Achieving ROI for an Electronic Forms Implementation

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Achieving ROI for an Electronic Forms Implementation

The “Top Ten” Ways e-forms Processes Deliver ROI

The volume and velocity of business communications in the current electronic, web-enabled culture compels organizations to evaluate the efficiency of processes associated with day-to-day customer, partner and supplier interactions. Within the process of evaluation, it usually becomes crystal clear that achieving or maintaining competitive advantage equates to implementing or expanding infrastructure technologies that enable business communications to be more accurate, streamlined, timely, and personalized. The corporate dilemma, however, usually rests on the ability to pinpoint the optimum combinations of “best practices”, business processes, and computing technologies that accomplish these goals as well as provide measurable ROI.

As you consider your ROI expectations for implementing e-forms processes, it is helpful to remember the “top ten” benefits that can be derived from e-forms implementations according to CAP Ventures research:

e-forms ROI: The Top Ten Benefits

1. Seamless On-Demand Printing	On-Demand printing achieved through cohesive integration with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, and other business and legacy data systems.
2. Reduced Contracted Services	Elimination of pre-printed forms and stationary, thereby reducing contracted services with outsourced print providers.
3. Reduced Document Obsolescence Costs	Reduction or elimination of pre-printed forms inventory, storage costs, and waste due to obsolescence.
4. Single-sourcing Processes	Implementation of a single-source methodology ("create once, use many") for transaction document creation and management.
5. Reduced Distribution Costs	Implementation of multiple distribution methods (e.g. fax, web and/or email) as alternatives to traditional postal mail.
6. Optimized Human Resource Management	Re-allocation of resources required for manual forms processing, including print room operators, service desk, accounting and finance and IT personnel.
7. Streamlined Change Management	Substantial reductions in change processing cycles (as high as 75%) for transaction documents.
8. Improved Customer Service	Personalization and self-service methods that improve customer service and relationship management.
9. Protection Against Catastrophic Events	Digital document archiving to support risk management and disaster recovery planning.
10. Support for e-Business Initiatives	Implementation of an interoperable foundation for transaction document processing that supports other e-Business initiatives.

Particularly important in the above list are the direct correlations that mission-critical business communications have with your organization’s e-Business initiatives. Due to the adoption of e-commerce and ERP systems, along with electronic document delivery and management programs, organizations should be integrating the above goals with plans for capturing revenue from transaction-based document applications. CAP Ventures defines transaction documents as those used as part of internal operations, supplier management and customer purchases of goods and services.

One reason why a substantiated ROI for an electronic forms implementation is achievable is due to the inherent benefit of transitioning paper-based processes into automated, streamlined workflows. Paper-based processes are notoriously redundant, manual and rely on predefined routing methods such as postal mail and faxing. As such, they rarely leverage networking and web technologies as vehicles to effectively create, manage, deliver and archive mission-critical information. Business processes in corporate areas such as sales, finance, human resources, purchasing, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and shipping usually have various levels of antiquated, paper-based processing that enable inefficiency, duplication of effort, and greater dependencies on human labor.

An e-forms implementation that focuses on mission-critical transaction documents can lead to competitive advantages in the form of streamlined processes, increased productivity, improved customer relationship management, and an effect on your bottom line as related to tangible cost reductions. In today’s competitive climate, every advantage you gain will mean the difference between a win for your business versus a win for your competitors.

The preceding is an excerpt from CAP Ventures’ white paper Achieving ROI for an Electronic Forms Implementation: A Roadmap for Success. To read more on this report click here or contact Keith LaVangie at ext. 132 or .

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