Electronic Document Management an integrated approach Welcome Agenda

Electronic Document Management: an integrated approach Welcome!

Agenda The EDM in a nutshell Life and death of a document Stakes of an EDM project

The EDM in a nutshell

Electronic Document Management addresses a very common and widespread problem…

…document overflow!

…but also: multiple distant geographical sites, collaboration needs on documents, productivity & competitiveness issues, … Many good reasons to adopt EDM

Proposed definition: Electronic Document Management Electronic system to acquire, classify, store, archive and retrieve documents

Electronic system…

No reference to the size: ‘SCANFIN’ project Belgian Ministry of Finance 100, 000 documents per year A dog ‘Habitation Moderne’ project public housing sector 50, 000 documents per year Same with EDM! EDM is NOT restricted to large companies!

Electronic system to acquire, classify, store, archive and retrieve…

User Retrieving Scanning The minimalist EDM solution But many other possible features… Indexing Storing & archiving

Electronic system to acquire, classify, store, archive and retrieve documents

Hard-copy documents Electronic documents Faxes Forms Word files Excel files Files Invoices Faxes via fax server Mail Email

Life and death of a document

Record management File mgt Security e-Documents Workflows Hardcopy documents Not to be scanned Scanning Recognition Indexation & Classification Metadata Navigation Conversion Common format e-Forms Interactions Structured information → not to be recognised Storage & archiving ERP CRM DBs External applications

Hardcopy documents Forms Invoices Mail Files Faxes … → Which documents should be integrated?

Scanning Volume? Conversion into image files (TIFF, PDF) Automatic batch and document separation Blank page deletion 90° or 180° rotation Recto or Recto/Verso Colors, bitonal, greyscale Image quality improvement (contrast, dust & scratch removal) Autocropping and alignment Ideal quality/volume ratio? → Which functionalities do you need?

Recognition Turning images into text OMR: Optical Mark Recognition (tick boxes) OCR: Optical Character Recognition (printed text) Structured forms: areas are clearly defined ICR: Intelligent Character Recognition (handwritten text) Free form: similar documents but undefined structure (invoices) … → Which technologies do you need?

Storage and archiving Volume? Technologies: online, offline, nearline Medias: tapes, harddisks, … Security: (non-)rewritable supports? … → What are your critical needs?

Electronic documents Emails Word Excel Images Faxes (via fax server) … → Which documents should be integrated?

Electronic forms Equivalent of paper forms (structured) e. Government Electronic signature e. Commerce Banks Insurance companies … → What might be the potential applications of e-forms?

Indexation & classification Full-text indexation Metadata: date, author, document type, topic(s), … Structured (list) and/or non-structured metas Manual and/or automatic (e. g. based on bar codes) Thesaurus: structured list of keywords, with synonyms … → On what criteria do you want to retrieve documents?

Conversion Multiple formats = multiple viewers Conversion software (e. g. Acrobat) Strategic aspect: what is the lifetime of the format? … → Do you need a common format?

ERP CRM DBs Interactions with other applications Applications: ERP (e. g. SAP), accountancy, … Electronic Data Interchange Interface: e. g. piloting EDM application from an ERP Things can become very complex … → Do you need interactions? With what application(s)?

Record Management EDM’s management = “rules of the game” Comes on top of the EDM system Compliance with certification (ISO 900 n) Compliance with legal constraints (Sarbannes-Oxley in USA) File plan: common indexing policy for the whole organisation Managing lifetimes Tracing the history of actions taken on a document … → How far do you need to go with Record Management?

Workflows = Series of tasks related to an information item Creation, indexation, approval, rejection, … Useful when multiple users deal with multiple tasks/steps Document workflow, production workflow, ad hoc workflow Attachments: documents or files (batch of documents) Traceability: history of actions … → Do you need simple, complex, … or no workflow?

Security Hardware Connectivity: reliability of interconnections, firewalls, … Access rights and confidentiality Disaster recovery … → Security is often expensive: how critical is it for you?

Navigation Searches on metadata Full-text searches (needs OCR) Navigation through folders and sub-folders Document files and related documents Compliance with access rights policy … → Do you need complex searches? On what criteria?

File management File = batch of documents related to an issue Examples: medical files, insurance files, … Hierarchy of files and sub-files Static files: similar to hard-copy files Dynamic files: based on criteria (→ one document, several files) A document can belong to multiple files (multiple access points) Collaboration … → Do you work with files in your current document system?

EDM = variable geometry technology ↓ All aspects should be carefully considered. ERP CRM at the early stage DBs

Stakes of an EDM project

Economic aspects

An EDM solution will… Improve the image of the organisation (e. g. immediate access to the information) Avoid tasks with little value-added (e. g. encoding) Shorten and/or accelerate processes (e. g. workflows) Reduce postage costs Retrieving a paper document costs EUR 19! Gartner Group

Human and organisational aspects

An EDM solution will… Require cultural changes (way people work) Improve ergonomic aspects of information access Enrich job descriptions with high value-added tasks Make control easier (e. g. how often is a document accessed? )

Legal aspects

An EDM solution offers the possibility to… Integrate an electronic signature Keep a trace of human/electronic alterations on documents Guarantee long-term archiving (e. g. PDF-A)

Ecological aspects

An EDM solution allows… Reducing the volume of produced paper (e. g. electronic forms) Reducing the volume of circulating paper (e. g. workflows) Reducing the volume of warehoused paper (e. g. archiving)

Scientific aspects

An EDM solution allows… Leveraging the most important asset of any organisation: knowledge Organising data related to a project in a structured way Stimulating distant or even cross-border collaboration on a project

Conclusion

EDM is much more than what you think Consider all aspects in an integrated logic EDM is not restricted to large companies Look at the ROI: don’t spend, invest! Rely on solid partners: I. R. I. S. S&E ; -)

Thank you!