The Problem: PAPER

We all need it to do our work, but paper accumulates quickly. Our files grow fatter and fatter, and then they grow some more. Folders and filing systems make it easier to find our documents. Records managers organize, archive and retrieve our information. But the amount of paper keeps growing. Paper files are often hard to find. Records may not be in their proper folder. Or they may be “borrowed” and then lost on somebody’s desk. Studies show that professionals often lose up to 500 hours a year just looking for documents. Those days are gone. Document imaging offers a better way to manage the records you rely on.

Did You Know?

• 90% of corporate memory exists on paper.

• Of all the pages that get handled each day in the average office, 90% are merely shuffled.

• The average document gets copied 19 times.

• Companies spend $20 in labor to file a document, $120 in labor to find a misfiled document, and $220 in labor to reproduce a lost document.*

• 7.5% of all documents get lost, 3% of the remainder get misfiled.*

• Professionals spend 5-15% of their time reading information, but up to 50% looking for it.

• There are over 4 trillion paper documents in the U.S. alone – growing at a rate of 22% per year.*

Document imaging is the conversion of paper documents into electronic images on your computer. Once on your desktop, these documents can be retrieved effortlessly in seconds. Every organization generates large amounts of paper and electronic documents. We have all developed our own ways to store important files, yet things continue to get misplaced. Everyone knows the frustration of not being able to find a file right when we need it most. Traditional methods of storing paper and electronic records require a great deal of effort to manage, distribute and find those documents. As the number of files grows, the time and effort required to manage them also increases.

Thousands of organizations around the world use document imaging every day instead of paper filing systems. The reasons for this change are simple:

Benefits of Document Imaging:

• Prevents lost records

• Saves storage space

• Manages records easily

• Finds documents quickly

• Makes images centrally available

• Eliminates need for file cabinets

The Steps Necessary to Introduce Document Imaging

Documents are scanned into the system. The document imaging system stores them somewhere on a hard drive or optical disk. The documents then get indexed. When a person later wants to read a document, they use the retrieval tools available in the document imaging system. Which documents can be read and what actions performed on these documents is dependent on the access provided by the document imaging system.

Document imaging revolutionizes the archival of information and provides the means to rapidly find, retrieve and share all documents in your system.

All document imaging systems should have five basic elements:

	Scanning
	Major advancements in scanning technology make paper document conversion fast, inexpensive, and easy. A good scanner will make putting paper files into your computer easy.
	Storage
	The storage system provides long-term and reliable storage for documents. A good storage system will accommodate changing documents, growing volumes and advancing technology.
	Indexing
	The index system creates an organized document filing system and makes future retrieval simple and efficient. A good indexing system will make existing procedures and systems more effective.
	Retrieval
	The retrieval system uses information about the documents, including index and text, to find images stored in the system. A good retrieval system will make finding the right documents fast and easy.
	Access
	Document viewing should be readily available to those who need it, with the flexibility to control access to system. A good access system will make documents viewable to authorized personnel, whether in the office, at different locations, or over the Internet.

Benefits of Document Imaging

Thousands of organizations around the world use document imaging every day instead of paper filing systems. Document imaging offers a number of benefits over paper or microfilm systems.

Fast retrieval: Imaging lets you find documents quickly without leaving your desk. Paper and microfiche are slower because users must go to files and search manually.

Flexible indexing: Imaging can index documents in several different ways simultaneously. Indexing paper and microfilm in more than one way is awkward, costly and time-consuming.

Full-text search: Imaging systems can retrieve files by any word or phrase in the document, a capability that is impossible with paper or microfiche.

No lost files: Imaged documents remain in their folders when being viewed, so none are lost or misplaced. Plus, index template and full-text searches can find documents if they are accidentally moved. Lost documents are expensive and time-consuming to replace.

Digital Archiving: The risk of loss or damage to paper or electronic records is reduced with a document imaging system. Keeping archival versions of documents in a document imaging system helps protect paper documents from over-handling and keeps electronic documents in a non-proprietary format.

