Posted by Mark Brousseau
In spite of the tremendous growth of document imaging over the past decade, half of the companies that responded to a recent TAWPI Question of the Week (www.tawpi.org) admit that their organization images 30 percent or less of their documents and forms that could be usefully scanned.
Based on the survey results, these organizations are badly lagging their peers that have adopted document imaging in a big way: 17 percent of survey respondents indicated that they scan 75 percent of their documents and forms while 33 percent of respondents said they scan all of their documents.
Overall, the survey results illustrate that there is plenty of potential growth for document imaging, explains Derrick Murphy (dmurphy@ibml.com), president and CEO of ibml (www.ibml.com).
Murphy attributes the slow adoption of scanning by some companies to the perceived (or actual) complications of deploying an integrated document imaging solution, and the change management associated with it. "Process change scares some people more than new technology," he explains.
But Murphy believes that more companies will take a fresh look at their document imaging initiatives as the economy emerges from the recession. "They'll re-evaluate imaging for all of the reasons vendors like ibml have talked about over the years: accelerating access to critical information, re-balancing their labor force, improving customer service, and lowering operating costs," Murphy says.
"Now is a good time to invest in capital assets that better position your organization to take advantage of the inevitable economic turnaround," Murphy concludes. "Companies that aren't prepared to take advantage of the turnaround risk falling behind their forward-thinking competitors."
What do you think?
Showing posts with label Derrick Murphy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Derrick Murphy. Show all posts
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Come Together
By Mark Brousseau
At a time when businesses are focusing like never before on operations efficiency and corporate responsiveness, respondents to a recent TAWPI Question of the Week cited data extraction as the most important part of the capture process to automate. Data extraction is the process of interpreting data on documents for further processing or storage. Sixty-percent of respondents to the survey identified data extraction as the key area for automation, topping business process integration (20 percent), classification/sorting (20 percent), filing/archive (0 percent) and data validation (0 percent).
The results come as no surprise to ibml President and CEO Derrick Murphy, who notes that peaking recognition rates leave data extraction as the capture function with the most room for improvement.
But Murphy warns that achieving significant improvements in data extraction results will require organizations and their corresponding integrators to combine capabilities such as higher image quality, database lookups/verification, auto-classification, and physical sorting into an integrated business process. This is a big change from traditionally siloed capture functions that often resulted in simple picture-taking with downstream exceptions, Murphy notes.
Here's how Murphy sees the pieces fitting together:
• Image Quality -- There's no question that higher quality and cleaner images translate into higher read rates. While image quality can be affected by forms design (e.g. clear zones), the type of scanner an organization uses can also play a pivotal role. For instance, many scanners don't actually scan at their advertised rate; the manufacturers are referring to their output, not their real scan rate. "Image enhancement can only do so much," Murphy notes. In this scenario, a fuzzy image translates into a poor black and white image for recognition. To ensure high quality images, as a starting point Murphy recommends that users look for scanners that meet the 300 dpi (dots per inch) scan level (not output) suggested by most recognition vendors.
• Database verification -- Murphy sees increasing demand for database verification -- the process of using logic to utilize existing data to match up ICR results. These results can be used to automatically populate data entry fields or correct intelligent character recognition (ICR) misreads. Database verification is gaining traction in applications such as invoice processing and remittance lockbox processing, Murphy notes. So what's the appeal of this technology? Murphy says that while recognition read rates can now top 90 percent, the remaining misreads may require the manual keying of a lot of fields on a document. Database verification can automatically verify then populate/correct these fields, reducing manual keying as well as the potential for errors that it introduces.
• Classification -- Combining character recognition with sophisticated logic, auto-classification groups documents, reducing the time necessary to organize information and fill in data gaps. Better document classification drives improvements in data extraction rates, Murphy said.
• Physical sorting -- Despite the industry's push towards electronification, there are times when physically sorting documents still makes sense, particularly in complex data extraction environments, Murphy said. "If a document can't pass your validation or quality assurance processes, chances are, you will need to rescan the document," Murphy said. "The time to determine this is early in the capture process, and not after the documents have been boxed up or moved to another location while you have batches of work awaiting completion."
Taken together, Murphy believes these functions will help provide the improvements in data extraction results that respondents to the TAWPI Question of the Week cited as being critical to their capture process.
