For the second time in the past week, I have been on
calls with prospective clients who previously invested hundreds of thousands of
dollars in an Automated Document Factory (ADF), only to use it as a glorified
job management tool. In these cases, the
“big iron” suppliers seem to be taking advantage of the closed, proprietary
nature of their “solution” to enhance their revenue stream, rather than
enhancing their client’s business.
Automation, by definition, is requiring no or little
control. There is nothing automated (or
beneficial to the user) about requiring a check from a client every time they
want to access their own data or closing off access to production metrics.
I don’t like the term “Automated Document Factory” anyways
because it does not address the two most important things an ADF is supposed to
do:
1) Ensure
the integrity and privacy of printed information [compliance/privacy protection]
2) Provide
business owners with the useable information to better manage their business
[workflow automation]
It is difficult for me to understand how document
processing operations, so reliant on data to produce their jobs, would expect
anything less than 100% real time access to their own production information
from their vendor. Any information
management technology which is based on current technology should be capable of
sharing information and communicating with other software packages without
significant additional investment.
In an era of increased competition for print &
mail volume, print tracking, mail tracking & workflow automation software
must be about helping our clients improve their business (on their terms). Whatever
happened to the concept of making it easy for your customer to do business?
Posts
