With companies looking to increase efficiencies, reduce costs and become greener, are paper documents finally heading toward their long-predicted obsolescence? Most likely not, but document capture and routing technologies can provide many of the desired effects.
Contrary to some projections, paper documents are not going away. Rather, a new generation of technologies — centering on document capture and routing — is steadily emerging to enable organizations to dramatically reduce their use of paper while increasing productivity, accelerating business processes, improving compliance with regulatory requirements, and strengthening both disaster recovery and “green” business initiatives.
Document capture and routing is an efficient, flexible way to capture, transform and move paper and electronic documents among a variety of people, places and formats. It starts with the familiar, simple and ubiquitous networked multifunction peripheral (MFP) — the new-breed copy machine — and provides “any-to-many” means of scanning and distributing electronic versions of paper documents to multiple destinations in multiple formats.
For example, at the simplest level, a knowledge worker can take a signed contract to an MFP and scan it to create a digital version. A document handling application can then convert the scan into a Microsoft Word document or text-searchable Adobe PDF file, and e-mail the file to the worker’s preferred destination (such as a network folder, e-mail in-box or fax number).
The power of document capture and routing becomes more apparent when a team of people are working on a specific client or project. All content related to that matter can be captured by the MFP, collected and consolidated into a single, central and secure document management system that enables distributed teams to share information and collaborate. That eliminates the need to make multiple copies (with the associated security risks), reduces courier and shipping costs, cuts the use of printer consumables such as ink or toner, and increases information accessibility throughout the organization.
Key elements
For enterprises considering document capture or scanning, the MFP is the core capture device because these new copier-class and printer-class MFPs have the right mix of feature-rich sophistication, usability and cost-effectiveness to support broad deployment.
The MFPs must be supported by a software-based infrastructure to enable post-capture document processing. This software centrally controls and manages the document conversion, compression, routing, auditing and more. This layer acts as a “many-to-many” hub, supporting n devices and n destinations.
Destinations are the recipients of a document,whether that is a network printer or folder, e-mail, fax or a more sophisticated document/content management system.
Every user in the company should be able to select simple scan settings, convert file formats or perform optical character recognition (OCR) and route the scanned output to their own e-mail address or a fax number. Those user instructions — sometimes called “routing rules” — can be defined, saved and executed using a routing sheet (like a fax cover sheet) or directly entered on a display panel at the MFP.
Other users, departments and groups may require advanced functionality, more sophisticated features and specific workflows. These can include integration with enterprise information systems (including ERP, ECM or specific vertical applications), archiving, audit logging, support for e-forms and bar codes, electronic signatures and more. All of this is available through today’s enterprise-class MFPs and document capture and handling software.
The ability to efficiently and effectively handle massive volumes of documents reliably and consistency across disparate geographies with distributed groups of virtual users mandates a set of key requirements:
* Manageability — The architecture must support centralized management while enabling decentralized document capture. From an administrative perspective, the right solution should take full advantage of Microsoft management tools such as Microsoft Windows event logs, performance monitors and Windows consoles. This enables an organization to configure unattended, low-maintenance operations and receive exception notifications and alerts.
* Reliability — There’s no tolerance for an application failure that could leave thousands of employees unable to print, fax or scan documents. There should be built-in failover so if the primary system fails, a secondary resource takes over. A SQL-based message queue working with a reliable database management system should store the current state of jobs in SQL tables so if a problem occurs, it can quickly roll back to the last known state and restart the process.
* Scalability — The ability to scale and find synergies with other paper-based capture needs is important. As companies see the value of document capture, their volumes can double. Component-based solutions can plug-in new components to meet escalating demand.
* Security — From a technical and user perspective, an audit trail lets the organization track who did what, when, where and with what documents. Best practices such as encryption, firewalls and other security measures are essential elements of enterprise document management as well.
* Flexibility — Organizations change frequently. For example, document capture solutions must have the flexibility to work with Microsoft Exchange today while retaining the flexibility to support IBM Lotus Notes tomorrow. Likewise, an organization may need to move from OpenText DMS to Documentum, and/or decide to implement a new Microsoft Sharepoint service. Selecting a document capture solution that works with virtually all systems — in tightly integrated environments or open architectures — will reduce overall costs.
* Cost effectiveness — Solutions that centralize and streamline document capture processes can yield significant cost savings, especially when the solution provides a total package. For example, submitting documents to a document management system in an indexable format allows faster searches and quicker document retrieval and saves time, which increases staff efficiency. Adding network fax functionality can eliminate significant phone-line costs, maintenance costs and consumables (paper/toner) costs. Turning a paper document into a compressed searchable PDF that can be e-mailed vs. sent in expedited delivery can also save organizations considerably.
* Control — By requiring authentication at the MFP, companies can role-restrict access to features and personalize the user experience. For instance, Joe can use color-copying or color-printing features and send long-distance faxes but Bob can’t. This also permits chargeback cost-recovery. A company might permit certain users to scan to their own e-mail address. Others might be allowed to scan into Microsoft SharePoint or EMC Documentum or scan to multiple distributions and destinations.
For enterprises that embrace document capture and routing, the payoffs are considerable. First and foremost, business processes are faster and less expensive as worker productivity increases. Documents and the information they contain are accessible around the office and around the world. There’s an enhanced ability to comply with security and privacy frameworks, and there’s a greater ability to reduce the consumption of paper, toner/ink and floor space by moving documents to electronic systems. By embracing green motives, businesses achieve solid ROI and increased efficiency.
Bouchard is chief technology officer of Omtool.
