The volume of content created and received is increasing exponentially. Nowadays we deal with more data than we can realistically manage without upgrading systems and existing data management strategies. At the same time, information is more varied, more fragmented, with more integration requirements across ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning, DM – Document Management and IM – Information Management Systems. There is also a need for content assets and information to be accessed at any time and on any device in a secure and compliant manner. How will you be able to manage all this content effectively? What is the cost of standing still and doing nothing? Data Capture as a Service directly addresses these challenges.
Data Capture as a Service includes cloud-based products and personalized services to securely and efficiently scan (capture), transform, organize, keep, integrate and distribute content based on the rules and legal principles governing each organization. With this approach, the solution provider takes the ownership and the risk of the whole process and is totally committed with the deliverables.
The right information accessible to the right people through the right information system, whenever needed, regardless of its location
Information sprawl has given way to content scattered across multiple systems creating dispersed and non-integrated data silos. To ensure that knowledge is shared and surfaced intelligently to the right processes, departments, and people, Data Capture acts as a gate to greater enterprise integration from the first touch point. Upon a document’s entrance into the enterprise, capture systems inscribe metadata to tactically route content assets to the appropriate workflows and repositories.
Equipped with more sophisticated tools for integration, the enterprise is more connected, and files and documents are more easily searched for, identified, and retrieved to fuel collaboration.
Data Capture as a Service model allows doing more with less for increased efficiency, offloaded and equalized risk with a third-party partnership, and reduced physical storage space and costs. With some of the burdens of on-premises capture lifted, organizations can focus on value-added activities, optimize workflows, and move closer to the customer, citizens, and staff to provide a faster response.
A Foundation for Digital Business
The most effective Data Capture systems are built with evolving content realities in mind and should be equipped with functionality to accommodate digitally born data (e.g. digital invoices, e-forms, PDFs, among others…) to the same degree as paper documents. Content regardless of its format needs to be captured, managed, and automatically routed across workflows to ensure information is being purposed efficiently and productively.
Once a paperless project successfully transforms an enterprise process or department, a foundation is created to build data-driven workflows, operations, and services. After the capture process, information should not simply sit to stagnate without its potential value refined. The next step is content analytics: information is put to work and converted into knowledge to support people, processes, and technologies. With greater insight, employees can make better, more informed decisions, and with more advanced integration, knowledge can be rapidly shared with the line of business systems, as well as beyond the corporate walls to partners, suppliers, and customers. The final juncture on a paperless journey is the efficiency framework, operations involved with streamlining and optimizing the flow of digital information and leveraging content assets to their full potential to improve the business as a whole. In this way, data capture systems are the starting blocks to the digital transformation journey, but the finish line is a foundation for digital business.
Best practices for success on Data Capture as a Service
Data Capture as a Service, relying on a third-party brain to scan, manage, and route critical content, may be a revolutionary way to drive back paper at the gates. Across the board, the payback period for paper-free company projects is very encouraging. Forty-five percent of AIIM community respondents report payback within six months, and just fewer than 10% within three months. To these ends, capture remains a powerful tool to inspire a digital transformation, especially in this period of upheaval and volcanic change with the announcement of content services.
When positioned at the leading edge of the process, Data Capture is still the best tool and gateway for digital business and helps overcome paper anchored processes and technologies welded to traditional ways of work. Above all, people are at the center of all information management efforts and need to be supported with business tools that mirror user experiences available in their personal lives.
If you are evaluating a Data Capture system, remember the following best practices:
- Position the system “right at the door”, defending offices from paper, and ensuring the quickest and cleanest possible conversion to digital.
- Evaluate how removing the paper from operational processes will make customer response times leaner, improve his overall experience, and save in back-office costs.
- Ensure that existing paper-free processes are taking advantage of data capture and integration with core enterprise systems.
- Consider alternative product models such as Capture as a Service to best serve your unique business requirements.
- Look for ways to extend capture, access, and engagement activities beyond the corporate walls using mobile and cloud applications.
- When a paper-free project ends, it should be the beginning of an ongoing process improvement practice that looks for ways to improve upon the foundation. Establish a continuous improvement program that will periodically review and refine the changes you make now.
We have the experience, the tools, the infrastructure and the knowledge to help you on this journey. Let’s talk? We will be glad to help you succeed.
To Dos:
– Position the Data Capture system “right at the door”, defending offices from paper, and ensuring the quickest and cleanest possible conversion to digital.
– Consider alternative product models such as Papersoft’s capture as a service to best serve your unique business requirements.
– Subscribe to our blog to receive valuable insights about paper-free processes.
– Ask for a personalized assessment and let us demonstrate the feasibility of our process dematerialisation concept.
– Download our ebook “Paper at the gates: Driving digital revolution with modern capture” and learn how data capture is the gateway for inbound and outbound content and the starting line where digital transformation initiatives begin.
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