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July - 2007 - issue > Tech Marketing
Document Management, a Promising Niche Business
Michael Paulraj
Monday, July 2, 2007
Xerox Global Business’ main thrust area is manufacturing printers and accessories. Now, its document outsourcing services have grown to contribute somewhere between twenty to twenty five percent of the company’s revenue. The document services is a global business with customers in Europe, the USA, and many other countries.

The company has a clear view of what business enterprises need for handling the data that go on the documents that are printed periodically as also for printing. Xerox helps organizations utilize their resources optimally by simplifying the business processes.

“India is supposedly the most cost-conscious country. We do budgeting for everything—manpower, IT infrastructure, buildings, furniture and fixtures, everything figures in the budget. But it is only unfortunate that there is a certain amount of ignorance about the money spent on documentation and printing. People in most enterprises throw a blank stare when you ask whether they have a budget for documenting,” says Ravi Venkatraman, Director, Xerox Global Services, Xerox India.

In most organizations, the administration, finance and marketing teams work in independent silos without any interlinking. Each of them is unaware of how much documentation takes place in the others’ area. No proper planning goes into documentation.

A market research by IDC shows that on an average, an organization spends about three to five per cent of its revenue in managing the document output devices and document production. A company with a budget of 500 crore rupees can save about three to four and a half crore rupees by outsourcing its documentation.

Optimized Content Management
How is this achieved? Xerox Office Solutions has its own unique tailor made software that tracks down the document movement within an enterprise. The documentation and printing requirements in the organization are tracked and unnecessary steps in documentation are eliminated. The company is provided with appropriate software to digitalize all this through an application called imaging and archiving solution. Xerox helps achieve a higher level of efficiency in documentation by streamlining virtually unconnected areas within an enterprise.

The variable data on a bill, such as the transaction amount, date, etc. are collated with the static data like the name and identification number of the customers. Each bill is absolutely personalized, earning more customer satisfaction for the company. Under the Document Outsourcing and Creative Services (DOCS) Xerox develops software applications that handle such works for the customers. Lean Six Sigma tools and methodology are used to drive improvements in the processes and to deliver measurable results to the customers.

The insurance bills and telecom bills are printed for the client companies using this technology. In these sectors the nature of the documents is mission critical because they are to be produced and sent to the customers in time. Efficient handling of this process lends a hand in consolidating the customer base which leads to more profits. “The best form of communication that carries the very persuasive content, which is actually revenue realization content, is the bill issued to the individual customer,” says Venkatraman.

Xerox has the industry specific experience and expertise to solve the critical challenges faced by a client enterprise. It continues to develop and deploy the appropriate technology and meets the growing demands as a client’s enterprise expands.

Exorbitant Consumption of Consumables
Another important area focused on is the optimal use of consumables. In a large company that has different divisions to handle administration, marketing, finance, and accounts there will be a number of printers operated by a different person in each department. No one will ever know how many prints each printer was used to make, and whether the print cartridge was used up to its full lifetime. A print cartridge that is supposed to produce 15,000 prints may run out before 4,000 prints and the operator just replaces it with a new one.

Several vendors are also engaged on annual maintenance contract to take care of the printers of different makes and versions. There is no way to track the expenses of each section as the different sections work in separate silos.

Outsource Documentation
Xerox completely takes over the customer’s documentation and printing operations. The company deploys its own printers that are run on software developed for the customer as well as the personnel to operate them. The device-to-key-persons ratio and the printing requirements are optimized, trimming down expenses.

“Most organizations have an IT department without developing an effective infrastructure for IT deployment. They focus on running the organization without developing the necessary infrastructure and deployment of technology which is, in fact, not the core area of their business. A customer organization can focus all the energy on its own business and its core area of functionality while we take care of its documentation needs,” says Venkatraman.

The banking and insurance verticals are among the main customers of Xerox Documentation. Venkatraman is optimistic when he speaks about the future of documentation outsourcing, especially in India as the country has an enormous potential and holds out a great promise to this business.

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