The Evolution of Capture

The Evolution of Capture By Pamela Doyle, Director, Fujitsu Computer Products of America Introduction The paperless office was a publicist s slogan used to describe the office of the future. The first prediction of the paperless office was made in a 1975 BusinessWeek article. This coincided with the introduction of the personal computer (PC). The idea was that office automation would make paper redundant for routine tasks such as record-keeping and bookkeeping. To the contrary, the PC only contributed more to the volume of paper content. It s now forty years later and research findings confirm most organizations have not found the paperless office. Despite major advances in capture technology, most companies continue to struggle to manage the burden of paper and its impact on important business processes. This white paper will explore why organizations continue the pursuit of what seems to be an elusive dream, our progress toward it, and the new challenges that are further complicating the issue. For several decades a quiet revolution has been taking place as organizations have made changes to free themselves from paper-bound processes in order to reduce operational costs, to respond to the everchanging expectations of regulatory guidelines, to better meet customer expectations and to enable collaboration of corporate content. Supporting this revolution are capture systems that have evolved from simply scanning to digitize paper to highly advanced document automation solutions. Let s follow the key highlights in the evolution of capture, including the trends impacting organizational needs, the technological advances, the business applications addressed and the business benefits achieved. To date, there have been three major phases in this evolution beginning with capture to archive. Capture to Archive Trends The initial challenge was to scan paper to keep down the sprawl of file cabinets and archive shelves. Organizations found they were incurring significant costs on office space and knowledge worker time searching for non-existent information, failing to find relevant information, or recreating information that could not be found. Today many companies continue to rely on paper and struggle to control the inherent costs and inefficiencies and find themselves at a serious disadvantage. Technological Advances Capture systems are a combination of scanning hardware and software that enable the digitization of paper so that it can be managed in an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system. Initially the paper was digitized for archival purposes or optical character recognition (OCR) was used to convert the paper to computer usable text to facilitate full text search and retrieval. In this initial phase, capture was done in centralized locations using high volume, feature rich and expensive document imaging scanners. While capture to archive reduced reliance on paper and provided more immediate access to documents, it was labor-intensive as it still required manual document separation and manual paper separation and 1

manual data entry of index information to organize the documents. It didn t take long to realize that recognition software could be further leveraged to automatically extract key pieces of information to populate index fields. Auto-indexing significantly reduced those labor costs. Applications There are too many capture to archive applications to list them all. Some examples would include student, human resource, patient, client, or historical records management. Capture to archive also plays a significant role in disaster preparedness as it is much easier to preserve digitally-based than paper-based information. Benefits Capture to archive remains best practice as it eliminates the many deficiencies of paper-based records and yields significant return on the investment as a result of enhanced accessibility, productivity gains, faster and thorough access for compliance initiatives, reclaiming premium office space, protection to ensure disaster recovery as well as many environmental benefits. Recent Findings Despite the broad adoption of capture to archive, many organizations are finding that paper persists. A recent study conducted by the Association of Information and Image Management (AIIM) found the consumption and use of paper remains the same or is increasing for 55% of the organizations surveyed. Figure 1: Would you say that the consumption of paper and/or number of photocopies in your organization is? (N=362) Increasing rapidly 5% Decreasing rapidly 7% Increasing somewhat 16% Decreasing somewhat 38% Stable 34% What is truly disheartening is that despite the known deficiencies and realized benefits, most organizations today do not have a corporate mandate to reduce paper usage. Only 35% of the respondents from the AIIM survey have a policy specific to drive out paper and only 24% have an environmental policy that includes reduced use of paper. 2

Figure 2: Do you have a specific policy or maxim to Drive paper out of the business? Do you have an environmental policy that includes reduced use of paper? (N=385) Don't know 4% Yes 35% Don't know 7% Yes - proactively promoted 24% No 37% No 61% Probably 11% Yes - but nobody takes much notice 21% Capture to Process Trends The next challenge manifested itself as organizations began to realize the paper problem was not just an archive issue but a process issue. Paper was coming in from numerous locations; it was often lost or misplaced; there was no way to track where paper documents were in the business process such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, contract processing or loan origination. Paper was literally clogging these business processes and many more. Technological Advances Over time there were two major paradigm shifts that occurred in the evolution of capture that began to address the paper process issue. The first was a shift from centralized to decentralized deployment. Organizations began to realize there were many advantages to capturing paper at the point of origin. The point of origin could be a remote office, home office, or an individual working in a field location. This deployment model became known as distributed capture. Fueling this shift were lower cost scanners with smaller footprints and advanced functionality that were designed for ease of use. Also with the advent of the internet, there was now a vehicle that could transport the documents almost immediately to corporate for processing. The second major paradigm shift was a transition from capture to archive to capture to process or transact. Major advances in recognition software enabled the identification of diversified document types such as invoices, purchase orders, and loan applications. The advanced recognition software could also extract more intelligent information from virtually any structured or unstructured document. Organizations quickly began to pair this advanced recognition functionality with workflow software. Based on the document type, simple business rules are applied to automate the business process 3

eliminating the labor and effort associated with processing paper in transactional processes. These two paradigms shifts significantly advanced the value proposition of capture. Applications Once again the number of applications is too vast to list all but a sampling of capture to process applications would include accounts payable, accounts receivable, lending documents, onboarding new customers or employees, contract processing, student enrollment, patient registration, and insurance claims. Benefits Capture to process adds additional benefits such as no more lost or misplaced documents, a dramatic reduction in mail or courier service costs, reduced labor costs, faster access to actionable data, reduced cycle times, and overall business process agility. Recent Findings On the capture to process front, progress is being made, but there is still long way to go. The AIIM survey revealed that 53% of organizations report the amount of paper flowing through their business processes remains the same or is increasing. Figure 4: Would you say that the amount of paper flowing through your business processes is increasing or decreasing? (N=364) Decreasing rapidly 7% Increasing rapidly 5% Increasing somewhat 20% Decreasing somewhat 40% Stable 28% Why is there still so much paper? According to the AIIM survey the most prevalent reason is a lack of management initiatives or mandates to reduce it. Other contributing factors include the need for signatures, staff preferences for using paper and lack of paper-free options. 4

