Document Imaging Blog

Improving paper-intensive business processes

We’ve just completed a new paper on improving paper-intensive business processes. Among the topics covered is how integrating document imaging with the systems underlying BPM, and performing document scanning at the front-end of business processes, organizations can develop a bridge between the paper work and the electronic work that improved productivity and enables continuous improvement of business processes.

 

Enterprise software applications that drive document-centric workflows — such as enterprise content management (ECM) applications, enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing, and human resources applications — are all strong candidates for most organizations seeking to automate BPM and reduce enterprise dependency on paper- based processes. While BPM tools model, monitor, analyze,
and drive business processes, it is the business applications that both execute the steps within the processes, and that contain and manage the content and data. Cross-platform document imaging solutions provide the necessary integration points to include paper-based information into the electronic workflows managed by BPM suites.

 

   

 

 

Additionally, the paper includes an overview of some of the typical business problems caused by paper-based processes and discovery questions that can be used to identify these problems. Clearly, identifying and dealing with paper is only one step in process improvement. But without addressing paper-based processes, any BPM initiative will leave a large process improvement opportunity on the table.

The Impact of Paper within Business Processes

Increasing efficiencies within business processes is at the top of mind of organizations today, especially in light of the economy. By completing tasks in less steps and less time, and therefore using less resources, operating costs and staffing requirements are both reduced. Identifying and reducing the impact of paper within business processes can provide immediate results.

Let’s look at the one of the challenges of paper-laden processes. Businesses only operate as efficiently as they process information and paper – a physical object – takes longer to move from department/person to another (for signatures, review, editing, etc.). Manual processes are more time consuming, error-prone, and costly than electronic processes.

So how do you address this? The fist step is to discover the impact of paper on business processes. To do this, look at your organization’s workflows and ask these type of questions:

• How many times is paper handled during a business process/workflow?

• Where (physically) does a paper document need to move within a process? How is it moved?

• Where is paper stored and who needs access?

• How is information on paper searched for and retrieved?

• Where do paper and electronic processes intersect?

• What is the cycle time of paper-based steps?

• What is the cost of performing paper-based steps?

By asking these questions, you will quickly discover business processes that can be dramatically improved. And once these processes are identified, document imaging technology can be applied at the most appropriate point in a business process to help improve the process, helping organizations accelerate cycle time and drive productivity.

Shared Scanners - When are they needed?

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.