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Capture Workflow: A Response to Business Process Trends

Considerations for Implementing a Technology-Based Solution

By Samuel Schrage

Recent shifts in the economy, a more competitive global environment and a multitude of other factors including changes in federal regulations related to accounting reform and investor protection have steadily contributed to an increasingly complex marketplace. The need to stay fiscally healthy while operating within this intricate framework has led many companies to examine the structure of their existing business processes. The recent trend of business process improvement has fueled the emergence of what is described within ECM industry circles as capture workflow technology. Capture workflow technology has made it possible to take a more holistic approach to the continuous improvement of existing processes by integrating capture within the enterprise, elevating it from a front-end application to a critical piece of the comprehensive business process.

Traditionally, workflow has been designed to manage the routing and approval in one or many of a company’s business processes. In the past, capture – the front end to every process – has not been considered as part of the workflow due to the predefined and unyielding nature of the operation. Using today’s emerging technologies, companies have the choice to incorporate capture as an integrated and integrated part of their workflow defining the steps that match their existing business processes. This freedom to integrate capture at almost any point allows companies to re-examine and optimize the flow of information throughout their organization according to their existing needs, creating complete processes that are interactive and include capture rather than begin after capture.

Emerging technology has extended the term “workflow” beyond electronic document routing and approval to now encompass document classification, data capture and processing. This new breed of workflow technology in the document and data management marketplace, called capture workflow, gives companies the opportunity to create custom document image and data workflows to virtually eliminate the need for manual sorting, routing and manual data entry. As a result, stacks of documents can be scanned and automatically identified and sorted, document sets can be created and data can be captured and validated. Documents that violate existing business practices can be routed to a supervisor for review and complete document sets can be sent for approval. A number of file types (both document images and data) can be exported to any number of desired locations such as an accounting, ERP, back-end or document management system. With capture workflow being an integrated part of the business process and with applications such as document management, ERP or back-office solutions, accuracy improves and automation reaches its peak.

To successfully maximize the new functionality provided by capture workflow technology, companies must be mindful of several factors. When considering a capture workflow implementation, it is critical to manage internal expectations. For example, if employees are not able to manually identify and route different types of documents, then it is unreasonable to expect a capture workflow solution to be able to identify and route the documents. But just like a manual process, the capture workflow process must have excellent exception handling capabilities.

Companies with well-documented business processes are finding they can implement a capture workflow solution more effectively than their counterparts. An “easier” implementation is not specific to a particular type of industry or vertical market but rather open to any company that fully understands the interactive qualities of the technology and how it can improve their existing business processes. Those who embrace the interactive qualities of the technology are better positioned to flow the benefits of the solution to their employees and also tend to maximize the opportunities for integration with their existing capture, routing and approval processes. The technology itself also proves a platform for easier implementation by lending itself to rapid deployment, in-field training and modification with GUI-based options as opposed to relying on complex programming.

An important part of enhancing existing business processes with a capture workflow piece is conducting a thorough site survey. Attention to detail at this stage pays off in efficiency gains of ten-fold further down the line, beyond implementation to actual processing. During the site survey, existing business processes are observed in detail from beginning to end by the capture workflow vendor – such as if documents come in the door from the U.S. postal service, express mail, fax, internet or another source, how the incoming document types and formats are sorted and routed for processing, how documents are scanned, what current data entry techniques are employed, what existing databases are available to use to perform automatic lookups and more. At this point, the vendor is looking for opportunities to automate and facilitate the evolving business processes wherever possible. Interviews are conducted at each point of document or data contact to confirm processing observations and current departmental approval and routing procedures.

During the survey it is often found that business processes are initiated based on the knowledge of a worker rather than any documented procedures. Established business rules are reviewed for each data field that will be captured, singularly and in aggregate – for example, if specialized business conditions are met, documents can be automatically routed for approval. If these established business conditions are not met, an alternate routing path may be required, such as if a supervisor needs to review purchase orders greater than a certain amount prior to approval. A representative sample of actual documents and data tables is collected. The current specifications of a company’s auxiliary equipment and infrastructure are reviewed, to include servers, scanners and network setup. Output requirements are also reviewed.

Prior to vendor selection (and the subsequent site survey), a company needs to consider the total cost of solution ownership including training, implementation and technical support costs in addition to comparing solution specifications such as accuracy and processing speed. Cost of ownership calculations should also include the ease of which the solution can adapt and grow as a company’s business processes change. One measure of adaptability can be the amount of GUI-based options the solution contains rather than relying on coding for changes.

Armed with this technology, companies can now conceptualize and implement their business processes starting at the point of data capture rather than post-capture. Integrating capture workflow as a mainstream solution provides faster and more accurate information to the business processing system for review, approvals and decision-making. Companies considering implementation should remember that a minimal amount of customization should be necessary to integrate the software with existing business processes, yet still providing them with maximum flexibility to adapt their solution to existing business processes. Changes they can expect will include less paper-handling, less manual decision-making and less manual data collection – all of which will improve the process efficiency of the organization. A company can anticipate integrating the software with their existing active directories, current applications, ERP or back-office systems. This allows an organization to enhance their existing business rules with the increases in efficiency that can only be provided by automation. A good solution will be easily customizable to mimic and support a company’s existing business processes – rather than the other way around.

