The two sides of the capture coin: fixing the causes and reducing the symptoms

For the last week, LA has been blanketed by a fierce winter storm, giving me plenty of time to reflect on the past year. Primarily, I’ve been going over some of my notes on the process of going paperless. And, trying to figure out how Kate Gosselin ended up on television. Both are huge concepts.

Seriously though, the world is not yet paperless but we continue to make strides in the right direction. Some small, some quite notable. To really make a lasting impact in 2011 and beyond, I’ve come to the realization that an organization needs a two-tier approach when tackling capture and paper problems.

Ease the pain, reduce the symptoms

Historically, this is the way the industry has tried to treat paper and capture problems. High speed scanners, off-site storage and warehouses full of boxes … you know the drill. While this is a painful, manual process akin to sanding off a bunion with a Dremel, you still need to help clean up the mess that already exists. It took you years to make all this paper and legacy information. Thus, it will take a substantial commitment to eliminate it.

I describe this process as something like trying to wrap your mouth around a fire hose. You know, because there is a chance you could choke. You should start by taking small steps, like scanning only the last 6-12 months of paper and information. Realistically, these are the documents you are likely going to need in the next few weeks of business. Of you try to go much deeper right out of the gate, well, just think of the fire hose.

Now that some of the symptoms are addressed, albeit with a band-aid, starting assembling your strategy for a cure.

Treating the causes

I see paper and analog processes as a disease, a painful, festering, cell-eating virus that infects your entire productivity system, eventually draining it of life. (Fun stuff, these paper processes of ours.)

To really tackle the problem, you have to work in combination with scanning and manual conversion to go after the processes where paper is created. Get to the heart of the virus. Some of the areas you might want to target include:

E-mail – E-mail has become a default BPM system for many organizations. The problem with e-mail is that it is hard to track, there is significant liability in messages and information can get lost. Plus, (face palm) people print them, exacerbating the problems. You can look at replacing e-mail as a BPM system with a dedicated system or process for common tasks. For example, try replacing e-mailed or faxed time cards with eForms or specialized HR software.

Electronic Forms – According to Gartner, 85 percent of business processes depend on forms. In my opinion, this is the single best area to tackle because the ROI is profound. By eliminating paper forms, you also eliminate manual data entry, filing and storage. Common eForm projects kick off in HR, compliance and IT departments based on where paper forms currently live. Here is a video I made that shows how the mining industry is embracing eForms to improve training compliance.

Accounting – Paper invoices and paper purchase orders are a massive headache for most organizations. And for anyone who is even remotely interesting to talk to. (Sorry.) Point is, you can treat the cause by only accepting and generating electronic invoices and embracing standards like electronic data interchange or the new ISO 20022 standard for transmitting information. Getting this process cleaned up means faster payments and improved cash flow. Which is great for me because I now need to go buy a canoe.

What processes do you target? How are you planning on improve your systems in 2011 and beyond? Is it raining where you live? Please leave a comment and let us know. About capture processes I mean. I honestly don’t care if its raining where you live.

The death of the RFP is here! REJOICE!

RFPS are DOA

Time of death: December 6, 7:27 a.m., 2010.

As of this moment, ECM, eforms, and capture RFPs are officially dead. Yes, you heard me—DEAD.

As a friend once told me, an RFP is like a colonoscopy, someone you hardly know gets to inspect you from the inside out. Universally, no one seems to enjoy them, yet we continue to do them. Like six month check-ups at the dentist.

With the expansion of the Cloud, and the rise of consumer IT, there is really no point in engaging in this outdated process. One of the number one reasons people continue to issue RFPs is because of the fear of making a purchasing mistake. That is one of the main reasons that we at LincWare offer an unconditional money-back guarantee. If we can’t make it work you don’t pay, pretty simple. Plus, we’ll send you a box of cookies. Let’s see an RFP do that.

Here are some more reasons why we should let the RFP rot:

1) Too many cooks in the kitchen

Decisions by committee rarely turn out well for anyone. RFPs are a classic example of too many people having their “must have” items added to the parameters of a major software purchase. Please, don’t let the minutia and quest for perfection get in the way of a good, workable system. By all means, always expect the best. However, it’s very easy to have “scope creep” occur when a committee is formed, especially around capture and ECM.

And no, the software can’t do that. Nor should it. And asked the intern for ideas, anyway?

