Paper2Digital Blog

‘Tinker Tailor Soldier – Scan’ is the story of how law firms scan their paper.

In a shameless rip-off of my wildly popular blog themes, it appears there has been a recent movie release of a similar title, ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’, and a 1974 British spy novel of the same name by some hack named John le Carre. My attorneys will handle that matter. Let us regain our focus…

Scanbition™, as soon-to-be-defined by Webster’s New World Dictionary, is an organization’s ambition for enterprise scanning.

Law firms have a persistent inflow of paper burdening their business process. How they apply document scanning to fix this condition is the measure of their Scanbition. All law firms need document scanning. And all firms already have some type of baseline scanning at their office machines. Most firms don’t have any clear Scanbition. Scanbition establishes the critical objectives for scanning, and ultimately determines the benefits derived.

Back to our story, about law firm scanning as a Tinker, Tailor, and Soldier.

Tinker – Some firms just use whatever scanning comes with their office machines, as is. They don’t apply controls, productivity techniques, security or any standards to their scanning activity. At best, this tinkering approach is risky and inefficient. At worst, this approach to scanning results in lost information, compromised work, and related liability. Tinkering with scanning is like using email without folders or archiving – it appears to work on an ad hoc basis but it is not sustainable for the business. The Tinker is a stinker when it comes to enterprise scanning.

Tailor – When a practice, an attorney, or a particular matter demands scanning of related paper documents, job-specific requirements emerge. Scanned images must be profiled and stored in the related electronic matter in the document management system. Ongoing work must be done by the people who know the documents, when and where the documents arrive. Because the scanning solution is tailored to a specific set of job needs, and because this approach often is built upon existing hardware and software, the tailored solution tends to be narrow in scope, and often lacking in the robust features found in an enterprise class solution.

An example of Tailor scanning would be integrating a specific copier keypad to the network, security system, and the document management repository so that users at that machine could login and type filing instructions for each individual document to be scanned. This process can work, but it is tedious and error prone to type at a copier keypad, and of course it’s not feasible to replace the file room with scanned images using this type of firm-wide, machine-dependent technique.  But at least the Tailor is helping to clarify the challenge and rewards of enterprise scanning.

Soldier – The firm declares war on paper. It decides to integrate scan capture with the document management system, the accounting system, and the records system, firm-wide. It uses scanning to replace the file room, and to eventually eliminate off-site record storage. That comprehensive, long-term battle plan defines the enterprise scanning Solider.  A Soldier understands the challenge, and prepares to win or avoid the battles that lead up to winning the war on paper.

In our last blog, “What is Your Scanbition for Enterprise Scanning?”, we defined Enterprise Scanning and outlined the methods for achieving it. This is the work, and the reward of the Soldier. Ultimately, every firm must become the Soldier, unless it is acceptable to operate a paper file room that separates information from the electronic document management system. Ultimately, every firm must become the Soldier, unless it is acceptable to grow offsite paper records storage and retrievals, endlessly.

Conclusion – Paper capture is an information management process. It requires a best practice approach, implemented as an enterprise scanning platform. What is your firm’s approach to scanning firm-wide? Is your firm a Tinker, or a Tailor, or a Soldier?

Law firms are discovering they need Scanbition to harness the potential of document scanning and overcome their paper burden. DocSolid has presented to nearly 100 law firms in its ILTA Road Show around the country this year regarding enterprise scanning. What do we mean by ‘enterprise scanning’ and why do we even have to define this solution concept?

First, let’s set the stage. We asked our attendees these questions, and got these answers, with at least a 95% answer rate:

Bottom line:  We know law firms manage too much paper, and they all have baseline scanning capability. Yet almost none of the law firms we talk to have an operating plan for enterprise scanning that is intended to overcome their paper burden. They’re not even trying, as if it’s not possible. But it is possible!

Here’s DocSolid’s definition of Enterprise Scanning for a law firm:

1. Firm-wide scan capture makes scanned images part of the electronic matter file
2. All scan capable devices in the enterprise are turned on, to maximize the scan facility
3. User interaction with the scan device is made simple to encourage use
4. Scanning productivity is enabled (scan stacks, make it easy for someone else to scan for you)
5. Best practice methods provide:
   • Security
   • Process integrity
   • Integration with the firms’ application software

Why isn’t your firm doing this?

