Capture is not just scanning! Although capture software and automation technologies have dramatically improved in the past decade, the technology selection represents only a small part of the entire capture solution.
One should first understand document type definitions, document volumes, business processes, document life cycles and the associated business costs, benefits and the performance impacts of applying these technologies.
A clear and coherent capture strategy will go a long way towards ensuring that ROI and business value-add for the capture solution is realised.
Understanding document types, processes, life cycles
This is the first step in the development of an effective capture solution. A document type can be defined as a group, or class of documents that follow the same business process (business rules, fields extracted, and extracted field usage), which can be repeated for all documents of that group. It stands to reason that defining the different document types is the logical point of departure when planning a capture solution. Many organisations have not adequately defined the required information and unless this is done, it will not be possible to calculate current or potential ROI benefits, and more importantly, the solution will not work!
Document classifications must also be clearly defined, as well as all relevant document life cycles. These life cycles will determine when documents are created, used and ultimately destroyed in accordance with the organisations' enterprise content management (ECM) and records management policies.
Not all documents should be printed and not all documents should be scanned.
Many organisations receive electronic documents that are then printed, and later scanned - a waste of valuable resources. The ideal would be to convert electronic documents directly into the required business electronic format, thereby enabling the use of the information as part of the business process. The capture process should accommodate this conversion, in an intuitive and user-friendly manner.
The cost of converting a paper document to digital format is equivalent to retaining and storing the document in paper form for 40 to 60 years. When the cost of digital storage and retrieval is added to this, the cost of converting all paper documents becomes prohibitive. If this is recognised, and paper documents selectively and intelligently scanned, a higher capture ROI will be achieved.
“To scan or not to scan” is the questions that must be effectively answered and the best solution for many businesses lies somewhere in the “no-man's land” between the cost-effectiveness of keeping and storing paper and the convenience and business value added when converting paper to digital.
Documents and business records in general are created and stored in multiple formats throughout an organisation, and the real challenge is to organise and manage these hybrid records in compliance with the ECM policies of the organisation.
Image quality is crucial when introducing automation
Automation technologies such as Optical character recognition (OCR), Optical mark recognition (OMR), bar code recognition, intelligent character recognition (ICR), and the recognition of forms, can be used very effectively to automatically orientate, classify, separate, and extract information from documents during the capture process.
However, all these technologies rely on the quality of the images. This aspect must be taken into account when the capture solution is designed, selected and implemented.
Use information that you have to improve manual and automatic capture results.
Manual processes are susceptible to human error, and because the use of capture automation technology such as OCR is not an exact science, it is not without its own risks. Information that is stored in databases should be used to limit and validate any information entered manually. Every effort should be made to identify and eliminate duplicate images and errors as early as possible in the capture process. This will minimise wasteful duplication of work and unnecessary exception handling.
Capture is not just scanning and cannot be reduced to any single element, therefore a coherent and holistic capture strategy is required for any organisation, which incorporates sound ECM and records management principles. The development and implementation of a sound capture strategy will ensure the optimisation of the business value derived from the implementation of a capture solution.
If you would like to find out more about capture, have any comments, or would like to discuss capture solutions offered by NokusaEI, send an e-mail to Bruce.Williams@NokusaEI.com.
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