The sheer flow of information in today’s corporate economy is staggering. However, whilst the information stream seems to be running optimally, the accessibility management, secure transfer and usage of it leave some room for improvement. 
In fact, it is estimated that office workers spend up to 50 minutes per day looking for information – a colossal waste of time, money and productivity. Additionally, the management of important documentation can be downright frustrating; what guarantees do users have that information has reached all the intended recipients? “No sorry, I didn’t get your e-mail” – sound familiar?
Fortunately, there is a way to mitigate the above issues and the solution is almost surprising. Today’s output solutions, which include laser MFPs are not only fantastic machines but also offer productivity gains that are downright practical.
“A document management solution, allows all areas of your business to use document-based information. Documents can be quickly searched and located without even leaving your desk,” explains Dan Porter, sales and marketing director,
Business Imaging Group
Canon South Africa.
“Canon’s Document Management software is modular which means that it integrates easily with existing systems without the major re-engineering often associated with new management technology.”
The same also goes for document sharing. Why not optimise the information delivery process with a document distribution system that shares information with colleagues and business partners anywhere, immediately? The process will run smoothly and users will be able to share information more cost effectively and efficiently.
Apart from optimising the accessibility of documentation, it is also important to have a firm grip over the devices that form part of the information lifecycle. Device management maximises efficiency and takes control of cost.
And it’s not only exclusive to larger corporates, smaller organisations can also utilise device management capability to share devices more effectively when printing.
“Through device management, we’re also putting control into the hands of system administrators which in turn enhances the overall usage of the devices residing on the network,” explains Porter.
Important device management benefits include: proactive, realtime monitoring which shows when and where jobs will be printed; and problem-solving that detects and identifies problems and minimises downtime.
In most organisations, documents exists in a myriad of formats and types which means processing it can be extremely cumbersome.
Furthermore, regulatory controls add a layer of complexity. What if users can capture these formats more intelligently?
Canon’s Information Capture functionality radically simplifies this process and eliminates any repetitive manual tasks through the utilisation of systems that are automated and run in the background. Departments that benefit from this functionality include finance, HR, marketing, legal and sales.
Whilst humans remain very tactile, there is also a lot to be said for saving on unnecessary printing expenditure and paper usage. A document accounting solution enables users to keep a tight control on print output. It does this by monitoring who is printing what, where and how, and by automatically re-routing print jobs to the most cost-effective devices.
Adds Porter: “At Canon we can devise a strategy with you to control the way your documents are printed. So if you want to print smarter and save your company money, now you can.”
Security is a major consideration in any office productivity solution implementation. And whilst servers and computers may well be protected, what about office solutions? Just think of the volume of sensitive information that is printed, shared and stored on these powerful devices. With a security solution, users can hold print jobs until a user releases them by entering a password or card authentication.
Additionally, software running in the background can keep track of document-related activity and can be set to notify the IT administrator when a specific keyword is printed, scanned, faxed, copied or sent. With this feature, an IT administrator can be made aware of crucial information breaches as they occur so users can head off potential leaks.
Indicative of Canon’s commitment to optimising the workplace through productivity solutions, the company was recently awarded BLI’s (Buyers Laboratory LLC) “Solutions Line of the Year” honours in Europe.
Canon has been recognised for offering the strongest solutions portfolio across the range of software categories that BLI covers in its facility.
“Customers are increasingly coming to rely on document imaging software solutions to streamline mission-critical business processes, increase the productivity of knowledge workers, and leverage their existing investment in imaging hardware,” says Jamie Bsales, senior product editor for solutions at BLI.
“Canon offers an unrivalled catalogue of software products in the key areas that can make a real difference to a customer’s document-centric processes,” concludes Bsales.