The Future of Documents

That’s the rather “surprising” idea that a Dutch government report recommended – suggesting to tax ISP subscription to fund dwindling newspapers. That report is about a month old, so I am not sure whether there has been more recent evolutions of this interesting proposal as my dutch is pretty poor these days – but you can see a Google translation of the original article there (in Dutch). Any update is more than welcome.

My first reaction was, like most, that this is a pretty crazy idea. But on second thoughts, How is that different from instituting an ISP  ”tax” for downloading MP3s, which is currently being discussed in France, and I’m sure in many other countries? In fact, the death of the newspapers is directly caused by online media, because journalism had to move – and new content (articles) are now being generated and consumed online. In the case of music, the Internet is just a medium for sharing - so why should we support that other ailing industry (except because of more powerful lobbyists) more than the newspaper industry?

More seriously, a number of industries are dying because of drastic business model shifts - caused by the Internet. Some of them are successful at reinventing themselves, some less so. In any event, such “taxes” will only allow them to survive for some time and is not available in the long term – evolution is required.

As we have seen in many of my previous posts, color can really help augment your document. The “Less Paper Office” is not only about printing less, it’s also about printing better to make your documents more powerful – and here comes a great new way to do so.

I don’t usually blog much about Xerox machines, but the new ColorQube 9200 is a real breakthrough. It brings together Xerox’s well proven solid ink technology with very advanced Multifunction device technology, including very high-speed network connectivity, speeds up to 85 pages per minute, and a configurable / programmable User Interface (Extensible Interface Platform) that lets you scan documents directly into your business process applications. You can read more on the technology innovations such as illuminated paper path, long-life repaceable cleaning unit, and others, or even see a virtual demo here.

This new Multi-Function Device is green, too. Beyond Energy Star compliance, it also benefits from the solid ink technology benefits – smaller carbon footprint, reduced waste, and local recycling - leading to up to 90% reduction in waste.

If all this was not enough, the new ColorQube 9200 introduces a new – and cheaper! – way of printing in color. This new flexible pricing plan, based on a 3-tier model, makes you pay a price which much closely matches the actual color ink you use. In particular, this plan allows you to print much more powerful documents (Black plus Useful Color, i.e. highlight color on word documents) at the black-only rate! 

To make it even more convincing, you can even use the associated Cost Savings Calculator to simulate how much you could be saving with this new offering!

XPLOR Document University closed yesterday. Overall, this was a very good show. The most valuable part to me was the education and the conferences – lots of very good information and technical content – but the networking and the expo was great too. My only minus would be that the vast majority of the attendees came from the traditional “print” business, and electronic documents were not yet the main interest of a few of them.

However, most of the attendees agreed attendance was a bit low – I was lucky to have 50-60 people in my session though. The economy does not help of course, but the attendance had been declining over the last few years – the same event could gather thousands of people a few years back.

The question on everyone’s lips was how to get back the past glory of XPLOR. Personally, I think the conference and association content need to accelerate the change they have initiated- and comprehend the full document lifecycle in the entreprise, including scanning, content management and workflows. The future of customer communication print is multi-channel, and needs to include the inbound correspondence and other paper-bound intensive processes.

Did you know that on average, your company is spending between 3 and 4% of its revenue producing documents, which represents on average $3,400 per employee? Would saving 30% of these costs be interesting? How about, at the same time, reducing your paper consumption by 30-40% and reducing drastically the energy consumption?

Welcome to Managed Print Services. More information, along with very interesting case studies, can be found in this very good article from the Wall Street Journal. It describes “the new business of printing”: moving from a “print more” business model driven by toner, paper and office device sales, to a “print less and better” model targeting reduction in device and usage, and more responsible use of printing - the “Less Paper” office.

Xerox is leading the way (closely followed by HP) of the Managed Print Services market. This market is growing 36% this year, according to Ed Crowley, president of Photizo Group.

Interested? To get more information on Xerox Office Services, you can check out this little video.

Xerox Office Services quick video

Besides the use case stories of a P&G or a 3M cited in the article, I’d like to hear use case stories from my readers, and what benefits they were able to reap owing to Managed Print Services. Tell me about your own experience!

I will be presenting the Future of Documents at the 2009 Xplor Global Conference and Exhibition. The XPLOR Document University will take place in Tampa Bay, FL, March 4-7th 2009.

In my presentation, I will outline the document evolution process for large organizations and recommend how to eliminate an overload of paperbound processes and under-utilized assets. This process begins with a rigorous assessment of the company’s current document landscape, including documents, document processing devices and all information workflows. I will also discuss disruptive emerging document technologies that will influence the Document 2.0 world.

Here are some details on the class. Hope to meet some of you there!

Xerox’s sustainability calculator was cited among the Green-tech trends for 2008 on the Sustainable IT blog. Excellent visibility for this tool which lets you estimate the energy, greenhouse gases, and solid waste generated by your current printer fleet, but also test “optimized scenarii” and monitor how effective they can be.

The “Less Paper” effect or potential reduction in paper consumption is not yet measured in the tool – but this kind of environmental benefits are better measured in a more thorough assessment.

An interesting IDC report on How Generation Y works with paper and Electronic Documents in the Office.

Among the key conclusions: this workforce under 30 years old still see paper continue to play a critical role in many everyday business processes. Although they do not see paper disappearing overnight, they are moving fast towards the Less Paper office - although this is driven more by their “green” and environmental consciousness than technology savviness.

Other interesting insights include how document length or formats impact the preferred document form, how Gen Y perceives faxing and scanning, and where electronic and paper have the respondents’ preference.

Although quite focused on hardcopy vendors, this report is the first one of a very promising IDC series on “The Future of Print”, and can be ordered here.

Interesting article on the New Yorker about the Future of Newspaper - how many newspapers (paper but also electronic) are going bankrupt, because of decreasing advertising revenue.

Beyond the traditional print vs digital divide, the overall future of newspapers looks pretty grim. As the author points out: “many argue that if newspapers had understood they were in the information business, rather than the print business, they would have adapted more quickly and more successfully to the Net”. Most newspapers suffer from the “Not invented here” syndrome – no liink to other articles or provides.

Still, according to the author, the real problem for newspapers, isn’t the Internet, but the readers. They want access to everything, now, and for free. “That’s a consumer’s dream, but eventually it’s going to collide with reality: if newspapers’ profits vanish, so will their product. [...] But that situation can’t last. Soon enough, we’re going to start getting what we pay for, and we may find out just how little that is.”

Anyway, maybe lessons for all of us in the traditional print business – learn how to make the best of the Internet and new technologies, and surf the wave rather than fight against it.

As we know, the “Less Paper Office“ is mainly about printing less, but does include some exceptions or “micro trends”. Printing higher-quality, personalized, color documents is one of those -as it allows maximum impact for your printed document. This includes brochures, transpromo statements, leaflets, or cards. These documents however require more preparation, and generate more defects, as the final document, once printed, often does not quite match the electronic version - wrong colors, poor assembly, or other unpleasant side-effects, which make the final document unusable – and waste paper and money.

Xerox’s Research Centre Webster is working on a number of technologies to address these problems. One “cool” technology is 3-D Document Visualisation, which lets the user “preview” the final print result in 3-D, allowing her to test various finishing options, such as folds, gloss, binding, texture, and many other parameters.

(For those of you who cannot see the video embedded here, please follow this link)

This should expedite the review and approval process for quality color prints. This process, according to InfoTrends, can be six times more expensive than the actual printing of the document. Not to mention, of course, the “green” and sustainability consequences: achieving the desired look and feel for the final document are a great step towards one more step towards the Less Paper Office.