The sluggish economy and shrinking markets have made ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ an everyday mantra. Unfortunately, it’s not very encouraging to office equipment/solution dealers who are hoping for new sales.  Companies that planned to replace existing hardware with newer systems are holding onto equipment longer than planned, and some technology initiatives have been postponed.  Memories of good times and strong sales may seem distant, and a career change might seem enticing.  Yet the current bearish economy should not lead to defeat.  It provides a golden opportunity to examine and rethink your clients’ needs.  By leveraging the multi-functional devices (MFDs) they already own with software that expands its capabilities, you can add measurable value to your clients’ existing investments.  More importantly, you can build loyalty by helping them to be successful in times that are as challenging for them as they are for you.

In a bear market, it’s hard to convince investors to buy stocks or real estate, yet those with the foresight to invest wisely often benefit significantly from bull markets that typically follow. Regardless of how long that turnaround may be, it will eventually happen. Like stocks or mansions purchased during ‘the good times’, your clients may have invested considerable sums in upscale equipment such as wide format multi-function printers (MFPs) to advance their businesses.  Weighing as much as the average grizzly and costly to maintain, companies with such equipment may struggle to keep business strong enough to keep it in use and out of hibernation.  Getting ahead of the competition may seem like a bull-headed pipe dream…but you can make it become reality.

Companies that leverage MFDs with intelligent indexing, document management and process automation can mimic bullish investors in a bear market, advancing services and efficiency so they are positioned to surge forward as the economy improves.  Enabling encyclopedic-style indexing that goes well beyond your MFD’s limited capabilities makes your clients’ materials secure and more valuable to users.  With a Web-based electronic document management (EDM) system, scanned text, forms, and images can be retrieved from desktops remotely within seconds, reducing printing costs.  Finally, if you select an EDM system that is integrated with business process automation tools such as workflow, data and images can be distributed digitally within moments of receipt.  This facilitates the approval process for documents subject to review for a fraction of the cost of paper-based processing.

Harness your information without the red flag
Those who use MFDs want to ensure files are easily retrievable.  However, gaining control need not be as exhausting as waving a flag to direct a bull.  People search for content in diverse ways depending on their job function, the nature of their search, and even the way they think, so thorough indexing is critical.  Many MFDs and MFPs include basic indexing features, but the criteria by which they categorize documents are severely limited.  With intelligent indexing software and a corporate indexing plan to support it, your clients’ information becomes infinitely more valuable across the enterprise.  Searches for documentation are more fruitful and less time consuming.  Indexing software assumes the role of the flag, telling data where it must go, how it will be found, and ensuring users can locate it easily.  No MFD should be without it. 

Take the bull by the horns with document management
After files have been scanned and categorized for future retrieval, EDM systems play a vital role in the usefulness of the information.  Unlike the limited, short-term, typically project-based memory of MFDs and MFPs, an EDM system that is integrated with your hardware enables long-term retrieval as long as the text, document, or image remains active in the business lifecycle.  Administrators can specify which users can access, view, annotate, approve, or otherwise act upon each scanned file, and the system records each interaction in detail.  A Web-based EDM system with strong integration capabilities can link files and images to other software applications where the data would be useful, maximizing the value of each scan to the business.  Files scanned into a Web-based EDM system can enable remote access for documents that require review, launch billing for projects, verify contractual conditions have been met, and more.  In addition, EDM can automate the migration, purging, and scheduled destruction of files that are no longer needed in accordance with document-retention regulations, helping clients to demonstrate compliance.  In the event of a disaster, the recovery capabilities of a strong EDM system ensure your client’s business can continue uninterrupted.

Like a raging bull, process automation drives efficiency
As we consider how images, documents, and data can be used to drive business processes forward, let’s return to the imagery of the waving flag and the bull.  The waving flag attracts the watchful bull with the promise of reward.  The receipt of new or updated files in an EDM system, or the automated collection and packaging of a set of related documents, can set in motion the specific actions that need to occur.  Consider, for example:

• An architectural firm uses an MFD to scan blueprints into EDM storage.  Process automation software that is part of the EDM system has been pre-programmed to collect specific drawings—renderings of building structure, water and sewer lines, telephone, wiring, and more.  After the final blueprint is scanned, the drawings are packaged via digital workflow and sent securely to the appropriate parties for review, approval, or action.  The results:  Consistent collection and packaging of required documents.  No more lost or misfiled materials.  Elimination of security concerns over scanning and faxing.  Fast and secure distribution of materials that require action.
   
• An insurer uses an MFD to scan applications as they are received.  After indexing the documents, their ‘arrival’ in the EDM system triggers an instruction to begin the underwriting process.  Required documentation, approvals, and signatures are collected digitally, abolishing unnecessary paper, eliminating redundant entry, enabling simultaneous document review, and significantly shortening processing times.  The results:  Policies are issued quickly.  Premium payments are collected expeditiously, contributing favorably to cash flow. Customers experience better service.
   
