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Document Outsourcing in Focus Market Report: 2003 – 2004

Introduction
The document outsourcing market space continues to grow and evolve, providing numerous opportunities for service providers and their customers. InfoTrends/CAP Ventures’ new white paper entitled Document Outsourcing in Focus Market Report: 2003-2004 examines the range of services currently provided by document outsourcing service providers in the United States, and examines the future of the U.S. document management industry.

Dynamic Opportunities for Service Providers: Business Process Outsourcing and Value-Added Services

Business Process Outsourcing

Industries of all types are seeking ways to improve their efficiency, competitiveness, and strengths within their market niches. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a relatively new model that provides significant growth opportunities for service providers that are prepared to offer services themselves or in partnerships that enable implementation. BPO of all varieties (including print) was a $110 billion market in 2003, and growth is expected to continue through 2005.

Within a document outsourcing BPO model, a customer identifies an entire print-related business process, such as customer collateral request fulfillment, and shifts ownership of the entire process, including all infrastructure, to a service provider. In exchange, the outsourcing service provider generally provides a better level of service, higher efficiency, and lower cost than the legacy business process by applying its extensive knowledge in print business processes to streamline service delivery.

Document outsourcing service providers seeking to win BPO contracts need a portfolio of capabilities and methodologies that include:  

• A structured approach to BPO that analyzes and re-engineers customers’ print business processes  
• Sufficient skill in executing every step of the process, either through the document outsourcing service provider or a partner of the provider  
• The ability to measure and control steps within the process to ensure that operational and financial goals are met  
• Knowledge of customer industries and specific customer business challenges
• Value-Added Services

In addition to taking over customers’ print business processes, document outsourcing service providers can realize specific revenue opportunities from value-added services that go beyond commoditized print. These services often add credibility or capability that can help a provider win a BPO agreement, and include:

• Customer care  
• e-Enablement  
• Preparation services   
• Distribution enhancement

By providing value-added services in these areas, outsourcing providers can help customers introduce new technologies and efficiencies to their environments, but success requires planning. For every type of service introduced, the outsourcing provider takes on the responsibility of becoming the expert. This requires a commitment to ongoing training and education, internally and for the customer, as well as a commitment to keeping the technology current.

The preceding is an excerpt from InfoTrends/CAP Ventures’ white paper entitled Document Outsourcing in Focus Market Report: 2003 – 2004. The complete document is available immediately. To learn more about the report or to make a purchase, please contact Alison Hipp at , ext. 126 or .