2) Consultants make money by prolonging problems, not solving them

Oh, did I touch a nerve? Granted, there are some really talented and professional consulting firms in the world, and those are the ones I recommend you hire if you decide to go this route. However, bringing in a so called “expert” just to have an outside voice is a bad idea. If you want validation of your own ideas, get a tape recorder and talk into a mirror. It will save you money. And help you notice those nose hairs no one has had the courage to mention to you.

3) Software as a service (SAAS) has killed complex implementations

The days of million dollar software implementations are over! With SAAS and the Cloud, you can start projects at amounts you can expense on a credit card. Before you dive into a complex, lengthy bidding process, try SAAS out to explore more viable solutions. In the capture and ECM world, this is becoming even more pronounced with things like remote capture, electronic forms and Cloud-based file storage.

4) Cut and paste is fine for children, not for bids

Googling other organization’s RFPs leads to a Frankenstein monster of epic proportions. Before you go wild cutting and pasting your “masterpiece,” determine why you are issuing an RFP in the first place. And here’s another thought, actually include questions that will result in answers that could lead you to a decision. (I know; the nerve, right?)

It’s obvious when you’ve gone on a search and assembly spree, and it will not help you source the best solution.

5) Vendor secret: we unintentionally overcharge you because things are “mandatory”

Even Wikileaks doesn’t know that.

If you mandate that an item is mandatory (even if we know it is not), don’t be surprised when you’re surprised by the price. Why? Because by making an item mandatory, even if your vendor thinks it won’t solve the problem it still has to be included in the price. Unfortunately, this means customers end up overpaying, usually by quite a bit. And then that item never gets used.

To avoid this, consider not making items mandatory. Rather, ask questions like “How would you solve a problem like XYZ?”

6) If all else fails, please use the AIIM templates

If you absolutely insist on sending out an RFP, you can get a nice head start by using the AIIM template. This document lays a common framework for responses and evaluation and greatly streamlines the process.

7) Please, just don’t do it

This is my personal plea to you as someone who has been on all sides of this process: Please, just don’t do it. Say no to RFPs. Use the AIIM product ratings, get on Twitter, ask the experts here. We can save you time, money and heartache all for free! If you need help, can you contact me personally and I’ll try my best to keep you out of the quicksand. And not sigh too much.

So community, what is your RFP horror story? Can you top the USA losing the World Cup bid to Qatar? Love RFPs and hate these revolutionary ideas? What do you think?

SharePoint sucks, eforms, the cloud and iPads are awesome. What are you thankful for this year?

As we approach Thanksgiving here in the United States, I’d like to look back on the year to share with the reasons why I’ll be observing this holiday. (And this year, it ain’t just about getting fat on a week’s worth of grub in a single seating.)

This is one of my favorite holiday activities, second only to drawing turkeys by tracing your hand. Or the silhouette of Joy Behar.

1. The Cloud. There is something magical about having a product that is secure, cheap, always on, and works on a wide variety of devices. In the last yearwe’ve embraced Box.net, Google Apps, Batchbook, and even built our own apps in the Amazon cloud; all with great success. If you are still afraid or unsure about the Cloud, consider how much you use it in your own life already as a consumer.
2. iPads! A Year ago, the iPad didn’t exist. This device has fundamentally changed how we think about computers and their role in our daily lives. With a great screen, huge battery and a massive amount of apps (including LincDoc mobile), this device is ready for use in the enterprise.
3. An awesome team. I’m so thankful for a great team at LincWare. We work hard, play hard, ridicule each other’s wardrobe choices and hit “reply all” more often than we should. We have guys that bike to work in the snow, do “Tough Mudders” for fun and allow us to put up signs like the one pictured here. (Which, as of Monday, is now out of date.) But most importantly, our team is fanatically committed to creating a world-class customer experience with LincDoc.
4. The AIIM Community. You all rock! I wouldn’t trade all the tryptophan in the world for the wisdom and cooperation within AIIM. If you are reading this and still haven’t made an account or joined in the discussion, do it now!
5. SharePoint. Thanks to Microsoft for making a product that is so bloated, complex and difficult for novices to use that consultants, VARs and vendors still have jobs. Steven Hawking tweeted that it should be called “Sh@#Point. If they ever get it right, I hear the Five Guys down the street from my house is hiring, because we'll all be unemployed. 
6. Twitter. These 140 character messages have connected all of us in meaningful ways. As it was described to me, "Twitter makes me like people I've never met and Facebook makes me hate people I know in real life.” You can follow my tweets @danieloleary.

