The Future Is Inkjet

High-speed digital inkjet production printing

Look at industry equipment plant lists, and you’ll see a noticeable increase in roll and sheetfed inkjet presses. Inkjet outperforms the competition by doing what other print technologies cannot: It is fast, flexible, and affordable.

Reliable and Cost Effective

With super low maintenance comes ultra-high reliability and inexpensive running costs making a profitable proposition for your business. Inkjet technology can introduce new or improve existing revenue streams for rapid return on investment and increases competitiveness.

Personalised Print

Inkjet can replace toner technology, particularly in transpromotional, variable data and personalised printing applications. High-speed inkjet colour printing replaces the need to create pre-printed litho templates, enabling you to print on demand without wastage and increase your profit margins.

Envelope Printing

Unlike toner-based devices that use heat to fuse images to media, inkjet printing is a cold process, making it suitable for high-speed pre-glued and off-the-shelf envelope printing.

NCR Printing

Similarly, traditional NCR stock can be used without the usual shrinking and curling associated with digital print, offering substantial cost savings compared to digital NCR stock costs.

Book Publishing

Book publishing is a key mature market for inkjet printing high-quality short-run printing. Publishers can experiment with smaller volumes to measure market response before committing to long production runs.

Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c : Superfast inkjet production printer

The TASKalfa Pro 15000c brings together more than 60 years of digital expertise and experience to meet your high-volume printing needs. This superfast inkjet production printer offers you a cost-efficient alternative to conventional printing applications. Built for speed and reliability, it features unique print head and ink technologies developed by Kyocera.

When printing in large quantities, reliability is just as important as speed. The TASKalfa Pro 15000c combines both to help you maximise productivity while minimising operating costs and energy consumption. With the personalisation capabilities of digital and a variety of finishing options, this powerful device has everything you need to cover your production printing needs.

Key Points

Key Applications

Event Details

Event Date: Thursday 1st December 2022
Event Opens: 10 am Lunch: 12-1 pm Event Closes: 4 pm
Address: Kyocera Showroom, Eldon Court, 75-77 London Road, Reading RG1 5BS

For further information or to inform of special dietary requirements, please contact Jason Cronin either via email jcronin@managedtech.co.uk or call 07841 920 032.

Printers have long been a staple of the modern office environment, evolving over decades to become the contemporary multifunction device that many of us rely on today. However, with the dramatic shift we’ve seen in the workplace in recent years, including the rise of remote and hybrid models of work, the needs of our businesses have changed and our print environments must adapt also.

Cloud print management offers a flexible solution to many of the challenges businesses now face, as well as the advantage of driving efficiencies and cost-savings that can fuel further business growth. However, before we uncover those benefits, it’s worth outlining the impact that recent changes to the workplace have had on print management.

How remote and hybrid models have impacted print management

The move to remote and hybrid working models has led to numerous changes in the print environment, but there are three main impact areas we can identify.

Increasing digitisation

Many businesses adopted a wide variety of new technologies in response to the changing workplace. In particular, cloud technology and bring-your-own-device trends emerged from remote and hybrid work environments, enabling greater mobility for workers. Printing devices must connect to these cloud platforms seamlessly in order to optimise efficiency and collaboration across multiple work locations. Additionally, as employees increasingly use their own personal devices, such as mobiles and tablets, business printers must enable mobile printing, including fast, easy and secure connections to a wide range of devices.

Decentralised workforces

Remote working came with a variety of new challenges to managing decentralised workforces. Many businesses doubled or tripled the number of devices in their work environment as employees purchased new laptops and printers to set up their remote offices. Without an effective system in place to manage remote printers, IT teams will struggle to ensure consistent security, software updates and maintenance.

Increased cybersecurity risks

Printers are an often-overlooked security risk in any workplace, whether remote, hybrid or traditional office. However, changes to the way we work have opened up a number of new vulnerabilities. Many newly remote workers bought retail printers for their home offices, without realising that these devices do not have adequate security features to protect business data. Additionally, the number of devices and endpoints in remote environments can result in increasing risks as IT teams struggle to maintain complete oversight of the remote devices and ensure adequate security. Finally, in the last year we’ve witnessed an increase in the number of cyber attacks on businesses, meaning it’s more critical than ever for business printers to have the best security in place, regardless of location.

