Seven Tips for Selecting a Document Imaging Solution
Have you ever needed a RESET button? Do your air max 95 femme golf buddies let you take an occasional mulligan (or two)? Unfortunately, there are no “do-overs” in business, including that wrong solution you selected for that big important project. You remember the one ...it went way over budget, was delivered very late, was much too complicated for the users, fell far short of anticipated benefits or barely works today but will be too expensive to repair. Good times indeed!
Could you have done some things differently? Perhaps you spent too much time with vendors trying to understand product features and not enough time with users trying to understand requirements. Perhaps you took a few too many shortcuts with the initial budget and ignored (or didn’t fully grasp) the true costs of the solution. Perhaps you moved forward without a clearly defined project scope hoping things would work out for the best.
The concept of going paperless sounds simple (and it can be) which can lead to oversights and mistakes. As consumers, we can Google anything we need from any device we use anytime we want causing us to be somewhat complacent when it comes to new air max 95 femme technology. However, taking solutions such as document imaging across an entire enterprise involves many underlying factors that need to be considered.
Over the next few weeks, we will offer seven tips to help you make the best possible decision when selecting a document image solution whether you are just starting to look, are in the process of evaluating vendors or trying to undo what has already been done! They are easy enough to follow and cost nothing to implement!
Tip 1: Planning is just as important as the technology you select!
If you don’t know where you are going, there’s a good chance you probably won’t get there! There are no perfect document imaging solutions and every installation is tailored to specific user preferences. More often than not, there is too much emphasis on product features and not enough focus on how to solve the users' business problem.
While understanding product capabilities is important, the first step before you go shopping should be to gather user requirements and prioritize the needs versus wants. Document imaging solutions do not lack functionality and it is easy to be seduced by the air max 95 femme many dazzling features you will be shown. The key questions are “will these capabilities ever get implemented” and “at what cost”?
You don’t have to be a Certified Document Image Architect to gather basic information about how users conduct their business and how going paperless can overcome their challenges.
Here are some sample questions to get organized and start framing the scope of the project:
Who are the key users and departments?
What business application software do they use?
What type of documents do they handle?
Where do these documents originate?
Who needs access to these documents?
How long (and where) are records stored?
What happens when files are missing?
What bottlenecks and problems need to be addressed?
Are there any work measures, counts and standards?
Are there any technology considerations and preferences?
Are there any systems in place that will require conversion?
Next Week.... Tip 2: Start with the User’s Perspective.