Key Features- Scanning/Capture Applications for Law Firms

What should a Law Firm look for in a scanning application? Here are some suggestions:

Barcode Separator Functionality - Separator pages allow the user to insert a specially coded page between documents in a stack. Once scanned, the software uses these pages to determine when a document begins and ends. This allows the scanning of many documents at once, rather than scanning one at a time. There is also the notion of "intelligent separators" which allow you to encode data on the separator page, such as case, matter, attorney, etc.

Image Enhancement - These tools, such as Kofax's Virtual Rescan, will automatically adjust contrast and brightness, remove problematic colors, remove speckles, and thicken fonts. If you want the highest quality image, with the least amount of scanning operator intervention, this is a key component to any scanning system.

Indexing - The application should allow for the entry of case and matter information, and this should allow you to automatically rename the files based on these values, and create folders. Rapid indexing features should allow quick entry of these fields for multiple documents.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) - OCR takes the scanned image, and converts it to a text-based format. When looking at this feature, it should allow conversion to the following 3 formats: Adobe Image + Hidden Text, Word/WordPerfect and plain text. If you can test the software, see what type of results it provides with several sample firm documents.

Export - Depending on how you are managing your cases, the application should offer maximum flexibility on where you can direct the end product. I have several firms that use multiple case/document management systems, depending on the case type and size. Folder Export, Summation, Alchemy, SharePoint, etc should all be supported.

Bates Numbering - Get rid of that old stamp!! Most Advanced Capture Applications provide the ability to digitally Bates Stamp your documents. Huge time saver.

Obviously this is just a starting point, but these are some necessary features that will make processing documents easier, and much more efficient.

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Why buy a Document Management or ECM System?

The Business World is a rapidly changing entity, and technology helps adapt to these changes quickly and will help a company keep its competitive advantage. Paper has always been an inefficient medium for conducting business processes, and recently has become a key focus for Business Process Improvement (BPI) initiatives. So what are the main reasons for a company or organization to move towards the paperless environment?
Below are the two main categories:

Operation Efficiency and Business Process Improvement

-Through the use of a DM/ECM system, operational costs can be reduced. A primary example of this is floor space. A 4 drawer file cabinet takes up about 8 square feet of floor space. Multiply this by the number of cabinets and what you pay per square foot on a lease, and this can be a significant waste of dollars. Along this same vein we can examine the costs of handling and process paper documents. It is estimated that a single file folder can cost $25-50 to create, and that a lost file has a cost of $125 – 300 (depending on the cost of the employee time and recreation costs). This is a small sampling of how Operational costs can be reduced.

-Using a digital repository can improve productivity. This is an obvious benefit. Any time you can reduce the time required to perform a required task, that time can be applied elsewhere. A basic online search for a customer file requires about 5 seconds. To accomplish the same information lookup with a physical file cabinet can take 10 – 25 minutes, or perhaps even days if the file is held in offsite storage. This is just for basic lookups, and not complex searches, which could take weeks if performed through the physical file system.

-A DM/ECM system can provide improved customer service. Take for example a large HMO Claims Department. Members call with questions about claims, and with the old paper system, they were put on hold until the physical claim could be retrieved. Now, it is viewed instantly, and information passed within minutes.

-Managing customer documents efficiently can lead to improved customer retention and acquisition. The ability to manage contracts, expiration dates, equipment lists, etc. quickly and easily, along with improved customer service, will ultimately result in enhanced retention and acquisition if managed correctly.

All of the above will result in improved operating margins, and ultimately, increased profits.

Risk Reduction

-DM/ECM systems are imperative to those organizations subject that are subject to compliance laws and regulations. The ability to produce records, provide documentation during audits, track access to documents, and track transactions is now required in certain business verticals. Financial Firms, Non-profits, Healthcare, Government and others are now required by law to fully manage and track many operations within their business. ECM/DM system vendors have focused on these requirements and the law to ensure compliance when it comes to retaining and tracking documentation and access to records.

