Forget the paperless office, when it comes to the banking and insurance industries, paper is still business critical for legal reasons, but new research shows the way this paper is processed is costing the industry millions of euros in lost revenue and impacting on productivity.
A fifth (21%) of European bank employees, and 15% of the European insurance industry spend more than an hour every day simply processing paper - from credit and loan applications to new account forms, processing claims to new customer forms - totalling at least 260 hours per employee per year, according to new research by Lexmark, the printing solutions provider.
The survey of 755 employees in bank branches across Europe reveals 16% have to process more than 100 forms per day, while the survey conducted with 638 European insurance employees shows that 25% have to process up to 10 forms a day, while 14% process more than 100.
Paper pushers
The Lexmark research reveals the banking loan and insurance claims approval process can take a staggering four days minimum and that the key cause of these wasted hours is the different stages each employee has to go through to process the application:
Based on this research, Lexmark has developed a suite of dedicated solutions for the banking and insurance industries, which can help save time in the loan approval and claims processes or other critical and paper intensive processes, reducing wasted days to hours and minutes.
Wasted hours, but not wasted paper
The research reveals almost half (43%) of European bank employees and 32% of insurance employees print more than 100 pages per day, compared to a European average of 34 pages per office worker per day.
Despite this heavy paper usage, banking is one of the least wasteful industries in Europe, with only an 18% paper wastage rate, compared to 25% in the retail industry.
Says Hans Horn, MD of Lexmark International SA: "This research shows a significant level of inefficiency in how paper is processed in the banking and insurance industries, and we find the same trends here in SA. Lexmark has been working with these industries to develop our dedicated suite of solutions, which can help save time in critical and paper intensive processes."
He concludes: "Lexmark`s scanning and routing technology can take the time and distance out of the process with loan packages and claim forms moved electronically in real time to underwriting or the document management system, reducing costs and accelerating revenue recognition."
For more information on the Lexmark range of printers www.lexmark.co.za or sales (011) 244-2777
For further information, please contact Louisa Craig at tel. (011) 244-2650; fax (011) 244-2629; e-mail louisa.craig@lexmark.co.za
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Lexmark
Lexmark International (NYSE: LXK) provides businesses and consumers in more than 150 countries with a broad range of printing and imaging products, solutions and services that help them to be more productive. In 2005, Lexmark reported $5.2 billion in revenue and employed more than 13 000 people globally. Learn how Lexmark can help you get more done at www.lexmark.com.
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