By Michael Benayoun, Account Executive
October 22, 2010 - 6:49 PM
We all have seen the billboards and other ads for Chase’s new QuickDeposit application that allows customers to deposit checks without having to go to the bank by taking a photo with their mobile device (iPhone for now).
Although remote capture has been around for a few years, this is really the first large scale deployment of mobile document capture in the consumer world. With the extraordinary success of iPhone and iPad mobile devices, we can expect to see more and more use cases for mobile capture than ever before.
The benefits of mobile capture should not be questioned anymore. It is only a matter of time before all industries can finally see true innovative usage for the technology, now the consumers start to become familiar with the concept.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be handed an iPad at your first visit at the doctor to fill out your patient information, consent forms and other necessary documents that are traditionally completed on paper? And since we’re at it, why does the medical assistant still have to take photocopies of your Driver License and Insurance Card? Couldn’t she use her iPhone, capture the documents and index them before sending them straight to your patient record?
Can you imagine insurance claims adjusters being able to take photos of the claimed property, index them, and attach them to an existing claim file directly from remote locations? How many days would we save in a typical claim process?
And what about the hospitality industry? It is remote by nature. Whether we are talking about restaurant chains, hotels or even cruise lines, those organizations typically conduct business in a very distributed environment. And even if the cost of network scanners or MFPs has come down, the volume of paper at remote locations sometimes can’t justify the investment in those capture devices. A mobile capture device and a “connection” (3G or Wi-Fi, even via satellite for cruise lines) are enough for ad-hoc documents to be captured at the time they are generated and for those documents to be used in centrally-managed business processes.
Most of the iPhone apps that make use of capture technology are consumer-oriented. I am personally a heavy user of pic2shop which lets me scan any product barcode when I am out shopping, and shows me prices of the item at various local stores.
Now, it’s up to organizations to leverage these new concepts and technologies to improve their business processes and leverage mobile capture. Who will be the next true innovator like Chase in the Banking industry and introduce the next “Point. Shoot. <YOUR APP HERE>”?
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