Stop Changing Your Toner Cartridges and Start Changing the Business

This blog post was originally published by Xenith Document Systems.

It’s one of the great clichés of business life – the paperless office. A world in which printers are consigned to the storeroom of history to gather dust, where every paper document is digitized, and one where printing costs are banished forever.

However the predicted demise of paper may have been greatly exaggerated over the past forty years, and it’s perhaps understandable if managers now roll their eyes when they come across yet another news story extolling the virtues of the digital-only business.

Ban blue sky thinking?

Enterprises finally have the toolkits and services at their disposal to make such a transition possible. And with the cloud and the prevalence of Software as a Service through to an increase in the mobile workforce and BYOD, the culture has shifted to make the vision of a digital-first office a competitive reality.

Driving this change are skilled and reputable MPS providers who can act as bridges between the traditional world of paper-based processes and the expansion of digitization across all businesses. Such specialists are able to optimize existing printing infrastructure, boosting efficiency and reducing costs, while introducing processes to smooth the transition to digitized processes and workflows, drawing on tools such as bespoke software and multifunction devices.

Confidence is critical

This transition is already underway in many enterprises. According to Quocirca’s 2015 Managed Print Services Landscape Report, 72% of enterprises surveyed indicated that they have some paper-free processes in place and are planning more. Interestingly, those using an MPS provider are already more confident about paper-to-digital integration than other organisations – 77% compared to 56% of those yet to embrace an MPS strategy. This is because a reputable MPS provider is able to map all paper-based processes, identify bottlenecks, and quantify exactly how many staff hours and costs can be saved through the digitization of specified processes.

This provides you with information that makes the benefits of digitization tangible for the board. And this confidence is critical to a successful outcome. After all, digitization has the potential to transform every aspect of an enterprise, from sales and marketing to HR, accounts, contracts, the mailroom, the data center architecture, telecommunications and social interactions. It’s a daunting as well as an exciting prospect.

Benefit-driven, not hype-driven

To engage an MPS provider in digitizing the business means really pinning down the longer-term transformational benefits that they offer. Budget-sensitive and time-conscious facilities managers can draw on research that demonstrates the productivity gains and time and cost savings of MPS-optimized document infrastructure. Those businesses that have embraced MPS are now enjoying average annual cost savings of over 40%.

By implementing a managed print strategy, businesses will first of all consolidate their existing print infrastructure, as well as open up fresh opportunities for growth and efficiency. A comprehensive MPS strategy has the potential to transform business processes through automation – as long as stakeholders buy into the transformation.

Boosting efficiency while managing expectations

To ensure a smooth transition during this period – and to ensure adoption rates remain high – training should be provided to ensure all stakeholders, from the CEO to employees, understand that digitization will offer the business a competitive edge, and make workloads more manageable.

The impact of MPS-enabled digitization can be far-reaching:

• Increased opportunities for collaborating and breaking down departmental silos, because digital documents are so much easier to share
• Making instant document retrieval a routine reality
• An accumulation of time savings – fewer long treks back and forth to the printer, for example
• Reduced risk of manual error within workflows
• Reduced need for time-consuming data re-entry from one system to another
• Improved compliance to internal targets and external regulation and legislation
• Greater visibility and control over documents.

Partner up to face the digitization challenge

While the potential for digitization is enticing, it also represents a tough remit for time-pressed facilities manager who may not have the necessary expertise in this area. Again, MPS providers can help, by supporting every aspect of an managed print strategy. From planning and roll-out through to ongoing maintenance and sustained best practice, a reputable specialist can offer a suite of tailored services based on best practices from other organisations and, critically, provide an objective and expert view on your company’s document infrastructure and workflows.

Crucially, they will put facilities managers in a position where they can deliver the benefits of an MPS strategy while making recommendations for business change.

The road ahead

Perhaps the most pragmatic approach in this renewed push for digitization is not to see paper as dead, but instead to envision a journey to improved enterprise efficiency and productivity that will continue to evolve and develop over the years ahead.

By embracing and deploying a managed print strategy now, facilities managers can ensure that their enterprise is fit and ready to begin on that journey – and not at risk of being left on the roadside by its competitors.

Takeaways:

• Create new business opportunities and workflows while driving down costs with a managed print strategy.
• Prove the benefits of an MPS strategy to the board by using powerful analytics and reporting solutions.
• Partner up with a MPS provider to take on the many challenges presented by digitization.

Discover more about how a managed print strategy can transform enterprise with Xenith’s free eGuide: “The great post-procurement challenge – tracking the business wide benefits of MPS”

Justin Milligan, MD of Xenith Document Systems, is a founding UK member of Xerox’s MPS Partner Council and a UK preferred Subject Matter Expert on MPS in the channel.

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