For all these challenges, cloud print management offers an effective solution in the new era of work, enabling businesses to optimise their print environment to meet their needs both now and in the future.

4 benefits of cloud print management

Businesses are increasingly moving their systems to the cloud to take advantage of the cost-savings and operational benefits it offers, and print networks are no different. Cloud print management enables businesses to more effectively oversee and control their print infrastructure and requirements. Not only does it remove the need for on-premise servers and enable remote access to devices, but the right print management tool will also help you reduce costs, streamline productivity, improve security and increase sustainability in your workplace.

Reduced costs

On-premise print management often involves high infrastructure and operational costs, both as part of the initial system investment and for ongoing maintenance. Cloud print management, however, uses a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model that allows businesses to pay for the use of the platform, without the costs of building or maintaining it.

Not only does this approach save money in the short-term, but it also allows you to benefit from new innovations and software upgrades that the service provider invests in, without weathering the full cost of their development. This is especially important in the new era of work as many on-premise print management solutions are unsuited to remote and hybrid work environments. Businesses can incur additional costs trying to upgrade their existing infrastructure to meet the demands of a decentralised workforce or they can switch to a cloud print management solution that is designed for remote working and rapidly scalable.

Finally, as well as reducing your infrastructure costs, cloud printing provides you with better insights and control over your print usage. You can limit certain features to only those employees who need it. For example, you could restrict colour printing to your marketing department or make double-sided printing the default across your whole business. This insight and control over business printing enables you to reduce waste and unnecessary printing, saving money on consumables and energy.

Streamlined productivity

Cloud storage is the new normal for most workplaces that have remote or hybrid workers, providing ready access to the information and files that employees need to do their job. While this is important, it’s only one half of the document lifecycle. You must also consider how your documents are accessed, uploaded and shared. A cloud print management tool that integrates with your cloud storage solution will enable you to achieve even greater efficiency and productivity in your workplace by streamlining collaboration and communication.

Improved security

With a cloud print solution, your service provider shares the responsibility for the security of the platform by managing aspects such as software updates and system integrity. While you will still be responsible for other elements of security, such as how your employees use and access your print network, with the right provider, you can have peace of mind that your print network has the most up-to-date security and is continuously monitored for attacks.

Increased sustainability

The dramatic shift we’re experiencing in our workplaces presents businesses with the opportunity to reassess how they operate, including improving their environmental impact. As well as improving security, increasing productivity and reducing your costs, cloud printing offers a more sustainable way of managing your printing fleet and usage. Centralised and consolidated hosting services reduce your carbon footprint, while improved print management through features such as print quotas and reporting insights to minimise waste in the workplace.

Do you want to learn more about how to optimise your print solution for the new era of work? Contact us today.

A Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard is an interactive way to visualise and navigate through important business metrics and data. Typically a dashboard will give a high level view and from there the user can “drill down” to get more specific insights. The goal is to take a huge amount of data; possibly from different sources like your print management system, and potentially other additional data sources such as Excel; and present it in such a way that you can use the information to enable changes to be made.

It can be useful to think of a BI dashboard as a bit like the dashboard in your car. As you’re driving along you can quickly scan the dashboard in your car to determine how fast you’re going, how much fuel you have remaining, and what the temperature is outside. More over it will quickly highlight critical issues that will affect the performance of the car. Good BI dashboards have the same qualities in that they should provide meaningful visual insights without needing a huge amount of effort to interpret them.

So what makes a good dashboard?

Not all BI dashboards are good, and some are downright awful. What separates the good from the bad?

Many dashboards made the mistake of trying to provide too much information – A good dashboard should highlight the key issues that need addressing and allow the user to drill into a particular metric to get more granular and meaningful insights.

