Over the past few decades, technological innovations like e-mail, pagers, faxes, cell phones, and overnight delivery services have transformed us into instant access information consumers. The demand is for immediate access any place, any time. Regardless of the widespread use of wireless applications, communications, and electronic documents, printed documents still represent the bulk of business information in day-to-day operations.

Recognizing this instant access age and the importance of managing computer output (i.e., forms, reports, and other documents produced from software applications running on mainframes, mid-range hosts or servers, workstations, and PC clients targeted for printers and other output devices), enterprises continue to spend a significant amount of their entire operational expenditure managing it. The question arises whether they are keeping in mind all of the aspects of computer output. While these formidable enterprises spend millions of dollars developing sophisticated IT infrastructures, all too often they neglect the processes that disseminate the printed information.

In fact, Gartner Research, in its September 2000 Gartner Analytics, "Enterprises, What And Where Are Your Workers Printing?" estimates that, "the cost of distributing printing can range from 10% to 20% of an IS department's budget. However, instead of just counting up the cost of the printer, paper, and ink, enterprises should consider everything that contributes to the bottom line of printing documents, including service, labor, network bandwidth, help desk support, and maintenance."

Output Management (OM), the name given to these IT processes, is the vital, but often missing link in the delivery chain for the communication of critical business information. Organizations that implement a comprehensive and thorough Output Management initiative enjoy large reductions in direct and indirect expenses in their core activities, as well as reductions in IT support costs. As a result, organizations that implement Output Management are able to gain benefits and competitive advantages that not only significantly reduce costs, raise productivity, and improve customer service, but also promote faster and more informed decision-making.

With a well-planned approach, organizations can assure the productive flow of information in today's business environment. Supplying the missing link in the chain is a carefully thought-out Output Management process that provides appropriate functionality, flexibility, is relatively easy to utilize and support, and falls within an affordable price range, assuring a positive return on investment. Collectively, time, resource, and budget considerations are at the heart of Output Management technology.

The Information Chain

Information and its flow is the lifeblood of most organizations. Whether it's electronic or printed, it all comes down to accessing information. Information is consistently used to make decisions or trigger activity in order to complete a business task. This activity spans the entire enterprise-from product specs to product release, from a purchase order to final payment, from a customer order through delivery and paymentthe chain is set in place with the process being made up of a series of producer/user linkages.

Regardless of the specific activity in which the user is engaged, it's universally apparent that for the most part the "info user" wants the "info producer" to provide complete and accurate data, deliver it to the appropriate location, and make that delivery at the optimum time. Having the right information in the right place at the right time is essential for business leadership and maintaining a competitive advantage.

Systematically, information producers create forms, documents, and reports by using various applications. These applications convert selected data into meaningful presentations, most as print files, so the information can be viewed. Information users are those who need the information to complete a business task or activity. They can be internal users such as account executives, purchasing managers, financial analysts, and HR professionals who deal with mass volumes of output, (i.e., reports, invoices, statements, checks, and documents). Customers, suppliers, business partners, and outside service providers who may be external to the organization may also be recipients of the same information. Information is passed along this chain from one point to another, completing each step in a business process inside the organization and/or between related external entities.

Information Distribution

Is The Key

Considering the information explosion over the last decade, organizations have much less trouble creating information than making the best and most efficient use of it. The difficulty is getting the information into the hands of the users quickly, prompting action and timely decision making. Key to the process is time of delivery to the user. Clearly, if problems exist in distributing business information, the organization's performance suffers, resulting in:

Wasted Resources.

Inaccessible, lost, delayed output, which increase operating expense, but is often overlooked because it occurs sporadically, in small amounts dispersed throughout the organization. The cumulative effect is increased equipment and maintenance costs, higher consumables expense and wasted time resources for producers and users. Information users who lose unrecoverable time may become frustrated by delays, less efficient in processing their work, and often become suspicious of the accuracy of the information.

* Delivery Failures.

There is little value in producing information if it never gets to the intended consumer. Not only is the creator's time wasted, the user may be delayed or prevented from completing a vital business function. Costs may multiply if the failure is discovered and it's necessary to reproduce the documents. An even greater impact occurs when a critical document, such as a customer order, finds its way into the proverbial "black hole".

