A personal touch is required to fully understand each customer's document management needs

Solution providers that sell to a wide range of vertical markets report that interest in document management is high across the board. Small companies, mid-sized businesses and multinational enterprises all understand the potential efficiency and security benefits of a successful electronic-document system.

But that doesn’t mean success for each group comes from the same cookie-cutter solution. “There’s a lot of interest in the SMB [small and mid-sized business] market from companies that handle documents by putting them in large file cabinets,” says Dave Brownlee of CamCorpUSA, a solution provider in Lakeland, Mich. But attractive electronic solutions for these customers are those “simple enough that they don’t require an IT guy to run them, and customers don’t want to pay a lot of money for them,” he adds.

On the other hand, large corporations may be willing to spend the resources to purchase and manage DM systems capable of handling the complexities of terabytes of documents spread throughout a global organization.

How do solution providers satisfy the document management needs of the wide range of unique customers in their practices? Success starts with a thorough and reliable assessment of a customer’s business needs and an inventory of the current printing and imaging environment, solution providers say.

Assessments require a two-part process. The first determines what printing hardware and software the customer is already using, and a number of electronic inventorying tools from printer vendors and third-party suppliers can speed this effort (for details see “New Tools Make Assessments Easy,” in Focus On Upselling.

Automated assessment tools offer a fast and accurate way to create an infrastructure snapshot, but Brownlee warns they may not provide the full picture. “Electronically, we can find all the printers that are on the network, but you then have to go around and find all those inkjets and other printers that aren’t networked and the company didn’t know it had,” he says.

Technology snapshots also shouldn’t be the focus of an assessment. “More than anything, we look to help our customers either solve a business problem or improve their business performance,” says Jeff Odom, CEO of TCS, a Dallas-based solution provider. “We talk about business problems and opportunities first. And we spend quite a bit of time on that.”

Joe Axmacher, solutions director for integrated document solutions at CompuCom Systems, also in Dallas, uses the inventory information to create a flow chart that diagrams usage patterns to match duty cycle ratings with the amount of printing demand seen in each area. The flow charts also provide a foundation for discussions with his clients about how to balance printing and imaging deployments.

But he warns assessments aren’t just charts and statistics. “You have to take into consideration the company’s culture,” he says. “Mary, who has spent 35 years with the company, may have earned the right to her desktop printer in her company’s eyes, even though it might cost $200 a month to support it.”

Not so for employees who covet a rogue desktop printer when multiple networked multifunction products (MFPs) operate within a 20-foot radius. “You can’t get the utilization rates companies need out of standalone printers, except in instances where an individual desktop printer is required for a certain volume,” says Axmacher. “Generally speaking you need to network attached printers for maximum efficiency.”