Management

From Document Manager Magazine Vol 20 No 06 - November/December

Tim Brosnihan, European product marketing manager, Canon Europe, explores the decentralisation of image capture and the role technology can play in realising the associated cost, time and security efficiencies

Despite almost 13% of UK workers based predominantly from home and increasing numbers of businesses operating remotely, or with multiple outlets around the country, many are not using technology to create a workforce that is mobile and agile. Too often, work cannot be finalised on the road, from home, or at the point of completion because internal systems are not as adaptable as the workforce driving them. This results in significant businesswide inefficiencies impacting the profitability, accuracy and security of these processes. To make the most of today's powerful business applications, an organisation needs to convert its paperbased information from hard copy to digital files at the point of capture.

CLOUDING THE ISSUE
With enterprises predicting cloud computing spend to increase to as much as $209 billion by 2016 - the "vast majority" of which will be in the area of business process as a service, according to Gartner - ensuring that it is firmly entrenched in organisations' document capture processes is crucial.

The ability to scan directly to the central office or to cloud-based applications (such as GoogleDocs, Evernote and SharePoint) means that workers can work more productively, no matter where that workforce is located. By leveraging cloud based services or infrastructure, businesses are offering decentralised capture to a non-central workforce.

In moving document capture closer to those involved in collecting the data information management can empower organisations to save money, time and space though the digital distribution, storage and access of information.

From a customer perspective this is also hugely beneficial. What it means is that documents, take an insurance claim as an example, can be approved, corrected or amended there and then, in the presence of both the customer and the member of staff with the most knowledge of the account in question.

CLOSER TO THE PEOPLE IN THE KNOW
This situation is compounded by the number of industries which remain document intensive such as legal, healthcare and financial services. For these industries, documents inundate daily and business critical processes. Despite their importance, they are still being conducted, inefficiently, insecurely and by teammembers far removed from the actual data capture process. Regularly, the person collecting the data needs to 'centralise' the physical document to a HQ or central repository in order to convert that document into a digital file which can be shared globally and stored.

In such environments, the capture of the document and subsequent handling is left to HQ-based staff completely removed from the process. Not only is this extremely inefficient, it is becoming a weak-point in the supply chain. All too often, physical documents such as invoices, contracts and applications are re-distributed to centralised locations for digitisation, extending the timescale of their capture and subsequent processing. This can result in unnecessary back and forth corrections which invariably reduce efficiency while elevating transportation costs and environmental impact.

CENTRE OF THE PROBLEM
Shifting document capture closer to the point of customer contact means that information is collected in near real-time - at the point of service or creation (origination). For that workforce, unshackling this daily procedure from centralised processes provides a more efficient and easy capability to capture, transform and move documents between people who require immediate access. It also makes amends much easier to implement. From an organisational point of view, a more consistent output from a more productive workforce is the result. This streamlined, non-central way of working ensures a comprehensive audit trail in which only those who require constant access to a document need do so at any given stage.

Critical business processes can be made as mobile and flexible as the workforce that powers them. Just as businesses have reaped the rewards of unshackling their workforces form their desks, so too can they realise the cost, efficiency and productivity of releasing this final, crucial system.

Remote and flexible working will continue to fuel demand for fast, accurate and easy digitisation of documents whatever the location. Whether a business is looking to support silo offices, home offices or its increasing reliance on remote working, the need and business case for 'anywhere document capture' is growing by the day.

More info: www.canon.co.uk

Management