In addition to standardizing the forms of the data you use, there are other techniques that can be utilized to make your organization more efficient.

Fax: If you fax many documents in your business, investigate the use of fax software. Once a document is stored in a computer, in digital form, you are free to manipulate it as much as you wish. Full-featured fax software applications will allow you to fax documents directly from your computer at times of your choosing using your "mail" list, but have you ever considered faxing those documents at night when telephone connect charges are lower? Just build a queue of documents in your fax software and set the time. The software does the rest.

E-mail: Learn to use e-mail. It costs the same to e-mail your marketing materials to one potential customer as it does to thousands. Its fast, easy, and reliable. E-mail is a great way to keep in touch with your customers, again the cost is low, much of it can be automated, and it can convey a personal touch, if done well. You can make the same use of the time-shifting abilities of e-mail, as with faxes. There is no magic in sending off your marketing e-mail in the dead of night when your computers are probably less busy, for example.

Post: Several new Internet-based companies have introduced postage which can be downloaded via the Internet using just a credit card. The "stamp" is printed as a special barcode, readable by post office scanners, using your office printer. Postage stamps are always available to your office, even when the post office isn't.

Also, make sure your word processor is set to print the zip code number as a barcode on all outgoing mail. This will speed your mail through the postal system, but for larger mailings, the post office can offer better, per piece, mail rates for properly coded mail.

Voice and voice-mail: Consider the use of automated voice response and menu systems for your telephones. Efficiencies can be had by having the technology route the caller to the proper person in your organization without human intervention. With new voice response technologies, you can even have orders taken by the phone system. Be careful of this area, however. There is a careful balance to be struck between too much impersonal, automated telephonic use and the friendlier interaction with a human answering the phone.

Video: For most small businesses, video can be ignored as an information flow which can be made less expensive. It is still a human intensive channel of data. If you need television for your business, there's no help for it, you or someone will just have to watch and make decisions the old-fashioned way.

EDI: EDI, is usually ahead of the curve, as its stock in trade is the exchange of information which is already highly structured and in a digital form. Count yourself fortunate if you are a small business vendor to a larger company which requires EDI. It will save you time and money in your dealings with your customer and will speed the cycle time for invoicing and payment. It should be noted, however, that some organizations are moving away from EDI in favor of Intranets because of the cost involved in participating in private networks, so be prepared to embrace some new tools.

Wherever you can in your organization, standardize the information flow. Participate with your customers and vendors in a standardized format or set your own standards where you can. Our personnel agency, for example, could insist that all resumes submitted be via e-mail as a binary, attached document, while ABC Widgets could channel more of its order system as e-commerce over the Internet using specialized forms.

The bottom line is that a close review of how your organization functions will probably show areas where you can leverage the use of information uniformity.