For example, in a good Print Management dashboard you can see the total colour printing volume for an organisation and then allow the person viewing it to drill down to view the top 10 employees who are printing in colour. Want to know more? The user can drill even further to discover how much colour is being produced by application (pdf, email, web printing, etc.).

This flexibility of choosing between a global view and more granular analyses on the fly is extremely powerful. Being able to present information in a visually pleasing way to understand things like expensive and excessive colour printing (and who is doing the most of it!) is invaluable.

Why use Print Management dashboards?

In our experience, analysing an organisation’s print usage and behaviour from the Print Management system is time consuming and extremely repetitive. Generating reports the old fashioned way through Excel and manually creating a report can take ages and can be highly error-prone. A traditional spreadsheet usually requires a great deal of hand-holding and explanation for the receiving party to get any use from it. Traditional report generation often leads to more questions which entail more work to answer. A good print management dashboard allows for questions to be answered on-the-fly simply by drilling further into information sets.

For example, dashboards can quickly answer questions such as:

Are dashboards only for Print Management?

There are lots of other great uses for BI dashboards. Almost all industries and verticals are collecting mountains of data these days. Some common ones are for board level KPI briefings, account management reviews, HR analysis of staff turnover, and accounts payable automation management. There is hardly a vertical or industry that would not benefit from using BI dashboards to improve their understanding of critical business issues.

If you would like to explore how Business Intelligence dashboards can help your business, find out more or speak to one of our consultants.

Logistics organisations are having to adapt quickly to numerous changes in the sector. Whilst this can prove challenging, these changes also bring opportunity to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, and provide more operational resilience and greater efficiency.

Challenges and opportunities

Logistics organisations must tackle numerous changes in the sector. Of course, there is the global shutdown and ensuing disruption to adapt to – and alongside this, rising customer expectations are putting pressure on supply chains, market volatility increasingly requires agile working, and the drive towards greater sustainability are all adding complexity.

There is, however, opportunity to be found – and if you get it right then you’ll enjoy a huge pay-off with higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, more operational resilience, and greater efficiency. Many firms are exploring innovative ways to achieve these goals; read on to discover how to improve your logistics business over the coming months.

Meeting expectations

Today’s consumers expect an efficient, speedy service and that has a knock-on effect on logistics. There’s a lot at stake – only 4% of consumers will continue to interact with a company that provides an unsatisfactory experience. 40% of shoppers are put off purchasing if a delivery takes longer than two days.

Plus, online transactions are growing (38% of consumers have bought more things online due to the lockdown, for example). In response, shipments must move quickly and seamlessly through the supply chain to numerous locations and at different times – and be tracked throughout.

Fast and accurate document creation, alongside effective warehouse labelling solutions, will help companies to keep on top of their shipments. Quickly and accurately labelling packages for identification and ensuring complete visibility throughout the process. RFID tagging solutions can be used to trace packages throughout different purchasing patterns, from in-store to online and via click and collect. So fewer packages are lost in-transit and providing insights on your different channels that can feed into your marketing and sales strategy.

Printers must integrate seamlessly with existing networks. For optimum efficiency, innovations in barcode printing technology allow logistic operations to print picking notes, delivery lists and returns labels for one fast dispatch process

Using data securely

Simultaneously, people want to feel reassured about their personal data, during a time when more companies are looking at data-driven technologies to become more efficient. Investing in solutions that have the highest level of data protection and governance is essential. Especially since 62% of consumers are more afraid of their data being compromised now, compared to two years ago.

The benefits of using data outweigh the risks of data loss. That’s why 65% of e-commerce organisations plan to use automation to improve fulfilment and reduce logistics costs in 2020. The sector is expected to grow from USD 12.6 billion in 2019 to USD 28.8 billion by 2024 (a CAGR of 18%).

To put customers’ minds at ease, mobile document management can ensure the security of devices across the supply chain. If a device is lost or broken, data can be wiped to reduce the likelihood of a breach.

Automated documentation can cut down on manual human input (and potential error) while speeding up transportation. Automation is empowering warehouses to handle fast-changing situations, accelerate service levels to meet consumer expectations for same or next-day delivery, and build greater resilience into operations.

