What is the ROI on an output management solution

No business wants to waste their money. When your company invests in a new business application, tool, or output management solution, ensuring that the investment delivers measurable value is critical—and ideally, that value should significantly surpass the breakeven point. 

In this blog, we will dive into the financial impact of adopting and implementing an  Output Management Solution). We will explore how it helps your business reduce costs, uncover the indirect benefits it delivers, and highlight the broader advantages of integrating an output management solution into your workflow. By the end, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of the potential ROI an output management solutioncan unlock for your organization. 

However, there is more to an output management solution than just financial savings or improved efficiency. The right solution adds strategic value—such as enhanced reliability, scalability, and adaptability—that can drive long-term success, even if these advantages do not always show up in a balance sheet. 

Why ROI extends beyond financial gains 

Investing in an output management solution is often viewed as a one-to-one investment—a solution to a specific problem. However, this perspective can be short-sighted, as it overlooks: 

1. The unforeseen value of freed resources: The time saved through automation offers opportunities to invest in other critical areas, such as product development or strategic initiatives—benefits that are difficult to quantify in a spreadsheet. Yes, you can give an estimate on how much time you will save, but what you can with this time is more difficult to put into a spreadsheet. At the same time, an output management solutionevolves and adds more features and benefits in the long run, and you will thereby save even more time. Which you can’t predict upfront.
2. The future value of a scalable solution: An output management solutionis not a static investment but a dynamic one that evolves alongside your business needs. To deliver continued value, output management solution providers must work closely with business application providers, such as ERP and CRM consultants, ensuring seamless integration with core systems. By doing that, no matter how much the ERP-system changes or what new add-ons/modules are being added to the system, the output management solution will be able to handle it. Thereby making the solution scalable.

Direct and indirect savings: What can you expect? 

Fundamentally, it can be challenging to pinpoint the exact savings an output management solution can deliver. To some extenct it depends on the industry and how big the company – but also what kind of challenge companies want to be solved in the first place. 

When companies approach us at InterForm, they come with a variety of challenges. These range from wanting to standardize their output to needing to automate parts of their output management processes to a general overhaul of their output management.  

When faced with such challenges, it becomes easier to measure whether an output management solution has had the desired impact on a company’s bottom line. From there, it is also simpler to calculate whether the OMS has paid for itself and proved to be a worthwhile investment. 

There is, of course, a big difference between what a B2C-webshop that sells everday-products or clothes and what a manufacturer in the iron industry can expect.   

Furthermore, there are also a number of unexpected savings, as demonstrated by our case with Fire Eater. A great output management solution often unlocks opportunities that were unimaginable before implementing the solution. 

How an output management solution reduces costs 

With all that in mind, here is what you can expect in direct and indirect savings, by using an output management solution.  

Direct savings: 

1. Eliminating Manual Processes: Significantly reduces labor hours and associated costs. Stop wasting time on manual tasks such as emailing, PDF-creation and sending out invoices.
   
2. Lowering Printing, Postage, and Storage Expenses:  Optimized processes reduce physical overheads
3. Avoiding Costly Errors and Reprints: A good output management solution do not let you print faulty receipts or prints. Enhanced accuracy minimizes unnecessary expenses.
   
4. Enhanced Flexibility and Independence: A good output management solution gives you the ability to design and manage your business documents independently, eliminating the need for ERP vendor support and reducing reliance on costly external consultations. 

Indirect savings: 

1. Improved Accuracy and Compliance: In an everchanging world where regulations are changed all the time, An output management solution Reduces risks of fines or reputational damage; by letting you edit and optimize document, so they live up to the current standard.
2. Enhanced Staff Productivity: Automation frees valuable time for employees to focus on strategic, high-value tasks. Could be anything from sales to product development or customer support
3. Improved Cash Flow: Through automation, faster invoice delivery leads to quicker payments.
4. Increased Customer Satisfaction: Timely and error-free communications foster trust and loyalty. This trust and loyalty can be converted into recurring customers, that will use your services or buy your goods more than once. 

 Compounding benefits over time 

These direct and indirect savings compound over time. By reallocating resources toward core operations, businesses not only save money but also unlock opportunities for growth and innovation. Additionally, operational efficiencies reduce both direct costs (like inefficiencies) and indirect costs (such as customer service issues or compliance risks). 

A great example of this can be seen in our case with Fire Eater down below. 

Case: How Fire Eater transformed their document and output management with InterFormNG2 

Up til 150 workdays saved, An 80% reduction in time spent on making document changes and an optimized handling of business critical certifications without compromizing security! That is just some of the results that Fire Eater, has experienced by integrating InterFormNG2 with ERP system Dynamics365 F&O.

