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CHAPTER THREE

Is Imaging Right For You?

Now that imaging has been defined, we will consider how it might improve the way your office functions and solve some of your problems. In other words, is imaging right for you?

This chapter covers topics that will help you answer that question. It begins with a discussion of the situations in which imaging usually helps and continues with the following subjects regarding imaging: the issues, advantages, and disadvantages; the costs; the standards, policies, and procedures; and the organizational and management considerations. It concludes with a summary.

III.A. When Imaging Helps

Information and the records that contain information are the life blood of most organizations. While the specific situations that call for imaging vary from organization to organization, they typically issue from recordkeeping problems. Poor recordkeeping usually translates into poor service to those who conduct business with the organization and depend on its records. Most organizations will not tolerate poor service to their "customers" for long.

The archtypical organization that needs imaging is one with an inefficient, labor-intensive, and high-volume recordkeeping operation. Such operations are characterized by piecemeal information recording, piles of paper on desks, excessive turnaround time to satisfy requests involving records, inability to track work in progress and records used in that work, numerous errors and other inaccuracies, excessive document handling, excessive staff overtime, and loss of documents. Documents are taken from storage frequently, passed from desk to desk to be worked on, and retained at each desk for lengthy periods.

Within that wide range of recordkeeping offenses, some situations that typically suggest imaging are those in which

  • Documents must be (1) retrieved rapidly from several places by more than one person, (2) routed to workstations for use in processing with other information (e.g., information in a computer data processing system), (3) worked on concurrently, and (4) stored;
  • Incoming documents must be used for data entry into a data processing system;
  • Large volumes of records must be received, handled, and retained for a number of years in a secure and reliable manner; and
  • The organization must give better service through more rapid and accurate processing of requests for information that depend on document retrieval, inquiry responses, and output production.

Static documents with no internal changes are best for imaging use since the imaging technology scans the document and stores its picture. It does not allow for easy modification of the document, although compound document methods that permit data or text to be superimposed on an image, thereby modifying the imaged document, are gaining wider use.

III.B. Issues, Advantages, and Disadvantages

Do you recognize at least some of the above conditions in your organization? Are you ready to embrace imaging as the cure for all your recordkeeping ailments? Do not call your favorite vendor yet. The decision-making process is just beginning. You may have identified the problem, but you have not identified the solution. There must be more investigation into whether imaging is the elusive nostrum for which your organization has been searching.

Like all advanced technology, imaging comes with its share of headaches. It also yields tremendous benefits. Before you commit to imaging, your organization must open its eyes to the issues, advantages, and disadvantages of imaging. Some of them are inherent in technology, and others are unique to imaging.

III.B.1. Issues

When an organization embarks on a complicated and expensive technological project, those who sponsored the project and those who must implement the technology have basic concerns: will it work within a reasonable period of time and for a reasonable amount of money? Those who must deal with "customers"--whether they are litigants and attorneys in a court or buyers of a product--are concerned that the technology will adversely affect their "customer" relationships and service. Management may be more concerned about how it will affect the organization’s "bottom line"--whether that means cases disposed or monetary health. A cynic may contend that all of these concerns originate in an even more basic fear: "Will I lose my job or look like a fool if this thing does not work?" As anyone who has dealt with technology knows, these fears and that basic question are legitimate.

The issues and concerns with technology in general and imaging in particular fall into four categories: technological, customer service, user, and organizational and administrative. While most of the technological and customer issues can be addressed through analysis, many of the other issues are more subtle. They deal with topics such as organizational mindset, ability to make a decision and stick with it, and ability to function as a team. Some of the specific issues are

