Canon: Outdated Workflows Still Hindering Business Productivity

A major pain point for many companies is improving manual, paper-intensive and often antiquated document workflows so business transactions can be completed more efficiently, according to Canon Business Process Services. Canon adds that in order to alleviate this and other challenges, some companies are obtaining significant business benefits by implementing automation technology and strategies.

In a recent IDC Technology Spotlight, sponsored by Canon Business Process Services, one key finding focused on the specific source within document workflows that prompted automation. One third of the respondents (33%) mentioned that they manually extract content from paper-based workflows to integrate content from the document within the workflow, while 22% stated that they manually extract content from digital documents ¹.

According to the IDC Technology Spotlight, when organizations deploy services and solutions that digitally convert and integrate content within a workflow, users obtained significant benefits. Time and cost savings were the two most measured benefits while productivity was third, followed by error reductions and increases in revenue and return on investment.

Banking on Top Performance
A Canon Business Process Services client case study illustrates the benefits of automation within accounts payable processing. A bank was failing Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audit findings and experiencing low overall accounts payable (AP) processing performance. The bank received, via mail, about 8,000 non-purchase-order paper invoices monthly. This was increasing the cost and cycle time of the invoice process. Integrating non-PO invoices with the procure-to-pay system that processes the bank’s PO invoices electronically could improve operational efficiency, increase on-time payment, reduce costs and improve its SOX compliance.

Canon implemented a solution that includes centralized receipt of the non-PO paper invoices, automated workflow for processing the invoices and improved procedures for managing exceptions. Results include an eighty percent reduction in the number of SOX audit findings during the past year. Additionally, the bank realized a twenty percent reduction in overall AP processing costs annually, and a significant reduction in invoice payment cycle time.

The Canon-sponsored IDC Technology Spotlight also highlights the annual returns that financial services, insurance, manufacturing and healthcare companies are obtaining by automating document workflows. These returns include cost and time savings, productivity improvement and error reduction.

For insights contained in other Canon Business Process Services white papers, survey reports and case histories focused on process automation visit the Insights page of Canon’s website.

About Canon Business Process Services

Canon Business Process Services, Inc. offers a comprehensive portfolio of managed services and technology across information and document management, business process outsourcing and managed specialty staffing. Combining singular experience and process knowledge, Canon Business Process Services helps clients improve operational business performance while reducing costs and risks. Named a Global Outsourcing 100 Leader in 2015 by IAOP for the ninth year; the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc. Learn more at www.cbps.canon.com and follow us on Twitter @CanonBPO.

1. IDC Technology Spotlight, sponsored by Canon Business Process Services, . Adapted from , by Ron Glaz, and three reports: Pain Points that Drive Manufacturing, Healthcare and Financial, IDC #252543, #252417 and #251828.

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For Further Information: CBPS-info@cbps.canon.com