Electronic Forms and The Paperless Office

When we talk about business process automation and improving office efficiency, one particular factor that has come to the forefront in terms of taking things to the next level is electronic forms (E-forms). While environmental issues and physical paper costs are certainly important, E-forms have so much more to offer. Managing physical paper files is a sure-fire way to rack up unnecessary costs within your organization, especially when considering the manual labors of printing, processing, and filing those forms. So if paper is what’s slowing you down, why not eliminate it entirely from certain areas? Many organizations grasp the concept of E-forms, but there still exists a resistance to get away from paper. Why? Well there are many misconceptions that companies have as well. Whether they be in regards to customization, costs, or compliance, we’re here to fill you in as to why adopting E-forms is one of the biggest steps your organization can take in developing cost-effective automated business processes. One of our big partners in this area is Access Formatta. Formatta has been a leader in E-forms for over a dozen years now, allowing customers to effortlessly capture, manage, and exchange data across business systems. Below is a brief overview that may get a few ideas popping for how your organization could benefit from adding this powerful software.

The ability to create and customize electronic forms is one of the leading factors in bringing more people to adopt them into their organization. Building these forms so that companies are still able to acquire specific information, while also personalizing them has been huge. Every organization, in one way or another, deals with such documents on a daily basis – often times in high volume – to distribute, collect, and manage critical information and data. Whether its HR forms when hiring new employees, administration forms for students at universities, healthcare forms for physician references, or any other scenario where critical data is being submitted, E-forms have the power to take that information, integrate it with your business systems, and really put it to work.

With E-forms, we are able to eliminate the need to create a paper file, and also are able to automate business processes that oftentimes are held up by manual data entry. Eliminating or reducing manual processes is a major focus of ours as it is frequently an area where our customers recognize significant benefits. Whether we do this through E-forms, advanced capture, or other methods, process automation is where you should be focused. For a free consultation to find areas where your organization can speed things up, call us at 952-906-3022 or visit our website at www.imageexpressinc.com

Storing and Retrieving Data - It Has Always Been an Issue...

The First Step - Digitizing Those Files

According to a study done by the US EPA, the average US office worker still generates up to 10,000 pages of paper per year. While we certainly don’t take kindly to killing trees, in our business that number concerns us less on an environmental standpoint and more with how much money that amount of paper is costing our customers. In addition, a study done by our friends at Gartner found it costs on average approximately $20 to file a document. Furthering that cost, the average document is copied at least nine times. NINE. While our conversation will eventually lead us to introduce our document capture and management solutions, the first step in battling the cost of paper is through document conversion. Given the figures above, the volume of files a company may be storing can easily rise into the 100,000's, if not millions. While these files may not need to be accessed frequently (if at all), they still are required for retention and legal purposes. Many companies may look at all the files they have in their file cabinets, let alone those kept in those bankers’ boxes and thrown in the storage closet or warehouse, and immediately feel overwhelmed. That’s where we come in.

If you haven’t seen what the new production scanners on the market are capable of, it has gotten pretty ridiculous. With capabilities of scanning over 200 pages per minute and an unlimited volume for daily use, in an average work day they can convert over 100,000 images into digital format. In our service bureau we have a fleet of these scanners specifically assigned for our customers to outsource their file scanning. Once converted to digital, these documents are indexed exactly how you would search for your documents if they were in a file cabinet. Date, invoice number, customer name – any way you’d like to retrieve these documents on your desktop can be done. Just imagine, all of those bankers boxes and seemingly endless amount of paper taken out in one fell swoop. No more worries about lack of office space, no more worries about misfiled or lost documents, and no more worries of compliance. By allowing us to do the scanning, companies are able to go about their current operations without allocating resources to take care of these complex tasks.

While a large part of our service bureau deals with accounting and customer files, we also have Large Format and Microfilm and Microfiche conversion services. Large format conversions can be a tricky one for many companies simply because the scanners required to convert them to digital are not quite as scalable as standard size scanners. With our Large Format scanners, we are capable of scanning engineering, architectural, construction, or any other sheets up to 48”. Like large format, film and fiche is also an area where our customers can be a nuisance to deal with on your own. Whether they need to be converted to tiff, PDF, or any other format, high speed film/fiche file conversion has been a specialty of ours since the doors were first opened. Conversely, we are also seeing clients revert to our archive writing services whereby we take digital files and convert them to analog film as an additional form of long term storage – whichever way you’re looking to go, we can take you there.

Getting your critical data stored electronically is fast becoming one of those “I’ll do it tomorrow” tasks. Today is yesterday’s tomorrow, and the quicker you decide to tackle this necessary process, the quicker your company starts saving money. Give us a call today 952-906-3022 and lets eliminate the paper headache together.

BPO - Escaping the Costs and Pains of AP Automation

When it comes to cost effectively developing automated solutions that deal with critical aspects of a business, organizations must make sure that they are implemented and managed with a high level of security and by well-trained individuals. The art of automating business processes – and yes, it is an art – can be a daunting task even for the largest of organizations as it takes a special combination of individuals with many departments being directly affected. Especially when it comes to AP, every individual involved plays a critical role. A strong IT department for technical development/support, Accounting in order to oversee how invoices, purchase orders, and related documents are approved and processed, Operations to make sure everything runs well within daily workings – all of these play critical roles when developing these solutions. Many organizations simply lack the necessary assets/manpower and as a result, this process can be very time consuming for any company and more importantly, expensive.