  • Technological
    • Will the imaging system will work? This issue becomes more significant with the realization that the system will be complex and may involve different computer technologies.
    • Will the equipment specified for the new system have sufficient capacity? Nobody wants to buy an expensive new system and have to enlarge it within six months.
    • How will the organization deal with the changes and improvements that are inevitable in computer, communications, and imaging technology? Few, if any, organizations can keep up with the relentless advance of technology.
    • What is the best method of setting up communications networks, given the geographical dispersion of system users? The maze of LANs, direct connections, gateways, bridges, and protocols is bewildering.
    • What is the best method of addressing changing industry standards in areas such as image storage, fax transmissions, databases, image displays, and printed output?
    • What is the best method of ensuring the new system, equipment, software, and communications work with their counterparts that are already in use? Few organizations can afford to discard their existing computer resources when they install a new system.
    • What is the best method of integrating imaging with other systems, such as word processing and case processing systems, to achieve full functionality in the composite group of systems?
    • Does the organization have sufficient technical staff to devote to an imaging system project? If the proper people--either in-house staff or contractors--are not available to work on the project, it will fail.
  • Customer Service
    • Can the organization ensure that credibility with customers will not be damaged because of lost imaged documents? Every organization is concerned about losing documents in a bottomless imaging pit with resulting degradation of customer service.
    • Will legal problems arise regarding acceptability and legality of imaged documents? This encompasses a definition of what constitutes a legal image, whether an imaged document is official if it has an imaged signature (e.g., on court orders), the degree of risk that images could be modified, access privileges, record retention requirements, and back-up storage requirements.
  • Users
    • Will imaging system users accept a new way of doing things? Procedures that have been used for years may change. This re-engineering may be necessary to realize the full benefits of imaging. Things can get sticky here because re-engineering may affect staff assignments in both the allocation of tasks and how those tasks are performed. Sometimes users rebel because they prefer to continue doing things the old way and will resist change if the new system is going to dismantle their entire operation--even if the re-engineered operation is better.
    • Which documents are used often enough to justify being imaged? Perhaps some documents could be more easily used if they remained in hard copy form or were microfilmed.
  • Organizational and Management
    • How much will imaging cost and how does the cost relate to the benefits of imaging?
    • Is the organization prepared to commit to imaging and persevere while it is being implemented? There must be commitment throughout the organization if the project is to succeed. Management often becomes frustrated because significant technology, such as imaging, cannot be implemented overnight. And, as will be described below, implementation consists of far more than installing an imaging system. For example, often massive files must be converted from manual or microfilmed records to images, and this can be unbelievably time-consuming. While all this is happening, the costs keep growing. So patience is not only a virtue, it is a necessity.
    • Can the organization work together to achieve success? The managers, users, and technical staff who will participate in the imaging project must work as a team toward the common objective of a successful imaging system.
    • Is the organization ready for imaging and willing to implement the re-engineering that may accompany it?
    • Can the organization assess realistically what imaging can and cannot do and discipline itself to work within the imaging system’s capabilities in areas such as record storage and retention? Like new computer users who think the computer can do everything and try to apply it to tasks for which it is not suited, new imaging users may think every record can be retained because of the storage capacities of optical disk and the retrieval and display capabilities of imaging systems. This is a false assumption. With imaged records, as with manual records, the organization must establish record retention policies and purge or discard those records that are no longer needed.
    • Is the organization ready to make full use of imaging as a capability that is integrated into the other computer applications? The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Imaging works with other systems, such as case processing systems in courts, and their data--not instead of these systems and data. Imaging and these other applications must move forward toward greater functionality and integration.

What these issues and concerns indicate is that imaging is a risky, high-cost venture--particularly for a highly visible, publicly funded agency such as a court. The decision to adopt imaging is irrevocable. Once the first documents are imaged, there is no turning back. To counter these risks, there must be a commitment to imaging throughout the organization.

While the commitment to imaging alone is significant, there is more. Since imaging seldom reaches its full potential in a vacuum, there should be an equally strong commitment to achieve a fully functional system. Such a commitment will lead to the integration of imaging with other systems such as word processing systems and, in courts, case processing systems. Each system serves its unique purposes and provides specific types of text, data, and functionality to the composite group of systems. Document images cannot substitute for highly formatted case data from a case processing system, and neither of them can substitute for the text that can be manipulated in word processing documents. Finally, as technology advances, each of these types of systems and their levels of integration must advance.

