The Truth About Imaging

IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

Digital imaging combined with Electronic Records Management Systems (EERMS) allows users immediate access to critical documents without the need for a hard copy file.  With digital documents a user can search, retrieve and execute a document in seconds. This can be done in a fraction of the time it takes to request and retrieve a hard copy file.  Of course, saving time equates to saving money in many organizations. Therefore immediate access to documents is a critical reason for conversion to a digital environment.

MULTIPLE USER ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

In many instances, employees have the need to view and execute documents simultaneously.  In a hard copy world this is a significant obstacle unless the employees are in the same place at the same time. The best way two or more employees can view and execute a document simultaneously is to have the document in a digital format. Digital documents which reside in EERMS or Electronic Document Management Systems (EEDMS) can be viewed, edited and executed by multiple employees no matter the employee’s location or time zone. 

REMOTE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

Having your documents converted to a digital environment can allow immediate and multiple user access to documents via the web from remote locations.  If your files only reside in paper format productivity may be negatively impacted because multiple employees must be at the remote location at the same time in order to view the file content. 

GLOBAL SHARING OF DOCUMENTS

Having electronic or digital versions of records will also enable document sharing via the web in a global environment.  Most EERMS and EEDMS set-ups will allow publishing the digital documents to an E-Portal via encrypted secure user access.  This permits users located anywhere in the world to access the published documents.  This is also a huge ROI because now organizations may execute multi-billion dollar deals via the web across country boundaries and time zones.

DISASTER RECOVERY

How do you recover paper documents or files after a disaster occurs?  In the past, everyone always said, “This will never happen.”  In today’s environment, disaster recovery plans should be in place at nearly every organization or firm in the country.  The answer to recovering paper documents in most cases is – YOU DON’T!  Having your records converted to a digital environment allows you replicate to remote locations in real time.  In laymen’s terms, it allows you to copy the entire file or record as it is added to the system.  Having a quality replication of your digital document repository to an offsite location is crucial when you are thinking of converting to digital and prepares your organization for the time that “will never happen”.

REDUCTION OF PAPER ONSITE

Of course everyone would love to reduce the amount of paper onsite.  Remember this important fact:  the quality of your images is the main determinant of the amount of paper you can destroy.  In a digital imaging environment, quality control checking every document scanned is a must.  If you destroy the paper right after scan and you have not performed appropriate quality control checks; the imaged document may be useless.  Although most capture technologies in operation today have built-in processes for QC none of them can offer 100% QC checks.  At my facility each and every page of every document scanned is QC checked and then stamped 100% QC.  We not only check that each page is scanned, but we also check for resolution, de-skewing, and de-speckling and over-all image quality.  The reason for this is that all of our images must be print quality!   This in turn will allow our attorneys to re-print an imaged document that looks like it was just typed via word processing software!  If these processes take place you can destroy the hard copy document knowing you have a 100% quality, replicated electronic version of the original.

REDUCTION OF PAPER OFFSITE

If you take the necessary measures to ensure that your images are excellent quality and a 100% accurate replication of the original it is easy to reduce the amount paper offsite.  At our site, we simply look for the stamp of approval on the document.  When we send the records to storage we go through a purging process which allows us to destroy all the documents with the stamp of approval.  We never destroy ORIGINAL EXECUTED DOCUMENTS.  Although courts in the US accept an electronic version of the signed document we feel it is necessary to retain original documents for there full retention period.  Even retaining these documents can reduce your offsite storage by up to 70%.  This converts into real dollar savings when you are storing 50,000+ boxes of useless paper!

Setting Up Your Digital Imaging Network – Hardware – MFP’s

In beginning the process of setting-up a global network for digital imaging, the purchase of hardware is crucial.  Purchasing the right Multi-Function Printers (MFP) can make or break your environment.  One good practice is to ask each vendor to provide you with a specifications sheet on their latest and most productive MFP.  Take these documents and build comparison spreadsheet (in MS Excel). Through this process, comparison of all the machines may be made in a more efficient way.  Don’t take what’s on paper as reality!  Most MFP’s perform at around 75-80% of what the specs say.  You must consider the image resolution and any other processes involved in the scanning process.  With this said, on the copy and print side most MFP’s perform at around 90% spec ratio.   Remember that the size of the file and the file format that you are printing will directly affect the PPM rate of most MFP’s.  Following are some important factors to consider when purchasing Multi-function printer devices.

WHAT IS THE FEEDER CAPACITY?

Most of the feeder tray capacities on all common MFP units range between 139-150 pages maximum. Some have the option to accelerate this capacity a bit, but it’s not going to reach 500 pages. 

CAN YOU BATCH SCAN?

