A Multipronged Approach to Greener IT
By David Gregson
Law Technology News
July 29, 2008
Atlanta-based Kilpatrick Stockton has launched a number of green programs that have paid off with energy reductions, financial savings and improved client service. We have taken a multipronged approach to our efforts, with Web and videoconferencing to reduce travel; a software-based cost recovery system; systems to manage hardware and help the firm manage our copiers, printers and scanners; server virtualization; and electronic billing.
With seven offices up and down the East Coast, and offices in Stockholm, Sweden and London, our travel (and the resultant carbon footprint) is considerable. We have 500 attorneys, 650 support professionals and 50 practice areas ranging from intellectual property to litigation.
VIDEOCONFERENCING
We experimented with various approaches to videoconferencing in the past, but the systems were not reliable and could not deliver an acceptable level of picture and sound quality. As a result, our users shied away from it, and we averaged about 10 to 30 videoconferences every month.
In 2006, the firm rolled out a high-definition videoconferencing system, LifeSize Room from LifeSize Communications, that incorporates advanced picture and sound features. Designed mainly for internal meetings, depositions and other client-related matters, this incarnation has been extremely successful. The firm now holds more than 120 calls a month, each representing a trip not taken. At an average of $900, these trips would have cost the firm and its clients about $1.2 million each year. List price for a LifeSize Room videoconferencing system is about $30,000 per room.
We have also been able to reduce travel through the increased use of our Web conferencing and webinar tools, which we launched late last year.
HARDWARE
We also examined our use of copiers, faxes, scanners and multifunction devices, with an eye towards reducing energy use, hardware footprint and paper usage. Our software-based cost recovery and information accountability system from nQueue provides us with reports about how our copiers, scanners and fax machines are used. With this intelligence we were able to remove three of our multifunction devices (scanner/copiers) and upgrade to accommodate online faxing, eliminating 42 fax machines. We have always chosen hardware with long lifecycles, but it all becomes obsolete eventually. By removing these machines, we avoid replacing hardware every few years. We calculate that we have saved about $122,000 per year in maintenance, support and consumables. The nQueue system cost approximately $200,000.
Incoming faxes are now accepted as electronic files and routed via e-mail. Because we can insert digital signatures, outgoing faxes can be sent electronically from desktops without ever being printed. With this program, we have received 20,000 electronic fax pages that previously would have been printed, copied, distributed and filed, saving our clients $3,825 per year in printing costs (at our reimbursement rate of $0.15 per page).
We have saved even more paper by using virtualized scanning: We now scan documents into our Interwoven document management system, rather than photocopying. Once scanned, the document can be filed or distributed over our network. Since we began using the scanning system last August, we have already scanned more than 750,000 pages. Because each page would have been copied at least once, we know we have saved at least that much paper, and $112,500 in printing costs -- and more on files distributed to multiple recipients.
By embedding software directly into our multifunctional devices, the nQueue system adds both financial and environmental benefits. Because there are no terminals to be upgraded, and because nQueue does not charge for software updates, we save about $20,000 per year. We also avoid the carbon footprint of hardware terminals that were physically appended to our devices. Each of those terminals emits about 1/19 the greenhouse gases as a typical automobile. Because we had 85 terminals, using software is equivalent to taking almost five cars off the road.
SERVER VIRTUALIZATION
Via virtualization, we have been able to reduce the number of servers in our data centers by 50 percent over the past year, eliminating about 75 servers. By the end of 2008 the number of virtual servers will increase to about 80 percent of the total.
This means less hardware taking space in landfills, but we made the change because our older servers were creating so much heat that the air conditioning system was failing. Because we now use fewer machines, the average temperature has dropped to 67 degrees -- and we use 30 percent less energy for cooling.
We also use less electricity for the machines themselves. With the old servers, the total electricity draw was 55 kilo volt-amperes, and it is now 41 KVA -- a 25 percent reduction. The total time that our uninterrupted power supply can keep the data center operational in the event of a power outage is also an indication of our energy savings. That number is now six times what it was prior to virtualization. Since last July in the Atlanta data center alone, the carbon/kilowatt hour emissions have decreased by more than 200,000 pounds.
ELECTRONIC BILLING
We ask all new clients about e-billing, and regularly approach current clients to ask if they will switch from paper invoices. If they do not have an e-billing service, we offer to e-mail invoices in PDF or make them available for pickup via a custom client extranet.
We produce about 12,000 invoices each month, and now deliver roughly 12 percent electronically. Because our average invoice is four pages long, we save approximately 5,700 pieces of paper each month, representing another $10,260 in savings on printing.
We began upgrading technology to stabilize our infrastructure and provide our clients with superior legal service. However, our metrics have proven that we are saving money and becoming more environmentally responsible. That helps us make the business case to continue our program into the future, as we do well by doing good.
David Gregson is chief information officer at Kilpatrick Stockton, based in Atlanta.
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