III.B.2. Advantages

Imaging offers significant advantages for high-volume, paper-intensive, service-oriented

operations such as courts. As court officials are willing to integrate imaging with other systems and adopt procedures and technology that are becoming commonplace, the advantages can grow exponentially in the following ways:

  • Courts enter information into case processing systems from numerous sources. Some documents are submitted directly to the clerk’s office, and these could be scanned into the imaging system locally. Other documents come from external sources such as attorneys, law enforcement, probation, pretrial diversion, and community services. These documents could be scanned into the system remotely or faxed directly into the system.
  • Imaged documents may be part of an integrated court information system that also consists of case processing and word processing. An integrated system would enable court clerks to switch between display screens containing document images, case processing data, and word processing text. Clerks could give better and more rapid service because they would have each type of information at their disposal on parts (or windows) of a single computer screen.
  • Many official documents produced by courts contain signatures, seals, letterheads, and other inscriptions. These documents can be stored as images with blank spaces for data and text to be supplied later by case processing and word processing systems. When the data and text are available for insertion into an official document, they can be transferred to the imaging system and superimposed in the appropriate spaces to produce excellent-quality official documents that combine the data and text with the signatures, seals, letterheads, and other inscriptions. This would be a major benefit to courts.
  • Judges and other system users may need customized case folders containing documents arranged in a particular order or only those documents pertaining to a certain part of the
  • case. These types of functions can be accomplished easily with electronic case folders containing imaged documents.
  • Many clerk’s offices, particularly the larger ones, have various options for document processing, and a workflow formula would assist in getting work to the proper workstation.

The typical benefits of imaging in courts and other organizations are

  • Better service to customers through dramatically improved turnaround time in activities involving recordkeeping, document retrieval, and document storage as follows:
    • Faster, more complete, and more accurate service;
    • Elimination of data entry and document processing backlogs;
    • Availability of documents and index information for rapid responses to inquiries--usually while the customer is still in the office or on the telephone;
    • Ability to manipulate "folders" of imaged documents so they are customized for specific users; and
    • Immediate, comprehensive, and concurrent access to documents.
  • Cost savings and other efficiencies from
    • Reduced staff overtime;
    • Reduction in staff or avoidance of staff increases;
    • Higher volume of work completed;
    • Fewer data entry operator keystrokes and improved accuracy;
    • Less paper handling overall, including less paper usage, reproduction, and storage;
    • Less time spent retrieving documents, fewer telephone calls returned, and many repetitive processes eliminated;
    • Elimination of many document-handling problems and costs; and
    • Less space required for staff and document storage.
  • Benefits to staff from
    • More challenging work assignments and consequently, a more professional work environment;
    • Improvements in worker motivation, self-confidence, and problem-solving skills; and
    • Continuing organizational benefits through growth in both individual and collective job skills as an indirect result of imaging.
  • Better document and work management as follows:
    • Document control and tracking from the moment a document is received;
    • Better document sharing and distribution;
    • Fewer lost and misfiled documents;
    • Higher correlation of newly received documents with filed documents, active documents, completed work, and work inprogress because new documents are cross-referenced and can be associated with documents and work in the same group (e.g., same court case, party, and date filed);
    • Automatic retrieval of documents based on received documents or information;
    • Quicker and more accurate document routing to appropriate workstations;
    • Automatic tickler file and pending work capabilities;
    • Greater supervisor control over operator workloads;
    • Better audit trails at document- and work-in-progress levels;
    • Better operational reports leading to improved management of workloads with fewer peaks and valleys and more visibility of work queue contents;
    • More uniform document handling and recordkeeping procedures; and
    • More efficient imaging and overall computer system use through coordination of document storage on optical and magnetic disk to combine larger optical disk storage capacity when documents are not being used with more rapid access time to magnetic disk for documents on which work is underway.

III.B.3. Disadvantages

As in any situation, imaging has its disadvantages. Those issues and concerns described earlier in this chapter may become disadvantages if they are not addressed. Recall that those issues and concerns were categorized as technological (Will imaging work the way you want it to--individually and with your other systems and communications?), "customer" service (Can you maintain a good relationship with your customers?), users (Will imaging users accept re-engineering?), and organizational and management (Will the organization commit to, accept, and be realistic about imaging when things are going well and when they are going poorly?). If those questions that apply to your organization are not answered affirmatively, you may be headed toward serious problems.

