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With all the fuss about document management and the great things that document management software can do for the environment, it’s a bit surprising that more companies haven’t launched ‘green’ manifestos to accompany their new releases.

That could be about to change with Knowledge Tree’s (news, site) announcement that it has launched a green IT promotion that will see the company planting a tree in Africa for every new sale over US $4500.

Each planted tree will be documented with a certificate issued to customers outlining the details of their contribution.

That is not to say that you may wake up some morning to find KnowledgeTree CEO Daniel Chalef digging holes in your back yard to plant trees personally. It just means that the company will be sponsoring the climate change and sustainable development organization Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA) to do it for them.

While some cynics will have, no doubt, already written this off as pure PR, there’s really no need to as KnowledgeTree has already acknowledged that it is PR, but also conforms with their concept of paperless and sustainable offices.

Keep in mind that PR it may be, but it will still see KnowledgeTree responsible for planting more trees in Africa and other developing regions. And that is a good thing.

And speaking of KnowledgeTree, while version 3.7 of KnowledgeTree’s on-the-premise commercial edition is due to land between now and the end of the year, there is still no official touchdown date.

Kentico (news, site) is either really into supporting the environment, or they are just that sure their web content management system is relatively bug free.

For every bug found in the latest version of the Kentico web content management system — that’s Kentico 4.1 — Kentico has said it will plant a tree.

Now this only applies to bugs found by you, the users of the Web CMS. You can report your bugs on this website.

Kentico Trees For Bugs

ColumbiaSoft™, a provider of document management software for a variety of customers, announced approval of Document Locator

Ever think about global warming, air pollution and dying out populations of polar bears? Or whether your grandchildren will be able to leave the house without an oxygen mask?

Yes, we are back onto the environment-friendly, green track. There’s a lot that can be done both at home (think recycling) and at work (not surprisingly, think content management).

See the original post:
Why Obama Loves Enterprise Content Management

Intuit founder Scott Cook demos new TurboTax for Mac at MacWorld.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CBS Interactive)

I spied Scott Cook, a founder and former CEO of Intuit, which makes Quicken and Quickbooks, at his company’s Macworld booth, giving demos just like any booth worker. That was curious–you don’t see big company billionaires mingling with consumers in a frenzied trade show environment too often (although you should). So I snared him for a quick interview about his booth duty and the plans for Intuit overall.

Regarding hanging out with The People, Cook simply said that it’s a great way to get customers to talk to him for free (versus paid surveys, I assume) and that it’s good to hear what you are doing wrong (as a Quicken for Windows user, I could give have given him an earful, but time was short). He also likes to see how his team presents to customers.

On Intuit’s overall strategy, Cook says Intuit is pursuing a strategy based around online and mobile access to financial data. U.S. consumers spend $7 billion a year in overdraft feeds, he says, and there’s no excuse for that when your phone could alert you when you’re about to over-extend yourself. Thus Quicken Beam and Quicken Online (which recently got a refresh) as well as an online version of the small business app Quickbooks. There’s also an online version of TurboTax that will compute and file your federal taxes for free. State returns are extra, though.

Quicken Mobile gives you quick visibility in your basic financial position.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CBS Interactive)

At the same time, Intuit seems to be renewing its commitment to standalone apps, or at least to the Mac. Quicken for Mac is being retired in favor of a newly-built financial management app called Financial Life, now in a very early public beta. It looks, at first glance, like a nicely designed version of Quicken, simpler to get in to than the company’s traditional software. (On Windows, Quicken 2009 looks like a typical upgrade for Intuit from Quicken 2008: a few new features, but according to user reviews, lacking needed reliability improvements.)

Yet despite Cook’s mission to offer holistic financial suites for its users, Intuit is not yet delivering on integration between its products. For example, if you use Quicken Mobile to update your Quicken Online account, that data won’t make it into your Quicken software installation on your personal computer. And data files cannot be shared between Mac and Windows installations.

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A quick talk with Scott Cook, booth babe and Intuit co-founder