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R.I.P. Production Capture

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Recently, Jeff Shuey pondered if Product vs Distributed vs Workgroup Scanning were all the same. I think they are and perhaps to be a bit provocative, I think they are all irrelevant.

These terms (Production, Distributed, Ad-Hoc, etc) are all legacy references to the way our industry started. Specifically, "where is the scanner going to be located and what is capable throughput of the scanner itself?" Note the emphasis on the device and location, but not the business process.

Today, not only do we capture from a myriad of devices that didn't even exist 10 years ago, but we have matured the solutions to accommodate for where the information originates. To illustrate, no longer do loan origination documents have to be captured after the loan is funded. Instead, business critical documents can be introduced into the business process, helping to drive the workflow, not just archive its artifacts for posterity. In the case of loan origination, capture solutions can help fund loans faster and take days out of the process.

Perhaps more importantly, today’s capture solutions are simple enough to afford front office personnel to transactionally capture information while with their customers. Imagine that, the subject matter expert actually doing the collection of key information and capturing of the document images themselves. No longer is it necessary to “batch up” the day’s documents, then have a dedicated employee feed a 200 image per minute “production” scanner in the back office.

Our world today is all about instant information and real-time results, regardless of where we are at the moment. So why should contribution to a business process be characterized by historic terms defining scanner categories?

Long live transactional capture. 

Comments

Transaction is a great term for capture

Submitted by Daniel O'Leary April 21, 2011 - 10:49 AM

For the last year or so, the "scanner" I've been using most is my iPhone. I use apps like ILINX capture and Genius Scan to capture docs using the built in camera. To help and organization go paperless, start with yourself and your personal processes, and be the change you wish to see in the world.

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Not so fast on the Production Scanning Obituary

Submitted by Chuck Picard April 21, 2011 - 11:05 AM

In saying that production scanning is dead you are forgetting about some of the largest functions that happen in government. We just had Tax day and I know that tax returns at both the state and federal level aren't being scanned one taxpayer at a time. When every citizen has a device that they can fully interact with government, then production scanning will finally have its burial.

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This post and comment(s) reflect the personal perspectives of community members, and not necessarily those of their employers or of AIIM International