Working in partnership with a global Managed Print Services provider, Alaris, a Kodak Alaris business, re-engineered the document management processes of an international bank’s UK operations. Alaris Managed Content Services (MCS) provided transparency and control over the information capture infrastructure, reduced the number of scanning workflow processes by 90 percent, dramatically lowered the total cost of ownership (TCO) and significantly increased productivity. In just 12 months, more than one million private banking transactions were processed 24 hours earlier, a significant benefit in an industry where time literally is money.
Challenge
Standalone scanners sat outside the Managed Print Services agreement with the bank and as a result, it wasn’t benefiting from the cost efficiency and productivity gains it had achieved within its print infrastructure. The bank had a multi-vendor fleet of around 160 devices from multiple suppliers across all its key sites, with no consistency in pricing, performance or service level agreements (SLAs).
Procurement and decision-making was managed locally, with purchasing handled on an ad-hoc basis, as one lease expired or a machine reached end-of-life, it was simply replaced. The bank had no visibility or control over the fleet - no single point of contact, accountability, or consistent advice.
It was difficult to fully understand how many legacy scanners were inefficient or under-utilized, when individual machines needed to be replaced or upgraded, what volumes were being output and on which devices, and most importantly, there was no way of monitoring or controlling how much, in total, the bank was spending.
Approach
Complementary to the Managed Print Services offering, Alaris Managed Content Services provide visibility, control and management, as well as continuous improvement of the information capture environment for its clients.
Alaris’ focus was on demonstrating how through MCS, its methodology for optimizing the capture infrastructure, the bank would be able to leverage new processes and techniques to maximize efficiency, improve workflow, speed up business processes and increase productivity.
Alaris MCS is built on three pillars: Assess, Optimize and Manage. Consultants assess the environment to uncover valuable process insights, ensuring that the capture infrastructure delivers the highest productivity and value for the business. Ongoing optimization of the capture infrastructure involves recommending and implementing changes to support the organization in achieving business objectives. The third component is managing all capture assets and improving workflow, to bring greater control and profitability to its customers’ business.
Solution
The first step was to enable the bank to benefit from Alaris’ multi-vendor servicing capability. Service was attached to each device, end-of-life devices were automatically replaced with Alaris recommended scanners, and a process was put in place whereby all incremental scanner purchases would be made leveraging the existing purchasing channel with the MPS provider. For additional benefit at an individual user level, technical support was made available via the same call center that managed print related service call-outs.
The bank immediately realized a reduction in the high costs associated with managing multiple suppliers. Alaris also introduced a set of consistent and improved SLAs, and set out its intent through ongoing optimization to further improve on these SLAs, as well as deliver an even lower TCO in line with the MPS concept.
Transforming the bank’s operations was a gradual process; initially, Alaris’ solutions architects identified a number of ways to reduce cost, improve efficiency and minimize the risk of human error in the bank’s centralized scanning facility. Documents associated with banking transactions across the branch network as well as all incoming mail were transported by road to this business-critical operation, where a staff of around 16 people worked multiple shifts from 10am to 1am.
Alaris optimized the scanning capability, replacing the 26 legacy scanners with two ibml intelligent capture solutions and four high-volume production scanners, a move that immediately reduced the time spent on document preparation and scanning. A disaster recovery solution was put in place and standard classification and naming conventions established, minimizing the risk of information being lost or misfiled and ensuring the right data was put into the right place in the quickest possible time.
A similar assessment was conducted across six satellite hubs nationwide. Rationalizing the fleet, replacing legacy scanners with new models that were fit for purpose, delivered increased speed and accuracy of throughput. Furthermore, the new production models enabled staff to scan information on-site using the same classification, security protocols and naming conventions as in the centralized facility. Importantly, this removed the requirement to transport documents across the country, which typically resulted in a 24-hour delay before the information was available and actionable.
Further savings were achieved by reducing the labor cost associated with managing time-intensive, inefficient processes, freeing up knowledge workers to focus on other business-critical tasks.
As an indication of the importance attached to this improvement process - the bank allocated a 16-strong project management team encompassing IT, security and integration specialists.
Added Value
Designed to both identify and implement business process transformation initiatives throughout the contract lifetime, MCS delivers significant added-value to clients.
Three years into the contract term, Alaris created and implemented a sustainable and future-proof solution to improve bulk document processing across the branch network. The bank was looking to enhance customer service levels by more efficiently managing the documents created in branch as a result of transactions conducted on behalf of its high net worth private banking customers. Typically these were shipped to one of the centralized hubs for scanning.
Alaris worked with the MPS provider to create a customized solution; by writing some specific software code, documents could be scanned on the devices in-branch. Importantly, thanks to the bespoke software, in terms of indexing, classification and naming conventions, the information was processed in exactly the same way as if it had been actioned in one of the centralized hubs. It also incorporated a multi layered prioritization system, which essentially meant these documents could ‘jump the queue’.
Customer Benefits
The bank has reduced the number of scanners in-situ, and successfully migrated from a fleet comprising a large number of standalone, expensive to use and not fit-for-purpose models, to a leaner, more efficient network of production-class workgroup devices.
With procurement now managed centrally, information capture is no longer fragmented and uncontrolled. All new scanners are purchased from a single source and the bank is enjoying a uniform pricing structure, enabling it to accurately budget and account for future expenditure. Plus, continuous optimization and management of the infrastructure through a centrally managed MCS contract, is ensuring ongoing transparency and visibility over usage and spend across all sites.
The bank’s operations are benefiting from increased speed and accuracy within its document-driven processes. Through identifying significant inefficiencies, Alaris has reduced what used to be more than 130 workflow processes to less than ten.
Improving the scanning equipment across seven sites nationwide and enabling information capture to be conducted on-site in the satellite hubs, has eliminated the 24-hour time delay in processing business-critical data.
Other significant savings include the time associated with fleet management; monies previously spent on purchasing, leasing, technical support and maintenance of a multi-vendor fleet; and thanks to a smaller fleet size, a reduction in both energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
The bank conducted a survey asking staff to vote on the best solution implemented in the branches in 2017 and the branch scanning project came out on top.
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