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Document Imaging (DI), and it's effectiveness resulting in any company's Return on Investment (ROI)Document Imaging (DI), and it's effectiveness resulting in any company's Return on Investment (ROI)
Document Management through Imaging Introduction
Costs of a technology solution are fundamental in determining whether the solution is feasible. While document imaging technology is not as inexpensive as some would like, the costs are not nearly as high as they may seem at first blush. By the end of this discussion we hope you will be able to determine your Return on Investment (ROI) and be able to understand whether your organization can profit from imaging. In the preparation of this discussion, a resource booklet prepared by David Black for the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) has been instrumental and ARMA.org is also a great resource.
The problem with calculating the cost of a document image capture system is that a great deal depends on exactly how much paper you have, how quickly it must be processed, your budget etc.
Many texts that are out there describe in detail how to perform predictive and post-hoc cost calculations. It would serve no purpose to summarize the information here. Therefore, the material in this discussion will focus on the items not likely to be included in a general text.
Calculations may change as this article ages. The following examples will show how to do the calculations.
The costs of scanning, labor, QC (quality control), document preparation, indexing, managing the data; can be calculated by applying general costing principles. The capital costs are projected over time and then depreciated. Maintenance is added in. Real estate and general overhead is added. Labor rates are applied; management, administrative, and overhead costs are added in. Document capture takes all of this into consideration.
Costs calculated in this manner become interesting and decisive when we break them down to per-document and per-page numbers. We are then able to see what matters: is the cost of the scanner significant, or is it the labor to operate it that counts? If the scanner cost dominates, we should get an inexpensive one and make up for its deficiencies by hard work; if labor cost dominates, we should get the best scanner we can in order to make the best use of expensive labor. It is the purpose of this discussion to illustrate how to answer these questions and other similar ones, given particular sets of rates and costs.
Cost/Benefit Analysis
Scanning The analysis of scanning costs, using either digital scanning or capture onto microfilm, starts from the net throughput rate. The net rate (including re-scanning) is the rate that one operator can get through one machine per hour. We need to combine this rate with the labor rate and the "rent" on the machine per hour, calculated using standard measures as shown below. For example, we might find the following:
Sample Calculation Annual, machine cost ($20,000/3 years) $6,666 work hours per year, accounting for shifts if any, 1750 hours per year = hourly machine cost = $ hour + hourly burdened labor rate + $ hour = total hourly cost of scanning = $ hour pages scanned per hour @ 360 pages per hour = cost per page for scanning = $ per page for scanning
Using this example, a fifty-percent increase in scanner cost that doubled throughput would be interesting, since it would reduce the cost per page of scanning. You can also see that even if the scanner were free, scanning would still cost a couple cents per page due to the labor.
While raw scanner speed has an impact on the cost per page, the quality of the image enhancement performed by the scanner or by an attached image enhancement unit tends to be even more significant. The re-scan rate is particularly costly in terms of throughput. Re-scans are mostly due to poor image quality, which is avoided by good quality image enhancement. Fujitsu provides image processing cards to maximize throughput and image quality.
Document Indexing The costs associated with document indexing fall into these categories.
Planning Planning the index is a significant activity. Time to do it right should be included in any project planning. However, the cost of planning is typically insignificant compared to the cost of everything else; therefore, time and money spent planning normally is well spent. Users need to be consulted regarding how they currently find information and the electronic index must meet their retrieval needs without destroying their legacy filing system.
Input The process of creating the index is typically the most costly activity associated with indexing. Indexing can be a per page cost or per folder/file cost; all the pages in a file have the same index and can be read by scrolling through the electronic file. Quality Control is performed prior to assigning to disc.
Storage The index has to be stored somewhere, typically on magnetic disk (hard drive) or on a CD (CD ROM) itself. Magnetic discs cost money to buy, maintain and operate. Storage cost is normally trivial compared to input. However, because it is capital spent at the start of the process, this cost is often disproportionately visible.
