ibml Business Solution Consultant Curtis Williams sees an alligator up-close at Celebration, Florida, during downtime at last week's Fusion conference.
Showing posts with label IBML. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IBML. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The alligator and the vendor
Posted by Mark Brousseau
ibml Business Solution Consultant Curtis Williams sees an alligator up-close at Celebration, Florida, during downtime at last week's Fusion conference.
ibml Business Solution Consultant Curtis Williams sees an alligator up-close at Celebration, Florida, during downtime at last week's Fusion conference.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
ibml's booth at ARMA 2010
ibml's booth at ARMA 2010 this week in San Francisco. ibml was demonstrating its ImageTrac Lite scanner at the conference.
Friday, October 1, 2010
ICD-10, EHRs Take Center Stage at AHIMA
Posted by Mark Brousseau
AHIMA's 82nd Annual Conference and Exhibit, held this week at the Gaylord Palms Hotel and Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, may not have featured "Earth-shattering new products" or "game-changing players," but it did have something that made exhibitors smile: better booth traffic.
"I can't say that I saw any new products at AHIMA," says exhibitor Greg Lusch (glusch@ibml.com), ibml's (www.ibml.com) business development manager for healthcare. But attendance at the event -- which draws coders, transcriptionists and other medical records professionals -- was noticeably higher than in recent years, Lusch adds, resulting in a steady stream of potential buyers visiting the Birmingham, Alabama-based company's booth. He attributes the increased buying interest to the "loosening economy" and strong demand for ICD-10 and electronic health records (EHR) solutions.
"There was a sense among the exhibitors that attendees had a little more money to spend," he says.
If the AHIMA conference is any indication, healthcare providers will spend a lot of that money on ICD-10 initiatives. In 2013, the U.S. healthcare system will transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 as the HIPAA mandated code set for medical symptoms and procedures. This code set is used for billing and health insurance reimbursement, as well as statistical analysis, clinical, epidemiological and quality reporting. As a result of this transition, Lusch notes that the number of diagnosis codes will swell from 13,000 to 68,000, while the number of procedure codes will soar from 3,000 to 87,000.
"ICD-10 was by far the hottest topic at AHIMA," Lusch says. "Many attendees were there to better understand how to deal with ICD-10; how to make the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10, what tools and updates were available to help streamline the process, and, in many cases, to find third-party services to help them figure it all out. Clearly, this was a major area of focus for AHIMA attendees."
The other area of focus for many AHIMA attendees was the conversion to EHRs. Lusch notes that in addition to hospitals and large practices -- which have been showing increasing interest in EHR solutions at conferences throughout the year -- a number of service bureaus were at AHIMA sizing up the potential opportunity, looking for EHR solutions of their own, or offering conversion services. "There is no question that more service bureaus are jumping on the EHR bandwagon, offering to scan medical records on behalf of healthcare providers. They clearly believe there is a lot of scanning business out there."
Interestingly, Lusch noted that many of the large EHR solutions vendors did not exhibit at AHIMA.
Noticeably absent from most of the exhibit hall banter was any talk of health reform. That's not to say that it didn't come up during some sessions. But Lusch thinks AHIMA attendees were "too consumed" with the major tasks of ICD-10 and EHRs to focus on the uncertainties of reform.
AHIMA's 82nd Annual Conference and Exhibit, held this week at the Gaylord Palms Hotel and Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, may not have featured "Earth-shattering new products" or "game-changing players," but it did have something that made exhibitors smile: better booth traffic.
"I can't say that I saw any new products at AHIMA," says exhibitor Greg Lusch (glusch@ibml.com), ibml's (www.ibml.com) business development manager for healthcare. But attendance at the event -- which draws coders, transcriptionists and other medical records professionals -- was noticeably higher than in recent years, Lusch adds, resulting in a steady stream of potential buyers visiting the Birmingham, Alabama-based company's booth. He attributes the increased buying interest to the "loosening economy" and strong demand for ICD-10 and electronic health records (EHR) solutions.
"There was a sense among the exhibitors that attendees had a little more money to spend," he says.
If the AHIMA conference is any indication, healthcare providers will spend a lot of that money on ICD-10 initiatives. In 2013, the U.S. healthcare system will transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 as the HIPAA mandated code set for medical symptoms and procedures. This code set is used for billing and health insurance reimbursement, as well as statistical analysis, clinical, epidemiological and quality reporting. As a result of this transition, Lusch notes that the number of diagnosis codes will swell from 13,000 to 68,000, while the number of procedure codes will soar from 3,000 to 87,000.
