Document capture and content management specialist User Friendly Consulting has published a booklet titled ‘Data Capture and Document Management,’ with ten tips for saving time and money. The words of wisdom stem from UFC’s 20 years of scanning, OCR and content management for companies including Halliburton, KBR, Oneok, TransWestern Pipeline and Southern Union Gas.
Those embarking on a document capture system should think beyond reduction in paper filing cabinets. A feature rich and correctly utilized system can be much more. Email capture is now a whole segment of enterprise content management (ECM) onto itself. A good system monitors emails and attachments along with faxes machine traffic. Even ‘Office’ files, Word, Excel etc. need ‘capture’ to be properly integrated into the workflow.
UFC’s oeuvre recommends the elimination of manual intervention where possible. Automation features such as image clean-up, database lookup and validation and text recognition (OCR) and extraction add to a project’s value.
Data capture projects scale badly and require attention issues such as choice of hardware, software solutions. The booklet covers issues such as extending Microsoft SharePoint with a data capture or document management system for an enterprise solution. These systems come at a cost, but a good design reduces integration costs and allows for flexibility.
UFC warns against low-cost, entry level solutions with limited customization functionality, preferring a ‘scalable, easily integrated, easily customized feature rich data capture or document management system.’ What might these be? Well the booklet is vendor-neutral, but a few hints of systems that have UFC’s seal of approval are to be found on the UFC website. Quillix Capture is used by UFC on a major ongoing project for Halliburton, augmented by UFC’s own ‘MuWave’ helper app. The Laserfiche document management system was deployed as a back end because of its SharePoint integration and its capacity to include remote capture. More from sales@ufcinc.com.
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