Informatielogistiek. Who are using information? People do, they need information for their tasks to perform.Because of the dramatic changes in the information landscape during the last 15 years, this phenomenon is becoming more and more time consuming. This white paper looks to the new developments in information and document management, from the perspective of the user and his abilities to serve the customer in the best way.

1. INFORMATION LOGISTICS –
gaining performance –
smiling customers
"The most important, and indeed the truly unique, contribution
of management in the 20th century was
- the fifty-fold increase in the productivity
of the MANUAL WORKER in manufacturing.
The most important contribution management needs to make
in the 21st century is similarly
- to increase the productivity of KNOWLEDGE WORK
and the KNOWLEDGE WORKER."
Peter Drucker
White paper of Ricoh on future customer needs
In cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute ISST, Germany
© Copyright Ricoh 2009
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form by print, photo print, microfilm or any other means
without written permission by Ricoh.

2. W hite Paper Informatio n Logistics
January 2009
2 © Copyright Ricoh 2009

3. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
Summary
The collection, distribution, recombination, and aggregation of information are essential
activities that contribute directly to business goals and should therefore be optimized as a
part of the business processes. A precondition is the full availability, accessibility and the
quality of the information to be delivered at the right time. However, present solutions and
organizational management systems have reached their limits: mass production is optimized
but customized production is still insufficiently supported. Progressing beyond this poses a
considerable challenge – and a significant opportunity.
According to Gartner until now we have supported manufacturing and the office with IT
solutions enhancing their productivity. But now as information and knowledge are becoming
more of an asset it is time to support the knowledge worker.
The knowledge worker today is coping with lots of information rendering him on one hand
an overload of information on the other hand a lack of information to support him with the
task at hand. The cause in most cases is that the support he gets from information
environments is supply oriented in stead of demand driven adding value to the business. So
this knowledge worker is either searching for the right information or juggling with an
overload of information instead of contributing to the process and interacting with the
customer and his needs.
The puzzle mentioned above will be the challenge of today’s companies in staying
competitive and innovative while presenting new services and products on the market faster
and faster.
In the past we have seen a development within logistics from supply oriented (supported by
e.g. MRP 1) towards a more demand driven environment (supported by e.g. JIT). This
development is initiated within the handling of information in a logistic way according to
Ricoh and its partners. This new approach to handling information is called INFORMATION
LOGISTICS. It will handle information and its resources in a logistic way adding value to the
business. Basically the goal will be getting information at the right time, the right place in the
right way supporting the value chain.
This white paper will present an onset on what INFORMATION LOGISTICS is, what this approach
could bring and how implementation is applied by Ricoh. Developing INFORMATION LOGISTICS
Ricoh worked in close cooperation with e.g. Nyenrode and Fraunhofer.
Ricoh’s view and approach
“Your knowledge workers are the engine of the company, but h2 fuel them?”
1
JIT Just in Time
MRP I Material Requirements Planning
MRP II Manufacturing Resource Planning
© Copyright Ricoh 2009 1

4. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
2 © Copyright Ricoh 2009

5. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
Contents
Summary 1
Contents 3
1 Coping intelligently with information today 5
1.1 The challenge 5
1.2 General developments 5
1.3 Facts and figures 6
2 INFORMATION LOGISTICS – a new perspective 9
2.1 Time for a new approach 9
2.2 INFORMATION LOGISTICS 9
2.3 Benefits 11
2.4 Methodology 12
2.5 INFORMATION LOGISTICS – built around the user 12
3 How INFORMATION LOGISTICS can work in practice 14
3.1 The Information Broker – A Question of Timing 14
3.2 The International Financial Services Provider – Going for Growth 16
4 The Approach of Ricoh 18
4.1 Solutions now! 18
4.2 INFORMATION LOGISTICS Services 19
4.2.1 Awareness Assessment 20
4.2.2 Rapid Implemetation Methodolgy 21
4.2.3 Structural Improvement 21
4.2.4 Structural value added 22
4.2.5 DPO outsourcing 22
5 Ricoh – Nice to meet you 23
So what makes Ricoh unique for you as our customer? 25
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6. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
4 © Copyright Ricoh 2009

7. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
1 Coping intelligently with information today
Who are using information? People do, they need information for their tasks to perform.