"ICD-10 was by far the hottest topic at AHIMA," Lusch says. "Many attendees were there to better understand how to deal with ICD-10; how to make the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10, what tools and updates were available to help streamline the process, and, in many cases, to find third-party services to help them figure it all out. Clearly, this was a major area of focus for AHIMA attendees."
The other area of focus for many AHIMA attendees was the conversion to EHRs. Lusch notes that in addition to hospitals and large practices -- which have been showing increasing interest in EHR solutions at conferences throughout the year -- a number of service bureaus were at AHIMA sizing up the potential opportunity, looking for EHR solutions of their own, or offering conversion services. "There is no question that more service bureaus are jumping on the EHR bandwagon, offering to scan medical records on behalf of healthcare providers. They clearly believe there is a lot of scanning business out there."
Interestingly, Lusch noted that many of the large EHR solutions vendors did not exhibit at AHIMA.
Noticeably absent from most of the exhibit hall banter was any talk of health reform. That's not to say that it didn't come up during some sessions. But Lusch thinks AHIMA attendees were "too consumed" with the major tasks of ICD-10 and EHRs to focus on the uncertainties of reform.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Scanner Demonstration Video
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Below is a link to a brand new video demonstrating ibml's scanners.
http://www.ibml.com/demovideo.php
Below is a link to a brand new video demonstrating ibml's scanners.
http://www.ibml.com/demovideo.php
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Optimizing document scanning
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?
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?
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Improving content management
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Thinking outside the box can help organizations improve payback on their enterprise content management (ECM) solutions. Jim Bunn of ibml (jbunn@ibml.com) explains:
Great minds think alike. But, when it comes to enterprise content management (ECM) solutions, like minds can be a problem. If every organization approaches its ECM deployment the same way, using the same out-of-the-box technologies and the same old workflows, then creating exceptional results is going to be extremely difficult. The problem is compounded by the fact that many organizations don't have a thorough, in-depth understanding of their own business processes. The more a company thinks that its operations are just like any other, the more difficult it becomes to achieve new efficiencies.
To maximize payback on their ECM investments, organizations need to think outside the box by ignoring the industry groupthink and focusing on their own needs and objectives.
Starting with a clean slate
Long before they agree to their first meeting with an ECM vendor, organizations should get a handle on their operations requirements and business objectives. Additionally, they should understand all of the document types that pass through their operations and their data capture needs. Be warned: this process can be time-consuming. It will also be eye-opening. Upon closer inspection, some of your legacy processes are sure to elicit groans. But, there's nothing worse for an ECM business case than forcing inefficient manual processes into an automated workflow.
Deploying an ECM solution provides an opportunity to re-engineer business processes and eliminate some altogether. For example, take a hard look at every manual step in document preparation or image capture; start by measuring how long it takes for documents to be scanned after they have entered your company. This step will have the added benefit of allowing you to look for ROI/cost savings in your end-to-end document flow. Also, consider soliciting input from the different departments that are associated with a specific process to learn their information needs and any downstream exceptions they are seeing.
When you are researching your ECM needs, resist the temptation to cede control to your company's IT department. No one knows your business requirements better than you. Work collaboratively with IT to define system workflows to ensure that the deployed solution will meet your needs. For instance, an IT programmer is unlikely to know whether a specific work type should be routed to an individual's work queue (possibly for security/privacy reasons) or to a common operator queue. Some business users accompany their IT staff for technical training classes provided by vendors just so they know what the software is capable of. Then, they can better communicate their needs.
Think big. By definition, ECM solutions help bring down data silos and bridge information gaps. So, when you are developing your ECM initiatives, think beyond one department's needs. The combination of new integration tools and emerging technologies allows organizations to make information available to whoever needs it, quickly and securely, regardless of their location. To this end, it may make sense to leverage imaging, data capture and workflow investments to develop a shared services infrastructure where one department manages document processing for others.
