Making Capture an On‑Ramp to Business Process Automation

Making Capture an On‑Ramp to Business Process Automation Experts Counsel Getting More Value from Existing Technology Investments page 2 inside CAPTUREA PUBLICATION inside CAPTURE Editorial Making Capture an On‑Ramp to Business Process Automation .......................................... 2 Experts Counsel Getting More Value from Existing Technology Investments Moving Capture from Departmental to Enterprise .......................................................... 5 The Future of Automating Your Business Process Automating Medical Claims Processing ......... 8 Industry Growth Offers Opportunity to Transform Document Processing Can Your Business Process Survive a “Thousand Year Disaster”? ............................ 11 Tennessee Floods and Gulf Coast Oil Spill Highlight Need for Disaster Preparedness Updated Kofax Product Trio Provide On‑Ramp to Business Processes Automation .............. 14 Latest Versions of Three New Releases Accelerate Access to Distributed Documents Pan American Life Automates Claims Processing ...................................................... 16 Solution Needed to Enable Processing of Over 300,000 Annual Insurance Claims www.kofax.com Index Making Capture an On‑Ramp to Business Process Automation Experts Counsel Getting More Value from Existing Technology Investments As the economy continues to make steps towards recovery, businesses are starting to loosen the purchasing purse strings. Pent-up demand for automation technology is helping to fuel part of this recovery, but CFOs are still closely watching where the dollars are spent. Investments must first and foremost show a tangible return, and wherever possible help to increase business productivity and reduce labor costs. For document- driven business processes, technology deployments need to facilitate—not disrupt—existing systems and methods. “There are key opportunities to streamline processes,” notes Toby Bell, a Research VP with the analyst firm Gartner. “However, the CIO recognizes that these investments must pay back quickly.” One area Bell cites as offering rapid return is with intelligent capture. “Capture is a key area where new technology can make a huge difference,” he said. “This is one of the many on-ramps to content management.” Detailing what is meant by “on-ramp” Bell is joined by Anthony Macciola, Chief Technology Officer with Kofax. In a series of discussions, the pair highlighted the many ways information is apt to enter an organization. In today’s networked environment, business must be willing to accept information whichever way it arrives and in a range of formats. “Each of these formats—electronic data, faxed forms, and paper documents are 2 Index all on-ramps,” said Bell. “However, the capture, this may require a fresh look at as archival records. Today, capture way information comes in shouldn’t really how and why documents are captured in is expected to contribute to business matter. It’s the outcome that matters.” the first place. productivity, specifically the ability to The document process experts explain Historically, document capture has been extract data at will. that understanding the journey of incoming primarily viewed as a means of archiving “Document capture is no longer just data—and the specific business processes information, without regard for business scanning artifacts,” said Bell. “It now involved—is the secret to document processes in action. For instance, payable also offers the ability to harness these process automation and maximizing invoices, loan applications, or medical many data on-ramp components and technology investments. In terms of forms were simply scanned and stored streamline them to add business value. Add intelligence to the front end; where everything is classified automatically, and you end up with a lot more business benefit.” This gets to a distinction in semantics between document capture versus capture that Macciola is quick to clarify. “Document capture is archival—for retention or shared access, once a process has already been executed,” he explained. “As opposed to capture, which is done at the beginning of a business process in order to trigger action.” For example, scanning a completed mortgage application packet for retention prior to sending the paper records for destruction or off-site for storage would be considered document capture. The individual components of that packet— the credit report arriving as an e-form, the signed loan application scanned remotely at a branch office, or the income verification statement arriving by fax—would each initiate (or continue) an on-going business process. This, Macciola explains, is what’s referred to as capture. Understanding the distinction can be key to maximizing any investment in document process automation technologies. “Many times both (document capture and capture) can happen at the same time,” Macciola said. “Capture can both trigger a business process, while at the same time documents are being scanned for retention or shared access.” And while enterprise capture has historically been viewed for its end-of- 3 Index a-business-process archiving capacity, of difficulty and a high cost for many Regulatory Compliance more and more customers are realizing organizations.” Demands Ready Content the benefits of capturing sooner in order Access to automate a business process.