MANAGE, COMMUNICATE, THRIVE

Business Intelligence: Using Data You Already Have

Everybody is talking about business intelligence these days -- techniques to identify and analyze business data to drive improvements and increase profit.  After all, the old adage “good data equals good decisions” holds true if you aim to make better business decisions.

But the notion of “business intelligence” is often wrapped up in costly and overly complicated data warehousing technology that can ultimately sidetrack your efforts. A recent report from Gartner found that more than 35 percent of the top 5,000 global companies regularly fail to make insightful decisions about significant changes in their business and markets. Is this because of a lack of data?  Or is it more likely that the systems used to mine that data are so complex that meaningful business decisions are caught in the technical miasma of the system itself?

Our answer is centered on simple, straightforward ways to use the information that you are already gathering. For example, every bank can identify how many incoming checks it must process; this data is already available. And since the cost to process a paper check is more expensive than an electronic transaction the bank may want to focus on programs to move these customers to a debit card.

Real business intelligence is less dependent upon technology than the thoughtfulness that is applied to the strategy. Indeed, straightforward analysis of the data you already have can uncover significant process improvements and improved business practices. In the end, “transpromo” strategies, managed print strategies and other process improvements all depend on the ability to apply intelligence to the data you have collected.

Contact us today to find out how our products, like Statement2Web and Managed Print4U, can easily provide you with data to drive intelligent business decisions that will make a real world, bottom line difference in your operation.

Marketing Event Automation - Customer Acquisition and Retention

 

Marketing event automation can make the most of correspondence to your customers. While the idea of personalized, data-driven documents is not necessarily a new concept, what is new is the practical ability to put the approach into place. Easy to use and easy to implement tools like Statement2Web help you more fruitfully leverage the information you have about your customers to target their specific needs and interests.

Improving customer acquisition and retention with personalized correspondence is less about the technology and more about the intelligence behind how you use the technology. Marketing event automation allows you to put a thoughtful marketing strategy into place and then be assured of a nearly “lights out” operation by automatically triggering events and customer correspondence.

For example, when a new customer enrolls a welcome letter can be automatically generated that includes an “up-sell” offer (e.g., “get a free savings account…get a great rate on a certificate of deposit...refinance and reduce your mortgage payments,” etc.).  You don’t have to be a marketing genius; and instead of having to execute each correspondence manually Statement2Web simply triggers the marketing event to run automatically.   

The result is more comprehensive, less error prone and less costly customer communications with a superior level of consistency (in both printed and online correspondence). Just turn it on and measure the results in the reporting feature of Statement2Web.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help through our network of independent and certified Statement2Web partners.

Call 770-814-4284 or email info@outsourcemanagement.com

 

The Impact of Health Care Reform on Member Correspondence Systems

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Podcast Sponsored by OMI, Hosted by Kevin Craine

Whatever the implications of the new legislation, we can be sure that the process to create and produce member correspondence will be greatly impacted. The volume of communications will rise dramatically to respond to the many market changes. Member correspondence requirements will become increasingly demanding as plan structures evolve. Insurers will need to initiate new systems, products and processes to appropriately comply with the new law and the ability to efficiently manage member correspondence associated with legislative changes - and there will be many - will be vitally important. The pressure for cost containment will become intense as insurers react, often rapidly and without a great deal of clarity, to the new demands in the market place.

Companies can respond to these implications in two ways: with great efficiency or with great inefficiency.  Either way, the results could mean the difference between survival and failure. Indeed, how insurers manage their document processes will have a direct bearing on their ability to navigate the transition and how well they will fare in a post-reform market place.

Many health insurance organizations will struggle to respond to health care reform due in large part to the current state of their member correspondence systems. What is needed is greater "document agility."

 

On-demand consumable management; Save Money & Eliminate Frustration

Have you ever gone to print a report for an important client meeting only to find that your printer was out of ink and you don’t have any toner cartridges in stock? This can be frustrating and costly, especially when you have to stop work, drive to the local office supply store and pick up the supplies you need (at retail price), and hurry back to the office so you can print your job.

On the other hand, to avoid running out at that inopportune moment you can choose to stock your shelves full of supplies. But money is tight, and now you’ve tied up cash in an inventory of materials that may sit for months before they are used. Even worse, your supplies may be stolen or damaged, or even go obsolete as new printers and copiers are brought in.

There is a better way. Large corporations have for years adopted a “just in time” approach print consumables management; they have the procurement personnel needed to make on-demand fulfillment work. But if you are smaller company, it’s likely that you simply run to the store when you need more and otherwise hope for the best.

The benefits of an on-demand approach to print consumables and supplies is an area that should not be overlooked; especially for small and medium-sized organizations that do not have sophisticated procurement systems and dedicated stockroom staff. “Managed print” is not just about print; it is also about managing the materials and consumables that go into each printout or copy.  

