"Everyone's marriage is falling apart except ours. The problem is communication--too much communication."
--Homer Simpson
What do America's favorite beer-guzzling nuclear safety technician and a top document provider in North America have in common? They both believe it's possible to suffer from too much communication.
While Homer's solution--avoiding his wife by going to Moe's Tavern every night--can be admired for both its brazenness and consistent application, quality print management can't be found at the bottom of a bottle of Duff Beer.
In 2002, Corporate Express Document & Print Management, Omaha, Neb., began developing an online tool that provides easy access to customer reports and news in one location. Two months ago, the company launched InformVia, which Corporate Express envisions as the central print management information clearinghouse for its present and future clients.
InformVia provides clients with a customized space to view market trends and print ordering habits so that they can drive down costs by making better-informed decisions, says Geoff Eitland, vice president of sales and marketing at Corporate Express Document & Print Management. In essence, InformVia turns "too much communication" into better-organized communication. It's a simple idea that Corporate Express hopes will have customers shouting "Woo-hoo!"
THE FILE ON CORPORATE EXPRESS
DOCUMENT & PRINT MANAGEMENT
Name: Corporate Express Document & Print Management
Launched: 1958 as Mid-Continent
Tab Card Company (the company name has changed numerous times due to several acquisitions)
Location: Headquartered in Omaha, Neb., with 10 manufacturing plants and more than 50 U.S. sales offices
Principal: Rich Egan, President and CEO
Business in Brief: The company provides corporations with a wide range of essential business services, including comprehensive print management, labels and direct mail. It uses document analysis, technology and online ordering systems to reduce its customers' costs and improve their internal processes.
Clients Get Information Access
Corporate Express Document & Print Management's customers can access InformVia online at www.inform via.com or by clicking on the InformVia tab in the "Inventoried Items" section of the company's CorporateExpressDocuments™' (CEDocs™) system. An administrator on the customer side establishes the parameters for each employee's InformVia environment. This administrator decides which internal or Corporate Express-generated documents should be distributed and to whom. In addition, each site can be outfitted graphically with a company logo.
"From the standpoint of self-service and on-demand service, clients are given access electronically to information they need to make informed procurement decisions," says LeeAnn Holley, strategic accounts e-business manager at Corporate Express Document & Print Management. "We will continue to build features online that make more information available."
The types of information that can be posted on InformVia are "unlimited," Eitland says. News could consist of a quarterly business review or a new companywide procurement protocol. A report could highlight inventories at different locations or the company's monthly ordering history. Users can retrieve this information as a Microsoft® Excel®, PDF or JPEG file. "The tool is a repository," Eitland says. "It can support management from a centralized location while giving the end users specific information on ordering activity."
For example, a national financial services organization could link all of its print management operation information through the InformVia site. Any new forms or programs as they relate to a corporation's print management operation could be linked directly to the InformVia library. The file type, a description of the document and the date the document was updated would be displayed. Users could view or print any item by clicking on the file title.
One way financial services organizations can realize savings, Eitland says, is by instituting quarterly reviews generated by Corporate Express Document & Print Management and completed by clients' employees. Categories include fill rates, accuracy, quality and response time, among others. Corporate Express Document & Print Management can respond to concerns, and the completed review can be distributed throughout the client's organization.
Eitland estimates that up to 40 percent of print product costs stem from procurement alone. If increased efficiency in print management can decrease that percentage, companies setting their annual budgets could realize large savings by applying information gleaned from InformVia. "This process drives standardization, and standardization drives cost reduction year after year," Eitland says. He says clients can learn to use InformVia in 45 minutes, without any hands-on training.
Prepping for Disaster, Planning for Success
Eitland anticipates several new applications for InformVia. One is disaster response. In the event of a disaster, InformVia could act as a storehouse of information regarding what mission-critical items are necessary to keep a business operating. "If a hurricane hit the Florida coast and a company was forced to operate off-site, what would it need to operate at a bare minimum?" Eitland says.
Eitland also sees InformVia acting as a tool that can help businesses fend off financial pitfalls. For instance, Corporate Express Document & Print Management may learn of a shortage of a certain grade of paper. This information could be passed along to customers that would be affected, and those customers could decide whether to buy or wait out the shortage. "The key to effective program management is access to information," Eitland says. "With ongoing information, clients can manage print programs more effectively."
