‘Resellers should work with organisations to help them reconsider their dependency on paper’

Control your print and you control your document-related risks and costs, states Nuance Communications UK and Ireland sales director Simon Hill. Here, he explains how…

Although online and mobile services have demonstrated significant progress toward paper-free processes, they’ve been slow to break the pervasive reliance on paper and manual tasks that occur behind the scenes.

The complexity, errors and delays inherent in paper-based processes are key contributors to customer dissatisfaction and attrition.

While recent research from the Ponemon Institute shows that the loss of sensitive data costs companies an average of £2.6 million, it’s the damage that can be done to a company’s reputation that’s more difficult to measure. This gives an added impetus for organisations to do all they can to protect their data.

Complex challenges require intelligent solutions. Helping organisations address this challenge needn’t present a challenge to resellers.

From a print or capture perspective, there are solutions available that collaborate effectively with modern Multi-function Printers (MFPs) to meet customer requirements for the security, integrity and confidentiality of their information. For example, when using combined hardware and software, user authorisation is provided through passwords or smartcard authentication, assuring that only authorised staff can access specific networked MFPs and resources. Take Allied Irish Bank. It is already using such a system to good effect.

Nuance’s Imaging Solutions have enhanced the bank’s document security by providing confidential printing through a single swipe-card, which prevents print jobs from falling into the wrong hands. A similar benefit is derived at the University of Warwick, where one of the university’s issues was document security.

Optimising device security shouldn’t neglect document security, yet too few organisations utilise the many security features offered by PDFs. In order to address this, Nuance recently announced a free whitepaper entitled ‘Using PDF documents for more secure document workflows’. It details how Nuance Power PDF’s many security functions – like its secure delivery, document inspection, redaction, encryption and digital rights management capabilities to control document access, inside and outside of the enterprise – combine to create a secure document environment.

As the digital economy prospers, it’s imperative that resellers work with private and public sector organisations to help them reconsider their dependency on paper and the errors it introduces.

With the guidance of resellers, more firms can move to a digital document workflow environment that can help eradicate the risk, uncertainty and costs that arise from continuing to work with paper.

Simon Hill is UK and Ireland sales director at Nuance Communications.
www.nuance.co.uk