-A document repository can reduce litigation exposure for an organization. The ability to retain and recall documentation and records at a moments notice can be imperative in any legal situation.

-Document Security is often an overlooked area within an organization’s security plan. An online system gives the ability to track access, changes, additions, deletions, etc. For more info on ECM/DM security go to the following articles: http://www.scanguru.com/page.php?9 and http://www.scanguru.com/page.php?10 .

-An ECM/DM system allows for the backup of critical files. What would happen to an organization if their file room was destroyed by a fire or flood? Business Continuity Planning is a critical theme today, allowing an organization to insure that a disaster of any kind will not bring business to a halt. Scanning paper files provides the ability to backup and restore key business documentation.


For more information on the above topics, visit http://www.scanguru.com/ .

Key Factors for ECM Project Success

Many of the Document Management and ECM System Implementations fail right out of the gate due to several factors. Most of them revolve around planning, and project definition and focus. Below are some key areas that are imperative to a project’s success:

Infrastructure
A huge part of the planning for a DMS/ECM System is examining your organization’s network infrastructure and ensuring it is ready. Implementing a system with inadequate resources can provide wrong end user perceptions. Focus should be placed on the below items:

-PC Clients – the client PC’s should have appropriate horsepower to handle their specific tasks. Obviously, basic search clients will not require extensive resources such as memory or hard drive space, but a scanning or OCR station may.
-Network – It is time to get rid of those hubs your brother in-law gave you, and upgrade to 100MB, or in some cases (at the server), Gigabit technology.
-Server – adequate memory, processor and storage is a necessity.
-Backup- often an overlooked area, planning for system backup, now and in the years beyond is very important.


Simplicity
There are so many technologies out there that are incredible, powerful, and just way too complex for any normal human. If it is too difficult to use, end users will not accept the technology, and inefficiency will result. The goal is to make the user interface as simple as possible, but have the necessary complexity behind the scenes to achieve your goals. eCopy is a great example of this principal. On the surface, it is a simple touch screen panel, but behind the scenes, many complex operations can occur without end user intervention.

Acceptance
So many times I hear prospects say, “My people will never use this”. The move to ECM is not only a move in technology, but a change in process and attitude. The benefits and power of the system need to be explained and accepted by management and the end users. There needs to be a commitment to the technology and the change, as well as a setting of expectations. I see so many projects fail because they are not given the chance to succeed, and are doomed right out of the gate due to a lack of support from management. Never accept “We will try it and see how it goes”.



Pilot Program
Always, always start small and grow. Phased implementations work the best, by starting with a certain department or document, and then expanding. This gives the end users the ability to move slowly in the right direction, and it gives IT the ability to identify any problems or areas that were missed in planning. It also allows slow cultural change, which is so important to overall success of the projects. Users can take their time, and slowly adapt to the technology in a certain facet of their daily duties, rather than being “thrown into the fire” with a full move into a paperless environment.


The keys to success for an ECM or DMS are numerous, but the items listed above are key focus areas for the success of any system.

What to Look for When Buying a Scanner

The “Paperless” office is the hot topic today, and there are so many choices when it comes to scanning hardware, it can be difficult at best to sort through all the models and features to make the right choice. Below is a breakdown of the different scanner features, and an explanation of what they mean in layman’s terms:

Scanning Speed

Scanning speed is a main area of focus when researching scanning hardware. A scanner’s speed is usually directly proportional to its price, but you have to ask yourself one question: How long do you have to accomplish your scanning tasks? If you buy that cheapo scanner at an office products store that scans at 8 pages per minute, good luck in getting those 10 file cabinets scanned. Another note to mention is that all the manufacturers rate their scanner speeds at 200 DPI. If you need high quality images, or are performing OCR, 300 DPI will probably be necessary. This will significantly slow down your scanning speed, as will color scanning and duplex (2-sided) scanning on some models.

