04Nov
The Paperless Journey
4 Key Technologies for the Paperless Office
03Nov
The Paperless Office: Is it Just a Dream?
Paperless Office Statistics
People love their paper. It’s just a plain old fact. Throughout recent history, many visionaries in the business world have predicted the demise of paper as a medium for doing business. In fact, the government has even stepped in, “requiring” industries (healthcare) to be paperless, with looming deadlines approaching. But, we continue to use paper. In fact, some of the statistics are shocking:
- 47% of organizations have only made 5% progress towards a paperless goal.
- 18% have not started any initiatives.
- 19% of organizations have increased their paper usage.
(An AIIM Study)
So why are so many organizations stagnant in their move towards the paperless office? Below are some key reasons:
- No Idea Where to Start – for most organizations, paper is so pervasive throughout their business processes, they just cant imagine a key starting point for any paperless initiative.
- “That’s How We Have Always Done It” – the mindset that “if it is not broken, why fix it?” can be a challenge, especially with admin staff that have been around for a while. Paper is just the way it is done.
- Technology is Scary – taking the leap can be seen as a huge risk for managers, and many of the paperless initiatives fail due to poor planning, project mismanagement, or biting off too big a piece for a starting point.
Through experience, we have found that the key to successfully starting the Paperless Journey, it to start small, and grow. The technology works, it has been proven, but it is really the people and process that need to adapt to the digital workflow. In our next post, we will cover how to overcome organization objections, and create an environment for success.
30Oct
What is Document Capture?
Do you Scan or Capture?
We hear it from clients all the time, “I already scan my documents. Why would I need another piece of software?”
Scanning and Capture have two different definitions, as outlined below:
Scanning Software – this can be a separate piece of software, or software that is resident on a device that lets you simply create an image. It is appropriate for very basic needs.
Document Capture Software – Document Capture applications take scanning to a whole new level, adding a level of automation and efficiency, and minimizing the time required to scan and archive documents, and extract information.
So, to take it a step further, here are the true benefits of adding document capture to any document automation environment:
Efficiency – with capture applications, the key goal is to eliminate keystrokes, and auto-identify, auto-extract information and auto-name and archive. Think of the typical office worker that walks to a copier, scans a document to email, and then manually names and saves the file to a folder. With capture, he/she just hits the scan button, and advanced capture does the rest.
Standardization – walk into any office and hand the same document to 10 people, and they will all scan it differently, name it differently, and put it in their own repository. With document capture, you can create a standardized, repeatable process that is done the same every time, regardless of the person.
Integration – A key benefit of capture is also the level of integration it provides. What is your repository? SharePoint? An Accounting System? With an advanced capture app, you can send or route documents to any back end system with just a tap.
Hopefully, this was helpful, and outlined the major difference between “Scanning” and “Capturing”. Comments?
28Oct
Invoice Scanning Benefits: Automating Your AP
The Benefits of Digital AP Automation
In my previous post, we discussed the pain of paper invoice processing, and all the key cost areas that are affected by physical workflows in AP. (Previous post: True Pain of Paper-based AP Workflow ). In this post, let’s discus the all the benefits of digital invoice processing and AP Document Automation. Below is a survey of accounting and finance professionals, and what they specific as key benefits of a digital invoice processing workflow (Survey data by Paystream Advisors).
Top Benefits of Invoice Scanning
As you can see, there are numerous benefits from capturing invoices through a scanning process. All of the benefits contribute in some way to cost reduction, both in hard and soft costs.
Along with these surveyed benefits, there is also quite a bit of value in time savings, as outlined below:
Paper – the average time to file a paper invoice in a standard file cabinet system is approximately 5 minutes. This is just the actual time to file, and not other additional costs including copying, keying, etc. Based on avaerage labor rates, this comes to $1.67 for each invoice you process.
Scanning Invoices – the average time to file is 30s to 90s depending on the level of automation and scanning device that is utilized. Jut in pure time, this equates to $0.50.
So, if you just look at pure filing time, you are looking at cutting your time based costs by 2/3.
