Documents continue to be the main means of communication for most organizations, whether large or small. Managing and distributing them efficiently is a source of headaches for many organizations. Considering this, the importance of being able to rely on modern document software solutions that optimize business processes and increase productivity and profits, becomes clear. With this article we will explore how Output Management solutions can help in these matters.
When acquiring document technology, enterprises must bear in mind different aspects: like
- having a comprehensive document output solution that covers the entire life cycle of a document,
- using scalable document software that is able to grow in functionality with the needs of the company and
- being able to rely on software modules that are easily integrable with the organization’s existing applications
…are some of the aspects that play an essential role when planning the implementation of document software and output management solutions.
Besides these more or less general features, what really contributes intelligence to a document software solution is what is known as Output Management solutions and methodologies that provide control and efficiency for all the document processes of an enterprise.
The possibilities that Output Management offers vary greatly and depend mostly on the acquired document software technology, since this could be either a low range, simpler, document software, or a comprehensive and modular, enterprise spectrum output management solution. And what does this depend on? It depends mainly on the business intelligence that the output management software/solution provides the enterprise.
An Output Management solution for every requirement
The motivations that may lead a company to acquire Output Management services and implement more sophisticated Output Management platforms in document printing and distribution processes are very diverse. From efficient delivery of all kinds of documents to customers, with the resulting time reduction for delivering contracts, policies, PODs, etc. from two weeks to two days, to achieving important cost savings that can reach up to 25 percent. To this end, it is important to seek qualified advice to determine what the document technology needs of the company are and what can be achieved with installing one document output management platform or another.
Following are some of the possible business output management scenarios:
On demand printing at remote offices
For organizations that have an office network spread across different geographical areas, it is vitally important to be able to ensure that different users are viewing and editing the same version of a document over the entire network. To be able to achieve this is not a simple matter and acquiring a solution that supports an integrated printing system for all the different delegations needs to be carefully planned.
DocPath Sprint’s document output solution provides an easy to implement, but very powerful, flexible and scalable solution to generate and print high volume of on-demand documents, capable to respond to a network of offices with requirements to expand the processing power “on the fly”, using containers and Kubernetes to manage the truly needed resources and releasing any not needed hardware. For customers contracting Cloud-based services this is quite important because they will only pay per resources used only when they are required.
Document generation and distribution across the Web
Clients increasingly demand the possibility to perform different types of transactional procedures and enquiries on the Internet. These demands are supported by new regulations that require public and private enterprises to offer their customers some form of telematic communication option. For this reason, it is all the more important to be able to rely on a document output management system that supports generating and distributing different types of documents across the Web.
On the web, with DocPath’s Sprint output management solution, users are able to request the creation of a document and instantly view it on their browsers. Thanks to this solution, clients of any organization will not have to go to a physical office to receive their documentation, since they are able to generate and access the information online.
This approach provides also all the required power and flexibility at the most convenient cost of ownership because the users pays only for what they need, avoiding having to own little used resources.
High volume document printing environments with pre- and postprocessing needs
If we want to distribute thousands of documents to different clients, we must bear in mind that some may like to receive the information in electronic format, while others may want to receive their documents in printed format. Something else to consider is that high-volume and batch printing often involves a pre- and postprocessing operations.
For organizations that commonly deal with these types of situations, there is DocPath OutputDynamics, a modular Output Management solution that allows batch applications to generate a wide variety of output formats, electronic as well as print, including PCL, PDF, PostScript and AFP. It also supports pre and post processing operations such as scheduling, merging or splitting of files, postal code sorting and enveloping controls, among others.
All documents under control
Today, a lot of important information ends up in the hands of third parties, such as partners or clients that have access to confidential documentation. Controlling how this information is used and what is done with it (viewing, printing or modifying it) is essential to any organization, especially to financial and insurance entities and specific industrial enterprises
DocPath DocManager, another advanced document management platform, can store documents generated by the Document Generation Engine DGE) or any other application. The stored data can be accessed through a REST API, by applications like Web servers that would serve users from the web. This makes it possible, for example, to generate the document when the information is available, but letting the user download the document at his/her discretion.
Document delivery and control of document printing costs
Nowadays document technology provides the resources to control the documents through many different channels and also the capability to manage and control printing costs. IT organizations are always interested in controlling and assigning the real cost to the right groups to make everyone aware of what is their use of resources and eventually make to pay for.
DocPath ActiveSpooler, a sophisticated print spooler output management solution, offers the capability to distribute documents through multiple channels (print, email, SMS, video, etc.) with a single point of control. Managing thousands of prints queues and restarting the system in a matter of seconds, temporary storage of output files, re-queuing them to a different resource, re-printing or making modifications to the data stream to select different trays, are just some of the spool handling capabilities that ActiveSpooler provides.
Additionally, this print output management solution will help saving toner by printing files coming from users not connected directly to the internal network (usually through smart devices),thus, providing solutions that can solve many different problems, thanks to a well-integrated output management platform that provides the tools to for centralized control.
Pending Challenges
Companies need to manage a large number of documents (purchase orders, bills, contracts, policies, etc.) with different output formats for different platforms including printing when dealing with paper documents. Document Output Management platforms and solutions provide control and support management for transactional applications and ERP systems that process large volumes of data.
More advanced Output Management solutions are already prepared for this transformation process. They provide all the required means for digital documents to have the same validity as printed documents (electronic signature). DocPath is already in a position to offer all the required elements for a complete, well integrated solution.