Figure 7: Why do you think there is still paper in so many of your business processes? (Max THREE) (N=325) 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Lack of management initiatives or mandates to reduce it We need physical signatures on paper Staff prefer paper for handling/reading/notes Lack of understanding of paper-free options Suppliers and customers continue to send us paper Legal admissibility will be compromised It's a major and potentially disruptive change Paper provides a more reliable/auditable/accessible record Not cost-effective to provide suitable While there are still many opportunities to remove paper from business processes, it s important to look at the many benefits organizations can realize in doing so. The AIIM survey identified the top benefits of paper-free processes. They are faster customer response, higher productivity with reduced staff, and better monitoring and visibility of status and workloads. Figure 20: What have been the biggest benefits from your paper-free processes (Max THREE) (N=211, with some paper-free processes) Faster customer response (internal / external) Reduced staff resources / higher productivity Better monitoring and visibility of status and workloads Improved remote / mobile accessibility Cleaner audit trail and regularity compliance Visibility / access for other non-process staff Fewer errors Better management of exceptions / escalation Social responsibility / cost reduction on transport 0% 20% 40% 60% 5

These benefits represent a significant return on the investment for organizations. What is the payback period? According to the AIIM survey, 60% of organizations achieve their return on the investment in 12 months and 77% in 18 months. This is significantly faster than other IT investments. Figure 23: Overall, what would you say has generally been the payback period for these paper-free process projects? (N=217, with some paper-free processes) 3 years 4% More than 3 years 9% 3 months 8% 2 years 11% 6 months 14% 18 months 17% 9 months 16% 12 months 21% Enterprise Capture Trends The next big challenge for capture brings us to the here and now. While paper remains a foundational medium for many organizations, they are also trying to cope with their vast amount of digital content. We are living in an era that is experiencing exponential growth of information. IDC s most recent digital universe study predicts that the amount of digital data will exceed 40 zeta bytes by the year 2020. Contributing to this volume are emails, instant messages (IM), social media, data stored in line of business repositories, and data stored in SharePoint and other file shares. This raises the question-- given the success of capture in harnessing paper, can these same capture technologies be used to harness the digital content? The answer is yes! The application of capture to manage all content is referred to as Enterprise Capture. The name is somewhat of a misnomer as it may lead one to believe it is only for major corporations while the reality is it is beneficial for any organization, regardless of size, who is struggling with managing digital content. 6

Technological Advances The latest innovations in recognition software are sophisticated enough to accept any content in any format it may be delivered in, including paper via scanners, incoming fax, email, social media, IM, desktop documents or print streams from legacy or active line of business repositories. Solutions at this stage are capable of automatically classifying this content and there is no limit to the complexity of the business process rules that can be applied to process it. Enterprise capture systems can also interface this data with other critical line of business applications such as enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and accounting systems. Applications These advanced capabilities are further extending capture s role in support of ediscovery and compliance, risk management, enterprise archiving, predictive insights and business intelligence. Benefits As a result, organizations can now effectively manage, search for and leverage all content. This further contributes to cost savings, better customer engagement, enhanced preparedness to respond to regulatory demands, and a competitive performance advantage. Recommendations for Getting Started Audit your business processes to see where there are large volumes of paper or where paper is slowing throughput, adding process steps, or is impairing transparency and reporting. Identify the business benefits that can be achieved with paper-free processes reducing storage requirements, improving productivity, enhanced customer engagement and better collaboration. Select an initial project that will deliver a quick win demonstrating proof of concept and the potential return on investment. Get management s approval to pilot this project. Build a strategic project team including all stakeholders line of business, IT, records management, and end users. If you feel you lack internal expertise, consult a knowledgeable Value Added Reseller or System Integrator. Do a careful vendor analysis looking for a provider who offers a portfolio of document capture solutions and meets not only your current needs but future needs. Deploy the selected solution giving careful attention to training and change management requirements. Do a thorough benefit realization including both hard dollar cost savings and other values on the investment. Communicate your success story. Expand the paper-free concept to the next paper or content-intensive business process. Finally I suggest you think big, start small, and grow steadily! 7

About the Author Pam Doyle is Director of Education and Worldwide Spokesperson for Fujitsu Computer Products of America. In her role as Director of Education, Fujitsu has supported her in providing training to over 1,400 individuals in the Capture industry representing customers, VARs, ISVs and Distribution partners. In her role as Fujitsu s spokesperson, she frequently shares her capture experience at numerous seminars and global conferences such as AIIM, ARMA and the ECMShow. AIIM has awarded Ms. Doyle with its Education and Distinguished Service awards, and she was recently inducted into the AIIM Company of Fellows. These awards recognize Ms. Doyle s vision and commitment to the advancement of the Capture Industry. 8