Because of the dramatic changes in the information landscape during the last 15 years, this
phenomenon is becoming more and more time consuming.
1.1 The challenge
Information is one of the key productivity factors in business today. Every business is
increasingly dependent on knowledge and information driven by today’s very competitive
market conditions. Gartner has described the enterprise for the world of today as the “Real-
Time Enterprise” which needs flexibility and fast quality decision making. In this situation,
having documents only physically or virtually is a necessary but insufficient condition for
using the contained information in an efficient way. This white paper looks to the new
developments in information and document management, from the perspective of the user
and his abilities to serve the customer in the best way. The objective is to create competitive
advantage by improving productivity and accelerating customer processes.
The user of information has always been the driver for innovative concepts at Ricoh.
Historically Ricoh started on the output side of information (printing) and for the last ten
years also on the input (capturing) and storage side of information.
The evolution now faces a new challenge as current technologies reach the limits of their
capabilities to further improve business processes. This challenge in particular is related to the
efficient use of the huge amount of information that has been collected. The name of this
game is INFORMATION LOGISTICS.
1.2 General developments
What kinds of developments are recognized in organizations today?
Changes in the business structure and management structures show that:
• A move is being made from a linear to an event driven enterprise.
• Processes are becoming more and more individual.
• Goods and services have become more customer specific.
• Hierarchical management structures are changing to networked structures.
• Management today need quicker and better informed decision making.
• There are more employees whose job execution is highly depending on information
(knowledge workers).
• There are more virtual teams.
• There are more peer-to-peer relationships and networks.
• Mergers and acquisitions have led to larger, often global companies, with multiple,
often incompatible management systems.
• Due to outsourcing and efficiency drives, there are now fewer support staff leading
to more workload on operational staff to digest information.
• Market pressure is forcing organizations to find new ways to improve its
performance and customer value.
Due to the increased abilities of ICT (internet as a platform, mobility through advanced
telecom technologies, software maturity like ECM, hardware miniaturisation and lower
pricing etc), companies are now faced with a situation where:
• There is more information available than ever before.
• The amount of information is expanding rapidly.
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8. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
• There are more access capabilities for users than ever before.
• The information is more widely spread.
• The information is either structured, loosely structured but for the most part largely
unstructured.
• The quality of information varies dramatically.
But it also means that:
• Having more information does not improve decision making speed and quality.
• Too much time is wasted in finding the right information in time.
• Although more information can lead to innovation, it also puts pressure on process
efficiency and the productivity of the employees.
• Existing information is too often regenerated.
• Quality and process control becomes difficult or impossible with that many sources.
As a result of the combination of these factors, organizations are challenged in two ways.
First the negative side; how does the organization handle decision making and efficiency
with the increasing information flow.
And second the positive side; what kind of improvements can really create new customer
value. It is a fact that organizations are confronted with more demanding customers wanting
high-quality, just-in-time information.
If an organization pays attention to the new opportunities brought by INFORMATION LOGISTICS,
they can mitigate business risks, like:
• Decreasing speed, flexibility and/or quality of decision making.
• Productivity decrease.
• Variable quality and errors in goods and service delivery.
• Dissatisfied customers.
• Failing to comply with new rules and legal requirements.
• Security issues.
• Inflexibility.
• Business processes which cannot cope with the required speed of operation.
As the information landscape has become increasingly complex, companies face significant
challenges to alter their way of working to cope with this new situation. But at the same
time it opens a tremendous amount of nnew opportunities to create new customer values.
1.3 Facts and figures
Time Spending
Research shows that employees or knowledge workers spend at least 40% every working
day in processing information.
Furthermore, approximately 80% Working day
of this information is in the
40% processing
unstructured form of which is information
90% unmanaged. 22% of the
22% retrieving
time is spent on retrieving information
information and in only half of the
cases one is successful. The other 11% not successful
half people are busy with just
11% recreating
recreating unstructured unstructured
information that already exists. information that already
existed
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9. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
Consequently, the real challenge today is not about dealing with the enormous amount of
information available, but how to deliver the right information product consisting of the right
information elements in the right format, at the right place, at the right time for the right
people and all this customer demand driven. The lead time in finding the right information
and the accuracy of the information together determine the result of decisions and thus
having a direct impact in the success of an enterprise.
