IN the age of computer technology, more and more companies are turning to digital document capture to enable their businesses to integrate more efficiently with computers and the internet.

Office workers no longer want to be surrounded by mounds of paper files and would instead prefer a clutter-free office environment while decision-makers want to save time and money.

Integrated Mailing Solutions (IMS), the specialist communications division of Isle of Man Post Office, is an experienced provider of scanning services.

Regardless of what type of paper data you have - printed text, typed, handwritten, images, barcodes or tick boxes - IMS’s scanning service can convert these into electronic files which you can access as often as you like at the press of a button from your PC.

With a 12-year history of using the latest scanning technology from Kodak, IMS’s knowledge is second to none and with a capacity to process more than 600,000 images a day, clients can expect to receive a reliable, secure and fast turnaround without sacrificing data quality.

Recently, the pensions division of the personnel office of Isle of Man Government identified the need for its mountain of files to be digitised.

Given the need to provide information on a member’s service over their lifetime, pension member records are kept far longer than regular paperwork resulting in an ever-increasing archive of member files, spilling over two sites requiring occasional off-site visits to obtain files which in turn costs time and resource.

There was also a need to mitigate fire or flood risks to original files and find a modern and simpler way of managing the archive which also avoided the chance of files being accidentally mis-filed.

Nick Cain, who manages the pensions division’s administration section and who coordinated the project, identified how outsourcing pensions division’s scanning requirements could be hugely beneficial to them.

Nick said: "IMS worked closely with us to scan and digitise our archives, working around our administration team who still required regular access to the files.

"The files were then uploaded into our pension specific software, enabling us to index each pension file to each relevant member’s electronic record. With the files now accessible in the software we were then able to fully implement our task management system.

"Now, when incoming correspondence is received by email or post, it is scanned and uploaded directly onto the member’s record and an electronic task is created. The tasks appear in a work schedule traffic light system which changes colour when the agreed time limit to complete the work draws near or is reached."

He added: "This system gives managers of the division more information on the work and seeing progress of work electronically through the system they are able to structure resources in a more effective way.

"Staff are also better able to respond to queries, with all the files accessible from their desk. We are also able to improve the way we report on meeting the time limits in our Service Level Agreements with the managers of each of the 21 schemes we administer."

However, before IMS could get the physical scanning process underway, with more than 2.7 million pages to scan, the pensions division had to consider a number of issues to enable the project to be a success.

Firstly, an index system had to be defined and created so the digital archive could be searchable and uploaded to each record automatically. Four pieces of unique customer data were used from each file to name its scanned copy.

Once uploaded into the document management software, files became instantly retrievable by searching the surname, initials, national insurance number and date of birth of a member.

The way the confidential data was handled was of utmost importance to pensions division. IMS has always taken this part of its operation very seriously and robust procedures are part of IMS’s daily operation. Having achieved ISO/IEC 27001:2008 last year, IMS clients can be safe in the knowledge that their data is being treated in accordance to the highest international standards and that data security is top priority.

Russell Cowin, sales manager, Isle of Man Post Office, said: "There’s no denying that scanning an archive and implementing a document management system is a major capital project for any business.

"However, it can significantly enhance the way your business operates, delivering both time and cost savings further down the line.

"Our value is cost competitiveness, accuracy and speed of turnaround, but most importantly the fact we’re a post office – everything is under one ISO 27001 accredited facility for clients which ensures safe, secure service day in, day out."

When mountains of paper files take over, many businesses have to outsource the storage of their archive to a third party.

However, research shows this can add a significant cost to their business, particularly when charged out of hours access costs to retrieve their files.

Compare this to the cost of digitising your archive and the cost savings are considerably greater while giving you more flexibility and access to your files.

In addition, you only have to incur the cost once rather than on an ongoing basis and there are no storage space issues or dependency on third party storage companies thus improving your overall efficiency rate.

Nick Cain said: "In our experience in the pensions division, I would recommend any similar organisation to use an outsourcing business to digitise their archives.

"Since scanning the files and implementing task management, it has been easier to identify backlogs of work which we have subsequently been able to reduce more efficiently, missing files are almost unheard of and performance against our service level agreements has improved 15 per cent.

"These improvements have been vital for the administration section of the division to achieve given the difficult challenges facing Government and specifically the pensions division, including the volume of work which will come with the changes to linked pension schemes in the UK and the proposed unified scheme in the Isle of Man."

 
To find out how your business can save money by outsourcing to IMS, contact the Sales Team on 698444 or visit www.ims-iom.com