Document Imaging Blog

If You Buy an MFP, Why Not Use It for Scanning

 
In a recent presentation, MFP Report editor Brian Bissett referenced an amazing statistic from the market research firm Power Decisions Group. He noted that, in 2008, only 33% of US organizations say they are using MFPs for distributed scanning.

Yet his own research shows that 85% of office MFPs sold in the US have some level of network scanning functionality. So the obvious question is, if you are paying for an MFP equipped with network scanning, why wouldn't you use it?

I believe many people don't understand how powerful MFP scanning can be. See my posts on the misconceptions of MFP scanning.

What do you think? Why aren't you using your MFP for document imaging? I'd love to hear from you.

eWeek Article on Document Imaging and Microsoft Apps

Many organizations struggle with how to best integrate document imaging technologies with their Microsoft applications. A recently published article in eWeek by eCopy's Ed White covers the critical considerations when marrying document imaging with Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Access and SQL Server. The three-part article is a must read for IT managers implementing document scanning in conjunction with Microsoft technologies. You can read the article by clicking here.

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.

Choosing a Document Imaging Solution for SharePoint

I continue to see a lot of discussions amongst blogs, discussion boards and other Web forums about how to deal with one of the identified “shortcomings” of SharePoint…imaging. The proliferation of SharePoint licenses in organizations of all sizes has shone a new light onto the struggles that organization’s face with paper, and the question, “How do I get paper documents into SharePoint” is being asked more and more.

And, not surprisingly, many vendors (hardware and software) have released products that offer a way to scan documents and load them into SharePoint. So how do you select which is the right product for you? Here’s a couple of questions you may want to consider:

 

1. How will scanned documents be searched for once saved to SharePoint? You should look for an imaging solution that offers both the capability to manually add metadata to a document at the point of scanning and perform OCR (optical character recognition) on the scanned image to create a full-text searchable PDF, or capture certain key pieces of data from the document and include them as metadata.

2. Are SharePoint workflows supported by enforcing metadata requirements for rules-based processing?  If you are using the workflow capabilities of SharePoint, it is important to be able to kick-off those workflows for paper-based documents at the time of scanning. Your document imaging solution should prompt users to include the necessary information needed for these workflows (such as content type and necessary metadata), at the capture device when scanning the document.

3. Are changes to the underlying SharePoint site structure reflected dynamically at the point of capture? SharePoint is a very fluid system and changes to sites, document libraries, lists, etc. are commonplace. When capturing paper documents, users need to be able to see the most recent version of the site that they are saving the document to. Document imaging solutions that use pre-defined routing (either using barcodes, embedded directives, or hot folders) can not easily stay up-to-date with changes. Using a document imaging solution that has dynamic integration with SharePoint ensures that users have access to the most up-to-date site layout because they are logged into SharePoint when scanning.

4. Does the document imaging solution require components to be added to the SharePoint server? This is important for two reasons. First, the less third-party software that has to be installed on the SharePoint server the better, as it reduces the risk of that software causing problems. Secondly, if the document imaging solution has components on the server, it can not support hosted SharePoint environments.

There are of course many, many other factors that go into choosing the right document imaging solution for SharePoint. For additional information, download the white paper series: Distributed Document Imaging: Maximizing Your Investment in Microsoft Technology.

Information Input and Output Relationships

I was talking to an IT director at a large customer of ours recently about his information management strategy and was impressed by his realistic and holistic view of information management…or Enterprise Content Management (ECM), to use AIIM’s industry term. Like many organizations, he has an ECM application in the center of his content management strategy. And, like many organizations, he has mapped out the connections from that ECM system to his line of business applications, Intranets, Extranets, desktop applications and email systems, as well as paper.

 

Where this conversation became interesting was his view of the input/output relationships between every one of these parts, including paper. This input/output relationship is often forgotten when considering paper, with the focus being solely on the act of converting paper-based information to electronic form (input). But conversion and input is only half of the story. Understanding how users work with electronic files (both scanned and digitally originated), is critical to the success of an information management strategy. What he has delivered is an information management strategy that encompasses the complete document or content lifecycle.