A growing challenge
About 80% of information is
unstructured in the form of e-mails,
20% presentations, texts, videos, images,
Structured
MRP, ERP, CRM … etc. An IDC study confirmed these
findings As if this situation is not
bad enough; Gartner analysts
Web Information estimate that information is growing
Detailed designs »50% at a rate of 50% per year. More
80% Annual
than 70% of information is both
Unstructured 90% Email Growth
Unmanaged
Contracts unmanaged and unstructured. If
Scanned Docs you’re concerned that your
information systems are out of your
Research
control, wait a year, it will get
worse!
Business risk
In a knowledge-based economy, companies are increasingly dependent not only on the
availability of documents but also on the effective use of the information they contain. It is
no longer a question of being able to get your hands on information (of uncertain quality)
but rather of deploying reliable, high-quality information the moment it is needed. In
addition, companies often depend on knowledge-workers to make informed decisions that
affect their business (and those of their customers). Knowledge-workers are also typically the
higher paid employees. Therefore it clearly makes good business sense to ensure that
knowledge workers have access to good and timely information. The IDC study also
indicated that 68% of respondents believe effective management of information drives
productivity and 66% believe it will improve customer service. Improving the management of
unstructured information seems to be a relatively straightforward way to improve
productivity and revenue. As, on average, more than 10 knowledge workers are involved in
every single process, it is clear that there is room for significant gains. Furthermore, a
significant efficiency improvement on the day-to-day operating level of the knowledge
worker has a noticeable multiplier effect at company level.
Source: IDC/Gartner/US Department of Labor
2
In the article “From Having to Using” it was described how working with information can
burden the productivity of the knowledge worker. Based on a discussion an idea was
generated but resulted in a large number of e-mails with lots of people involved and
contacted but nothing substantial happened. The result was that after the start with one
idea ‘face to face’, 21 e-mails (virtual communication) were created, with zero substantial
answers. Three experts where involved who didn’t communicate and four managers were
involved without adding any value. From a logistics point of view, the throughput time took
two weeks without any planned action or decision being taken, with time & energy wasted
and lots of confusion.
2
From Having to Using, Ing. Jan Willems MBA, Information Logistics Experience Center, Nyenrode
Business Universiteit, July 2008, ISSN 1872-3934
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10. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
So on one hand the knowledge worker is showered with information he doesn’t need or
doesn’t have to be involved in, on the other hand it takes too much of his time in locating
the information he does need for executing the task at hand. Both cases cause a waste of
time of the knowledge worker with the result of a major loss of effectiveness and efficiency.
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11. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
2 INFORMATION LOGISTICS – a new perspective
2.1 Time for a new approach
The development of INFORMATION LOGISTICS can be compared with two major developments in
manufacturing which took place in the last decades. They significantly improved and
changed the business. The first is the development of Just in Time in the goods logistics
which enhanced the system from supply driven to more demand driven. In the information
world INFORMATION LOGISTICS is driving a similar change in focus from the supply driven
collecting and storing of information (having) to a more demand driven (JIT3) usage of
information.
The second is the development of Industrial Engineering and more specifically Goldratt’s
theory of constraints4. Similar to the production bottlenecks in Goldratt’s theory, in the
information world those constraints are mainly formed by the user who needs the efficient
JIT supply of information to do his job. By solving those constraints, one can expect similar
types of efficiency improvements, acceleration of business processes and flexibility.
This is supported by Peter Druckers theory around the productivity of the knowledge worker,
which focussed the attention on the bottlenecks in the information usage.
The collection, distribution, recombination, and aggregation of information are essential
activities that contribute directly to business goals and should therefore be optimised as part
of the business processes. A precondition is the full availability, accessibility and the quality of
the information to be delivered at the right time. However, present solutions and
organizational management systems have reached their limits: mass production is optimized
while customized production of information is still insufficiently supported. Progressing
beyond this poses a considerable challenge – and a significant opportunity.
How can we support knowledge-intensive, flexible and sometimes unforeseeable information
processes within and across networked organizations? Companies today need a very flexible,
fast and efficient information supply for individual workers and decision makers, but they
also need to be able to keep sight of their overall business goals. The required solution
cannot be achieved by modelling and optimizing business processes further because support
is required at a ‘task’ level, within and across business processes which means a deeper
insight in information flows and demand on the job.
