Today's buzz words are People, Process, and Technology. To reach business goals, each must be addressed and each must be appropriate. So, what does that mean? And, how do the puzzle pieces fit together?

This thing called Technology

Technology consists of hardware and software. The wrong technology decision has the boomerang effect of adding stress to the process and people components.

Factoring or Accounts Receivable Financing is a tool for providing working capital and cash flow to businesses of all sizes and in all industries. It is especially useful for startups and for small, minority, women-owned and / or disadvantaged companies. There are many reasons why Factoring should be considered. Below I have highlighted some of the benefits.

I got training in SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system years ago when it was on a mainframe platform - version R/2. At that time the Germans who came to the US to teach, emphasized that the name was "S, A, P". They were aware of the negative connotations of the word sap in the United States.

The Players
The letters S, A, P stand for some German words.

Environmental pollution, particularly in land fills, from discarded electronic equipment (e-waste) or "waste electrical and electronic equipment" (WEEE), has been an increasing concern worldwide. Pollution occurs due to leakage of hazardous materials contained in the discarded equipment. The European Union has passed two related regulations to improve e-waste management and to limit the presence of hazardous materials in the waste.

The objective of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive 2002/96/EC is to minimize the environmental impact of electronic waste. The WEEE directive protects landfills and regulates the disposal of discarded or end-of-life electrical or electronic equipment (EEE) also known as e-waste. The related RoHS Directive 2002/95/EC strives to limit the use of six hazardous materials in the manufacture of electronic equipment.

The EU has developed the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive 2002/95/EC. This is only a directive (effective July 1, 2006) and member nations are to enact their own legislations based on its guidelines. The Chinese Administrative Measure on the Control of Pollution Caused by Electronic Information Products (popularly known as China RoHS) effective from March 1, 2007, is however a legislation.

Highly hazardous materials, widely used in modern industry, are an ever present source of potential danger during transportation, storage and use. A number of government departments and agencies such as the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), each have a role to play in ensuring health and safety enforcement in the US.

The US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 5,702 workplace related fatalities (around 4 deaths per 100,000 workers) and approximately 4.2 million incidents of workplace related non-fatal injuries and illnesses. This demonstrates the continuing need for OSHA programs and initiatives to ensure safety and health in the workplace.

Directive 2002/95/EC, effective July 1, 2006, is not an EU law. Individual member states are to have their own regulations in line with the directive. The resultant variations from state to state, (including differences in verification and penalty clauses), pose difficulties for suppliers of electrical and electronic goods in developing compliance programs.

The RoHS Directive 2002/95/EC is often referred to as the Lead-free RoHS, even though it covers five other hazardous materials. The reason for this nick-name may be the ubiquitous nature of lead in electronic equipment and the potential health hazards associated with lead contamination. As per the directive, a product has to be below a threshold limit of 1000 parts per million (ppm) of lead on a homogeneous (any single substance that cannot be separated mechanically) material basis.