What is a Document Strategy?
Businesses are always actively seeking ways to improve their processes in ways that can yield much larger returns. One vast savings and productivity opportunity is in the area of document management.
The first step in effectively managing business documents is analyzing your company's current spend and existing processes to gain an accurate baseline and identify costs. It is then critical to map those processes to your corporate goals and strategies. The action items that result from this level of planning are often called a "document strategy".
You may feel that your company already has a document strategy because you address document output effectively. But output is just the tip of the iceberg. Document management and related costs are much larger in scope than you may realize. Industry analysts report that documents can consume up to 15% of corporate revenue* -- meaning a $5 billion company can spend $750 million on their document lifecycle processes: input/capture, management/layout, output/distribution and storage/archival.
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- "12 to 15% of a typical corporation’s revenue is spent on various publishing activities.” – The Cost of Business Communication: A Look at the Business Document Lifecycle, CAPV 2000
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- "IDC end-user research has confirmed that companies spend approximately 10% of their revenue on document production, management and distribution." – The Expanding Role of Document Accounting Systems, IDC 2001
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- "6 to 10% of annual corporate revenue is spent on document-related activities.” – Xplor International
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Documents are a high-impact area and, ironically, few companies have a document strategy in place to address these hidden costs. An effective document strategy that is able to impact this process even 1% in the previous scenario could return $7.5 million! It begs the question: What other area of your company consumes 15% of your revenue and goes unmanaged?
Initially forming a document strategy can be overwhelming. Most organizations, while experts at their core business, may not possess the expertise to strategically assess their business processes as they relate to documents or to objectively analyze document workflow to identify and eliminate inefficiencies.
That’s why more companies have turned to IKON to help them create a comprehensive document strategy and then to implement, execute and measure its success. We work with you to understand your requirements, analyze your current situation, and provide document management expertise and best-in-class solutions to improve your efficiency. By combining your corporate strategy with our experience, we will build a “blueprint” that can effectively manage your total document costs without disrupting your core business functions.
Our consultative approach begins with analyzing your needs throughout the entire document lifecycle—from input to archive. We then apply the appropriate hardware, software, and services to implement a streamlined document workflow. In the end, we provide you with a complete solution tailored to meet your specific needs.
At IKON, partnering with our customers to uncover needs, costs, current processes and future expectations is a critical part of developing a strategy that will be successful for years to come.
What sets IKON apart from the competition is our unique ability to provide the most knowledgeable people and integrate them with innovative technology, document expertise and best practices to create a framework for success. From this base of experience, we deliver a sustainable competitive advantage to your operation by eliminating inefficiencies and improving your administrative and document management processes.
One of the ways IKON is able to impact your existing workflows and process is by leveraging innovative technology. We have found that an effective document strategy usually requires a specific mix of cutting edge software, powerful enablers and proven hardware solutions. However, innovative technology is only a subset of IKON’s total value to your organization…our ability to help you control your document management costs also comes from our document expertise, best practices and world-class service.
IKON's commitment to customer satisfaction and our combination of document expertise, best-practices, and world-class service enable us to implement successful solutions that take your organization’s performance to peak levels and meaningfully impact your bottom line.
Let IKON help your company experience real
Document Efficiency At Work.
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