14 Eylül 2012 Cuma

FAQ's About Document Management

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When it comes to Document Management, our clients have asked a lot of questions.  With over 12 years of experience answering them, here are just a few:   

Why is document management important?

Today, 80% of all mission-critical data is unstructured, 7.5% of all documents get lost, and 3% of the remainder are misfiled. Organizations are quickly realizing that document management is becoming necessary in order to be more successful. Organizing documents and information through the use of technology ultimately leads to higher productivity, greater efficiency, and improved performance. With an electronic document management system in place, your organization will be able to spend its efforts on the more important and core aspects of your business.

What types of records are being imaged?

It runs the gamut: everything from student and personnel records to board minutes and engineering plans. Many of these records have retention requirements. For others, imaging helps streamline specific business processes.

What are some of the advantages of scanning records, as opposed to just storing them in boxes or filing cabinets?

There are numerous advantages to scanning records. Imaging critical documents results in significant savings in both time and money because information is organized. Once imaged, you can instantly access any record from your desktop computer. This can reduce storage space by as much as 80% or more. Document search time is also greatly expedited.  Requests for documents can be streamlined, completely processed, and printed, faxed, or emailed to the requestor in a matter of seconds.  In addition, organizing imaged documents in a database can help with security, by granting access to only authorized users.

How do I access information after it has been scanned?

Each record type can be setup with key searchable fields, such as date, first name, last name, APN number, etc.  In addition, optical character recognition (OCR) makes electronic documents searchable by every word, so that they can be mined for specific information.

How much does document conversion cost?

Price varies depending on size and volume of the documents. On average, scanning typically costs the same as a photocopy (a standard storage box measuring 10"x12"x16" holds approximately 2,500 pages).

What format is used for scanning files?

The standard format in the industry for scanned files is TIFF. However, records are also commonly scanned as PDF, PDF/A, and JPG, among others.
For more frequently asked questions, check out our website:  http://www.sytechsolutions.com/faq.htm

 

The Cost of Paper

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Weknow we don't have to convince you of the benefits of paperless recordsmanagement. The statistics from a Coopers and Lybrand study speak forthemselves: ·        Office documents comprise greater than 80% ofcorporate memory.·        90% of documents that are handled in an officeare merely passed along or shuffled through.·        The average document gets copied 19 times. ·        50% of a professional’s time is spent looking forinformation. Only 5-15% is used in reading the information.
Costs:·        $20 to file a document.·        $120 to find a misplaced document.·        $220 to replace a lost document.
Percentages:·        7.5% of all documents get lost.·        3% get misfiled.
Inother words, If your company generates 200 documents a week, you will lose 15of them (costing the company $3,300), and misfile 6 of them (costing$720). 
Looking at the big picture, there are over 4,000,000,000,000 (4 trillion) paper documentsin the U.S. alone. They are growing at the rate of 22% a year or roughly 880billion a year. What about you?  How is your records management?

Top 5 Reasons To Manage Your Records

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Most businesses don't make money from managing their records.  As a result, document management may not be high on the priority list.  However, there are several key reasons why business should start paying attention.  Here are our Top 5:
1. Lower Operating Costs
Let's face it.  It costs money to pay for file cabinets, warehouses, office space, and staff to manage it all.  An efficient document management system will not only save space, it will save time looking for information.  Savings in space and time mean savings for the bottom line.     
2. Improved Efficiency and Productivity
This is closely linked to #1.  If staff is able to quickly access information, they can do their jobs much more efficiently, leaving room for improvement in other areas.  No only will they be able to easily access information, an effective document management system can help avoid losing vital records and time spent looking for them.   
3. Compliance
Depending on your industry, record keeping regulations may be through the roof.  Implementing a secure document management system can help ensure compliance with required laws and regulations.  Failure to do so, may result in severe penalties, fines, and even legal action.  
4. Minimize Risk of Litigation
As previously mentioned, litigation can result from poorly kept records.  If a secure document retention policy is firmly in place and followed, the risk of litigation is decreased.  Document management systems can follow retention rules and automatically destroy electronic documents once a certain date has passed.  On the other hand, it can ensure that essential records are not destroyed prior to their retention date.       

5. Security
Last, but certainly not least is security.  Document Management systems, if properly maintained and backed up, help ensure against loss of vital information due to catastrophes or other disasters.  It also provides a mechanism for managing access to records by certain staff or others outside the organization.   

