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Our blog title - "Tackling Mountains of Docs" is very top of mind lately. We have just launched a new service aimed squarely at Iron Mountain - controller of mountains of boxes of documents. Our service is a combination of technology, hard work and process but in the end, it is just common sense. We call our new service I:S Cubed as in Inventory: Scan, Shred or Store.
Almost every inquiry we receive regarding a potential scanning project includes a discussion and focus on the scan resolution (commonly referred to as Dots Per Inch, DPI), file type (PDF or TIFF), logistics of pickup and drop off, prep and re-assembly. Very few of the discussions initially focus on the indexing or categorization and organization of the files. It is mostly an afterthought by the potential customer, as if the entire project is all about the conversion and not about how they can benefit from having the documents easily accessible.
The concept of putting a checklist application online and incorporating file attachments has really sparked a great deal of interest. Like our last post, the interest has come from business areas that we did not anticipate. Therefore, we are starting to casually refer to CollectDocs as the Duct Tape application - it has a million uses.
The number of uses has increased with our addition of Tasks and Data collection to the types of items that can be part of a checklist. When CollectDocs was first created, it only allowed items to be file attachments. Now a checklist can be file attachments combined with some tasks that need to be completed and even some data points that need gathering. Behold, a simple workflow tool.
Most of our customers and prospects look at a wall of file cabinets or room full of boxes and immediately think "there must be a million pages here". They may be right, but they may be wrong. The correct answer or as close as you can get to the correct answer is extremely important in terms of the total cost of your imaging project and justifying your project.
If the cost to scan, prep, index and re-assemble (I don't like just saying the "cost to scan", since scanning is far more complicated than a single step) is $0.10 per page it makes a big difference if you have 1,000,000 pages or 100,000 pages. There is a huge difference between a budget of $100,000 and $10,000. As an example of how important page count is to the total project budget lets see what the budget is if we increase the cost per page by 50%.
Two business areas that can benefit, or suffer, from imaging are compliance and audits. Here is why - unless your imaging process is tightly controlled, the risk of mis-information is equal to or greater than a paper based system. What could be some control points. Centralized scanning could be. This might create a bit more consistency in how documents are classified and saved vs leaving that task up to every individual user in the company. There will undoubtedly be spelling errors, mis-interpretations, mistakes and duplicated efforts, some of which might go away with centralized operations. A review step can also help, but that adds a layer of management and cost on the process. Structured file names. Can work, but round things don't always fit into square holes nicely. Workflow rules. That is a great way to ensure consistency and accuracy. A component of Workflow is source data as in matching invoices to the source accounting entry in the accounting system or matching the contract to the customer in the CRM. More to come.
Who doesn't smile when they order a turkey sandwich for $5 and it comes piled high with carved turkey, a pickle, a bag of chips and a drink - That is a positive cost benefit relationship. But that same order might cost $20 - That is a negative cost benefit relationship for most of us I presume.
Is there any way to ensure the positive outcome each and every time for each and every customer (User)? You can plan as best you can, but there is probably no way to please all people all the time. You may serve great turkey, the best pickle and all the other good stuff they wanted but the mustard you provide is way to spicy.
We have all seen or used a checklist in our lives. In business in particular, a document checklist is ubiquitous. There are lists of documents to collect for bringing on a new customer or vendor. Every new employee has a list of documents that are required. There are lists for gathering loan documents or for buying a property. There are extensive lists for acquiring a company.
One list that is not generally thought of as a list are the file folders that have been set up on the computer or in SharePoint or Box.net. Aren't the collection of folders just a list of sorts? The folders are used to store the digital files that are shown on the list. Granted, some documents are still in paper, but most users would prefer to have all the files electronically.