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Document Imaging Technology >> Image Management
4/29/2005
Savvy schools, however, are indeed looking for ways to root out and remediate broken business processes, and in many cases, they are turning to DI for necessary fixes. Dorla Watkins, VP of Finance and Administration for Park University (MO), maintains, "Getting rid of the paper was and is of great benefit to us. But having a way to process students more effectively and streamline business processes was much more important." (For more on DI at Park University, see related story..) Out of the COLD, and into Document Management Once relegated to mostly static applications such as computer output to laser disc (COLD) archiving, DI product implementations now tend to include data management functionality. Robust additions to DI include modules to impose workflow patterns across departments or to inject security measures, so that only privileged users have access to certain documents. "After all, it's what you do with a document after you make it electronic that really provides the payback," observes Ralph Gammon, editor of the bimonthly Document Imaging Report (www.docu-mentimagingreport.com). "In fact, document imaging's fundamental mission was never really to eliminate paper. Even the earliest implementations of document imaging systems had workflow components." Hardware and software workflow components offer interfaces that allow users responsible for certain tasks in a business process to access common platforms and applications. For the most part, however, these components have gone underutilized as organizations have focused on paper elimination. Jim Small, president of document imaging provider Mindwrap (www.mind-wrap.com), explains, "Data imaging started as an archiving mechanism. But once organizations started to build collections of documents, those collections began to have intrinsic value." Mindwrap is among a slew of vendors now serving schools with DI solutions that bundle in document management capabilities. (Document management features can allow users to create electronic documents, or capture hard copies and store or manipulate the documents within large enterprise systems. Often, bundled document management systems contain scanners and other peripheral devices for document imaging, plus server-based programs for manipulating the information.) Some of the bigger players in the "bundled" document imaging/management space include Xerox, Canon ( www.canon.com), Hewlett-Packard (www.hp.com), and IBM (www.ibm.com). Another category of DI players comprises companies leaning decidedly more toward document and content management. (Ordinarily, a content management system centers on the functions needed to manage the content of a Web site. Included in such solutions might be indexing and retrieval methods, along with Web-based publishing tools and programs that allow users to track revisions.) EMC's Documentum (www.documentum.com), Mindwrap, FileNet (www.filenet.com), and a host of other companies (with solutions billed as ways to strengthen the ties between a Web presence and back office processes) fit this bill.Recommended Reading
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