Hopefully this has presented a compelling reason to move to a digital workflow when it comes to your Account Payable process. As you can see, even a small business can benefit substantially from a scanning process, improving efficiency and making employees more productive. You can watch a quick video of our AP Solutions here:
For more information, or for a real time demo of our AP Solutions, contact us today.
23Oct
Do Invoices Really Have to Be So Painful?
The True Pain of Paper-based AP Workflow
Ah, the pain of the paper invoice. AP Automation is all the buzz nowadays, and scanning and capturing your invoices and accounting data doesn’t have to be hard. It still amazes me that an estimated 75-80% of all invoices are still in paper form (Gartner AP Invoice Automation Study). The costs of dealing with paper can be exorbitant, even for a small business. Below are some interesting statistics from the AIIM:
- Companies spend $20 to file a single document (time, materials, copies, etc)
- It costs $120 in labor to find a misfiled document
- It runs $220 to reproduce a lost document
Now those are just generic numbers on the pain of running a paper-based office. Let’s get into some specifics on the cost of processing paper invoices. Below are some key cost areas, and really the justification for any move to an AP Automation Solution:
Shipping and Mail– Many organizations with remote locations and branches still ship invoices to a central accounting office for processing. This creates time delays, and the opportunity for invoices to be misplaced or lost entirely. Some utilize “digital” invoice shipping, through the use of a scanning copier or a network scanner. This can add additional pain for the folks in the head office, that typically download, rename and save invoices in digital form. Some organizations will even print scanned invoices, to have a single flow of processing.
Payment Cycles – According to IOMA, 25% of all invoices are paid late. Studies have shown that late payment is usually due to processing delays, and are quite typical in paper-based accounting workflows. Data transfer and entry errors can also lead to delays, as well as increased time to search file cabinets for errant invoices.
Searching and Locating – In a previous life, my office was right outside a file cabinet row for accounting. There was a nice lady named Joan, who spent her entire day walking back and forth, looking for invoices. During audit time, many others joined her, and the traffic was crazy. They would spend untold hours searching, copying, removing and replacing folders. To top it all off, they would typically have to “put off” the inquiring person, and call them back while they searched.
Archive and Storage – Long term storage costs can quickly multiply, especially if you are using an off-site storage provider. For growing companies, floor space is a huge consideration, and with the average file cabinet taking up 10-12 square feet of space, costs can quickly add up. Finally, there is the concern of disaster recovery. You cannot backup paper, and all it takes is a fire or triggered sprinkler to destroy important records.
In this post, I cover all the pains of paper and Invoice Processing. In my next post, we will cover the benefits of a digital AP workflow, and how scanning/imaging your invoices can lead to efficiency and higher productivity. If you would like to jump ahead and see how InForm can help you with its iCapture product, you can take a peek here: iCapture for Invoice Processing and AP Automation
27Aug
inFORM Decisions celebrates 20 Years of providing IBM i Document Management solutions
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, August 26, 2014 – This month inFORM Decisions celebrates their 20th year in business, as a consistently focused IBM i native Document Management solution provider. The company was founded in 1994 by Dan Forster with the help of a personal angel investor, some talented RPG programmers, and “the maximum of my savings and credit cards,” laughs Dan Forster, President, inFORM Decisions.
Forster who has been at the helm since the company’s inception, says the company has toiled through a number of challenges over the years, including the dot com crash, the incursion of numerous competitors into the space, and the 2008 recession. “We may not be the largest document management company in the industry, but we are stable, profitable and growing. We’ve had many successful innovations and contributions throughout the years, but if I could credit our longevity in a word it would be “loyalty”. The mutual loyalty between my staff and me (an average employment tenure of 9 years); the loyalty to our customers; our customers’ loyalty to us; and, our loyalty to the IBM AS/400, iSeries, i platform.”
inFORM’s original laser form and laser check printing products were simplistic in that they really just merged some boxes and lines with the spool file, “and that was cool at the time”, exclaims Forster. The necessary evolution however required us to develop more capability to manipulate the spool and DB2 data so that it could align into new forms (data mapping). Then the company innovated capabilities to actually read through the data and define fields to create dynamic actions like routing through email, fax or to archived drives, merge with other images, signatures, barcodes, etc.
