20 great ideas to steal

InformationWeek.com has come up with a list of companies that are employing innovative technology ideas that are helping them go green, use voice over IP, enhance security and improve efficiency. Waste Management, for example, has automated its weigh stations with an unattended RFID scale system that recognizes vehicles as they approach and completes the appropriate transactions. This has cut operating costs by 80 percent because the system requires little administration, and saves energy by reducing vehicle idle times.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has moved to a voice-over-IP implementation that supports its nearly 32,000 U.S. partners and staff. By the end of its fiscal year, the company will have achieved cost avoidance of 1 percent of this year's IT budget, with 2 percent in fiscal year 2009, and 2.1 percent in fiscal 2010.

BearingPoint built a wiki to help its employees better manage projects, update documents in real time, and facilitate communications. The Morrison & Foerster law firm has integrated a records management system into its Outlook email system. This places messages into an Outlook folder that are automatically copied into the firm's records management system.

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare implemented bar-code administration of in-patient medications to help prevent medication errors. When caregivers scan the bar codes on patients' wristbands, their electronic charts open on the computers of bedside wireless carts. The medications are then scanned and checked against patients' e-records to ensure that the medications and their method of administration are correct.

For more innovative IT:
- check out this InformationWeek.com article