Additionally, it has applications within a logistics document management system, helping staff quickly search for and find relevant documents, improving document storage and filing, and ultimately reducing time-to-market.

Becoming sustainable

Sustainability is at the forefront of many people’s minds with 50% of consumers stating that they are more likely to buy from companies that are committed to sustainability; 26% will stop purchasing from companies who are not committed to the cause.

Leaders must invest in sustainable logistics solutions where possible, from committing to sustainable fuels and shipping routes to using eco-friendly printers that reduce waste and packaging. For example, Toshiba provides sustainable print solutions and consumables with longer ribbon lengths to cut down on waste and transportation frequency. Its dual-sided label printer, for instance, prints on both sides of a label to minimise waste. Toshiba is also committed to carbon-neutral delivery of printers and consumables to help customers meet environmental targets.

Driving forward

With the right technology supporting your operations, you can effectively meet ever-changing consumer expectations around speed, data security and sustainability. Driving your organisation into the future as a market leader, and seizing the opportunities that change presents.

To discover more about Toshiba’s solutions for the logistics sector, get in touch with our team today.

Finance teams are under a lot of pressure to improve efficiencies and save costs, whilst digitalising operations and responding quickly to changing times. To meet demands, there’s a need for finance to become smart – to use technology to automate time-consuming tasks, reduce error and save resources. Intelligent data capture and invoice management offers a way to achieve this.

Technology to streamline processes

Modern finance teams are under a lot of pressure. Facing increasing calls for efficiency and cost savings, whilst digitalising operations and responding quickly to changing times. Expectations have changed too, with finance now expected to achieve more with less. Legislation and regulations are adding complexity, necessitating clearer controls and oversight of finances.

To meet these demands, there’s a critical need for finance to become smart – to use technology to automate time-consuming tasks, reduce error and save resources. Intelligent data capture and invoice management offers a way to achieve this.

Technology makes the task of detailing key figures at a moment’s notice much easier. Finance teams can rapidly assess where their organisation stands in the market and constantly monitor profitability and liquidity. Accounts payable and receivable can be executed securely and with fewer errors, as outdated paper and manual operations are replaced with software.

Introducing invoice processing

Invoice processing systems like DocuWare,enables finance teams to accurately record invoices, outgoings, approvals and related documents. It can also break down the silos that often exist between different departments and tools (ERP and accounting systems, for instance).

DocuWare

Using DocuWare, finance teams don’t have to worry about unpaid or mislaid invoices. They can better track expenditure and take advantage of early-pay discounts. Documents in various formats, including email and PDF, can be stored and sorted for easy review. Helping a finance team keep on top of pending issues and costs, plan ahead and drive cost savings. It also improves transparency and accountability, which is essential for financial auditing to run smoothly.

Potential errors are automatically flagged by the system for resolution, enabling a human team to focus on value-added activities like relationship building with vendors.

Fit for the future

Manual and paper-based processes are no longer fit for purpose and will increasingly hinder your business as operations become more digital. Investing in invoice processing now will pay dividends in the long run as your finances become more visible with fewer errors, greater communication, consolidation for planning and drive greater insights.

Discover more about transforming your finance workflows through invoice processing software, contact us today.

It’s not an understatement to say that retail operations have fundamentally changed because of COVID-19. Every process is being re-evaluated, from in-store operations to e-commerce, the supply chain and the health and safety of front-line employees and customers.

This has been essential in the food industry, where retailers and manufacturers are relying heavily on barcoding solutions to manage spikes in market demand and production whilst protecting their employees.

Retailing today

The retail and e-commerce industry is experiencing a rapid change in demand with an increased requirement for labels. Many are turning to technology to facilitate this, particularly barcode printers that can scale and flex according to business needs. Barcodes are suited to a wide range of uses, including product and shelf edge labelling and in-store price markdowns, providing a more seamless and safe experience for customers and employees.