2.2 INFORMATION LOGISTICS
Managing information compliant with handling information in a logistic way we first have a
look at logistics.
Definition Logistics:
Logistics is that aspect of managing a company, which occupies itself
bridging time & distance in the production and distribution processes, in
such a way that it leads to optimal company results in harmony with the
costs of development, purchasing manufacturing and sales.
(Source: APICS and Handboek Logistiek, VLM)
3
JIT Just in Time
4
The Goal E.M. Goldratt/J.Cox, 1986
Het Doel, Goldratt, ISBN 9027467005, Het Spectrum B.V.
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12. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
Looking at the full supply chain
Logistics Supply Chain Mgt
logistics management has to occupy
itself from supplier up until customer Company Processes
with e.g.: Supplier Customer
• Handing resources like raw
materials, semi finished products,
capacity etc .
• Customer satisfaction.
5
To minimize capital and stock-piles concepts like JIT , make-to-order, canban were
introduced and implemented towards MRP, ERP and DRP. To support these logistic concepts
transactional IT-environments were implemented.
This environment handled only structured information. It was however found that
unstructured information like documents were a major part and a very valuable asset to the
companies. At first documents were captured within document management environments.
When found that documents were a carrier of information and that other non-structured
information was essential to be controlled for the company as well ;ECM6 environments
were set up to support this. Handling the full lifecycle for this non-structured content ILM is
being applied. However the link with the structured content was missing what should have
been resolved with enterprise application integration.
The result was that a lot of information is linked and to be found. However these solutions
only provided a supply oriented environment in stead of a demand driven. On the other hand
the growing amount of information leads to an overflow of information with the still
unanswered question of: do I have the right information now to execute my tasks and to
present the right results to the next step. This is where INFORMATION LOGISTICS comes in to
solve this issue and present a solution.
The vision of the Fraunhofer institute regarding INFORMATION LOGISTICS is:
• Information will become more rapid, more global, more mobile.
• It will become the decisive competitive factor.
• It is essential to view it holistically, to manage it and to control its logistics.
Information is created throughout the entire product creation process. The goal of
INFORMATION LOGISTICS is to optimize content and format of information, to reduce throughput
times and to achieve a high degree of parallel processing. Our approach is such that
information can be created and reused in a structured manner all along the value creation
chain. This requires the use of an information model, an overall product tree and a graphic
design concept. The deployed system must meet these requirements optimally.
Based on the above the following definition for INFORMATION LOGISTICS is used by Ricoh:
INFORMATION LOGISTICS is managing and controlling information handling
processes optimally with respect to time, distribution and presentation in
such a way that it contributes maximally to company results in harmony
5
JIT Just in Time
MRP I Material Requirements Planning
MRP II Manufacturing Resource Planning
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
DRP Distribution Resource Planning
6
ECM Enterprise Content Management
ILM Information Lifecycle Management
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13. White Paper Information Logistics
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with the costs of capturing (creation, searching, maintenance etc). The right
information will be obtained towards delivery in time to the right
environment and result in an improvement for the people involved,.
Information Logistics
Information Processes
Supplier Customer
The aim of INFORMATION LOGISTICS is to deliver the right information ‘product’, in the
right format, at the right place at the right time for the right people and all this
customer demand driven. If this aim is achieved the knowledge worker is best equipped
with information for the task at hand for improved interaction with his customers..
Boosting the productivity of knowledge workers is for every company nowadays of utmost
importance gaining competitive advantage. Information has become the heart of all business
activities and the role of disruptive technology has changed the way people conduct their
business.
2.3 Benefits
INFORMATION LOGISTICS will provide innovative, cost efficient solutions, accelerating the
information processes, offering compelling business results.
Enhancement of INFORMATION LOGISTICS results in:
• Acceleration of Productivity.
• Cost Reduction.
• Knowledge Collection / Combination.
• Process Control Improvement (* e.g. Downtime Reduction).
• Increased Customer Value.
• Enhanced & Managed Quality and Compliancy.
The final result will be a far more satisfied customer for you.
