Paper-based purchasing processes waste
most time
UK finance workers in small and medium-sized businesses
are spending eight hours a month dealing with calls from
employees asking whether or not a purchase requisition has
been approved.
Document management company INVU says this finding from
a survey by Redshift Research is indicative of unnecessary admin
caused by inefficient Purchase Order processes.
Half of finance professionals surveyed said that they were
unhappy with their existing Purchase Order Processing (POP). One
third (35%) said that their existing POP made it difficult to make
purchases, forcing them to work around it to get things done.
INVU says that lack of visibility is a particular problem, due in
part to the use of generic solutions rather than dedicated POP
software by almost two thirds (64%) of SME finance workers: 16%
make do with manual processes; 26% with Microsoft Excel or
similar; and 22% with a hybrid approach.
One third (35%) have multiple methods for delivering
purchase orders to suppliers, slightly more than the 33% that rely
exclusively on email as the sole method of delivery.
The survey found that the amount of time spent administering
purchases was 33% lower for finance staff in organisations that
have no fixed requirement to produce purchase orders. Workers
who have to follow a paper-based PO process spend most time on
admin.
Help needed
National Coding Week returns on September 21-27 2015 with the aim
of encouraging adults to try their hand at writing computer code at free
training sessions being held across the UK. The organisers are asking
people in the IT industry to lend their support by hosting their own
events to show that anyone, regardless of age or gender, can learn to
code.
Win a printed
mural
Wallpaper manufacturing
business Create a Wall is
giving away a customised,
digitally printed mural worth
£575. For your chance to
win, email createawall@
gmail.com explaining in
no more than 300 words
why your office deserves a
makeover. The deadline for
entries is July 1 2015.
Lexmark automates data gathering
Helping customers to
minimise the risk of human
error in their business
processes, Lexmark is
introducing a new solution
that automates the pulling
together of documents and
data from smartphones,
desktop PCs and MFPs.
Perceptive Checklist Capture
removes manual steps involved
in the collection of related
documents, freeing knowledge
workers to focus on customer
service and compliance and
improving accuracy by reducing
the rate of mis-filed or mis-
classified content.
Suitable for today’s flexible
working practices, it can be used
to capture photos and other
content with a smartphone,
tablet or Lexmark smart MFP
and add them, along with
computer files from a desktop
PC, to a project or case folder.
It notifies users when
a document is missing or
incomplete and delivers
information directly to the user’s
core business system while
storing documents in a central
repository for rapid retrieval.
Leveraging the Perceptive
Evolution platform, the capture
interface provides a consistent
and unified experience across
all devices and platforms.
Lexmark says that
Perceptive Checklist Capture
has applications in almost
every industry, including
retail (incident management),
government (public assistance),
banking (new loan or account
automation), insurance
(claims), back office (HR case
management), manufacturing
(logistics document
management) and higher
education (enrolment).
As an example, it cites the
case of a loss prevention agent
who, on arrival at the location of
a reported theft, can launch a
smartphone app giving instant
access to open case folders.
On opening a folder, the agent
is presented with a checklist
of items that still need to be
collected, e.g. photographic
evidence. From the same
interface, the agent can take a
photo, which is automatically
added to the folder. When a
checklist is complete, the case
is automatically flagged as
ready for review.
UK print market declines
as sales in Europe rise
The UK printer and multifunctional market declined sharply
is the first three months of the year, in contrast to Western
Europe as a whole, which experienced strong growth both in
units shipped and market value.
According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the UK
market experienced a year-on-year decline of 6.4% in Q1 2015,
with decreases in both the inkjet and laser markets for the second
consecutive quarter. One bright spot was business inkjet sales,
which grew by 18.8%.
Overall, in Q1 2015 the Western European printer and MFP
market grew 2.6% in unit terms and 8.4% in value, with double-digit
increases in Finland, Spain and Greece.
Highlights include a 6.3% rise in shipments of laser MFPs and a
21.6% increase in business inkjets, with A3 models up 83.6%.
BULLETIN
PRINT.IT
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bulletin
Data can be collected from
MFPs, smartphones and
desktop PCs
Business inkjets like the Canon
Maxify range performed strongly