Moving forward

With online sales still booming, barcoding solutions are providing ways for retailers to match demand, improve efficiency and streamline operations across in-store and online. Dual-sided printing, for example, allows for picking, delivery and returns documentation to be printed simultaneously, thereby reducing costs, speeding up the despatch process and – most importantly – reducing staff interaction with the equipment to increase their safety.

Reducing physical contact

Barcode solutions are also helping to maintain the requirements for social distancing. Innovations in ribbon length, print-head lifespan and ribbon-save technology, mean staff do not have to maintain equipment as often. The need for physical contact with the printer is reduced as downtime for media changes is also reduced. This results in additional knock-on benefits for improved productivity and lower costs.

Increasing efficiency and accuracy

There are other solutions that can help too, like rotary cutters that speed-up printing. Something that’s invaluable when you’re dealing with a fast-paced supply chain. Validation solutions ensure barcode accuracy and avoid costly errors. The scan function quickly and accurately identifies and eliminates invalid barcodes, before they make it onto a retailer’s shelves.

Here to support you

To discover more about barcoding solutions and discuss your business’ unique requirements, get in touch with our expert team now.

Digital transformation

Digital transformation is here to stay and no business is excluded. Organisations of every size must prepare for the digital era and that begins with effective document management. Long gone are the days of paper-based document storage. Today’s solutions offer a way for organisations to streamline their operations, automate areas of document management and meet security and compliance requirements.

Streamlined management

Document Management Systems (DMS) are specialised tools that will vastly improve the way documents are stored and accessed across your organisation. Given that employees, on average, waste two hours every day searching for the right document, there are a lot of potential time-savings to be gained. Not to mention a decrease in stress – there’s nothing more frustrating than searching for urgent information in a pile of paper documents.

Productivity boosted

Benefit from a productivity boost! Managing documents is one of the biggest obstacles to improving productivity, because your employees cannot effectively collaborate on documents when they’re offline or siloed on a desktop. Version control becomes an issue. A DMS removes these challenges, by providing a single platform where everyone can create, send, store, manage and edit documents. Especially when the DMS integrates with other tools like an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system.

Compliant and secure

Businesses must also navigate a plethora of compliance and security legislation such as GDPR (The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation). This is extremely difficult to manage when using a paper-based system or disparate storage on local machines, but with a DMS, you can rest assured that your documents and any sensitive information are secured. Because documents can be retrieved and organised more readily (dependent on access permissions), it also makes audit preparation much simpler.

Automation and remote working

Using a DMS also allows for automation of manual and time-consuming processes like approving invoices or holiday requests, giving a better employee and vendor experience. Intelligent indexing can find key information on scanned paper, PDF files, email attachments and more, which removes the need for someone to manually sift through numerous files to input the data.

Finally, it ties into the rising trend for flexible and remote working. As employees (with the right credentials) can access documents as and when they need, on any device and from any location.

This is just a snapshot of what a DMS can achieve for an organisation. To learn more about the benefits of using a DMS, contact us to arrange a free process optimisation introduction.

The e-STUDIO400AC series took home the award for its high-quality output, robust security, sustainable design, cloud functionality and overall added value to the office environment of small and medium-sized organisations.

For more than 20 years, Better Buys has been helping organisations of all sizes make smarter purchasing decisions. Part of the Catalyst Media, Better Buys has become a trusted authority for delivering unbiased, expert insights on the software and technology that businesses rely on.

In their review of the device, Better Buys described the e-STUDIO400AC series as “robust and compact colour MFPs (MFDs) to help small and medium workgroups streamline workflows.” They also highlighted the series’ excellent single pass document feeder, strong print speed and maximum paper capacity.

“Toshiba’s ability to produce high quality devices has again been recognised with the Better Buys Editor’s Choice Award,” said Deyon Antoine – Product Managed at Toshiba Tec UK. “Our latest A4 systems offer the functionality and flexibility of larger multifunctional devices but packaged in a more compact yet durable design.”

