Identify which paper based processes you wish to
automate with the new document capture technology. Don't try to fix all
paper based processes. You don't need to document capture everything all at
once. Your full document capture process will inherently come over time.
Just select a single process to start off
with. By consciously selecting a low business impact/low volume based paper
process to 'document capture', you'll minimize business disruption.
Be realistic and understand that implementing any new document capture technology
may alter
your business workflow and will more than likely necessitate a small
re-education of employees directly involved with the business process that
you 'document capture'.Once you have
identified the paper process you wish to automate with the new document
capture technology, you should then ascertain the volume of paper that will be
processed - daily, monthly,
quarterly, and/or yearly. Understanding these document volume requirements usually dictates the type of technology required
to perform the document capture adequately and correctly.
After identifying volume you should define
exactly what you want the document capture technology to accomplish. Its
typical to divide this set of questioning into two distinct areas:
- Do you
want the document capture technology to just scan the documents, make
digital
images of the documents, index the images for later retrieval, and keep the
image in a secure location on your network OR;
- Do you want
to be able to do the above PLUS extract information from the documents (e.g.
date, amounts, signatures, names, addresses, etc.), apply specific business rules to the extracted
information (e.g. is date valid, are tax amounts valid, etc.) and then
'automatically push' the resulting data into a database, spreadsheet,
file, etc.
By identifying which high level option, you now have
the ability to narrow the selection of document capture technology
considerably. Either
you will be selecting document capture technology that strictly scans a
document into an image or selecting document capture technology that has a built in optical
character (OCR) component. The OCR component will allow the document capture
technology to recognize and extract designated information from your
original documents. Once the information has been extracted you can
literally do anything with the extracted information.
...then select your scanner for the Document Capture
process.
...then select your software for the Document Capture
& processing process.
...then select your Document Capture
development and integration vendor.
...then select your Document Indexing software.
The document capture world can be
exceptionally confusing and complicated. If you become overwhelmed at
choices, direction, selections, decisions, etc. then select a document capture
specialist in your area. Our document capture specialist links will guide
you to the right place.
