September 2012
An IDC White Paper sponsored by Ricoh
Organizational Blind Spot:
The Role of Document-Driven
Business Processes in Driving
Top-Line Growth
Angèle Boyd // Joseph Pucciarelli // Melissa Webster
Contents:
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Essential Guidance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Improving Document Processes
Yields Strategic, Top-Line Benefits. . . . . . . . . . 4
Improve Revenue an Average of 10%. . . . . . . 5
Reduce Risk of Losing Customers. . . . . . . . . 6
Speed Time to Market by up to 13.4% . . . . . .
7
Ineffective Document Processes in
Supply Chain Are Costly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Intersection of Tablets and Document
Processes Is Critical But Ill-Defined . . . . . . . . .
9
Still Room for Cost Takeout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Executive Summary
Findings from a recent IDC study indicate that documentdriven processes — the business processes that are
governed and controlled by documents in electronic or
paper format — have a profound impact on companies’
customer-facing functions. Furthermore, reengineering
these document processes can yield strategic, top-line
benefits including revenue growth and improved market
responsiveness, which this study found to be the highestrated business priorities for enterprises today. Despite the
belief held by many business executives that documentdriven processes relate only to “back office” functions, IDC
research indicates that this conventional wisdom is off
the mark and that optimizing document-driven processes
presents a significant revenue growth opportunity.
IDC’s recent global study of 1,516 document-driven
business process owners and information workers suggests
that common perceptions around document-driven
business processes are mistaken. Businesses have placed a
great degree of focus on improving their business processes,
and many may believe they have achieved optimum
efficiency in their document-driven processes. While it is
true that improving document-driven processes can have
a strong impact on reducing operational costs — and this
study shows there is still room for improvement in this area
— it can have an even greater impact on an organization’s
top-line potential for revenue.
Specifically:
• Over 83% of study respondents indicated that
optimizing customer-facing document-driven business
processes would increase revenue — on average by
10.1%. This could be achieved by improving customer
communications, streamlining the sales and customer
onboarding process, and improving customer support.
• In their role as consumers, more than half of the
respondents are dissatisfied with the document-driven
processes in six of the seven industries studied: business
services (64.9%), government (63.9%), healthcare
(63.1%), education (62.3%), insurance (54.3%), and
telecommunications (51.8%).
• Among consumers who are dissatisfied with companies’
document processes, 60.1% would switch to another
provider and 56.8% would likely tell others about their
dissatisfaction.
• Respondents estimated that they could speed the time to
get products to market by 13.4% by streamlining
new product development, manufacturing, and supply
chain functions.
Busted Myth: The impact of improving
document-driven business processes applies
only to reducing costs through back-office
efficiencies.
IDC Finding: Over 83% of study respondents found that
optimizing document-driven business processes would
increase revenue on average by 10.1% and could speed time
to market by 13.4%. Document-driven business processes
have a strong impact on strategic, top-line growth objectives.
Business partners — suppliers and distributors — play
a key role in today’s economy, and the health of their
document processes directly affects the enterprise. More
than 75% of study participants believe it is important
that their supply-side and distribution-side partners
have effective document processes, but only about half
are satisfied with the state of their partners’ processes.
Enterprises must work to ensure that the partners they
select are placing appropriate emphasis on documentdriven business processes.
2
The introduction of tablets into the enterprise is part
of a new wave of enterprise computing. It is improving
employee productivity and allowing organizations to more
rapidly address market needs, but at the same time it is
dramatically changing the way employees interact with
document-driven business processes. The intersection of
tablets and document-driven processes is still not clearly
defined or fully understood. Many organizations are aware
of the importance of making existing document processes
work with tablets, with one in three organizations currently
investing to reengineer existing document processes to
account for them. But to make all necessary processes fully
tablet compatible, organizations need to increase their
focus on this area.
Conventional wisdom has clearly missed the key point.
Document-driven business processes are not just a
back-office phenomenon; they are critically important
for strategic, revenue-generating activities. Process
improvements can both reduce costs and increase revenue
— a win-win scenario. This is one of those rare areas
where there is no downside to investing in improvements.
Organizations that do not place a high priority on
improving their document processes are missing a golden
opportunity, but companies need to focus executive-level
attention and take action — now.
Improving document-driven processes
increases top-line revenue and reduces
bottom-line costs — a win-win. There is no
downside to investment, but companies
need to act now.
Essential Guidance
Document-driven processes are critical information arteries
that drive organizations’ financial results — both top line
and bottom line. They facilitate information flows throughout
an organization, between an organization and its business
partners, and between an organization and its customers.
Customers and partners care about them, and process
owners and information workers depend upon them.