Document Feeder Capacity

The document feeder provides you the ability to load anywhere from 1-1000+ sheets into the scanner. The feeder capacity you require all depends on the volume of paperwork you are scanning, and if you are using an intelligent capture application that provides the ability to use separator sheets to split documents automatically. If you are a Law Firm that routinely scans 200 page documents, then that is a good starting point for your feeder size requirements. This allows you to load your documents, and then let the scanner do the work.

Another focus area related to the feeder is the maximum and minimum paper sizes. If you intend to scan legal size paper or insurance cards, make sure the scanner can handle them.

Daily Duty Cycle

The Duty Cycle (DC) is a rating of the scanner’s durability, and defines just how much paper you can feed through the hardware in a day. If you are scanning 3000 pages per day, you do not want to buy a small desktop scanner with a DC of 750. What happens if you exceed this number? Nothing to begin with, but as time goes on the wear and tear on the unit will begin to show in the form of jams, misfeeds, skewing, etc. This number is also tied to the replacement of consumables (rollers and pads). If you continually exceed the DC, you will more than pay for a higher level scanner in consumables over time.

Scanning Mode

Most scanners nowadays can scan both sides of your document, but there are still some lingering models that will only do simplex scanning. Also, if you have the requirement to scan color documents, ensure that color scanning is supported.

Warranty and Service

All warranties are not created equal. Some scanner manufacturers provide “depot” type service where you have to ship your scanner for warranty service. Others will provide onsite warranty service for a specified period of time. Along with this, the time period on the warranty also varies everywhere from 30 days, to a full year. Scanner service is a separate purchase, and in some cases, can be a shock to the purchaser. A basic service plan on a mid-range scanner can cost over $1000 per year. Get an advanced plan that provides Preventative Maintenance visits, and you could be in the $1500 - $2000 range, depending on your model. Get all the details up front, and some manufacturers will provide multi-year discounts on service.

Others

Definitely investigate the software that comes bundled with your scanner. Many of the manufacturers now provide image processing software (Kofax VRS) and scanning utilities, along with Optical Character Recognition Software. Also, if you require the ability to scan to PDF, make sure that is an output option with the scanner you purchase.

Document Management and Security - Continued

In my previous article, I discussed the general security tenets and how to apply them to the planning stages of an ECM/Document Management Project. The focus of this article will be some additional focus areas when examining a system, and what to look for in a vendor.

When evaluating an ECM or Document Management System on its security features and functions, there are five key areas:

Identification
This is the process in which the system identifies the user. Most DMS/ECM Systems have the ability to identify users upon access to the system. This step is key to the below areas of focus.

Authentication
This step verifies and validates the user’s identity. Most ECM/DM software provides the ability to authenticate to standard user repositories (Windows Active Directory and LDAP), but this functionality is usually an additional module, or specialized product.

Accountability
More and more legislation is being passed to ensure organizations can provide audit trails and detailed logs on user activity and record activity within an ECM system. Accountability is just that, the ability of a system to provide a record of all transactions and activity within the repository. This is critical for organizations within certain verticals (health care, finance, etc.). Once again, the majority of products on the market include some sort of basic logging, but there are usually add on modules for “enhanced logging and auditing”.

Authorization
After a user has been authenticated, the system will grant them the appropriate rights and permissions within the repository. This is a critical requirement, as you would not want Operations personnel accessing Accounting or HR files. Some systems provide even further granular control to not only restrict access, but also to restrict the use of certain functions and features within the application. This is accomplished through the use of roles or groups to which users can be assigned.

Privacy
Of all the areas listed, this is usually most difficult, and requires security controls outside of the ECM/DM system. Privacy ensures that all user activity remains private and confidential. This can be accomplished through encryption of all traffic to and from the system, and proper security controls on the workstation and server.


Security is often overlooked when selecting and planning for an ECM/DM implementation. The five areas above comprise key areas of focus when evaluating ECM/DM technologies.

