A taste of what’s coming in the June 3 webinar (2 eastern), How Automated Data Capture Can Work for You . Whether you decide to attend or not, enjoy these tips.

The data capture process and technologies are surprisingly accurate and useful for organizations to get control of a large percentage of their paper documents. However, the scanners and software can become very expensive paper weights if you don’t approach the process of capture carefully. The key (which seems to be the same for all technology) is to prepare your organization to accept the capabilities of these tools and to arm yourself with how they work—and can work for you.

1. Understand 100% how you work today. I find often organizations don’t really how they are handling documents currently until a change is already introduced. This understanding is more than just a review from all the constituents; it’s also understanding the flexibility that exists in the current process. Understanding flexibility means that when you find a solution, you know where it’s going to have painful impact or smooth introduction.
2. Know your documents. First know the types of documents you want to automate, and then know in detail what you are collecting from those documents, and what you may want to collect in the future. Once you know your document types, understand their complexity. What do they look like scanned? How do you receive them? What factors might degrade the quality of the documents: hand writing, low quality imaging, watermarks, etc. Do not expect vendors to understand your documents for you, they don’t know now and won’t even know when you are up and running.
3. Know the business process associated with each document type. How fast do documents need to be entered? Is there an approval process? What happens when there is an error? Keep in mind the biggest killer of a successful data capture integration is poor planning for exceptions.
4. Establish your goals. Know what your bare minimum requirements in accuracy before human intervention are, and know where you want to get REALISTICALLY. Again, don’t expect the vendors to know for you. Part of setting your goals is determining where to start, for example first get your invoices working very well then start working on HR documents.
5. Know the tools you already have. Inventory of the supporting scanners and software is part of this step, but more importantly is finding the tools that would enhance performance and accuracy such as document type lists, databases of information for cross reference, and list of field data structures.

Integrating these advance technologies can be very successful and a great cost saver if done correctly. In order to do so you must have a clear understanding BEFORE even looking at the technology. Don’t let vendors educate you, they cater to a very broad world of document processing, and every scenario including yours has an element that makes it unique and could be the one thing that kills a project.

Chris Riley is founder of http://www.livinganalytics.com where he uses his in-depth knowledge of data capture technologies to advise clients and proselytize the value of these tools. Chris recently was the feature speaker for our webinar on March 5; Tips and Tricks to Help You Automate your Office Documents (for Effective Data Capture). Listen.