The benefits of digitisation for life sciences organisations are
highlighted in the
Veeva 2015 Paperless TMF Survey: Annual
Report
.
This shows that clinical operations are continuing to move
away from paper processes for managing trial master files (TMF),
with the proportion of organisations managing ‘most or all’ TMF
documents on paper falling to 31%, from 43% last year.
There have also been advances in the next stage of digitisation –
implementing electronic processes to manage the eTMF workflow.
One in four respondents now uses electronic trial master file
(eTMF) applications to exchange TMF documents between sponsors
and contract research organisations (CROs), up nine percentage
points from 2014, and trial sponsors and CROs now rely considerably
less on paper shipments and fax to exchange documents with
sponsors, both down 10 percentage points in one year.
Survey respondents expect the use of an eTMF to manage
study/site start-up and TMF filing to shorten development times,
cited by 63% and 57% of respondents respectively. Half of all
eTMF users (49%) and 61% of those using eTMF applications have
improved their inspection readiness.
Users of eTMF applications are more than twice as likely (57%)
to grant auditors and inspectors remote access to the TMF than
respondents as a whole (26%).
The report also identifies gaps in many organisations’ electronic
processes. Less than one third of respondents ‘mostly or always’
use electronic methods for signing documents (21%), the electronic
creation of source documents (25%) or electronic collaboration
with external partners (30%).
veeva.com/2015tmfsurvey
E-invoices to hit 42 billion in 2015
Ricoh is advising businesses to accelerate their adoption of
electronic billing and invoicing to reduce the cost of producing,
mailing and handling paper invoices by 50-80% and to rectify
inaccurate data, a major reason for exception handling – human
interaction during the invoicing process – and payment delays.
The latest Billentis Report shows that 42 billion paperless
invoices will be issued in 2015, with many electronic invoice
processing projects achieving ROI within 6 months.
More than 100,000 public bodies within the EU must enable their
systems and processes to receive and process invoices electronically
by 2018 at the latest.
Ready for take-off
KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines), now
part of the AIR FRANCE Group, is
the latest airline to equip pilots and
cabin crew with iPads in an attempt
to reduce the large amounts of
paper needed to administer flight
schedules and passenger lists.
UK holiday-makers
print for peace of
mind
Despite growing use of
digital boarding passes, UK
holiday-makers still depend
on paper documents when
travelling.
Research by Canon shows
that 74% of Britons still print
travel documents, even though
more than four out of five go
online to research holidays
(93%), book accommodation
(85%) and buy tickets (81%).
Three quarters (74%) like
to have a paper copy as a
precautionary measure to
overcome any technological
issues or potential mix-ups.
More than half (52%) say they
continue to print out of habit.
Given that more than one
third (36%) of consumers
are frustrated by the number
of pages included in travel
documents, Canon advises
travel companies to exploit
customers’ propensity to print
by providing them with more
relevant information.
Canon Europe marketing
director Marc Ranner said: “The
message to travel companies is
clear; printed travel documents
are still incredibly important
to holidaymakers but the
information they contain could
be far more useful. There is an
opportunity to fuse together
the benefits of the internet with
the reliability of print, by using
selectable or customisable
online documents that allow
consumers to print out what’s
relevant to them.”
The Top 5 items of
information valued by British
holiday-makers are the
destination address (71%); a
map of the destination (59%);
directions to where they are
staying (39%); public transport
directions (33%); and local
addresses and numbers (23%).
Digitisation cuts
development times,
but many processes still
incomplete
BULLETIN
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PRINT.IT
01732 759725
HR departments still over-reliant on paper
Human resources (HR) applications, such as employee on-
boarding, are popular candidates for digitisation. Yet, many
HR departments are still reliant on paper-based processes.
According to the
2015 HR Service Delivery and Technology
Survey
by professional services company Towers Watson, nearly
a third of companies use manual or paper methods to manage
bonuses and other variable pay and 39% use paper-based systems
to process new joiners.
Nine out of 10 respondents in the EMEA region plan to spend
as much or more on HR technology this year as they did in 2014.
One in ten (12%) plan to increase their investment by more than
20%. Overall, more than one third of respondents in EMEA plan to
replace their core HR management system.
Tim Richard, EMEA leader of Towers Watson’s HR Service
Delivery practice, said: “Upgrading and consolidating technology
is becoming a major priority for HR. While in the past, companies
have mostly invested in separate technology for talent,
compensation and performance management, there has been
a dramatic shift to investing in an overarching IT system with the
functionality to take care of all of these areas. Many organisations
are now looking at cloud-based solutions to replace traditional HR
platforms.”
Print and go: UK holiday-makers
rely on printed documents
