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Key public sector organisations in the UK are squandering 722 million Euros per annum because they are failing to control the production of printed documents, according to new research from document management specialists Danka.

On a European scale, the research indicates a wastage amounting to 4.7 billion Euros, and only 23% of European government organisations were found to have a document management strategy in place. Last year, Danka published a research report analysing the ‘Documess’ in the private sector, which revealed that European companies are haemorrhaging nearly 8.7 billion Euros each year. The latest research shows the extent to which document production is still uncontrolled in the public sector, with organisations frequently as unaware of the wastage occurring as their commercial counterparts. It is evident that public sector management stands to make substantial cost-cutting and efficiency gains by bringing this fundamental area of their organisation under control.

Analysing the potential for cost improvements by key UK public sector function, the study highlighted that :

• The sheer size of the Social Protection sector makes it the greatest possible beneficiary of an effective document output strategy (302 million Euros), and under 20% of services have a strategy in place at the moment

• Health (113 million Euros) and Education (83 million Euros) come out in second and third places. Although both sectors are document heavy and under pressure to achieve more with less resources, their levels of document control are slightly above average, at 24%

• Defence (52 million Euros) and Economic Development (46 million Euros) have the fourth and fifth highest savings to make, although over 25% of organisations in Economic Development already have a formalised document control policy

• Several smaller government functions are also amongst the best at controlling document production, including Recreation, Leisure and Sport, Environmental Management and Housing

• Least effective at document production control are Law and Order (22%), Social Protection (19%) and Defence (15%).

Stephen Palmer, VP Product Planning and Development, Danka Europe, comments, “The public sector has just as much to gain as UK businesses by imposing proper controls on document production. Every part of government is under immense pressure to reign in costs, and document management is an obvious ‘leak point’ which should be addressed. An organised approach to cutting wastage can deliver rapid cost savings and dramatically increase efficiency.

“In most cases, a reorganisation of document production equipment is required, in combination with the introduction of new staff disciplines and software that measures, monitors and controls how documents are handled. Once systems are in place that can attribute output to departments or even individuals, the management data is then available to inform future document production strategy”.

Quelle: PublicTechnology, 02.06.2004