What do you think?
At a time when businesses are focusing like never before on operations efficiency and corporate responsiveness, respondents to a recent TAWPI Question of the Week cited data extraction as the most important part of the capture process to automate. Data extraction is the process of interpreting data on documents for further processing or storage. Sixty-percent of respondents to the survey identified data extraction as the key area for automation, topping business process integration (20 percent), classification/sorting (20 percent), filing/archive (0 percent) and data validation (0 percent).
The results come as no surprise to ibml President and CEO Derrick Murphy, who notes that peaking recognition rates leave data extraction as the capture function with the most room for improvement.
But Murphy warns that achieving significant improvements in data extraction results will require organizations and their corresponding integrators to combine capabilities such as higher image quality, database lookups/verification, auto-classification, and physical sorting into an integrated business process. This is a big change from traditionally siloed capture functions that often resulted in simple picture-taking with downstream exceptions, Murphy notes.
Here's how Murphy sees the pieces fitting together:
• Image Quality -- There's no question that higher quality and cleaner images translate into higher read rates. While image quality can be affected by forms design (e.g. clear zones), the type of scanner an organization uses can also play a pivotal role. For instance, many scanners don't actually scan at their advertised rate; the manufacturers are referring to their output, not their real scan rate. "Image enhancement can only do so much," Murphy notes. In this scenario, a fuzzy image translates into a poor black and white image for recognition. To ensure high quality images, as a starting point Murphy recommends that users look for scanners that meet the 300 dpi (dots per inch) scan level (not output) suggested by most recognition vendors.
• Database verification -- Murphy sees increasing demand for database verification -- the process of using logic to utilize existing data to match up ICR results. These results can be used to automatically populate data entry fields or correct intelligent character recognition (ICR) misreads. Database verification is gaining traction in applications such as invoice processing and remittance lockbox processing, Murphy notes. So what's the appeal of this technology? Murphy says that while recognition read rates can now top 90 percent, the remaining misreads may require the manual keying of a lot of fields on a document. Database verification can automatically verify then populate/correct these fields, reducing manual keying as well as the potential for errors that it introduces.
• Classification -- Combining character recognition with sophisticated logic, auto-classification groups documents, reducing the time necessary to organize information and fill in data gaps. Better document classification drives improvements in data extraction rates, Murphy said.
• Physical sorting -- Despite the industry's push towards electronification, there are times when physically sorting documents still makes sense, particularly in complex data extraction environments, Murphy said. "If a document can't pass your validation or quality assurance processes, chances are, you will need to rescan the document," Murphy said. "The time to determine this is early in the capture process, and not after the documents have been boxed up or moved to another location while you have batches of work awaiting completion."
Taken together, Murphy believes these functions will help provide the improvements in data extraction results that respondents to the TAWPI Question of the Week cited as being critical to their capture process.
What do you think?
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Time for a Check Up?
Posted by Mark Brousseau
The care and feeding of your scanning operations requires regular audits. ibml President and CEO Derrick Murphy explains:
The television infomercial for a popular kitchen appliance tells viewers that they can, "Set it and forget it!" While that claim might work for rotisserie ovens, it's a bad idea for scanning operations.
Operations require constant monitoring and evaluation to ensure that the right technologies and processes are in place to meet the organization's needs.
Unfortunately, many organizations only take a hard look at their operations when problems become too large to ignore. By then, it's too late.
It's not that organizations are intentionally turning a blind eye to operations challenges. It's that most companies mistakenly believe that implementing state-of-the-art technology -- whether it's software or hardware -- will address their operations needs indefinitely. This thinking couldn't be farther from the truth. Like most things in business, operations requirements and dynamics always are in flux. Documents change. Staff turns over. New business rules are introduced. Technologies evolve.
For instance, there may be opportunities to add technology that has evolved since an initial install, assuming your current hardware and software supports it. You might also have an opportunity to re-engineer your operations based on technology advancements. If neither of these opportunities are available in your current systems environment, the new technology might provide the justification for an upgrade. What's more, as your documents change, you may find that your pre-configured job settings are no longer set for "peak" job performance, since they were designed for other work.
