At last month's IPMA 2019 conference, Jason Fonner, director of Print Operations at HM Document Solutions, talked about his in-plant's digital transformation journey and the new hardware and software technologies the operation has added. In a new blog, Susan Cotter, senior analyst and program manager at Madison Advisors, talks about the role Madison Advisors played in assisting HM Document Solutions with its transformation, which resulted in the in-plant earning back 20% of the printing that had previously been outsourced.

By Susan Cotter, Senior Program Manager/Analyst

I recently had the pleasure of presenting at the In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) conference with Jason Fonner, Director of Print Operations at HM Document Solutions (HMDS). In 2018, HMDS embarked on its digital transformation journey with the purchase of new hardware and software technologies. Madison Advisors was honored to be selected by HMDS to assist in its digital transformation journey and partner selections.

The presentation, “Digital Transformation using Customer Communications Delivery Hub with Inkjet Technologies,” highlighted best practices and HMDS’ journey towards a successful implementation and winning back print applications that previously had been outsourced. Our audience included decisions makers for in-house printing and mailing operations at various points in their own technology refresh projects.

Our presentation focused on the vital part played by in-house operations due to in-depth knowledge of the enterprise’s business needs and organizational structure. As such, in-house operations have a crucial role in building a center of excellence for enterprises to streamline their customer communication strategies and bridge the gap between online and offline channels. The concept of creating a center of excellence for a project like this was extremely well-received.

We walked our audience through the key steps of a successful transformation roadmap:

1) Developing an optimization strategy
2) Discovery and analysis
3) Creating a target operating model
4) Building a strategic roadmap
5) Partner and technology selection
6) Building business cases and a transformation strategy
7) Integration with chosen partners

HMDS’ center of excellence included subject matter experts from print operations, marketing, finance, risk and product segments. Their digital transformation involved strategic investments in inkjet technologies and partnering with an established Customer Communication Management (CCM) software provider. As a result, the in-house operations team has won back 20% of the enterprise printing that had been outsourced to outside providers. Quite a win for Jason and his team! HMDS’ journey continues, and it’s been our pleasure to have been part of it along the way. IPMA gave us a great audience to discuss the process and demonstrate how Madison Advisors can help other like-minded organizations succeed in their journeys.

Enterprise Output Management Systems (EOMS) were historically used to manage the production of printed communications; however, today, these solutions offer enhanced workflow and additional output capabilities to meet consumer expectations for digital delivery. Over the last decade, the print industry witnessed an increase in service provider mergers and acquisitions, and stricter privacy and security requirements necessary to comply with the Affordable Care Act and other regulations such as HIPAA, GLBA, and FISMA.

By Gina Ferrara, Senior Analyst, Madison Advisors

Madison Advisors just released a new research report, “Enterprise Output Management Systems, 4th Edition: Moving Beyond Print Management.” Our 3rd edition was published in December 2010 and since much has changed over the years, it was time to present our new findings on the latest trends in this industry.

Enterprise Output Management Systems (EOMS) play an important role in the production of customer communications. This technology is not often top of mind when one thinks about customer communications management technology, unless, of course, you are an enterprise in-plant or print service provider that manages print production. Initially, output management systems were used to manage the production of printed communications. Now these solutions offer so much more than that. New features and functionality provide enhanced workflow and automation with additional output capabilities that give organizations the ability to offer multi-channel delivery and a better customer experience. Enterprise in-plants and print service providers can benefit from some of the key findings in our report, which include:

Why multi-site print operations need to have a single consolidated view into their production environment
How enterprise in-plants interested in outsourcing print and mail to a service provider can determine whether to optimize their communications as a part of the transition to a new provider or simply do a “lift and shift” of the operation
Our research includes 11 EOMS vendor solutions that offer sophisticated workflow and business process management capabilities, enabling organizations to receive print jobs, automate work to flow seamlessly through the production operation, and deliver through the channel of choice

EOMS solutions can ingest data files from multiple systems and in multiple formats, transform that data and direct it to the appropriate output channel. In the past, these solutions were adopted to manage multiple print devices by combining and splitting print jobs to optimize utilization of print hardware. Now, EOMS solutions have grown beyond traditional print production management with enhanced workflow and automation, robust print transformation capabilities, and additional delivery channels such as email and SMS—all of which streamline print production operations and allow service providers to increase their value proposition beyond print and mail.

To communicate with customers electronically, organizations are looking for solutions that can provide multi-channel delivery for high value customer communications in order to keep up with consumer expectations and remain competitive in the industry. EOMS solutions can provide this functionality, without having to make changes to the document composition process upstream, giving service providers the ability to ingest legacy output and enhance the document by adding color, variable content, such as targeted messaging or graphics, and delivering the output to electronic channels, as well as an archive solution.

Madison Advisors anticipates EOMS technology to continue to expand capabilities and become the pivot point allowing organizations to transition legacy output into enhanced communications that can be delivered across multiple channels to meet consumer expectations for multi-channel delivery. These solutions will take on a major role in the overall CCM ecosystem as technology providers continue to upgrade their solutions in response to changing market trends.

To purchase the full research report “Enterprise Output Management Systems, 4th Edition: Moving Beyond Print Management,” click here.

Over the past two decades, Madison Advisors' industry-neutral expertise enables enterprise organizations, service providers and technology providers to achieve their strategic objectives around today’s evolving customer communications management (CCM) requirements.