* Distribution Roadblocks.

Technical incompatibility or geographic separation is becoming an ever-increasing issue as organizations move from centralized to decentralized or distributed environments. Distribution roadblocks can be caused by contentious business applications or differences in operating systems. These barriers can result in extensive manual resource usage, wasted time, and lost efficiency.

* Higher Administrative Expenses.

The lack of an Output Management strategy and comprehensive solution results in more expenditure to correct problems or reproduce printed documents.

The Challenge

Any one of these negative impacts can usually be avoided with the right tools and the proper Output Management strategy. More than ever, Output Management is becoming increasingly important and more difficult to implement. With the proliferation of mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, and consolidation of IT centers, environments are now a mixed bag of computing technologies with a tendency towards a more heterogeneous collection of platforms, operating systems, networks, and printers. This disparity gives rise to a highly diverse technological infrastructure that is not optimized for exchanging or distributing information, producers and users.

Therein lies the challenge. IT professionals are charged with deploying and managing information as though all software and hardware were designed to integrate into a totally cohesive system. As organizations attempt to address this challenge, they begin to realize the commitment and investment required to ease the inevitable information distribution logjam. That is why a commitment to an appropriate and accurate Output Management strategy is so important. The organization that adopts an evolving strategy for delivery of mission critical reports and documents using an automated and mechanized processing model ensures lower costs, greater control, higher quality, and more timely delivery. This is the organization that will then have a competitive edge.

The Solution--Establishing An

Output Management Strategy

First and foremost, the key to developing a successful Output Management strategy is to organize and establish a steering committee while appointing a project leader with the appropriate organizational, technical, business, and political skills to ensure success. This committee must be focused on researching and cultivating the best Output Management strategy for the organization.

Although they may share common experiences and face similar challenges, organizations operate differently and are exposed to different business pressures. That's why they must look for solutions that can accommodate their idiosyncrasies. Regardless of the differences and varying needs of enterprises, forming an appropriate strategy should generally incorporate the following steps:

Step 1: Set Initial (Best Guess) Goals. These goals should be based on what is currently known about the organization's information distribution requirements and output-related issues. The strategysetting process will provide for the refinement of these goals as the organization proceeds through the additional steps.

Step 2: Audit and Define Current Output Environment. This involves reviewing with information users and documenting the details of how they utilize the documents they receive, what they do with them, and their suggestions as to what could be done to improve the usage of the documents or the delivery process. The audit process should provide enough information to assess and refine the goals established in Step 1, help define measurements, and establish objectives and timeframes for meeting those objectives. The Audit process should include:

* Identification and categorization of documents by type;

* Determination of who receives and uses the information, how the document, form or report is used, frequency of production, retention period, and how often it is modified;

* Quantification of distributed volumes along with associated costs of production;

* Documentation of the current archival process;

* Evaluation of whether the document should be distributed for localized or remote printing;

* Consideration of the document as a candidate for electronic distribution;

* Determination as to whether or not a form or document can benefit from employing a postprocessing or an enhancement solution that provides custom formatting, or the merger of raw streamed data with custom templates, thus eliminating pre-printed forms.

Step 3: Conduct Technical Assessment. This involves the identification of the technologies that can assist the enterprise in achieving its specific strategic goals for Output Management. At this juncture, selection criteria unique to the specific enterprise should be established. Some technologies may already be employed by the organization and need enhancements while others may not be in place but need to be identified from available solutions in the marketplace.

Step 4: Cost and ROI Analysis. Once selection criteria have been established for the technology components that are uniquely required to satisfy the Output Management needs of the enterprise, design architecture and specific technological solutions are identified. It is of utmost importance that the associated costs, savings, and ROI for each piece be carefully analyzed. Organizations that wish to achieve maximum benefits from an Output Management initiative must understand their needs, the capabilities of the products, and satisfy themselves that the economic returns on their investments are more than justified.

Step 5: Finalize Goals. OM goals should be aligned with the organization's overall business goals and priorities based on a solid understanding of the business requirements. Goals should be finalized and with the appropriate consensus, a Cost and ROI analysis solution should be selected based on the technology assessment conducted in Step 3. The strategy, goals, and tactical objectives must be clear, well documented, and, most importantly, strongly supported by the responsible tea leaders and senior management.

