A Tale of Two Solutions
One of my colleagues recently approached me with a question about setting up a standard signature (footer) in Outlook. He had been told by his web development company that to install a signature for 35 staff, it would cost $4,000. Each signature was to include a logo, name, title and individual contact 
information, but I thought I could do better than that.
Outlook signatures are stored right inside Outlook so, there is definitely a manual step (or several) required.
After two hours work, using Word, Excel, Outlook, and Jing (www.jingproject.com), I devised a solution that combined the power of MS Office with the empowerment of the staff. The keys to getting this done quickly and easily were email merge and an instructional video. The Word and Excel merge allowed us to easily set a standard, build a personalized footer for each employee, and email it to them with instructions. A two minute Jing video was included in the email to explain how to install the footer in Outlook themselves.
Now granted, the web development company probably planned to build 35 footers in HTML, and then install them in each person's Outlook. Other than stepping out of the way for a few minutes, there would be nothing more for the users to do. In my much cheaper solution, each user will watch a 2 minute video and take another 1 or 2 minutes to install the signature. So there is the "hidden cost" of a few hours of company time (spread across 35 employees), but probably justifiable. And the good news is that the users are empowered with knowledge to change and maintain their own signatures. They have learned along with getting the job done.
And of course, by using Word's email merge technology, it is easy for my client to create, and maintain, a standard footer format. If he wasn't familiar with mail-merge, he will be now and he can use it in other areas of his business (extra bonus feature!).
Technology the Multiplier
It is important to recognize that pushing technology out to everyone in your company has a multiplier effect. If what you give everyone takes 5 minutes, multiply that by your number of employees and the time adds up quickly. However, look at the outcome: what if those 5 minutes spent means that every employee doesn't need to spend an hour figuring something out or searching for something or rebuilding something that is already done? Or, what if those 5 minutes spent means the employee saves 5 minutes every day from that point forward? Talk about a multiplier effect: 5 minutes a day is 1,000 minutes over an average work year- that's more than two work days per year!
And of course that is just the TIME aspect of it. What about the intangible benefits of standardization, of higher job satisfaction because of less "menial" work, and a better presentation of the whole company as being consistent.
Lately I have also been doing a lot of is SharePoint related consulting and training. The multiplier effects are huge when your culture adopts the rule "SharePoint is the place I put stuff where people can find it, and find stuff people have put there." No more calling people up and asking them to email you such-and-such a document, or worse yet, rebuilding that document that someone already built and saved on their own computer.
Think about these multipliers in everything you do. Think about technology as a huge lever, or a hindrance, to achieving the possible multipliers in your company.
Think about empowering your users to save time over time.
I am really excited about using video technology more and more, because if a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a video is worth about 100,000!