There are numerous costs tied to document creation and movement inside a company, and between the company and its customers, that most of us don`t consider or take seriously enough. There are also hidden costs related to these devices and their outputs, costs that are impacted by the attitude of users and the organisation`s understanding of document output management.
For example: you have five people in your credit department, each connected to a local laser printer. You know what it costs to maintain this printer and how much the consumables for this printer add to this cost, but how much thought have you given to the costs that occur once that printer has been used?
Invoices are printed and posted to customers. The costs of printing the invoices aside, what are the costs associated with the time it takes to fold these printed invoices and put them into envelopes? How much do the envelopes cost? How much does it cost to post each envelope? How much does it cost to deliver the envelopes to the post office for posting? How long does it take the invoice to reach the customer and does this impact on the speed of his response?
Extending this example: two of those five people in the credit department are printing invoices for clients, but some of the clients appear on the invoice records of both clerks because they have interacted with the company on two different occasions, for two different reasons. Printing and posting two separate invoices to one customer doubles the organisation`s document costs (hidden or not).
In a different scenario, a call centre agent answers a call from a customer who wants to query an invoice. Often the agent does not have quick, easy and immediate access to the information he needs, and when he does get the right information it is often in a different format to what the customer has.
Costs start accruing when he needs to take time away from his seat in the call centre to find the information that has been requested. His being away from his desk impacts on the efficiency of the call centre, which in turn may impact on customer loyalty and spending.
More costs are added when he needs to print duplicate copies of documents that may already exist but that he can`t find because of poor document management. Added to this, if he is re-printing documents because he can`t find an existing printed version, the chances are that many other call centre agents are also printing that same information for the same reasons.
More costs accumulate when he must phone the customer back to give him the information that was requested in the initial call. If the customer has further questions that the representative cannot answer, the process begins again and the costs accumulate exponentially. Hidden costs, wasted money.
Habit
"Cool" (Computer Output Online) output management saves the organisation money by speeding up call resolution and reducing the need for paper to be shuffled around.
Paul Mullon, marketing director, Metrofile
According to research conducted by document management firm Xerox, the total costs of managing documents in a paper-intensive organisation can amount to as much as 15% of that company`s turnover. Although this research was done more than 20 years ago, it still holds true to organisations today. In fact, the situation has deteriorated because organisations today are faced with masses of information that simply did not exist to the same extent at the time the research was conducted.
To make things worse, this information is spread more haphazardly throughout an organisation because technology has enabled people to access information from anywhere, at any time; and it is habitual for people to print out the information they want and work with it in "physical" form. This habit costs the organisation money; and the dreams of moving towards the "paperless office" have gone unfulfilled, as the amount of paper being handled by organisations grows daily. Recent research by PWC and Osterman Research shows for example that printing volumes increase by 40% in an office after e-mail is introduced.
By adding up the costs associated with the human compulsion to work with information on paper - from printer costs to maintenance and repair costs, consumables costs and storage costs - it is easy to see where and how costs mount up.
Cool
Document output management resolves the issue of unnecessary costs accruing in an organisation by ensuring the employees have easy and immediate access to any printed information that might be needed, in electronic form, and that the information he has is in exactly the same format as the version the customer has.
The use of electronic documents further cuts costs for organisations as call centre agents can resolve customer calls faster, and send the customer any information needed, without printing a single document.
"Cool" (Computer Output Online) output management thus saves the organisation money by speeding up call resolution and reducing the need for paper to be shuffled around. It can be taken to the next level - the electronic distribution of invoices, statements and general correspondence - to further reduce document costs in the organisation. The immediate cost saving is seen on the consumables bill as electronic communication does not require ink, envelopes or postage. There is also the advantage of speed of delivery, which can result in speedier account payments.
"Cool" output management can present the organisation with further cost savings if outsourced. The outsource relationship allows the organisation to take advantage of document management technology without the need to invest in hardware, software or specialised skills. It also enables a company to quickly determine whether being "cool" is worth the expense.
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