Capture Rides Again

Today, Apr 2004 by Weissman, Steve

Problems in a Town Called "Bottleneck"

Many of us face a dynamic every day when we go to work: all we want to do is gather information from there, utilize it here, and then store it over yonder until the next time we need it.

In the classic Western, "Destry Rides Again," Jimmy Stewart comes to the rescue of a corruption-ridden town and frees it from the tyranny of the unscrupulous Brian Donlevy. The film features a time-honored plot that has been copied many times and continues to resonate with audiences of all ages because we are all too familiar with the conflict at the story's center-forces beyond our control often do complicate our lives, and when they do, we seek to be rescued from the conflicts and frustrations they engender.

The movie, of course, focuses on the personal lives of the good people of the beleaguered town in. But in the real world if the technology we use somehow suddenly refuses to cooperate, our peace of mind is quickly shattered and our freedom of activity is quickly restricted. In such a case, we are held hostage by our system in the same way our cinematic cousins are by their nemesis. Too much of a metaphorical stretch for you? Then consider this: the town in the movie is called Bottleneck and that is exactly what we get when our computing solutions get in the way!

A "BACK TO BASICS" RESPONSE

This is never more true than it is in the realm of capture, which sits right at the start of most business processes and therefore exerts a major influence on overall efficiency. Recognizing this, many organizations are paying considerable mind to facilitating their ability to gather information from there and seamlessly push it on to here and then through the rest of the process. As a result - and helped in no small part by a "back to basics" mentality stemming from the recent economic slowdown - capture is enjoying a resurgence that is the envy of most other computing sectors. (Just ask the folks at companies like Captiva and Kofax, who have reported double-digit growth and then some in their most recent earnings releases, and at Cardiff, which was just acquired by Verity.)

In truth, capture never really went away, for savvy organizations have always understood that it sits at the beginning of the process, not the end, and have afforded it the strategic attention it deserves. As a "necessary evil," it did spend some time in the shadows of such hyperidden technologies as portals and any number of dot-com offerings. But now that comptrollers, CIOs, and other managers are so determined to control costs and "do more with less," capture is beginning to be viewed more widely as an important operational component, and not a mere collection of input devices and indexing packages.

Viewing capture in a more strategic light means that certain fundamental decisions can be made with a full appreciation of the impact capture is likely to have on the overall business process, and the ability to keep bottlenecks from forming early in the process flow. For instance, should the capture operation be centralized or distributed? The answer of course is, "it depends", for every organization must make the decision that suits it best. But the questions that support that decision are fairly clear-cut, especially if a properly holistic view of time and resources is maintained: What volume of input needs to be handled? Are there any physical security and/or access control requirements associated with the input process? Are there labor cost reductions or time savings to be had by spreading the process over multiple geographies? Into which systems must the captured information be entered? For what reason is the information being captured, and what result is to be achieved by the application of capture technology?

MAXIMIZING TOTAL VALUE

In nearly all cases, the answers lead to the technology alternative that allows organizations to maximize the total value of their capture investment. Kinetic Information research consistently shows that in this context, as in all other IT settings, the notion of value extends far beyond mere dollars and cents and embraces two other critical measures as well: the ability to help people to work better, and to work better together. Because capture sits at the very beginning of most work flows, these additional objectives are especially important, for capture's ability to facilitate processes and enhance collaboration dramatically affects everything that comes thereafter. (One major snag here can seriously derail everything that follows...just as every boost to efficiency can catalyze new levels of effectiveness everywhere else.)

Obtaining maximum total value requires generating and then balancing all three types of business benefit, an exercise Kinetic Information has codified in its methodology of MaxTV, and engaging in the following essential tasks:

* Reconciling and integrating data that is captured directly or incorporated from other systems.

* Delivering this data to the user in the appropriate context.