Key components contribute to a solid document capture bridge.

Document capture software bridges the gap between paper and digital content. The process of building a bridge that connects the two is not easy. It needs to be gradually built and requires a mixture of elements including a careful design and skilled professionals using a combination of strength, flexibility and cost-effectiveness. This post will help your company build a sturdy and reliable structure, creating a solid foundation for your document capture bridge:

1. Strength

Strength is the priority and most significant quality of an exemplary bridge. Environmental impacts like storms or floods may threaten the existence of a bridge unless it has a solid foundation. A weak bridge is at risk of succumbing, becomes less and less reliable over time and will eventually need to undergo major repairs or be replaced entirely. This is also true for document capture bridge. A sturdy and reliable capture system will be equipped to withstand the test of time. It will be built by a company with a high level of expertise and experience in the field that can provide strong, valuable support to its customers. It should have the functionality to perform a robust variety of tasks such as capture, data extraction, auto redaction, migration, etc as well as provide a high level of automation for those tasks. Furthermore, it should be able to perform a wide range of functions without compromising on quality. Its strength is not only in the expanse of its feature set, but in the caliber of its performance.

2. Flexibility: 

The workers building the bridge have to be flexible enough to work under all types of circumstances in order to complete the job on time without compromising quality. Flexibility is the must-have feature of document capture software in order to offer users the best possible service. It should be able to integrate easily with other systems from the Accounts Payable department to Legal and Human Resources.  It should also be capable of accommodating changes in your company’s needs.

3. Cost effectiveness

The most cost-effective document capture software may not be the one that comes at the absolute lowest price point, rather than the one that offers the best quality for the price point. No matter how inexpensive the product is, if it doesn't end up saving you significantly in the long-run and cannot perform exceptionally over time, it's not really the cost-effective option. The most budget-friendly option is the software that can both solve your company's document capture problem and minimize your business cost as well as increasing your overall productivity.

At inFORM Decisions, we know that your capture solution is an important investment in the future of your company, and we'd love to help guide you through the process of building the document capture bridge. If you desire to embark on the journey of increasing productivity and cost savings, contact us now!

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Win a business gold medal with Document Capture Software

In sport, athletes train really hard and spend a great deal of time psychologically preparing for competitions, especially the universally viewed events like last summer’s Olympics in Rio. They compete for the prestige of their nations and try their best to being the fastest, strongest or most powerful forces in their sports. It can be said that such competitions are the pinnacle of athletic perfection. There is something  riveting about witnessing the culmination of these athletes' training manifest in the most intense competition of their lives.

From the audiences’ point of view, the differences between first, second and third place might seem like a small margin, but actually, it reveals some more significant differences at the training habits of the athletes.

Was their diet and nutrition superior? Did they put in extra  practice even when everyone else was going home? Did they wake up just a few minutes earlier than their competition and squeeze in some moments for personal growth? Something they did leading up to the event served as a differentiator that set them apart from the pack.

It holds true in business. Long-term success is based on the processes and structures you put in place and the habits you practice on a daily basis.

If your company really desires to achieve a gold medal and leave your competitors in the dust, you need to consider document capture software for your business processes due to its outstanding benefits:

1.   Create efficiency and improve productivity within various departments.

2.   Automate any document scanning process

3.   Improve communication within your organization.

4.   Improve worker satisfaction.

5.   Reduce internal business costs.

6.   Allowing for improved customer service.

7.   Helping you harness your company's vast array of data so that it can be utilized most effectively.

It’s time for your company to separate from the herd and cross the finish line first. Ask our experts today for advice today to achieve the gold medal in business!

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iCapture Advanced Data Extraction: What does it mean?

iCapture was created to help meet the needs of it's customers. It contains automated features such as Advanced Data Extraction (ADE) which facilitates automated indexing and Classification to identify and separate documents..

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How do you get the most out of your document scanning copier?

The copier manufacturers (Konica, Sharp, Canon, Kyocera) have really stepped up to the plate in recent years, and focused on the scanning capability of their copier scanning hardware. Connecting to the network with your copier used to be a costly option, but would enable the unit to print and scan. Almost all the copiers today are sold with built-in network capability, and you instantly have network document scanning capability.

Most of the MFD/MFPs allow scan to email, scanning to SMB or network folders and scanning to FTP sites. It is interesting, and I find that most organizations will only setup scan to email. Users email themselves documents, open the attachment, rename it, create a folder and then save. As you can imagine, this is a time consuming, very manual process. The scan to folder function on most models is also a very manual process, as with most models you have to "hard code" the folder destination, and you cannot navigate folders on your network.

So how do we improve the scanning process, and make our document imaging simpler and more efficient? Through the use of document capture software.

In utilizing intelligent capture software in the scanning process, there are two schools of thought: 

• Scan to the network, and then go back to your desk and desktop software to process the document 
• Process the document at the Copier/MFD at the time of scan 

Let's look at these in more detail.

Desktop Processing

Let's look at the flow of this solution: Walk up to the copier, press a one touch button, walk back to your desk and open the software to process. The majority of the Document Management and ECM Software vendors have realized the enormous potential in enabling the use of copiers as a "front-end" for capturing documents, and have "copier-enabled" their applications. Once you scan from the copier, the document is placed in a queue for indexing/processing at your desktop. You can view the document, enter index or keyword values, and then submit the document to your Document Management System to be shared. Document Management Software vendors such as inForm Decisions have built simple, easy to use Copier capture modules. If you have some heavy duty processing needs, you can use iCapture products and their document import function to process copier scanned documents.

If you have more basic needs, all of the Desktop scanning manufacturers have great feature sets for processing and working with scanned documents (eCopy Desktop and Nuance PaperPort to name a few). 

Processing at the Copier

The flow for this solution involves a touch screen and keyboard at the copier: Scan your documents at the copier, touch a button on the screen for the document destination, enter your information and click done.

These solutions are very convenient and allow you to finish the scanning process at the time of scan. You can scan to email, scan to network folders and browse the network, scan to fax, scan to your desktop, and even scan into a variety of Document Management and Imaging Systems through the use of pre-built connectors. The two market leaders in this category are eCopy ShareScan and EFI SendMe. They both have similar feature sets, but eCopy definitely wins the race with the partnerships it has established with Document Management Vendors. 

In summary, scanning with your copier is a great way to leverage your existing investment in office equipment. The process can be streamlined, and efficiency can be gained through the use of software.  

inFORM Decisions

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