Advantages of Managed Document Services

Every company is always looking for a new way or method to cut the overall business costs. In an office setting, document-related output is the most common factor that greatly adds to the total business costs. This is where document solutions come in. One of the most effective ways to reduce the amount of expenditure is by maximising the value of various functions at the office such as printing, copying and scanning of documents.

Although MPS or managed print services have been introduced to the industry not so long ago, there is still an even greater document strategy that is far superior and this is known as MDS or managed document services.

What is MDS or Managed Document Services?

Compared to MPS or managed print services, which is focused only on output, MDS or managed document services aim to provide a holistic approach on the whole document output process. What does this mean? Managed document services are not only looking into the output, but they are making sure that every step of the process is maximised - starting from the capturing of data, up until the  archiving of information, managed document services take care of it all.

This unique document technology is a perfect strategy that makes it possible for offices to reduce output costs of about 30% to 40% in total.  This is a considerable cost savings that can definitely affect the business positively.

How does Managed Document Services work?

A managed document services provider will first make an assessment of the current existing solution. After this step, the service provider will come up with figures on the total costs of company ownership and production. From here, a tailored plan for the business will be laid out to address which issue needs to be attended to right away.

Additional benefits of Managed Document Services

Aside from the big savings that could be achieved from this document technology, managed document services have more benefits to offer a business and these include:

• The probability of lowering the present Total Cost of Ownership or what is also known as TCO.

• A very positive impact on the environment as there will be fewer devices or machines that will be used at the office.

• A much improved document strategy, from a simple output-based strategy, to a more holistic document solutions approach, starting from scanning, copying and finally printing.

Managed document services is a great way to not only reduce business costs, it is also effective in increasing the quality and efficiency of work in the office setup.

What is Docucheck® Consultancy?

EFFECTS OF THE PRINTING COST OF EMPLOYEES

We have mentioned in our previous blog post that an average employee is estimated to print 60 pages per day which amounts to 12,000 sheets in a year.  The figure is surprising because managers give the employees the freedom to print on their own -- giving them the option of printing whatever they want, how they wanted a document to be printed, etc.

What’s unknown to us is that a huge amount of the printing cost of employees goes to printed pages that were never intended to be printed like web printouts that only contain a URL at the bottom of the page or a banner ad at the top or the chain replies of an email.  When analyzed, the waste that was generated by sloppy printing is truly frustrating. Additionally, the number of wasted pages does not only contribute to the large printing cost of the company but to the carbon footprint of the company as well.

In order to hit the two problems stated, Capita Right Documents Solutions designed Docucheck® Consultancy.

WHAT IS DOCUCHECK CONSULTANCY?

Launched in 1996, Docucheck® Consultancy helped Capita and their clients to minimise the printing cost of their company through analyzing the working environment of the business. After the thorough analysis of the problem, Capita Right Documents Solution has generated a way of reviewing the printing cost, usage, user needs and office environment needs of the business. It paved way for the business to better understand how they can utilise the number of equipment that they have. Additionally, proper printing management were learned resulting to defining the best way to support and manage the solution going forward.

Through continues innovation, Capita Right Documents solution has devised a way to reduce the cost of total cost of ownership of their clients from 15% to 40%. Furthermore, Docucheck® Consultancy has provided better environmental working practices for the employees of their client. All in all, it can be concluded that this innovation is a win-win situation for both Capita Right Document Solutions and their clients. Docucheck® onsultancy opened the possibilities for the client to improve its business while having user satisfaction and user productivity.

CONCLUSION

Companies are not fully aware of their true printing cost, volumes and requirements. Furthermore, employees of those companies are not well knowledgeable of the available devices that they have leading them to not fully utilising the equipment. Thus, it can be said that employees doesn’t have a strategy when it comes to office print solutions.

Since everyone is getting active to become a part of an environment-friendly community, Docucheck® Consultancy, one of Capita Right Documents Solutions’ managed document services, can enable companies of all sizes and industries to save money while meeting the growing demand for environmental responsibility and accountability.

Cost Effective Printing Method

The cost of your printing method affects you whether you are just starting a business or have been operating for a number of years already. Knowing the method that is most cost-effective for your company will surely save you from spending an amount of money that can be allocated to other aspects of your business.