Sample Calculation Annual, CPU cost ($3000/ 3 years) $1,000 / work hours per year, accounting for shifts if any / 1750 hours per year = hourly machine cost = $.57 / hour + hourly burdened labor rate + $10.00 / hour = total hourly cost of QC / indexing = $10.57 / hour / pages indexed per hour / 300 pages per hour = cost per page for indexing = $0.035 per page for indexing
Processing/Retrieval The computer processing can be significant for a large document collection. The processing takes place at the time a user request a document and the CD is loaded. Depending on the number of CDs it may be wise to consider a dedicated computer to handle the collection in a jukebox.
Maintenance There is regular maintenance including backup, space management, reorganization, etc. This category also includes the costs, planning and executing changes to the index structure.
Most of the indexing costs are not particular to document capture. However, since the actual index entry will in most cases form a significant part of the document capture cost, we will now go into it in a little detail.
The calculations for this category are in principle the same as for scanning; it is a question of taking capital costs, labor rates and throughputs and calculating a cost per document checked and indexed. We will assume a lower machine cost because a scanner is not required. Using the rate of twelve seconds per document (= 300 per hour) assuming each page of each document needs to be indexed, we have:
Hardware Storage Systems
This is a more difficult cost to predict. Calculating it accurately involves taking tiny pieces of much larger things, like the cost of the amount of host CPU time taken to perform database builds and CD writes. The process is typically performed without dedicated labor. Nonetheless, machine costs are involved, and a certain amount of administrative overhead as well. In some cases it is possible to lump all of these costs together into an overall per-document machine and overhead charge.
Let us start with the number that often gets the lion's share of the attention, the jukebox cost. Since it is a large capital expense, it is easy to understand why it attracts attention. However, as we shall see, it does not deserve nearly as much attention on a per page basis, which is the one that matters in the end.
Sample Calculation Lifetime cost of 150 discs jukebox = $25,300 Each disk = 0.650 GB or 650,000 KB Each Image = 50 KB So 650,000 / 50 KB = 16,000 images / platter So if 150 discs x 16,000 images = 2.5 Million images (or 97.5 GB) Cost / image for jukebox = $0.01 per image (25,300 / 2,500,000) If digital data Each CD = 300,000 pages (uncompressed) So 300,000 x 150 discs = 45,000,000 pages Cost per page = $0.0005 / page (25,300 / 45,000,000)
Particularly with large jukeboxes, you should avoid being misled by the mirage of low per-image costs. If it takes you five years to fill up a jukebox, perhaps you would be better off buying one with an apparently higher per-image cost but significantly lower dollar cost, and then buying the best available model in a couple of years when you need another. Since technology does advance and costs do come down, you should include the cost of money particularly in calculations regarding jukeboxes.
You may not need a jukebox. A CD ROM drive with its CD changed when required may suffice. If a drive or even a small jukebox is used for writing the images but not as its main repository for retrieval, the charge should not be made as shown above on the basis of number of images stored, but on the basis of the number of images that can be stored each year, independent of the number of discs involved.
It is relevant to find out the cost of the technology that competes with the optical disk jukebox, namely the filing cabinet. If one CD of images = 10
Office Real Estate
4-drawer cabinets, the cost of file cabinets is $300 x 10 = $3,000. Cost per year in space = $15.00 per square foot (each cabinet takes up to square feet) x 10 cabinets = $1,500. Cost of file covers extra, as well as the storage capability should be taken into account. The life cycle of a file cabinet is approximately 15 years or about $20 per year per cabinet. Cabinets can hold a lot of paper and so their storage costs are quite inexpensive.
Where the parity breaks down is in the non-capital costs. In order to hold all the pages (images) on CD 10 file cabinets would be required; if the pages are computer generated digital data (COM, COLD) with compression up to 3 GB of data can be held on one CD - don't ask me how many pages that is, it's a lot! Particularly in expensive areas, real estate costs alone become the dominating factor. Figure fifteen square feet for a file cabinet (you need enough room to open the drawers and walk past it). At $15 per square foot of space per year, that's $2250 for the space, far more than the cabinet itself costs.
