When a law firm determines it wants to get serious about scanning (the onset of Scanbition), it generally has an initial and a long term objective. For long term objectives we hear of ambitions to ‘Go paperless’ in the practice areas or ‘Eliminate offsite records storage’. Initial objectives are more grounded in practicality, such as ‘Start scanning closed matters instead of sending them offsite to records storage’ or ‘Start scanning all incoming paper for the IP Practice Group.’
‘Start’ is the key word. ‘How do we start?’ How do you move from tedious, one-document-at-a-time scanning, to scanning all the paper? When the only scanning experience has been casual scanning at the copier, best practice enterprise scanning is a big leap forward. It must fit the culture, the workflow, and the operational future of the Firm. Enterprise scanning requires a Plan, considering:
– What are our specific goals for paper document scanning?
– What volume of incoming paper will we need to address with this project?
– How does the paper arrive, and get managed?
– Can we receive and manage it so that our scan capture workflow is sure to get it all?
– Who profiles the documents into the DMS? Who scans?
– How do we apply security, process integrity and QC to the overall job?
– How do we intersect with Records policy?
– When do we engage the Records staff?
– Do we shred? How? When?
– How do we measure our productivity in the project?
– How do we measure ROI?
– What staffing, infrastructure and application resources are required?
– Who owns this new operation?
To tackle these constructive questions, and others, you must develop an approach to the project that marries the overall objectives with the firm’s culture about paper, with the ROI targets, and investment resources. To jump start the approach, DocSolid offers our Scanbition Frameworks. These frameworks put your project into an operating context, based on your objectives. How do you start? Pick a Scanbition Framework!
- Scan and Retire File Room
- Target Image Enthusiasts
- Scan and Maintain the File Room
- Scan and Shred Closed Matters
- Start with Accounting
Our upcoming blogs will detail each Framework.
