Xeroxs Mulcahy Wants More I in IT

In her AIIM/On Demand Expo keynote, Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy said the focus today is "on what really matters: information."

NEW YORK—Xerox Corp. Chairman and CEO Anne Mulcahy on Monday urged businesses to change the way they think about IT.

"The I in IT is getting bigger, and the T is getting smaller. Today the focus is on what really matters: information," Mulcahy told a crowd of some 2,500 IT, printing, imaging and content management professionals gathered for her keynote address at the AIIM/On Demand Expo here at Javits Convention Center.

Mulcahy said that Xerox, through its content management software and services, is freeing up businesses "to spend more time on content and less on process." For example, Mulcahy said, Xerox helped Continental Airlines, of Houston, save more than $750,000 a year by automating and digitizing one of the airlines document management processes.

In another initiative, the Stamford, Conn., copier giant helped streamline processes at the European Patent Office, headquartered in Munich, Germany. The EPO, with a staff of 5,000, handles patent records for 27 European nations. The office receives more than 140,000 patent applications each year, all of which have to be channeled to the right department. The EPO improved this process by using Xerox software to "pre-classify patent applications and automatically route them to the right department," Mulcahy said. "Employees are now processing more applications in less time." Xerox also helped the EPO to streamline a manual for new employees, cutting training time in half, according to Mulcahy.

Mulcahy also touted content management software in development at Xeroxs Grenoble, France, research center that "organizes related documents on related subjects in a relationship to one another."

For example, she said, the software could be used to automatically route customer complaints to the relevant individual or group responsible for the details in the complaint. She said Xerox plans to license this technology to companies working on document systems for CRM, information retrieval and data management.

Mulcahy said no business can "have a viable IT strategy without an equally strong document strategy. Wherever we go in the enterprise, we see documents that could be smartened up."

Also at the show, Xerox announced it has integrated IBMs DB2 Records Manager into its Web-based DocuShare content management software. Xerox officials say the new software will help businesses comply with federal regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA, by turning documents into records. The new product will be available this fall. Pricing is not available yet.

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