If an operation's infrastructure and processes don't adapt, its effectiveness will suffer.
Organizations must regularly analyze the technology and processes at work in their operations, to identify and correct inefficiencies that may not have existed during their last system implementation. With this information, organizations can be proactive about deploying remedies, ensuring that their business case stays on track, reducing cost, and heading off potential customer service issues.
Elizabeth Herrell, an analyst with Forrester Research, notes that "by evaluating all of the elements of their operations, organizations can identify gaps and recommend changes that will eliminate those gaps and help them better meet their goals." Companies that undertake a review of their processes and technology are better equipped to align their operations with their business objectives, she adds.
This operations review should focus on document preparation, operator proficiency, and scanner maintenance and performance -- the three areas where scanning operations most frequently falter.
Be Prepared
Document preparation is essential to the scanning process.
All staples, tape, paper clips, adhesives and other fastening devices must be removed from all documents prior to scanning. Adequate document preparation aids in keeping the scanners running with minimal downtime due to jams, skews, piggybacks, feeder errors or foreign items interfering with scanner functions. Documents must also be oriented correctly and batched in the right jobs.
Without proper document preparation, operators must correct problems at scan time, significantly reducing throughput. What's more, poor document prep is likely to cause errors on the scanners. Similarly, if staples are not removed, chances are that documents will not be batched correctly.
By auditing its operations, one ibml user determined that scanning its small documents individually would significantly reduce its document preparation time, while increasing scanner throughput. The review also showed that the customer needed a person to back up the operator of its two scanners; the extra person, who removes documents before the feeder tray empties and conducts quick "eyeball" quality assurance tests, has helped eliminate the idle time that previously dogged the customer.
Do Your Best
Well trained and experienced operators also are vital to the scanning process.
An operator who has been running the scanner for a period of time can pick up short cuts that help to minimize downtime from jams, and decrease the amount of time changing from one job to another. For instance, in the event of a jam, experienced operators can identify the last item scanned and pocketed correctly, without having to use a jam recovery wizard. This speeds recovery times.
Conversely, it takes less experienced staff longer to recover from jams and more time to pick up and hand feed documents that need to be scanned. They are more tentative, which slows things down.
As a result of a comprehensive review of its operations, one ibml customer found that it needed to temporarily send someone from its seasoned day shift crew to its night shift to transfer knowledge.
Leave No Trace
Scanner maintenance is absolutely critical to the scanning process.
An operation can have perfectly prepped documents and well-seasoned operators, but if maintenance is not performed properly, and frequently, its scanner will not operate effectively. It is important that maintenance is performed prior to each shift. This includes cleaning the feed tires and reverse belts, making sure the ink jet cartridge is not gummed up and sprays properly, and seeing that all sensors are clear of dust and paper debris. Operators should also record when belts and tires are changed.
Less experienced operators may forget critical steps that seasoned staff know intuitively: how to put belts on the scanner's reverse-belt assemblies or how to put tire assemblies together, as examples.
Through an operations audit, an ibml customer found that operators were placing open drink containers on top of its scanners, where they could spill and damage the machines. The audit also determined that the customer should move trash cans that were placed near the scanner's pocket frame, to avoid accidentally tossing dropped documents -- a hazard to document integrity.
The Payoff
Conducting a regular operations audit can pay big dividends. In the case of one ibml user, a service bureau, the remedies it implemented after an audit resulted in a 60 percent increase in throughput and a 25 percent reduction in jams. Those cost-saving benefits can have a significant bottom line impact.
The key is remembering that your operations requirements won't stop changing just because you implemented new technology. In other words, don't believe everything you see on late-night TV.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
The care and feeding of your scanning operations requires regular audits. ibml President and CEO Derrick Murphy explains:
The television infomercial for a popular kitchen appliance tells viewers that they can, "Set it and forget it!" While that claim might work for rotisserie ovens, it's a bad idea for scanning operations.
Operations require constant monitoring and evaluation to ensure that the right technologies and processes are in place to meet the organization's needs.
Unfortunately, many organizations only take a hard look at their operations when problems become too large to ignore. By then, it's too late.