What about you? Yes you, sitting in your chair reading this. Take your left hand off your face (caught you) and let me know what you are thankful for? 

Best practices for client and vendor interactions

Here are some tips to streamline the relationship issues with customers and vendors as they creep up during the implementation of enterprise software and technology projects.We try to put all of these in practice at LincWare as often as possible. Oh, and we’ve earned a 100% customer retention rate, so there has to be something in here worth a look.

1.       Set clear goals

All projects require goals. They don’t need to be formal or over-planned, but everyone should clearly understand the vision of the project and their role in it. When collaborating with vendors, make sure they buy into your organization goals, especially if the technology implementation is aligned with business processes, which is common in the sphere of ECM.

2.       Have a kick off meeting

It’s really important for everyone to learn each other’s names and establish individual roles. (You can leave the “Hello, my name is” stickers at home, though.) There is something humanizing about working with a vendor on a first name basis. You can try something fun and break to the mold a bit, like having everyone introduce themselves, tell everyone their favorite breakfast cereal, and share one other interesting fact about themselves. You’d be surprised at how willing people are to share!  Don’t push it though, no one really cares about your cats.

3.       Avoid the “CC” and “Reply All” buttons

Seriously. If you are in the habit of pushing “reply all”, you are an evil person. Really, Hell is clearing space for you people. I highly recommend the “BCC” field when someone needs to be informed about something, but you don’t want to clog up their inbox. For the sake of all of us, just avoid replying all. And don’t “forward” as much either. The original e-mail was meant for you and sent by someone else. In truth, the forwarding party was not the intended audience. Practice some restraint, even if the lack of it is the sole reason for Google’s world dominance.

4.       Plan for change

Work with your vendor to establish a formal procedure for change management. For example, consider: How will you agree on changes? How do you determine costs? What are new deadlines? All of these should be addressed in your change management plans.

5.       Status meetings

Just like going to your dentist for a regular checkup, you and your vendor should have regular status meetings. They can be as often as you like, but at least a phone call or Skype video chat every quarter is recommended. You can even use things like FaceTime for the iPhone to connect face to face. Or use an iPad, which amazingly supports the LD-Mobile app. Huh; how about that?

6.       Use social media

It’s called social for a reason, you hermit. Take advantage of tools like Twitter, Facebook and instant messaging to communicate more efficiently. These mediums are a great way to connect outside of the regular “grind,” and let’s be honest, its way more fun.

What tips do you have to improve the relationship with your vendors? If you are a vendor, what do you recommend? Did we tell you about LD-Mobile? 

"Because people hate change" and why change management is so frustrating

I was researching an article on why kicking off a capture or ECM project is so challenging, and I got to talking with one of my friends who is an IT analyst with the state of California. His name has been omitted but I swear on my iPhone this is true. Here is the exact chat we had this morning on why change management is so hard. See if you relate.

“I’m working on an article about replacing legacy systems and processes, any advice from the trenches?” I asked. He replied quickly “People hate change. End of article.” I laughed and took stock of his brutally honest response.

He continued at a rapid pace, “I'm hoping that fear of change lessons as a younger generation becomes a larger part of the Information Systems world. We're also the generation that won't accept crappy software on the basis that ‘it's been working for ten years, why change it?’ The state is full of bloated, cryptic, barely functioning proprietary software that's never been replaced because nobody is willing to put in the effort. And why change things when you're retiring in 5-8 years? So we have whole groups of people devoted to maintaining ancient main frame databases. It just doesn’t make sense.”

Clearly, this is universal not just to capture, or ECM, or really any software, but to technology as a whole. There is a huge generational shift as people from Generation Y (like me) enter the work force. We expect different things, and more accountability. We continued to chat about the day to day life of change management.

“For the last 6 months I've been working on replacing our ancient system. During the process I have to figure out how everything works, which is nearly impossible. People aren't willing to tell me what they actually do every day. My guess is because they do very little and know that everything they do could be automated if the system wasn't 25 years old.”

So what does this all mean? Clearly, many of you will identify with this situation either in your own organization, or with customers that you work with. As early adopters we have to demand more from ourselves, our teams, and our organizations to not be complacent with the status quo of IT and ECM. Broken systems and broken processes are just a problem waiting for a solution! My advice would be to start with small projects and achievable goals, and use the momentum to tackle larger problems.

