Digital Landfill

Key Findings -- Winning the Paper Wars

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1. 74% of respondents have business improvement campaigns that would beneft from paper-free initiatives. Only 24% have a specific policy or maxim to "drive paper out of the business."
2. The amount of paper flowing through business processes is decreasing in 41% of organizations. But for 19% it is actually increasing.
3. On average, respondents feel that driving paper out of the process would improve speed of response to customers, citizens or staff by a factor of 4.0x. Those with more experience in paper-free processes report an even greater speed-up of 4.6x.
4. On average, respondents feel that driving paper out of the process would improve the productivity of process staff by 29.7%, rising to 35.4% for those with more experience.
5. Two-thirds of those adopting paper-free processes report a payback within 18 months. 50% see payback in a single 12-month budgeting period.
6. HR, accounts payable and customer correspondence are the most popular paper-free processes, with 70% reporting that AP and AR have "Excellent" or "Good" ROI.  “Contracts and procurement” is also proving to be a successful candidate.
7. Physical signatures and legal admissibility are given as the biggest paper-free concerns among staff, with Legal Counsel, and to an extent Finance, being most resistant. Yet overall, even Legal Counsel are 37% pro and 26% against, with most line-of-business and C-levels broadly in favor.
8. 31% scan pre-process, with 10% using digital mailrooms. 26% use paper in the process and then scan for archive after the process. Consistent across all sizes of business, digital mailroom is twice as popular in Europe.
9. Nearly a third of organizations are processing electronic documents, forms and PDFs separately from scanned paper. 20% print them out - including 13% who print them out and then scan them back into the capture system.
10. As regards benefts of paper-free processes, "Better records for audit trail or compliance" beats "Faster response and improved productivity." Better monitoring of process status and workfow is also a signifcant beneft.
11. 15% are currently using smart devices to scan or capture forms - more likely by their own employees than by customers
12. Spend in the next 12 months is set to increase strongly for mobile capture, with OCR, BPM+workfow and AP+AR also set for a steady increase.  Spending on scanners, MFPs and outsourcing will generally be flat, although outsourcing is set for a steady increase outside of North America.

Get the full report HERE.  (Free for now; will soon be member-restricted content.)