Given the systemic impact of document-driven business
processes on organizational outcomes, IDC believes that
these processes merit significantly more C-level executive
time and attention than they currently receive. Survey
participants agree: Over 40% believe that investments to
improve document processes should receive higher priority
than other similar investments. In addition, as the pace
of business continues to accelerate, the economic stakes
associated with these business processes continue to escalate.
IDC believes that many businesses are now at or near
the bottom of the cost reduction trough. These businesses
are now seeking opportunities to improve market share
and better position themselves when the global economy
resumes sustainable growth. Given this environment, IDC
offers the following guidance:
Focus on document-driven processes for
strategic upside. … These changes can
help improve customer-facing potential
and reduce overall operating costs.
• Focus on document-driven processes for strategic
upside. There is little downside to optimizing customerfacing processes. Many strategic initiatives focus strictly
on cost, while other initiatives aim to yield strategic
benefits. Optimizing document-driven business processes
is the rare initiative that achieves both goals: Companies
can improve efficiency and benefit from the strategic
upside by improving customer relationships — it is a
no-lose scenario.
• Recognize that ineffective document processes damage
customer relationships and hence your company. Some
executives may believe that their document-driven
business processes do not play a customer-facing role. One
should not fall victim to this perception. This study found
the opposite is true. Customers believe it is important that
the companies they do business with have efficient and
effective document processes, and many are dissatisfied
with the state of the processes of those companies.
Dissatisfied customers will take their business elsewhere,
will tell others not to do business with the companies, and
will post negative reviews of the companies.
3
• Take an extended view of document processes to include
supply chain and distribution partners. In the modern
economy, it is no longer adequate to take a traditional
wall-to-wall approach. Business processes now stretch
across continents and often require intimate connections
with business partners and suppliers throughout the
value chain. Addressing the effectiveness and efficiency of
suppliers’ and distributors’ document-driven processes is
critical for global enterprises to maximize business results.
• Prepare your enterprise for tablet usage to avoid putting
new stresses on document processes. Tablets have
already made significant inroads into organizations, and
in the future, their penetration will only increase. But
the intersection of tablets and document-driven business
processes is not clearly defined. There is a significant
and growing requirement among businesses to integrate
tablets into existing document-driven business processes.
New requirements in document management include
the need to scan to cloud and the need to address
security issues around tablet printing both inside and
outside the firewall.
• Make document process repair a high priority for
C-level executives. C-level executives are extremely busy
and must constantly balance competing interests and
priorities. But the optimization of document processes
needs to be among those priorities. Previously published
results from this study demonstrate that addressing
issues in document processes is not receiving a
significant amount of C-level attention, with about 80%
of organizations delegating responsibility for it under the
C-level. But only C-level executives have the authority
and span of control to implement appropriate change,
and C-level executives uniquely have responsibility for
both revenue-generating and cost-cutting initiatives.
Fixing document processes should be the responsibility
of C-level executives.
Addressing issues in document-driven processes is one of
those rare areas where there is no downside to investing in
improvements. These changes improve an organization’s
customer-facing potential and enable cost savings. It is
an item that every organization should actively consider
and an item that should be at the top of most C-level
executives’ to-do lists.
Improving Document Processes
Yields Strategic, Top-Line Benefits
Document-driven business processes are vital organizational
information arteries, governing a wide range of functions in
nearly every corner of the enterprise. This research found that
over 40% of all business activities rely on the information
(often unstructured) that is captured in documents and that
between 31% and 39% of these processes continue to rely on
paper, depending on the type of process.
“We live on the paperwork and the
documentation for so many different
aspects of the business.”
