Now is the Time for Document Outsourcing

By John M. Kelly, president, Xerox Global Services, North America, Xerox Corporation

Now is the time for the next wave of the outsourcing revolution that began nearly three decades ago. This new generation of outsourcing is ready to focus on an often not considered element that is pervasive in every organization and has a direct impact on every operation in the enterprise: documents. The combination of the need to maximize productivity while reducing costs in today’s difficult economy, coupled with the relentless search for improving work processes, creates a ripe environment for document outsourcing to have a huge impact.

Documents, both digital and paper, their related work processes and the technology that  support them, represent an infrastructure that’s just as important as facilities, telecommunications and IT networks. Research from Xerox shows that document output costs in the office average more than $3,400 per employee each year – that’s a seven figure budget item for organizations with 300 or more office workers. By choosing to outsource document management needs, organizations can become more profitable by making document-driven systems and processes more efficient, all while increasing employee productivity.

Outsourcing is not a new concept. For decades organizations have been outsourcing traditional services including IT, human resources and customer service. By outsourcing these functions, companies have learned that working with external experts reaches beyond cost savings and offers expertise to make their business better and smarter. This approach revolutionized the management of IT networks and helped countless organizations make breakthrough improvements in the way they handle in-house functions. Now organizations are exploring the transformative results this strategy has when applied to document management.

One Step at a Time

Given current budget concerns, organizations should know it is possible to ease into document outsourcing one step at a time. Begin with an assessment of the office environment to gain an understanding of metrics including determining what the employee to device ratio is, current device utilization and total cost per employee. One of the fundamental challenges when assessing document and printing expenses is determining what is being spent and where. Printing costs are often buried in various department budgets and each employee likely has a personalized work process that may not be optimal to reducing overall printing costs. By outsourcing the management of all devices in an enterprise, companies can establish a streamlined workflow that can save them upward of 30 percent on their annual document spend.

A plan can then be developed to help achieve the right formula for employees, devices and daily volume. Many businesses are replacing isolated copiers, printers and other devices with a much smaller number of state-of-the-art, networked, multifunction systems. The result is reduced equipment, energy and output costs. The quality of document management services and features available to employees is improved and it’s easier to manage service and supplies. In addition companies can benefit from the innovations its document management outsourcing provider brings to market and new capabilities can be added that will accelerate the development of enterprise content and records management systems in the future.  

But What Does it Really Mean?

In general, there are three high-level outsourcing applications that typically yield the most powerful benefits:

1.     Optimize the document management infrastructure in the office setting, as well as high-volume print production and imaging environments.

2.     Turn critical, document-driven business processes into benchmark operations.

3.     Improve the effectiveness of key documents, including prospect, employee and customer communications.

Together, these improvements will reduce cost structure, upgrade an organization’s capabilities, boost productivity and efficiency, generate more revenue and help work move at a faster pace. They will provide corporate and public sector leaders more control over documents and document-related work processes. Improving document management will also accelerate the flow of critical information and will help improve the speed and quality of decision-making throughout the enterprise. 

Become a Corporate Role Model

In the outsourcing age, organizations also have the ability to transform key, document driven business processes. Nearly every department has the potential to become a center of excellence – a benchmark operation built, operated and managed especially for the organization. By combining the right technology and expertise with proven best practices, organizations can streamline workflow, eliminate time consuming manual tasks, speed up access to critical information and reduce operational costs – all of which will help improve efficiency and productivity.

In addition, benchmark business processes can have a big impact on the bottom line by helping grow revenue, improve cash flow, boost long-term customer loyalty and increase a company’s ability to respond to fast-changing business conditions. Experts with access to the latest technological innovations and knowledge of the best practices in the field can deliver these benefits and make a powerful impact on an organization’s enterprise.

How it Works

Xerox Global Services works with companies around the world to reduce their total print costs and transform business processes by outsourcing their enterprise print and document management. Examples of how some of these organizations were able to reduce overall spend and realize incremental innovation and benefits include:

Fujitsu Siemens Computers outsourced its process for managing and producing technical documentation in 26 languages and successfully saved 25 percent in costs related to this project. The company also achieved improved consistency in content and versioning through just-in-time production of product manuals at the point of final assembly.

The Government of the United Kingdom’s Department of Works and Pensions (DWP) outsourced the review and revamp of the document supply chain to create clearer and more accessible information for UK citizens – including documents from birth certificates to pension benefits. The benefits include the elimination of duplication of effort, improved quality and simplified communications with citizens. In addition, a single point of contact for all business print and marketing materials for its thousands of employees across the UK was established using a Web-based ordering and fulfillment process.

Aliant, a Canadian Telco, was challenged with reducing customer confusion that generated costly calls to the company’s customer care center every month. By outsourcing and simplifying the design of the customer bill, billing inquiries were reduced by 30 percent. The efficient design also helped the company save on print production costs and greatly improved employee satisfaction in the call center.

Outsourcing: A Business Essential for 2009

15.2 trillion pages are printed annually and $650 billion in productivity is lost each year due to the associated overload of information, so simplifying the way work gets done can make a significant impact on document management costs. The need to reduce costs is always top of mind for corporate executives – but in 2009 it can’t just be top of mind – cost reductions will be a given, and for many, a necessity for survival. 

John M. Kelly is president, Xerox Global Services, North America, Xerox Corporation.