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ON SITE CAPTURE (OSC) PROJECTS By Manuel Bulwa, Integrated Scanning of America www.isausa.com A n organization planning to digitize a large volume of documents must decide between: • WHO: Engaging a professional service provider, undertaking it internally, or a combination of both. • WHERE: Executing the project on site client premises, or at the service provider’s plant(s). Due to editorial limitations, we will only focus on selected issues for on site capture (OSC) projects. Factors leading to a decision to capture on site may include security and privacy concerns, fear of losing control, mistrust around proper handling of documents (physically and operationally), liabilities, logistics, regulatory restrictions, and timely access to work in progress (WIP) documents. To contain anticipated risks and costs in OSC projects, close attention to details must be paid in areas such as: • WORK VENUES: Each production line frequently requires one desk space for scanning and two desks for prepping. Additional space may be needed for secondary scanners such as wide format, flat bed, overhead, transparencies and open track. Indexing, quality control (QC), workflow management, publishing, posting, etc., could be performed via remote access. Multiple production lines may be implemented to meet deadlines. Boxes need to be stacked in staging areas such as “RECEIVED”, “TO PREP”, “SET ASIDE”, “TO SCAN”, “SCANNED”, and “TO REMOVE”. The venue must provide clean power, adequate year-round HVAC, janitorial service, access at extended hours, a break room, surveillance, security, and Internet. • STAFFING: Onsite operators are likely to be local, clerical labor hired for the project, so it is important to address all formalities and legalities of temporary hiring, conduct background checks and careful interviews to secure protection against potential HR or labor union issues. Cell phones with cameras should be surrendered in a cabinet by the entrance, while phone calls may be handled wirelessly. • LOGISTICS: It is essential to implement robust check in-check out processes, box labeling, inventorying, transportation, logging, disposition, reporting and tracking of each box of documents. QC and production databases must always accurately sync with all logistical dynamics. Logs, status reporting, health codes and manifests should be available in real time. Boxes must navigate the workflow with unambiguous identity and profuse metrics. No box may be allowed to change custody or advance a workflow step without a thorough check of its QC health status. 16 Fall 2023 NIRMA.org Back to Content | Inside NIRMA
• INDEXING: Capture projects usually involve multiple collections of documents, each with its own structure, filing and search methods and idiosyncrasies. Their physical filing methods provide a starting template to imitate when deciding the digital structuring and indexing for each collection, but this will soon get complicated as the parties negotiate digital indexing specifics. When humans search manually for a document, they browse through filing cabinets, drawers, folders, dividers, etc., equipped with eyes, brains, hands and fingers that facilitate improvisation and visualization of details that make the search feasible. The digital counterpart seldom preserves the physical structure of originals (stapled sets for example, rarely get represented digitally, but do help when searching manually). Finding digitized records using only index data without a supplemental visual search could be frustrating. OCR, full text search and artificial intelligence (AI) may overpromise and underdeliver, but wherever feasible they are extremely powerful. Unstructured and semi -structured documents need thorough discussion, collaboration and negotiation between Subject Matter Experts (SME) from both sides. • COMMUNICATION, COLLABORATION: Clients possess subject matter expertise in their industry superior to that of service providers. Service providers must communicate and collaborate with the client SMEs to acquire and apply knowledge. Users should be enticed to freely experiment with various indexing and display structures of what would eventually be on their designated digital repository. An interim repository (sandbox) with special collaboration features will motivate users to experiment, annotate, flag, consult, approve and test changes without fear of doing damage. • QC: Every workflow step must be subject to strict QC. Remediation delays are costly, especially when originals are allowed to go too far down the workflow. Each workflow task creates profuse metrics that must be captured and thoroughly analyzed, crosschecked and logged. • CALCULATIONS: At risk of being accused of oversimplifying, I will throw round numbers to estimate timings and costs. The VENUES bullet (on the previous page) already addressed the issue of workspaces on typical business size paper documents. A typical production line requires 5 to 10 man/hours of clerical labor for prepping and scanning, yielding at least 100 bankers boxes a month. Qualified labor for indexing, QC and remediation control is roughly estimated in one full time support (FTS) per line. Compute how many lines are needed to meet desired deadlines and calculate labor costs. Add one qualified FTS for overall project management and workflow control. Tammy Cutts, NIRMA Treasurer NIRMA’s Financial Holdings as of September 18, 2023 Checking Account $143,495.74 Debit Account $ 334.66 Investment Account $ 91,622.25 Back to Content | Inside NIRMA NIRMA.org Fall 2023 17
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