What do you think? Is your organization resistant to change? Do you identify with my friends comments? Please let me know in the comments, or send a tweet or homing pigeon.

World Paper Free Day is October 28th

When it comes to “going paperless”, it’s not something that you can do overnight. You didn’t create all of your paper or manual processes that rely on them in a day, and you won’t break your paper habit cold turkey.

As many of you know, AIIM is hosting a global event to educate people on the benefits of going truly paperless. As a shameless plug, I’ll be speaking at the Los Angeles event on the benefits and use cases for electronic forms. We also have speakers on scanning, shredding, and digital signatures; all critical components of going paperless. In my opinion, electronic forms are the most important piece of the puzzle, since over 85% of business processes depend on forms, and almost all of them are on paper.

If you would like to participate in one of these events in your area, sign up at http://www.aiim.org/events/paper-free-day . Alternatively if you live in a cave or in an area without a local event, please join us on Twitter next week for a virtual meeting of the minds to share ideas. Full details are posted at http://aiimcommunities.org/capture/blog/paperfree-day-tweet-jam-share-ideas .  We’ll be furiously tweeting on October 21 from 11-12:30 EST under the hash tag #wpfd .

On behalf of the entire AIIM Community, I hope you can participate in this event, and I look forward to learning more from YOU (yes you reading this right now) on making the world paperless.

What would you tell yourself if you could go back in time before the project started?

Imagine that I have a time traveling DeLorean that can magically whisk you back in time to before you started your capture project. I know, you aren’t supposed to take rides from strangers, but let’s make an exception.

We’ve all heard the phrase that hindsight is 20/20, and while time machines don’t actually exist, we can still share some of the things we wish we had known before the process began. 

Here are my top 5 tips that you probably wish you knew before you started your capture project.

1.       Legacy document conversion plan

It didn’t take you a day to make a ton of paper, and it won’t all be scanned and indexed overnight. Have a plan to prioritize and determine what should be scanned, and what should just sit in a box or file cabinet until destruction.

2.       Create a scope of work

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail! So make sure you engage all the stakeholders, including Bob from accounting. Set simple goals, diagram some basic capture workflows, and set milestones for what you want to accomplish. Oh and don’t forget training both initially, and ongoing.

3.       Change management

Your team already has a way of capturing and storing information manually, and you have to understand that they have a comfort level with the process. To be really successful with your capture initiatives, you have to break the project into bite-size milestones that are easy to meet without scaring your end users. If you are an end user, encourage the project manager to make changes gradually.

4.       Choice of vendor

Don’t believe everything a vendor tells you. Write this down, place it on a plaque in your office. I’d recommend taking a “trust but verify” approach, and don’t be afraid to ask for things like site visits with other customers, and a proof of concept for your own organization. In these economic times, they are willing to bend over to earn your business, so you might as well take advantage of it.

5.       Indexing

How you index a document is critical, because it determines how you will find the data it contains in the future. If capture to you still means paper, consider your options for OCR and ICR, and come up with some basic templates to store the important information. If possible, think about replacing paper capture processes with things like electronic forms. That way, you can capture information without having to scan or manually process things.

So internet, if you had a time machine and could go back before YOUR project began -what would you tell yourself and your team? Please share your tips and tricks in the comments.

8 reasons to add eForms to your capture strategy

Electronic forms are often overlooked when it comes to capture, as people think it’s easier to look at getting rid of file cabinets versus changing processes and adding technology. In my opinion, that is like treating the symptoms of the problem, rather than treating the problem itself. With that in mind, here are 8 reasons to add eForms to your capture strategy.

Thanks to John Mancini for this format.

1.       Reuse existing forms

Many eForm products allow you to reuse your existing PDF and word documents, rather than having to create them from scratch. This allows your users to feel immediately comfortable, and ensures continuity with the look and feel of your forms.

2.       Capture information

Paper forms are nothing more than data trapped on a physical page, and they require extensive labor to process and extract that information. With eForms, data can be exported as .CSV, .XML, and sent directly to databases as soon as they are created.

