ROCHESTER, N.Y.--Feb. 16, 2005-- Companies that focus on how documents and information are managed are better equipped to reduce costs, respond more quickly to changing market conditions and increase profits, according to a new study released today by the Global Services division of Xerox Corporation. In fact, the majority - 68 percent - of the 550 U.S. executives interviewed for the exclusive survey, conducted by leading IT research and advisory firm IDC, said that effective document management initiatives are driving competitive innovation, profits and revenues. "When documents - and the information contained within - are viewed as a critical part of the business mix, companies are in a much better position to achieve their objectives and maximize the effectiveness of technology investments," said Tom Dolan, president, Xerox Global Services. Key findings of the research: Almost two-thirds of survey respondents have initiatives in place to reduce the total cost of document management. On average, those respondents expect to achieve a 20 percent reduction in costs. While knowledge workers (the economy's highest paid workers) spend 20 percent of their day looking for information in documents, about 50 percent of that time workers cannot find what they're looking for. Survey respondents (66 percent) agreed that effective document management drives customer service. More than half of the information that companies share with or send to their customers is in the form of paper documents. Yet more than 60 percent of respondents have not successfully integrated hardcopy documents into their digital workflow. "Historically, CIOs and IT managers have relied on software investments to effectively run their businesses," said Angele Boyd, group vice president, IDC. "But there is still a need for a formal document management strategy encompassing both paper and electronic documents that brings people, processes and technology together." Additional Survey Conclusions Although paper continues to play an essential role in business, the profit-growth leaders had far more digitized work processes (49 percent) than their average profit-growth counterparts (30 percent). Barriers to information include inconsistent content or file formats (27 percent), search/retrieval challenges (22 percent) and increasing regulatory restrictions (17 percent). Survey respondents corroborate the importance of addressing both structured (e.g. forms, invoices) information and unstructured (e.g. e-mail, Word, Web documents) information in a document management strategy. About 40 percent of the organizations indicate the role of both IT managers and CIOs is important in driving document process changes within an organization. The survey results are detailed in a new white paper from IDC, called "Organizations Shift Focus to Information Management: The Role of Documents in Highly Effective Business Processes." To access the paper, visit www.xerox.com/globalservices and go to "White Papers." Methodology The findings of the survey, which was designed to gauge the impact and potential of document management processes on a business' bottom line, were obtained from telephone interviews with 550 senior executives in the U.S., representing companies with more than 500 employees. Survey participants are involved in decision-making for workflow processes and document management processes. They represent seven industries including financial services, healthcare and manufacturing.