With a complete workflow from data capture through the disposition of the same data and having the whole process an integrated process of their mainstream applications, the customer can tweak the solution to perform more automated decision-making. Companies can add additional features or “tools” to the workflow without complex programming. For example, a mortgage company may decide to route all loan packets of a certain value to a specific department to be expedited or for additional review. By having the capture solution part of the workflow, it can classify the document correctly and then lift the data accurately from complex mortgage documents allowing for better and automated decision making. Not only could this step be added after the original implementation, but the value at which the loan packet is selected to be rerouted could be changed at any time, according to business practices that may be driven by market conditions. Additional workflows can also be created to extend the benefits originally realized with the initial application throughout the organization.

In today’s new workflow environment, maintenance of a workflow solution includes addressing new documents, performing in-line training of new documents for the classification process and changing authorization approvals and routing to optimize automation. Therefore, the more options for change and customization that are made available to the end-users without programming, the quicker the user will be able to adapt and maintain the solution according to their existing business processes. Proper training of new employees, documenting changes in business practices and managing software upgrades to include taking advantages of new features are also part of maintaining an effective solution All of these factors add to a lower cost of ownership.

Doing your research can help you understand just how much an automated capture workflow solution can improve your existing business processes and help you leave the inefficiencies of manual processing behind. Many resources are available to help you make the best implementation decision for your organization – including white papers, case studies, Webinars and software demonstrations.

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AnyDoc Case Study

Automated Infiniworx® Solution Improves Patient Care

Södra Älvsborg Hospital, located in Borås, Sweden, serves more than 50,000 patients in the emergency room annually and has a total of 634 beds. To manage the nearly 4 million patient records generated each year by the hospital and its clinic system, Södra Älvsborg Hospital selected AnyDoc®Patient Records™ to automate the classification, routing and indexing of its records. The solution was offered by KIBI Sverige AB, a certified AnyDoc Software reseller.

AnyDoc Patient Records, powered by Infiniworx, uses a multi-level approach to automatically classify, route and index the approximately 300 different document types comprising the patient records at Södra Älvsborg Hospital. The solution also increases document security during processing, replace error-prone manual activities with automated processes and reduce the opportunity for misfiled documents.

“We were impressed with the demonstrated ability of AnyDoc Patient Records to meet our needs. The joint proposal team of AnyDoc and KIBI was professional and very quickly understood exactly what we needed to accomplish,” said Per Ljungblad, director of archive management at Södra Älvsborg Hospital. He continued, “AnyDoc Patient Records will allow us to be even more responsive to our patients by providing quick and accurate access to patient records when needed.” SAS also expects to see gains in productivity by minimizing human error.

Currently, bins of paper records arrive at the hospital from 15 different clinics. Employees must manually identify, sort and index the 300 unique types of documents into only one of nine categories, making document retrieval more difficult. With AnyDoc
Patient Records in place, each incoming document is automatically classified as one of the 300 existing types of documents, grouped with the appropriate patient record and then indexed – saving time and increasing accuracy and confidentiality.

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AnyDoc Case Study

AnyDoc Software Capture Workflow Solutions

With AnyDoc Software’s Infiniworx®, a revolutionary capture workflow development environment, you can create and manage nearly any document capture, classification and processing workflow – without complex programming. After selecting the drag-and drop GUI tools desired, parameters can be easily defined using quick-select menus. Simply link the tools together according to your existing business practices and click to start the job.

Infiniworx-based solutions such as AnyDoc®REMIT™ with enhanced Check 21 can free you from manual processing headaches and costs – allowing you to increase your operational efficiency, lower your turnaround time and improve the accuracy of data entering your accounting or ERP system. This means you can deposit your checks faster and eliminate the negative impact of unpredictable float times. With AnyDocREMIT and Check 21 you’ll be able to:

• Balance check totals to remittances automatically
• Verify remittance statement subtotals and columnar math
• Automatically capture remittance data without manual data entry
• Transmit encrypted Check 21 files for deposit and receive electronic acknowledgement
• Virtually endorse checks for deposit

Additional solutions include the management of patient records, incoming invoices, mortgage loan processing, check and payment or donation coupon processing and digital mailroom applications. The solutions capable of being generated are only limited by the imagination of the workflow designer.

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AnyDoc Software offers innovative document and data capture and classification solutions that have been the industry standard since 1991. Thousands of companies worldwide rely on AnyDoc solutions to eliminate millions of hours of manual data entry while improving productivity and accuracy. Any paper form or document including invoices, remittances and checks, EOBs, and much more can be automatically processed with full data extraction without the need for manual keying. Clients include: Sony Pictures Entertainment, Circuit City, BlueCross BlueShield, the U.S. Census, LeasePlan and Zürcher Kantonalbank. Additional information is available by visiting www.anydocsoftware.com or contacting AnyDoc Software at info@anydocsoftware.com or calling 800-775-3222 and asking for Client Services.

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Samuel Schrage is President of AnyDoc Software, Inc.
He can be reached at 813-222-0414.

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