With the feeder capacity being limited to around 150 pages the ability to batch scan is crucial.  This means that you can take a 1000 page document and continually feed the document 150 pages at a time until you are finished.  When all 1000 pages are complete you can then simply push a button and commit the entire document for processing.

Without this option, you are restricted to scanning only small capacity documents. Some vendors provide third party proprietary software platforms which will allow batch scanning with a cover sheet of sorts, but now you are adding another step to an already NEW practice for most users.  Adding this step may build another potential problem into the process.

WHAT IS THE PPM ON PRINT SCAN AND COPY?
This is a crucial factor in purchasing MFP devices.  Most MFP's start at around 35ppm with 200dpi and level 4 compression.  These machines are will usually meet the minimum requirements of your organization, but are usually limited by functionality and mass usage.  I would suggest you purchase a machine with a minimum of 50ppm.  Remember once again that your ppm will be directly affected by the size and format of the document you are trying to print. Scanning speed will be affected by the level of compression and resolution you are scanning at. 

ARE PROGRAMMABLE INTERFACES POSSIBLE?
Although this may not be an immediate need you should always purchase for the future.  Having the ability to program the user interface on the machine to meet your organization’s needs will definitely become a crucial factor in the future. 

SCAN TO EMAIL – SCAN TO NETWORK DRIVES
Two features which the MFP must have is the ability to scan to email and scan to network drives.  This will allow users to convert paper documents quickly throughout your organization.  Scanning to network drives will allow you to program interactive buttons on the panel that allow direct scan to Records Management, Document Management, and Accounting Software Systems.

IS COST RECOVERY CONTROLLED ON THE PANEL?
Most organizations control cost recovery for print and copy by using a third party piece of hardware attached to the machine.  Each of these machines has a cost of around $2500 -$3000.   Most organizations are unaware of the option to control cost recovery available on many MFP’s through Nqueue.  Third party companies charge up to .12 per image.  With a backend cost recovery system you can control what is called “Digital Media Conversion”.  So a bill-back will not say copy or print cost.  It will say Digital Media Conversion, which will include print, scan, copy, phone (If your system is on VOIP), and fax.  There is a huge ROI involved in cost recovery on the panel.  Don’t forget to ask about this option form your MFP provider. 

IS BARCODE/COVER SHEET RECOGNITION INCLUDED?
This option is crucial when scanning directly to your EERMS system.  Cover sheets contain meta data which is transferred to a data file along with the document.  The scanner must read and recognize this data for the digital document to properly index into your backend systems.  If your new MFP’s don’t include this out of the box don’t buy it!

DEFINE YOUR INTERFACES BETWEEN EERMS, EEDMS and BACKEND SYSTEMS
Defining how your MFP devices will interact with your backend systems is also a crucial point.  Make sure you know what file formats your EERMS, EEDMS and Accounting systems will accept.  Contact your EERMS, EEDMS and other backend systems providers for this information before you purchase your MFP devices.  With the ability to program the user interface on the machine, you add simple one button solutions to move your images into backend systems. 

Setting Up Your Digital Imaging Network – High Capacity Scanners
MFP devices are only a portion of your imaging network.  If you are going to perform FULL SERVICE imaging onsite you will need to purchase High Capacity Scanners.  These scanners normally have feeder capacities of 1000 pages or more.  These scanners normally need stand alone PC’s with massive amounts of RAM to operate correctly.  Some valuable features to look for are below.

WHAT IS THE FEEDER CAPACITY AND MAX PPM?
Most high capacity scanners will allow at least 1000 pages at a time in the feeder.  Do not consider high capacity scanners which don’t provide at least 500 page feeder trays!

WHAT ARE THE PC SPECS?
As I stated earlier, most high capacity scanners require a stand alone PC for processing.  Make sure you know what hardware is needed for maximum results in processing.  Make sure you account for the cost of these PC’s when you are choosing high capacity scanners.

IS IT UPGRADEABLE?
In most cases the need to scan 250 pages per minute duplex (both sides of a document) is not necessary at the outset. Make sure you can purchase at least 80 PPM duplex capacity, and then upgrade the same scanner to 150 PPM duplex when the need arises.

CAN YOU SCAN AT MAX PPM DUPLEX IN ONE PASS?
Most MFP devices don’t have dual cameras.  This means that to scan duplex the feeder must pull the document through the scanner twice.  High capacity scanners should have two cameras and the ability to scan a two sided document at max PPM in one pass.  This will save countless man hours when processing large volumes of paper documents.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

Ok, what does that mean?  OCR, in laymen’s terms means that a backend system will read the context of the image and place a text file behind the picture.  This will in turn make any imaged document text searchable.  This functionality allows users to not only search for the document de scri ption, but they can also search across the body of the document for keywords.  A few features necessary for OCR systems are below.

WILL IT RUN AS AN NT SERVICE?

