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PAPERLess ARCHIVing Document Imaging Document Management Digital Imaging scanning service bureau slides Microfilm records Select a Scanner Documents files microfiche photographs paper Definitions HIPAA Photo Restoration

• Is your business fairly centralized, with a large incoming mail-room operation? If so, you may want to consider a centralized scanning approach.
• Does your organization consist of remote offices or branches? If so, you're probably interested in distributed capture to push the effort out to the source of the incoming documents and to get documents into centrally managed processes as quickly as possible.
• Do you have a mix of both environments? If so, some type of blended approach may make sense. (Scanner Selection Chart)

Page 2 -- Document Management and Imaging is the process of  digitizing documents to improve the business processes and to ensure the proper management, control, and retention of that information. The concept of imaging is fairly simple: scan a document and convert it into a standard digital form, index it, store it in a repository, and allow it to be used in the business processes.

For companies with remote offices or branches, such as insurance or banking, there is a clear need to capture incoming documents at the source and control them as quickly as possible. Not only does this eliminate shipping costs, but it also ensures that documents such as enrollment forms are processed faster, allowing a company to bill or collect from customers sooner. There has been a growing demand for smaller Workgroup and Departmental scanners and multifunction devices to support such applications, as well as software that allows users to drive the capture process.  Scanners rated at a higher speed include  Production scanners.

Concomitantly, customers have growing expectations to be able to access information, including all correspondence and documents exchanged with the companies with which they do business. They expect the companies to have at their fingertips all relevant documentation, such as invoices, bills, original enrollment forms, claims forms, and notices, in order to handle inquiries or resolve problems. More than that, customers expect to be able to access such information themselves. With imaging, organizations can choose to make all relevant information available to customers over the internet, and not just information originating in an electronic format or data coming from databases.

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Page 3 -- Imaging technology makes great sense for companies with a need to reduce the risk of noncompliance and the costs of discovery during audits or litigation.  Building a document management / imaging system is more complicated than just scanning a document and storing it. For the system to work effectively, there are several steps involved.

The first step involves scanning or capturing a document with a scanner or multifunction printer with scanning capabilities, or importing the document from an electronic source such as a fax machine, an E-mail server, a file server, or a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site. This step typically involves hardware from vendors such as Fujitsu, Canon, and Kodak. This stage may also involve capture software that can drive the device and can convert the image into a standard imaging format such as TIFF, JPG or PDF. Capture-software systems can also be used to manage batches of scanned images throughout the capture and export process.
The next step often involves enhancing the electronic image by performing actions such as removing speckles, fixing the alignment, and enhancing the borders. Such enhancements are typically performed by filters that are provided by capture-software systems or imaging software like Adobe Photoshop.

Then comes the most crucial step: indexing and recognition, which involves assigning descriptions to the images or capturing data from the images themselves. This can be done manually or be automated with software engines for optical-character recognition and intelligent character recognition of handwriting. Most capture systems provide manual indexing interfaces as well as recognition engines. To ensure that images are indexed properly, most capture-software systems provide quality-assurance or quality-control modules that allow for a visual review of images and descriptions before committing them to storage.
Grover Park Consulting "Smart Tools for Smart Business"© creates custom databases for specialized applications.

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Page 4 -- Most software systems also provide capabilities for exporting images and data in standard formats, such as TIFF, JPG or PDF for the images and ASCII, XML, or relational data for the indexes.

In addition, some capture-software systems provide direct integration with content-management systems such as those from CompuThink, and FileNexus by Loris technologies. Capture vendor Kofax, for example, can integrate its systems with products from more than 90 vendors or content-management and related tools.

Once documents have been captured and converted into an electronic format, businesses need a way to manage, store, and archive them. Imaging or document management systems provide the repository for the management, searching, and retrieval of images, and for the long-term storage, Paperless Archiving, and archiving of the images. For applications that require regulatory compliance or extremely long-term storage, systems such as optical storage libraries or redundant magnetic or tape libraries are required. (Storage Media Chart)  Many of these systems also provide tools to distribute images via traditional print-based publishing as well as via Web sites, E-mail, and fax.

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Page 5 -- One key concern is the volume and the sophistication of your capture requirements. Volumes are easy to understand, and they're the basis for the traditional approach to differentiating among imaging systems. Some systems can handle only a few thousand images per day, while others can handle hundreds of thousands. Some applications require capture of multiple fields from multi-page forms, while others require color capture. Small and simple imaging applications, for example, consist primarily of workgroup or departmental capture focused on paper reduction. They require minimal indexing or other processing and minimal incorporation into downstream business processes. Typical applications include capture to file systems, E-mail folders, or a repository for simple search and retrieval for compliance or customer service. On the other hand, production scanners handle big and complex imaging applications require significant indexing or other processing to incorporate the images into the business processes.

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Page 6 -- Companies that have immediate requirements in areas such as regulatory compliance or risk reduction may be tempted to simply make a minimal investment in imaging technology. But that approach is shortsighted and could hurt in the long run. Managers should take a step back and consider imaging as part of a broader strategy for companywide content management. Such a strategy should include approaches for addressing business needs in areas such as document management, Web content management, digital-asset management, records management, enterprise report management, and content aggregation and distribution, among other things. And while it may not be realistic for an organization to standardize on a single platform or technology set for all its content-management needs, it makes sense to at least have a strategy for how such needs will be addressed.

Current regulatory compliance or risk reduction issues include:

• http://www.21cfrpart11.com
• http://www.fda.gov/ora/compliance_ref/part11/

• http://www.senate.gov/~banking/conf/
• http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/glbact/

Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Adopted in 2002 for all public companies following the accounting debacles sparked by Enron, this act requires that all public companies keep audit papers for five years. It also makes altering, destroying or concealing relevant documents punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine. For more information:

• http://www.sarbanes-oxley.com/
• http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2002-128.htm

Another key decision that businesses need to make is whether to invest in imaging as part of an overall content-management strategy or offload imaging operations to an outsourcer. More forward-thinking organizations are rolling their imaging approaches into their enterprise content-management strategies. Others, however, don't have the time or resources to devote to content management but still have needs in areas such as regulatory compliance and risk reduction. In many cases, they're turning to outsourcers and service bureaus instead of making departmental technology investments and adding to the support loads.

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