It's not that organizations are intentionally turning a blind eye to operations challenges. It's that most companies mistakenly believe that implementing state-of-the-art technology -- whether it's software or hardware -- will address their operations needs indefinitely. This thinking couldn't be farther from the truth. Like most things in business, operations requirements and dynamics always are in flux. Documents change. Staff turns over. New business rules are introduced. Technologies evolve.
For instance, there may be opportunities to add technology that has evolved since an initial install, assuming your current hardware and software supports it. You might also have an opportunity to re-engineer your operations based on technology advancements. If neither of these opportunities are available in your current systems environment, the new technology might provide the justification for an upgrade. What's more, as your documents change, you may find that your pre-configured job settings are no longer set for "peak" job performance, since they were designed for other work.
If an operation's infrastructure and processes don't adapt, its effectiveness will suffer.
Organizations must regularly analyze the technology and processes at work in their operations, to identify and correct inefficiencies that may not have existed during their last system implementation. With this information, organizations can be proactive about deploying remedies, ensuring that their business case stays on track, reducing cost, and heading off potential customer service issues.
Elizabeth Herrell, an analyst with Forrester Research, notes that "by evaluating all of the elements of their operations, organizations can identify gaps and recommend changes that will eliminate those gaps and help them better meet their goals." Companies that undertake a review of their processes and technology are better equipped to align their operations with their business objectives, she adds.
This operations review should focus on document preparation, operator proficiency, and scanner maintenance and performance -- the three areas where scanning operations most frequently falter.
Be Prepared
Document preparation is essential to the scanning process.
All staples, tape, paper clips, adhesives and other fastening devices must be removed from all documents prior to scanning. Adequate document preparation aids in keeping the scanners running with minimal downtime due to jams, skews, piggybacks, feeder errors or foreign items interfering with scanner functions. Documents must also be oriented correctly and batched in the right jobs.
Without proper document preparation, operators must correct problems at scan time, significantly reducing throughput. What's more, poor document prep is likely to cause errors on the scanners. Similarly, if staples are not removed, chances are that documents will not be batched correctly.
By auditing its operations, one ibml user determined that scanning its small documents individually would significantly reduce its document preparation time, while increasing scanner throughput. The review also showed that the customer needed a person to back up the operator of its two scanners; the extra person, who removes documents before the feeder tray empties and conducts quick "eyeball" quality assurance tests, has helped eliminate the idle time that previously dogged the customer.
Do Your Best
Well trained and experienced operators also are vital to the scanning process.
An operator who has been running the scanner for a period of time can pick up short cuts that help to minimize downtime from jams, and decrease the amount of time changing from one job to another. For instance, in the event of a jam, experienced operators can identify the last item scanned and pocketed correctly, without having to use a jam recovery wizard. This speeds recovery times.
Conversely, it takes less experienced staff longer to recover from jams and more time to pick up and hand feed documents that need to be scanned. They are more tentative, which slows things down.
As a result of a comprehensive review of its operations, one ibml customer found that it needed to temporarily send someone from its seasoned day shift crew to its night shift to transfer knowledge.
Leave No Trace
Scanner maintenance is absolutely critical to the scanning process.
An operation can have perfectly prepped documents and well-seasoned operators, but if maintenance is not performed properly, and frequently, its scanner will not operate effectively. It is important that maintenance is performed prior to each shift. This includes cleaning the feed tires and reverse belts, making sure the ink jet cartridge is not gummed up and sprays properly, and seeing that all sensors are clear of dust and paper debris. Operators should also record when belts and tires are changed.
Less experienced operators may forget critical steps that seasoned staff know intuitively: how to put belts on the scanner's reverse-belt assemblies or how to put tire assemblies together, as examples.
Through an operations audit, an ibml customer found that operators were placing open drink containers on top of its scanners, where they could spill and damage the machines. The audit also determined that the customer should move trash cans that were placed near the scanner's pocket frame, to avoid accidentally tossing dropped documents -- a hazard to document integrity.
The Payoff
Conducting a regular operations audit can pay big dividends. In the case of one ibml user, a service bureau, the remedies it implemented after an audit resulted in a 60 percent increase in throughput and a 25 percent reduction in jams. Those cost-saving benefits can have a significant bottom line impact.
The key is remembering that your operations requirements won't stop changing just because you implemented new technology. In other words, don't believe everything you see on late-night TV.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
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