The advent of modern office devices and digital technologies has presented many opportunities for today’s businesses to achieve greater productivity, save on both costs and office space, and easily share information.

As such, many businesses, especially ones that handle document-intensive tasks, have gone paperless. This does not necessarily mean eliminating paper but rather streamlining how information moves from hard copy to soft copy and allowing everyone in the office to access and use the content exactly when they need to.

This is generally done by adopting smarter document management, that is, integrating office equipment with an imaging and document management application that allows them to effectively extend the capabilities of that machine and make those who use it productive.

Utilizing modern multifunction office devices and software solutions like Fuji Xerox’s DocuShare and DocuWorks, major companies and institutions have embraced a paperless workplace and enjoyed its many benefits.

One is US-based Mizuho Capital Markets Corp., the specialized subsidiary of the Mizuho Financial Group, which has secured all paper documents on a fast track using DocuShare enterprise content management (ECM) system with integrated imaging capabilities. This system effectively eliminated the need for keeping large steel file cabinets and allows traders to search up to 50,000 digital files within seconds.

Similarly getting gains from DocuShare is US health provider Kaiser Permanente, which has maintained an internal web site from which registered users can gain access to the latest versions of documents and files. The company estimates cost savings of $500,000 per year since having the self-service intranet and doing away with printouts of medical forms, brochures, training materials and policy guidelines.

Even the Clark Development Corp. (CDC), which manages the development of the Clark Special Economic Zone, has taken the paperless route with DocuShare and DocuWorks. With smarter document management, CDC can securely route confidential documents and share electronic documents rather than physically delivering original hard copies. This has resulted in substantial savings in their courier and printing costs and a greater sense of security.

A desktop document management solution for organizations of all kinds, DocuWorks enables users to manage electronic documents created by a wide variety of applications by bundling and sharing them in DocuWorks proprietary formats. When used with scanners and multifunction devices, DocuWorks helps organizations convert paper documents into electronic files, work collaboratively and route content to document management systems.

A Web-based application, DocuShare allows companies of every size to easily and affordably deploy a content management solution that enables the capture, management, retrieval and delivery of paper documents in digital format, regardless of user skill level, platform or location. Fuji Xerox also offers the Apeos Linkage solution, which provides Web access to a DocuShare server directly from the color Web User Interface on its latest ApeosPort MFP series.

“Fuji Xerox shares in businesses’ objectives to improve operations by handling documents more effectively, controlling costs and increasing efficiency in the workplace. It is our commitment to continue developing solutions and products that will help them achieve this through smarter document management,” said Fuji Xerox Philippines Inc. president Romy Serrano.

With significant help from Fuji Xerox, today’s businesses can now move forward to a paperless workplace and go about their day-to-day operations with more productivity and less costs.

ValueIT

ORGANIZATIONS have conventionally relied on commercial software products to back up their operations. But rising software costs has brought the value of commercial software into question.

Winning: Key lessons for new leaders

Q: What are the keys to insuring a strong start in a leadership position? Christopher Finlay, Chicago

A: You could fill a book—in fact, you could probably fill dozens—with all the ways to get off to a good start as a leader.

Going paperless

The advent of modern office devices and digital technologies has presented many opportunities for today’s businesses to achieve greater productivity, save on both costs and office space, and easily share information.

The forbidden fruit

SHIFTEE Velasco is one of those who are itching to try the Apple iPhone, which combines a mobile phone with the company’s iconic iPod music player, even before its debut next year in Southeast Asia. “I just want to be a braggart,” he says blithely.

Making gender issue history

FIRST of all, let me thank the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (Ejap) for this privilege to speak before a distinguished group of journalists, people from government and from business.

Passport to success

AMERICANS, the joke went, spent millions of dollars to produce a pen astronauts can use in space; the Russians, on the other hand, used pencils.

Selling beauty

Another cosmetic surgeon battles it out in crowded market

The current rage for beauty and wellness has led to an assortment of clinics offering surgical and nonsurgical procedures to make clients look good and feel good.

Winning: Competence trumps corporate bias

Q: I am seeking a rewarding career, having recently completed my bachelor’s degree in management. What obstacles will I likely need to overcome in the corporate world being an older, five-foot tall, African-American woman? Name Withheld, Houston 

A: When we first received your letter, we put it into a file labeled, “How To Succeed In Business While Looking Different.”

Looking backward

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It’s Greek to me

NO one in the UN picked a quarrel with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when she told that great assembly that the Philippines is the most democratic nation in Asia. It would have been pointless; the UN is not the forum for a debate on political theory and practice, but over here, there were some voices which greeted the President’s boast with not much enthusiasm.

Best teachers, worst practitioners

EIGHT executive directors of the World Bank were here in the Philippines on the very first day of the Senate hearings into the national broadband network/Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Co. Ltd. (NBN/ZTE) contract. The executive director for the Philippines, a Brazilian national, was part of the team. They were here to learn about World Bank projects in the Philippines.

Are you delegating so it sticks?

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How to teach pride in ‘dirty work’

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When companies do good

HO CHI MINH CITY—Alongside the march of globalization is the swelling grudge of people who are being affected by this sweeping trend have against private businesses, which they blame for exacerbating their plight.  “First, a company is a predator to be shot.

Future of business

Apollo Enriquez isn’t one to stand in the way of development.

In fact, when a restaurant he partly owns in Cebu had to be torn down to give way to an Ayala Corp. real-estate project, he even led the operation.

SAVE ME

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Banking on the poor

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Winning: Generation Why Not

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A: We don’t get it. That is, we don’t get why everyone is so down on Gen Y.

iCLONES

SHANGHAI—At the end of an alley in Taiwan’s most violent city, a black Mercedes-Benz sedan blocks a sliding- glass door that opens only from within. Inside, technophiles can buy iPhone knockoffs for two-thirds the legitimate price.

Fake iPhones reach Filipinos

EVEN before genuine iPhones reach Asian shores in 2008, knockoff units from China are already being sold in online auction and shopping web sites, including the Philippines.

The quotable Marxists

THERE are two quotable Marxes or Marxians, one of whom, Karl,  the prophetic economist and philosopher, would not call himself a Marxist, while the other one, Groucho (of the Marx brothers fame), wouldn’t have minded very much what you call him as long as you pronounced his name right.

The generals who would be kings

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Leading Change in Latin America

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CONVERSATION:  Alyson Slater, Global Reporting Initiative’s director of strategy, on how disclosing emissions benefits companies

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UPS at 1OO

On the occasion of United Parcel Service’s (UPS) 100th birthday, many people have asked me how a company that began as a small US messenger service evolved to become a world leader in transportation and logistics.