Excellent post Jesse. Now, for that 98% of information that is created
electronically, if we can just get people to QUIT PRINTING to paper, we
can really lower costs and increase efficiencies.
I hate paper.
Best regards, Steve
Steven D. Whitaker, CRM
Records Systems Manager; City of Reno
>>> [log in to unmask] 3/5/2007 7:29 AM >>>
I haven't weighed in on this because most of the points I've made have
already been ably made by others. But I cannot let this assertion pass.
<snip>
I guess in the same light I am amused at folks who believe that simply
because they can scan a document and make it available on their
desktop...a
benefit is realized.
</snip>
I believe that simply because I can scan a document and make it
available on
my desktop, a benefit IS realized. More properly, several benefits are
realized, even in my home office:
- I can (and do) OCR the documents using the same basic software and
find
documents via full-text indexing as well as with multi-value keyword
searching
- I can post the document to the web and allow others to view it quite
easily
- I can mark up the document with annotations to highlight particular
things
or redact others
- I can convert to PDF, HTML, or even XML for reuse by someone else
using
the same inexpensive tools
If you have a scanner, and scanners are pretty cheap these days for
SOHO and
even departmental use, you can scan (in order of cost, free with Office
to a
couple hundred) using Microsoft Office Document Imaging, Omni Page,
Paper
Port, Adobe Acrobat, or a number of other pretty inexpensive solutions
for
between $100 and $1,000.
I can further justify those systems as paying for themselves in a
couple
months tops for the smallest office; had we had a system like this when
I
worked in municipal government we'd have been able to justify it in
under
two weeks. I can think off the top of my head of at least 50 clients
I've
worked with that were similarly able to justify a pure-play imaging
system
in under a year, including at least half a dozen utilities, several
engineering companies, dozens of federal, state, and local government
entities, insurance companies, broker-dealers, and the list goes on.
I'd assert instead that for the vast majority of businesses who do not
employ the most complex workflows that imaging alone is an EXCELLENT
and
effective solution - for those entities workflow, DM, etc. may be
overkill
and provide unneeded complexity.
To anyone out there considering imaging, I'd be happy to discuss this
assertion with you and I'd be happy to show you the ROI calculations
I'd use
for your industry. You might also wish to consider the CDIA+ program -
full
disclosure, I teach CDIA+ and am in the process of updating materials
for
one of the leading CDIA+ providers. While we address full workflow
engines
such as Captaris Teamplate, FileNet BPM, eWork Metastorm, and others,
we
talk much more about basic document imaging workflow, such as would be
included in the capture software.
Finally, to address the example you provide, I agree with their
assertion
that pure document imaging is not the same thing as pure electronic
transactions. But their assertion that they can't get there from here
is a
bit misleading - an OCR process with a good OCR engine and basic
quality
process will extract all of that data which can then be used to
populate the
back-end systems, and there's nothing preventing them from scanning to
a
network share, a file server, etc. and using something as simple as
Windows
Desktop Search or Google Desktop to index and retrieve them.
Their process is also a bit more complex than most organizations will
see,
which I addressed earlier. But to assert (paraphrasing from above)
that
their scanning documents and making them available does not realize
any
benefit to them is simply untenable.
Respectfully submitted,
Jesse Wilkins
CDIA+, edp, LIT, ICP, ermm, ecms
J Wilkins & Associates
[log in to unmask]
blog: http://informata.blogspot.com
(303) 574-1455 office
(303) 484-4142 fax
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf
Of Gus Harris
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 7:53 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: another comment regarding Document Management Systems
Well, again I'm sure there are exceptions and some have pointed out a
few of those here...although I question one or two.
I guess in the same light I am amused at folks who believe that simply
because they can scan a document and make it available on their
desktop...a benefit is realized.
So, again I'm not saying there can't be applications of imaging alone
that aren't cost effective. I just believe for the vast majority that
imaging alone isn't an effective solution...cost or otherwise.
Gus Harris
List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
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