• A financial institution receives required documents containing highly sensitive information for a customer’s loan application.  The loan requires signatory approval from three managers.  Rather than scanning the documents into the MFD and faxing them for approval with the risk of data being seen by unwanted eyes, they are indexed and stored in a secure EDM system.  Receipt of the documents triggers appropriate packaging of related materials; emails are sent to notify the managers of actionable material; the documents are placed into the appropriate work queues, marked as urgent; and a decision is reached quickly.  The results:  Sensitive data is secured.  Work is distributed efficiently.  Mandated service level agreements are satisfied.  A loan decision is reached quickly.
   
• Process automation helps your clients to maximize the use of their scanned files and data to complete more work, faster.  It also supports the ‘distribute, then print’ preference of most businesses today.  Mechanization of routine tasks keeps your clients’ projects moving at Wall Street’s pace during a bull rush, without the sweat equity.

Get ready to charge!
Putting the power of corporate information into one centralized, searchable location helps a company take steady, intelligent steps forward now, while paving the path for future growth with full process automation.  An EDM system helps your clients to increase their productivity and be more efficient, using the data it already owns more effectively.  It eliminates errors that accompany redundant storage and delays that come from frustrating searches. Like a bull at the gate ready to run into the ring, the added efficiencies provided by EDM help a company to plunge forward, long before the market improves.  With careful planning and a little help from you, your clients can experience bull market success despite a bearish marketplace, beating their competition with better and faster service…and that’s no bull!

Intelligent Indexing is Key to the Digital Storage
Have you ever desperately needed something at the grocery store right before it closed, but were unable to find it?  Why can’t people who stock shelves think like you, anyway? It would be so much easier to find things.

Like shoppers in grocery stores, many of customers of office equipment/solutions dealers struggle to find needed digital documents. The solutions you sell will hopefully contain powerful tools, planning, communication, thoughtful indexing, and good training.  To learn more on how you can help your clients’ solutions deliver a new level of efficiency, consider adding encyclopedic indexing capabilities to the data capture inherent in their hardware solutions.

Indexing is challenging. Whether customers capture information on copiers, multi-function printers (MFPs), scanners, barcode readers, or document imaging systems, indexing is often a challenge.  Your customers or even your own staff think about files in dissimilar ways, and the ways they search vary.  Even people in the same department use varied logic to file and retrieve data.  The terms they use depend on experience, interaction with files, and their role-based needs.  Some businesses are reluctant to eliminate paper, fearing electronic data will be permanently irretrievable. 

“No more lost files” can—and should—mean NO more lost files.  If your customers store documents centrally in an electronic document management (EDM) system & lose them, suspect inadequate indexing.  What tips and tools can you provide clients to guarantee no more lost files? 

Think big. Even if your clients only scan files for one department, they should consider the enterprise-wide needs for those files. This is vital if the company will eventually centralize all of their files with EDM.   

• How do other departments search for files and information? 
• What information within those documents is important for their searches? 
• What fields are common to multiple departments? 
• Will departmental suffixes help for indexing purposes? 

Consider retention requirements. Ensure that documents can’t be accidentally purged when other departments may still need them.  Get answers before documents are indexed, so they can be found easily in the future.

Basic indexing isn’t enough.  Many MFPs and scanners offer basic indexing.  However, as organizations grow and file inventories becomes complex, encyclopedic indexing becomes vital.  For example, an insurer might use an MFP, indexing by name, policyholder number, and document type. EDM allows detailed organization, enabling the insurer to index by agents, date/time stamps, coverage, claims, etc.  Persons responsible for reports, audits or processing can expect more pertinent retrieval.

Don’t under index.  Proper indexing requires thinking ahead and considering future search needs.  If multiple departments share documents, consistent indices may be wise (e.g., establishing global customer numbers).  Smaller organizations may find simpler indexing schemes adequate, but larger organizations will want details to address diverse needs.  Basic indexing helps no one except the person who does the cataloguing, and it produces poor results.  Collaboration and communication—examining various departments to understand users, what they need, and how they search—is critical. 

Beware of over indexing.  Exhaustive cataloguing that fills indexing fields with little-used terms is pointless.  Staff will waste time senselessly consuming brain cells as they try to index in ways that are both unnecessary and unhelpful.  Use terms staff need – no less, and no more.

Ask for help if you need it.  Most EDM vendors work closely with hardware distributors and VARs.  Many offer services like document analysis and indexing related to their products.  Some offer integration services to help you and your customers to build on essential hardware and software and transform the pieces into a cohesive solution.

Invest in the future.  Careful planning reaps measurable results.  Whether you sell copiers, MFPs, scanners, other imaging devices, or complete EDM systems, encourage clients to consider the document process and communicate with employees.  By helping them understand proper indexing for storage, retrieval, and efficiency, you will help them succeed.  Consequently, the next time your clients shop hurriedly for information in their electronic ‘stores’, they should find exactly what they need 100 percent of the time, quickly, without relying on others for help.  Wouldn’t it be great if grocers could offer that same guarantee?