3.       Reuse data and eliminate manual data entry

If you already have data like customer information, or contact information in a system, most eForm packages will allow you to connect to databases like your CRM or HR system and reuse it. For example, if you are an employee renewing your insurance enrollment, by typing in your social security number you can complete all of the form data. Capture traditionally has been a manual process, requiring extensive labor to key in information, and scan paper. With electronic forms, all of these middle steps are eliminated, saving a great deal of time and money on processing.

Complete, sign, and automate with LincDoc for example

4.       Collect signatures

One of the main reasons people are reluctant to adopt electronic forms is the perception that electronic signatures aren’t valid. They’ve been legal for over a decade in the USA, and are widely accepted globally. (Source) Some of the common ways of collecting signatures on forms are through signature pads, using password challenges, and by signing directly on a touchscreen.

5.       Route and approve forms

Forms often kick off workflows and approval processes. Since eForms are captured electronically, sending e-mail notifications and handling approval processes digitally is a given. It’s much easier to track things in a workflow system, than trying to track down paper files and lost documents.

6.       Integrate with your other systems

Electronic forms are typically stored in formats like PDF or TIFF, giving you a digital copy of the form itself. The data from the form should also be available for you to integrate with other systems. If you are looking to add electronic forms in your organization, make sure that the software you choose has the ability to integrate seamlessly with your applications.

7.       Version Control

Version control on paper forms is a nightmare, and imprecise at best. With electronic forms, you can track who filled things out, know when they did it, and have a complete audit trail of all user activity, with line of sight into the business process. Customers regularly tell me this is one of their main headaches with paper forms.

8.       Provide access on mobile devices

The holy grail of electronic forms and mobile capture is not only eliminating paper, but being able to process information anywhere in the world. The best of breed applications support things like iPad applications, and let you access forms from any mobile device. If you are in the market, plan ahead and consider how your customers and team members use things like Blackberry’s and tablet PCs. 

Capture customers from hell

I've been reading a lot of the website Clients From Hell on my vacation, and it inspired me to share some of my personal horror stories. These are some of the most unreasonable requests I've ever heard. (Yes, these are all 100% true).

1. “We want to automatically capture things using a camera that does a 360' around the room, and sees all of the objects in it, then fills out some inventory forms for us. Don't tell me that technology doesn't exist, we saw it on TV.”
   
   
2. “Can the OCR engine also handle drawings? You know, when someone draws something in the margin. We want those automatically recognized.”
   
   

3. 

   "You can't be serious."

   “We want to ICR about 100,000 documents, but some of them are 75 years old on rice-paper, and in a language that that no one here speaks. You can handle that, right?”
   
   
4. “We want users to login using their hand print on their monitor. Our thought is they just place their hand on their screen, we scan it, and then they start their work.”
   
   
5. “Capturing data on an iPad is too expensive. Do you have any of that special paper that just sends what people write and captures all the information without any extra work? Manual labor is expensive.”
   
   
6. “Dan, we received the proposal for work. Can you recommend someone else who can handle the design, data entry and scanning with all of the quality, but at 20% of the price? Times are tough. Do you know any students or unemployed people?”
   
   
7. “This should be easy.”
   
   
8. “All you have to do is make the capture program output to all of our applications automatically. You can do that right?”

To avoid making similar gaffes, you can visit http://www.aiim.org/capture and learn from capture experts. So all you crazy people, what is the worst thing you've ever heard from a team member or customer?

Capture Forms on your iPad? As Steve Jobs Says, “BOOM!”

Hello fellow Apple lover! Tired of using your iPad for marathon session of Angry Birds and streaming Netflix? Are you ready to put it to work? The iPad is the perfect device to help eliminate paper, capture information, streamline your electronic forms, and look cool while doing it.

A few months ago, I was at the dentist for my regular checkup, and had to update some of my paperwork. After 15 minutes of painstakingly filling out paper forms, I handed back the clipboard to the office manager, who spent another 15 minutes sitting and typing my information back into their patient system. There is nothing like using a $5 clipboard to fill out forms before taking an X-Ray on a $95,000 machine. We've all been there right?

Now, look at your own organization and the capture scenarios you face. In terms of forms, how many could you replace with not only eForms, but with your iPad? They have Wi-Fi and 3g, weigh less than 2 pounds, and cost less than a laptop. For scenarios like patients or client intake, field reps, attorneys, or battlefield commanders, the iPad allows us to capture information and extend the functionality of this incredible device.

