than the 2 percent that Gartner estimates suggest information and communication technology contributes.

If your ECM system isn’t Internet compatible, it might be time for an upgrade. Web-enabling your system can truly expand the benefits your organization experience’s by multiples. Not only can it support remote access and more enjoyable winters, but it can also become a first step towards better integrating your customers and partners together with your business. That’s probably a smart move in any economic environment.

If you don't have access to an ECM system, but want to get a quick understanding for how this could work, try out Xythos on Demand. This software as a service (SaaS) ECM solution will get you started in minutes and it’s free for the first 30 days. That might be an easy way to avoid the cold.

First Black, then Green

Last week Xythos hosted a web seminar titled “Is Green the New Black”. The event featured IT executives from academic institutions, technology analysts and editors brought together to examine whether ECM technologies can help green initiatives. It was a lively discussion and I'd say that the recorded version of the seminar might be well worth a listen, even if you’re just generally interested in this topic.

“Is Green the New Black” recorded web seminar

http://www.xythos.com/promotions/greenisnewblack_reg.html

One of the key lessons I learned from the seminar was that both enterprise guests justified the acquisition and deployment of their ECM solutions based upon cold ROI analysis of the benefits which could be gained, not some warm and fuzzy “let’s save the planet a document at a time” kind of initiative. Certainly, the green benefits of their ECM projects were considered, but in the end each based their initiative upon a defensible business plan.

Perhaps this is more good news for the green movement in the enterprise. If technologies such as content management make sense on their own business merit and can also help reduce energy consumption and waste, then what’s not to like? According to our guest presenters, the investment break-even time frame wasn’t overly long either, so it certainly sounds like profitability and sustainability can be friends.

Please let us know about your own green ECM initiatives. No, we’re not going to put them in an ad campaign, but we will offer to post them on www.xythos.com so that your peers can benefit from learning about your challenges and successes in this area.

Is Green the New Black?

I don’t know that the green topic needs much extra help to appear fashionable, but we’re certainly beginning to learn about good examples of how ECM is being put to work to reduce paper consumption, travel costs and other factors unfavorable to the environment. We’ve invited Xythos customers and a couple industry analysts to join us on a webcast next month to look into this topic in more detail. Please feel free to join us and share the below invitation link with your friends.

http://www.xythos.com/promotions/greenisnewblack_reg.html

What I like about using ECM to address environmental concerns is that it can produce immediate and direct results. There’s no need for offsets or carbon credits to justify ECM green projects. However, these projects usually require behavioral change in order to succeed. Sometimes that may be difficult for a user community. Other times, the initiative might appear obvious and help employees feel that they’re “doing their part to help” while at work.

One example we’ll be looking into is quite simple, but could yield impressive results – print output reduction. Several Xythos customers have targeted print output as a quick way to reduce paper use and the consumption of energy associated with printing and distributing documents. With target goals of 25% or greater the savings from these initiatives can add up rather quickly, particularly for some of our larger, distributed institutional clients.

Organizations have lots of different reasons these days for participating in green initiatives, and saving money certainly can’t hurt the appeal. Is your organization also finding ways to make green turn to black? Please let me know.