Cut costs with digital imaging

The organisations in paper-record industries had better start boarding the digital train or they could be left along the wayside, stumbling forward ever more slowly with mediocre and poor customer service.

What is the one consistent defining characteristic of many service organisations, such as tertiary institutions and logistics companies? The answer is paper.

Almost every interaction with these entities requires the movement of paper, starting with application forms and moving onto proof-of-residence forms, copies of identity documents and signed proof-of-delivery notes, among others. Services requested or queries raised are more often than not mediated through paper.

However, despite the ability to create a paperless office with technology that is available today, going from the one extreme of a paper-intensive environment to the other of no paper, is definitely not the way to go.

Rather, service companies should develop a complete understanding of their purpose, goals and business processes. With this as a basis, they can develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of which of their business processes are paper-intensive; respect the limitations of those processes: and then determine whether or not scanning or document imaging has anything positive to offer the business and its customers.

Understanding is crucial. Documents are constantly being generated, received, managed, destroyed and sent off-site for archiving. As the starting point to improve customer service through better managed document and records environments, understanding the movement of documents through the organisation enables bottlenecks and problem areas to be highlighted. Once these are visible, solutions such as document imaging can be implemented to improve the environment. A well-managed document environment enables higher levels of service.

Service companies should develop a complete understanding of their purpose, goals and business processes.

Paul Mullon, marketing director at Metrofile

It takes more than just understanding of the document environment to improve service offerings. After coming to terms with the document milieu, it is necessary to distinguish which processes can be addressed now to achieve immediate benefits.

For example, when a customer applies for a service they walk into the company`s office, complete the necessary forms and then hand them in; or print the forms from the Web site, complete them and post them. Regardless of how the form reaches the company, once there it is passed onto various different people down the line who must perform some action to enable that service to be granted, or query answered. Changes in this process will therefore have an immediate impact.

Eventually the paper involved in the application must be stored somewhere so that it may be easily retrieved again should the need arise. In this case, changes to this process would be felt a little further down the line, while changes to the archiving process, where the documents are stored off-site, would have longer-term implications, as there would be little need to access these documents.

Having said this, there are many benefits to implementing document imaging. The first is immediate and simultaneous access by more than one person.

If multiple people must work on a document at any point in the process, document imaging enables that document to be passed to them immediately, regardless of where they sit physically, or where they are in the process. With the right technology in place, they can add their comments into the system, highlight action points, and view what others who have handled the document have had to say. All without changing the original electronic document.

A second benefit can be found with storage and retrieval. If done properly, electronic documents can be indexed appropriately and so easily found and opened whenever necessary. This improves the ability to service customers while retrieving documents at greatly reduced costs.

Then there are the savings through not having to use valuable and expensive office space with unsightly cabinets in which to store documents until they can be archived. Once the document is in electronic format, the original can be moved off-site where it can be easily retrieved.

There is the benefit of working less with that original document. With no longer having to retrieve the actual paper document every time a query is raised, or a status requested, the hard copy can be kept safely and securely; and it can be presented in pristine condition if required to defend against litigation.

All in all, implementing document imaging into a service-oriented business has benefits to the organisation and the customers it serves, provided there is an understanding of the processes that are followed and that scanning is not implemented in a slapdash manner, just for the sake of it.