Storage Media
Now let us return to CD storage. In addition to the jukebox, CD must be purchased to fill the shelves. Here is a sample calculation:
Sample Calculation Cost of a unit of media - CD $7.00 / number of images that will fit on it / 16,000 images (50 KB per image) = cost per image for media = $0.00043 per image
So even though $7.00 (or whatever the number is) is inexpensive for a CD it amounts to only about 4/10 thousandths of a cent per image. Not only is that significantly less than the cost of the jukebox per image, it is significantly less than the cost of printing the page on a laser printer or copying it on a copy machine. So media costs for document imaging tend to be negligible.
The hardware costs may be summed up as shown below. The only complication is the fact that database and other release operations are done on a per-document basis, while image storage is done on a per-image basis. Both need to be calculated and one translated into the other's terms. While the numbers here may not reflect your situation, a wide range of experience supports this conclusion.
Sample Calculation Scanning costs $0.034 + media costs + $0.00043 + index each page costs + $0.035 = cost to release and store documents - jukebox = $0.01 per image Total per image captured = $.07943
Ongoing costs of the jukebox and use of the system for retrieval and / or workflow purposes will not be covered here, since they are not part of the document capture process.
Summary of Cost/Benefit Analysis What happens when you put it all together?
Sample Calculation Capture cost $0.034 per page * average pages per document * 1.5 = $0.051 per document + QC / index cost + $0.035 per document + release cost + (0.01 per image * 1.5 images / doc = $0.015 per document) = total capture cost per document = $0.10 per document
For this example, our total cost amounts to about ten cents per document. Looking back at where this number came from, it is clear in the example (and in many practical cases) that each of the three major components, scanning, indexing and release, contribute significantly to the cost.
Going into more detail, we can get a feeling for how important the various components of this number are. Would having a jukebox with twice the capacity at the same cost have an impact? Of course it would be noticed, but the effect on the per-document cost might not be significant. The performance of the jukebox, for example, might have greater practical significance. Analyzing a system in this way can provide valuable information. It can guide you to direct your efforts to attain the best results.
There is another surprising conclusion that we can draw from our numbers, even though they are "cooked": filling up a jukebox with images costs significantly more than the jukebox itself! The tiny amounts of money and time we spend on each document, when multiplied by the large numbers of documents a jukebox will hold, typically add up to considerably more money than the acquisition of the jukebox.
The Price of Not Doing It
So far we have focused on what it costs to perform document capture. What is the price paid for NOT implementing a document imaging system and thus avoid the costs/benefits of document capture? We touched on this question when we calculated the cost of storing pages in normal file cabinets, but there is more to it.
You already receive and process a certain volume of paper. At least one person, usually more, touches every piece of paper. Every piece is "indexed" in some way, even if it is not explicit or thought of as being indexed. Every page is filed somewhere. The paper itself is a storage medium for images; in the absence of alternatives, we tend not to think of it in those terms, but that's what it is. The filing cabinets are like jukeboxes and these costs that can be strictly measured and compared.
After storage there are also strict parallels. There is a way of finding out what documents are available under a certain heading, if only by going to the relevant file cabinets and rifling through folders. There is a way of requesting documents, if only going and getting what you need yourself. There are costs associated with the time it takes to get something and with not being able to get what you need when you need it. "Instant" delivery of documents as sometimes promised by vendors may do you no good, but eventual delivery of the percentage which now can't be found at all is worth something.
The following example, while somewhat simplistic, illustrates the soft costs in looking for information. If an organization or department has 50 employees and each of them spend 15 minutes looking for information, then they, in total, spend 750 minutes or about 12.5 hours each day looking. If wages are paid at $15.00 per hour, this is cost of $187.50 per day. Any way these costs could be reduced is money well spent!
Given the wide variety of circumstances, reducing the cost of a manual system to formulas is a hopeless task. The point is that every organization has and is paying for some method of document capture and release, regardless of how automated it may be. When calculating costs, you should think in terms of a set of proposed changes to a (perhaps manual) document capture system, rather than a whole newfangled thing you never had before.