Now you can take advantage on-demand fulfillment even if you don’t have an enterprise-sized organization. Our certified Managed Print4U partners will put a program in place that will monitor your activity and assess your volume and demand. From there, we will monitor the supplies on hand and purchase inventory only when you need it. This way you won’t have your precious working capital tied up in obsolete inventory. Perhaps more importantly, you won’t run out of a critical item at just the wrong moment.

Contact us today to find out how you can benefit from an on-demand fulfillment program with one of our certified Managed Print4U partners.

Call 770-814-4284 or email info@outsourcemanagement.com

Online Statements - Driving Savings & Benefits

Despite the increasing digitization of the world today, paper is still a chief mechanism of communicating with customers. The Postal Service estimates that U.S. households receive over 150 billion pieces of mail each year. While about 75 percent is “junk” mail, bills, statements and other transactional documents make up the remaining volume.

Ever since the first electronic bill presentment and payment solutions in the late 1990’s, the notion of paperless billing has been a holy grail for many businesses and organizations. But until recently making the transition to electronic billing has been too complex and expensive for many organizations to consider. But a new breed of solutions like Statement2Web allows you to migrate from paper to electronic statement delivery without the high cost and high level of support needed in the past.

If you have considered moving your customer statements to an online delivery mechanism in the past, now may be a good time to reconsider how Statement2Web can assist in making your strategy a reality. One clear benefit is in postage – by far the biggest expense associated with printing and mailing customer statements. Indeed, the cost of postage has risen 24 percent in the past eight years and organizations often struggle to make the most of postal savings in the face of ever-changing USPS regulations. Moving to online delivery is one way to battle these rising operating costs.

Online statement delivery can dramatically improve your cash flow as well, since customers are more likely to pay outstanding bills more quickly in an online environment. One click is all it takes to pay the outstanding balance vs. having envelopes sit on desks and in in-baskets waiting for attention. This is an important improvement to cash flow, especially in today’s economy.  

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help through our network of independent and certified Statement2Web partners.

Call 770-814-4284 or email info@outsourcemanagement.com

Managed Print Services – Gain Cost & Operational Benefits

There is a problem confronting small and mid-sized businesses today: mis-managed office printing and copying. Pick any department or any business process and you can bet that printers and copiers are essential tools to get the job done. But despite their importance to company performance, printers and copiers are rarely managed as a corporate asset. Often budgeting is fragmented among various departments and resource planning is for the most part based on proposals from incumbent vendors rather than internal strategy. This inevitably results in increased operating costs, sub-optimal performance of the environment, and lost opportunity for process improvement.

Printers and copiers are an environment that is ripe for greater efficiency and cost savings. Analysts estimate that companies in America spend 6% of their annual revenue on work group printers, copiers and scanners. Ironically, despite significant advancements in office technology most companies struggle to control and minimize the costs associated with office documents. As a result, workgroup printing and copying remains an untapped opportunity for savings and improvement in most organizations today.

One way to get your output under control is through Managed Print Services (MPS) – a strategy to analyze and manage document output devices throughout your company with an eye to minimize the costs. Other benefits come from enhanced productivity, increased efficiency and improved environmental sustainability (to name a few).  

The best Managed Print strategies follow this famous adage: Good data equals good decisions. You must first have a clear understanding of a number of benchmarks in order to optimize your environment. Important data points include device usage, service and uptime, supplies and consumables, and peak demand; among many others. Without a good baseline analysis even the best MPS strategy can run off course. But gathering and analyzing “speeds and feeds” is only one part of the MPS equation. You must also purposefully monitor and examine the environment with an eye to constantly adjust machines, features and placements as needed to ensure optimal performance and cost-effectiveness. Organizations often focus their attention on printers and copiers only every few years when it is time to renegotiate a lease agreement. Ongoing management is needed to ensure both your machines and your vendor contracts perform as expected.

Getting the most from MPS requires an independent view. Most copier companies and print equipment suppliers provide “fleet management” as a value-added service, but these vendor supplied resources typically lack the perspective and motivation required to ensure the best results. After all, vendors and suppliers often benefit financially from inefficiencies in your printer and copier environment. An independent and vendor-neutral resource is essential in order to perform unbiased analysis and most effectively manage the ongoing performance of your fleet.  

 
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help through our network of independent and certified Managed Print4U partners.
 
Call 770-814-4284 or email info@outsourcemanagement.com

OMI Sponsors Interview Jeff Hayzlett "The Mirror Test"

OMI provider of Statement2web and Managed Print4u is pleased to sponsor the Document Strategy Podcast - Episode 21 - with host Kevin Craine and interview with Jeff Hayzlett, the best selling author of the book "The Mirror Test," on the podcast. Jeff was, until just recently, the chief marketing officer for Kodak. Known for his outspoken appearances on numerous TV reality shows, including Celebrity Apprentice with Donald Trump, Jeff has built his career on having the ability to get people to look up and pay attention to the problems at hand. And as Jeff points out, if you aren't willing to look at what's working and what isn't - and then take the necessary steps to fix them -you are in for a rough ride.

