Virtual Office Resource

Companies the world over are going green to save the environment, and now research is providing a look at its unexpected benefits. eFax, a leading online fax company, recently posted the results of its 2014 "Going Green" campaign in which it solicited its customers' views on how implementing green policies helped their businesses.

Completing processes such as faxing and printing with similar online processes can save on ink and paper, customers reported, and they have also seen improvements in customer satisfaction and employee engagement. eFax says several customers indicated their companies saved a lot of money on extraneous resources as a result of printing fewer pages—It was an ongoing theme throughout the campaign, the company said.

eFax quoted Wesley B., an eFax customer in the medical factoring industry, as saying, "Literally in the first month we saved $5,000 in printing costs," and Richard C., a property manager, who said, "We have cut paper and ink supply costs by over 80 percent by receiving, processing and communicating with prospective tenants electronically [versus] with hard copy documents."

Customers also appear to realize the benefits of electronic faxing. Campaign respondents said faxing documents to customers electronically meant the customers received information quicker, and that was something they praised.

Various employees also said their engagement at their workplaces improved because they felt they were contributing to worthwhile causes by "going green." Even outside the immediate workplace, respondents indicated that they enjoyed the flexibility of green initiatives. Largely, they appear to be commenting on the nature of electronic documentation which, with many businesses, they can view from anywhere with an Internet connection.

If businesses are connected to the cloud, employees may find that online faxing and similar processes make their work even more convenient. Many cloud service providers offer services available at variable rates, so their clients (businesses) can utilize resources when they need them and free up resources when they can go without. Moving to the cloud can enhance green initiatives by allowing companies to use only what they need and nothing more, and as a pleasant side effect, as many of eFax's customers apparently reported, employees can work from almost anywhere on any device that can access their businesses accounts.