 

 

Think about your users’ work processes. Getting a paper document into an electronic system is good for storage, but most of the time that document needs to be accessed again, edited, possibly combined with other documents, and either shared or checked back into the system. These tasks typically consist of performing multiple steps and opening multiple applications. However, using standard document formats like PDF, and working with PDF software that is integrated directly with your other applications, can significantly reduce the number of steps…improving productivity, saving labor costs, reducing resource contraints, and creating a better work environment.

Webinar: “Paper That Works” – Wednesday, Feb. 11

Just a quick plug for a AIIM Webinar that we are co-sponsoring with EMC next Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. (EST) on the topic of Distributed Capture. Click here to register.

 

Here’s the abstract…

 

Centralized imaging of large volumes of documents can deliver tremendous cost savings for organizations. Yet, centralized paper processing is not the right answer for everyone all the time. As multi-function peripherals (and desktop scanners) have proliferated, the ability to capture paper documents at the source — getting them to work for you faster — is available to any organization. Discover how to get started with distributed capture—and why you should.

 

Hope you can join us on Wednesday, but if not, download Frost & Sullivan's white paper: Distributed Capture Platforms: Reducing Costs, Removing Bottlenexks & Mitigating Risk for more information.

LegalTech Keynote on e-Discovery and Imaging

During yesterday's LegalTech keynote given by Fred Borchardt, a Partner at KPMG for 25 years, Mr. Borchardt talked about how law firms need to shift their e-Discovery strategy "to the left" in the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) and take a more proactive approach to information management.  In the same speech he also mentioned how prevalent paper remains within the legal industry. 

 

 

Given the prevalence of paper in law firms, moving leftward in the reference model means law firms should scan paper documents and convert them into searchable text as early as is practicable.  The workhorse of printing and copying in many legal firms, the MFP, when outfitted with intelligently integrated scanning and OCR software will play a vital role in making this shift in electronic legal records management a reality.

Partner Ecosystems and the Customer

Jeff Shuey, who writes a great blog about the intersection of People and Process, made a very important comment in a recent post about Microsoft partners. Talking about how each partner in an ecosystem benefited (revenue wise) from the ecosystem, he noted one of the primary benefits of ecosystems for customers:

 

"…customers can take comfort in the knowledge that the partner ecosystem will be there to support them. Note that I said the 'ecosystem' – I did not say the specific partners. A vibrant partner ecosystem allows the mix of partners to change over time to meet the ever changing needs of the customer."

 

This is in reference to Microsoft, but it applies to the Document Imaging ecosystem as well. Hardware manufacturers, ISVs, VARs, Office Equipment Dealers and Systems Integrators all sit in the ecosystem, and can all benefit from working together. But rarely do the ecosystem pieces remain static at a customer. MFP vendors change on a regular basis as leases expire. New software applications are consistently being rolled out. And the VARs, dealers and SIs that sell and support these systems change with them.

 

In the Microsoft world, Microsoft sits at the center of the ecosystem as the glue. Choose to work with Microsoft, and you also get the benefit of working with their ecosystem. With Document Imaging, that glue is an open platform that lets any scanning device (MFPs and scanners) connect to any software application. Add some Xerox devices to a Canon environment? – no problem. Decide to roll-out SharePoint to supplement OnBase and Documentum? No need to change how you handle the problem of getting paper into those systems.

 

Ecosystems are an essential ingredient in delivering customer-focused solutions. And they help drive standards. And, they present revenue opportunities for all the partners involved. It’s no wonder that Microsoft spends so much money on building theirs!

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.

Automating Document-Centric Processes with SharePoint

We’re excited to be sponsoring tomorrow’s AIIM Webinar, "Automating Document-Centric Processes with SharePoint” and presenting with Mauro Cardarelli, author of Essential SharePoint 2007: Delivering High Impact Collaboration. I’ve had a sneak peak into the content of the Webinar, and it promises to be full of practical advice for those looking to automate common paper-based processes.

One of the interesting pieces of information that Mauro will share is the difference between “automation” and “invention” in terms of business processes, which is more appropriate for paper-based processes, and what processes are good candidates for SharePoint.  In addition, eCopy’s Greg Gies will be sharing advice on the best practice approaches for integrating paper-based content into SharePoint using document imaging.

We hope you can join us for this Webinar. You can register here.