Specific disadvantages of imaging are as follows:

  • Imaging can be costly, and the costs can increase rapidly if (1) imaging is not the proper solution to your recordkeeping problems, (2) you are unclear of your objectives for imaging, or (3) the imaging project is poorly planned and monitored.
  • The technology is highly complex and may be difficult to implement, "fine tune" so that it is working properly, maintain in proper working condition, and integrate with other systems and communications.
  • The longevity of data without serious degradation on optical storage is unproven; optical storage is a new technology compared to paper, magnetic tape, and magnetic disk.
  • As opposed to hard copy, lengthy imaged documents are difficult to read and comprehend when going through them page by page on a computer screen.
  • Text in imaged documents is fixed; it cannot be modified, manipulated, or, more importantly for courts, copied to other, text-based documents (at least until OCR matures).
  • Since images are not as clear as source documents, if the source document is difficult to read, its image may be impossible to read.
  • Additional staff may be needed for a separate workgroup to scan documents.
  • Potential for employee morale problems exists because of staff cutbacks in areas other than scanning.
  • Even though it has freed them from many routine tasks, some users feel enslaved by imaging, because they think it has taken away their control of the work and their decision-making power.
  • Users feel chained to their workstations because almost everything they need--imaged files, word processing files, information from data processing (e.g., case processing systems for courts)--is accessible at the workstation.
  • When all documents are in imaged files, system failures can immobilize the entire operation.
  • Imaging can consume an inordinate amount of magnetic disk storage (if not coordinated properly with optical disk) and computer processing resources.

III.C. Costs

By now, you probably are asking, "What will imaging cost?" You justifiably want to get to the "bottom line," but unfortunately that is impossible in a report such as this. Here is why.

Based on the imaging sites visited and the data collected in preparing this report, prices of imaging systems were found to fluctuate from very high to moderate. Among the factors influencing prices are whether the system operates alone or as part of a network, whether the main imaging computer (i.e., server) is a PC or a more expensive, larger computer, how many workstations are in the system, what types of equipment and software comprise the system, and whether imaging is integrated with case processing or some other system. Some sites hold their imaging costs down by using a combination of equipment they already have in service and new equipment and by developing some of the software in-house. Another dynamic at work is the drop in prices--in some cases, as much as 65 percent over the last three years. Imaging has been regarded as expensive, but that is not always true today--especially as it moves onto PCs and the desktop.

So it is difficult to predict imaging costs. The two sites that had most recently obtained complete imaging systems (i.e., equipment, software, and communications) paid, respectively, about $35,000 per workstation for a PC-based stand-alone system and about $44,000 per workstation for a LAN-based system using a mid-range computer as the server. The stand-alone system had only two workstations, which resulted in a higher cost per workstation than if the imaging software, disk, and computer costs had been spread over more workstations. Both systems were implemented between March and June 1993.

What, then, does the prospective imaging purchaser do to estimate imaging system prices? There are, after all, budgets to prepare and approvals to obtain. The best approach is to talk to imaging vendors about their systems’ capabilities and costs. Some guidelines for those conversations follow:

  • Price comparisons must be done carefully because pricing depends on factors such as whether a company charges a flat fee for a network installation, fees for every workstation connected to the imaging server and for the server software, or a fee for the maximum number of workstations that can use the server at one time. Such variations mean that comparative prices depend on the number of users and the level of use.
  • The same company may offer two types of servers or other equipment for different prices. For example, a company may have a file server and a less expensive print server.
  • Certain charges can be hidden. For example, there may be a base charge for particular software and an extra charge for a more efficient version of the software that, as it turns out, almost everyone needs.
  • Imaging software pricing becomes even more complex because different products may require purchase of extra hardware.
  • Some systems require that imaging cards (with varying amounts of memory), a fax card, and other cards be added to PCs for the needed functionality.
  • An OCR capability usually requires separate OCR software.

When considering costs, many organizations focus only on the equipment, software, and communications that comprise the imaging system. These costs typically represent only about 60 percent of the total imaging expenditure. Costs for conversion, training, and changeover from the old procedures to the new system--which consume the other 40 percent--often are overlooked. Everything must be covered when you consider costs. Imaging is a new and complex technology. The linkages between the many different equipment, software, and communications pieces must fit together to complete the imaging puzzle. Even sophisticated users may have problems installing, using, and maintaining the system. Space and wiring requirements must be identified and met. Paper and other supplies will be needed. Most important, there must be suitably qualified staff or contractors to make imaging succeed.

