📄 ch29.htm
字号:
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Chapter 29 - How Intranets Can Cut the Corporate Paper Trail</TITLE><META></HEAD><BODY TEXT="#000000" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" LINK="#0000EE" VLINK="#551A8B" ALINK="#CE2910"><H1><FONT SIZE=6 COLOR=#FF0000>Chapter 29</FONT></H1><H1><FONT SIZE=6 COLOR=#FF0000>How Intranets Can Cut the CorporatePaper Trail</FONT></H1><HR><P><CENTER><B><FONT SIZE=5><A NAME="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</A></FONT></B></CENTER><UL><LI><A HREF="#HowIntranetsCanCuttheCorporatePaperTrail">How Intranets Can Cut the Corporate Paper Trail</A></UL><HR><P>The typical corporation generates mounds and mounds of paper everyday-potentially many tons a year. This is bad for the environment,costly for the corporation, and unnecessarily time-consuming becauseit requires the company to hire people to maintain and keep trackof the paper trail. There are forms that have to be filled outand handled, marketing materials, sales materials and brochuresto mail out, sales forms that need to be entered…the listcan go on for a long time.<P>All this paper has many hidden costs-it's not merely the costof paper that is involved. There are a variety of overhead costsas well. There are sky-high mailing costs. There are often highcosts for storing historical material. There is an even more perniciouscost-paperwork causes red tape, and the handling of all that paperslows down how a business can operate and can put it at a competitivedisadvantage.<P>While the "paperless office" has been talked about andpursued for at least a decade, the advent of intranets can finallybring it closer to reality. A combination of communications technologies,Web publishing tools, workgroup applications, and e-mail can cutdown on paper costs, help slash mail costs, help eliminate administrativeoverhead, and allow corporations to react more quickly to businesschanges and deliver goods and services more quickly to their customers.<P>The area where paper costs can be cut most-and procedures moststreamlined-may be the sales and marketing department. In everyaspect of making a sale, from marketing and advertising throughmaking sales calls, to making the sale and then fulfilling theorder, paper costs and associated expenses can be cut. <P>By posting marketing materials on the Web and drawing customersto the site, companies can print fewer expensive marketing materials,such as brochures. Many companies include Business Reply Cardsin their marketing materials that people can use to request additionalinformation. Business Reply Cards have many costs associated withthem: printing, mailing, and then fulfillment-inputting the person'sname into the computer system, then having someone mail out theadditional materials. On the Web site, customers can fill outrequests for materials. That request is automatically routed tothe intranet, where it is sent to the fulfillment department.This cuts down on the printing and mailing costs that BusinessReply Cards carry, as well as input costs, since the customerinputs the request, instead of someone employed at the company.A traveling sales staff can input orders on an electronic formon a laptop computer, and then later send that form back to theintranet, again saving on paper and administrative costs. <P>Internal paper costs can be cut as well. Company newsletters andcommunications can be posted on an intranet Web server or sentvia e-mail. Personnel manuals can be posted as well. Forms fordoing things such as requesting time off can be filled out electronicallyinstead of on paper-again, cutting down on paper, overhead, andred tape.<H2><A NAME="HowIntranetsCanCuttheCorporatePaperTrail"><FONT SIZE=5 COLOR=#FF0000>How Intranets Can Cut the Corporate Paper Trail</FONT></A></H2><P>One of the many benefits of an intranet is that it can cut theamount of paper and paperwork used by corporations, often dramatically.It can streamline corporate procedures and have them done electronically,instead of via paper. And it can also more directly communicatewith its customers without having to resort to paper and mailing.Pictured here is an example of how a fictional record company,CyberMusic, uses an intranet to cut paper costs.<UL><LI>CyberMusic employs a sales staff to sell its records to recordstores and other outlets, and they carry laptop computers whenthey travel. Formerly, in order to know the full stock of whatrecords the company carries, they would have to refer to printedmaterial, which easily became outdated. Now, they dial into theircompany intranet, and access a Web page that contains the up-to-datecatalog. When they visit their sales accounts, they can link tothe page as well.<LI>When the mobile sales staff takes an order, they previouslyhad to fill out paper forms, and then send those forms to thedata processing department, where the forms would be typed intothe sales system. With the advent of the company intranet, thesales staff fills out an electronic sales form while on a salesvisit. The form is then sent via electronic mail to the companyintranet, where it is routed automatically to the fulfillmentand accounting departments. Previously, paper forms had to berouted among all the departments, wasting time and money.<LI>At CyberMusic, a great deal of paper material was generatedin sending brochures and related documents directly to customers.CyberMusic has a public Web site, which cuts down on the numberof brochures sent out, since people can get information aboutthe company, its records and recording artists directly from theWeb. An added bonus is that customers can listen to sound clipsas well.<LI>CyberMusic used to regularly include extra Business ReplyCards in much of the material it mailed out, so that people couldrequest additional information about the company or its records.Now, people can fill out a form on the company's Web site requestinginformation, saving on paper and mailing costs. The informationis sent via a CGI script to the fulfillment department.<LI>Personnel matters used to be handled solely by paper. Printingand distribution costs were high. And when people wanted to takevacations or time off, they would have to fill out a paper form.This form would be sent to the personnel department, which wouldcheck against a database whether the person had enough vacationtime, and then would type the information into a personnel system.Now electronic personnel manuals are available online. And whenpeople fill out forms such as requesting vacations, they fillout the form on the intranet themselves. Thanks to a CGI script,they can search through part of their personnel records to seehow much vacation time they have left.<LI>The company newsletter and other internal communications hadpreviously been mailed to every CyberMusic employee. Now the newsletteris posted on an intranet Web server, and updated frequently, andother kinds of communications are handled via electronic mail.<LI>CyberMusic is an international corporation with branch officeson every continent. When employees need to share memos, salesreports, letters, and other printed materials, they used to besent via interoffice mail or via overnight express services- generatingtons of paper and costing a substantial amount of money. Now,people send each other information, reports, and memos via intranete-mail.</UL><HR><CENTER><P><A HREF="ch28.htm"><IMG SRC="PC.GIF" BORDER=0 HEIGHT=88 WIDTH=140></A><A HREF="#CONTENTS"><IMG SRC="CC.GIF" BORDER=0 HEIGHT=88 WIDTH=140></A><A HREF="contents.htm"><IMG SRC="HB.GIF" BORDER=0 HEIGHT=88 WIDTH=140></A><A HREF="ch30.htm"><IMG SRC="NC.GIF" BORDER=0 HEIGHT=88 WIDTH=140></A><HR WIDTH="100%"></P></CENTER></BODY></HTML>⌨️ 快捷键说明
复制代码
Ctrl + C
搜索代码
Ctrl + F
全屏模式
F11
切换主题
Ctrl + Shift + D
显示快捷键
?
增大字号
Ctrl + =
减小字号
Ctrl + -