Document Management System: FAQ
1. Will it work with my existing equipment and software?
Alchemy and Smooth Solution's solution is Windows based including 3.1, 3.11, 95, NT. It will run on a 486 but of course faster is better! There are no special graphics requirements.
2. What is the capture and retrieval speed?
Alchemy will read 650 MB in 3 seconds or will read the index in less time than that and return the image very quickly to the user. Capture speed refers to the speed of the scanner, file drag and drop capabilities and the indexing requirements. Alchemy performs all of these functions very expertly and efficiently.
3. What features does it offer?
Once archived, the files can be printed, faxed, shared, imported; or you can launch the files' native application and work with a copy of the file while the original remains untouched on the CD.
4. Can it be expanded?
Expansion is only limited by the number of CD's you need. Security is at the network level and at the CD level.
5. How many levels of security?
Security at the folder level is planned for the next release Alchemy.
6. What type of service support and training are available?
Smooth Solutions, inc.... We are Fujitsu, IMR (Alchemy) and Value added re- sellers and we can help you with implementation and can also act as a service bureau to help convert your records to CD.
Implementation Issues Understanding the technology - it is best to read, ask and discover issues that are unique to your organization.
The need to build a business case. How big a problem is document management now? What information is most important to you and how often do you need to access it?
Document management represents change. It is critical to involve staff early on in the process in order to make the implementation easier and successful. Someone in the organization has to appreciate what the solution can do and then champion it to the rest of the organization.
This is not plug and pray technology. Good planning leads to successful implementation. It is important to work closely with your vendor who brings experience and expertise to the solution. Hope this helps. Kathy
-----Original Message----- From: Flores Richard [mailto:Richard.Flores@LifePointHospitals.com] Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 2:43 PM To: 'Kathy Land' Subject: RE: DI ROI
Yes.
-----Original Message----- From: Kathy Land [mailto:kathy@smoothsolutions.com] Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 1:30 PM To: Flores Richard Subject: RE: DI ROI
Document Management through Imaging Introduction
Costs of a technology solution are fundamental in determining whether the solution is feasible. While document imaging technology is not as inexpensive as some would like, the costs are not nearly as high as they may seem at first blush. By the end of this discussion we hope you will be able to determine your Return on Investment (ROI) and be able to understand whether your organization can profit from imaging. In the preparation of this discussion, a resource booklet prepared by David Black for the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) has been instrumental.
The problem with determining the cost of a document image capture system is that a great deal depends on exactly how much paper you have, how quickly it must be processed, and so on.
There are texts which describe in detail how to perform predictive and post-hoc cost calculations. It would serve no purpose to summarize the information here. Therefore, the material in this discussion will focus on the items not likely to be included in a general text.
The dollar figures used are intended to be realistic as of the time of writing, the purpose of using particular figures is simply to provide an example of how the calculations may be performed.
The costs of scanning, QC (quality control) / indexing, and release can be calculated by applying general costing principles. The capital costs are projected over time and depreciated. Maintenance is added in. Real estate and general overhead is added. Labor rates are applied; management, administrative, and overhead costs are added in. All of this is a quite straightforward application of general costing to the particulars of document capture.
Costs calculated in this manner become interesting and decisive when we break them down to per-document and per-page numbers. We are then able to see what matters: is the cost of the scanner significant, or is it the labor to operate it that counts? If the scanner cost dominates, we should get an inexpensive one and make up for its deficiencies by hard work; if labor cost dominates, we should get the best scanner we can in order to make the best use of expensive labor. It is the purpose of this discussion to illustrate how to answer these questions and other similar ones, given particular sets of rates and costs.