Some costs occur primarily at the beginning of the project. System acquisition, site preparation, conversion, training, and changeover are in this category. Other costs occur throughout the years imaging is used. These ongoing costs are system maintenance, system operations, staffing, and supplies. Projected imaging budgets are needed for the initial years when the system is getting underway and for subsequent years when costs have settled into an annual pattern.

The costs discussed above cover only the imaging system--the collection of equipment, software, and communications that supports users who capture document images and enter data from them. There is another universe of users--such as judges and other attorneys--who use images as they formerly used documents from manual files. If members of this latter group need new PCs and other equipment to view document images, then the cost of imaging rises--perhaps dramatically. They should be able to use the newer (i.e., bought since 1990) PCs they already have, but they may need to obtain monitors that can display legible images. Imaging costs can be reduced if both groups of users keep as much existing equipment, software, and communications in service as possible instead of replacing them.

III.D. Standards

Standards are regulations to which your imaging system should conform. There are two basic types of standards: those that apply to the imaging, computer, or communications industries, and conventions used within a given organization.

Industry standards are of varying specificity and comprehensiveness. Many are de facto standards established by leading vendors. In new technologies, such as imaging, there are few industry standards.

Systems that conform to the standards of the imaging, computer, and communications industries are more likely to be able to communicate and share images, text, and data with other systems that conform to those standards. When you need more capacity or functionality, you increase the chances of being

able to add equipment, software, and communications if yours are industry-standard. Even with standards, communicating with other systems and adding new technology can be difficult and stressful. Without standards, you may be confronted with the even more daunting--and inefficient--installation or development of conversion equipment or software.

Some industry standards are set by governmental agencies such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), quasi-governmental organizations such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and professional associations such as the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM). Other standards are de facto set by common use in the industry. In many instances, standards do not exist. NIST and ANSI recently announced a five-year project to link databases of some 400 technical standards organizations to form the National Standards Systems Network (NSSN). Users will be able to access NSSN by Internet for information to assist in dissemination and development of standards.

Conventions are set by your organization to control how it uses systems. The basis for these conventions is system performance. What system performance will ensure that the imaging system meets your needs? This goes to the heart of almost every standard you set for the system. Some explicit conventions are imaged document turnaround time, accuracy, accessibility, number and size, workflow, and dissemination. Conventions for user assistance, security, monitoring, documentation, and maintenance are not as obvious but also affect system performance.

When industry standards exist for a technology and are applicable, they may be adopted as organizational conventions. Other guidelines for and examples of organizational conventions may be available from groups such as AIIM or from other imaging sites, but there generally are no national or international standards analogous to industry standards. Organizational conventions are your responsibility. They should be prepared and documented by a working group and distributed to everyone affected by them.

In evaluating the suitability of imaging for your situation, consider the organizational conventions that you want to set for the imaging system. To establish conventions that will result in the required compatibility and system performance, consider (1) tentative procedures for system use, operation, and administration; (2) plans to communicate and work with other systems; and (3) plans for future system growth and changes. Then see if imaging will meet your conventions.

While most organizations know the value of standards, they often lack a comprehensive list of areas that the standards should address. The following is a checklist of the areas in which organizational conventions should be considered:

