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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Bridging the paper
and digital gap
According to Quocirca’s
Digital
Maturity Index
, organisations
that are ahead of their peers
in the digitisation journey are
outperforming them in profitability,
customer loyalty and employee
engagement.
Despite almost 70 per cent of
organisations recognising digitisation
as a key element of an information
management strategy, businesses remain
reliant on paper-based processes. Almost
60 per cent of those surveyed, report that
up to 30 per cent of their processes use
paper, with the most cited reason being the
need for physical signatures.
In addition to being inefficient and
costly, this dependence on paper leaves an
enterprise open to security vulnerabilities
and compliance issues.
Driving digitisation
More than 80 per cent of companies
believe increasing business process
efficiency to be a very important factor
in driving digitisation. Almost two-thirds
have already digitised several business
processes, with the most common areas
being records management (41 per cent),
claims processing (32 per cent) and
accounts payable/receivable (30 per cent).
The most mature organisations in
the survey – those Quocirca identified as
‘digital leaders’ – combine a clear digital
transformation strategy with investment in
business and workflow automation tools.
Implementing integrated, enterprise-
wide policies to control and manage both
paper and digital information is essential.
While 44 per cent of businesses have done
this, only 15 per cent report that paper
and digital workflow integration is very
effective.
The other key driver of digital maturity
is the implementation of workflow
solutions which enable more effective
information sharing, collaboration and
efficiency. The digital leaders in Quocirca’s
survey have invested in a range of
solutions such as e-invoicing, e-signatures
and document capture.
The roadblocks
There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach
for digital transformation, and it
requires significant cultural change for
some. Business process automation
typically demands strong employee and
executive commitment, supported by
governance and change management. The
biggest challenge is securing employee
commitment, cited by 46 per cent of
respondents as their main hurdle. Justifying
investment is another common obstacle,
resulting in silos of automation around the
business which cannot be integrated.
The sheer scope of digital
transformation projects is a major
challenge. Each organisation must take
action across a number of areas, including
paper digitisation, automating back-office
applications, information management
and collaboration, and implementing new
digital customer engagement models.
This complexity is driving enterprises
to look for partners that can support
the entire digital transformation journey,
augmenting their strategic capabilities and
enabling full business process automation
by implementing solutions that can be
integrated with existing infrastructure.
Leading managed print service (MPS)
providers are exceptionally well positioned
Louella Fernandes, Associate Director for
Print Services and Solutions at Quocirca,
explains why MPS providers are well
positioned to become an organisation’s
strategic partner in the drive to accelerate
the digitisation process
to become an organisation’s strategic
partner in the drive to accelerate the
digitisation process. Their offering has
evolved beyond its traditional roots of
print, into broader solutions and services
that automate business processes and
optimise workflows.
Their breadth and depth of experience
gives managed print service providers an
edge as a trusted and strategic partner
for long-term digital transformation.
Partnering with an MPS provider brings
organisations deep technical expertise, best
practice, scale and flexibility and best-in-
class service levels.
Strategic partnerships build digital
maturity
MPS is an established approach to
reducing the cost, complexity and risk
associated with an unmanaged print
infrastructure. Leading providers have
extended their capabilities to encompass
broader information management and
business and workflow automation
offerings, including software and services.
This gives them the unique advantage
of being able to provide a strategic, holistic
assessment of the complete information
lifecycle – both paper and digital – and to
recommend opportunities for automation.
Drawing from their extensive solutions
portfolios, they can then provide tools and
software to improve workflow efficiency.
Through proprietary technology and
strategic partnerships, they are able to
offer solutions and services that cover most
areas of digital transformation - document
capture, processing, workflow integration
and automation, content management and
customer communications.
Almost half of the businesses in
the
Quocirca Digital Maturity Index
survey currently use an MPS provider for
digitisation/workflow automation, with
a further 32 per cent planning to do so.
The findings reveal that those which use
MPS already are ahead of the curve when
it comes to their digitisation and business
process automation strategy: 77 per
cent reported that they were effective in
integrating paper and digital workflows
compared to 56 per cent of those not
using MPS.
MPS providers should perform a
more proactive role in supporting digital
Louella Fernandes,
Associate Director,
Print Services and
Solutions,
Quocirca