This means if any server in the farm fails will it reboot and continue processing where it left off, or do you have to manually restart all of the services to begin processing.  Make sure this feature exists.  You do not want to have to monitor your backend OCR system every minute of everyday.  Having the ability to restart itself provides a “hands-off” structure of an OCR system. The system should know that it failed, at what point during conversion it failed, and restart at that point at server reboot.   Make sure it will auto capture the latest footprint of processing progress at server failure.

CAN IT WATCH NETWORK FOLDERS?
The backend OCR should allow you to tell it what folders to watch for processing.  This way you can program your MFP and High Capacity devices to scan to one network folder.  If the OCR system is watching this folder it will auto process any digital document dropped in the folder.  This is another automation process that your OCR system should definitely have. This feature is a must and a requirement for purchase.

HOW MANY DOCUMENTS WILL IT PROCESS AT ONE TIME?
Make sure you know how many documents may be processed at one time. What are the limitations of the software?  How many instances of the software will load on each server?  This will give you an idea of how big and customizable your OCR network can be.  Make sure you have room for future growth in processing.  For instance, the system may require you to have one server as a scheduler.  This server just processes the requests.  In other words, it watches the pre-defined network folder for processing and then directs the document to another processing server.  The processing servers can run up to four instances of OCR conversion at once.  So with 4 servers you can process 16 instances of your OCR platform.  This is plenty sufficient for most organizations. 

CAN IT CONTROL SERVER LOADS?
This is also a very important feature!  For example, if you have a bunch of small documents (10 pages or less) to convert, the OCR system should recognize this and pick the best server in the farm to perform the processing.  If you have 5 other large documents (100 pages or more) the OCR system should parse these documents to servers in the farm that have the most CPU power available.  This will balance the load on your server farm and create quick processing times.

DOES IT SUPPORT SERVER FARMS?
If you try to perform mass processing on one server it will definitely crash!   Most likely the server will peak at 100% CPU usage and will get hot and die!   The OCR system has to be able to accept multiple servers.  The golden scenario is one server for scheduling/processing and up to four additional servers for just processing.

WHAT FILE FORMATS ARE ACCEPTED?
Make sure you pre-define what file formats your OCR system will accept.  The most common file type for processing quickly is TIFF.  At my firm, I convert from TIFF to OCR – TEXT SEARCHABLE .PDF.  The OCR system does however have the ability to convert to and from many other file formats.

ARE COVERSHEET SPLITS PROCESSED?
Most third party ERMS, EDMS and backend systems use coversheets for indexing and processing.  Make sure your OCR system will recognize these pages, remove the coversheet from the document, and retain the indexing metadata.  This will allow you to scan multiple documents in one pass on the scanner.  For instance, if you have 10 – 20 page documents you would have 10 coversheets.  If you scan these all at once in the feeder of a scanner it will come out as one huge document.  With coversheet recognition and splits it will automatically split it into 10 separate documents with the perspective indexing metadata attached. 

Capture Technology For Your High Capacity Scanners
Most high capacity scanners also require third party capture software.  These software systems have an enormous quantity of features.  Unfortunately, most of the features are proprietary to certain aspects of the business and only apply when you are performing those tasks.  However, there are some basic features that you want it to have.

NETWORK SCANNING
Just like your MFP devices you want to be able to have the option to scan to network drives.  This will allow you to scan mass document sets directly into your backend ERMS, EDMS and Accounting applications.

LOCAL SCANNING
Although local scanning is not usually preferred it is sometimes necessary.  Local scan is a great backup if your backend imaging and OCR network fails.  Having the ability to still scan mass documents locally and declare them as records is a huge plus.

COVERSHEET RECOGNITION / SEPARATOR SHEET RECOGNITION
As stated before, cover sheets contain meta data which is transferred to a data file along with the document.  The scanner must read and recognize this data for the digital document to properly index into your backend systems. 

AUTO INSERT / MOVE / DELETE
Another crucial feature for your capture program is the ability to insert missed documents, move incorrectly placed images, and delete bad image captures.   These features essentially allow you to re-scan bad images and place these images into the main document before committing to your backend systems.

SIMPLE USER INTERFACE
One of the biggest mistakes capture vendors make is remembering that we are not all software programmers.  Make sure the capture software you choose not only has all the features that you want, but also is easy to use.

CAN YOU BATCH SCAN?
With the feeder capacity normally residing at around 500-1000 pages, batch scanning shouldn’t be an issue.  Make sure your capture software can accept batch scanning and split the documents, after scan, appropriately.

SCANNING TO MULTIPLE FILE TYPES
Make sure your capture software can accept and scan to multiple file types.  Preferably TIFF or PDF direct multi-page or single page scans.

