Ricoh Helps Streamline Large-scale Printing and Distribution

MALVERN, PA—April 8, 2013—Inefficiency, errors and compliance issues often plague companies that print and distribute high-volumes of customer-facing transactional mail such as invoices, checks and account statements. These companies often suffer high-costs, sluggish cash flow and, in the worst case, angry customers and regulators.

To help organizations confront these challenges, Ricoh Americas today detailed its Document Production Center Optimization services, which help clients reduce costs in transactional printing and distribution while improving accuracy and utilizing its client’s existing technology, whenever possible.

Ricoh Document Production Center Optimization services transform inefficient print, mail and distribution processes—driven by unwieldy data—into predictable, efficient and highly scalable workflows. The services exemplify Ricoh’s Business Information Solutions approach, which tailors custom solutions to clients’ most urgent business challenges.

Ricoh Document Production Center Optimization services support Gartner’s “Automated Document Factory 2.0 (ADF 2.0)” architecture, which is considered the state of the art in transactional printing/mailing.

“Large-scale print and mail operations present the face of your brand to your customers and may have a significant impact on your cash flow,” said Dominic Pontrelli, senior vice president of marketing, Ricoh Americas. “Many companies lack the resources to bring the required systems and processes together in an efficient way. We offer operations benchmarking services and powerful workflow solutions based on each client’s unique needs whenever possible using the technology they already have.”

People, processes and technology
Ricoh Document Production Center Optimization services combine people, processes and technology to bring this new efficiency to clients’ printing and distribution operations.

Engagements kick off with an assessment of the current state of the client’s printing and distribution. Ricoh’s services team employs a unique operations benchmarking service to investigate baseline performance and customer satisfaction. This process helps clients rapidly pinpoint exactly where their systems need optimization.

Ricoh’s goal is helping to create an efficient, productive printing and distribution operation based on the Automated Document Factory model. Ricoh’s ADF solutions automate every stage of production, including data assembly, formatting, printing, finishing and mailing. They offer end-to-end process control, monitoring and reporting that can easily integrate with CRM and marketing campaign systems. Ricoh’s modular, scalable ADF solutions let clients see, manage and report on their entire document production center operation from a single dashboard.

Ricoh’s technology includes a cloud-based ADF solution, an alternative for simple, quick and worry-free workflow optimization without high upfront IT investment. Other key technology includes Ricoh Process Director print management software, production print systems and mail automation software.

Document Production Center Optimization solutions can support sustainability initiatives and their associated cost savings by helping clients move beyond print and automate electronic delivery. Whether using traditional mail or electronic, communications can employ TransPromo (transactional and promotional) content for increased marketing effectiveness.

Ricoh’s experienced consultants have been designing, implementing and maintaining ADF Solutions for nearly 20 years, including more than 100 ADF solutions implemented worldwide. Clients include some of the world’s largest insurance, financial, telecom and print services companies, as well as departments within the U.S. government. Clients benefitting from Ricoh Document Production Center Optimization services include AIGDirect.com, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Express Scripts, Geisinger Health System, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Undurraga.

About Ricoh’s Business Information Solutions
Through extensive analysis and experience, Ricoh has identified the major business challenges enterprises are facing today: globalization, increasing employee mobility, new generational work styles, exploding information volumes, mounting cost pressures and rapid IT infrastructure changes. The company directly addresses these challenges with its Business Information Solutions approach, which brings together technologies, services and expertise that can help to measurably improve business performance by optimizing the flow of business information.

The Business Information Solutions approach streamlines an organization’s entire information workflow by improving:

• Input—capturing valuable information from employees, customers and partners.
• Processing—creating business value from information.
• And Output—distributing the information to the right person at the right time in the right form for productive action.

About Ricoh
Ricoh is a global technology company specializing in office imaging equipment, production print solutions, document management systems and IT services. Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in more than 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ending March 2012, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 1,903 billion yen (approx. 23 billion USD).

The majority of the company's revenue comes from products, solutions and services that improve the interaction between people and information. Ricoh also produces award-winning digital cameras and specialized industrial products. It is known for the quality of its technology, the exceptional standard of its customer service and sustainability initiatives.

Source: Ricoh.