— VP, HR of Multinational Import/Export Firm
Results from the survey clearly speak to the importance
of optimized document processes. 84.1% of respondents
rated effective and efficient document processes as “very
important” to business success. Only 1.9% said that these
processes are “not important” (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Effective/Efficient Document-Driven
Processes Are Very Important to Business Success
Not important 1.9%
Neutral 14.0%
Very important 84.1%
Q2. Overall, given where you sit in your organization, how important
are effective and efficient document-driven business processes to the
overall success of your business? n = 1,516 Source: IDC’s Document
Management Thought Leadership Survey, February 2012
4
Fixing document-driven business processes has meaningful
economic upside, starting with revenue-generating,
customer-facing issues. Given that critical customer-facing
processes — including sales and marketing, customer
communications, customer onboarding, service and support,
developing new products, and billing and collection — are
highly dependent on documents for smooth operation,
breakdowns in these processes can have a direct impact on
revenue and customers. Respondents agree: 77.6% said that
improving these processes would help them more rapidly
address customer needs, 65.0% said it would help them more
rapidly respond to changes in the market, and 62.7% said it
would improve their competitive stance (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Fixing Customer-Facing Processes Helps
Address Customer Needs, Improve Competitive
Stance, and Improve Revenue
Would allow us to better
or more rapidly address
customer needs
. . . 77.6%
Would allow us to more
rapidly respond to changes
in market
. . . . . . 65.0%
Would improve our
competitive stance or
differentiation
. . . . . . . 62.7%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
% of respondents who agree/strongly agree
Q13. If you could wave a magic wand and fix all the issues in effectiveness and efficiency in your customer-facing document-driven business
processes, what overall effect do you believe it would have on your
organization? n = 1,112 Source: IDC’s Document Management Thought
Leadership Survey, February 2012
Over 83% of Survey Respondents Reported That
Optimizing Customer-Facing Document-Driven
Processes Can Improve Revenue by an Average of 10%
Respondents were asked about the degree to which fixing
their customer-facing document-driven processes would
improve revenue to their business, and the results were
striking. 83.2% of respondents believe that there would
be a positive impact on revenue (see Figure 3) because
companies would streamline business functions that
enable them to effectively get their products and services
to market and provide superior service to customers once
they are on board. These processes include sales, customer
communications, customer onboarding, customer service,
and new product development. Also included are industryspecific processes such as insurance/claims processing in
the insurance business and patient medical records in the
healthcare industry.
Figure 3: Over 83% of Respondents Believe
Optimizing Customer-Facing Processes Would
Improve Revenue
Reduce revenue 1.6%
No effect 15.3%
Increase revenue 83.2%
Q14. If you waved that magic wand and fixed all the issues in effectiveness and efficiency in your customer-facing document-driven business
processes, what effect would it have on your organization’s overall
revenue? n = 1,100 Source: IDC’s Document Management Thought
Leadership Survey, February 2012
The survey also asked respondents to estimate the revenue
impact of optimized customer-facing document processes.
24.3% of respondents — the largest grouping — estimated
that optimizing these processes would lead to a 6–10%
improvement in revenue, and 28.0% estimated it would
improve revenue by over 10%. When we averaged the
responses together, we found that respondents expect
optimized customer-facing document processes to increase
revenue by 10.1% (see Figure 4). A 10.1% revenue improvement is a dramatic potential
increase. In today’s economy, many businesses are facing
sluggish market growth and are challenged to find ways
to expand their top-line revenue growth. If they can
achieve 10% growth simply through improving the level of
service, communication, and support to their customers by
optimizing customer-facing document processes, this
has the potential to be a huge win. For a hypothetical
organization with $1 billion in annual revenue operating at a
70% gross margin, a 10.1% top-line revenue increase would
yield a bottom-line improvement of more than $70 million.
“If we’ve got dissatisfied clients, that’s
a bottom-line hit.”
– VP, Strategic Planning, Large Insurance Company
5
Figure 4: Average Expected Revenue
Improvement Is 10.1%
Average increase: 10.1%
Increase by more than 50%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4%
Increase by 36–50%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6%
Increase by 21–35%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.9%
Increase by 11–20%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3%
Increase by 6–10%
24.3%
Increase by 3–5%
. . . . . . . 19.3%
Increase by up to 2%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.5%
No effect
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.3%
Reduce revenue
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6%
0%
5%
10%
% of respondents
15%
20%
other business services. In government filings, documents
are used to manage virtually all aspects of constituent
relationships, and broken processes can have a severe
impact. In the healthcare segment, where providers use
documents for a wide variety of purposes, including
admissions and patient care management, filing claims,
and handling billing and collections, 63.1% of respondents
reported that they are dissatisfied. Similarly, the education,
insurance, telecommunications, and banking industries are
dependent on document-driven processes for a wide variety
of customer-facing activities. When document-driven
business processes break down, and these findings show
they often do, customers feel the sting.
Figure 5: Consumers Are Dissatisfied with
Document Processes at Key Service Providers
such as Legal Firms, Government Agencies, and
Healthcare Providers
25%
Q14. If you waved that magic wand and fixed all the issues in effectiveness and efficiency in your customer-facing document-driven business
processes, what effect would it have on your organization’s overall
revenue? n = 1,100 Source: IDC’s Document Management Thought
Leadership Survey, February 2012
Ineffective Business Processes Significantly Increase
Risk of Losing Customers
One of the major ways that ineffective document
processes can affect revenue is through the risk of losing
customers. In our survey, 72.6% of respondents said that
it is important to them as consumers that the companies
they do business with have efficient document-driven
business processes. Unfortunately, on average across the
seven industries studied, 57.9% of respondents said that
they are not completely satisfied with the document-driven
processes in the companies and organizations they interact
with (see Figure 5).
