Greener ERP
Today is June 05 and it is World Environment Day. All the organizations are increasing awareness and are going green. Thinking on the same lines, i thought of some areas in a ERP, which can contribute to a Greener world.
The top 3 items which directly impact the environment are Fuel, Electricity and Paper. Designing an effective ERP system would directly or indirectly help in reducing the use of these 3 items and thereby helping in eliminating the use of natural resources.
Here are some of the ways, i could think of
Minimize Paper Work
The main function of a ERP system is to ease the process and increase the efficiency. In general day to day activities, manual work involves entering of bills, invoices, receipts, etc. Most of these processes can be automated to avoid receiving paper work and by receiving electronic data. Companies need to educate its vendors/customers on e-data. Also adhoc reporting and printing of common materials like invoices, Receipts, Purchase Orders should be avoided.
Provide Tax Forms to Employee and Vendors in e-format.
Fuel
Use effective SCM models to reduce transportation of goods. Design the system and work with direct supply from Warehouse/Stores to Customers.
E.g.
Instead of having a central warehouse, have smaller warehouses spread across and ship from locations which are closer to the customer.
If the company deals with software goods, then utilize the internet and allow subscribers to download content directly and avoid shipping of material.
Electricity
Wherever possible, Automate processes and reduce manual entry using PC's. As explained above, Insist on electronic material and feed it directly into the system.
Explore the use of Saas (Software as a Service) & Iaas (Infra as a Service).
These are some points which i could think of. Let me know how you think we can have a Greener ERP.
Finally to end - Do not print this blog 
