Digitisation of mail - a strategic issue for companies

• the multiplication and digitisation of exchanges,
• the arrival of Back-Offices for customer relationships
• the integration in open information systems has become a major priority, that directly affects company performance.

This phenomenon also concerns administrations that favour digital exchanges in order to improve communication. In this context, the digitisation of standard mail is an important factor and has been increasing over recent years - especially where large volumes are large.

Mass digitisation allows companies to optimise their processes while archiving received mail. It also permits companies to communicate securely, notably in the financial sector. Generally speaking, the increasing complexity of operations, legal evolutions (Sarbanes Oxley, Bâle II…) and the requirement of optimising customer relations all point to the digitisation of mail. Digitisation can also improve traceability, and help to prevent fraud.

Deploying a mass-scanning project requires a high level of preparation and all the related complex technological and organisational aspects. In fact, mail management does not mean just “simple scanning”. The whole process must be examined - from the reception of documents to their integration in the IT systems. Lengthy processing work must be undertaken: scanning, converting, document validation, indexing, classifying, hosting, archiving, rights management and all these elements must be handled individually. These projects are managed industrially and can be adapted to all requirements.

According to Markess International, 2010 should be an outstanding year for the integration of these industrial processes by companies. This boom can be simply explained by the economic benefits. In fact, the digitisation of mail is now possible thanks to a reduction in initial costs. The accessibility of the process has also been accompanied by the increasing technological advances (scanners, digital document reading and recognition, Web technologies, specialised software…) that help to continually improve the quality of the services. This process has evolved and improved, both in terms of hardware and software.

Another element explaining the boom in mail digitisation and IT integration is the advent of collaborative working processes in companies, especially in the management of customer relations. Customer information must be accessible from anywhere (i.e. call centres). Companies are therefore able to optimise their customer relations, process different requests ….Electronic mail such as invoices can also be processed electronically .

The industrial digitisation process of mail will continue to develop more and more - mainly for companies with a large amount of incoming information in courier form. It is important to integrate the mail into IT systems in order to obtain the best results with this type of project.

To subscribe to the world of e-Management, the processes must be connected with a vast network of electronic information and digitisation management. This will be replaced in the medium-to-long term. (Collaborative web, e-mail, fiscal dematerialisation, EDI)