Extending Capture Capabilities- Measuring the ROI (Part I)

AIIM, a leading independent non-profit organization that provides education, research, and best practices for Enterprise Content Management worldwide, recently conducted a survey of over 670 of its members between April 6th and April 30th, 2009.

The study found that investments made in document scanning and capture, when taken as part of a specific process improvement, can produce considerable cost savings in relatively short timescales—frequently paying back the initial investment in less than 12 months.

In addition, the availability of electronic documents continues to earn long-term returns in speed of information access, stronger compliance, better customer service, and considerable space-saving.

The study also indicates that most companies have already made some investment in capture technology but that they are currently scanning only a relatively small portion of the documents and forms that could usefully be imaged.

The study's key findings:

• In general productivity terms, 42% of organizations have increased productivity by 50% from their scanning and capture investment, with most achieving at least 20% improvement.
• Across the whole range of projects, 43% have achieved payback within 12 months, and two thirds within 18 months.
• Over 50% consider scanning and capture to give a "better"or "much better" ROI compared to other IT investments, with a further 40% saying "about the same."
• One-third feel they are only scanning 10% of what could usefully be scanned, and another third only 50%.
• Improved access to information is by far the biggest business driver for scanning and capture investments, followed by compliance, productivity and improved customer service.
• Nearly half have achieved savings of 40% or more on paper storage costs.
• 35% use distributed scanning, usually in addition to centralized scanning.
• 62% feel that indexing would be considerably more accurate with distributed capture closer to the process, and only 11% feel there would be staff resistance.
• Spending on scanning on capture is likely to hold its own in the next 12 months.

Click here to request a copy of this informative 16-page whitepaper in its entirety, or dial 1-888-726-7730 to speak with a PaperFree consultant directly and begin exploring the impact that document capture can have on your bottom-line today.