The degree of dissatisfaction expressed by respondents is
surprising. Business services are dependent on customerfacing processes for a wide variety of activities, yet they
appear to fall wide of the mark with most customers. For
example, in the legal field — the industry segment with the
most dissatisfaction (64.9%) — wills, divorce filings, and
small customer claims are highly dependent on document
processes, as are accounting services, tax preparation, and
Business services
(legal: wills, divorces, small
claims; tax preparation...)
. . . 64.9%
Government (filing taxes,
auto registration,
voter registration…)
. . 63.9%
Healthcare providers
(admissions, filing claims,
billing and collections...)
. . 63.1%
Education (applying to schools
or financial aid, paying tuition,
checking and receiving grades...)
. . . . 62.3%
Insurance (establishing a
policy, filing a claim...)
. . . . . . . . 54.3%
Telecommunications and utilities
(paying bills, changing plans,
disputes resolution...)
. . . . . . . . . 51.8%
Banking/financial institutions
(credit card, loan approvals,
establishing an account...)
. . . . . . . . . . . . 45.2%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
% of respondents who are not satisfied with the process
Q50. As a consumer, what is your level of satisfaction with the document-driven business processes you have come into contact with over
the past 18 months? n = 1,516 Source: IDC’s Document Management
Thought Leadership Survey, February 2012
Unfortunately for businesses, the fallout from broken
customer-facing processes can be quite dramatic. Acquiring
a new customer is usually more difficult and expensive than
retaining an existing customer; however, based on these
research findings, it appears that inefficient and ineffective
document processes are actively driving customers to
6
other providers. Respondents said that they would shift
to another provider if they encountered issues with
document-driven processes: 68.7% said that they would be
less likely to do business with offending companies in the
future, while 60.1% said that they would take their business
elsewhere. Further, 56.8% said that they would tell others
not to do business with these companies (see Figure 6).
Each of these outcomes can have materially negative
consequences. When measuring customer experience,
most providers generally strive for customer experience
satisfaction levels above 95%. In contrast, the level of
dissatisfaction with document processes observed in
this study can be observed in Figure 6. Over 6 in 10
respondents said that they will switch providers and avoid
doing business with them in the future.
Figure 6: Consumers Will Defect When
Companies’ Document Processes Are Deficient
I am less likely to do
business with them in
the future
68.7%
I am likely to switch to
a different company
or provider
. . . . 60.1%
I am likely to call their
customer service line and/or
go online to obtain support
. . . . . 57.0%
I am likely to tell others
not to do business with
them in the future
. . . . . 56.8%
I am likely to write
negative reviews of them
on online forums
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.5%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
% of respondents who agree/strongly agree
Q51. As a consumer, what is the impact of companies’ inefficient or
ineffective business processes on your willingness to do business with
them? n = 1,516 Source: IDC’s Document Management Thought Leadership Survey, February 2012
In today’s competitive and hypersocial marketplace,
customers have at their disposal a much more efficient
platform to share their dissatisfaction, with many options
to negatively impact the reputation of companies with
which they are dissatisfied. Customers regularly share their
experiences and provide feedback to companies and peers
on online social media, and with bad word of mouth being
passed along to eight people compared to good word of
mouth passed along to only three, the negative customer
consequences can compound.
The finding in this study that more than 83% of survey
respondents reported that improved document-driven
business processes would increase revenue may seem
counterintuitive to some readers — especially readers
who believe that their organizations do a reasonable job
of managing their organization’s processes. The findings
highlighted in Figures 5 and 6 paint an unpleasant picture
— one of dysfunctional organizations with dissatisfied
customers readily sharing information about their
unhappiness. Anyone resisting the idea that documentdriven processes could positively affect business outcomes
should contrast that point of view with these blunt findings.
According to the survey respondents, the documentdriven processes in many organizations are a source of
underlying customer friction and dissatisfaction — which is
undoubtedly affecting broader business outcomes.
Busted Myth: Customers don’t feel
the effect of broken document-driven
business processes.
IDC Finding: Less than half of consumers — 42.1% — are
happy with the document-driven business processes of
companies in a variety of industries: Of those consumers,
60.1% would switch to another provider and 56.8% would tell
others of their dissatisfaction.
Improving Customer-Facing Processes Can Speed Time
to Market by up to 13.4%
This study shows that document-driven business processes
are important to an organization’s revenue, but they can
have an even bigger impact on time to market (see Figure 7).
