Effective use of enterprise content management (ECM) tools can improve
process efficiencies and boost environmentally friendly practices, according to
new research from Gartner.
The analyst firm's
Enterprise
Content Management Strategies for Green IT report outlines six areas where
companies can identify processes which could help them become greener, including
the use of electronic forms to reduce the need for paper documents.
Organisations are advised to look at their ECM efforts in a more strategic,
enterprise-wide light, consolidating applications and using content-enabled
vertical applications to automate complex processes where possible.
Gartner urges companies to consider the wasted server time in running
information that has been duplicated in multiple systems, for example.
"Evaluate repository consolidation and enterprise approaches when you think
about an ECM strategy," the report said. "Move away from smaller departmental
nooks and crannies in which information is often trapped rather than being
accessible throughout the enterprise."
Outsourcing certain elements of an ECM system can also bring green benefits,
because outsourcing providers can maximise the efficiency of their
infrastructure, the report advised.
Companies should also store documents electronically rather than in paper
format because the energy associated with paper manufacture and distribution,
and that required to air condition large paper-storage environments, can be
significant.
"The 1980s notion of a paperless office was about how technology could bring
efficiency and change work styles," said Mark Gilbert, research vice president
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."
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