More than 80 percent of small/mid-size businesses (SMBs) want to cut paper out of the way they invoice, report financials, manage legal and human resource forms, and handle other time consuming processes, according to a Xerox survey.
The survey of more than 1,000 companies in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany shows respondents expect to make the change during the next 12 months.
Nearly half (46 percent) of respondents confirmed that a significant amount of time is wasted on paper-intensive processes and 6 out of 10 view this as having a major impact on their bottom line. SMBs in Germany (51 percent) and the United States (50 percent) cited they spend the most time, followed by the United Kingdom (43 percent) and France (37 percent).
As SMBs prepare to digitize their paper processes, most will turn to experts for recommendations since only 1 in 5 respondents are aware of existing paper-free solutions in the market. The study shows that 47 percent will go to an office equipment dealer, 1 out of 4 will look to their IT reseller and 37 percent will turn to the product manufacturer.
“Though this survey did not cover India as a region but we are seeing a similar trend emerge amongst the SMBs here. Not just businesses but the Indian government has made digitization a priority for the nation through their Digital India initiative.” said Balaji Rajagopalan, Executive Director- Technology, Channels & International Distributor Operations, Xerox India.
Balaji further added, “This year, we have strengthened our focus on SMB business segment with the launch of Xerox Docucentre SC2020 and ConnectKey enabled iSeries products besides continuing to extend our Managed Print Services to SMBs through our channel partners.”
