Electronic documents have proved themselves as overwhelmingly more advantageous for businesses. It is no wonder then that even paper documents are being converted into electronic forms through document imaging and processing. Document imaging involves certain issues that we consider in this article.
1. Documents are first converted into a graphic image using a scanner. Any text characters in the resulting image, though human readable, is not computer-readable. Computers can recognize only those text characters in formats like ASCII or Unicode.
2. Machine-reading of the text characters in the document image is often of critical importance, as when the document needs to be indexed by its contents. It is therefore necessary to process the scanned image further to convert the text characters into readable code such as ASCII.
3. Software tools like Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) can convert character images into computer-readable text characters. ICR is used when the characters are more variable as in the case of handwritten documents.
4. OCR is not fully reliable and can misinterpret the character images. It might be necessary to carry out an OCR cleanup process under which human editors review the results and correct any errors. This can become necessary where the documents are in poor condition.
5. Not all documents are indexed by the full text of their contents. Instead, they might be indexed by the Meta information attached to the document containing essential details about the document and its content. In such cases, the Meta information can be prepared separately in, say barcode, and attached to the document. A barcode indexer can then process this information and index the document.
6. In large global enterprises with offices spread over the world, paper documents generated at the widely dispersed locations will not be available to other offices immediately. By scanning all paper documents on receipt and processing/indexing them into a central repository, even these documents can become immediately available to other offices.
7. Document imaging has an ecological impact. By converting paper documents into electronic form, it reduces the need for paper. Paper requires cutting down of trees and deforestation has been blamed for ecological degradation. Where paper documents are converted into electronic ones, the original documents can be shredded and recycled.
8. In addition to ecological benefits, document imaging also produces benefits in the form of cost reduction. Paper requires cardboard or plastic folders to organize and store, and filing cabinets for the folders. The folders and cabinets cost money. Additionally, paper storage also requires dedicated file-handling staff to manage storage and retrieval of the documents. Document imaging can save these costs, and electronic storage devices can store huge volumes of documents in little space.
9. Above all, converting paper documents into electronic ones make it possible to integrate them into the electronic work flow. Electronic work flows are far speedier and convenient than paper-based work flows. As a result, concrete business benefits are generated.
Converting paper documents into electronic ones through document imaging has several benefits. The documents can then become part of the electronic work flows and help speed up business processes. Document imaging can help integrate dispersed offices of a global enterprise by making documents originating anywhere available everywhere. Imaging can also reduce costs of paper storage, and provide ecological benefits by reducing the need to cut trees for making paper.