Enterprise content management (ECM) can improve operational
efficiency and deliver environmental benefits, says analyst
Gartner.
Enterprise content management can bring business process
efficiencies and help the environment at the same time by reducing
paper-based processes and the inherent latencies and costs, said
Gartner.
Gartner has examined six areas in which organisations can
develop strategies to become more agile and efficient while
reducing the environmental impact of their business.
"The 1980's notion of a paperless office was about how
technology could bring efficiency and change work styles," said
Mark Gilbert, an analyst at Gartner. "Organisations are realising
that process improvements and the move away from paper to
electronic processes can also bring green benefits, such as energy
savings from paper production, distribution, usage and disposition,
and transit through the postal system."
Gartner's six areas that help companies identify processes that
can be modified to reduce harmful effects on the environment, while
becoming more efficient:
1- Overcome information capture inefficiencies
Analyse how you capture information from customers, prospects
and suppliers: make an audit of the methods used by various
functions to collect and route data, as well as serve up
content.
2- Understand document and record realities
Store records electronically and avoid heating/cooling costs:
storing records in an appropriate electronic format offers
significant benefits.
3- Build an ECM strategy
An enterprise-wide strategy is cleaner and greener: as
architects and planners increasingly take an enterprise-wide view,
organisations need to consider consolidating applications into the
most strategic ones where possible. This will usually bring savings
in hardware, storage, IT operations and maintenance agreements.
4- Explore outsourcing
Outsourcing and service bureaus: economies of scale:
organisations should consider using service bureaus and outsourcing
aspects of their content management needs that are common and in
which they have no particular expertise or value-add.
5- Optimise processes with CEVAs
Content-enabled vertical applications (CEVAs) save money and
paper: CEVAs help to automate complex processes that previously
required workers to sort through paper documents and other forms of
content manually.
6- Explore new digital information approaches and
expectations
A new generation has fresh expectations: organisations should
determine the overall role that electronic communications play in
their organisation - with their customers, their partners and their
prospects - because the cost of electronic communications tends to
be lower overall.