  • Document Input and Output
    • Scanning;
    • Tracking scanned document batches;
    • Input and output turnaround time;
    • OCR accuracy if OCR is needed;
    • Document quality and quality assurance;
    • Indexing;
    • Image compression and decompression requirements and how they relate to storage and communications requirements;
    • Where in the system compression and decompression are accomplished;
    • Document capture method such as local scanning, remote scanning, fax transmission, and other methods;
    • Document output presentation and method such as local printing, remote printing, fax transmission, image transmission over LAN, display, and other methods; and
    • Audit trails and logs of document inputs and outputs.
  • Document Storage and Retrieval
    • Optical image storage device type (e.g., magnetic disk, optical disk, or both), capacity requirements, recording format, and physical and electrical requirements;
    • User definition, creation, and naming conventions for image files in storage;
    • Document file searches including whether index search only, full-text search based on keywords or other document identifiers, full-text search based on context of identifier, or other type of search; and
    • Document records retention, purge, discard, and archive policies for moving active records to inactive records, and purge and discard policies for inactive records that are no longer needed.
  • Document Processing
    • Automated workflow if needed;
    • Display and screen swapping (e.g., between screens with imaged documents, case processing data, and word processing text) at user workstations (e.g., as would be provided with windows);
    • Electronic notes (sometimes called "stickies") if they are to be affixed to imaged documents;
    • Document tracking and status reporting;
    • Document imports and exports to computers or systems outside the imaging system if needed; and
    • Compound documents consisting of document images, other documents (e.g., word processing documents), and data (e.g., case processing data) or parts thereof.
  • Communications and Compatibility
    • Imaging system LAN, if needed, and its constituent workstations, servers, and software;
    • Communications associated with computers, software, and networks outside the imaging system with which the system will be required to communicate (e.g., courts case processing and word processing systems, the computer[s] on which these systems run, and the networks that connect the systems’ users to the computer[s]);
    • Conventions that, in addition to the communications noted in the previous item, ensure as much as possible that the equipment, software, and communications outside the imaging system are compatible with the system--particularly with respect to user PCs--so that these items do not have to be replaced when imaging becomes operational.
    • Current or future imaging system compatibility with any computer, software, or network that uses standard communications and formatting without modifying either the imaging system or the outside computer, software, or network. This is called open architecture, contrasted with proprietary to one vendor, and it allows for future integration of imaging with an expanding collection of other systems; and
    • If the imaging system will be required to communicate with other computers, software, and networks (such as with open architecture), the relationship of imaging system functions to the functions performed by the other computers, software, and networks. (In other words, both functional and communications integration must be considered to make sure the systems work properly together without modification.)
  • Other Areas
    • Operating procedures for computer operators and others who work directly with the imaging system computer and software to
      • Give them a summary of the imaging system;
      • Show them how to use the imaging system and its documents;
      • Give them a summary of the other systems and automated capabilities (e.g., case processing for courts, word processing, communications) that work and exchange data and text with the imaging system; and
      • Show them how to use the imaging system and its documents with these other systems and automated capabilities;
    • File backup procedures;
    • System recovery procedures;
    • Performance reporting so that adjustments can be made to improve the imaging system’s efficiency; and
    • Conventions that address imaging system user assistance and measures that will make the system easier to use.
  • Security. In all of the above topics, conventions for establishing and maintaining appropriate levels of security for all documents and other materials being processed in or through the imaging system.
  • Maintenance. If in-house staff members have technical expertise, they usually perform routine maintenance and troubleshooting, and vendors perform other maintenance for their equipment and software. Otherwise, vendors provide all maintenance. In any event, conventions must be set for preventive maintenance periods and expected results, as well as vendor contacts for remedial maintenance.
  • Scalability. Because, like every computer system, imaging systems will get larger, conventions to make sure the system can grow with its workload (i.e., scalability).
  • Documentation. Documentation conventions in all of the above topics to which they apply.

III.E. Management

Many technical projects fail because management has not made a total commitment to them and withdraws support when the going gets rough--as it inevitably does at some point. The organization must consider the depth of management’s commitment and support as part of any assessment of whether imaging is appropriate. If the commitment and support are lacking, the project is likely to fail.

Management’s expectations for the project must be realistic. Managers must understand how much the project will cost, how long the project will take, what the issues and risks are, what the potential benefits and liabilities are, and generally how the project will be executed. Managers should not approve the project until they are comfortable with all of this, but once they have approved the project, they should give total support.

This is not to say management should give the technical and user staff a blank check to overrun the schedule or costs or deliver an inferior product. Staff members should be expected to deliver what they agreed to on time and within budget.

This, then, is the agreement: managers will give their total support, and staff members will do what they said they would do. If either party backs out of its part of the agreement, trouble looms ahead for the project.

Once the project is planned and formally approved, management is not finished. It must track progress throughout the project. This means at least monthly status reviews. If management perceives a problem, the meetings should become more frequent and be at whatever level of detail management feels is needed to make sure the problem is resolved.

Even when the system becomes operational, management is not finished. It must monitor the operational system, albeit less often and with less detail than when the system was being obtained and installed, to make sure everything is proceeding satisfactorily.

Computers place an enormous amount of information at an organization’s disposal. Each time a new system is added, the information and the options for using it grow--exponentially if, as is rapidly becoming the case, the various systems work together. Management must recognize this information resource, decide how to use it, and take measures to control it. This makes ongoing management involvement even more crucial.