90.5% of respondents believe that fixing customer-facing
document processes would speed time to market, with 20.8%
believing it would yield a 6–10% improvement and 40.4%
stating it would speed time to market by over 10%. On
average, respondents believe that optimizing customer-facing
document processes would speed time to market by 13.4%.
For businesses in many industries, time to market is critical,
and being a leader or a laggard in bringing innovations to
market can be the difference between success and failure.
Improving time to market by 13% can be a powerful
source of competitive differentiation and a lasting means of
gaining competitive advantage.
7
Figure 7: Fixing Customer-Facing Document
Processes Can Speed Time to Market by 13.4%
Average improvement: 13.4%
Speed by more than 50%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2%
Speed by 36–50%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3%
Speed by 21–35%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.6%
Speed by 11–20%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.2%
Speed by 6–10%
20.8%
Speed by 3–5%
. . . . . . . 16.9%
Speed by up to 2%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.5%
No effect
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.6%
Slow ability to address
customer needs
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.9%
0%
5%
10%
% of respondents
15%
20%
25%
Q16a. If you waved that magic wand and fixed all the issues in effectiveness and efficiency in your customer-facing document-driven business
processes, what effect would it have on your ability to address customer
needs or respond to changes in the market? n = 1,100 Source: IDC’s
Document Management Thought Leadership Survey, February 2012
Ineffective Document Processes in
Organizations’ Supply Chains and
Distribution Channels Are Costly
Another area of potential disruption to document-driven
process efficiency and effectiveness is the company supply
chain. As companies recover from the global economic
downturn, they have three fundamental options to scale:
hire more staff, improve the productivity of existing staff,
or partner with strategic vendors and suppliers. Given the
nature of this lean recovery, companies have avoided hiring
new staff, and many have already run up against the limits
of productivity they can squeeze out of their overstretched
workforces. In contrast, reliance on partners has continued
to rise, which also allows companies’ internal staff to focus
on higher-value activities while outsourcing everything
that doesn’t fit into their own core competency. It also
allows companies to scale in a flexible way.
“Sometimes — because you’re dealing with a
third party — when a mistake is made, it takes
a long time to correct.” — GM, Hotel Chain
But risks are associated with this trend. As companies
outsource more operations, they become more dependent
on those partners’ document-driven processes. IDC
believes it is critical to select and manage partners to ensure
effective document processes in one’s supply chain and
distribution channels. Survey respondents agree: 75.8% of
respondents think it is important that supply-side partners
have effective and efficient document processes, and 76.5%
think it is important that distribution-side partners have
effective and efficient document processes.
Unfortunately, many respondents also see deficiencies in
their partners’ document-driven business processes. 45.4%,
or nearly half, of respondents believe that their suppliers’
processes are not fully efficient or effective, and 43.1% are
not fully satisfied with the processes of their distributionside partners (see Figure 8).
Busted Myth: The impact of documentdriven business processes ends at the
enterprise boundary.
IDC Finding: Nearly half of enterprises think that their partners’
document-driven business processes are broken (45.4% for
suppliers and 43.1% for distributors), and over half said that
partners’ ineffective processes increase costs (56.9%) and
reduce their organization’s business agility (53.9%).
Figure 8: Partners’ Document Processes Are
Often Inefficient or Ineffective
Suppliers, services
providers, other vendors
Distributors, resellers,
other channel partners
45.4%
. . 43.1%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
% of respondents who are not satisfied with
partners’ document processes
Q43/46. How would you characterize the level of effectiveness and efficiency of the document-driven business processes of your [supply-side
partners (suppliers, services providers, or other vendors)/distributionside partners (distributors, resellers, channel partners)]? Are their
processes ineffective or inefficient? n = 594 for supply-side partners,
n = 500 for distribution-side partners Source: IDC’s Document Management Thought Leadership Survey, February 2012
8
Broken processes in strategic partners are costly: 56.9%
of respondents said that inefficient or ineffective partner
document-driven processes increase operational costs. In
addition, more than half of respondents said that such
processes reduce their ability to respond quickly to changes
in the marketplace and impair overall business agility (see
Figure 9). The lesson is clear that outsourcing any process
that is broken simply results in an outsourced mess.
