Paperless office solutions how to?

[darkamulets]

At the moment we archive all old documents using our canon imagerunner scanner and store them in PDF format for simple search functions.

For archival purposes it's worked wonders so far and has allowed us to close down 5 storage facilities that we maintained.

I imagine eventually the boss will want to migrate the entire office to a paperless environment if possible and I'd like to start reading up a little bit on it before the questions my way.

Could anyone recommend specific software or company that produces a solution that will allow us to quickly convert documentation from paper to a pdf or other workable format, specifically allowing for cataloging and organization? On avg personnel in the office (15 or so) handle about 400 accounts weekly, each account contains about 300-400 pages of data that has 5 categories.

Honestly some method of indexing the data and making it searchable using some sort of web interface would be fantastic. However just a simple solution for the time being that can be expanded into something that has more features would be fine for the time being.

 

[Saint Nick]

I work for a Fortune 200 transportation company. We use an enterprise solution now owned by IBM called FileNet P8. It is a very robust system and can be customized to suit however you want to use it.

Our company uses it a lot for faxes. We assign fax machine numbers to an esker fax. Then, the esker fax gets picked up by FileNet. If the document has a barcode on it, FileNet sees the barcode and will store data about the image (a TIF file) in a table using an OCR (optical character recognition) utility. The image itself is assigned a GUID (Global Universal Identifier). Each image has its own GUID. Then, whenever we want to go back and view images that were stored, we use the data stored in the database (including the GUID) to point to a URL where the image is viewed using a Java applet.

Unsure of the costs, but I definitely reccommend checking it out if you can. There may be similar solutions out there.

 

[MrChad]

I work for consulting firm that specializes in Enterprise Content Management (like P8 that om3gawave mentioned) and Business Process Management.

When you talk about a "paperless office", you start discussing process management as well as content management. This means automating some of the business processes so that they are handled electronically (routing electronic images between different departments and user roles). It can really help efficiency and improve with compliance/auditing issues.

FileNet is quite expensive and may be overkill for a small company, but I'm not sure of your budget. Alfresco is a nice open source content management system that could meet your needs.

Feel free to PM me if you want to chat more about this.

 

[Binky]

http://www.laserfiche.com/

 

[fire400]

yeah how about CRT-FREE environments too? lol..

paper companies may cry one day.

You have to conquer paperwork too, not just prevent it. When an employee needs to print something out, you need to teach them to recycle/store when they're finished with it, or wherever it's going.

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Stephanie Winston:

You should handle paperwork only once. Try the TRAF system.
Here are some tips to how to TRAF:

Toss It: If you have an assistant, delegate the sorting, screening and tossing of mail (in this case, scanning or recycling, etc).

Refer It: Keep a folder handy for each person you deal with on a regular basis - when that person comes to see you, open the folder and take care of all the items at once.

Act On It: Start an action folder or action page in your planner

File It: With a discard date on papers that will outlive their usefullness and clutter your files.

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There is also the method where sensitive documents need to be kept track of. Since everyone will be in the habit of shredding and filing paperwork, employees may get used to just dumping stuff wherever they want because they might think someone else will take care of it. So you have to set the culture and let everyone know it's on a ZERO tolerance policy to misfile paperwork or set something aside without taking note of it.
Corporations have available RFID tags in staplers which will prevent sensitive paperwork from ever leaving the premises w/o permission or know when it is being misplaced or destroyed.

Also, a quota must be established in each department, and managers no exception, to produce so much paperwork and how much paperwork is being destroyed or filed away. In meetings, etc.

The other hard part if naming and filing paperwork after it's scanned. You'll need a good script programmer to learn to macro efficiently, but not get sloppy with micro, as if massive database renaming must occur.

Goal setting is important. But everyone should be accountable for what is happening about their work space and in their dept. Of coruse the transition needs to be smooth, otherwise people will end up quitting or getting overly frustrated in performance overall and less reliable standards in the long run. So allign the office goals with the company goal. Set up a lot of white papers too, with stats and recommendations of what is working and what isn't, 'cuz if you're overlooking this, you will stand next to nothing to promotions.

If you got a good programmer, just do .net framework if you don't want to contract with another company to do it for you.

http://www.shorelinerecordsmanagement.com/
Also, HP has solutions too. They can help at enterprise levels.
http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/617686-0-0-225-121.html