Cost/Benefit Analysis
Scanning The analysis of scanning costs, using either digital scanning or capture onto microfilm, starts from the net throughput rate. The net rate (including re-scanning) is the rate that one operator can get through one machine per hour. We need to combine this rate with the labor rate and the "rent" on the machine per hour, calculated using standard measures as shown below. For example, we might find the following:
Sample Calculation Annual, machine cost ($13000/3 years) $4,333 / work hours per year, accounting for shifts if any, 1750 hours per year = hourly machine cost = $2.47 / hour + hourly burdened labor rate + $10.00 / hour = total hourly cost of scanning = $12.47 / hour / pages scanned per hour / 360 pages per hour = cost per page for scanning = $0.034 per page for scanning
Using this example, a fifty-percent increase in scanner cost that doubled throughput would be interesting, since it would reduce the cost per page of scanning. You can also see that even if the scanner were free, scanning would still cost a couple cents per page due to the labor.
While raw scanner speed has an impact on the cost per page, the quality of the image enhancement performed by the scanner or by an attached image enhancement unit tends to be even more significant. The re-scan rate is particularly costly in terms of throughput. Re-scans are mostly due to poor image quality, which is avoided by good quality image enhancement. Fujitsu provides image processing cards to maximize through put and image quality.
Document Indexing The costs associated with document indexing fall into these categories.
Planning Planning the index is a significant activity. Time to do it right should be included in any project planning. However, the cost of planning is typically insignificant compared to the cost of everything else; therefore, time and money spent planning normally is well spent. Users need to be consulted regarding how they currently find information and the electronic index must meet their retrieval needs without destroying their legacy filing system.
Input The process of creating the index is typically the most costly activity associated with indexing. Indexing can be a per page cost or per folder/file cost; all the pages in a file have the same index and can be read by scrolling through the electronic file. Quality Control is performed prior to assigning to disc.
Storage The index has to be stored somewhere, typically on magnetic disk (hard drive) or on a CD (CD ROM) itself. Magnetic discs cost money to buy, maintain and operate. Storage cost is normally trivial compared to input. However, because it is capital spent at the start of the process, this cost is often disproportionately visible.
Sample Calculation Annual, CPU cost ($3000/ 3 years) $1,000 / work hours per year, accounting for shifts if any / 1750 hours per year = hourly machine cost = $.57 / hour + hourly burdened labor rate + $10.00 / hour = total hourly cost of QC / indexing = $10.57 / hour / pages indexed per hour / 300 pages per hour = cost per page for indexing = $0.035 per page for indexing
Processing/Retrieval The computer processing can be significant for a large document collection. The processing takes place at the time a user request a document and the CD is loaded. Depending on the number of CD's it may be wise to consider a dedicated computer to handle the collection in a jukebox.
Maintenance There is regular maintenance including backup, space management, reorganization, etc. This category also includes the costs, planning and executing changes to the index structure.
Most of the indexing costs are not particular to document capture. However, since the actual index entry will in most cases form a significant part of the document capture cost, we will now go into it in a little detail.
The calculations for this category are in principle the same as for scanning; it is a question of taking capital costs, labor rates and throughputs and calculating a cost per document checked and indexed. We will assume a lower machine cost because a scanner is not required. Using the rate of twelve seconds per document (= 300 per hour) assuming each page of each document needs to be indexed, we have:
Hardware Storage Systems
This is a more difficult cost to predict. Calculating it accurately involves taking tiny pieces of much larger things, like the cost of the amount of host CPU time taken to perform database builds and CD writes. The process is typically performed without dedicated labor. Nonetheless, machine costs are involved, and a certain amount of administrative overhead as well. In some cases it is possible to lump all of these costs together into an overall per-document machine and overhead charge.
Let us start with the number that often gets the lion's share of the attention, the jukebox cost. Since it is a large capital expense, it is easy to understand why it attracts attention. However, as we shall see, it does not deserve nearly as much attention on a per page basis, which is the one that matters in the end.
