With the advent of inexpensive yet powerful desktop scanners and easy to use point-and-click capture software, paper documents no longer need to be transported to and scanned at a company’s central facility. Document scanning and indexing can now be performed locally on-site (at multiple locations or branch offices) by anyone instead of dedicated scanner operators in a shared services center. The digitized documents can then be uploaded to document management software and kick-off automated workflow for streamlined processing. The digitized images can be retrieved from a computer or mobile device when needed in the future.
Top 5 Benefits of Distributed Scanning
- Minimize the time it takes for documents and data to be captured, distributed, shared.
- Accelerate business processes by scanning documents at point of origin making them immediately available for workflow automation.
- Reduce operating costs by eliminating transportation fees, minimizing real estate needs and reallocating labor to focus on your core service offerings.
- Eliminate capital expenditures with cloud-based document management software vs. in-house document management systems
- Improve information sharing and collaboration with remote users
Scenario: Centralized vs. Distributed Capture with Loan Approvals
Mortgage loan applications were shipped to and scanned at a central scanning center run by a financial institution. While this enabled some economies of scale, it forced branch offices to ship a lot of paper creating inefficiencies, delays in the loan approval process, lost or damaged applications during shipment and high shipping costs. One mortgage broker estimated he was spending tens of thousands of dollars a year on courier costs alone. Using a distributed capture solution, branch offices can now scan documents on-site and upload them to their cloud-based document management software with workflow automation for faster loan approval, improved customer service, and lower costs.
From Costly Central Delays to Timely Local Processing
Today’s scanning and document management technologies are allowing organizations, no matter how small or large, to capture information better, faster and cheaper, which can lead to competitive advantages beyond cost cutting and efficiency gains. If you ship and scan documents centrally, it may be time to evaluate distributed capture and consider migrating to a distributed scanning model.