Canon Survey Finds Continuing Need for Paper-Based Workflow

Canon U.S.A., Inc. found in a recent Survey that 82% of professionals anticipate a continuing need for paper-based workflows in their organization, for at least a decade.

Designed to uncover workflow trends, the Survey was conducted online with 211 professionals participating. The results show that although the IT decision-makers and non-IT executives surveyed disagree on many subjects, there are at least two things they do agree on: the ongoing role of paper within their organizations, and that security breaches are a top concern. This latter issue was endorsed by nearly two-thirds (65%) of the professionals polled.

Additionally, the survey found that 82% of the IT decision-makers are very, or extremely, confident with their organizations’ ability to integrate paper and digital document workflows. Just 56% of non-IT executives agreed. Also, 67% of the IT decision-makers said their companies offer mobile printing, compared to 47% of non-IT executives.

The following technologies elicited a diverging response from IT and non-IT professionals, when asked whether investing in them is important to running their businesses more effectively. A positive response was obtained for each of the following three applications from the professionals queried as follows:

• Integrating paper-based and digital information into company databases: 77% of IT decision-makers vs. 55% of non-IT executives
• Printing information from the cloud: 75% of IT decision-makers vs. 45% of non-IT executives
• Managed print services: 71% of IT decision-makers vs. 46% of non-IT executives

“Most companies today continue to grapple with how they can effectively merge the continued strong demand for printed documents with the increasing volume of information being exchanged digitally by a modern mobile workforce,” said Dennis Amorosano, Vice President and General Manager, Business Imaging Solutions Group Marketing Division, Canon U.S.A. “This nationwide study found that IT decision-makers and other executives do not always see eye-to-eye on the importance of investing in cloud, document workflow and mobile technologies. In many cases, the survey results indicated a ‘knowledge gap’ between IT and non-IT professionals’ awareness of which technologies their companies are deploying, and how they’re being used.”