The BIC Theory  Your first thought upon reading the title of this article might be, "why is he writing about a pen?"
Actually, this title comes from one of our customers who referred to "BIC" as an acronym to describe how his department could increase its productivity: Butts In Chairs! At first blush, this seems a little harsh. But in a recent issue of Men's Health magazine, there was an article titled "Do You Have Office A.D.D.?" The article describes a Microsoft study which found that workers who responded to an email that interrupted a task took up to 15 minutes to return to that task. So what happens when you get up to retrieve a file or report that is stored in your filing cabinets? If you are like most people, you'll get up, but someone will stop you to ask a question or talk, and you'll eventually return to your desk having forgotten what you had originally gotten up to do. So what does this have to do with document imaging you ask? Plenty: At Digiscribe, one of the first places we examine when we are reviewing business process improvements for our clients is the amount of time it takes to retrieve a file. It still amazes me how much time this task actually takes. And not only for entry-level personnel, but for upper management as well! Studies show that an average clerical worker spends 30 minutes each day looking for lost or misfiled documents. This seemingly small amount of unproductive time accumulates to a staggering 130 hours per year. Management will spend nearly an hour each week searching for files. This is in addition to the 2½ hours per week clerical personnel spend looking for the same documents. * If the BIC theory were implemented at your place of business, how much more productive would your company become? How much easier would your job be? These are tough questions, but asking them usually turns on a light bulb that not only shows how much time is being spent finding paper, but also illuminates the fact that there is no plan in place for disaster recovery of data and records. If you want help implementing the BIC theory at your place of business, please contact me at mtaube@digiscribe.info or call me at 800-686-7577 x 103. I look forward to speaking with you.  
*Source: Advanced Technology Systems, Inc. (ATS). |