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Cover Story
The desire to save money,
meet carbon reduction targets
and improve document
processes is encouraging
businesses of all sizes to slash
the amount of paper they
use. It is now commonplace
for organisations to boast of
cutting paper consumption
by 30-40%, often as part of a
managed print service.
On the face of it, such savings
suggest that paper is being
driven out of businesses as
organisations adopt paperless
workflows and, instead of
printing, use tablet computers
and smartphones to access
documents stored in the cloud.
But when you look more closely
at how the savings are achieved,
a different picture emerges.
Certainly there are
organisations that are changing
from paper-based to electronic
workflows, but in most cases
savings come from enforcing
two-sided (duplex) printing and
monitoring and controlling device
usage to prevent unnecessary
printing, rather than from
implementing 100% digital
processes.
For evidence, you need look
no further than a December
2011 study by IDC of worldwide
page volumes from hardcopy
digital devices. This shows that
Sign and Save
Tony McCool explains how electronic signatures
can help businesses save paper, time and money.
page volumes in Western Europe
fell in 2010, but only by 1%
compared to 2009 figures, and
that they are continuing to go
up in other parts of the EMEA
region, rising by 14% in Central
and Eastern Europe, the Middle
East and Africa (CEMA).
“In total, almost three billion
pages were printed every day
in EMEA,” commented Ilona
Stankeova, research director
of Imaging & Hardcopy Devices
Research and Document
Solutions, IDC CEMA. “If we lay
down the pages printed daily in
EMEA one after another, they
would reach the moon and back,
or cover an area of 18 soccer
pitches every minute.”
In other words, businesses
are still awash with paper. But
you probably knew that!
Big impact
The big question is why aren’t
businesses doing more to
eradicate paper from their
processes.
Often, the answer is ‘I print
so that I can add my signature
to a document’. The signing of
documents is an essential part
of many business processes and
one that has huge ramifications
for staff productivity, business
efficiency, document costs and
carbon emissions.
As an individual, you may
have first hand experience of the
inconvenience of having to add
a handwritten signature to an
electronic document. First you
have to print the document, then
sign it and finally scan it back in
to return it by fax or email. Even
if you have the right equipment
by your side, all this takes time.
Now imagine what sort of
delays such a workflow can add
to everyday business processes
that involve thousands of people
or require the signatures of many
different individuals. Consider
these real-life examples:
n
A construction company
requires sub-contractors to
send in signed timesheets and
expenses claims every Friday.
They have to print the forms,
sign them and then either fax
or scan and e-mail the hard
copies. Because many of the
forms are returned as faxes, this
process involves mountains of
paperwork, creates delays and
frequently results in lost forms.
n
A local authority requires
certain purchase orders to
be authorised by 10 or more
managers, each of whom has to
add their signature. Each person
in the chain prints the PO, adds
their signature, scans it back
in and forwards it to the next
person who then does exactly
the same.
n
A supplier to the MoD has a
whole department that does
nothing but work on tender
documents, many of which are
50 pages or more in length.
Under the existing process, each
page of a tender document
is printed, signed and then
scanned back in.
n
A company that handles
consumer finance agreements
for a furniture store sends
signed hard copy documents to
underwriters for approval. This is
a slow process and an expensive
one as there is a cost associated
with the printing of requests that
are declined.
A better way
What all these examples
have in common is the need
to convert digital documents
into hard copies in order to
add a signature. This is time-
consuming, expensive and, with
electronic signature technology,
completely unnecessary.
Instead of printing, Wacom’s
signature tablets let users add
certified, handwritten electronic
signatures to digital documents
in completely paperless
workflows that eliminate the
processing and storage costs
associated with hard copies.
n
One Wacom customer,
the German bank Berliner
Sparkasse, has calculated that