Step 6: Buy-In. Work toward senior management buy-in and commitment to the OM strategic: plan in order to ensure success. This can best be accomplished by communicating clearly the challenges that are faced in the collection and dissemination of information, identifying the solutions that will meet these challenges, and succinctly presenting the cost and benefits of a successful implementation of an OM initiative to the organization.

SteP 7: Establish and Implement OM Vision. Organize a list of key components such as hardware, software, and support services which will make up the OM architecture and a strategy checklist to monitor the implementation of the vision.

Step 8: Continuous Follow-up. Once in place, the Output Management process should be examined and re-evaluated at regularly scheduled intervals. For its continued success ask the following key questions:

* Is this the most productive method of getting information from point "A" to point "B"?

* Is the information still required?

* Have retention periods been modified?

* Should another media form be considered (i.e., electronic document vs. hard copy)?

Throughout the entire strategic planning process, the project team focuses on discovering the most productive methods for the acquisition, archival, distribution, viewing, and management of computer output from and to anywhere (internally and/or externally) in the organization. At the same time, the team looks at strategies that exploit state-of-the-art technologies while protecting the organization's current IT investments. Ultimately, the Output Management strategy should be easy to administer, ensure security, dependability, availability, and integrate well with all the other organization's management solutions.

Create Easy Access

Another goal for any organization should be to adopt solutions that provide quick and easy access to documents, whether in electronic form or physically printed, regardless of their location on the network. The solutions selected should perform well across multiple platforms. They should have a common look and feel and provide centralized control and a single point of administration for distribution. This output may range from legacy reports created on a mainframe to documents created in the client/server environment or those created on a remote workstation.

Selection Criteria

By carefully considering a set of selection criteria that assists in identifying the differences in product features, function, and pricing, organizations can avoid the pitfalls of a hasty technology assessment. As a result, organizations have an opportunity to select products that are the appropriate fit. Key is considering the core architecture and system components that will beneficially impact the Output Management process and system design for the future. It's essential that the appointed committee research and analyze Output Management directions and trends. Above all, it's absolutely necessary to choose options that have high probability of fulfillment in order to avoid going down dead-end paths. The criteria selected for assessing and selecting the OM solution for today and tomorrow must be dependent on a careful study of current and educated estimates of future requirements. Examples for carefully selecting criteria include:

* System Modularity - Major functions and capabilities divided into a well-integrated set of modules so that the system architects have the flexibility to elect those components that best fit the organizations needs.

* System Scalability - Decide the size of the environment to be managed now and in the future. Can the solution manage a large network of output devices? Is it capable of distributing documents to a large number of users? Is the product expandable to handle the expected growth?

* Environment CompatibilityDoes the product support the existing operating systems, networks, printers, fax machines, e-mail, and Web servers? Will it remain compatible and provide this support in the future?

* Data Collection Capability - Ask the questions, is output data independently passed through the system without transforming formats? Or, does the capability exist to automatically transform data streams so that they can be reliably reproduced on any designated output device? Will the product handle multiple page description languages (PDLs) such as PCL, PostScript, AFP, along with ASCII data streams? Does the system scan and parse the incoming data stream to determine its type or characteristics?

Post -in And Document

Enhancement

This functional area of OM technology deals with taking raw data and creating the completed document external to the application before distribution to various output devices. Are products being considered in this area capable of:

* Turning unformatted data streams into versatile professional looking documents by dynamically determining formatting requirements? This includes fonts, type sizes, color, margins, orientation, plexing at print time based on document properties, content, and/or characteristics.

* Automatically merging and/or overlaying data with forms or adding graphic objects during the output process? This is important in eliminating the need for pre-printed forms such as bills, invoices, and statements. Handling custom documents and special printing processes such as check printing?

Delivery Considerations

While most organizations initially focus on hardcopy output systems, electronic delivery is becoming increasingly common and should also be managed. Both are important in evaluating the delivery support mechanism. It's important to ask the question, does the solution under consideration provide for a simple and direct approach for delivery of documents to document-viewing systems, COMreplacement, or COLD (Computer Output to Laser Disk) systems?

