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CHAPTER FOUR
Implementation Strategy
At this point, you have decided imaging will help your recordkeeping, and you plan to proceed. But all you have done so far is preliminary. Now you need to get specific.
For example, remember all the caveats put on the earlier cost discussion? You obtained preliminary cost estimates on the imaging you think you need. Now you must decide on specific equipment, specific software, specific communications, specific space. And you must decide specifically how much it will cost.
That may sound like a lot of complicated decisions, but you should know exactly where you are going before you start to implement imaging. This chapter on implementation strategy will suggest how to do it.
Implementation strategy is divided into the following phases: analysis and planning, approval, procurement, and system implementation.
In each of these phases, you must make sure managers and users are committed to imaging and working with the technical staff on the imaging effort. The best way to accomplish this with managers is, as noted above, through their participation in the preliminary steps, their approval of the imaging project, and their continuing participation through project review meetings, sign-offs, and other oversight activities. Users should work side by side with the technical staff in each phase described below. They should be major participants in analyzing what they want imaging to do for them and in planning for its procurement and implementation. As the system is being implemented, they need to be assured they are getting what they expected. This can be accomplished through frequent demonstrations and reviews as the system is being installed and fine-tuned. Any complex technical project will have its share of unpleasant surprises. They can be devastating to a user’s perception of and confidence in a system. Minimize these problems by making the users a part of the continuing action. Finally, convince the users that the imaging system is not an abstraction that they can look at dispassionately from afar. It will be their system, and they have a big stake in its success.
In the analysis and planning phase, the organization identifies its imaging requirements and translates them into imaging systems options. Then, one of the options is selected based on system capabilities; attributes of vendors who offer those types of systems; compatibility of the system and vendor with the organization’s staffing, space, overall culture, and other factors; and cost. Finally, a plan is developed based on the selected approach.
IV.A.1. Requirements Analysis
The steps in the requirements analysis are as follows:
- Review those work processes in the organization that would be affected by imaging. What are they? What documents do you keep in active files, how do you organize them, and when do you purge them to inactive files? Does your organization have paper-intensive or repetitive work that might benefit from imaging? What components of imaging--such as workflow, OCR, or fax--would be useful? What are the legal considerations? How does your document processing relate to other systems such as word processing and, for courts, case processing systems?
- Translate the results of this review into a list of needs, which defines what you want the imaging system to do. This is your wish list. Imaging will be able to satisfy most of these needs, but some may be impractical or impossible. For example, it would be prohibitively difficult for the imaging system to permit editing of document images.
- Acquire a deeper understanding of imaging technology by continuing the process begun in your assessment of whether imaging is right for you. This continuing assessment covers imaging equipment, software, communications, and anything else needed to permit imaging to work in your organization. It will expand a superficial knowledge of imaging into the detailed knowledge needed to plan for, obtain, and implement imaging.
- Combine the needs and imaging technology assessment to establish requirements for your imaging system. These requirements translate needs into capabilities that actually exist in today’s technology and are realistic for your organization. The analysis may reveal that some needs, while unrealistic or impossible now, may be more realistic in the future. Requirements embrace all facets of imaging covered in Chapter Two that apply to your organization.
- Translate the system requirements into a hypothetical imaging system that meets them; consists of equipment, software, and communications that actually exist on the market; and is expandable to satisfy future needs.
- Identify several approaches that will yield the
hypothetical imaging system defined in the previous step.
You may find workable approaches with different
combinations of equipment, imaging software acquisition
methods, and communications. For example:
- Equipment options may involve scanners or disk storage with different capabilities and prices;
- Imaging software acquisition options may be whether to purchase the software from a vendor, develop the software in-house, or a combination of the two; and
- Communications options may involve whether to use an existing LAN or install a new LAN.
- Consolidate the above approaches into one that is recommended, along with several alternatives, for the entire imaging system. In your analysis, consider costs, advantages, disadvantages, and effect on the organization, as well as the technical attributes. The analysis can become complicated because it should include all reasonable combinations of approaches and their costs. A thorough analysis is worth the effort, since it yields invaluable information about the imaging capabilities and costs of various approaches, and it is essential to properly establish a strategy for the upcoming procurement phase.
The requirements analysis is critical to evaluating imaging technology and how it will affect your organization and its work processes. After completing this analysis, you should know where the organization is going with imaging and what technologies are realistic options to get there.
IV.A.2. Planning
A comprehensive, detailed plan must be developed to chart how the recommended imaging system that emerges from the requirements analysis will be obtained, implemented, maintained, and used. In addition to the technology, the plan should cover all other things that must be accomplished to support the system. This includes staffing, contractor assistance, site preparation, conversion, training, changeover from the old to the new system, maintenance, records retention, operations, re-engineering, and supplies. It also includes costs for all these items.