Create business benefits
This new ability to provide customer- and context specific, just-in-time information will lead
to increased customer satisfaction. By speeding up the supply of quality assured information
and synchronizing related activities, the performance of the information process increases. It
enables knowledge workers to absorb capacity overload through providing them with only
the necessary context-related information, based on their specific task. They are facilitated by
supplying context-aware search facilities, task-oriented information pull services, automated
meta-data extraction, individualised dossiers prepared from heterogeneous sources, and an
active, targeted supply of information. Three main benefits could be realized:
• an increase of flexibility of the organization
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14. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
• an acceleration of time to completion and improvement of quality with enhanced
compliancy
• an increase of efficiency
That will result in timely delivery of relevant information to their customers which will
positively influence their processes and satisfaction.
2.4 Methodology
What is needed is a new way of thinking. INFORMATION LOGISTICS as the enabler not only
focuses on information or processes, but on the use of information in order to accomplish
the goals demanded. It amounts to a fundamental shift of perspective from supply-oriented
to demand-driven information flows.
An INFORMATION LOGISTICS solution triggers and controls information flows, that are governed
by the business goals and other individual or role-specific preferences. The solution focuses
on supporting all the information-related work within every single task. It therefore speeds
up the information fulfilment process and increases the flexibility of the operation.
Demand driven
INFORMATION LOGISTICS solutions support their users in performing any task for which specific,
timely and relevant information is required such as: decision making, processing requests or
applications, preparing meetings, reacting appropriately to urgent messages or digesting
information from different sources. Only the needed information is provided to the worker
concerned, without necessarily changing the business processes. This means that all projects
start with an analysis of the demands of the respective persons and the overall business
goals.
2.5 INFORMATION LOGISTICS – built around the user
What is needed is a new way of thinking. An approach, that extends the current approach to
information handling and not only focuses on information or processes, but on the use of
information to accomplish certain goals. It amounts to a fundamental shift of perspective
from supply-oriented to demand-driven information supply.
What does INFORMATION LOGISTICS do?
Essentially, INFORMATION LOGISTICS ensures that in any process in which information plays an
important part, the right information reaches the appropriate end-user precisely when it is
required. It supports knowledge workers by providing task-specific information out of the
unmanageable stocks of stored information. It presents context-driven, customized
information on time via automated processes in complex environments.
The application of INFORMATION LOGISTICS comes with a set of efficient methods and proven
techniques that optimizes the business goal driven information flow for Information
workers/decision makers.” An important element is the fact that we are approaching
information from a logistics point of view as if it were a product.
In addition to those tools and techniques, Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (TOC) provides us
with the background to understand and cope with information bottlenecks. Based on that
theory the focus is not on the process itself, which is often given, but on the bottlenecks
which is different to the current approaches. That will significantly accelerate and improve
the information processes to employees and customer such, as TOC has done in
manufacturing. The combination with the approach of Ricoh towards INFORMATION LOGISTICS
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15. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
described in paragraph 4, for the first time will enable us to handle all information at the
bottlenecks an critical points within the processes and therefore boosts business results.
INFORMATION LOGISTICS solutions trigger and control information flows governed by the
business goals and other individual or role-specific preferences. The solution focuses on
supporting all the information-related work within every single task. It thereby speeds up the
information fulfilment process and increases the flexibility of the operation.
Targeted information
INFORMATION LOGISTICS solutions support their users in order to give them more adequate
interaction with the customer or his request for e.g. information. So they will support the
knowledge worker in handing him the right information in preparation of his task towards
the customer. INFORMATION LOGISTICS changes the usage of information from document-
centred to task-
oriented. Only the
actual and relevant
(targeted) Information Logistics Interacting with customer
Worker
information needed
is provided to the de
worker concerned, re liv
sk e
ta par
su er
without necessarily e lt
pr
changing the Performing
Customer
business processes. a task co
op ntr
ta ng
INFORMATION er oll
da lyi
Receive Retrieve & a t in
pp
LOGISTICS leads to a Search io g
su
n
significant
improvement in
receiving, retrieving,
and sending
information. Store Send
How does it relate to existing technologies?