Toshiba’s e-STUDIO™330AC/400AC in an Office Setting

Big features in a small package

We say don’t be fooled by the small footprint of the e-STUDIO400AC series: these systems are packed with industry-leading technology and innovations. They are systematically engineered to help workgroups connect, integrate, and simplify processes.

RGB Colour Substitution keeps colours accurate when using office applications. Your documents appear exactly as you want them to.

Multi-Station Print Solution lets you send print jobs from your desktop and retrieve them at up to 50 different MFPs. All you need to do is identify yourself at the device, e.g. by simply swiping your badge/ID card.

Embedded Optical Character Recognition (OCR) simplifies the creation of searchable PDFs and editable document formats such as Microsoft Word. In addition, Toshiba’s e-BRIDGE Plus for Zone OCR app increases your productivity while digitising paper documents. Up to three zones of texts, numbers and barcodes are recognised. This information can then be used to automatically sort and/or serve as folder and file names.

Scan and Fax Preview, enables you to review, rotate and modify your scanned documents or incoming faxes before saving or printing them.

Print from and Scan to USB is great for working with your documents when on the go. For quick and easy printouts automatically scaled to the available paper size if requested.

E-mail Direct Printing can automatically print attached documents from e-mails sent to the MFP.

Barcode Printing gives you the option of sending print data from your ERP system directly to the MFP. The barcode sequence is automatically processed and printed without the need for additional middleware.

Toshiba’s e-STUDIO™330AC/400AC in Daycare Setting

Easy to use and highly productive

Toshiba has designed the e-STUDIO400AC series to ensure an easy and pleasant user experience. Thanks to the 10.1” (26 cm), tablet-style multi-touchscreen, the systems are intuitively operable.

The touchscreens are fully customisable for increased productivity and efficiency. That means complicated multi-step processes can be turned into one-touch functions and will help streamline your document workflows.

The large and fully customisable user interface makes the multifunctional printer (MFP) intuitive to use. Simply swipe through the menu and select the feature or function you need. You can then modify the screen to suit your individual preferences.

The Dual Scan Document Feeder holds an impressive 100 originals and delivers an amazing 116 images per minute (ipm) as it scans both sides of the page simultaneously.

With the e-BRIDGE Plus for Green Information app you can see your environmental contribution directly on the screen of the MFP. It provides simple graphs and helps promote more effective paper usage.

Contact us for pricing or to arrange a demonstration of the Toshiba e-STUDIO400AC range.

Today we are looking at print management software and one question we are frequently asked: What is an alternative to PaperCut?

For many people, PaperCut may be the only print management software they have heard of and perhaps used. From humble beginnings in Australia in the late ’90s, PaperCut broke ground in the education sector, helping schools to reduce their print volumes and cut the number of prints ending up in recycling. Since then, PaperCut has become the number one choice in almost every business sector.

If PaperCut is so popular, why look at alternatives?

The main reason why we are asked about alternatives to PaperCut is that IT departments do not want the headache of managing additional software on their networks. PaperCut is an incredibly accomplished product with dozens of advanced features, such as least cost routing (where print jobs are directed to the most cost-effective printer). Still, the majority of the time customers only require “the basics,” see below.

Print Management Basics

Serverless Print Management Software

The most significant factor why businesses look for alternatives to PaperCut is how the software is deployed. PaperCut is both a server and a client-based software product, meaning IT departments not only have to support additional software but may need to purchase other hardware too.

For those businesses looking for “the basics,” and without the burden of additional software, serverless print management is the answer.

Toshiba Multi Station Print

Toshiba’s Multi Station Print is the ideal solution for those looking for serverless print management. Designed specifically for its eSTUDIO range of MFPs, it ticks the boxes for those companies looking for “the basics.” And it comes with a significant cost saving compared with PaperCut.

Picture the scene. You urgently need to print some documents, but when you walk up to the MFP, you see that the system is busy with someone else’s large print job. You lose valuable time because you must return to your desk, delete the original print job and send a new one to another MFP before you can collect it.

Toshiba’s e-BRIDGE Next systems come with Multi Station Print as an option, which allows you to collect your print jobs from up to ten MFPs on your network. And all without having to install a server.

