Distributed Capture 2009 - A Survey Report

By Datacap

Capturing paper documents into digital form has traditionally been a centralized business function. In contrast, "distributed capture" is a strategy for entering documents into the business process in decentralized locations rather than shipping them to a central location for scanning. For organizations with a multitude of paper documents being generated in multiple locations, moving scanning and indexing functions to the point of origin saves on mail and courier expense, speeds data input, and expedites the processing of critical business documents.

The notion of distributed capture is not necessarily a new concept; however, many new tools and drivers have recently emerged to compel organizations to take a closer look at the benefits. Early approaches utilized fax networks to send documents from regional locations to a main hub for processing. Once scanners became more prevalent in the market, companies began to utilize wide area networks (WANs) to transport documents. Both of these methods are still used today, but as the Internet has become a pervasive infrastructure, more and more organizations look to the World Wide Web as the preferred method of supporting distributed capture capabilities. As a result, the combination of technology advancements, the unyielding burden of paper documents, and significant cost savings available has done much to advance the proliferation of distributed capture systems.