It significantly extends and enhances the current technologies. In the first place INFORMATION
7
LOGISTICS solutions will build on top of existing infrastructures like ECM , data warehouses etc
and will use them as well managed repositories. Current integration methods such as ETL,
EAI, etc. are important but not sufficient elements to provide the final solution. In addition to
the current platforms and technologies, INFORMATION LOGISTICS solutions will add the tools and
techniques to define the ontology and the profiling of roles and technology as well as the
platforms to execute the operational information flows. It will enhance the information
environment for better and faster utilization. To complement current assessment approaches,
TOC related methodologies will be added to define and solve information bottlenecks.
Building on existing infrastructure
The INFORMATION LOGISTICS approach do not require an expensive investment in the renewal of
existing infrastructure and applications, although it is of course, a pre-condition to ensure
that good tools (like multifunctional devices, ECM/DM platforms and an adequate
organizational structure) are in place. INFORMATION LOGISTICS is built on top of already existing
infrastructure and applications rendering better utilization of the already available
information.
7
ECM Enterprise Content Management
ETL Enterprise Transaction Layer
EAI Enterprise Application Integration
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16. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
3 How INFORMATION LOGISTICS can work in practice
We have seen that a new approach towards optimizing knowledge-intensive information
processes within organizations is needed.
INFORMATION LOGISTICS will increase the productivity of people (especially the knowledge
worker) working in their day to day task fulfilment. In this way the workload of primary and
secondary tasks is reduced, thus enabling them to spend more time on their primary
activities, which will improve the level of service of customers. In the end this will improve
the level of satisfaction of customers.
INFORMATION LOGISTICS will lead to a more efficient and effective organization.
How might an INFORMATION LOGISTICS solution be implemented in practice? Below, we offer
an illustration based on the cases of two quite different types of companies, faced with two
quite different challenges. In each case INFORMATION LOGISTICS offers a highly effective
solution.
3.1 The Information Broker – A Question of Timing
The company.... The knowledge worker Mr. K
The company collects information from a Mr. K is a knowledge worker for a major
corporation. If we follow Mr. K through his day,
wide variety of government and other
we can see how INFORMATION LOGISTICS supports
agencies, news services, and so on, analyses him in his work. In the morning, Mr. K logs onto
and filters it, and then passes it on to its his workstation. The system opens directly to a
customers. This type of ‘knowledge portal providing him with an immediate and up-
organization’ can be found both in the to-date overview of all areas relevant to him.
profit and non-profit sectors, as well within
companies themselves (e.g., the Corp. IT Targeted e-mail
Organization, Corp. Quality Departments
etc.) When Mr. K checks his e-mail, he is also only
faced with e-mail that concerns him directly,
.. its challenges since the INFORMATION LOGISTICS automated PSI-
forwards (forwards that are based on Profiles,
Semantics and the Information itself ed.) ensure
The company is facing a number of that all other e-mail is sent directly to the
challenges. appropriate colleagues. Security news is also
filtered in a similar way, so Mr. K only sees
In the first place there is the just in time messages that concern him. The messages are
delivery of high quality customer relevant sorted by priority and automatically marked if
information. Customers are calling for more they have already been (automatically) forwarded
selective information: they receive too much to the users of the affected systems.
that is irrelevant to their needs – and they
do not always get the required information Status reports
they need on time.
Turning to his diary of projects, Mr. K is
presented with a short status report marked with
Secondly there is the productivity of the
approaching milestones for all projects he is
knowledge workers compiling the reports involved in. The system also provides him with a
for the customers, the need to accelerate link to an automatically trimmed dossier for each
the process and improve the quality of those project (in fact, this is merely an intelligent
reports. This productivity is hampered by the interpretation of data from PMS, ERP and DMS)
fact that information is often difficult to find that contains links to changed documents, notes
unnecessarily duplicated, kept too long, or on discussions, agendas and preparatory material
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17. White Paper Information Logistics
January 2009
incomplete. At the same time due to poor for the next meetings and other relevant
synchronisation, its processes of collecting, information. He is also provided with an overview
digesting and summarizing information are of all travel plans of his colleagues and the
too slow, and lead to unnecessary availability of all the people he is to meet with
duplication of efforts. during the upcoming week
Finally, like many companies in a
News on demand
competitive market, the company also
needs to keep costs under control. Although Mr. K can choose to view whatever
news he wishes, some information flows are
...and its solution enforced by the company (e.g. circulars about
health or accident prevention).