III.F. Summary

If you and your colleagues have struggled through the process described above and concluded that imaging is appropriate, then you should proceed according to the implementation strategy described in the next chapter. Since you made your decision after careful analysis, you know what you are getting into and have concluded that it is worth the trouble and expense.

Before proceeding to Chapter Four, we offer the following advice for you based on the experiences of the sites visited:

  • Look At The Big Picture. Examine the concept of imaging and identify where it fits into your overall operation.
  • Know The Application. Study the functions in which imaging will be used, understand what you want to accomplish with imaging, determine how imaging will be applied toward this objective, and document it in a requirements analysis.
  • Make Sure You Need Imaging. Is there a legitimate need? If not, look for something else to solve your problems.
  • Know Where The Project Is Going And What It Will Cost. Develop detailed, not general, plans for obtaining, implementing, and using imaging, and realistically assess the costs including staffing, space, supplies, and wiring as well as systems, equipment, software, and communications.
  • Make Sure You Know What Equipment and Software Are Needed. Know what your imaging application will run on, make sure the equipment has sufficient capacity, and assess how it will be integrated with your other systems and computers. This is vastly more complex than some other computer applications such as word processing--particularly if integration and networks are involved. Everything probably will not work perfectly for awhile. So be prepared to persevere through a lot of work and frustration. As happened at the sites we visited, you will be rewarded if you do it correctly.
  • Know The Specific Technology You Are Considering. Visit other organizations to learn about imaging and how they are applying it.
  • Know The Vendors. Realistically determine vendor capabilities, what you want them to deliver, and whether they can deliver it by evaluating their previous work and talking to others for whom they have worked. Reach the point where you know the strengths and weaknesses of the vendors and their imaging systems and how they can and cannot satisfy your needs. You can do this by meeting with vendors until you are comfortable with your level of knowledge about each vendor and system and by observing each system in operation in a live setting. Be sure to clarify things if you get different answers from different vendors. Remember: You are the customer, and you--not the vendors--define what your system should do.
  • Look At As Many Vendors As Possible. This can be tedious, but it may pay big dividends if you take at least a brief look at each vendor who has the potential to satisfy your needs.
  • Communicate With The Vendors. Make sure the vendors understand your objectives for imaging.
  • Control The Project. Make sure you know the amount of your financial and other resources; how they relate to the work you plan to accomplish with in-house, contractor, and vendor staff; and how you are going to control the work and expenditures.
  • Have The Proper Staff. Make sure your staff has the proper skills, which usually include skills in records management, personal computers, networking, overall data processing, and management.
  • Get Management And The Users Involved. This is central to the system's success. You need to work at it and make sure the involvement is there from the beginning and throughout the project.
  • Communicate Between Management, Users, And Technical Staff. Ensure users and technical staff work jointly on the project from the start--and therefore have a joint investment in its success--and meet at least monthly with management, user, and technical personnel to apprise them of project status and obtain their reactions.
  • Be Prepared To Re-engineer. At least some re-engineering of your operation will be required to get the full benefit of imaging. Procedures and staff assignments that have been used for years may change in a way that cuts to the core of how work is performed. Changes of this magnitude are threatening and will be resisted by some people. Be committed to the re-engineering and ready to be showered with contempt for awhile.
  • Be Prepared To Integrate Imaging With Existing Systems. You seldom get the full benefit of imaging if you use it in a vacuum. In court applications, for example, imaging should be integrated with existing case processing and word processing systems to move documents in and out of files so that they are available for docket information, notice and service of process information, and court events.
  • Get Management’s Commitment. Like most things involving computers, imaging is expensive and time-consuming to bring to full operational status. Management must be apprised of this before an imaging project starts so it can decide whether to proceed. If it decides to go ahead, it must be committed to complete the project unless something unforeseen happens. Otherwise, precious human and financial resources will be wasted.

If you succeed with imaging, you may have an experience similar to that at one of the sites we visited. Initial skepticism was replaced by enthusiastic realization that the benefits of the imaging system exceeded expectations. Lack of interest from other departments was replaced by requests from these units to use the system. Fear that the organization would fail at imaging (as did a comparable organization that tried it) was replaced by firm assurance that the system is a big success.