WHAT ARE THE TWO TYPES OF PRINTING METHOD?
1. Offset Lithography - This is popularly known as “hot off the press” printing. The text and images are engraved onto a metal plate which has ink applied to it. The plate is then applied to a rubber mat and the rubber mat is the one being pressed to the paper where the final texts and images are being replicated. This type of printing can be excellent because it produces high-definition images which are sharp and clean. However, this type of method cannot be cost-effective for companies that often changes information on their printing. Offset lithography can only make sense if you are planning to print large quantities of materials and when the information on your print doesn’t change. Additionally, an offset machine takes a lot of storage space so finding a space for this machine will be most likely a problem if you are renting a small spaced office unit.

2. Digital Printing - This printing method is a more developed one for it doesn’t require you to print plates before pressing it on a material. The ink that is used in this kind of printer can be inkjet or laser. Furthermore, the material that can be printed on may vary from paper, glass, metal, canvas, photo paper and many other medium. If you are planning to print a number of documents, multi-page printing can be done in seconds. On the other hand, if you plan to print just a small quantity of documents, you still don’t have to worry because it will not be costly unlike printing through offset. To put it simply, the mechanical steps that are done in offset lithography are eliminated in digital printing.

CHECKLIST FOR PRINTING
One cannot argue whether offset is better than digital or digital is better than offset because both has a number of advantages and disadvantages. However, for you to determine the best cost-effective printing method, you should take into consideration the following criteria:

• Quantity - the number of documents that you will print. Offset printer can be advantageous in this criterion than digital. In offset printing. The cost of the metal plate and other materials needed to produce the document will go down as the number of documents printed goes up. As for digital printing, the number of documents is directly proportional to the cost. It’s safe to say that when you only need a few copies of the document, it is better to opt for a digital printer.

• Medium - What medium will you use in printing? Paper, wood, glass, etc? This time, the digital printer is more advantageous than offset. Most offset printers only print on paper and other thin materials like plastic. Printing texts or images in a glass or metal is almost impossible to be done with offset.

• Colour - Digital printing offers four colour process printing while offset offers more variety of colours.

• Proofing - For proofing, digital printing can be more cost-efficient. Why? Because you only need to print a single copy of the document to tell whether it is already approved or not. Offset printers are made for mass production of documents. For you to be able to check a document, a batch of documents must be printed first to make use of the metal plate.

• Customization - What if you need to change certain texts or parts in your document? It’s needless to say that digital printers are more advantageous in this criterion.

WHAT IS BEST TO USE FOR MY COMPANY?
Most companies nowadays use digital printing. Despite of the comparison between the two, companies today use digital printing because it is handy and more modern. However, big printing companies such as newspaper or magazine publishers still use offset lithography because it can cost them less than digital printing.

SINCE DIGITAL PRINTING IS BEST FOR MY BUSINESS, HOW WILL I REDUCE MY COST OF PRINTING?
An average employee is estimated to print 60 pages per day or 12,000 sheets in a year. Company managers do not have the time to check the details of the printed copy like for who was it printed or from which device was it printed or who printed it? But as soon as the user becomes aware that the prints are being tracked, the number of documents that are printed drops significantly.

Print management is about reviewing and controlling the entire print environment -- making the users knowledgeable of the cost of printing that drives them to change their habits to achieve a more cost-efficient printing.

Capita Right Documents Solutions has a unique managed document services that let you manage your printing. Visit our page to know more how our services can save you from a high printing cost.

The History of Printing

The printing industry has evolved greatly since its invention. From the simple wooden blocks that were used, to the fast and modern machines that we have today, printing has definitely grown and is now one of the leading industries in the world today. It is almost impossible to think of our lives without printing. We see it everywhere - all the time. 

The Beginning of Printing

China is the country where the first printed book was discovered. The oldest printed book is called Diamond Sutra and it was printed in 868. It was also the Chinese who first used a brush for writing. At that time, it was more of art and expression rather than of necessity. Most of the first editions of printing were concentrated on designs and pictures.