A. A solid Enterprise Content Management
platform assures that all information Knowledge on demand
coming from multiple sources is
available in digital format at a place Mr. K has some questions about a particular
accessible to all persons who need it. project and he knows that one of his colleagues
should know something about it – so he sends
out a request for information through his portal.
B. A thorough analysis per task/role of Instead of using predefined mailing lists – or even
what information is needed, its value, worse the all@company.com account – he uses a
where, for whom and when it is predefined communication ‘information request’
needed, provides the transparency that is ‘sent to the topic’. It looks like an e-mail
necessary to implement breakthrough addressed To:information-
improvements. request@company.com with a Subject: Project X
and a body with attachments that explain his
C. Based on things like the description of request. The system then retrieves the names of
the concepts and relationships of the everyone who might know about the project. It
information elements (ontology), does this by using skills profiles and by analyzing
business rules user demand profiles etc, whether people have requested documents on
this project before. The system then checks to
INFORMATION LOGISTICS applications are
see who is at his work place and sends out an e-
being developed. They will provide mail. ‘Since we’ve reduced internal spam by
automatic classification and distribution more than 90%, people react nearly 4 times
of incoming information based on roles faster,’ thinks Mr K.
profiles and global context of the
information. They will help knowledge Feeling he would like to check up on some
workers in compiling reports by aspect covered in the meeting, he requests a
providing them with the necessary special view of all information concerned with a
relevant information only when they particular project. The ‘WoW’ service (What (type
need it and informing them about other of result) on What (topic), ed.) allows him to type
relevant reports being created through in ‘Project related information –ON– project X’
a topic based synchronisation of the and he receives all the relevant information he
requires
information handling. That will
significantly speed up the process, avoid Printing on demand
duplication of work and significantly
improve the productivity of the Mr. K wants to print all the documents which
knowledge workers. have been changed since the previous meeting.
The system proposes using a printer located next
At the same time customers are to the meeting room and informs him that the
(automatically) being profiled and an printout will take 1:15 minutes. When he reaches
automated Information Dispatch system the printer, he inserts his id card and the
will only send the information necessary documents are printed.
for that particular customer in time and
via the most effective channel. That will Efficient request handling
decrease the information overload on
After this short interruption, Mr. K returns to his
the customers and improve flexibility. task inbox and finds some investment requests
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D. Based on the questions the customer he has to approve as a specialist. To do this he
has, the INFORMATION LOGISTICS not only needs the technical requirements but
application is supplying him with all also related project plans, latest product
relevant information within the context information from all potential vendors and not at
of the question, only as far as and when least information on availability of the products
and previous decisions in similar cases. In the
he needs it. Finally that will increase the
past this was a tedious job as he had to collect
customer value and satisfaction and the needed information from a lot of different
thereby supports the business goals of sources, check all that data, in most of the cases
that company. finding out that it either was not complete or
even not available. Results were numerous e-
mails for trying to get missing information, thus
slowing down the overall process a lot and
bothering colleagues. Now the relevant
information is presented to him and the system
checks the completeness of the in formation
before it is presented as a case ready to process.
3.2 The International Financial Services Provider – Going for Growth
The company....
An international financial services provider, active in banking and insurance, offers its private,
and business customers a comprehensive package of products and services. It does so
through various channels: through its own distribution network, through intermediaries, and
through other distribution partners. This multi-channel distribution strategy gives the
company the flexibility it requires to be able to meet its customers’ needs.
... its challenge
The company has ambitious plans. It sees increased customer satisfaction as the key to future
growth and profitability, and proposes to achieve that through greater efficiency (integration
of channels for customers’ convenience), more highly motivated staff, and more cross-border
integration and synergy.
The major challenge is to improve the process of credit applications and claims handling
(cases). One of the key issues is that they are confronted with unsynchronized and slow
processes and unbalanced resource levelling. At the same time they are confronted with at
the one hand major amount of regulations which require optimal flexibility and at the other
hand risk management requiring optimal control.
… and its solution
A. In the first place the input systems capturing the applications forms and other
related documents will be replaced by intelligent systems, which automatically
extract necessary Meta information. This will be done in the (branch) offices as well
in the other
B. Channels like intermediaries, assuring all incoming information is available in digital
form. Those systems will provide automatic classification and distribution of
incoming information based on role profiles and global context of the information.