Figure 9: Inefficient/Ineffective Partner Processes
Negatively Impact the Business
Increases our
operational costs
56.9%
Reduces our organization’s
ability to respond quickly to
changes in the marketplace
. 55.4%
Reduces our organization’s
business agility
. . 53.9%
Increases our organization’s
information security risk
. . . . . 49.0%
Increases our organization’s
regulatory compliance risk
. . . . . . 46.8%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
% of respondents who agree/strongly agree
Q48. What is the impact on your organization when your business
partners have inefficient or ineffective document-driven business
processes? n = 1,516 Source: IDC’s Document Management Thought
Leadership Survey, February 2012
Intersection of Tablets and Document
Processes Is Critical But Ill-Defined
Despite the recognized importance of effective and
efficient document-driven processes, potential disruption
looms in the form of the media tablet. Media tablets are
making inroads into the enterprise at rates that many
would have considered unthinkable only two years ago,
before the first tablet was even released to the general
market. The rapid pace of adoption is evidenced by the
study, in which fully 17.7% of employees said that they
are currently using tablets to support customer-facing
document-driven processes and 17.6% of employees are
using them for non-customer-facing document-driven
processes (see Figure 10).
Figure 10: Rising Adoption of Tablets
in the Enterprise
Use tablets
for customer-facing
processes — today
. . . . . 17.7%
Use tablets for
non-customer-facing
processes — today
. . . . . . 17.6%
Will use tablets for
work-related activities —
next 12–18 months
20.7%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
% of respondents who agree/strongly agree
Q26/27/28. What percentage of employees use [tablets] for customerfacing document-driven business processes? What percentage of
employees use tablets for non-customer-facing document-driven business processes? Over the next 12–18 months, what percentage of your
organization’s employees do you think will use tablets for business
purposes? n = 1,516 Source: IDC’s Document Management Thought
Leadership Survey, February 2012
The adoption of tablets in the enterprise corresponds
to what IDC sees as part of the next wave of enterprise
computing and the next transformative moment for CIOs.
Just as PCs redefined mainframe computing in the 1980s
and the Internet redefined client/server computing in the
1990s, today, cloud, big data, mobility (including tablets),
and social business are redefining the way employees
interact with applications and, by extension, with
customers, suppliers, and coworkers.
This finding was borne out by the study. While many
executives believe the adoption of tablets has reduced
the number of pages printed in their enterprise (59.2%
of survey respondents believe tablets reduce the number
of printed pages), what is more striking is the strategic
role tablets are playing in the organization, with 49.2% of
respondents saying tablets would enable their organization
to more rapidly address customer needs and 47.5% saying
tablets would improve the speed at which document
processes operate (see Figure 11).
“An outsourcing arrangement has to be governed.
I think we have something like 26 different
governance processes just to deal with the
outsourced provider, and it’s very document
driven.” — VP, Global IT, Large Cosmetics Manufacturer
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Figure 11: Tablets Have Strategic Impact
Would allow us to better
or more rapidly address
customer needs
49.2%
Would improve the speed
at which document-driven
business processes operate
. . . . . . . . 47.5%
Would allow us to more
rapidly respond to changes
in the market
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.6%
Would reduce our overall
operational costs
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.3%
Would improve our
competitive stance or
differentiation
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.5%
Would increase our
overall revenue
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.7%
Would reduce business
and/or compliance risk
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.7%
Would reduce business
continuity risk
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.5%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
% of respondents who agree with the benefits
Q30. Over the next 12–18 months, if and when employees begin using
tablets for business purposes, which, if any, of the following benefits do
you expect they will bring? n = 1,516 Source: IDC’s Document Management Thought Leadership Survey, February 2012
But many organizations are not prepared for the changes
that tablets will introduce to document processes. IDC
believes that tablets will increase friction in the enterprise
and its document processes until organizations deal with
the impact of tablets. The study shows that over 30% of
processes still rely on paper, and many more processes flip
back and forth from paper to electronic. With fewer defined
routes to move documents from electronic to paper and vice
versa via tablets (e.g., with fewer tablet-based scanning and
printing options), the use of tablets in document processes
is introducing new roadblocks and issues.
Busted Myth: Tablets have relatively little impact
on document-driven business processes.
IDC Finding: Tablets are playing a profound strategic role in
document-driven processes, and there is a significant need
to ensure the two play well together.
For many enterprises, the intersection of tablets and
document-driven business processes is not clearly
defined, and there is a significant need among businesses
to ensure that tablets play well with document-driven
processes. Reflecting the importance of this issue, 33% of
organizations in this survey have initiatives under way to
adapt their processes for use with tablets. IDC believes
enterprises will need to continue to invest to adapt their
processes for use with tablets and will need to continue to
roll out these reengineering efforts to all critical documentdriven processes that involve tablets. Opportunities for
improvement include the need to scan to cloud and print
from tablets and the need to address security issues around
tablet printing both inside and outside the firewall, all
while providing a seamless user experience and conforming
to necessary organizational compliance guidelines.
