Keys To A Successful Distributed Capture Deployment

According to an AIIM — The Enterprise Content Management Association study published in July 2007, the majority of organizations surveyed had begun, or were then in the throes of, implementing distributed scanning and capture solutions. Many companies are finding distributed capture — electronically capturing information at or near the point of origin — is especially effective for streamlining transaction-intensive processes, such as invoice processing, expense reporting, personnel actions, order processing, and the like.

From reducing paper at company headquarters to improving information sharing, customer service, and document control across the enterprise, distributed capture can help enhance multiple business processes within an organization. "Distributed capture is now taking on many forms and has gone far beyond its earlier role of allowing branches, offices, or agencies to scan to a central location for extraction of data and archiving," says Craig Laue, Eastern regional manager, ABBYY USA Software House. "Multifunctional devices and other types of all-in-one scanning hardware have assisted in bringing distributed capture to a utility role in-house, as well. We are seeing distributed capture perform a larger role in capture across departments of organizations due to enhanced capabilities of the hardware." Distributed capture is playing an increasingly prominent role in how enterprises capture documents for compliance and control purposes, and with ease of use continuing to improve, this trend is likely to grow.

However, there is much more to implementing an effective distributed capture system than simply deploying a number of network scanners, desktop scanners, and/or MFPs (multifunction peripherals) throughout the workplace. A decentralized approach means greater flexibility and efficiency, but it can also mean loss of control. And in the current compliance environment, loss of control can have serious, negative consequences. And that's not the only potential downside. If you're not careful, you can end up with misnamed and incorrectly identified documents, multiple versions of documents, and documents being kept beyond any business or legal reason. If you don't establish a centralized system for managing your captured documents and their related businesses processes, you'll end up experiencing many of the problems you were trying to avoid by eliminating paper — your employees will still be wasting time searching for misnamed and misfiled documents, your information will be taking up too much space (on your servers rather than in file cabinets), you won't know whether the right information is getting to the people who need it, and you'll be subjecting your company to unnecessary legal liabilities and risks.

Your information capture solution will likely be capable of capturing all forms of data, including both paper-based and electronic documents in their myriad of formats. To be sure all the various records entering your organization are handled and stored correctly — and to limit the possible negative consequences of a poorly managed capture system — it is critical to establish clear practices and policies that will help you steer clear of potential pitfalls.