Transforming the Mailroom into a Digital Information Center: Part 2

This is my second post in a three-part series on how enterprises are transforming their mail center operations into more automated, digital information hubs that digitize and electronically distribute the mail to employees while ensuring security. Previously I mentioned that in this post I will expand a bit on how, when it comes to automation and innovation in mail center workflow, more and more businesses are leveraging what we at Canon Business Process Services refer to as a digital intake center. This hybrid mailroom/scanning system approach offers substantial gains when it comes to improving the flow of information and streamlining processes within the enterprise.

One such benefit is the ability to save money and increase cost efficiency. With a digital intake center, companies can significantly reduce the manual labor and processing costs connected with mail delivery. The key to unlocking these advantages is digitizing and distributing mail electronically, which enables organizations to virtually eliminate fine mail sorting and distribution costs. This can also help reduce the volume of nonessential and personal mail, freeing mail center personnel to focus on other value-add activities. Additionally, a digital intake center can enable an enterprise to realize a variety of other cost-saving benefits such as vendor discounts for faster paper invoice processing. Here are three other critical benefits of digital intake centers:

Improve process efficiency. It is a constant challenge to make sure that each piece of mail that a business receives is sorted, classified, repackaged, tracked and shipped to the intended recipient. For many organizations, this process involves dozens of full-time workers, duplicative work and unnecessary workflow stops. A digital intake center however, whether created and managed internally or in conjunction with a managed services provider, can help eliminate these inefficiencies by scanning inbound mail immediately upon receipt, while simultaneously indexing and classifying each piece of mail. The digitization and “straight through processing” boosts efficiency and enables the instant delivery of business information to the intended recipient or business workflow.

Reduce risk. A digital intake center can help make business mail more secure than ever, only accessible by its intended recipient or workflow. One option is to team with a managed services provider that can create a controlled intake environment, which can only be accessed by badged employees and 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 the company’s security team confidence that the right systems are in place to maintain compliance with strict audit requirements.

Enhance customer response time. When customers have a question or a problem that needs resolution, they expect fast response times. A digital intake center can enable a business to meet this challenge faster than ever. Whether a client inquiry is received in paper or digital form, a digital intake center solution gives an organization the ability to process inbound mail and route it to the appropriate recipient or workflow instantly. This helps ensure that customer response times are as short as possible, which in turn helps maintain high customer satisfaction.

In my next and final post in this series, I will go from theory to practice in the form of a brief case history example of how companies are realizing significant business benefits by streamlining their mail centers. In the meantime, feel free to visit the Mail Services page of our website for additional industry insights and best practices including case histories, research report and more.