Listen to the Interview with Jeff Hayzlett:

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Transpromo Communication Strategies in the Real World

There has been a lot of buzz about “Transpromo” recently – the concept of customizing bills and statements with personalized messaging aimed at wooing existing customers with additional products and services. By including relevant and personalized marketing content, monthly statements can rise above the din of competitive messages and transform into a beneficial marketing edge. And since they require an action, bills and statements rarely find their way into the trash.

 

Unfortunately, Transpromo is an overused word and an underused technique. As a result, many organizations are missing significant opportunity to build a competitive edge. One reason for this is that most strategies touted by industry pundits and large systems suppliers have been simply too complex and costly for most organizations to consider in the past. But times are changing. Transpromo technologies and concepts have matured, making both the complexity and the price points more manageable. Now is the time to take another look at how transpromo communication strategies can make a difference or otherwise risk being left behind by your competition.  

 

How can you begin to take advantage of transpromo in the real world?  One way is to start with your online customers. After all, if you have already converted a portion of your customers to online statements – through Statement2Web, for example –  you already have a discrete group of customers that are perfect candidates for a transpromo strategy. These customers already interact with you online, plus you have a great deal information about what they read, what they click, and what they buy. This makes it easy to initiate transpromotional marketing for additional products and services -- you have a trusted communications channel with your customer paired with a wealth of information about their interests and account history.  

 

 

Proving the success of your transpromo efforts is easier with your online customers vs. a similar campaign in print. By virtue of being online, it is easy to capture data on what your customer clicks, and what information is read, and then track the response. You can even automate a follow up with an email, direct mail, or a phone call. Ultimately, your online customers can be a great test bed for broader cross-media marketing initiatives; once a campaign or approach has been proven effective in the online environment it can be moved out to other more traditional print-based marketing channels.

 

The bottom line is this: Don’t get left behind when it comes to transpromo. Contact OMI today to learn more about how we can help you make the most of simple strategies that will grow your business and build customer relationships.

 

Call 770-814-4284 or email info@outsourcemanagement.com

OMI Sponsors Go Green! Protect the Environment & Bottom Line Webinar

Go Green! Protect the Environment & Your Bottom Line |Live on Thursday, March 11th at 2:00 PM EDT | 11:00 AM PDT 

Upcoming Live Event On-Demand Sponsored by OMI:

                   

Just a few short years ago, the buzz was all about "going green." Then the bottom fell out of the economy, and everyone's focus shifted to "saving green." But the two concepts are not mutually exclusive. In fact, this shift in our collective consciousness offers credit unions not only an opportunity to adopt more sustainable and responsible practices but to expand their business to meet these changing consumer demands.

From electronic statements to wind/solar power offices, financial institutions are meeting the needs of a constituency with increasing awareness and concern about the environment. In many cases, these practices and investments can yield immediate and long-term savings for the organization. Some can actually help add to your bottom line.

Join us for this CUtv event which covers several areas in further greening of your business, including:

Sans Paper: No longer is it necessary to kill a forest each month to provide monthly account statements. Nor is it necessary to turn over your paper money . . . for more paper.

Transportation: Have you switched your lending marketing focus to attract more "hybrid" auto loans? Or perhaps you can join the growing number of credit unions who are meeting their demand for bicycle loans.

Green Architecture: The public is increasingly more aware of and more demanding of their retail and service partners to be at the forefront in energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and sustainable resources.

Green Architecture, Part 2: Many homebuilders are leading with environmental benefits. Consumers are looking for houses that both fiscally and environmentally responsible -- and lenders to with similar values to partner with them.

Remote Deposit Capture: Another tool to help consumers save time, money, and gas with fewer trips to deposit checks -- allowing staff to concentrate on areas of customer service that require face-to-face attention. 

 

OMI Reduces Paper At Pacific Northwest Medical Center

                                                                     

The old adage, “good data equals good decisions,” holds true for this leading medical center in Washington State that recently adopted Print Management Software to better analyze and monitor their workgroup printing environment. With approximately 500 printers spread across a 13 site campus, it became clear to the team of IT analysts that a more complete and flexible business intelligence tool was needed in order to encourage users to reduce printing and adopt electronic document delivery using PDF. The goal was to build user awareness concerning the total cost of printing to the organization. The team also sought to better administer printer leases and vendor billing as well.

After evaluating several competing options, OMI was selected to deploy software solution enterprise wide. OMI provided a flexible and complete print tracking software that monitors printers and printing to help organizations track user activity, identify problems and quantify the total cost of printing. According to the systems analysts on the team, the new solution has bolstered awareness and visibility concerning the environment across the organization. As a result, they are now in position to build meaningful strategies to reduce printing costs by moving to an increasingly electronic environment.

 

 

          Hear the Results!

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