​How Your Business Can Benefit From A Digital Intake Center: Part 2

In my previous column I offered two ways your business can benefit from a digital intake center. As a reminder, we at Canon Business Process Services (Canon) define a digital intake center as a hybrid mailroom and scanning service that uses specialized mail scanning technology and workflow techniques to convert physical mail into digital information immediately upon receipt. That information is then delivered to employees or into your business workflow electronically anywhere at any time, allowing your employees the convenience of receiving their information quicker and enabling your business to move faster and smarter.

Following are three more ways you can achieve business gains by implementing a Canon digital intake center.

3. Strengthen Security, Compliance And Risk Management

With a digital intake center, your mail is more secure than ever, and only accessible by its intended recipient or workflow. For example, Canon’s controlled intake environments, which can only be accessed by badged employees, are monitored 24/7 by surveillance cameras. Once the mail is received, it is processed, time-stamped, and added to the desired workflow with a clear audit trail. This gives your security and compliance teams newfound peace of mind along with a paper trail for maintaining compliance with strict audit requirements.

4. Improve Customer Response Times

When your customers need something, they expect fast response times. And with a digital intake center, your business can respond to clients and prospects faster than ever. Regardless of whether a client inquiry is received in paper or digital form, a digital intake center processes inbound mail and routes it to the appropriate recipient or workflow instantly, ensuring customer response times are as short as possible. This helps ensure that your customers perceive they are receiving the best service possible.

5. Improve Visibility And Control

How long does it take your business to deliver each inbound mail piece to its intended recipient? Does all mail get opened by the right person and/or added to the appropriate business workflow? What happens if mail gets lost? With a digital intake center, you can gain the visibility and control needed to answer these and other critical mail flow questions. With a digital intake center, all incoming mail is immediately scanned and documented, giving you unprecedented insight into the overall mail stream and any delivery issues. You’ll be able to report on how many pieces of mail are received by each recipient or workflow, how long it takes mail to be processed from initial receipt to intended delivery, and where mail is getting stuck (potentially resulting in unhappy customers or wasted dollars). It’s this type of insight that allows business leaders to make mail flow improvements that satisfy customers, reduce costs, and eliminate inefficiencies.

Digital intake centers represent the latest evolution in managing incoming mail. They provide a turnkey solution that can help your business improve the customer experience, reduce costs, and improve operational efficiencies. Canon’s end-to-end service includes mail center staff, digital mail system and installation, imaging hardware, mail processing workflow design based on Six Sigma methodology, customer service support, and comprehensive reporting.

I invite you to visit the Mail Services page of our web site for additional insights on industry trends and best practices including white papers, case histories and more.