Here’s DocSolid’s definition of Scanbition for a law firm:

1. Scanbition is an organization’s ambition and plan for enterprise scanning.
2. Scanbition goes well beyond basic convenience scanning, to optimize benefits from enterprise scanning, resulting in:
   • A culture that values the storage and use of images instead of paper
   • Standardized process for capturing in-bound paper, for document management storage, and for records management paper retirement policy
   • Reduced, and eventually eliminated offsite storage and retrieval of paper archives
   • Hard ROI on process improvement and cost reduction
   • Defined support of the green initiative

It is surprising that most firms don’t have Scanbition. DocSolid’s upcoming release of KwikTag Legal can help you get there. But, as proven by a few of our Scanbitious, successful firms, Scanbition takes a plan and commitment, and plays out in a multi-year pursuit, based on these ingredients:

• Executive leadership and enduring support
• Disciplined execution and a focus on user adoption
• The right scan capture technology platform

Workers in today’s office have access to scan devices, but this does very little to reduce the volume of paper surrounding them. Copiers can scan, networks are fast, image file storage is manageable, PDF viewers are on every desktop… so why are we still burdened by paper records, without so much as a plan to approach the paper-free office?

DocSolid scanthropologists have studied this problem, and define the stages of enterprise scanning evolution as follows:

 The first stage, No Scanning, is a stage most offices have moved past. No more knuckle dragging. Digital copiers, multifunctional printers, and desktop scanners gave us basic scanning to move to the second evolutionary state, Casual Scanning. Casual Scanning, the first appearance of upright mobility, is primarily scanning images to our own email inbox or to a network scan folder. This is good for occasional needs to digitize paper. When we figure out how to apply security and application integration to our scan jobs, and add to that the ability to scan stacks of documents, we move into the realm of Repetitive Scanning – and finally get a meaningful group of images onto the electronic platform.

Careful now, because without a best practice approach towards enterprise scanning, Scanarchy is likely to set in as we evolve forward from Repetitive Scanning. Scanarchy ushers in the first appearance of weapons. You can learn about Scanarchy in our white paper (here). When the organization applies the best practices necessary evolve past Scanarchy, it can evolve to Enterprise Scan Capture, and begin to benefit from paper-free operations.

Most organizations today are stuck between Casual and Repetitive scanning.  Heavy-duty, process based scan capture is a basement operation, dedicated to one job. To broaden adoption of scan-capture for front office work, you must integrate it into your business infrastructure and human workflows.

Having cultivated the infrastructure necessary for scanning availability, it is important to recognize that there are still evolutionary obstacles to solving scan-capture needs in the enterprise. Identifying and tackling these remaining obstacles users is the next evolutionary stage of enterprise scanning.

Here are the evolutionary challenges to advancing:

1. Use every scan device – you have many different devices in place, of varying types (copiers, MFP’s, desktop scanners, network scanners). Turn them all on! You’ve turned on all these devices for printing and copying. Why not use the ones that can scan – to scan! Don’t limit scanning to one vendor, or only newly sold models. It’s green to use the machines you have.
2. Make it simple – ease of use is the key to getting front office workers involved in scanning. Avoid solutions requiring complex login and typing at the devices. Make scanning as simple as copying and printing.
3. Stay ‘open’ for scanning business – don’t embed you scanning solutions in the scanning machines, so that you can only use one vendor to meet your needs. Your scanning software should work with every vendor’s devices, existing ones and new ones, as long as they can scan.
4. Make it productive – you need to be able to scan documents in stacks! You can’t make a trip to a scanner or type long instructions individually for each document. And your best solutions give the option for office services staff to do centralized or assistant scanning when desirable.
5. Connect images to related business applications – by ensuring your enterprise scanning solution is designed for integration with document repository systems and workflow strategies.

Does this sound hard? Why? We’ve done it for copying and printing at the same machines!

The laws of natural selection apply to scanning.  Mankind has the tools to evolve solutions to move paper onto our electronic platform. And that, my friends, is Scanthropology 101.