Why European businesses are playing a game of hide and seek

By Jim Potter, Executive Vice President Operations, Ricoh Europe

When we look at strong and successful businesses, we also find insightful leaders dealing with their business challenges in innovative and pragmatic ways. Top of their essential requirements before making any business investment is; flexibility, efficiency, productivity and sustainability.

However, the drive to maintain and monitor these requirements can often be a game of hide and seek, resulting in fruitless searches that do not always equate to finding long term benefits. In reality, even the most successful European businesses, are not finding many of the key opportunities that could help them to further enhance their efficiency, productivity and sustainability. One such area, often hidden within an organisation, yet can deliver significant business benefits is, document governance.

The Ricoh Document Governance Index [1], conducted by Coleman Parkes Research [2] revealed that although total spend on document governance in Europe currently exceeds an estimated €14 billion per year, with companies spending up to 5% of annual turnover, just over a third (39%) of companies have implemented a document governance strategy to manage this important area for the business. While 77 % of European business leaders are aware of the benefits of a document governance strategy, more than three quarters of them have not yet fully implemented a plan within their business. This is having a direct impact on their bottom line.

An effective and immediate way to find these hidden costs is through Managed Document Services (MDS). However, as its popularity increases, it can be challenging for businesses to find the right partner that will truly meet their needs.

Below are a few tips for business leaders when seeking a Managed Document Services partner.

Look for a flexible long term partner

Choose a supplier that is robust and stable and will make time to understand and assess the business and document needs. A one-size solution won't bring the long-term benefits that can be gained from an effective partnership. A true MDS partner will be able to offer continuous improvement over time. This means going beyond fleet management to consider, security, discovering infrastructure or document bottlenecks and environmental impacts. Only through thorough preparation can a customer receive a truly comprehensive service that understands their current situation. What's more, flexibility is essential. A Managed Document Services partner should be able to adapt the solution as business needs change. This will bring ongoing improvement beyond the initial cost savings.

Free-up your internal resources

Dedicating internal resources to document governance may be a strain on resources. For some businesses, it may even be the reason why investment in document governance is delayed. Therefore it is essential to identify a partner that can easily manage all the activity on behalf of the business, if required. At Ricoh we refer to it as 'out-servicing'.

'Out-servicing' is a document-centric service for ongoing governance and improving how information is used across an organisation. It means that customers can focus on their core business with the peace of mind that the document workflow is being managed efficiently by their supplier.

Reliable execution and service levels

Ensuring a supplier has the scope and capability to successfully implement a solution and work within your business processes is essential. Most busy organisations will also need a high standard of service to maintain and drive their document solutions into the future. Look for a partner that is providing a truly personal service and continuous input on how to improve efficiency. At Ricoh, we implement processes that constantly monitor and guarantee user-defined service levels. Every organisation is unique, which is why it is important to find a provider that can tailor the methodology to develop value-adding solutions. 

Reduce your carbon footprint and increase security

In addition to increasing efficiencies across the business, a Managed Document Service should also be able to assess and reduce the carbon footprint across an organisations document workflow. This in turn helps the company with its overall environmental targets. It can yield significant C0₂ reductions which also equate to additional cost savings on the business bottom line. Security is also an essential part of effective document governance. Businesses should ensure they are working with a partner that understands their security challenges and can provide a range of options to protect confidential data.

Global governance, local delivery

Where organisations operate across multiple locations, they should ensure they find a partner that can seamlessly manage the service in all locations in a country or across an entire region, including local contacts, with direct support and training in local languages.

There is no need for hide and seek

When an organisation finds the right partner, they can begin to quickly realise the savings in efficiency, productivity, environmental output and increased security.

Pragmatic business leaders no longer need to feel like they are playing a game of hide and seek to find the answers, or the information, that will bring real long term benefits to their bottom line.

For more information about the Ricoh Document Governance Index visit www.ricoh-europe.com/research.

For more information about Ricoh Managed Document Services visit www.ricoh-europe.com/solutions/managed-solutions/index.xhtml

Jim Potter is Executive Vice President of Operations at Ricoh Europe. He is responsible for Ricoh Global Services, Outsourcing and Managed Document Services. In addition, he oversees the supply chain and Ricoh's sales operations across EMEA. Ricoh works with organisations around the world to modernise work environments and optimise document efficiency.

References:

[1] Document governance is defined as the way an organisation manages its business documents. It includes effectively managing the costs, technology, sustainability and security of documents across its operations.

[2] The Ricoh Document Governance Index by Coleman Parks Research, October 9, 2009