The inaugural State of Digital Document Transformation survey from Conga, reveals 14% of its respondents still use typewriters. As unbelievable as that sounds in today’s digital ecosystem, some other archaic processes also still live on. This includes filing cabinets (38%), ink signatures (36%), and fax machines (30%).
The data from the survey points out not all organizations are on board with the digital transformation currently taking place. And as the number of adoptees approaches the 100% mark, those left behind will not be able to compete on a level playing field.
For more than eight out of 10 of the companies in the survey, digitizing documents is key to unlocking competitive advantage, hitting company goals, and keeping employees happy.
Digital transformation is especially important for small businesses because the technology makes it that much more possible to compete. The digital transformation of business processes is key. And this is what the CEO of Conga, Matthew J. Schiltz, explained in the emailed press release.
Schiltz says, digitizing business processes are, “…not only vessels of invaluable data, information and intellectual property, but also representative of customers’ experience and employees’ job satisfaction.”
Adding, “Digital Document Transformation automates the data, programs, applications and processes that we work with every day — enabling employees to skip the rework so they can get to the real work.”
The survey for the report comes from a global pool of 2,400 legal, sales and IT decision-makers and influencers. The regions include North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and the Asia Pacific (APAC). The companies represent financial services, manufacturing and distribution as well as media, communications and telecoms.
Digital Transformation Statistics
Digital transformation is delivering big time for the respondents in the survey. Almost all or 99% say they have experienced at least one significant benefit. This includes cost savings (45%), increased customer satisfaction (43%) and greater workforce efficiency (42%).
They go on to say digitally transforming documents is a cornerstone to their success. When it comes to competition, 83% of them say it will put them ahead. And the benefit is almost the same for improving the customer experience (85%). However, it doesn’t stop there because they also achieve organization-wide goals (87%) and it allows employees to work on more strategic, fulfilling work (84%).
The Transformation Process
Even though the respondents are well aware of the available technology, there’s a lag in the full adoption. More than half or 59% say their organization needs a complete overhaul or significant improvement in transforming to document digitization. The fact that 14% still use typewriters points out this very problem.
In addition to the archaic processes, some of the respondents are not using the tools they have effectively. Thirty-one percent say they still copy and paste new content or data into an older version of a document. This has the potential for introducing errors and creating yet another manual process.
Almost the same number (32%) are generating and reviewing documents manually while 27% use paper-based processes and snail-mail. The problem is each of these processes is responsible for creating more work, inefficiencies and potential for errors.
The Benefit of Digitizing Documents and Processes
With a digitized process, there is less work, more efficiency and mistakes can be corrected right away. The result is a more effective organization across the board, and this is what the respondents in the survey say.
Almost nine in 10 or 87% say they have to reassess their transformation if they want to achieve their organization-wide goals.
The overall benefits have a world of potential according to the report. This includes cost and time savings, employee productivity increase, better data accuracy, revenue growth, and better visibility.
With all these benefits, the companies look to improve their customer experience, data/IP security, insights into documents and contracts, and much more. But the top priority is improving the customer experience and creating faster, easier document processes.
Image: Depositphotos.com
That seems crazy to me. Were there lots of international businesses in the sample?
It’s much easier to do some things on a typerwriter than it is through technology…IF you grew up already knowing how to use a typewriter. Ever want to just type up an address on an envelope? If you know how to use a typewriter, it’s much faster than using a word processor and the printer down the hallway, especially if you don’t do it all the time…which usually translates into doing 1 or 2 dry-runs just to make sure it turns out correctly. There goes efficiency. I’m 48 and the IT manager in a small office. All of the employees older than me prefer the typewriter for those one-off jobs. If there’s a form to fill out, which again isn’t done very often, it makes no sense to have them scan it as a PDF and then use a PDF editor when they could put it int he typewriter and get it done faster than they can find the icon to their editing software. In 20 more years, there won’t be a single office employee anywhere in the free world that’s touched a typerwriter. Until then, the 14% of employees that are using it are older and more comfortable (and more efficient). Let them have their typerwriter. For the record, I haven’t touched a typewriter since high school but I’m also tech savvy and feel completely comfortable at a PC…not everyone is like that, even after substantial training.
Hi Gabe,
Great insight.
Thank you very much.