Document Conversion Process: Quality Control Metrics

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Our quality control process is composed of severalsteps that have been developed and refined over the last decade to limit oreliminate errors in the conversion process. In addition to our own in-house tools, we utilize industry-leadingsoftware to manage the process from start to finish.  Our software provides batch tracking andworkflow management throughout the entire conversion process.
DocumentPreparation
Documentsare separated by specially coded sheets referred to as separator sheets.  These sheets include a patch code on all 4edges and are generally yellow in color. Additionally, the sheets are typically 8.5” x 14” in size so that theycan be easily removed and reused to keep customer costs down.  Because these sheets are added to a batch forthe purposes of separating documents, they can be counted.  This count can be subsequently used to verifythat the same number of documents are processed at both the Scanning andIndexing stages of the process.DocumentScanning
Documentsare fed into our high speed scanners in sets of up to 500 pages, depending onthe paper quality and page weight.  Thescanner operator ensures that every page is captured and that the image drawnon their monitor is an accurate representation of the physical page.  This process returns a total page countgenerated by the document capture system, and verifies the document count withthose provided during the Preparation stage.
Indexing/Classification
Eachdocument is displayed on the monitor of our data entry staff.  A predefined schema—specific to the documenttype—is used to generate a form to prompt the operator for the index values.  The operator captures each field from thedocument and saves those values to the database using a streamlined data-entryworkflow.  We have the capability to“double key verify” this information, which requires each document pass throughanother data entry station.  On thesecond pass, a different operator repeats this step.  The system responds to the second operatorwhenever an index value does not match what was entered by the firstoperator.  The second operator must thenreview the two entries and make a decision as to the correct value.  The purpose of this “double key verification”process is to minimize or eliminate data entry errors, which produces accuracyrates exceeding 99.99%.
FinalQuality Control ReviewOnce eachstep of the conversion process is complete, every batch is passed to a specialteam whose sole task is to find discrepancies in the process.  Our QC team consists of team members withyears of experience in all three steps. They follow a strict procedure for verifying the accuracy of the processas a whole, as well as ensure that every document has been scanned and classified as accurately as possible.
Countvalidation
Countsfrom each process are compared to ensure that every document was   handled at each step.  Any count discrepancy triggers a full boxreview where every document is reviewed for accuracy and completeness.  Issues at this stage of the quality controlprocess are generally related to errors in the recognition of separator sheetsand can be resolved quickly by a trained QC team member.
RandomSampling
Documentsin a batch/box are randomly pulled and compared with the corresponding imagefiles.  QC team members review every pageof the document to make sure that the image is present, its quality is good,and that the document is complete.  Anadditional check is made to verify that the data entry that was completed forthe document is accurate and complete. Any errors caught during the random sampling triggers a full batch/boxreview.

Three Types of AccuracyMetrics Measured During Conversion
Completeness: everydocument was captured.  This measurementis made to determine whether all documents present in the batch/box arecaptured and represented as an image file in the final deliverable.  Metric target level is 100% of all documentscaptured.
ImageQuality: imagesare accurate representation of the original file.  This is a measurement of the difference betweenthe quality of the original document and its electronic representation.  This measurement is adjusted for concessionsmade in consideration of cost and usability. For example, the best representation would be made using 2400 dpi fullcolor scans that were then run through a gamut of image enhancementalgorithms.  The resulting images howeverwould be unusably large and cost multiples of the acceptable rate to capture.  Capture settings are therefore adjusted topresets for the types of documents being scanned.  Metric target level varies depending on thedocument type.
IndexAccuracy: imagesare classified and indexed accurately for search functionality.  This is a measurement of verification alertevents and final QC findings.  This is themost difficult metric to measure as some index information may be left to interpretation, such as handwrittendata.  We recommend capturing a minimumof 3 fields per document to ensure that each document can be found even incases where index values are subjectively interpreted.  Fields that are “double-key verified” achieve99.99% accuracy. 

10 Reasons to Adopt the Cloud

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It seems like everyone is talking about the cloud these days.  Here's 10 reasons why you should start listening, and how adopting the cloud can help you:
 Save Money:  Do we have your attention yet?  Adopting a cloud solution can not only save on software licensing costs, but it frees up your IT resources (staff, servers, etc.) thus creating savings for your bottom line. Ease of Access:  Personnel can be more efficient if they can access information from anywhere.  With the cloud, they are no longer tied to their desktop computer, but can retrieve data using their home computer, laptop, tablet, or even smartphone.    Updates: Imagine having all of your version upgrades and software updates completed automatically, regardless of the workstation or the user. Yeah, it's kind of like that.    Backup: While data stored locally needs to be backed up occasionally, storing in the cloud provides its own backup.  No more worrying about servers or computers crashing and losing data.      Security:  While cloud solutions have differing security levels, at a minimum they require authentication via username and password.  In many instances, that is more than what is currently being utilized.       Ease of Use:  Ever used software that wasn't user-friendly?  With the wide adoption of the internet, people in general are familiar with navigating websites and finding information.   Simplification:  Cloud-based solutions can help eliminate the need for multiple systems and add a little simplicity for you and your organization. Flexibility: Cloud computing has provided more flexibility than other computing methods.  It can help organizations adapt quickly in an ever-changing business climate.  Increased Storage: Digital storage is cheaper than it's ever been.  Gigabytes and terabytes are typically cheaper in the cloud than paying for and maintaining that data locally.     IT Focus: Once the IT Department experiences more freedom from troubleshooting, updates, and other computing issues, they can focus on other needs, such as innovation.