Data Capture + Process Outsourcing = Business Efficiency & Profits
The term "Data Capture" covers the combined processes of document preparation, scanning, data extraction or OCR, and output to an appropriate format for subsequent processing or archival storage.
For 20 years or more, capture has been the entry point for document store-and-retrieve systems and increasingly, for Business Process Management (BPM), where data extraction from the document is used to feed a downstream business process such as medical EOB's, invoice approval, or claims management.
During this time, an increasing number of organizations transitioned from basic scanning of paper documents for archive to the more sophisticated upfront data capture of multi-format content as input to business processes. Strong ROI's from these scanning and data capture projects have been realized that include process improvement, workforce reduction and increased profits.
When BPM takes on broader and deeper aspects in the sense of integration with other enterprise applications such as populating transactional databases, integrating clerical processes such as customer service and claims processing, while providing a single point of interface for all users, significant achievements in efficiency and productivity are also realized.
Unfortunately, too many organizations lack awareness of the possibilities of BPM. Difficulties in integration with other systems and time taken to map processes are frequently cited as the biggest technical obstacles to implementing a capture and BPM project. Outsourcing these capabilities to a qualified solution/services partner can overcome this resistance and satisfy a growing, recession-era demand to streamline costs through operations and labor consolidation. Recent research from AIIM validates these points, providing the below list of business drivers when document and records management are considered:
- Improve efficiency
- Optimize business processes
- Compliance
- Reduce costs
- Mitigate risk
- Enable collaboration
- Improve customer service
- Faster turnaround/improved response
- Competitive advantage
The primary driver for a Business Process Management (BPM) investment continues to be cost reduction and improved business process. BPM is a business management process that might utilize a number of dedicated labor, processes and software tools to achieve a desire result. For example, a third of organizations automatically capture data within documents for routing or auto-indexing, although less that 25% are currently utilizing captured and/or OCR data as part of the business process itself.
DISC has more than five decades of hands-on experience in eliminating both paper and paper-based processes. We solve document management problems. Many of our earliest document solutions are still in use at our client sites, and DISC continues to help customers refine their business imaging strategies as well as understand the hidden effects that paper has on its business. By integrating document imaging and data capture into its overall document management strategy, DISC has helped countless clients in a wide variety of industries use document imaging to increase productivity, reduce costs and become more efficient.