Creating Competitive Advantage with a Global, Scalable Imaging System
Organizations across every industry sector and in every size category are grappling with a similar business issue: how to manage and secure rapidly growing information assets and simultaneously make them accessible to an increasingly remote work force. How are IT professionals successfully addressing the challenge? By creating scalable image repositories that simplify secure document storage and retrieval from any location—online, offline and via the Web. And in doing so they're achieving attractive bottom-line results. By enabling fast and simplified capture and retrieval of the information assets required by knowledge workers—such as applications, forms, transactions and images—IT professionals are helping to increase organizational productivity dramatically. Consider a real-life financial services company with employees and field agents spread across five countries on three continents. The company had five discrete document imaging systems in place when it decided to re-evaluate the solutions based on rapidly changing requirements in the financial services arena. The company recognized just tracking client activities and needs was not sufficient to remain a financial services leader. They needed to proactively provide new solutions to clients before the clients asked for them, which requires frequent data analysis. The company also understood its need to be perceived as a customer service leader, highly responsive to client inquiries and requests. Good data analysis and customer service are both heavily dependent on fast availability of the right data. To ensure fast and secure access to companywide data, and to create a competitive advantage based on that data, the company consolidated its five discrete imaging systems around the world into one centralized repository, accessible to employees in every location 24 hours per day. Each of the hubs now has the full power of a production imaging system and there is one common inbound link for seamlessly capturing all types of images from anywhere in the world.
The company has also implemented automated workflow processes, enabling it to keep pace with its significant growth without increasing staff. Work that previously took hours to distribute to business units is now delivered within seconds of receipt.
Considerations for Imaging Optimization
Organizations considering a new or upgraded imaging solution like the company referenced above should consider the following questions when evaluating solutions:
- How fast do we expect to grow our business—will the solution scale as fast as we do?
- Do our decentralized offices require on-line and off-line scanning and image processing?
- Do we have remote employees who need Web-based indexing capabilities?
- Are our employees, regardless of location or time zone, able to quickly and accurately capture and retrieve information needed to do their jobs effectively?
- Can we benefit from integrating enterprise content management features like business process management or records management?
- Can we seamlessly integrate the imaging solution with our other enterprise applications and systems?
Imaging technology has made striking advances over the past few years. Organizations that rely heavily on information to successfully run their businesses can achieve a distinct competitive advantage by ensuring their imaging solution is optimized to meet the needs of their entire workforce.
A widely recognized expert in imaging and content management technologies, Chris McLaughlin is Director of Product Marketing for FileNet. He holds worldwide responsibility for the development and implementation of FileNet's go-to-market strategy for the Content Management space. Working closely with FileNet customers, industry analysts, and strategic partners, Chris continually analyzes emerging business trends and drivers in Enterprise Content Management. He is also a frequent speaker at international conferences and is a published author.
FileNet ECM products deliver a comprehensive set of capabilities that integrate with existing information systems to provide cost-effective solutions that solve real-world business problems.Since the Company's founding in 1982,more than 4,000 organizations, including more than three quarters of the Fortune 100, have taken advantage of FileNet solutions for help in managing their mission-critical content and processes