So based on my unpleasant experience, what we wanted to build was an application that guides a user through filling out forms and capturing data, integrates with a ton of different repositories and systems, collects payment and digital signatures, and “just works” so that anyone could use it. The result of this dream is called LincDoc mobile, and is available for free today in the app store. You can download it today for your iPad.  You can also check out Zosh.  

In the new reality when you walk into your doctor’s office, you are handed an iPad or walk to a kiosk, spend 2 minutes being walked through a dynamic eForm that captures all of your information and your signature, and then transmits the data to an EMR system, puts a copy of the form in your SharePoint repository, and e-mails you a PDF copy.  BOOM Indeed!

Mobile capture on your iPad is happening now, and it’s amazing.

The Art of Capture, Step 2: Convert from Paper to Electronic Forms

Part two in a series that examines the process of electronically capturing in Web-based forms the information trapped in today’s paper-based processes.

As Sun Tzu says, “Success in warfare is gained by carefully accommodating ourselves to the enemy's purpose. By persistently hanging on the enemy's flank; we shall succeed in the long run in killing the commander-in-chief. This is called ability to accomplish a thing by sheer cunning.”

You gotta love Sun Tzu.

Capture warriors, today we flank the enemy, and in doing so, fundamentally alter the rules. If your problem right now is the paper capture, we turn the tide by eliminating paper capture entirely. That’s right. Entirely.

So here is the question: If your forms and documents start as electronic documents and eventually get scanned and archived, then why do you need to have a paper lifecycle for them? (If this just blew your mind, go ahead and take a minute.)

If your goal is to capture information rather than paper, your first step will need to be preparing your documents to convert them into electronic forms. Creating a fillable PDF or converting from paper forms to a Word document is really easy. Chances are, you already have your forms in these file formats anyways. This is how we change the fight, this is our “sheer cunning.”

Based on my experience with LincWare, here is what I recommend as a best practice:

1.       Avoid proprietary tools. Unless you loved getting locked into long-term agreements with vendors, you should focus on using your existing forms and programs. Make it work first using your existing tools and resources before assuming a new tool will make things easier.

2.       Take inventory. Look at what forms you have and note those that create the most headaches. Focus on those forms first.

3.       Analyze the form’s life-cycle. Currently, where is that information being captured? Are you scanning? Doing manual data entry? Do you need to collect payments or signatures?

4.       For a Word document, make sure that you have all the relevant fields that you want to collect and process. Focus on things that will become metadata; SharePoint content types, for example. When you are done, save the document as an .ODT or .DOC to ensure portability. The  formats of .DOCX from Office 2007 and 2010 are not universally supported. And, make sure you take into account pagination, so if someone enters a lot of text, the format stays consistent.

5.       For a PDF document, you will be limited to the actual document itself unless you are able to modify things. Most likely though, the PDF will be more aggressively locked down. Again, ensure that you have all the relevant fields. You can then save the document as a PDF-A if you prefer that format. A fillable PDF is only a partial solution, since you still need to access the data, and avoid manual data entry.

6.       Save all of your newly prepared forms in a secure, version controlled repository. We use a combination of our ECM system and a repository built into our eForms application that we access using a Subversion (SVN) client to manage check-in and out and all revisions. That way, if we need to make changes, we can easily update forms and maintain an audit trail.

Complete forms on your iPad with LincDoc

7.       Next steps: What do you plan to do with your newly built forms? I suggest over-taking the enemy. But that’s up to you.

Next week, we’ll talk about the different methods of capturing signatures electronically. One of the most common reasons I hear from people about sticking with paper is the FALSE assumption that a handwritten signature is required. (Man, that is getting to be a tired discussion.)

So AIIM community, how did you prepare your first eForms project? Did you blow millions on a proprietary product before realizing you could have done it using Open Office and a summer intern? Still trying to figure out how to transform paper into electronic?

Electronic Forms Step 1: Find out where it hurts

Part one in a series that examines the process of electronically capturing in Web-based forms the information trapped in today’s paper-based processes.

I’ve spent the last few years helping customers empower their data through electronic forms with LincDoc, an eForms and document automation software product; but the concept is universal.Paper forms are a great place to begin when we look at capture, since according to the Gartner Group, 85 percent of business processes depend on forms. And with few exceptions, most organizations still handle forms in paper.

   

“Hey Dan, doesn’t quoting lofty analyst numbers seem a bit weak? We know how stats can be construed.”

To that, I reply simply: look around your office. (Cue Jeopardy theme, or click here)... 


