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In a Paperless World

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DQI Bureau
New Update

Consider these statistics from vendors and research agencies about documents that flow into an organization:

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  • The average document is copied, either physically or electronically, nine to 11 times at a cost of about $18. 
  • Documents cost about $20 to file.
  • Retrieving a misfiled document costs about $120.
  • There are many hidden and not-so-hidden costs associated with unmanaged documents, including costs for onsite and offsite storage, electronic media, physical plant (e.g., filing cabinets and floor space), postal and other distribution costs.

The math is there for you to do and the conclusion is clear–it  is an uneconomical proposition to manage paper documents.

And this is where IT can help out. Actually, a solution for paperless offices has been around for nearly four years now; but it is a fact of life that very few persons and organizations have wholeheartedly embraced the solutions that IT has to offer. This is in spite of constant and continuing alerts about new and improved technology hitting the market.

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“We have witnessed a productivity gain in excess of 20% after 



the DMS installation” 
Madhabi Puri Buch, head of products and services, ICICI Bank

Well, the concept of a paperless office is now finally coming to India and is being accepted and recognized by financial institutions (FIs) and contact centers. The concept is called DMS, otherwise called document management system. Through DMS, an organization can manage documents through their lifecycle–that is right from their origin, creation, review, storage and finally destruction. The system helps companies manage files regardless of the type (text, graphics, binary, sound, etc.) by saving them to a database in an electronic format. The basic technique used in DMS is imaging, where a scanned image of a document is saved in the relevant location for quick retrieval. DMS is an extension of imaging technology, wherein data is used in a digitized format and further used for workflow process. 

Application areas



Banks are making optimal use of DMS for various activities such as archiving documents and managing photo identity cards.

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It is essential for a bank to have the correct photographs and signatures of its customers on the right card. The automation of this process diminishes the chances of erroneous handling. As Salil Krishna, vice-president of the IT department at UTI Bank says: “This system has helped us reduce errors in our photocard processing techniques. It has, therefore, not only helped in increasing the speed and the reliability of the process, but also halved labor cost.” 

There are other advantages too for banking institutions–document imaging can speed up the time taken to transfer money from one bank to another. In fact, a three-day long transaction is cut down to just two hours. It is as simple as scanning the relevant cheque at one bank and having it transferred to the other bank via the Internet or Intranet (in case of an internal transaction) for clearing. Needless to say, the process saves on postal costs, and reduces customer grievances and manual operational hazards.

HDFC Corporation is another example of an FI using DMS, which is integrated within its ERP structure, for executing tasks like processing of fixed deposit and loan application forms. At HDFC, documents from other branches or client groups are first scanned, then indexed and later key-entered to create a database.

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ICICI Bank has also opted for a DMS solution, using it for trade services, account opening processes and tax management services. And bank officials say that the bank has witnessed a reduction in operational hazards. The bank has a special hub installed at Lower Parel in Mumbai where a workforce of 1,300 employees are responsible for sending confirmations for all transactions to the branch and to the customer via e-mail, thus saving on time and also standardizing the entire process.

The return on investment is apparent as all these tasks are hands-off tasks, which in turn means reduced errors and time. In fact, the time taken to carry out these tasks has come down from five hours to two hours after the implementation of a DMS solution. “We have had a productivity gain in excess of 20% after the DMS installation,” says Madhabi Puri Buch, head of products and services at ICICI Bank. 

ICICI reportedly uses the imaging system of Delhi-based Newgen Technologies and the workflow system of Mumbai-based Staffware. The bank is actively using DMS for trade services, account opening processes and tax management services.

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Though banks use DMS more as a standalone system, integrating it with the core-banking framework could add more flavor to their operations, adding to a benefit score of 70% to 80%. Dilip Ganeriwal, chief executive officer of Dess Technologies, says: “These systems can start from Rs 25,000 on a standalone system and scale up to several crores for an enterprise solution consisting of thousands of users.”

Another industry that requires back-office automation on a large scale is call centers and BPO companies. Take, for instance, eFunds International. The company is at the forefront of technology and provides services in the areas of IT consulting, business process management and electronic payment services to financial services companies worldwide. eFunds uses a DMS product from FileNet Corporation, a US-based company. The solution has the ability to scan and automatically create separate databases for various documents. It makes use of the OCR (optical character recognition) technology, which allows transfer of paper documents into editable computer files. Any erroneous processing is handled by a double check done on the database by the manual taskforce. eFunds also uses DMS for scanning financial forms that are sent by its clients. These are then checked once again and recreated as a database by data entry operators.

In fact, it is the fast-burgeoning call center and BPO industry that is offering a growth path for DMS. As opposed to banks and FIs, which are not mushrooming overnight and where existing functions are being handed over to DMS, the BPO industry is young and growing by the day. It thus offers immense scope for popularizing the use of

DMS.

