Situation

Managing the flow of documents is an immense, complex, and critical task for many sectors, particularly financial services, government, long-distance marketing, and publishing. The rising tide includes printed and electronic documents sent to customers (bills, marketing brochures) and those received from them (insurance claims, changes in personal information), as well as internal documents for employees.

Most organizations handle documents in scattered units that manage output services: the design, composition, and production of documents for physical and electronic distribution. The units also manage input services: receiving, sorting, and storing incoming documents. A typical global financial institution might spend 0.5 percent of its revenues on print and document services—a significant sum.

Recently, a big insurance company looking for savings to finance growth decided to target document operations. Spending was high and evidence of waste widespread. In some locations, under a third of all marketing brochures reached designated customers; the rest sat in storage for years. Fragmented communications hurt the company’s brand image—logos, for example, were printed in different sizes and colors.

Top executives thought an integrated document-management strategy could cut costs and improve operations significantly. An analysis revealed that over three years these costs might fall by up to €150 million...