Using Document Management to go Green
There's another article running on a trade site today promoting document management programs as an efficient way to green your business process.
WhatTheyThink.com has a brief article detailing a number of popular options for streamlining information management processes to be more environmentarlly friendly, and one of the leading suggestions is employing a document management or electronic document management program like the ones
provided by GRM.
From WhatTheyThink:
Ditch your filing cabinets: Using an ECM system helps reduce the need for physical filing cabinets, freeing up office space and giving employees instant access to the information they need to get their jobs done faster. ECM systems also support virtual workers, allowing them to access business critical information online from any location . . . Save time by automating processes: Reduce the time it takes to process invoices, purchase orders, insurance claims, sales contracts and resumes from days to minutes. Simply scan a document into your ECM system that will automatically route the document to relevant groups or departments, eliminating the need to circulate paper and save time.
A Way to Green IT
There's an interesting article on
SeaCoastOnline today discussing the many ways managers can green a company's IT. The author proposes a number of techniques, including recycling your eWaste, virtualizing your server structure and, most importantly in our case, introducing a comprehensive electronic document management system.
GRM offers clients the benefit of dependable
EDM services, and we've also virtualized our own server systems. If one of your primary goals is reducing your carbon footprint, we've got the means and the technology to make that a possibility.
From SeaCoast:
Document management technology, sometimes referred to as paperless office, also offers a very cost-effective way for a business to become more green. How much paper is wasted in your office? How much paper is stored in your office, year after year? That storage has a cost. If you use a records management service, there is a potentially large monthly cost associated with keeping your paper at a location other than your own office. If you use an efficient document management system, they can all become electronic, which can also be made more secure than paper, costs less to store and generates less waste.
Document Management in India
It's always interesting to get a look at what you're industry is doing in foreign markets. I keep extremely close tabs on news within the document management world here in the states, but every once and awhile some info pops up on trends in the UK or Asia, and today there's a great article on the state of the industry in India. The Indian website,
NetworkComputing, has an excellent Q & A running on their site with a leading professional. In it he discusses the DM trends within the Indian business world, as well as what seems to be driving those trends.
From NetworkComputing:
Companies in India are phasing out conventional imaging solutions and adopting one vendor approach that can help consolidates their content and tag compliance based document lifecycle. They are looking out for a software solution where digital rich media, user desktop folder, office communication, customer documents and also digitized customer papers are stored in a searchable robust eFolder. Another trend is data archival, which otherwise was untapped by Enterprise Content Management (ECM) vendors or the older imaging solution providers. The financial services and telecom industries have already started to deploy enterprise content management solutions primarily because of the large volumes of data they have to secure and update. Now, even the government and manufacturing sectors are realizing the need to automate and access their content.
Certified Hard Drive Destruction
One of the most overlooked services GRM offers our clients is certified, secure and environmentally friendly hard drive destruction. It's a service that most companies need, yet very few actually invest in. Consider this:
- 235 million Electronic Units have accumulated in storage over the past 20 years
- Approximately 40 million computers became obsolete in 2007
- The majority of computers that are "recycled" are actually outsourced to other nations
All of these figures highlight the need for every business to find greener, more successful ways to dispose of their office electronics.
GRM's definitive hard drive destruction process both gets rid of your old hard drives and ensures that the sensitive data within will never fall into the wrong hands.
Government Exploring Green IT
In a fascinating article from
Baseline Magazine, one author takes a closer look at the current trends in government agency information management. The main findings show that more and more government departments are moving toward greener IT, which definitely means that electronic document management is on the horizon. It only makes sense, since efficiency and security are both such huge concerns in government.
From Baseline:
The National Association of State Chief Information Officers, an industry association based in Lexington, Ky., indicates that IT consolidation, security, resource sharing, Web 2.0, e-records management, and data and document management will be among the top priorities for its membership in 2009. Spending increases in the federal IT market are expected to slow down in the next several years—to just under 4 percent annually—after experiencing an average of 7 percent growth a year for the last two decades, according to INPUT, a market research firm in Reston, Va. INPUT projects that federal government IT spending will increase to $83.4 billion in 2009, up from $80.8 billion in 2008.
Visit our eAccess Digital Tour
In an effort to educate potential clients on the ease with which they will be able to navigate our eAccess program, GRM has posted a 4 minute showcase of the program on our website. Available through a link on our
home page or directly through
GRM University, the video highlights the finer points of eAccess, allowing you to see the benefits and ease of use of it's functions.
If you have contemplated utilizing a digital document management program in the past, this tutorial is a strong indicator of how convenient EDM can be. Many potential clients would love to introduce EDM, but are afraid the technology will be too difficult to use. Our eAccess center is so easy to navigate, all you need is computer access and a basic working knowledge of a PC or web browser. Just follow the link, watch the video and see for yourself how simple digital content management can be.
eDiscovery Market Expected to Swell
Despite the fact that the recession has forced many small businesses to cut financial corners, a new
article on TechTarget suggests that the need for eDiscovery services is on the rise, and will continue to be through the next year. As we increasingly rely on email communications, many companies feel that an effective program to backlog those communications has become non-negotiable. Additionally, many business owners and records management heads have become aware that digital document management will save them money. There are some interesting statistics available in this article, and I'll provide some of them below. Follow the link for full text.