Stephen Boals, CISSP
sboals@scanguru.com
http://www.scanguru.com/

Planning for Document Management and Scanning

When companies are in the planning stages for the implementation of scanning and document management systems, there are several technical infrastructure areas of focus that need to be considered. Most organizations will need to make an investment in their infrastructure to ensure program success and optimal performance. Below are some considerations:

•Storage – Storage planning is critical to provide adequate space and meet future growth requirements for the system. A typical 8 ½ x 11 page will require 50K of storage space. A typical 4 drawer file cabinet contains approximately 10,000 pages, and will require 500 MB of storage on a server. With these benchmarks, you can easily estimate the amount of storage space required. When performing these calculations, make sure and examine your document types to see if they have images, logos, pictures, etc. This will add to the baseline, and increase the amount of storage required. Test scanning of documents is always a good idea to see what the actual size of your image files will be using your scanning hardware of choice.

•Backup – An area often overlooked, a sufficient backup system will be necessary. There are many different philosophies on how to backup a system, but one thing is for sure, larger organizations with a large volume of paper will require a dedicated system for backup. Some options for small offices include CD/DVD, USB Hard drives or a network attached storage device at another location. For large organizations, tape drives and even tape changer systems will be required. Ensure that the device has the ability to backup the entire document repository.

•Network – If you are running your network on 10Mbit hubs, it is probably time to upgrade. Remember, all the facets of a document management system will be transferring large files back and forth between servers, client workstations, MFD scanners and the backup system. You want to invest in the fastest possible network infrastructure to ensure high performance.•Server – That old NT 4.0 server your brother gave you is not going to cut it. Processor speed is not that critical, and any recent server technology will serve well in this environment. Ensure that the server has at least 1GB of memory, and invest in a RAID Disk subsystem for fast access to the files, and redundancy.

•Clients – If you are still running Windows 95, it is time to get up to date. Any modern XP workstation will suffice, and if you have capture workstations that are doing intense document conversion processes (OCR), or are attached to high speed scanners, invest in fast processors and as much memory as you can afford.

Investing the time, resources and capital in a Document Management/Scanning system also requires a modern network to work properly. The investment in modernizing your organizations IT Infrastructure will provide a larger payoff in enhanced system performance, and confidence that the system will be able to grow to its full potential.

Document Management and Security

As with most technical endeavors, it seems that with the majority of Document Management projects, security is always an afterthought. Paper documents are an important asset to an organization, and once they are moved into the digital realm, even more attention should be placed on their security. Would you place an unlocked file cabinet with all your confidential customer information in the middle of Grand Central Station? This article will be the first on how to involve Information Security (InfoSec) from the beginning of your Document Management/ECM project, to the end and in implementation and maintenance.
To start with, as in any technical project, the three basic tenets of InfoSec should be considered: Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability.

Confidentiality

The basic premise of the Confidentiality tenet is to prevent unintentional or intentional disclosure of information. In the planning stages, steps need to be taken to arrange the correct controls on your digital documents. The need exists to analyze the types of documents that will be stored online, and who needs to access them. Any system that is being considered to manage the security of the documents should have the ability to control access, rights and privileges. Care should be taken to mitigate risk, and protect all confidential information.

Integrity

What does integrity mean? In a nutshell, a system will be required to prevent unauthorized alteration of the data. In the case of a Document Management System, the data includes the image or file and the information about that file (metadata). There needs to be the ability to control who can alter data (update a record), and who cannot based on specific users or groups. In some industries (financial), the ability to write data to unalterable media will be required so changes cannot be made. In planning, it is necessary to examine the Integrity tenet, and insure the system you examine has all the capabilities to prevent alteration.

Availability

What good is a system if you cannot access your information? Availability goes way beyond just having the information available to users. It is what happens behind the scenes to insure the greatest possible redundancy and in-depth disaster recovery planning. It includes everything from having a redundant disk subsystem, to having a restore plan in the case of a disaster. Availability planning is paramount to the success of any Document Management system.
These three basic tenets of InfoSec must be a requirement of any Document Management or Enterprise Content Management project. They must be carried through all the project phases: Planning, Implementation and Maintenance.
Stephen Boals, CISSP sboals@scanguru.com http://www.scanguru.com/