How Corporate America Could Save Trees and Money by Utilizing the eBook Reader?

The eBook reader could be used to save on paper, and help to save our trees and forests, not to mention save money.

In today’s business environment, information is becoming increasingly more necessary, and certainly the printed word more common. The corporate executive has responsibilities that include budget reviews, marketing analysis, documents relating to the profit and loss of specific activities as well as overall performance, and employee production reports and records, just to name a few.

Frequently, these documents have to be printed and taken to the corporate meeting for review and discussion. Perhaps an eBook Reader could not only save the company a great deal of money, but could also save the world a number of trees.

Never before has so much information been available to us since the advent of the computer age. Now the question becomes, how do we manage all of this information effectively and how do we find the methods which best suit us for digesting and studying the information that is available?  Part of that process includes the corporate executive analyzing data and then presenting summarizations of that data upwards for approval.

Let’s consider the situation where a company has scheduled a Management Meeting to discuss next year’s budget. This would require each individual department reviewing their detailed budget as well as all departments looking at the “big picture” of the entire company budget. Each manager is usually given computer access to this information and then of course a manual of sorts is printed for all managers to bring to the board room to the meeting.

Now let’s assume that all managers have been issued with an eBook Reader. Not only has the company saved thousands of sheets of paper, but they’ve also saved on ink and the salary involved in an employee copying documents and binding them for an appropriate presentation. Doesn’t it make sense from a budgetary standpoint to consider such an option?

Not only that, but the executive now has the option of bringing a number of other pertinent documents to the meeting on the eReader, so that they are available should the need arise. As it was noted by Digital Book Readers, current e-Readers in the marketplace provide great simplicity when searching for a specific topic or scanning for a topic of interest.

Here are some ways in which a company could benefit by the use of an eReader:

Educational Training Materials

Most companies have an orientation of sorts whenever they hire new employees.  Let’s use the casino industry as an example. The typical casino will have around 1500 to 2000 employees. When a new casino opens, all employees must go through an orientation process. Each employee is provided with a number of hand-outs, training materials, and manuals describing various policies and procedures of the company. If the typical number of pages distributed is 100, we now have copied and produced 200,000 pages at the time of opening.

Throughout the company’s lifetime, the typical attrition rate is around 35%. So that means we are consistently training new employees as old employees move on. This means more and more paper is required to maintain the training schedule. As expansions occur, once again, new employees must be trained.  More paper, more costs.

However, if instead, the casino had eBook Readers that could be distributed to the employees and utilized as needed, the costs would be considerably less in a short period of time. And that’s not even taking into consideration the additional training that occurs in each department throughout the lifetime of the company.

Company Meetings

Company meetings occur frequently, and in most cases require a great deal of paperwork. From agendas, to marketing reports, to budget information, to the list of documents distributed in meetings. The eReader would eliminate a number of these documents and once again, save the company money.

Required Reading

Many companies now require various levels of employees to read industry business books and reports. This is ideal territory for an eBook reader.

Trade Publications

These are now required reading for any professional who wishes to stay on top of the most current trends in their chosen field. An eReader would be ideal for the busy professional, who could check up on recent developments while traveling.

Each of these will save both time and money, both in corporate terms and for individuals. However, there is more to it than just that, because there would be a huge environmental implication. The less paper used, the fewer trees would have to be destroyed to produce it.

Unfortunately, big business has not encompassed eBook readers much, possibly through ignorance but more likely through a resistance to make such a radical switch. There appears to be a reluctance to move away from paper-based systems. The computer age was heralded by much talk of the ‘paperless’ office. Where is it? There now appears to be even more paper than usual.

There appears to be a need for businesses to re-evaluate their increasing use of paper, particularly for education and training, and for dissemination of business reports, agendas and minutes. As Casey Ashe of the Tulsa Community College said last year, “If e-readers become a business technology tool, they will take off”. 

Publisher Simon and Schuster has taken to them. “It's a win for us in terms of convenience, speed, saving paper and (lowering) mailing costs," according to their spokesman, Adam Rothberg.

Of course, they have a vested interest because they also sell eBooks! Nevertheless, it is true that eBook readers can save businesses money and time, and allow people to more easily learn while on the move. There are few reasons why corporate America cannot adopt eBook readers and play their plant in saving trees, whilst also saving their shareholders money.