PICS Value Series: Part 4
PICS and The Environment
The environment may or may not be your primary concern when considering the use of an innovative data management platform like PICS but the effects of efficiency extend beyond looking after your own interests. Using PICS is friendlier to then environment than traditional means.
Now saying PICS is friendlier to the environment is a bold statement. In general, this is where it gets a little complicated. It’s not entirely clear that using a computer to store and read documents is any more or less detrimental to the environment than reading on paper, after all both processes use energy and resources to get the job done. At present, most of our power in South Africa comes from non-renewable energy sources and is, of course, not particularly environmentally friendly.
PICS is efficient by design and therefore thousands of users are able to interact with each individual server simultaneously, meaning that instead of the thousands of desktops each being used to process and store the bit of data an individual enterprise would need, there is just one efficient server. Of course it does take a little interaction on a personal device to make it happen, but due to the automation of PICS data collection processes, the time spent using these resources should be significantly reduced overall.
The on-site data capture is also a one step process thanks to PICS. This means a user doesn’t have to collect data then enter it into the system later, it is all done in one go and the data is where it needs to be automatically. The time saving further enhances the energy efficiency of the product.
The devices themselves used to capture on-site data for PICS really depends on the end user. PICS runs on anything with a web browser and we’re soon to release our native applications for popular platforms. Your choice of device for each user will influence the environmental efficiency. The truth of the efficiency of a device is that almost everyone already has a capable device. PICS does not require the use of any special hardware beyond what is already available to most users. Using PICS does not significantly change the usage of a device in general which means there is very little difference in personal energy consumption whether PICS is used or not.
The PICS blog is authored by Kusasa Information Systems (Pty) Ltd managing director, Craig Baker. All information contained herein represents his personal opinion. Kusasa and/or Craig Baker do not take any responsibility for inaccurate or outdated information contained herein. If you are going to re-post or reuse any information on this page, please reference the original.