Document Imaging Blog

Nike, ASU Panel Presentation on SharePoint Document Imaging

 

Are you planning to be one of the 6K people attending the Microsoft SharePoint Conference next week? If you are, here's a great opportunity to learn how leading organizations are using SharePoint document imaging software. Check out the panel presentation titled "Boosting the value of MOSS 2010 with document imaging."

The session will include speakers from Nike and Arizona State University, who are using SharePoint and document imaging software to streamline workflows, cut costs and reduce carbon consumption. 

The session moderator will be Ralph Gammon, SharePoint document imaging expert and editor of the Document Imaging Report. Joining Nike and Arizona State University on the panel will be SharePoint authority Errin O'Connor, CEO of EPC Group and author of the book Window SharePoint Services 3.0 Inside Out.

Here are just a few of the questions that Ralph Gammon will be asking the panelists:

1. What are the two most important implementation issues when getting started with document imaging software and SharePoint. Will MOSS 2010 improve the situation?

2. Can you actually reduce carbon consumption by using eCopy software with SharePoint?

3. Is security a concern when you tie document imaging to SharePoint? Is it possible to maintain document audit trails?

The session will be on October 19, 2009 at 2:45 p.m. in the Surf 1 conference room at Mandalay Bay. Even if you can't make that time, stop by eCopy's booth (#421) and enter the daily grand prize drawing for a 42" HDTV or a daily mini drawing for a Flip Ultra HD camcorder.

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.

AIIM 2009 - What wiil it bring?

AIIM kicks off next Tuesday in Philadelphia with some new branding (Info360) and a lot of anticipation around what the show will bring. Over the last couple of years, the show has been more of a gathering place for vendors, resellers and consultants, mixed with a spattering of end user customers. Will the change in venue from Boston to Philadelphia change that? How will the economy effect numbers? And what will the buzz be about?

One topic sure to be on the minds of attendees is SharePoint. The story has moved from "What is it?" to "How do I use it?" to "What has been your experience with it?" over the past couple of years, but without a doubt it will be a prominent part of many vendor's stories -- including us. We'll be presenting on SharePoint and Document Imaging in the Canon and Microsoft theaters:

• Canon Booth - Tuesday (noon); Wednesday (3:00) and Thursday (10:30)

• Microsoft Booth - Tuesday (11:30) and Wednesday (3:30)

AIIM is still the big event in the ECM realm and is always an important place to be seen and to continue to build the ecosystem. We'll be continuing on our strategy for the show for the past few years and supporting our ecosystem partners in their booths. Join us and our partners at:

• Canon (Booth #1701)

• Equitrac (Booth #2500)

• I.R.I.S. (Booth #605)

• Konica Minolta (Booth #1425)

• Microsoft (Booth #900/MP21)

• Rochester Software Associates (Booth #2248)

We look forward to seeing you at AIIM and I'll be sure to post a couple of times from the show. What are your expectations for this years show? Leave a comment!

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.

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.

SharePoint and Document Imaging: Five Considerations

If you have -- or are planning to deploy -- SharePoint in your organization and are looking for a way to add paper-based information to the system (and why wouldn’t you!), here are five considerations to take into account when choosing a document imaging solution.

Consideration #1 – Paper connectivity should not require major IT involvement.
In many organizations, SharePoint projects are departmentalized and are outside of the domain of IT. In fact, according to AIIM’s 2008 State of the ECM Industry, only 42% of SharePoint projects have a formal plan that involved IT. Therefore, your capture integration with SharePoint should be virtually “plug and play” and should not require any modifications to the SharePoint server.

Consideration #2 – Are SharePoint project teams outside your firewall?
Do any of your SharePoint applications include non-employees, suppliers, outside counsel, consultants, customers, etc.? Do these individuals need to be able to access paper-based content within SharePoint?

Consideration #3 – Are hosted SharePoint services in your future?
Will your document imaging solution support a hosted environment?  Also consider image size of scanned documents. What file types are needed and supported? How is image compression handled? And ensure that encrypted transmission is supported.

Consideration #4 – Is real-time integration with SharePoint supported?
Does the capture solution recognize changes on the SharePoint site, such as updated or deleted folders and libraries? Does the document imaging solution provide an immediate confirmation of a successful scanning job? Does it support authenticated access to prevent information from being stored to unauthorized locations?

Consideration #5 – Is the document imaging application flexible and does it support multiple workflows?
Especially when scanning unstructured content (which makes up a large portion of content stored in SharePoint), the imaging application should allow the office worker scanning a document to browse destinations for the document within SharePoint, just like they were using their Web browser at their desk.  The application should also allow for pre-configured “QuickScan” jobs too, for easy execution of repetitive workflows. In addition, all SharePoint content types should also be supported so that paper content can be properly turned into electronic files.

What other considerations have you come up with when considering document imaging solutions for SharePoint?

If you would like more information on how to use SharePoint to help manage document-centric processes and how to include paper-based information into SharePoint, join us next Wednesday for the AIIM Webinar on the topic. Register for this free event here.

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.

Keys for SharePoint Success

Microsoft has created a major presence in the enterprise content management market with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

A recent article by Barb Mosher of CMS Wire looked at what it takes to have a successful SharePoint implementation. The article featured an interview between Errin O’Connor, Founder & CEO from EPC Group and me on improving office workflows with SharePoint.

From Barb’s perspective, here are the takeaways from Errin’s interview:

 “Implementations must be carefully planned - doing it wrong the first time will lead to a lot more money spent later on to fix the problem - where are your cost savings then?
 “Governance is critical from an IT perspective in terms of its support, maintenance, updates and SharePoint’s use as an application development platform
 “Governance is also critical from a business perspective: provisioning sites and content, guidelines and communication strategies and overall management
 “Have a roadmap and a communications plan - don’t try to do it all at once and make sure everyone knows the plan”

Many Microsoft-focused organizations are using SharePoint for managing electronic content and supporting collaboration. The value of this implementation increases exponentially with the ability to store paper-based content with your Microsoft Office and other electronic documents in your SharePoint repository.

Extending SharePoint to Support Document Workflows

Next Tuesday, June 24th, Microsoft and eCopy executives will present a Webinar on how to generate more value from Microsoft SharePoint environments by adding third-party document workflow applications that support an organization’s existing business processes.

The featured speaker at the Webinar is John Graham, Microsoft senior product manager, who will discuss the role of SharePoint in enabling electronic document workflows that connect people, information and processes. He will also discuss the types of applications that organizations should consider integrating with Microsoft SharePoint, with a focus on document imaging software.

Among other topics, the webinar will provide information to help organizations:
- Extend SharePoint investments by supporting specific business workflows with third-party applications.
- Choose third-party applications that integrate with Microsoft applications.
- Seamlessly integrate paper-based information into SharePoint with a document imaging solution to move towards a paperless office environment.
- Increase the ROI of line of business applications by utilizing document scanning software that easily converts paper documents into searchable, electronic files.   

The Webinar takes place on June 24, 2008 starting at 2:00 p.m. EDT, and interested parties can sign-up in advance by accessing the event registration site. It features a live Q&A session for the participants to present questions to the expert speakers.