Tuesday, June 24, 2008 Company urges businesses to cut cost by investing in IT
INSTEAD of hiring more people, an official of a printing and imaging company advised local companies to look for other ways—such as investing on technology—to increase their productivity.
Executive chairman for Brother International (New Zealand) Ltd. Graham Walshe is confident that information and communication technology (ICT) will “significantly help” companies, which are now challenged by high fuel costs and rising prices of goods.
“The creation of the mobile office is gaining wide acceptance and preference for it is escalating as fuel becomes more expensive and traffic congestion is getting worse,” he said in a keynote speech during an executive meeting of Brother International Philippines Tuesday.
“(Through) a mobile office, one who is equipped with technology can work at home, in vehicles, hotels (and) at airports (among others).”
Study
Walshe cited a study by IDC, which states that an estimated 30 percent of office workers in companies in the United States will spend at least two days in a week working at home within the next eight years.
IDC is an international provider of market intelligence, advisory services and events for the information technology,
telecommunications and consumer technology markets.
“This will really cut down costs on fuel, increase savings and help the environment,” Walshe said.
He noted that more and more companies are thinking differently in the way they communicate using information and communication technology products.
“In New Zealand, for instance, companies and the government are promoting the use of video conferencing. One doesn’t have to sit in the traffic to go to one’s office, so just imagine the productivity you can gain from this (method),” he said.
Multi-function
Another way is the use of multi-function products, which he believes is also gaining wide acceptance.
Walshe cited another study by IDC, which reveals that 70 percent of ICT products are multi-functional. The figure will increase to 90 percent by 2011, he said.
Brother International Philippines, said general manager Toshiaki Isayama, is second in the country in terms of market share for multi-function products that feature up to six functions—printing, faxing, scanning, copying, PC faxing, and PhotoCapture Centre—in a single unit.
Walshe, though, is hoping that companies will also practice corporate social responsibility in the use of ICT products to increase productivity.
“According to IDC, there is a five-percent reduction in copying every year while printing will escalate because more people want to have originals they got from e-mails or from the Internet for themselves,” he said.
When there is a need for printing, Walshe advised companies to make it a practice to print on empty backs of used paper and print in draft instead of in high resolution whenever possible as these will promise them some 30 percent savings in production costs. (NRC)
