See how Xerox Digital Alternatives is transforming personal workflows
around the world: bit.ly/XeroxDAVideo
How far away
is the paperless
office?
Considering 3 trillion pages were
printed in 2013, I’d say we’re about
3 trillion pages away. In all seriousness,
huge improvements have been made
in terms of innovating technologies
that match the flexibility of pen and
paper. And I think that puts us at the
threshold of a transformational age
where we will shift from primarily
paper-based workflows to mostly
digital ones. I think the real question
we should be asking is, “How far away
is the office-less office?” That’s
ultimately where the workplace is
headed. At Xerox we are focused on
delivering solutions that allow workers
to work the way they want, where and
when they want, while supporting
corporate or organizational business
objectives. Digital Alternatives
represents one more step on
that journey.
What inspired
the development
of Xerox Digital
Alternatives?
At Xerox we have an intimate history
and understanding of the three “Ps” of
business interactions: people, processes
and paper—which is increasingly digital,
but still fundamentally unchanged from
its hard-copy roots. This understanding,
combined with fresh information
coming out of our research centers,
allowed us to pinpoint the five reasons
documents are used. We discovered
that people like to read, annotate, save,
share and sign documents. These
findings became guiding principles for
the features and user experience of
Xerox Digital Alternatives. We also
took the increasingly mobile workplace
into account as we designed the user
interface (UI). That’s why the UI is so
simple and tablet-friendly, for example.
5What makes Xerox Digital Alternatives different from other
workflow tools?
On the front end, Digital Alternatives
is competitive with any tool or app.
But the back end sets it apart. By
integrating directly into your corporate
infrastructure, you can do things like
send annotated documents to
meeting attendees by pulling the list
right from Microsoft Exchange. Also,
admin is handled as a central IT
function so you have far more oversight
and control. Second, the security is
incredible. Unlike consumer-grade
tools, this is deployed on-site or in a
Xerox-hosted private cloud. Plus, with
cloud capacity in the U.S., Canada and
Europe, data sovereignty isn’t a worry.
Third, you enjoy unmatched analytics.
Invisible to the user, every action is
captured. Long term, these insights can
bridge the gap between the legacy way
of doing things and a fully digital process.
7
How does this
tool improve
personal
workflows?
It’s all about providing a more
connected, more mobile, more
streamlined substitute for paper-based
workflows—and to speed up processes
by eliminating “bad” paper as we call
it at Xerox. Users can easily complete
workflows with just a few clicks or taps
within Digital Alternatives. All of those
key features I just mentioned are
immediately accessible no matter
what platform you use. And no matter
how you work, you have the flexibility
to interact with documents in your own
unique way. That’s really the essence of
personal workflows after all.
6Despite the popularity of digital tools, pen and paper are still
extremely common.
Why is that?
On the surface, the expediency,
simplicity and accessibility have
a lot to do with it. But I think the
reason goes even deeper. We’ve got
thousands of years of experience
putting marks down on surfaces—
from cave drawings to graffiti in
ancient Rome to the Magna Carta.
People are familiar at such a deep
level with writing. In many senses
digital technology needed to catch
up to where paper has been for
2,000 years.