INTEGRATED OCR & QUALITY CONTROL
Although we have pretty much conquered OCR on the backend it is sometimes necessary to OCR documents on the fly!  Make sure this feature is or can be integrated into your product.  Quality control is a huge issue!  Make sure your capture product includes a very good quality control module.  The ability to see thumbnail views of all of your documents to check for quality of scan is very important.  After all, one bad page in a 50 page document makes the digital document useless.

WHAT IS YOUR NORMAL SCAN RESOLUTION?
Most providers and consultants will suggest 200dpi resolution with a level 4 compression factor.  This is a great setting for maximizing your file sizes on the backend.  If you are more worried about the quality of the image then the size you might want to accelerate to 300dpi resolution.

WHAT WILL YOUR IMAGED DOCUMENT LOOK LIKE IF REPRINTED?
You have to remember that many organizations are now reprinting their digital documents for review and/or drafting new documents.  If they are giving these printed documents to clients they must look like they were created in Word.  Images scanned at 200dpi and smashed with compression factors will not look like a word processor print.

Want A Paperless Environment?
If your end goal is to be a primarily paperless office you have to define certain criteria that ensures your digital documents are 100% as accurate as if they had a piece of paper in their hand.   Some other factors to consider are:

YOU CAN’T DESTROY PAPER WITHOUT PROOF OF 100% QUALITY CONTROL CHECKS
At my firm we stamp all Cod documents with a stamp of approval.  These stamps say – “100% Quality control checked by (the document processors name).  The coversheet is printed on blue paper and retained at the last page of the hardcopy document until we are ready to destroy it. 

HOW LONG WILL YOU RETAIN YOUR HARDCOPY DOCUMENTS AFTER IMAGING?
With the system I mentioned above, purging your hardcopy files becomes much easier.  A good policy is to retain the paper document for at least 30 days.  Use a staging area for documents that have already been imaged and are awaiting destruction.  Keep these documents in a chronological order so that they are easy to find if needed.  

HOW LONG WILL YOU RETAIN YOUR IMAGED DOCUMENTS?
Because hard drive space is so cheap these days, many organizations are choosing to retain their digital documents forever.  I, however, do not agree with this scenario.  Digital documents should be treated with the same retention policies as your paper.  When their lifecycle is up, they should be deleted from your system.

DISASTER RECOVERY
Having a digital records system is one thing, but making that system reliable is another.  One thing which must be remembered is that your digital ERMS relies on your organization's network.  With this in mind, it is necessary that you replicate all of your images offsite to a remote location.  Real time replication is the most effective.  This way, anytime you add a document to your ERMS or EDMS systems it will auto copy to your offsite location.  In case of a disaster you can have all of your digital records available immediately with no lag in the work process.

What ERMS & EDMS Vendors Forget
GOOD SEARCH TOOLS
In most cases ERMS and EDMS search tools are inadequate and VERY slow!  They also forget the need to see collective works from multiple repositories in one unique search tool.  I suggest you look at purchasing a global search tool.  If your documents have good profiling and/or meta capture and are OCR’d at 95%; your search results will come back very quick and be very accurate.

CLEAN EXPORTS OF DIGITAL DOCUMENTS WITH CLEAN META EXTRACTION
With the above said, make sure your ERMS and EDMS vendors can give you good exports of your digital documents.  Most ERMS systems hide and encode your documents below multiple layers of folder sets on the backend.  This will cause your indexers and search results to crawl to a halt!   Before you implement a third party search tool make sure you get a quality export of your digital documents from your ERMS and EDMS vendors.

DAILY DELTA EXPORTS TO SECONDARY INDEX
In order to create the most recent footprint of available digital documents your ERMS and EDMS systems must be able to provide your search indexers with a daily delta grab of new documents.  This way you can set your indexers to only capture a small amount of new data instead of re-indexing terabytes of documents at a time.

What Should Your Global Search Engine Include
Although global search technology is fairly new it should be able to perform these standard tasks fairly seamlessly. 

THE USER INTERFACE
The user interface should include several views. 

PANE VIEW – this view should look and feel much like Microsoft Outlook.  Allowing a split view of documents pertaining to the search criteria across EDMS, ERMS, LOCAL EMAIL, ARCHIVED EMAIL, and LOCAL DOCUMENTS.  Each frame should have the ability to search on click.  For instance, the frame fields may be DATE, DE scri ptION, AUTHOR or others.  You should be able to click on DATE and it should re-sort the result set by date sequence.

GLOBAL VIEW – this view should look and feel much like Microsoft Outlook as well.  The only difference is it would combine the search results from the EDMS, ERMS, LOCAL EMAIL, ARCHIVED EMAIL, and LOCAL DOCUMENTS in one date chronological order.

Global Search Engine Functionality After Result Set