First a clear idea of what document imaging means needs to be developed. It's not just scanning a paper document to create its digital image. Document imaging is just beginning of a much bigger endeavor.
Content on paper documents have severe limitations. To make the content available elsewhere, you have to either send the original to that other place, or make a copy and send the copy. Both involve time and costs.
Document imaging creates a digital copy of the document. The digital image is in a graphic format and computers won't yet be able to read the text characters in the image. So, you use character recognition tools like OCR (Optical Character recognition) and ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition) to make the text characters machine-readable.
Once the text is in a machine-readable format, it can be indexed to make the documents retrievable extremely fast. Indexing can achieve retrieval speeds of a few seconds even if the document repository contains millions of documents.
The content of the original paper document has now become electronic content. So now what?
Electronic content is retrievable, distributable, secure, confidential, and safe.
As already mentioned, indexing makes a particular document retrievable in seconds, from among a million or more documents. And it's retrievable by you from your computer workstation, and not by a filing clerk in a distant file room.
Content stored in a central repository connected to a network, such as an intranet or extranet, is accessible by anyone connected to the network. This can be a staff member at the other end of the world, or on the road, as well as staff located in other departments and offices on the same premises. Thus electronic content is distributable all across the enterprise.
The content is secure because access to it can be restricted through the use of access rights, read/write permissions, firewalls, and other barriers. In this way, only authorized persons have access to business information.
The access restrictions also help maintain confidentiality. Paper documents can get into the hands of unauthorized persons even if the authorized person currently responsible for it exercises reasonable care. Such unauthorized access is much more difficult in the case of electronic content.
Electronic content is safe from dangers such as humidity, pests, etc. While fire, floods, and an earthquake can destroy the electronic content repositories also, this can be foreseen and backups can be stored in a distant location, or on the Web. In such a case, the backup can be used to reconstruct the content.
Consider the earlier environment of a paper-based system. Paper documents require sorting and filing in correct folders (which would have to be retrieved from filing cabinets) and then put back into the filing cabinets from where they came.
When the filing section receives a request for a particular document, the clerk responsible must identify the particular folder in which it resides and the particular filing cabinet that contains the folder. The person then goes to the cabinet, obtains the folder, and locates the document.
When the document (or folder) is returned, the above process is repeated with only slight changes.
The physical movements and frequent handling can damage the documents and folders. Dog-eared folders bulging with documents are a common sight in these traditional environments.
A misfiled document is not likely to be found in a large filing room filled with a hundred or more filing cabinets.
A document imaging system changes the whole scenario dramatically. Once the image has been captured and stored safely, most paper documents can be shredded. Only those documents that need to be preserved under some law or for litigation purposes have to be preserved. This translates into savings on file folders, filing cabinets, and filing clerk salaries.
Speedier business processes, better-informed business decisions, lower costs, and distributed accessibility all contribute to demonstrably better business results in an environment where electronic content has replaced paper documents.