Still think those numbers don’t hold up? 

So if you are serious about improving your capture program, it makes sense to tackle the cause of the problem, rather than treating the symptoms.

The first step on embarking on your eForms project is to figure out what forms your team, department and organization use most often. Pinpoint the forms that create the most agony. Like a migraine. It is these pieces of paper that when translated to an online or electronic capture mechanism will demonstrate the most ROI.

However, and this helps further illustrate the depth of pain paper forms cause, you may very well find that the forms at the root of agony for your team are not the same as those wreaking havoc on another department. Human Resources, operations, fulfillment, accounting, marketing and customer relations are all holding up different forms, right? Coffee ring-stained, half-completed and caked in white out. (Stop me anytime.)

When you embark on an electronic forms project, or really any capture process, the goal is to figure out where you can make the most impact. As Sun Tzu says, “You must know the battle ground. You must know the time of battle. You can then travel a thousand of miles and still win the battle.”

Make no mistake capture warriors, you are doing battle against paper forms, and it is your duty to control the battlefield.

As you prepare for battle against your forms, make sure you clearly understand the greatest threats, and plan to attack the weak points of the enemy, err … project. Planning and understanding your enemy is one of the most important steps in winning the war against paper, so start with the ones that you have determined cause the most pain and are easiest to solve.  Make a list of them, start mapping out their life cycles and underlying business processes, and talk within your organization to confirm your findings. Next week, we’ll talk about converting your paper forms to dynamic electronic forms.

So everyone, what do you think about paper forms? Tried this approach and failed? Can you quote Sun Tzu in your sleep? Should you quote Sun Tzu in your sleep? Let me know.

Now, get to the choppa!

Ode to Barcodes Part 2, The Video!

Here is the sequel to the last post, Ode to Barcodes. In this video example, I provide you an example of how to generate and use a PDF-417 barcode on your forms and documents. If you are interested in creating PDFs on the fly like this, leave a comment, or contact me using the link to the right. 

ODE TO BARCODES! Use them,

Barcodes. You know them. You love them. You find them everywhere from the side of your box of Kashi Go Lean to document slip sheets; but have you ever stopped to wonder what all those goofy lines and digital scribble mean? And, how do they work anyway?

And most importantly, how do barcodes apply to document capture?  Well, let's dive right in.

My favorite is the undisputed champion of them all: PDF 417. Oh yes, the Incredible Hulk of barcodes. But without the emo alter-ego.

The PDF 417 is two dimensions of awesomeness, and you've probably seen this on things like a boarding pass or Fed Ex Label. Why am I so in love with it? Simple: you can pack a TON of information into the PDF 417 barcode. A single PDF 417 symbol can theoretically hold up to 1,850 alphanumeric characters, 2,710 digits or 1,108 bytes. Why so much data? Because it's absolutely perfect for encoding all of the metadata in a document for example. Data like your name, e-mail address, city, state, and postal code can all be encoded into a single barcode.  

We use PDF 417 barcodes at LincWare quite a bit. When we generate electronic forms, typically the metadata from the form is automatically sent to a repository but sometimes paper or additional electronic copies must be created. Examples of this are documents that require stamped notarization like a court order or documents that are transmitted to other organizations. Imagine a police report with a PDF 417 barcode on it that contains all of the report data, or a new account form at a financial planner's office with your name, address and phone number.

We place all of that information discretely on the document, like in the top right corner, and encode it into a PDF 417 barcode. When you transmit documents with information already encoded in a barcode, it makes the process much easier for the receiving party to process and use.

When you scan or process a barcoded document, you then set up an auto-detect or draw the zone of where a barcode is likely to be. When you scan it, the data will be there as a separated value for you to use and process. Virtually all of the capture vendors in the community support it, but it's up to you to create documents with barcodes already on them.

You are a nice person right? You like helping others? Helped a bank executive from Africa cash a few checks via e-mail? Good, then slap some barcodes on your forms and documents. Or better yet, create eForms with dynamic barcodes on them. Oh, and don't make any more paper.

To actually show you this concept, I built a form that will take your name and e-mail address, and automatically encode them into a barcode on a document for you. Go make yourself a barcode! 

So AIIM Community members, do you also love barcodes? Do you have "Mom" embedded in barcode tattoo? If you are capturing and processing barcodes, I would love to hear your feedback.