Share files easily: Imaging makes it easy to share documents electronically with colleagues and clients over a network, on CD or through the Web. Paper documents usually require photocopying to be shared, and microfilm requires conversion to paper.

Improved security: Imaging can provide better, more flexible control over sensitive documents. Imaging controls security at the folder, document or individual word level for different groups and individuals. In contrast, all paper documents in a filing cabinet or filing room have the same level of security.

Save space: Imaging will help recover valuable office space that was previously taken up by bulky paper files.

Disaster recovery: Imaging provides an easy way to back-up documents for offsite storage and disaster recovery. Paper is a bulky and expensive way to back-up records and is vulnerable to fire, flood and theft.

Why Invest In Document Imaging?

Document Imaging & Management systems evolved because 90% of businesses information resides on paper. Document imaging is the process of converting paper documents into electronic document that are exact replicas of their paper counterparts. They are then indexed, stored and retrievable from your company's computer network or the Internet. Document Imaging & Management systems are finding a warm welcome in many organizations because they make significant improvements in operational efficiencies with little organizational change. In a business climate, where organizations are looking for ways to cut costs and increase productivity, document imaging systems are providing the most dramatic impact on office production since the copy machine replaced carbon paper.

There is a cost to every organization to operate and maintain a paper based filing system.

To calculate the ROI you must calculate the savings of man-hours and storage cost savings against the cost of our document imaging system and the cost to operate it.

No. of filing cabinets __________ X 21 sq. ft = __________ total square feet.

Total square feet _________ X $ _________ per sq. ft. = $ ________ Annual Cost

There are plenty of excellent products on the market. If they didn't fit people's needs, those companies probably wouldn't be in business. But how do you figure out which one is best suited for your needs? First of all, realize there probably isn't a true "off-the-shelf" solution that you're just going to plug in and start using. Realistically, if that were to happen it would be because a vendor developed their product to solve your exact problem. All problems are unique. Products are developed so they can solve multiple problems for multiple organizations so you will need to do some customizing for your optimal solution. There are likely several products available that will fit your needs but which one is the best fit? It can be a real challenge to pick the right product(s). Here are a few points that will hopefully make your product evaluation a little easier.

Understand your process first. You need to know how your process is laid out so that you can be assured that the technology you select can be modified to align with the valuable way you do things.

Include the right people in the process. System support people need to be involved since they know what it takes to keep stuff going behind the scenes. Talk to the records management people in your organization.

Have a decision-making process. The key is to decide on a process at the beginning, share the process with everyone involved, and follow it to make your decision.

Create an evaluation grid. Create a spreadsheet that would include every product feature that was pertinent to your needs. Every product being evaluated would be rated on how well it handled each feature listed on the grid. A few things that you might consider for your grid include:

• Local sales and technical people

• Products follows industry standards

• Product market size

• Project references

• Company is financially solid

• Company size

Know your priorities. You need to determine what features are most important to your application and what their priorities are. Once you've determined your priorities, add corresponding weighted values to your feature grid.

Be comfortable with your decision. Sometimes your grid will provide a clear winner but you and/or others are not really comfortable with that choice. That could mean it's not the right choice. We believe that we make decisions purely on proper analysis and unbiased review of the facts - we don't. As humans (and most of us fall into this category), we typically make our decisions with our heart and then back it up or justify it with our head.

Conclusions

Document Imaging & Management Systems have become simple to use and they offer great opportunities for cities (and other business and government agencies) to improve operations while minimizing the costs and problems associated with the management of documents.

It is important that you select an EDMS that supports all of the document types and formats that you need to manage. While you may start with a simple application, you need to select a system that can manage all of the documents that are likely to eventually be put on the system. In addition to flexibility, the system should not be costly to modify, manage, and maintain.

It is also important to prioritize the applications and not try and do too much all at the same time. It is also imperative to involve the users during the system selection and design process. This allows the users' knowledge of the application to be built into the design. Last but not least, consistent, continuous, scheduled communication is required between project management on both sides (vendor and customer) to maintain integrity of the project, reduce errors in system design and implementation, and provide on-time, on-budget results.