From TechTarget:
In a Dec. 2008 report, Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. predicted that spending on e-discovery software technologies and service offerings will grow between 25% and 35% through 2012. A SearchStorage.com survey conducted this year showed that just 14% of the 657 respondents have implemented or will implement e-discovery tools this year. One key change that drew the attention of corporate legal counsel were the 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), which govern civil actions in federal courts. For the first time, the rules spelled out obligations for preserving electronically stored information (ESI).
Savings a Bigger Factor
Continuing on with the theme of my post earlier this week,
BCS.org has a follow up article on a recent AIIM study's findings about document management practices. The study, which is conducted every year, found that for the first time ever the primary reason businesses opt to enact an electronic document management program shifted from compliance concerns to more economic reasoning. Essentially, businesses have finally caught wind of the fact that EDM and the over-arching document management field is an immediate investment that will save them money in the long term.
From BCS:
Doug Miles, the managing director of AIIM UK, explained: 'I think any investment in ECM will improve compliance by definition of getting better control over the documents. 'It's just that what will get the pens to write the signatures on the purchase orders at board level in the current climate has become much more about if you can save money on the compliance risked.'
Document Management and EHR
Electronic Health Records are becoming the norm in American medical facilities, but what about digital document management programs? There is an excellent
article on AdvanceWeb today discussing why the two should go hand in hand, and assessing if practices are willing to invest in both at once. The author makes a strong case in favor of those that feel the that electronic document management is and should always be an integral part of transitioning to electronic health records.
From AdvanceWeb:
The avalanche of paper documents produced from electronic clinical systems has caught many CIOs off-guard and under prepared. Furthermore, when patient information is entered, viewed and stored in a variety of systems, users cannot review the complete record in a single, central place. CIOs must find a way to bring all the information together, regardless of format or originating department. Electronic document management systems (EDMS) solve these problems. They are a building block for EHR success and an important component to achieving a financial return.
GRM is Eco-Friendly
In mid-2008 GRM took it upon ourselves to evaluate our carbon footprint, assess where we could reduce energy consumption and to take action effecting positive change. As a result, we found that one of the most effective ways to Green our services was through a virtualization of our information management system. If you're not familiar with this concept, the process involves cutting back the amount of physical servers connected to our network.
We achieved this goal by transferring massive amounts of data to a web-based storage system. Traditional server-systems require massive amounts of energy to function, but the new virtualized system requires little to none. If you're interested in learning more about GRM's virtualization process, you can read the full details in the
In the Media section of our website.
Doc Manaagement Focus Shifts From Compliance to Efficiency
This morning
Tech Central ran an article on their website taking a closer look at an AIIM study I mentioned last week. The study, which was conducted by AIIM in order to assess the state of ECM in 2009, had some interesting conclusions. The major point I focused on in my post last week was that the majority of businesses are overwhelmed and unprepared to handle the growing amount of digital content being created in their offices.
Tech Central mentions a second point I didn't notice in my reading, which is that the driving force between most businesses creating a document management program has shifted recently. The most common reason before last year was that a company was trying to stay in compliance with industry regulations. The most common answer in 2009 was that executives hoped a document management program would improve efficiency and reduce expenses. Interesting.
Why Document Capture and Routing Matters
ITWorld.com is running a story today on the importance of document capture and routing, as well as the entire field of document management in general. The gist of the article is that as we continue pushing into a global recession, businesses everywhere are searching for ways to become more efficient. Implementing document capture or an over-arching document management program created by a third party vendor
like GRM can increase a company's productivity, reduce waste and cut back on unnecessary expenditures and salaries. If you're a business owner, this is a must-read.
From ITWorld:
What is document capture and routing? It’s a flexible and efficient way to capture, transform, and move paper and electronic documents among people, places, and formats. Starting with the familiar networked multi-function peripheral (MFP) – the new-breed copy machine that is a foundation of outsourced office services, document capture and routing solutions provide simultaneous distribution to multiple destinations in multiple formats.
Digital Document Management Saves Big for RIA Firms
BankInvestmentConsultant.com has an article on their website this morning discussing the financial benefits of RIA firms utilizing a digital document management service like the one
offered by GRM. It's one of the most concrete news pieces I've seen in the past few months for selling EDM, namely because the author provides concrete figures of approximately how much firms stand to gain from the transition. I know I've covered the idea a lot here in this blog, but the increased efficiency that a streamlined document management program offers any company is invaluable.
From the article:
The implementation of technology upgrades results, on average, in an annual savings of $8,000 for an emerging firm, $18,000 for an established firm and $27,000 for an enterprise firm, according to the analysis. Firms using digital document management systems are able to reduce storage space or even move into a smaller office.
Digital Content Still Out of Control
According to the findings of a recently released
AIIM report, almost half of all businesses surveyed were having difficulties handling their electronic information, and as much as 75% reported not having a handle on modern business channels like blogs, texts and wikis. That being said, educating yourself on the nature of electronic document management and all of it's subcategories is more important than ever.
Every major industry has gradually shifted to a more digital-centric information flow, and along with that must come the ability to handle, store and maintain that digital information in a responsible way. Digital document and records management programs like
GRM can help you to pull your business above the statistics, making you one of the fifty percent that actually knows how to handle the new challenges.