Sample Calculation Lifetime cost of 150 discs jukebox = $25,300 Each disk = 0.650 GB or 650,000 KB Each Image = 50 KB So 650,000 / 50 KB = 16,000 images / platter So if 150 discs x 16,000 images = 2.5 Million images (or 97.5 GB) Cost / image for jukebox = $0.01 per image (25,300 / 2,500,000) If digital data Each CD = 300,000 pages (uncompressed) So 300,000 x 150 discs = 45,000,000 pages Cost per page = $0.0005 / page (25,300 / 45,000,000)
Particularly with large jukeboxes, you should avoid being misled by the mirage of low per-image costs. If it takes you five years to fill up a jukebox, perhaps you would be better off buying one with an apparently higher per-image cost but significantly lower dollar cost, and then buying the best available model in a couple of years when you need another. Since technology does advance and costs do come down, you should include the cost of money particularly in calculations regarding jukeboxes.
You may not need a jukebox. A CD ROM drive with its CD changed when required may suffice. If a drive or even a small jukebox is used for writing the images but not as its main repository for retrieval, the charge should not be made as shown above on the basis of number of images stored, but on the basis of the number of images that can be stored each year, independent of the number of discs involved.
It is relevant to find out the cost of the technology that competes with the optical disk jukebox, namely the filing cabinet. If one CD of images = 10
Office Real Estate
4-drawer cabinets, the cost of file cabinets is $300 x 10 = $3,000. Cost per year in space = $15.00 per square foot (each cabinet takes up to square feet) x 10 cabinets = $1,500. Cost of file covers extra, as well as the storage capability should be taken into account. The life cycle of a file cabinet is approximately 15 years or about $20 per year per cabinet. Cabinets can hold a lot of paper and so their storage costs are quite inexpensive.
Where the parity breaks down is in the non-capital costs. In order to hold all the pages (images) on CD 10 file cabinets would be required; if the pages are computer generated digital data (COM, COLD) with compression up to 3 GB of data can be held on one CD - don't ask me how many pages that is, it's a lot! Particularly in expensive areas, real estate costs alone become the dominating factor. Figure fifteen square feet for a file cabinet (you need enough room to open the drawers and walk past it). At $15 per square foot of space per year, that's $2250 for the space, far more than the cabinet itself costs.
Storage Media
Now let us return to CD storage. In addition to the jukebox, CD must be purchased to fill the shelves. Here is a sample calculation:
Sample Calculation Cost of a unit of media - CD $7.00 / number of images that will fit on it / 16,000 images (50 KB per image) = cost per image for media = $0.00043 per image
So even though $7.00 (or whatever the number is) is inexpensive for a CD it amounts to only about 4/10 thousandths of a cent per image. Not only is that significantly less than the cost of the jukebox per image, it is significantly less than the cost of printing the page on a laser printer or copying it on a copy machine. So media costs for document imaging tend to be negligible.
The hardware costs may be summed up as shown below. The only complication is the fact that database and other release operations are done on a per-document basis, while image storage is done on a per-image basis. Both need to be calculated and one translated into the other's terms. While the numbers here may not reflect your situation, a wide range of experience supports this conclusion.
Sample Calculation Scanning costs $0.034 + media costs + $0.00043 + index each page costs + $0.035 = cost to release and store documents - jukebox = $0.01 per image Total per image captured = $.07943
Ongoing costs of the jukebox and use of the system for retrieval and / or workflow purposes will not be covered here, since they are not part of the document capture process.
Summary of Cost/Benefit Analysis What happens when you put it all together?
Sample Calculation Capture cost $0.034 per page * average pages per document * 1.5 = $0.051 per document + QC / index cost + $0.035 per document + release cost + (0.01 per image * 1.5 images / doc = $0.015 per document) = total capture cost per document = $0.10 per document
For this example, our total cost amounts to about ten cents per document. Looking back at where this number came from, it is clear in the example (and in many practical cases) that each of the three major components, scanning, indexing and release, contribute significantly to the cost.
Going into more detail, we can get a feeling for how important the various components of this number are. Would having a jukebox with twice the capacity at the same cost have an impact? Of course it would be noticed, but the effect on the per-document cost might not be significant. The performance of the jukebox, for example, might have greater practical significance. Analyzing a system in this way can provide valuable information. It can guide you to direct your efforts to attain the best results.
