Managing the costs of document processes in Europe​

Business critical processes are at the heart of every successful business, ensuring collaboration between employees and customers, while enabling real-time and informed decision making. The Ricoh Process Efficiency Index reveals that organisations across Europe are spending approximately €147 billion per year on managing these business critical document processes.

These costs equate to 362 million hours per year of employee time spent managing and maintaining document processes. This does not include the time spent by employees across other workplace disciplines that are managing vital information. So while the total estimated cost of €147 billion per year clearly demonstrates how important it is for CIOs to focus on information processes, the actual costs of these are likely to be much higher. It is clear that significant time is spent processing business critical documents. However the study shows that those responsible overwhelmingly acknowledge that there is room to increase efficiency.

Research participants were asked to consider the impacts of optimising their existing processes. They estimated there could be a five per cent increase in profitability to the bottom line. This would equate to a profit increase of approximately €46 billion across European organisations.