Here at Image Express we offer an easy fix: let us handle it. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a big part of our business and one that sets us apart. Our expertise has allowed our customers to seamlessly implement automated solutions in a much faster and cost-effective manner than those tackling it themselves. We take care of everything – invoices, supplier forms, purchase orders, etc. are sent directly to us. We then scan those documents using high speed production scanners and automatically index them using our unique capture software which directs the data straight into your business systems. This process provides our customers with faster access to their data, eliminates human error, and increases flexibility, all the while lowering costs within your organization. Quick. Easy. Painless.

It’s a simple fact that organizations still dealing with paper files and manual data entry are wasting resources. Manual invoice processing, claims processing, and data entry are extremely time consuming and expensive. Not only that, but all the information coming out of these methods is subject to human error and could result in lost files, misinformation, incorrect payments and legal liability. Automating these paper-based, labor intensive processes has become a necessity - this is what we do and we do it well. Our business is founded upon building relationships with our customers, and we are there with you every step of the way.

As always, we are more than happy to provide product demos to show you how everything works. For more information about our BPO solutions or to schedule a complimentary consultation, give us a call (952) 906-3022 or visit our website www.imageexpressinc.com

FileBound - Delivering the Goods on AP Processing

Document Management can be a very broad term and mean a lot of different things depending on who you ask. How companies choose to search for, retrieve, and manage their files and data varies based on industry, volume, and a myriad of other factors. Like us as individuals, each company is unique and as such, require these solutions to fit the mold of the business so that it may work hand in hand with how they operate. However, despite these unique qualities, every company has certain business processes that are going to be similar from a general standpoint – one of which is AP Processing.

AP Processing is a very important area and one in which we like to focus on here at Image Express in order to really ramp up efficiency within organizations. Every company deals with it in one way or another, and it is a process in which technology has created enormous potential in regards to cost effectively attacking the issues slowing down organizations. Using our capture and imaging solutions in conjunction with Document Management software, we are able to automate a large portion of the process, and in doing so allows our customers to recognize major benefits. Whether we’re talking about the reduction of human error, reduced cycle times generating discounts from paying the bills early, or simply a more secure and manageable way for storing and accessing these files and information, we can provide cost effective solutions to help your business grow.

One of our solutions for developing automated AP processing solutions is provided by our partners at Upland Software. FileBound is a very robust and user-friendly application whereby companies are able to optimize business processes, improve productivity, lower operational costs, all while maintaining compliance with laws such as those provided by OSHA and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Obviously these are all desirable improvements for any organization, however the real kicker this software is the almost immediate ROI. Below is a short demonstration video that can show you how this software solution operates within the AP environment.

For more information on the FileBound AP solution, or for help with any other issues surrounding your organizations scanning, imaging and data storage needs, give us a call at 952-906-3022 or visit our website at www.imageexpressinc.com   

The Big Data Game

After an extended absence from the blogging world, we at Image Express are back. During our break from social media, we’ve been helping our clients tackle any and all issues they’ve had when it comes to developing automated business solutions and managing their digital information and data. It’s no longer a matter of just getting files and information stored in a digital format, but rather an issue of cost-effectively managing that information and putting it to work to save you and your organization time and money. Obviously the elimination of paper files is a start, but the real ROI in our industry comes when we can automate business processes and decipher what information is important and necessary to your company - this is why data management should be at the top of every organization’s priority list.

It should come as no surprise that in today’s world we are generating more data than ever before. In fact, 90% of the world’s data that now exists has been created in just the past two years! According to a study conducted by IBM, as of 2012 we are creating roughly 2.5 EXABYTES of data each and every day. What’s an Exabyte (EB)? 1 EB is the equivalent of 1 billion GBs. A billion… with a B. To put that in perspective, if you were to take that amount of data, put it into iPads, and stack them up you could build the equivalent of over 2,000 Empire State buildings - every single day. So how do we combat this? Glad you asked…

Our partners over at Imation are leading the charge when it comes to managing your organizations data with the Nexsan Assureon archive storage system. This system helps users identify key elements to their data storage and is as easy to use as it gets. Some of the major industries we are seeing utilize the Assureon system are Financial, Healthcare, and all levels of government, however this system is scalable and applicable to anyone in need of a cost effective data management solution. We recognize that every organization is different, and this is certainly not a cookie-cutter system. Whether your organization is dealing with storage optimization, data archiving, regulatory/compliance issues, or connecting offices for easy data access, the Assureon solution will undoubtedly boost efficiency and provide a quick and significant ROI – which is really what this game is all about.

Our job is to find your pain points - those areas within your organization where data management is slowing you down. We work hand in hand throughout the process so that these solutions fit specifically within your organizational needs, again with the ultimate goal of saving you time and money.  For more information on how we at Image Express and our partners at Imation can help, give us a call (952) 906-3022 or visit our website at www.imageexpressinc.com