Similarly, map out how documents currently enter your organization -- and who is touching them -- to determine if the information flow can be streamlined. Don't assume that distributed capture is the most efficient means of scanning documents. Many organizations are surprised by the "hidden costs" of distributed capture. Likewise, a completely centralized scanning operation may miss opportunities to expedite information capture and handling. What's important is that organizations look for a flexible scanning infrastructure with centrally managed control and reporting capabilities. In some cases, you may be able to integrate electronic forms into your automated workflow. These solutions can significantly reduce manual processing, forwarding only exceptions to operators for review.
Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate
Once you have automated your document processes, evaluate how you are doing. And then evaluate the process again. And again. It's not uncommon for business requirements (volumes, document design, etc.) to change soon after a new system is implemented. You want to be sure your ECM solution adapts as well. Consider using centralized reporting or analytics tools, real-time operations dashboards or periodic operations audits to ensure your ECM solution is still meeting your needs.
You may also want to adapt your compensation plan to reward employees for productivity and quality in the new automated document environment. Similarly, consider embracing flexible work hours -- to save labor costs and attract Blue Chip talent -- based on the needs of your operations.
With budget-strapped organizations fearful of making a misstep in new system implementations, it's easy to see how they become locked into a myopic way of seeing ECM deployments. But, that makes it hard to spot new efficiencies and pounce on opportunities for business process improvements.
The key to maximizing ECM payback is to think outside the box.
What do you think?
Thinking outside the box can help organizations improve payback on their enterprise content management (ECM) solutions. Jim Bunn of ibml (jbunn@ibml.com) explains:
Great minds think alike. But, when it comes to enterprise content management (ECM) solutions, like minds can be a problem. If every organization approaches its ECM deployment the same way, using the same out-of-the-box technologies and the same old workflows, then creating exceptional results is going to be extremely difficult. The problem is compounded by the fact that many organizations don't have a thorough, in-depth understanding of their own business processes. The more a company thinks that its operations are just like any other, the more difficult it becomes to achieve new efficiencies.
To maximize payback on their ECM investments, organizations need to think outside the box by ignoring the industry groupthink and focusing on their own needs and objectives.
Starting with a clean slate
Long before they agree to their first meeting with an ECM vendor, organizations should get a handle on their operations requirements and business objectives. Additionally, they should understand all of the document types that pass through their operations and their data capture needs. Be warned: this process can be time-consuming. It will also be eye-opening. Upon closer inspection, some of your legacy processes are sure to elicit groans. But, there's nothing worse for an ECM business case than forcing inefficient manual processes into an automated workflow.
Deploying an ECM solution provides an opportunity to re-engineer business processes and eliminate some altogether. For example, take a hard look at every manual step in document preparation or image capture; start by measuring how long it takes for documents to be scanned after they have entered your company. This step will have the added benefit of allowing you to look for ROI/cost savings in your end-to-end document flow. Also, consider soliciting input from the different departments that are associated with a specific process to learn their information needs and any downstream exceptions they are seeing.
When you are researching your ECM needs, resist the temptation to cede control to your company's IT department. No one knows your business requirements better than you. Work collaboratively with IT to define system workflows to ensure that the deployed solution will meet your needs. For instance, an IT programmer is unlikely to know whether a specific work type should be routed to an individual's work queue (possibly for security/privacy reasons) or to a common operator queue. Some business users accompany their IT staff for technical training classes provided by vendors just so they know what the software is capable of. Then, they can better communicate their needs.
Think big. By definition, ECM solutions help bring down data silos and bridge information gaps. So, when you are developing your ECM initiatives, think beyond one department's needs. The combination of new integration tools and emerging technologies allows organizations to make information available to whoever needs it, quickly and securely, regardless of their location. To this end, it may make sense to leverage imaging, data capture and workflow investments to develop a shared services infrastructure where one department manages document processing for others.
Similarly, map out how documents currently enter your organization -- and who is touching them -- to determine if the information flow can be streamlined. Don't assume that distributed capture is the most efficient means of scanning documents. Many organizations are surprised by the "hidden costs" of distributed capture. Likewise, a completely centralized scanning operation may miss opportunities to expedite information capture and handling. What's important is that organizations look for a flexible scanning infrastructure with centrally managed control and reporting capabilities. In some cases, you may be able to integrate electronic forms into your automated workflow. These solutions can significantly reduce manual processing, forwarding only exceptions to operators for review.
Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate
Once you have automated your document processes, evaluate how you are doing. And then evaluate the process again. And again. It's not uncommon for business requirements (volumes, document design, etc.) to change soon after a new system is implemented. You want to be sure your ECM solution adapts as well. Consider using centralized reporting or analytics tools, real-time operations dashboards or periodic operations audits to ensure your ECM solution is still meeting your needs.
