Oct 16, 2007
What is Output Management and why do I need it?
By Ken Renko, Product Marketing Manager, Pitney Bowes' Emtex Software
Last month we discussed the trends and issues driving the need for a centralized output management system to make sense of increasingly complex and even chaotic mailstreams. Trends like industry consolidation (common in the financial services, insurance and utility and telecom industries), convergence, and regulatory compliance have resulted in the proliferation of clusters of point solutions that do not always talk to each other, much less work cohesively.
Certainly, innovation takes place at the edge of chaos. However, the last thing you want your print operation to be is chaotic. Hence, the growing need for an intelligent, centralized output management system that simplifies, streamlines, and improves the performance of your print-to-mail operation. With the right output management system, you can make the most of the technology assets you have. You can breathe new life into legacy applications. And you can improve operational control and efficiency in multi-vendor and multi-platform environments - especially as demand for complex applications like TransPromo documents injects new urgency into improvement efforts. Given the potential benefits, the case for implementing an output management solution bears further examination. Let's take a look.
Centralized output management - so what is it?
In essence, an output management system is a software system that centralizes control of print and electronic output processes, transforming a time-consuming manual construct into an automated production model. An output management system consolidates input from several different platforms and applications, providing a single point of control for the entire mailstream - from data creation, print job acquisition, and input through printing and mailing. It enables any-to-any print stream transformation and pass-through, re-engineering and processing of documents, end-to-end tracking and reporting, and the ability to deliver output across multiple channels - including production and network printers, email and the web.
Basic components include a centralized, automated workflow and real-time PDL transformation and document re-engineering. We'll discuss these three pillars of an output management solution and available configurations in more detail in my next column. For now, the key point is that a centralized output management system is a perfect example of a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts.
Investing in a centralized output management system can pay lasting dividends. Benefits include everything from faster time to market and improved accuracy to lower costs and flexibility to add value to communications with personalized messages to cross-sell and up-sell end customers.
Why centralize?
So why do you really need centralized output management? The answer is simple. If you wrestle with any of the challenges that come from trying to synthesize clusters of point solutions that have cropped up as a result of mergers or acquisitions, convergence, or pressure to meet complex regulatory requirements, these challenges alone justify change. But the benefits are most convincing. Through every stage of the mailstream, centralized output management enables you to accelerate time-to-market, improve accuracy, reduce costs, and facilitate more personalized and effective communications, enabling you to:
- Bridge multiple proprietary workflows, vendors, and applications
- Re-engineer documents and processes to maximize efficiency and productivity
- Enable jobs to run wherever and whenever needed
- Balance workloads across devices and/or multiple sites
- Enable more personalized customer communications
- Deliver communications in multiple formats over multiple channels
- Boost flexibility with minimal impact on existing systems
- Speed delivery and improve accuracy
- Improve process, job, and document-level integrity
- Reduce costs
Who can benefit from centralized output management?
While many companies can benefit from implementing a centralized output management system (which incidentally provides a platform for seamlessly migrating to an ADF in the future), ask yourself these questions to see if your print-to-mail operation is a likely candidate. Here are some questions to consider?
- Are you satisfied with the way you currently manage print production?
- Do any of your devices sit idle several days of the month?
- Do you struggle with updating/adding value to legacy documents?
- Do you have dedicated point solutions for transactional, POD, and other workflows?
- Are you having difficulty managing a proprietary architecture or complex workflow?
- Do you want to deliver transactional documents across multiple channels?
- Do you experience frequent bottlenecks, missed SLAs, or high operating costs?
- Can you load balance your print production to optimize efficiency?
- Can you efficiently manage reprints downstream?
- Are you satisfied with the way you currently handle inserter rerouting?
- Do you have a need to make changes to print-ready files?
- Do you have a business continuity plan in place?
Answer in the affirmative to three or more of these questions and chances are good that a centralized output management solution could deliver real rewards to your mailstream. Of course, centralized output management solutions come in different configurations and flavors as individual as your print operation. So, what's right for your print operation may differ greatly from what's right for another. Find out more in my next column.
To learn more...
Find out how a centralized output management solution can help you improve the productivity, efficiency and quality of your document operation, read the Emtex white paper, "Centralized Output Management: The Key to Maximizing Control of Production Workflow.?
To learn more about Emtex solutions, please visit our website at http://www.emtex.com
Stay tuned for next month's column...
Output Management Solutions: Basic pillars and configurations
In my next Output Links column, I'll explore in depth the basic pillars of an output management solution and how the extent of your output management deployment depends on your unique requirements, the size, and complexity of your workflow and whether or not you need to manage processes in a single site or across multiple sites. In the meantime, feel free to contact me directly with your thoughts and comments. Contact me at krenko@us.emtex.com .
Ken Renko has been involved with printing systems and output management technology companies for more than 30 years. He joined Pitney Bowes' Emtex Software in 2006 as a Product Marketing Manager in Boca Raton, Florida and is responsible for product management and marketing support for industry-leading enterprise output management solutions including: Virtual Intelligent Presentation (VIP), Virtual Document Enhance (VDE), and FlexServer. Prior to joining Pitney Bowes Emtex Software, Ken held various technical and marketing support positions with Oce Digital Document Systems and the Xerox Printing Systems Group. The combined years of experience in the electronic document industry have provided him with an objective understanding of the requirements and challenges that impact transactional printing, document output management, multi-vendor workflows, and variable data applications. He has developed a number of white papers, authored several industry articles and has been a regular presenter at Xplor and On Demand.