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So, whom should you approach for a DMS solution? There are several companies–both domestic and international–offering these solutions. Some of the big players are Xerox Modicorp, Abby Inc., Banque, Datamatics, Legato Systems, Vignette, Newgen Software and Patni Computers. The smaller ones include Dess Technologies, C-DAC R&D, Cyberdesk, Relsoft, Interwoven and Computhink, among others.

Knowledge workers now waste 20% to 30% of their working hours managing document-based information outside automated systems and this is expected to grow

Before You Go In… The Benefits Summary
Answers to the following questions may prove useful: 
 l What is the current volume of documents and how is it increasing–monthly, quarterly or annually?   l Lowered document capture and distribution costs including saving on labor.
 l What is the document’s lifecycle currently? Classify, categorize, and analyze.   l Avoidance of data duplication and an increase in data integrity. 



 l What are the document’s workflow requirements? How is it used across business processes?   l Promotion of data reuse, leading to lower costs and time for document production, re-purposing and distribution. 



 l How do you capture information from documents? And how is this information transmitted? What is the traffic involved?   l Wider and easier access to documents to facilitate knowledge worker pro-ductivity. 
 l How many hands does the document pass through?   l Speed in transaction and document processing.



 l If the document is lost, what is the overall cost to business?    

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What’s DMS got to do with KM?



DMS is, in fact, a valuable part of knowledge management (KM) systems specific to areas like research, media and law firms, where scanning and storing receive high priority. In reality, before implementing KM, it is imperative that these companies set up a DMS. Its obvious benefits include establishing clear conventions in naming documents, categorizing document types, controlling versions of the documents and tracking their history. 

Areas where DMS is solely used for transaction purposes need not fit into a KM framework. Few such areas are contact centers, legal professions, and the banking and financial services sector, where DMS exists only as a support function for the main business of a company. Let’s consider a case where a customer of a bank requires a letter of credit from the bank for an import function. Conventionally, the bank would be required to scrutinize documents according to RBI guidelines, input the data into the system and then send a swift-message to the overseas exporter’s bank by post or courier. One can now imagine the speedy transaction of this process with DMS in place.

DMS at Work
Company Name Application Areas
Transworks  Uses Newgen’s Omniflow product for allocating and distributing tasks to agents, generating individual reports and reminders. Does not have a workflow. System is completely automated
ICICI Bank  Uses Newgen’s imaging solution and Staffware’s workflow solution for trade services, account opening processes and tax management services. Central hub includes 1,300 people in workflow 
eFunds Uses Filenet’s solution to scan various CVs and automatically creates a separate database with relevant records in the system using OCR. On account of technological constraints, financial forms scanned into the system are recreated into a database by data entry operators
HDFC  Uses in-house Imaging solutions for scanning and indexing of application forms, fixed deposit and loan application forms. Also uses this application to scan newspapers and circulate around to the office staff as an unofficial activity
UTI Uses DMS to reduce errors in photocard processing techniques, archiving of documents, increasing the speed and the reliability of the process and also importantly halving the labor cost. Retrieval made easy by in-built search engines

A DMS future



Evidently, DMS is becoming the need of the day for enterprises handling significant and exhaustive back-office operations. Though some people are reluctant to use DMS applications on account of readability issues, the others are careful about the same and use good quality paper and high resolution (about 1200 dpi) scanning techniques. This is one segment that can really take a calling now even by media companies, publications and the press. Enterprises with distributed or high-volume batch capture needs will find proven solutions from dominant vendors.

According to Debra Logan, Gartner: “The potential cost-savings impact of integrated document management is rising as information hyperflow grows. Knowledge workers now waste 20% to 30% of their working hours managing document-based information outside automated systems and this is expected to grow.” Enterprises can save at least half of the time and money now spent on non-automated DM. “Implementing an enterprise-wide DM system can thus provide an ample RoI, paying for itself in two to three years,” avers Logan.

Managing documents in the context of enterprise content management is thus emerging as an important area. With content increasingly being served up with a Web interface, Web content management is also a growth area. The Web content management (WCM) and integrated document management (IDM) markets began to merge in 2001, but both continue to exist as separate sets of functionality and separate markets. By year-end 2003, few vendors will be offering standalone document management products, predicts

Gartner.

Enterprises will increasingly turn to vendors that offer an array of comprehensive content management capabilities, including integrated document management, imaging, workflow, integrated document archival and retrieval system, records management, Web content management and digital asset management support. Corroborating this, Gartner predicts that by year-end 2005, more than 50% of the remaining IDM vendors will offer a majority of comprehensive content management capabilities.

RINKI BANERJI in Mumbai

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