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In-house Document Scanning and Document Management: DIY Done Right
August 05, 2011
If you're scanning documents in-house, chances are you're not taking
advantage of all the opportunities to maximize productivity, time and
money savings. Answering "yes" to any of these questions means you can
do more to optimize your scanning process and ROI:
- Do you use non-standard practices when naming scanned documents?
- Do
you save scanned documents under different categories or names in
various locations, making them difficult to retrieve when needed?
- Do you manually move or rekey data for use by finance, human resources, sales or other departments?
- Do you archive images of documents without indexing?
- Do you manually enter document indexes or names?
- Do untrained personnel scan at various locations using MFPs (multi-function printers)?
A well-designed document scanning and management system maximizes your
efficiency and ROI by scanning documents and automatically naming,
filing, indexing and storing them for fast and easy retrieval and
tracking. It can also route the scanned documents throughout your
organization according to your business rules and feed captured data
automatically into the systems that need them, such as those used by
accounting and human resources. The result: maximum savings of time and
money, maximum efficiency, maximum ROI.
Automatic vs. Manual Data Capture
A recent study by the Association for Information and Image Management
(AIIM) showed that more than a third of all businesses scan documents
and save them as archived images, without using a standard naming
convention or capturing data for use by other programs or databases.
Archiving images saves paper and space, but this practice misses the
prime benefits of uniformed document scanning and data capture:
- Near-instant retrieval of accurate information by anyone who needs it,
- Secure storage, distribution and management of documents, and
- Automatic flow of data to software used by human resources, accounting and other departments.
According to that study, many companies that are capturing data do so
manually, a tedious, slow and error-prone process. Advanced capture
software allows organizations to automatically name scanned documents
and populate index fields with point-and-click capability or to match
data to an existing database.
Automated data capture software integrates with many document management
and enterprise content management systems, including the most widely
used accounting, human resources and other business process systems.
More importantly, adding this software to an in-house scanning system is
relatively easy, and the new capabilities begin paying off immediately.
Look for data capture software with full-text optical character
recognition (OCR), which enables full-text searches of words or phrases
and indicates their location within a document.
Centralized vs. Distributed Scanning
When scanning in-house, the first question is where. Often, the most
efficient strategy is to scan documents where they're received or
created: in one spot for a single location operation, or at several
sites when an organization has more than one office. In some cases,
legal considerations may govern where,or if, documents can be
transported for scanning.
With today's technology, including high-bandwidth networks, either
method can be both time- and cost-efficient. Centralized scanning,
performed by experienced staff, typically produces higher-quality entry
and indexing, but carries the disadvantages of storage and logistical
requirements. Distributed scanning across multiple sites can decrease
the need to transport documents, but can result in quality-control
issues since training is often limited among scanner operators. Some
organizations use both centralized and distributed scanning, depending
on the scanning application.
With either solution, the key is software that automates the process and
gathers and stores information in a central location so that users
throughout the organization can access it quickly, easily and securely.
MFPs vs. Scanners
Although many companies have MFPs, these devices are typically not the
best document scanning solution. Many MFPs do not have full-feature
scanning capability such as duplicate feed alerts, high-speed
capability, and acceptance of various paper sizes and thicknesses, and
large scanning projects can tie up MFPs that others use to print or
copy. Both desktop and department-level scanners are inexpensive and can
process more documents faster and more accurately, making them the
better choice for all but the least paper-intensive businesses.
The Final Step: E-forms
As documents are scanned and processed, customized e-forms can be easily
designed and implemented to automatically capture new information. Data
automatically flows into other software, and the e-forms can be
securely stored in a document management system, accessed by any user
anywhere, and backed up off-site for full disaster recovery. E-forms
deliver real cost savings and improved productivity by replacing paper
with web-based forms.
Mitch Taube