You may also want to adapt your compensation plan to reward employees for productivity and quality in the new automated document environment. Similarly, consider embracing flexible work hours -- to save labor costs and attract Blue Chip talent -- based on the needs of your operations.
With budget-strapped organizations fearful of making a misstep in new system implementations, it's easy to see how they become locked into a myopic way of seeing ECM deployments. But, that makes it hard to spot new efficiencies and pounce on opportunities for business process improvements.
The key to maximizing ECM payback is to think outside the box.
What do you think?
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
TAWPI @ AIIM
TAWPI Vice President of Sales Jason Glass greets Debby Kristofco, director of corporate communications and events, ibml, this afternoon at info 360 -- AIIM international's exposition + conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.
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.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ibml Assists Habitat for Humanity
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Last weekend, about 100 ibml employees assisted in the construction of a home for a deserving family in Birmingham, AL. ibml worked in concert with Habitat for Humanity, ABC 33/40 and other Central Alabama businesses.
Led by a Habitat Construction Supervisor, ibml employees assisted with construction tasks on a home for Tiffani Whitehead and her three children: Darion (age 10), DeVaunte (7) and Tahlia (4). Both boys attend Powderly Elementary School, where they have competed in the Math Derby several times. Tahlia, who is very "girly," enjoys lip gloss and fingernail polish. Tiffani has been employed as a customer service coordinator for BBVA Compass Bank for the past five years. The family attends New Pilgrim Baptist Church in Titusville, AL.
A global company headquartered in Birmingham, ibml has approximately 125 employees in the city.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Convergence Still A Hot Topic
By Mark Brousseau
The convergence of payments and document automation was a hot topic at last week’s TAWPI Forums & Expo in Orlando. During a meeting of TAWPI’s Payments Capture and Clearing (PCC) Council, panelists Jim Bunn of IBML, Bo Minogue of Mavro Imaging, and John Kincade of J&B Software, offered the following tips for ensuring that a payments and document automation initiative delivers the greatest return on investment.
… Before purchasing or implementing any new technology, thoroughly review the way your operations currently do things, to avoid automating bad business processes and work rules. You want to re-engineer process flows to eliminate as many hand-offs as possible, Kincade said. And you don’t want to stop the process flow for exceptions handling.
… Be sure to benchmark and measure the throughput of every process. Minogue said organizations could do this through the use of simulation software that compares current and proposed processes. Modeling the impact of various processing scenarios helps organizations make workflow changes that deliver the most payback. And don’t put the cart before the horse: organizations should never select a technology solution until they have considered potential process improvements.
… Look at document and payments automation from an enterprise level, rather than from a departmental or process perspective. Organizations can achieve significantly higher payback by implementing solutions that reach across an enterprise, Bunn noted. Ideally, payments and document automation solutions would also link the front and back office, but Bunn said this typically is not happening.
Do you have tips for automating payments and document processing applications?
Post them below.
The convergence of payments and document automation was a hot topic at last week’s TAWPI Forums & Expo in Orlando. During a meeting of TAWPI’s Payments Capture and Clearing (PCC) Council, panelists Jim Bunn of IBML, Bo Minogue of Mavro Imaging, and John Kincade of J&B Software, offered the following tips for ensuring that a payments and document automation initiative delivers the greatest return on investment.
… Before purchasing or implementing any new technology, thoroughly review the way your operations currently do things, to avoid automating bad business processes and work rules. You want to re-engineer process flows to eliminate as many hand-offs as possible, Kincade said. And you don’t want to stop the process flow for exceptions handling.
… Be sure to benchmark and measure the throughput of every process. Minogue said organizations could do this through the use of simulation software that compares current and proposed processes. Modeling the impact of various processing scenarios helps organizations make workflow changes that deliver the most payback. And don’t put the cart before the horse: organizations should never select a technology solution until they have considered potential process improvements.
… Look at document and payments automation from an enterprise level, rather than from a departmental or process perspective. Organizations can achieve significantly higher payback by implementing solutions that reach across an enterprise, Bunn noted. Ideally, payments and document automation solutions would also link the front and back office, but Bunn said this typically is not happening.
Do you have tips for automating payments and document processing applications?
Post them below.
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