From mom and pop shops to multinational corporations, every business owner has at least one thing in common: they’re trying to accomplish more in less time, with less money. What they also have in common is that most are underestimating the power of switching from paper to digital workflows in helping them reach those goals.
This is where you come in.
Switching from paper to digital can help your customers transform the way they work, both internally and externally. They just need an expert to help them get started.
The Benefits of Digitization
Given the wide-reaching benefits of going digital, it’s surprising that so many companies have yet to get started. What customer doesn’t want to save time and money, enhance collaboration, and improve data security? And that’s just the start. Switching from paper processes to digital is the gateway for channel partners to help businesses embrace more advanced document management and automation, a path every business will walk eventually if they want to remain competitive.
Perhaps the disconnect is that too many businesses don’t fully understand either the process of digitization or why it makes sense for them individually. As every channel partner knows, digitization is more than converting paper documents to digital files. True digitization involves creating an end-to-end solution that includes document routing, storing, sharing and printing. It incorporates mobile print and cloud solutions, as well as state-of-the-art security and automates complex document workflows, and it’s up to channel partners to introduce their customers to these concepts – and their potential benefits.
The Device Matters
Most customers are surprised to find that the tools they need for this transformation are already in their office – especially if they’re working with a Xerox channel partner. ConnectKey-enabled MFPs from Xerox have the capability to fundamentally change the way the world works by going beyond base printing, copying, scanning and faxing functions. Channel partners can actually help customers personalize the way they work, so that digitization isn’t just about solving common challenges, but solving each customer’s personal challenges.
ConnectKey Technology® enables one-touch workflows right from the device. For example, imagine giving your customers the capability to an invoice, route it to the correct recipient, and store it in the cloud right from their MFP. Solutions like that can have a huge impact on office efficiency, and help partners build strong credibility with their customers.
Offices Should be Mobile – and it Should be Easy
Who doesn’t have a tablet or smartphone these days? Very few people, and even fewer business owners. That is why the AltaLink® and VersaLink® family of products were designed with an easy to use interface that looks and works very much like your tablet or smartphone, helping customers overcome a principle pain point of digital transformation – cultural adoption.
Introducing a machine that is familiar and easy to use, and which features their most commonly used apps front and center on the display, makes the concept of new technology much easier to swallow – and to sell.
Mobility, without question, is critical to a successful digital transformation. But it shouldn’t be difficult to enable in the workplace or require a huge startup investment that makes it difficult to sell. ConnectKey Technology® makes downloading, sharing, printing, scanning, distributing and even translating documents from anywhere simple and easy – as simple as tapping an app. Its optional Wi-Fi feature pairs easily with customers’ cloud service to connect the entire team to the MFP via their mobile devices, putting AirPrint, Mopria, Google Cloud Print, and the Xerox® Android Print Service Plug-in right at their fingertips. Google Drive and OneDrive are also pre-installed on VersaLink® printers and downloadable from the AppGallery on AltaLink® MFPs.
Security
Security is a growing concern for every business, but especially SMBs. Consequently, it’s a vital part of the digital transformation conversation. Channel partners need to be sure that every customer realizes the growing threat: 43% of all cyber attacks that occurred in 2015 targeted small businesses. What’s more, half of all small businesses in 2016 had experienced a security breach within the past year. Every Xerox®ConnectKey® Technology-enabled device is armed with a holistic four-point approach to security that ensures comprehensive protection for the entire system at all points of vulnerability. The next time you talk to your customers about digitization, talk security, too. Conversely, the next time you talk security, it’s time to discuss digitization.
Apps are the Future of Work
One of the primary differences between Xerox®ConnectKey® Technology-enabled workplace assistants and standard MFPs are the customiz-able apps that allow your customers to add, delete, or swap tools as their business changes. It also gives partners the unique opportunity to take their knowledge of their customers business challenges and create customized apps and workflows to specifically meet those needs. That’s a game changer for both partners and customers alike.
Existing apps themselves are transforming office like, like Capture Point, which converts paper into any required format, or Easy Translator, which enables in-office translation quickly and easily, right from the MFP. There are even apps for specific verticals like healthcare, apps designed to help healthcare customers maintain HIPAA compliance and protect patient confidentiality while still sharing information quickly and efficiently.
The Role of MPS
The device is where the process starts. MPS software is the next step, bridging the gap between paper and digital.
Scanning is a fundamental component of any paper-to-digital conversion strategy, but nearly every business needs guidance and support when it comes to designing and implementing an effective strategy. How many of your customers are ad hoc scanning instead of fully committing to a digital transformation? Our guess is too many. It’s a common pattern, one which can create more challenges rather resolving existing ones. Mountains of paper are scanned and converted into static digital files that cannot be manipulated, making it virtually impossible for workers to edit them or collaborate the way they can with hard copy documents, and ultimately reducing productivity rather than boosting it.
Done right, a digital conversion solution should allow customers to work with electronic documents in the same manner as they have with paper. Employees need to retain the ability to annotate, collate, and collaborate. Partners are the key to giving businesses scan/capture solutions that create editable, searchable files that can be scanned directly into existing document repositories, applications, and document management systems. Combining these capabilities with the advanced features of the smart MFP allows businesses to simplify and automate workflow, while significantly reducing the amount of time and energy spent rekeying or searching for information – and channel partners are the key.
Read: How to Leverage MPS to Better Serve Your Customers
Intelligent workflow solutions can increase productivity while pushing additional savings to the bottom line if designed and implemented properly.
Driving Real Business Value
Digitization isn’t just about staying on top of emerging trends. It has real business value for every customer you serve. Results from IDC’s Content Workflow Automation Survey showed that organizations who made strides toward digitizing, automating, and optimizing their document workflows:
- Reduced the percentage of time spent on document-related tasks each week by 17.2%
- Saved an average of 3.1 hours each week on document-related tasks
- Experiences a 3% reduction in paper documents
- Decreased the time spent looking for and/or recreating lost or misfiled documents by 12.5%
- Reduced the costs of storing documents by an average of 41.2%
Source: idc.com
Better document management isn’t just a conversation starter; it’s a truly transformational process that can help your customers work better. A knowledgeable channel partner can alleviate many of the pain points that have prevented customers from making the switch they sorely need – challenges like costs and potential disruption to existing business processes. Designed and implemented properly, intelligent workflow solutions can increase productivity while pushing additional savings to the bottom line.
Check out Understanding the Building Blocks of Workflow Assessments to learn more about conducting and deliver comprehensive workflow assessments that can bring better document management to life for your customers.
Read: Understanding the Building Blocks of Workflow Assessments
Managed print and document service (MPDS) providers are making the transition to document workflow services – adding a lucrative value-add service that can drive incremental new business, while increasing wallet share and profit per customer.
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