| | By David Guilbault, Director, Customer and ISV Development, ImageTag Read this article at MSDynamicsWorld.com Like many other business processes, document capture is designed to work in a centralized or a distributed manner. What is the difference? Simply stated, centralized moves the paper, distributed moves the images. If you're investing in an imaging solution for Microsoft Dynamics GP, NAV or AX, you should be thinking about how you're going to capture paper-based information. Capture is a critical piece of the document imaging solution and can drive the overall success of your project. This column features some of the pros and cons to help you better understand the differences. I've also listed some logistical details that are worth considering before making this type of investment. The Pros and Cons of Centralized Capture. The key factor is aggregating documents to a central point introducing economies of scale that enables automation. Like a centralized file room, all documents are maintained in one location and managed by dedicated workers. Processing can take a more automated approach using advanced techniques such as data extraction. However, it may require a new department, new workers and new equipment, which increase costs. Consider: - Invoices come into a central mailroom directly from vendors or from remote offices that did the purchasing. They're moved to the "scanning room" for prepping and imaging. Because the scanner cannot determine one invoice from another, personnel must separately scan each invoice or insert separators for batch scanning (batch scanning is the most productive).
- Everything is controlled through batches; batches get prepped, scanned, processed and indexed. Typically there is software involved in creating and tracking the batches. Since individual documents are not tracked, loss is a real possibility, which is a big reason for dedicated workers.
- Data capture software when added to the solution, can extract data from batches of scanned images. It requires "teaching" the software to recognize invoices from specific vendors but this effort can save entering data manually into the ERP system. In practice data capture is semi-automatic, someone must still look at every invoice for quality control purposes. Once extracted, the data from your invoices is in text files for upload into your Dynamics database. If performed properly, invoice transactions are created automatically including detail lines. What may be apparent in this discussion is the delay between the receipt of the invoice and its availability to managers and/or auditors for approval or review. As with many technological decisions, there are trade-offs to achieve advances in automation.
The Pros and Cons of Distributed Capture. Distributed capture is performed by the process or knowledge workers involved in the business workflow, closest to the point of entry into the organization. Distributed capture often supports existing software, equipment and internal processes. It simplifies the way information is processed and disseminated because it transfers documents digitally to the central repository over networks. The risk of misfiled or lost documents is dramatically reduced because they convert into a digital-based format more quickly. However, unsophisticated users may be involved in the imaging process and could make advanced automation techniques impractical. Consider: - Invoices go to straight to payables workers desks from the mailroom, in both central and remote offices. They are not batched for scanning but rather grouped to enable productive data entry.
- Users continue to enter data into Microsoft Dynamics GP, NAV or AX, as they do today.
- The additional step varies but it involves "telling" the Dynamics system that there is a paper invoice associated with this transaction. This is done with a menu option or keystroke combination. Because the data entry has already occurred, documents are indexed automatically, within the Microsoft Dynamics application.
- Connecting the paper invoice to the transaction requires either immediate scanning (very low volumes) or tagging with a barcoded label or coversheet. The tagged invoices are stacked for later scanning,
- Managing batches is not required, as each document has already been identified. Scanning is simpler and can be performed where and when convenient. Tagged documents enable the productivity of batch scanning because stacks are fed into the scanner.
- Processing is typically automatic with invoice images linked to the appropriate Microsoft Dynamics transaction.
- Quality control measures can also be simplified because the transactions and images are linked. Users missing pages or whole documents can be notified rather than reviewing each one.
- Perhaps obvious, distributed capture is much simpler than centralized, both by design and in practice because it's performed by your existing staff.
Which Approach Is Right for You? If your company already has a designated "imaging" department, ask them to add A/P invoices to their workload. If they currently handle your invoices and you have significant daily volumes (>1K), strongly consider adding data extraction. This saves from hiring new payables clerks as the economy recovers and your business grows. If you don't have the dedicated workers already, distributed capture is often the lowest risk, lowest cost entry point for imaging. Solutions attempt to fit into the workflows that are already in place, so that your current staff can adapt quickly, as will the payoff for your investment. See KwikTag in Action About the Author:
David Guilbault is Director, Customer and ISV Development for ImageTag, where he is responsible for managing customer and partner relationships, as well as insuring their success with their KwikTag solution. Previously, David headed Product Management at ImageTag, where he was instrumental in transforming a patented idea into a software platform that is applicable to every document, user and business. Prior to joining ImageTag, David spent eight years with Xerox. This tenure gave him an inherent knowledge of documents and their importance to an organization. With more than two decades in technical sales, systems engineering and product management, David has invaluable expertise in helping customers streamline their business processes using technology. David is a U.S. patent holder with a degree in Computer Science from University of Southern Maine. Read more document imaging columns by David Guilbault | |
