contact us     help    login  

The Future of the Document in the Workgroup Environment

Introduction
 
We are working in an increasingly connected and digital environment. As a result, the definitions for the document and the office have changed. We have moved into a virtual and collaborative workplace, where the office workflow and information processing is becoming central to defining the total product solution. Electronic documents are experiencing exponential growth, shifting the focus away from hardcopy. As a consequence, the dynamics of the office market are undergoing a major transformation.

InfoTrends/CAP Ventures new report, The Future of the Document in the Workgroup Environment, discusses the changing dynamics of the office document, as well as customers’ requirements and usage patterns for printing, copying, page volumes, and document devices in the office. In conducting this study, we gained a greater understanding of the current use of office document technologies and how users expect it to change over time in terms of page volumes, usage trends, and technologies.

Research for the study was conducted in November of 2004 and consisted of a survey of 350 professionals representing a variety of vertical markets, departments, and company sizes. The survey is focused on the U.S. workgroup environment.

Report Highlights

Our research findings certainly suggest that the document process and its management will become more of a priority for office workers in the United States. The vast majority of survey participants (87.9%) indicated that document management software would be useful to some extent. 

Figure 1: How useful would you expect document management
software to be to your company?
 

We also see that scanning, which was once used primarily by production print facilities, has become a mainstream office application as the expectation for organizations to convert paper-based documents into electronic format continues to increase. Almost 70% of respondents indicated that scan-to-file/storage applications were important to their businesses.

Figure 2: How important are the following scanning
applications to your business?
 

 Scan-to-e-mail has gained awareness as well, and 70.4% of respondents considered it important to them. Survey participants’ responses were fairly evenly distributed across all company sizes and vertical markets. This indicates that most companies, regardless of size or vertical industry, are faced with the sometimes daunting task of converting paper-based documents to digital formats.

The report also finds that paper is no longer the media of choice. It has become a transient media and will no longer be used as a mainstream method of maintaining permanent records. The report indicates that over 50% of the pages printed on MFPs are from e-mail messages or the Internet.

Recommendation

As the number of documents that are placed on the network continues to increase, the demand for solutions that help manage and control the process will become of paramount importance to end-users as well as overall organizations. This means that sales organizations must be proactive in accessing, recommending, and implementing robust solutions that create added value for various hardware devices.

In addition, players in the office equipment market must offer the necessary tools and training to help customers seamlessly manage paper and electronic documents in a single, integrated system. As time goes on, software and services will become the prime differentiators in the market.

The preceding is an excerpt from InfoTrends/CAP Ventures’ report "The Future of the Document in the Workgroup Environment." The complete document is available immediately. To learn more about the report or to make a purchase, please click here to visit our online store or contact Alison Hipp at , ext. 126 or .