The gulf oil spill is an environmental disaster. Everyone wants the oil leak to be stopped and the damage contained. Does Obama's response compare to George W. Bush’s incompetence after hurricane Katrina? It seems too early to tell, but the problems illustrate the limits of government to solve problems. I wish there was real leadership in areas that the president and Congress can influence like public opinion on ways to reduce our dependence on oil. I am not referring to cap and trade or raising taxes on oil. So how does this tie in with Telecom Expense Management (TEM)?
Justifying TEM programs usually, focuses on saving money, but TEM can also help organizations go green. This is a case, where doing the right thing will save money. Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 380 gallons of oil, 7,000 gallons of water, and 3,700 pounds of lumber. This is enough electricity to power an average house for six months.
A ton of paper invoices may seem like a large volume of paper bills, but it is the equivalent to 222,841 sheets of office paper. The average Fortune 500 Company spends more than $100 million on telecommunications services each year. Most of the bills for these services are in paper format. Invoices can run thousands of pages. The savings from substituting EDI and web billing for paper is even greater.
In addition to savings from not using paper, there are gains from not using gas to deliver bills, and ink for printing. Many organizations can also save from costs of archiving bills and storing them in digital format after processing paper bills. TEM programs can also help in other less obvious ways. TEM can help identify services and equipment that are no longer needed. In some cases, unplugging unnecessary hardware and network devices can provide energy savings. In other cases, telecom carriers are reallocating underutilized services to customers that need these services. Much like energy providers that seek to avoid building new plants by getting customers to cut back during peak usage, network service providers can avoid buying new hardware by reallocating existing resources. TEM programs provide the capabilities to optimize existing services and identify unused services.
What customers do with the savings is up to them, but many of customers are reallocating savings in the telecom budget to areas that save the environment. Gains from our TEM program are helping fund video conferencing, which reduces air travel. At other companies, savings are helping fund new initiatives that allow employees to work from home. Another company is rolling out mobility services with new GPS capabilities to help field personnel reduce fuel consumption by driving more efficiently.
What new initiatives would you like to fund? While you think about ways to save the Earth's environment, also think about ways to contribute to your bottom line by implementing a TEM solution.
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