Multi Station Print feature is a serverless printing solution that saves you time and resources. Not only do you keep the costs of installing and maintaining a server, but you also benefit in your everyday office life.

Simply authenticate at the MFP of your choice – either by card or by pin – to collect your documents. If necessary, you can even make some last-minute changes to the print settings directly at the MFP itself or re-print documents without having to re-send them. This saves you time and reduces print waste. Plus, your documents are safe as they cannot be printed without you first authenticating at a system.

Multi Station Print does not require a server and is easy to install, ensuring that user information and address books from one MFP can easily be cloned to others.

Multi Station Print highlights:

Where does Multi Station Print fit?

Multi Station Print is an ideal solution for businesses and offices in which users share multiple MFPs. 

Contact Us to find out more or to arrange an on-site or virtual demonstration.

If you are thinking about implementing a document management system, it can be hard to know where to start. You know your paper-based processes are inefficient, and you understand the benefits of digital transformation. But you feel there are too many hurdles, both technologically and perhaps culturally in your organisation. If this accurately describes how you are feeling, do not worry – you are not alone.

Humans are creatures of habit, and we will happily accept the status-quo, often citing “because it’s the way we’ve always done it,” as a reasonable explanation of inefficiency. If you are reading this, no doubt these words ring true for you, as you strive to take on the challenge of implementing a document management system.

In this blog, we describe twelve steps to implement a document management system.

1. Identify one manual process you want to automate

Start simple and identify one process you wish to automate using a document management system. It is probably the process that sparked your desire to change things, so this could be a great place to start.

2. Write down the benefits of automating this process

Ask yourself the question: If I came to work tomorrow and this process was automated, what will have improved? By evaluating the positive changes, such as increased response times to customer requests, reduction in administration costs, or improved collaboration, you can build a business case for implementing a document management system.

3. Engage with stakeholders

Every successful document management implementation involves the participants in the processes. At the very least, engage with the person responsible for the process (this could be your Head of Accounts, HR or Sales), and work together.

4. Pick a department to start in

If you cannot choose one manual process because of interconnected processes, choose a department to start in instead. Accounts Payable, Sales or Human Resources are good candidates because their manual processes are usually well defined.

5. Identify your data funnels

Now you have chosen your process to automate, identify how information is funnelled into it. Are there paper documents, forms, contracts, invoices? Are there digital versions of the same coming in via email? What about phone calls, web forms or even text messages? Each point of entry offers you the opportunity to capture information intelligently, so it is searchable and usable in related business processes.

6. Find the bottlenecks

Finding the bottlenecks and removing them is the key to getting project buy-in. Look for piles of paper, or what both employees and customers find frustrating. Taking away the pain and expense of bottlenecks is the driver for most document management implementations.

7. Identify integration opportunities

Solve your data silos by integrating your document management system with other applications within your business, for example:

8. Think outside of the box

Can you simplify your current methods of data capture? Think beyond your office walls. Could you extend capture, access, and approval processes by using mobile or cloud applications?

9. Listen to and act on feedback

By now, you will have a deep understanding of the process and improvement opportunities. It is time to design your new automated process. Simple flowchart apps are available to help you illustrate your workflows and determine how they will work.

10. Test and train

Testing is vital before implementing any document management system. By creating a test system, you can resolve outstanding issues and demonstrate progress to others in your review meetings. This is a great time to involve administrators and power-users as it helps them understand the evolution of the processes. As always, test and re-test.

11. Go live!

This is what you have been working towards. You can now celebrate and share your success with other parts of your organisation, with tangible results.

12. Establish a continuous improvement program

Periodically review and refine your initial process design. It is rare for a process to remain unchanged for a significant period of time, so keep an eye out for emerging bottlenecks and evolve to solve them.

We hope these twelve steps will help you to implement your document management system. At Managed Technology, we partner with many of the leading document management systems, helping businesses of all sizes and budgets with their digital transformation. Contact us to start a conversation about how we can help.