Imaging Needs: From The Simple To The ComplexImaging Needs: From The Simple To The Complex

The imaging market can be divided into four main segments.

Many companies have small and simple imaging needs that can be served by workgroup or departmental capture, with the primary goal of reducing paper. They require minimal indexing or other processing and minimal incorporation into downstream business processes. Typical applications include capture-to-file systems, E-mail folders, or repositories for simple search and retrieval for compliance or customer service.

Recently, early adopters have started decentralizing these imaging applications. These scenarios consist primarily of distributed contributors, each capturing low volumes of documents, and are focused on reducing paper and manual processing associated with mail, shipping, or faxes. Typical applications include simple invoice processing and related document processing, such as accounts payable for a trucking company for which each delivery results in tickets and signed receipts that the driver can capture and send to the central office.

Other companies have small, but complex, needs. Those applications consist primarily of workgroup or departmental capture and are focused on quickly incorporating the information contained in documents into complex, high-value business applications. Critical factors include the value of the information for the business process and the overall value of the business process itself, both of which require that the information be quickly incorporated into the downstream workflows and processes.

The complexity and importance of this information typically requires manual indexing by experts, visual quality assurance, filtering to designated workflows, and notification or confirmation upon delivery of images to downstream systems. Warranty registration applications, which are typically configured for centralized scanning and processing, are a good example of this type of application. Since all the warranty cards come into one location, it makes sense to centralize the scanning in the mail room where the registration cards are received.

The recent trend, however, is to decentralize small, complex applications. These scenarios consist primarily of distributed contributors, each capturing low volumes of documents. As in the previous example, the critical factors here include the value of the information for the business process and the overall value of the business process itself. Examples of this type of application include customer service, customer enrollment, claims processing, and mortgage loan processing. In the mortgage example, for instance, loan documents are typically created at branch banks, and it makes sense to scan the documents at each branch, sending only the scanned images to the bank's central workflow process for approval and forwarding.

Other companies have simple imaging needs that have the same characteristics as the small and simple category above--for file systems, E-mail folders, or a repository for simple search and retrieval--but they're marked by large volumes, for regulatory compliance or customer service.

Some businesses have begun to decentralize their big and simple applications by having many distributed contributors focused on reducing paper and manual processing of documents related to mail, shipping, or faxes.

The fourth category involves big and complex requirements. Applications for these needs consist primarily of capture, processing, and routing at a single site, and focus on quickly incorporating the information contained in documents into complex, high-value business applications. Critical factors include the value of the information to the business process and the overall value of the business process itself. Typical big and complex imaging applications that are centralized include most large-scale mail-room processing, where documents to be processed originate from external senders rather than through the mediation of a remote internal site.

These applications may also include mixed configurations of decentralized and centralized capture and processing. Typical applications include customer service, customer enrollment, claims processing, and mortgage loan processing.

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Illustratiuon by Leo Espinosa