There is another surprising conclusion that we can draw from our numbers, even though they are "cooked": filling up a jukebox with images costs significantly more than the jukebox itself! The tiny amounts of money and time we spend on each document, when multiplied by the large numbers of documents a jukebox will hold, typically add up to considerably more money than the acquisition of the jukebox.
The Price of Not Doing It
So far we have focused on what it costs to perform document capture. What is the price paid for NOT implementing a document imaging system and thus avoid the costs/benefits of document capture? We touched on this question when we calculated the cost of storing pages in normal file cabinets, but there is more to it.
You already receive and process a certain volume of paper. At least one person, usually more, touches every piece of paper. Every piece is "indexed" in some way, even if it is not explicit or thought of as being indexed. Every page is filed somewhere. The paper itself is a storage medium for images; in the absence of alternatives, we tend not to think of it in those terms, but that's what it is. The filing cabinets are like jukeboxes and these costs that can be strictly measured and compared.
After storage there are also strict parallels. There is a way of finding out what documents are available under a certain heading, if only by going to the relevant file cabinets and rifling through folders. There is a way of requesting documents, if only going and getting what you need yourself. There are costs associated with the time it takes to get something and with not being able to get what you need when you need it. "Instant" delivery of documents as sometimes promised by vendors may do you no good, but eventual delivery of the percentage which now can't be found at all is worth something.
The following example, while somewhat simplistic, illustrates the soft costs in looking for information. If an organization or department has 50 employees and each of them spend 15 minutes looking for information, then they, in total, spend 750 minutes or about 12.5 hours each day looking. If wages are paid at $15.00 per hour, this is cost of $187.50 per day. Any way these costs could be reduced is money well spent!
Given the wide variety of circumstances, reducing the cost of a manual system to formulas is a hopeless task. The point is that every organization has and is paying for some method of document capture and release, regardless of how automated it may be. When calculating costs, you should think in terms of a set of proposed changes to a (perhaps manual) document capture system, rather than a whole newfangled thing you never had before.
Document Management System: FAQ
1. Will it work with my existing equipment and software?
Alchemy and Smooth Solution's's solution is Windows based including 3.1, 3.11, 95, NT. It will run on a 486 but of course faster is better! There are no special graphics requirements.
2. What is the capture and retrieval speed?
Alchemy will read 650 MB in 3 seconds or will read the index in less time than that and return the image very quickly to the user. Capture speed refers to the speed of the scanner, file drag and drop capabilities and the indexing requirements. Alchemy performs all of these functions very expertly and efficiently.
3. What features does it offer?
Once archived, the files can be printed, faxed, shared, imported; or you can launch the files' native application and work with a copy of the file while the original remains untouched on the CD.
4. Can it be expanded?
Expansion is only limited by the number of CDs you need. Security is at the network level and at the CD level.
5. How many levels of security?
Security at the folder level is planned for the next release Alchemy.
6. What type of service support and training are available?
Smooth Solutions, inc.... We are Fujitsu, IMR (Alchemy) and Value added re- sellers and we can help you with implementation and can also act as a service bureau to help convert your records to CD.
Implementation Issues Understanding the technology - it is best to read, ask and discover issues that are unique to your organization.
The need to build a business case. How big a problem is document management now? What information is most important to you and how often do you need to access it?
Document management represents change. It is critical to involve staff early on in the process in order to make the implementation easier and successful. Someone in the organization has to appreciate what the solution can do and then champion it to the rest of the organization.
This is not plug and pray technology. Good planning leads to successful implementation. It is important to work closely with your vendor who brings experience and expertise to the solution. Hope this helps. Kathy Land www.smoothsolutions.com
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About the Author
Document Imaging, Document Scanning, microfilm, microfiche, large format, drawings, maps aperture cards, roll film, 35mm 16mm, manuals, marketing literature, research, and R & D, Document Imaging... New York, New Jersey, PA, CT ...Scanning Onsite or mail them to SI!! HIPAA, DARM, OPRA, you have lots of filing cabinets, then going paperless is the answer...and have most of your documents on your computer!