The Bottom-Line Benefits Compound:
Top-Line Revenue Growth with
Still More Room for Cost Takeout
Of course, the benefits of addressing inefficiencies in
document-driven processes go beyond improving top-line
revenue. Common wisdom is correct that documents drive
many back-office, non-customer-facing processes ranging
from demand planning and supply chain management to
asset management, IT/infrastructure support, legal, and
HR processes. But while many organizations may believe
they have already driven maximum efficiency into these
processes, this survey found that there is plenty of room
for improvement. Fully 86.6% of respondents believe that
addressing inefficiencies in non-customer-facing processes
would allow them to reduce their operating costs, with
22.2% estimating it would reduce operating costs by 3–5%
and 23.4% judging it would reduce operating costs by more
than 10%. On average, respondents estimated it could
reduce their overall operating costs by 8.3% (see Figure 12).
These benefits compound — they accrue in addition to
the top-line revenue increase achievable by addressing
customer-facing document processes. The same hypothetical
organization discussed previously in the paper — with
$1 billion in annual revenue and a 70% gross margin —
would potentially achieve $58.1 million in operational
cost savings, on top of the $70.7 million in gross margin
contribution from an improved top line — a total
improvement of $128.8 million to the bottom line.
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Figure 12: Fixing Non-Customer-Facing Document
Processes Can Reduce Costs by 8.3%
Average reduction: 8.3%
Reduce by more than 50%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1%
Reduce by 36–50%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.9%
Reduce by 21–35%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6%
Reduce by 11–20%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.9%
Reduce by 6–10%
. . 21.1%
Reduce by 3–5%
. . . . . . . 22.2%
Reduce by up to 2%
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.9%
No effect
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.4%
Increase operational costs
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.0%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
% of respondents
Q22. If you waved that magic wand and fixed all the issues in effectiveness and efficiency in your non-customer-facing document-driven
business processes, what effect would it have on your organization’s
overall operational costs? n = 1,067 Source: IDC’s Document Management Thought Leadership Survey, February 2012
Again, IDC is struck by the magnitude of this finding.
Over the past two to three decades, driven by examples
in Six Sigma manufacturing, enterprises in industries
around the world have focused on improving efficiencies
in processes centered on factories and supply chains. Many
organizations have optimized those processes to the extent
that they are now struggling to squeeze some improvement
out of them. In contrast, this survey shows not only
that efficiencies can be gained in a much wider range of
non-customer-facing processes but also that fixing these
processes can yield significant bottom-line benefits.
Busted Myth: Organizations have
already achieved all available cost
takeout from improving document-driven
business processes.
IDC Finding: 86.6% of respondents said that costs can
be further reduced and that full optimization of documentdriven processes could achieve overall operational cost
savings of 8.3%.
Appendix
IDC Study Methodology
The information for this white paper came from a global
survey plus two focus groups of U.S. executives, all of
which were conducted in 4Q11. IDC surveyed 1,516
process owners and information workers from IT, finance,
and line-of-business management from organizations of
over 500 employees. These individuals all had responsibility
for business processes that required multiple documents.
Respondents were randomly recruited and screened from
international panels and came from eight countries: the
United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France,
Germany, Australia, China, and Japan. Global data was
derived by weighting the IT executive survey by country
GDP. The survey was conducted over the Internet and
administered in the local language. All numbers in this
document may not be exact due to rounding.
Respondents were asked about priorities, issues, and
investments across 23 separate business processes: customer
onboarding, sales, new product development, customer
service, marketing/customer communication, insurance/
claims processing, billing and collection, HR (employee
onboarding, benefits, dismissals), demand planning,
manufacturing (shop floor, inventory), distribution
channel management, vendor/supply chain management,
engineering/R&D, legal (contracts, litigation),
medical (patient medical records), IT infrastructure/
desktop support, financial planning and reporting,
asset management, business continuity/risk assessment,
compliance/audits, change/problem management, business
monitoring and controls, and information security. Data
was gathered both at the individual process level and in
three higher-level rollups: customer-facing, non-customerfacing, and risk mitigation processes.
This survey was supplemented by two focus groups of
U.S. executives. One group consisted of line-of-business
executives, and the other consisted of IT and finance
executives. The individuals in both groups had oversight
of or control over a variety of document-driven business
processes for their organizations. Respondents were drawn
from organizations with over $1 billion in revenue and
from a range of industries. Representative titles included
VP Strategic Planning, VP Sales, General Manager, VP
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Global Marketing, Chief Security Officer, VP Global
Resources, Senior VP Technology Planning, VP Global IT,
Corporate VP Finance Technology, and VP/Treasurer.
Participant Screeners
The following screening questions were applied to
target respondents:
Definitions
The following definitions were used for this study:
S6. Are you involved in, or do you have oversight of, any
document-driven business processes for your organization?
