Document capture technology is not new. In the 1990s, many organizations that were generating or taking in large volumes of inbound documents and costly complex processes (think of insurance claims processing and credit card application processing) invested in sophisticated centralized scanning and document handling operations to digitize and automate paper-based processes. While the benefits of document capture are many (faster processing, improved quality and accuracy, reduced paper storage and tighter organizational control over critical content), the costs associated with this centralized approach made it inappropriate for all but those with the greatest paper pain point. Today, however, new advances in this proven technology enable IT organizations to take a less costly and more efficient decentralized or “distributed” approach to document capture.
Just as networked computing and the Internet forever changed how information is shared, innovations in bandwidth as well as advances in imaging hardware and software are similarly changing how, where, when and by whom information is captured. Today it is not uncommon for those who process an organization’s most time-sensitive and business-critical documents to be located in satellite offices around the globe. In many cases, the expertise provided by these remote workers is applied while the information is ingested or captured. Distributed document capture hardware and software enables such workers to capture and process information directly, ensuring that valuable business information is handled quickly, cost-effectively, accurately and securely.