Fire Eater, a Danish manufacturing company specializing in fire extinguishing equipment, lives up to its promise of “Reliable and sustainable fire extinguishing within 40 seconds.” Their innovative solutions, using Inergen to extinguish fires, are trusted across industries. But as a company operating in the highly regulated safety industry, Fire Eater faces a critical challenge: seamless management of documentation and certifications. 

The Challenge: Streamlining certification processes 

In the safety industry, documentation is the most critical thing, ensuring compliance, tracking incidents, and standardizing procedures. Correct documentation provides accountability, supports audits, and helps prevent future risks. Compliance-documents and certificates with the correct digital signature, must meet strict standards and often require verification by various authorities. Delivering these outputs to customers and authorities was therefore important for Fire Eater states their IT coordinator Jesper Løwe, who uses InterFormNG2 daily.

“Our original challenge, which we aimed to solve with InterFormNG2, was implementing digital signatures on our certificates and compliance documents. This would allow various authorities to verify that the documents were genuinely issued by us—ensuring it was clear that they came from Fire Eater,” says Jesper Løwe IT coordinator @ Fire Eater.

Setting up these compliance documents and certificates with the correct signature, meeting regulations and ensure the right document with right data arrived at the right place through basic ERP functionality (in their case, Dynamics365 Finance & Operation) was becoming a bottleneck. Fire Eater needed a solution that would automate and simplify the process while maintaining accuracy and compliance.

ERP: Dynamics365 F&O

Output Management Solution: InterFormNG2

InterForm-modules: AdvancedPDF

Problem: Creating output from Dynamics365 F&O and handling digital signature and cerficications.

The Solution: InterFormNG2 for efficiency and automation 

Fire Eater chose InterFormNG2, incorporating the module AdvancedPDF and use the EmbeddedPDF-function, to optimize their handling of business critical certifications. With the InterFormNG2 integrated into Dynamics365 F&O the results have been transformative.

“Currently, we primarily use InterFormNG2 for generating print outputs to local printers, sending emails to customers, and updating SharePoint. It’s also where we generate our certificates, including certificates of origin,  and packing slips. InterForm processes the data, generates the output, and ensures that SharePoint is automatically updated in the process.” tells Jesper. 

The results: Saving time, costs, and resources 

The shift to InterFormNG2 delivered both direct and indirect benefits, with measurable improvements in efficiency and cost savings: 

• Faster Document Changes: “Previously, I would have had to involve a developer, which would cost us about six hours of work. Now, I can handle it myself in less than 30 minutes to make changes to business documents and templates. I wouldn’t even know how to approach this in the traditional Dynamics 365 F&O”
• Reduced Time-to-Output: “From concept to final print, the process now takes about a week, compared to well over a month previously. This isn’t just time I’ve saved personally—it’s also time and costs we’ve saved on external consultants.” 
• Streamlined Layouts: “By streamlining the layout of every document, we have also saved time setting up individual packing slips or invoices.”

150 days of work saved every year!

And Fire Eater is not done implementing their output management solution. They still have tasks that they can automate and thereby saving even more time & manpower. Looking ahead, Fire Eater expects even greater efficiencies as they automate more processes – and can even give a forecast on how much time they will be saving.

“Currently, we have an employee dedicating three days a week to manually collecting certificates and either sending them to customers or uploading them to a SharePoint site. Once this process is automated, the employee will reclaim those three days each week to focus on core responsibilities.” Jesper continues.

That is roughly 150 days a year of work that Fire Eaters quality assurance-employee would be able to spend on core tasks.

A clear impact on daily operations 

The transformation isn’t just about faster processes. It is about optimizing every line throughout the organization. 

“Creating new workflows and documents is incredibly simple, saving both time and money in the process. Time is a critical factor across all areas of business,” explains Fire Eater. 

“The investment has paid off. It’s difficult to estimate precisely how quickly or how many times over it has, but there’s no doubt it has. Both through direct savings and indirect benefits. I would recommend the InterForm OMS-setup we use without hesitation.” Jesper Løwe, IT coordinator @ Fire Eater 

Is InterFormNG2 the right output management solution for you? 

InterForm’s output management solution, InterFormNG2, integrates seamlessly with existing ERP systems, offering businesses a scalable and secure way to automate document workflows. Discover how InterFormNG2 can streamline your document workflows, reduce costs, and enhance compliance across your business. Contact us today to hear more if InterFormNG2 can fulfill your needs or you can request a demo right here