Guest Column: Documents: A Critical Business Function

By John M. Kelly, president, Xerox Global Services, North America

As a chaotic 2008 comes to a close and businesses resolve to survive in 2009, document management outsourcing is one way companies can maximize short-term cost savings, while adding value that will prime them for growth in the future.

Documents, both digital and paper, touch every corner of an organization regardless of size, industry or locale. Gaining control of the volume of documents flowing through the business – and the costs associated with printing, sharing and updating them – can be a swift way to impact the bottom line. Research from Xerox shows that document output costs in the office average more than $3,400 per employee each year – that's a seven figure budget item for organizations with 300 or more office workers.

It's an infrastructure just as important as facilities, telecommunications and IT networks, and the longterm result of a successful document management strategy is a more productive, organized and compliant organization. Many organizations have successfully pursued and implemented outsourcing relationships as a way to leverage expertise, streamline processes and maximize cost efficiencies in these non-core areas of their organization, but most have missed the omnipresent document management infrastructure in these pursuits.