Logs And Management Reporting

Understand that the OM software must be capable of generating reports. Customizing these reports is essential to reflect the organization's needs. The internal reports must detail when documents were delivered, the targeted device, path, or method of delivery, and to whom they are delivered. These reports should be available in hard copy or accessible for online viewing.

Security Considerations

Confidentiality of information is of the utmost importance. Increasingly, security professionals are recognizing the escalating importance of reliable security and realize that a failure to provide these services can hinder a company's ability to meet its business objectives. A large part of the risk assessment phase should involve careful review of individual company policies and practices and include a well-understood assessment of the value of company information. Clearly defining security procedures for staff to follow is mandatory to a seamless outcome.

Elements Of Comprehensive

OM Solutions

A robust Output Management solution is more an architecture than a platform specific solution. It utilizes a suite of integrated document delivery and management services that allows information to flow easily across operational units. OM systems are the information delivery backbone of an organization and act as a support to internal users, strategic partners, customers, and vendors.

The modules most often incorporated into OM software are designed to ingest print streams, examine their wrappers (descriptive properties), or interrogate the data to ascertain its recipient or destination. Ideally, a robust computer OM system should provide a single cross-platform solution to tackle the challenges of maintaining output integrity within a mixture of open and popular proprietary system environments.

Expectations And Benefits

Today, computer systems generate massive amounts of information. Distribution of this information requires a format designed for the consumption and comprehension of the end user. As information is proliferated, the number of documents also increases. Load leveling and report broadcasting capabilities were once giant steps toward OM technology. However, organizations have migrated their information distribution needs to more sophisticated paradigms. Software that improves document-handling efficiency, tracking capability, error recovery processes, and transfer output multiple platforms are now considered a minimum functionality for an entry-level OM system.

Quale Reductions In Costs

Reducing costs can be achieved through the employment of tools that print only what is needed, where and on the most appropriate output device. Real savings can be realized through:

Paper and forms. Ensure that printed output is kept to a minimum reducing the amount of paper consumed within an organization.

* Handling. Minimizing the amount of printed output reduces handling, shipping, and mailing costs.

* Cost of hardware and maintenance. Reducing the amount of printed output reduces supplies and maintenance costs.

* Device sharing. OM technology can eliminate the tight coupling between the system the application is creating and the output and location where it is printed. Significant cost savings are realized by assigning print jobs to the most appropriate device. Support and training. Printing problems constitute a significant burden to many IT help desks. Output Management solutions can reduce IT involvement by increasing reliability of the printing process and making information about the printing process more available.

Productivity And Efficiency Gains

Enhanced productivity and improved operational efficiency are natural byproducts of OM tools. These byproducts include:

* Expediting distribution. Localized printing at remote user locations severely reduces delivery time and cuts "in-transit mysterious disappearance".

* Delivery assurance. Without guaranteed, confirmed delivery the organization is exposed to serious potential losses. Even non-critical information should arrive at its proper destination to avoid delays and wasted resources.

* Guaranteed access. For various reasons, documents sometimes need to be reprinted, which can occur long after the output was created. OM technology provides this capability without the need to re-run the application and recreate the document, saving time and computing resources.

* IT operating improvements. A solid OM solution frees up operator and system administrator time and responsibility while minimizing support burdens and eliminating time-wasting issues like stalled print queues and work-arounds for inoperative or malfunctioning printers.

* Tailored or targeted content. Many operating processes produce substantial amounts of output irrelevant to most recipients. More effective packaging of the information tailored to individual user needs improves effectiveness.

Continuous Enhancement

Ensures A Competitive Advantage

The best Output Management strategy is the one that results in the optimum use of the organization's people, time, and money. In this era of "instant access" and ever-increasing sources of information, organizations and their IT departments are faced with a common problem: how to come up with a cost efficient method of satisfying huge demand for the delivery of larger volumes of complex documents, utilizing less labor in a shorter period of time.

The missing link in the information delivery chain is the solutions available in OM technology. Through Output Management capabilities, organizations can meet the challenges that are currently taking away from their bottom line. In addition, organizations must come to the realization that the need to invest regularly and commit to continuously enhancing their OM capabilities is essential to productive and timely dissemination of valuable information. In today's competitive business society, every advantage counts. Implementing an appropriate and successful OM solution could prove to be the best advantage of all.