As the concept of going paperless emerged as an accepted practice in the new millennium so began the incursion of numerous competitors from various industries – the preprinted forms industry, the copier and laser printer companies, and various competitors that had previously just sold niche solutions like fax or spool management tools, all of which tried their hand with document management solutions. “Some have failed, some are still out there, and some have merged and shifted their focus on open platform solutions, ” says Forster.
Importantly for IBM i users, inFORM’s biggest strength is that their solutions have always run natively on the IBM i and they continue to develop and enhance for this platform. inFORM customers appreciate this commitment and new customers are acquired every month who for various reasons are being forced to a much less efficient and less stable PC based solution.
In recent years, IFD’s developments have completed the full document and payment workflow for businesses with a simple snap-on to the iDocs output automation products, including, intelligent document capture (OCR form scanning), IBM i web-based document retrieval, and integration into internal workflow (internal routing of documents for approvals and actions).
“It’s been a wild ride, and the good news is we no longer need to justify the benefits of going paperless. We just have to position the value of our solutions and elevate our message above the noise of offerings that are now available. We’re looking forward to learning, developing, and adding value to the IBM i for another 20 years,” comments Forster. “Through all of the years, what still remains is our commitment to the IBM I platform, our loyalty to provide the best solution and support to our customers, and our ability to remain innovative in the constantly changing technology industry.”
For more information on inFORM Decisions’ document management solutions, contact inFORM Decisions at 800.858.5544. Visit www.informdecisions.com.
About inFORM Decisions
inFORM Decisions (www.informdecisions.com) provides IBM i document management solutions to address the costs and inefficiencies of paper based business workflow. IFD solutions have been implemented worldwide in a multitude of open platform environments from small to Enterprise Fortune 100 sized organizations. inFORM’s paperless solutions include, forms scanning (capture), storage and workflow; variable data laser form merging and printing; laser MICR check printing and electronic payment solutions; and IBM i spool file report bursting, sorting distribution and management in various formats including Excel, PDF, Word, Text, XML, CSV and Zip formats.
Contact:
Dan Forster
949-709-5838
[email protected]
20Aug
MCPressOnline Interview featuring IFD Pres Dan Forster on Document Management
Document Management as an IBM i Specialty
“There are only a few of us committed to and continuing to develop solutions that are IBM i–native,” Forster elaborates. “Many of our competitors have developed Windows server–based products, which force the user to download their spool or DB data to a PC to process. Regarding why not Web vs. a server-based product, I believe most of us are rapidly developing more applications that take advantage of the Web.”
– See more at: http://www.mcpressonline.com/document-management/technology-focus-content-management-isn-t-just-about-what-s-in-your-docs-anymore.html#sthash.v4GzHSrt.dpuf
Source: Christ, J. “Technology Focus: Content Management Isn’t Just About What’s in Your Docs Anymore“. MC Press Online, MCPressOnline.com, Web. 18 Aug. 2014.
29Jul
Video: iCapture
With an innovative document capture platform engineered to combine automation, efficiency, stability and Enterprise-class scalability, inFORM Decision’s iCapture is poised to continue advancing document processing technology well into the future. iCapture provides scanning functionality, or can utilize simple expressions through its Advanced Data Extraction feature to automate processing tasks. With the ability to export or migrate the data to over 60 industry ECM and DMS systems, iCapture represents the next generation of document processing software.
13Feb
Video: Database Modernization in a Nutshell
Learn about AO for IBM i database modernization.
http://youtu.be/2S71GeQnSEM
25Sep
IFD wins with Casino and Gaming Document Management Solutions
Did you know we have over 30 gaming and hospitality customers who depend on iDocs to eliminate the complexity related to paper based forms? When iDocs is installed along with associated automation options (email, capture, archive, laser print, or fax), casino clients are able to quickly automate many popular casino applications. MCPress recently published our article inFORM Decisions Wins in the Gaming Industry with Document Automation and Management Solutions which details the success our gaming and hospitality customers have found when implementing our solutions. Read more and learn how longtime inFORM Decisions customers have reduced costs, streamlined document and report workflow, and received quick ROI.