Deborah Palmer, Librarian at Ministry of Natural Resources, gave me an update on the workshop, “Document Imaging: What You Need to Know Before You Take the Plunge,” given by Kofax Image Products Company. Thanks Deborah; it’s always impossible to get to all the sessions you want to hear. Here’s her summary:
The workshop introduced the capabilities of document capture imaging technology and outlined how this technology impacts both information and business professionals. It began with an overview of what document capture technology can do, beyond just scanning a document into an electronic duplicate, showing its capabilities to extract relevant data from scanned documents and translate them into relevant information. The 3-step capturing process begins with the collection of the documents, scanning of those documents into meaningful information and finally the delivery of that information to the end user.
Some of the main benefits of using document capture technology include the elimination of location as an obstacle to the accessibility of information. The distributed capture feature for example, allows documents to be scanned in one location and received by an electronic repository in another location. Space is significantly reduced as filing cabinets for paper documents are no longer necessary; backup and disaster recovery are less time consuming and less costly, as there are no longer paper documents that can be damaged or lost.
So, what should you know before embarking on document capture technology? 1. Consider the volume of documents created and processed on a daily basis. If there is a large quantity of documents amassed on a daily basis, document capture will speed up processing of data. 2. What type of documents are you looking to capture? For documents like invoices, customer files, document capture is ideal. Data input becomes less time consuming, and more accurate, therefore improving efficiency of the business. 3. Also consider what type of information you are looking to extract from the documents. Data such as customer name, order numbers, are easily extracted and can be used and recalled immediately with document capture technology. Other things to consider include, how will the indexing of documents be done, how many people will be using the documents?