In addition control and security applications will assure compliance with (company)
regulations.
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C. A solid Enterprise Content Management Platform will provide a secure, trusted and
controlled basis for all information, accessible for all relevant employees.
D. A thorough analysis per task/role within those processes, of what information is
needed, its value, where, for whom and when it is needed, provides the
transparency necessary to implement breakthrough improvements. That will reveal
bottlenecks, parts that can be automated, and which employee needs what
information to handle the credit or claim application.
E. Based on things like the description of the concepts and relationships of the
information elements (ontology), business rules, user demand profiles etc,
INFORMATION LOGISTICS applications are being developed. This will be placed in the
architecture of the information environment complying with the results needed for
the INFORMATION LOGISTICS environment.
F. In the first place an INFORMATION LOGISTICS application will dispatch cases to those
persons most suitable for the case, based on employee profile and case context.
That will improve the resource levelling. When this person is absent or has a
workload which is currently too high, it will automatically dispatch the case to a
colleague which is most suited for this case. That will greatly improve the flexibility.
G. Another INFORMATION LOGISTICS application will automatically monitor the cases based
on context and business rules and only provides the case to the employee when all
necessary information is available. If part of this supporting information is over due it
will automatically fire requests even cross border. That application will also
synchronize the information handling over different processes and channels thereby
improving the efficiency of all related processes.
H. An automated multi-channel Information Dispatch system will provide relevant
participants in the process with the necessary information including status
information.
I. When opening the case the employee will get all relevant information and now is
ready to handle the case with a minimum of interruptions. That will significantly
speed up the process of case handling.
J. As most of the activities are automated or controlled by the application, process
control is improved significantly and therefore the ability to comply with regulations
has been improved.
K. By implementing the INFORMATION LOGISTICS solutions described above, the business
process is accelerated. Which means the reaction time of the bank to a credit or
claim application is much shorter than before. That will result in an improved
customer satisfaction and provides the company with an important differentiator in
a very competitive market.
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4 The Approach of Ricoh
4.1 Solutions now!
INFORMATION LOGISTICS seems to be a needed but complex solution for the future – but first of
all INFORMATION LOGISTICS is demand driven, starting with the business goals. This means
INFORMATION LOGISTICS as a methodology must also be practical and can not lack support for
migration paths. Indeed there are many solutions that can be implemented today that tackle
some of the pressing issues by means of INFORMATION LOGISTICS inspired approaches. Solutions
are needed now and the following examples will present you a way to solutions that are
ready to use now!
Optimizing the information flow
INFORMATION LOGISTICS changes the perspective and enables local optimizations based on
predefined goals. Thus a project has not to start with an in-depth analysis of all processes but
identifies with simple tools where the information flow is costly or better information flows
could improve the revenues or the quality. Sometimes very simple changes can lead to big
savings. Different handling of the existing infrastructure only costs training and coaching.
Bigger gains are possible if processes around valuable information are made explicit and
controlled and supported. Quality management is dependant on timely and correct
information – optimized information flows can help a lot to improve quality management. If
the optimization removes redundant data entry or facilitates data collection procedures the
administrative load is lessened. Looking at information flows that cross the normal barriers
between organizations, better approaches towards load balancing may arise. Doing all that
even only in some test areas will improve the speed and the flexibility of the organization.
Because the overall interaction process with the customer is in the focus of all the analysis
phases the results will effectively increase the service level that can be provided for them.
To start an Information Flow Optimization as a first step towards an INFORMATION LOGISTICS
supported infrastructure is different from normal BPR or ILM8 projects – Ricoh’s INFORMATION
LOGISTICS approach focuses on the interwoven demands of the people involved in the
business processes in order to define and eliminate bottlenecks in short quick win projects
that also result in a sound basis for structural embedding of the results.
To achieve these results we carry out a tool-supported assessment of the targeted processes.
This will lead to an identification of promising improvement areas. Based on the toolset short
term solutions can be proposed and implemented. This will be supported by our “rapid
implementation methodology” to ensure the solutions will be effective and still supportive as
a base for continuous improvements.
This roadmap is supported by our INFORMATION LOGISTICS Services as described in next
paragraph
8
BPR Business Process Redesign
ILM Information Lifecycle Management
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