(Examples might include sales order processing, customer
onboarding, customer communications or correspondence,
customer service and support, billing and collections, and
new product development.)
• Document-driven business processes are performed
by one or more groups within the organization and
are governed or driven by information captured in
documents. Documents can be paper (printed, scanned,
or entirely paper based) or electronic, or they can migrate
between paper and electronic during the end-to-end life
cycle of the business process. The term is also shortened
to “document-driven processes” or “document processes”
in places.
• Customer-facing business processes govern customerfacing activities including sales, customer onboarding,
customer communications, customer service and support,
billing and collections, and new product development.
• Non-customer-facing business processes govern
non-customer-facing activities including employee
onboarding, demand planning, manufacturing,
purchasing and vendor management, desktop support,
business continuity, audits, and financial controls.
• Compliance and risk mitigation or management
processes cover activities including business continuity,
compliance, auditing, customer due diligence, change/
problem management, risk assessment, remote business
monitoring, and information security.
Related Research
This white paper is the second of two white papers based
on IDC’s global Document Management Thought Leadership
Survey published in February 2012. The first paper, “It’s
Worse than You Think: Poor Document Processes Lead
to Significant Business Risk” (IDC white paper #6352,
June 2012), explores the relationship between inefficient
and ineffective document-driven business processes and
business risk, describes how 75.9% of respondents have
experienced serious business risk and/or compliance
issues as a direct result of broken document processes, and
explores some of the business drivers and ramifications.
S7. Which of the following document-driven business
processes are you involved in or do you have oversight of ?
[Check all that apply]
Dark Blue = Customer-Facing Processes
Blue = Non-Customer-Facing Processes
Red = Risk Mitigation Processes
a. Customer onboarding
b.Sales
c. New product development
d. Customer service
e. Marketing/customer communication
f. Insurance/claims processing
g. Billing and collection
h. HR (employee onboarding, benefits, dismissals)
i. Demand planning
j. Manufacturing (shop floor, inventory)
k. Distribution channel management
l. Vendor/supply chain management
m.Engineering/R&D
n. Legal (contracts, litigation, etc.)
o. Medical (patient medical records, etc.)
p. IT infrastructure/desktop support
q. Financial planning and reporting
r. Asset management
s. Business continuity/risk assessment
t.Compliance/audits
u. Change/problem management
v. Business monitoring and controls
w. Information security
S8. Are you responsible for owning/implementing/managing
any of these document-driven business processes?
S9. For each of the document-driven business processes you
have visibility into and insight over in your business,
what percentage of the documents would you say are paper
(as opposed to electronic)?
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About the Authors
Angèle Boyd — Group Vice President, General Manager,
Imaging/Output Document Solutions & SMB. Angèle is
responsible for IDC’s worldwide research practice in the
areas of imaging, output, and document solutions (printing,
scanning, business-critical document workflows, and
managed print/document services). She is also responsible
for IDC’s U.S. small/medium-sized business research
spanning the IT industry. She has conducted research and
consulting at IDC since 1986. During this time, she has
been recognized as a Chairman’s Achiever, and she has
received the company’s award for research excellence, the
James Peacock Award.
Joseph Pucciarelli — Vice President & IT Executive Advisor
for IDC’s IT Executive Programs. As an IT executive advisor,
Joseph uses his 20-plus years of business and technology
experience to provide ongoing insight and guidance to business
and technology executives seeking to leverage the critical
technologies of cloud computing, mobility, social business,
and big data/analytics that have begun transforming both
business and consumer technology usage and interaction
models. His research is published in IDC’s CIO Agenda and
IT Cloud Decision Economics research programs, and he also
contributes to an ongoing series of in-depth special research
reports on a range of technology management issues.
A noted analyst with broad business experience in the
financing and technology industries, Joseph has held a variety
of consulting, product marketing, risk management, and senior
management positions with companies including Gartner, GE
Capital, Peregrine Systems, and his own company, Strategance.
Melissa Webster —Program Vice President, Content and Digital Media Technologies. Melissa leads
IDC’s Content and Digital Media Technologies
research program. This program tracks, analyzes,
and forecasts markets and trends in document and
content management, records management, Web
content management, digital asset management, and
document and rich media (audio, video) authoring
and publishing software. She has more than 20 years
of experience in the software industry with enterprise
software vendors and Internet companies ranging
from the Fortune 500 to venture-backed start-ups and
has held senior management positions in marketing,
business development, and product development at
Oracle, Information Builders, Object Design, and
RetailExchange, among others.
About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events
for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals,
business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business
strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry
opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For more than 48 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to
help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology media,
research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.
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Copyright 2012 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden.
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