From writing on silk, wood and other materials came the invention of seals or stamps in Babylonia. During this time, they were solely used to indicate authenticity. The knowledge about printing has traveled from country to country with the help of explorers and scholars and has continuously grown over the years.

The Gutenberg Era

Johannes Gutenberg from Germany was the known developer of the European movable type printing technology. It was around the year 1493 that he began his work and after only a few years, Gutenberg has marked the European Age of Printing.  

The Gutenberg Press became popular and allowed the printing of text to be much easier and affordable. The invention of printing press changed the world since then.

Printing Today

Below are the top three sectors that benefit the most with the invention of printing:

Education - millions and millions of textbooks are printed to be used at schools. Aside from textbooks, other reading materials intended to aid in learning of students are also printed nonstop.

Marketing - promotional materials such as brochures, pamphlets and many others are the traditional style of marketing. Even in these modern times where the use of internet is common, printed materials are still very effective when it comes to advertising or promoting.

Corporation/Business - companies today make use of printed materials on a daily basis - for contracts, proposals and many other necessary paperwork - in order to efficiently keep track of their business.

Managed Document Services at Capita RDS

Capita Right Document Solutions have the answer to all office output today through our one-of-a-kind Managed Document Services.

Managed Document Services or MDS is a unique approach to ensure efficient and controlled office output like printing, copying, faxing and scanning. The first step to this process is called DocuCheck® - a form of consultative assessment. After the said consultation, experts from Capita RDS will make an assessment and calculate the total ownership cost to produce a tailored plan for your business.

The total percentage of savings that you can get through MDS reach up to 40%.

Below are just some of the many benefits that a Managed Document Service offers:

• No CAPEX required, just current OPEX budget
• Potential to reduce current Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
• Payments fully tax deductable
• Improves solution moving from print only to scan-copy-print with latest colour enabled technology
• Single point of billing by RDS for all services

At Capita RDS, we make sure that we provide the best ‘document’ strategy available in the market today. With continuous innovations and learning, Capita RDS remains highly competitive and on top of its game by having an in-depth understanding of its every client’s needs. 

The Future of the Managed Print Services (MPS) Industry

Now more than ever, businesses are looking for ways to reduce costs. Even on the aspect of document workflow and print outputs, companies realize that outsourcing a Managed Print Solutions (MPS) service could actually be a better move than doing it all alone.

According to Quocirca, a leading independent analyst firm based in United Kingdom, 19% of enterprises in UK, France, Germany and US are operating on an MPS. The research was done exclusively amongst organizations having 1,000 employees or more. It revealed that almost 40% of the enterprises who participated in the research is planning to use MPS in the future, which is a positive sign for the growing industry. Furthermore, in the UK alone, 42% of the businesses are currently operating on a managed document solutions. 

It is not surprising. More and more, companies understand that the way to avoid losses on printing malfunctions, data breach, and unnecessary labor is to move to an outsourced integrated system. There are actually a lot of problems dealing with document printing and processing, and the costs are sometimes overlooked and unaccounted. Take a look at the numbers below.

The way MPS providers do it is they initially assess the current status of a company's document workflow and from there create a tailor-fit solution. For example, Capita uses a 5-step strategy to ensure efficiency of action: Assess, Design, Implement, Manage, and Optimise. This is their own protocol on dealing with their clients.

As a result, IT departments can focus more on important tasks than on less-productive tasks like solving a hardware failure of a printing device. Businessmen who are on-the-go can now print directly from mobile phones, tablets, or laptops without being physically connected to a corporate network or downloading drivers. Imagine convenience, efficiency, and security—those are few of the reasons why the MPS industry is sure to grow more in the coming years.

On the recently released Global MPS market report, analysts expect the MPS to grow at compound annual growth rate of 10.75% on the years 2012-2016.

* US Environmental Energies National Laboratory’s Technologies Division, Smarter print management - Controlling costs and environmental impacts in the United Kingdom, OKI, Jan 2009 

¹ ALL Associates Group - Company size between 500 and 5,000 employees across all industry types 

² IDC, An easy and often missed opportunity for CIOs - MPS, April 2012 

³ IDC, Bridging the information worker productivity gap in Western Europe: New challenges and opportunities for IT, Sept 2012