DOCUMENT Magazine - June 2008 - (Page 36) systems give you the flexibility to change from one capture model to another easily. Digitizing, indexing and verification can be done in different or multiple locations, while presenting management with a unified view of the entire process. Components can also be changed without requiring a complete redesign. Distributed Capture Guidelines >> Establish standards >> Design systems to avoid problems, and reward good behavior >> Unify alternative information sources >> Desktops are bad >> Distribute functions where they are best performed >> You must have the data necessary to manage your capture “factory” Case-in-point: an insurer’s broker community was initially set up to use an 800 number to fax in applications, which were received into an OCR application. This approach was chosen because it did not require brokers to buy new equipment and reduced communication costs. Over time though, it became clear that image quality was unacceptable and prevented OCR from being very productive. As an experiment, select brokers were equipped with scan stations, which would periodically connect to the headquarter’s OCR system and download its images. This, in fact, improved the image quality so much that scanners were ordered for all brokers. The insurer’s staff still had the unattractive task of OCR correction, however. Experiments with broker staff attempting correction were unsuccessful — the interface proved confusing and difficult to train. Thus, this task was outsourced to an offshore organization. Throughout all of these transformations, management was able to track performance using the identical interface and reports and could compare performance between alternatives. >> You must have the data necessary to manage your capture “factory”: When we combine all these principles into a distributed capture solution, the management challenge is clear. You are juggling independent entities that must coordinate and keep pace with one another, and you need to be able to catch problems quickly so that they can be addressed. What data should you have to manage this circus? Organizations need to be able to track every document and every page through the system. How else can you answer questions about “lost” documents? Each image and each document should be assigned a unique identifier at the moment of capture so they can be traced. The counts going into each stage need to balance those leaving, at least over some time period, or else you are building a backlog. For staff measurement, you need to collect keystroke and quality measures as well. Bernard Chester is an authority on designing and implementing document management-based solutions, including developing multilingual solutions, integrating EDMS with other technologies, designing and implementing Internet interfaces and custom tools for systems and retooling clients’ processes around EDM. For more information, email bchester@imergeconsult.com. ■ 36 document june.08 www.DOCUMENTmedia.com http://www.DOCUMENTmedia.com
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