There was an interesting discussion on the Document Imaging Group on LinkedIn earlier this week around the following question: "Would customers be interested in a cost-effective and easy way to share a high-speed scanner over a network?"
In thinking about this, shouldn’t the question be “would customers be interested in improving the way that they incorporate paper into their business processes?” Shared scanners, networked MFPs, non-networked desktop scanners, and operator-driven scanners, either distributed or centralized, all may have their place in many organizations. What we need to be discussing with customers is where paper intersects with business processes and what the best approach is for converting that paper to electronic form so that those processes can be improved, secured, managed and measured.
Instead of focusing on the technology itself, ask companies these type of questions: Where does paper enter your organization? Does it get moved physically? Does it get copied? Where does the content on that paper need to reside? Does it need to be archived?
Determine what the customers’ business processes are first. Then determine at what point in that business process paper can be scanned. This will tell you who should be doing the scanning, what type of scanning device is most appropriate and how the document needs to be handled once scanned (converted, OCRd, cleaned up, named, routed, etc.). Once you know this, look for a document imaging solution that can provide a common interface and process for employees regardless of the device (scanner, MFP) or brand. Give users a common interface and the ability to get paper-based content directly into the systems that process that information -- in the format that is needed -- and you will be delivering serious, measurable value to your customers -- not just another piece of hardware or software.
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