European financial services winning race to digitise business critical documents

European financial services organisations have made bigger strides towards unlocking the ‘bigger data’ opportunity than any other industry, according to new research commissioned by Ricoh.

Half of the financial services leaders surveyed said that their organisation now has less than 10% of business critical data stored only in hard copy format, compared to those working in education (37%), healthcare (39%) and the public sector (41%).

The move to digitise more information is likely to be driven by recognition of the significant value lying dormant in hard copy documents that could enable organisations to make more informed business decisions.

86% of financial services leaders believe that having access to historical data from the previous economic downturn would have helped them to better manage the current one.

The digitisation of business critical documents has also had a significant positive impact on operating costs. More than a third of financial services organisations reported that they have reduced the costs of storing hard copy information to less than 5% of turnover, surpassing those in education (11%), the public sector (13%) and healthcare (26%).

Rick Hewitt, finance director at Ricoh UK says, "The focus on optimising business critical document processes will unlock valuable business insight to support better financial and risk management. If integrated effectively with other data from across the business, the trends and insight that can be derived from business critical historical data can aid key decisions relating to areas such as forecasts and investments, helping to ensure that the financial services industry is well prepared for the future."

Financial services organisations look set to continue digitising hard copy business critical data faster than their peers working in education, healthcare and the public sector.

One in five financial services leaders expects their organisation to have completely digitised these documents within the next year. As a result financial services organisations will continue to reduce costs, with half expecting to save 5-10% of annual turnover.