Green IT

According to Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company,

“…IT is responsible for 2% of global emissions. Green IT is about reducing the other 98%.”

In other words, IT is part of the solution, not the problem. Download a whitepaper from IDC on Green IT.

Green IT — The Paperless Office?

For how long have we been hearing that the paperless office is nearly here? Well, for the first time with green issues (finally) on the agenda for CEOs as well as CIOs, there’s a chance that it may well come to pass. It’s also because technology is finally starting to give us workflow systems that are more efficient and more cost effective and easier to use. But mostly it’s because people want to work differently.

Today’s workforce is IT savvy; people are happy doing things digitally and online in their personal lives — they now want (and expect) to work this way too. Paper is becoming the epitomy of everything that’s associated with inefficiency and environmentally "unfriendliness". And it’s this combination that’s the catalyst for driving the workplace towards the adoption of "green IT".

Fundamentally, green IT is about using IT as efficiently and effectively as possible, for whatever purpose it serves. And that isn’t just about future IT — it’s about the IT we are using today. The solution is just as much about peoples’ behaviour as it is about their use of IT.

Consider the time and costs that are wasted when individuals print their e-mails, read them and then respond electronically. How much time and costs are wasted in retyping or reformatting documents? What about copying, storing and shipping documents? When you consider the time, the labor, the materials and the energy all this expends in just managing information, it’s clear that there are massive savings and improvements to be made — all of which will see our organizations becoming significantly more "green".

It’s a win-win situation for the environment and for businesses that choose to take these steps.

The first step is to understand your processes, so you can consider which ones can be migrated to electronic format, and which will result in the greatest productivity and cost improvements. The next step is simply a case of identifying those applications that can best deliver the improvements you’re looking for.

Which is where OmniPage, PaperPort and PDF Converter from Nuance can help. This is a family of world leading "productivity applications" that vastly improve the way in which paper and digital documents are processed, archived and shared. Their ease of use, wide compatibility and broad functionality mean they can vastly improve an organization’s productivity while delivering significant reductions in costs.

• OmniPage is the world’s most accurate document conversion application. It has 99%+ accuracy so it can turn paper and digital documents into files you can edit, search and share in the format of your choice.
• PaperPort is the world’s most powerful desktop document management system — organize, view and find over 150 document and photo formats
• PDF Converter gives you the ability to create 100%-industry-standard PDF files from any application

All three applications combine to reduce your reliance on paper, automate repetitive manual tasks and give fast, secure access to information. And of course, this in turn leads to reduced information processing costs and labor.

• Digitize and organize your paper records
• Eliminate offsite document storage
• Keep information secure
• Ensure information is Section 508 accessibility certified
• Create PDF files from any document
• Convert PDF files in editable Microsoft Word documents
• Eliminate the retyping of information