The document’s the thing
Over the last year or two,
printer vendors have opened
up a new front in their war on
waste. Having highlighted the
expense and inefficiencies of
uncontrolled office printing,
they have now turned their
attention to inefficient
business processes.
While the former served to
promote print management
solutions, managed print
services (MPS) and modern,
more capable MFPs, the new
approach highlights vendors’
growing ability to provide
business software solutions,
either as part of an MPS or on
a project basis, often with no
reference to office printing at all.
Lexmark, the erstwhile ‘Print
Experts’, is a case in point.
Having made no acquisitions
in the first 20 years of its
existence, Lexmark has made
10 in the last three years as it
attempts to transform itself from
a vendor of printers and MFPs
into a solutions provider capable
of transforming customers’
business processes.
Lexmark bought enterprise
content management (ECM)
specialist Perceptive Software
in 2010 and since then has
strengthened its solutions
portfolio with nine further
acquisitions including Pallas
Athena (business process
management), Brainware
(intelligent data capture),
ISYS (enterprise search),
NOLIJ (imaging, workflow and
document management), Acuo
Technologies (clinical content
management), Access Via
(paper and digital signage),
Twistage (video, audio and image
content management), Saperion
(ECM and business process
management) and PACSGEAR
(ECM connectivity solutions).
An on-going journey
From the outside this buying
spree looks like a radical
shift in direction and a major
re-invention. However, Danny
Molhoek, general manager for
Lexmark in the UK & Ireland,
says that it is just the latest stage
in a journey that the company
has been on since he joined it 15
years ago.
“When I joined Lexmark we
were just about to embark on
the multifunction era when we
became very vertical-focused.
Typically we would talk to IT
people about the problems they
had within their organisations
and then try to craft a solution
to those problems. Supplying a
good device is one thing. And
many people do that. But our
approach has always been to
deliver a device that actually
adds value to a customer’s
business.”
Molhoek adds that managed
print services (MPS) was
a natural extension of this
approach and one that opened
up more opportunities to develop
customised solutions.
“For us, MPS has always been
much more than a price per page
contract and an SLA on break-fix
services. Every quarter we have a
meeting of one or two hours with
customers to go over reports. If
we are doing things properly, we
will not talk much about these
reports because everything will
be working fine. What we like
to do is use this time to bring
projects to the table that will
allow a customer to improve their
workflow and business processes.
That for me is true MPS.”
Specialist knowledge
Lexmark’s knowledge of key
verticals and its acquisition
of companies specialising in
specific industries, such as
healthcare (Acuo Technologies,
PACSGEAR), education (NOLIJ)
and retail (Access Via), enables
it to develop solutions that meet
requirements specific to each
customer’s industry sector.
“We try to identify projects
based on our experience of
certain industries. These
might be driven by legislation,
compliance or governance
requirements, or by specifics
within a customer’s organisation
that we know about through
being a business partner. We say
‘This is what we see and this is
what we can do to fix it. This is
your investment and this is your
return on investment’. Then it’s
up to the customer whether they
want to go with it or not. We can
bring 10 projects to the table and
the customer may decide they
can’t do it all because they have
resource issues. So we have to
pick the low hanging fruit first –
the big savings first – and then
we continue.”
In the early days, this meant
optimising printer fleets and/
or introducing paper-saving
measures. Today, companies that
have been through that process
are looking to make additional
savings by improving business
processes and streamlining
workflows.
Meeting this demand, says
Molhoek, is taking up more and
more of Lexmark’s time. “If you
look at our headquarters in
Maidenhead, more or less half
the people are working in one
way, shape or form with solutions
to improve customer processes.
This is where the growth is today.”
Productivity and efficiency
His confidence is supported
by new Lexmark research
highlighting the extent to which
efficiency in UK organisations
is being compromised by overly
manual processes:
n
72% of UK workers say
processes for completing
administrative tasks are too
complicated and involve too
many steps;
n
80% say the time they spend
on admin has increased in the
last 5 years, with almost half
(47%) now devoting more than
3 hours a week to it;
n
57% say they have
encountered costly errors
due to mistakes in manual
processes.
Survey respondents were
questioned about administrative
tasks, such as filing contracts,
processing orders and inputting
business card details into an
address book or database, but
their responses could just as well
apply to sales order and invoice
processing, HR and recruitment.
One reason why businesses
have been slow to switch to
electronic workflows, says
Molhoek, is that many don’t have
the human resources to do so.
“Customers today are driven
by all kinds of requirements:
saving costs, reducing paper
use or improving business
processes – all these things are
at play. However, what you see
within customers is that there
PRINT.IT
11
Business Workflow
As Lexmark opens a City of
London office to target the
UK financial services industry,
general manager Danny
Molhoek tells
PrintIT
how
Lexmark’s knowledge of key
vertical industries is helping
customers be more efficient.
Continued...
Lexmark’s new offices in Maidenhead
