Imaging shifts emphasis to workflow management; document imaging systems promise productivity, and opportunity for "business process design" - includes related article on image processing storage requirements

Software Magazine, Nov, 1991 by Herbert A. Edelstein

Corporate America's huge investment in personal computers has done little to improve white-collar productivity. Yet, there is still hope. Because of the improved technology and increasing affordability of document image management systems, more companies are venturing into this area. Modern imaging technology allows a bit-mapped image of a document to be captured, stored and made available within a database. The image can then be retrieved and distributed for processing.

This new way of handling documents is causing a "paradigm shift from data management to work management," according to Joe Carter, the partner responsible for the imaging practice at Andersen Consulting in Chicago. Allan Harris, an imaging partner with Ernst & Young in New York City, said that companies are not only changing what moves, but how it moves.

Contributing to the growing popularity of document image management are decreased hardware costs and the standardization of interfaces between components. This has resulted in a move away from proprietary hardware, and toward general-purpose hardware in combination with imaging software.

For example, Wang Labs of Lowell, Mass., has emphasized its Open/Image system that allow users to build applications running on IBM mainframes, PCs and local-area networks (LANs), as well as Wang's own VS machines. FileNet of Costa Mesa, Calif., has brought the latest version of its Workflo (a high-level language for building workflow applications) to the PC running under MS-DOS and MS-Windows.

Imaging software, meanwhile, has grown to deliver a multitude of benefits that result in lower costs and higher revenue. The first benefit is better document access. Since documents are stored electronically and retrieved based on values of key fields, they may be retrieved very quickly. Documents stored online using optical or magnetic disk can be retrieved virtually instantaneously, and those on jukeboxes (what is sometimes termed "near online") can be retrieved in under a minute. This contrasts with waiting minutes to hours to retrieve a file from a file cabinet, or up to days to retrieve a file that has been archived in a warehouse.

Furthermore, content-based retrieval means that a file can be accessed in different ways, such as by case number, date or type, without creating multiple copies. Documents such as contracts can be stored as both text and image, and retrieved based on any word or combination of words. And because the file is like any other computer record, it can be accessed concurrently by multiple people.

A second major benefit is vastly improved document integrity. Since the file is now stored electronically, it is unlikely to get lost or physically damaged. Additionally, it is easy to create backups and store them offsite for added security.

Reduction in the amount of paper used is a third major benefit. Fewer paper copies are needed since the document can be stored electronically. The physical space for paper is also greatly reduced, because a single 5-1/4-inch optical disk holds images equivalent to all the papers stored in a four-drawer file cabinet.

STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL

The basic application of imaging technology in business today is to store and retrieve images of documents. For example, the British Petroleum Exploration in Houston is using the Mars product, from Micro Dynamics, Silver Spring, Md., on a network of 86 Apple Macintosh workstations connected to a jukebox that stores a number of optical disks. According to Doris Hughes, manager of information resources at BP, Mars is being used in the account payable, human resources and materials management areas. Hughes said the firm started with a pilot because they wanted to make sure that users would buy into the new technology. The users accepted the technology and were pleased with it, she said.

Hughes also said cost justification was easy because of the short payback period. Tangible savings from eliminating microfilm, reducing headcount and saving storage space resulted in payback within 18 months. When intangibles such as better response, improved security and fewer lost documents are added in, she said that the payback period was under one year.

However, the biggest payoff comes from using images to manage workflow. Workflow processing actively routes documents through a system, based on rules that reflect the decision criteria for processing the documents. Instead of an "in-basket," logical queues of documents are established. This results in streamlined processing of documents, speedier distribution requiring fewer people, and more productivity from the people who process cases.

One example of this approach is a project that consulting firm American Management Systems (AMS) in Arlington, Va., did for the Veterans' Administration. The VA needed to process claims for benefits under the new GI Education bill. AMS built an imaging system using FileNet in which all incoming documents (about 1,500 per day) are scanned into the system when received. They are indexed by the claim number, name, form type and scan date, and all documents for the same case are grouped together.