Feb 2, 2005
Document Management Helps High Volume Billers Respond Quickly
By Hal Morrow
The Lykos Group, a leading provider of billing services in Greece exemplifies leading print providers using document management and workflow technology to take them to the next level of service and productivity.
As high-volume printers face stiffer competition and tougher customer expectations, many are turning to document workflow to give them a competitive advantage and greater flexibility. The Lykos Group is a good example of how leading print providers are using document management and workflow technology to take them to the next level of service and productivity.
The Lykos Group is a leading provider of billing services in Greece with over 40 percent market share. More than 1,150 people are employed in facilities across several countries, and daily production involves over 30 tons of paper and processing of over 2.5 million mail pieces. The product mix ranges from conventional business forms to paper-to-post digital technology. Clients include most public sector companies, 70 percent of banks, two thirds of the telecommunication companies, and many well-known retail, insurance and transportation companies.
To maintain market dominance, Lykos constantly invests in emerging technologies, and today possesses the most advanced printing facilities in Greece, serving top companies in Europe. The ability to quickly enter new markets and make acquisitions is critical for continued growth and expansion. A versatile, scalable solution to drive document design, composition, production and archiving across all facilities from one reliable platform was necessary to support this growth strategy.
Faster Response to Customer Requests
Like many in the service industry, Lykos also needed to handle last-minute changes and enhance document applications without involving expensive programming. ?Our biggest concern is being able to respond to the continuously changing demands of our customers,? said Spyros Manias, Group Technical Director for INFORM Lykos. ?The introduction of new software platforms, combined with the need for dynamic messages, consumer offers and other personalized communication makes up-to-the-minute changes a standard requirement.?
Previously, the variety of applications and frequency of changes forced Lykos to maintain a large team of IT experts just to respond to last minute changes. ?IT resources in these specialized fields are hard to find, so we decided to invest in software that would give us the necessary flexibility and allow us to release resources for more productive issues,? Manias stated. ?We needed user-friendly software that would not require advanced programming skills and also help us produce proofs and samples in the shortest possible time. We turned to GMC PrintNet software to handle all these changes without redesigning major parts of the existing applications. Now even less experienced programmers can be involved in the forms design process.?
Production Changes Require Last Minute Reaction
Due to the variety of printers and inserting machines needed to address diverse customer needs, printing and inserting commands must be adjusted quite frequently, often just minutes before production. ?Depending on the size of the input file, the number of inserts, postal code or other sorting requirements, and the available production equipment, we decide the appropriate routing and introduce the necessary barcodes, OCR, and other automatic control characteristics at production,? noted Manias. ?Specific parts of the forms layout are designated when the file is passed to our servers, without the need for action by our programmers. This allows us to utilize optimum production routing without being restricted by the original criteria the job was designed to fulfill.?
INFORM P. LYKOS S.A. is the parent company of a number of different operations. EBE S.A. is a conventional and digital printing center specializing in small and medium quantities. EBE is also a full back-up center for the Lykos Group operations, and the consistent use of PrintNet functionality across Lykos entities ensures seamless, familiar backup. Using the same platform across all facilities also enables consistent workflow, easier training, and less IT support required for many different products.
LYKOS PAPERLESS SOLUTIONS S.A. provides electronic bill presentment and payment services to the regional market. The integrated PrintNet workflow allows Lykos to design once and then send a document to any digital output device or for electronic delivery. INFORM LYKOS ROMANIA Ltd sprang from the merger of the two largest Romanian companies in conventional and digital printing. Clients include the Romanian Finance Ministry, the Romanian National Printer, eminent foreign banks participating in the local market, Rom Telecom and a vast number of other Romanian and international companies.
20 Million Transaction Pages a Month
The expertise of Lykos lies in transactional printing and direct marketing applications. Projects include telco billing and dividends distribution for the majority of the companies of the Athens Exchange. The greatest volume comes from statements and bills for telecommunications, banks, credit cards and other organizations. Until recently, these applications were based on traditional routing and data handling of incoming files from the IT department, then printing on pre-printed forms. ?The majority of our applications are transactional printing. On average, we process more than 20 million pages per month. PrintNet is used for the majority of these applications, as well as all new jobs,? said Manias.
?A lot of our transactional printing applications were redesigned in the PrintNet T environment, and during the process, we also introduced new features that were not easily attainable before,? explained Manias. As a result, Lykos is successfully handling multiple complicated projects, which could involve digital media, placing various leaflets from different sources into envelopes, and mail sorting and distribution with 24-hour turnaround.
Managing Growth and Convergence
Having an integrated platform for document creation, management and production gives Lykos the ability to grow capacity without expanding headcount. ?We can produce more than two million pages per day with conventional or totally digital printing methods. Our volume has practically doubled over the last two years, while the number of people involved in this process has remained the same,? Manias stated.
High volume commercial printers today are also dealing with the transition from traditional printing to digital, and a comprehensive document production and workflow strategy can play a role in a successful change. For example, when standard offset printed forms are used with digitally printed forms at the same time, the digitally printed form must look identical to the conventional forms, so end users will not notice a difference. To achieve this, the software used to print the variable data must also handle full color layouts without influencing the speed or integrity of variable data processing. PrintNet?s color control gives Lykos the ability to achieve color matching and remove a major obstacle to as smooth transition. ?Based on our experience with color management,? said Manias, ?We are becoming very adept in the design and processing of color digital forms and are in a position to support even a greater number of applications.?
Robust document composition, production and workflow tools are helping companies like Lykos overcome challenges, achieve strategic business goals and capture real benefits. With ever-increasing competition and the constant demand for greater efficiency and productivity, the need for these important document resources will remain a top priority for successful service providers.
Hal Morrow, president of GMC Software Technology (the Americas), a GMC Software AG subsidiary, has been involved in the technology industry since the mid 1970s. He has held various marketing and communications management positions with technology companies specializing in LAN technologies, laser printing, document and print management, archiving, application development services and software. Hal joined GMC in 2003 as vice president of marketing. Hal is a native of New York and holds degrees from Hope College in Holland, Michigan and the University of Illinois. Contact Hal Morrow at
h.morrow@gmc.net.