How will a document imaging system affect our workflow?

There is some point in the life cycle of a paper document where it is more efficient to turn it into an electronic image than to keep it as paper. That point in time will vary by document and will be based on the current process that is being used in a paper environment. For some documents, you will want to scan them into the system at the very beginning of the workflow process, while other documents may not be converted until after the paper has completed the workflow process.

To determine how to best integrate document imaging into your current workflow, you should initially focus on developing a digital replica of your current manual process. The physical path a document travels is important as well as the kind of work that is performed on the document at each destination.

In your analysis you should record all physical locations that a document travels and what tasks take place when it arrives at each location. You should note how the document gets from one place to another and the time period for each step of the document life cycle. You should note if the document is inspected, referenced, annotated or filed into a folder. Is the document set aside until some other document arrives before it is processed?

The basic objective of this analysis is to identify when and what documents need to be converted to electronic images.

As you can see, there is no one size fits all answer to this question. Each situation is unique and requires some analysis prior to implementing a document imaging system.