Document Imaging Blog

SharePoint, BPM and Document Imaging

As promised, here’s a couple of things I gleaned during last week’s AIIM seminar in Boston. If you missed the roadshow and are interested in learning more about Document Imaging, SharePoint and BPM, register for the November 19th AIIM webinar.

1. SharePoint adoption is still growing, but it has not yet moved past a collaboration and document library/portal tool in most organizations.
2. Pretty much every ECM vendor has built integration into SharePoint and is happily co-existing. SharePoint does not seem to be a threat to ECM technology vendors.
3. Records management is the major area where SharePoint lacks functionality to compete against ECM solutions.

Good information, but nothing earth shattering. What resonated with me, however, was Carl Frappalo’s keynote about BPM. He noted that when undertaking a Business Process Management initiative, technology considerations are secondary. Instead, it is all about understanding your business workflows at their most granular level and determining where the inefficiencies lie. Only then can you begin to improve those processes through re-design and, sometimes, technology.

For example, we have a customer that was spending well north of $100K each year retrieving invoices, checks and other financial documents for use by auditors. The images below represent the before and after workflows for invoice retrieval. Note that in this “before” workflow, most steps are colored Red, indicating that they are paper-based. The only electronic step is the first one…meaning that this workflow originated electronically, but then reverted to paper-based. Definitely not a path to business process efficiencies!

In the “after” workflow, the invoices are scanned at the beginning of the workflow process, enabling the rest of the workflow to be completed electronically. As important, the process is now “self-service”; eliminating the need to engage the A/P department for standard invoice retrieval tasks.

The result of this single workflow change and the elimination of paper early in a business process? $100K+ in cost savings and a reduction in process time from days to minutes!! Just think about how many processes in your organization could be improved simply by identifying areas where paper intersects with a business process.

SharePoint and Business Process Management

I’m headed down to Boston tomorrow for the AIIM seminar: "Automating Document-Centric Processes: Is SharePoint Enough?". I’m looking forward to hearing from vendors and end users alike about how far SharePoint has actually come in terms of Business Process Management and Business Process Automation. There is little question that SharePoint adoption is still hot. In fact, at our Paper Connection Forum last week, 4 of our 6 Best Practices winners are in the process of rolling out SharePoint or are already using it enterprise-wide.

However, the big question seems to be whether the technology can move from a hosted document library and collaboration tool to a technology that sits at the core of business processes.  For example, of those customers at our event last week that I mentioned, every deployment of SharePoint was focused on collaboration and content management, not business processes. I think a big part of this is a lack of understanding and I hope that tomorrow will shed some light on the topic. What do you think? What have you observed? And what would you like to find out about it? I’ll be writing a post following the seminar and would be interested to compare your thoughts to those of the seminar attendees.

And if you are interested in more information on this topic, please register for the November 19th AIIM Webinar, Automating Document-Centric Processes within SharePoint.

Feeling Constrained Managing Paper and Electronic Documents?

If your answer to the above question is yes, I recommend you attend eCopy Discovery Day on October 9 in Boston.

Discovery Day is a free, one-day conference where you can learn how to combine scanned document images and e-faxes with e-mail, spreadsheets, word processing files, presentations and more into a single, easy-to-manage and –distribute PDF file.

At the conference, we will debut eCopy PaperWorks Plus, PC software that enables office workers to convert electronic and paper documents into searchable, secure and editable PDF files.

You will also have the opportunity to examine your document imaging needs with companies such as eCopy, EMC, Canon, HP, Microsoft, Ricoh and more. All participating vendors are available for individual consultations to discuss your particular requirements.

eCopy Discovery Day takes place at the Westin Copley Place Hotel in Boston. Attendance is free with advance registration and walk-ins will be charged $50.