Legal considerations are particularly important to courts and many other organizations. For example, imaged records must be legally admissible in court, and the records of some other organizations must be acceptable to government regulatory agencies. The plan must address whatever needs to be done to ensure the legality of imaged documents. This may entail development of written procedures for the imaging operation and for handling imaged documents, complete audit trails for the processing of each document in the system, retention policies for each type of document, complete specifications for all imaging system equipment and software to show how documents are processed, and perhaps a person designated as system administrator. Look to your legal staff, local court rules, state records and archives standards, professional publications such as the Records Management Quarterly, and professional organizations such as AIIM for guidance in legality issues.
The plan should show what is going to happen monthly until the system is operational and annually for the next three to five years thereafter. The monthly plan should be detailed by task, due date, and responsible person or group; annual budgets should be included; and the plan should be updated regularly. The annual plan should allow for ongoing operations and system growth. There should be decision points for management review and modification of the plan if problems exist or are foreseen.
The annual budgets should include each applicable cost category described above (i.e., equipment, software, communications, staffing, contractor assistance, site preparation, conversion, training, changeover from the old to the new system, maintenance, records retention, operations, re-engineering, and supplies) that applies. Unlike the discussion of costs in the previous chapter, the level of detail should be different because, now that you have completed the requirements analysis, you can give detailed and reliable cost estimates instead of the rough estimates discussed earlier.
In keeping with the earlier discussion of management’s support and commitment, management should not support and commit to a poorly-defined undertaking. The plan should tell management what it needs to know about the imaging system, the procurement and implementation strategy, the advantages and disadvantages, and the cost. Armed with this knowledge, management can make an intelligent decision on imaging. Of course, if management has been involved in the project from its inception, as recommended above, presentation of the plan will be just another step in its ongoing participation--not an all-or-nothing roll of the dice.
The first step in implementing the plan is to procure the equipment, software, and communications that comprise the imaging system identified in the requirements analysis. This discussion will be restricted to items purchased from outside vendors and will not address in-house development of imaging application software by staff or contractors.
Some organizations that need technology blissfully seek systems that do not exist. This may lead to the recourse of buying what the vendor offers but not necessarily what the organization needs. Because of the requirements analysis, you can avoid that trap. You should know what you are looking for and know that it is realistic.
You must decide whether the procurement will be competitive or sole-source. If it is competitive, you need to establish the procurement methodology, which usually consists of preparing and issuing a request for proposals (RFP), responding to questions from bidders informally and through a formal bidders conference,
receiving and evaluating the proposals, and making a selection. Much time can be saved by a sole source procurement, but there may be legal restrictions, procurement regulations, poor public relations, and fairness to all potential vendors that dictate a competitive procurement.
As much as possible within the constraints of procurement procedures and regulations, evaluate as many imaging systems as possible by talking to users and vendors, reviewing documentation, attending demonstrations, and--best of all--observing the system in a live operational setting. If, in that operational setting, you can try the system, that is even better. Despite all this, you will have a full understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of an imaging system only after you have purchased it and used it for several months. The above measures, however, reduce the risk of unpleasant surprises.
After fully evaluating the prospective imaging systems and vendors, purchase the imaging application software and compatible hardware, system software, and communications. Sometimes these may be procured as a package, and sometimes they come separately. If costs are comparable, you may increase the chances that the many complex parts of the imaging system will work together by purchasing it as a package rather than piecemeal.
The big day has arrived. The imaging system has been delivered. There it is--sitting in those boxes in the hallway. What are you going to do now? This section will tell you about system implementation.
Assuming the building has been properly wired and otherwise prepared for the imaging system, the implementation steps are to
- Install the imaging system;
- Test it individually and with other systems with which it must communicate;
- Train users and technical staff;
- Conduct acceptance tests and documentation reviews;
- Convert files to the new system;
- Modify any procedures affected by the system;
- Obtain management sign-off;
- Change from the old system and procedures to the new system and procedures;
- Arrange for maintenance; and
- Arrange for file backup and system recovery.
Most imaging system vendors will assist with these steps. Many organizations supplement this with contractor assistance or, when imaging and other systems are integrated, a systems integrator.
After the building is prepared, the next step is to install the imaging system, which includes the equipment, application and system software, and communications. This usually is accomplished incrementally. The first step is to get the imaging system running as an individual system so that problems within it can be identified and corrected. Then the imaging system can be integrated with the other systems, computers, and networks with which it will operate.
Since ongoing technical support is important, consider building a long-term relationship with whoever installs your system because they will know the system and be able to maintain it and assist in problem resolution. After an initial period, most vendors charge an extra fee for this service. Telephone support may be sufficient if your staff is expert in diagnosing and fixing computer problems. Otherwise, on-site vendor support will be necessary when problems arise. Small to medium-sized courts should be particularly aware of the need for on-site support since they usually do not have their own technical staff. If this applies to you but you get good support from the county or city technical staff, and if that support is rapidly available when needed, then perhaps telephone support will suffice. But be careful. With imaging, even more than with other computer systems, there is a tendency to regard it as a "black box"--plug it in and watch it run. That assumption will lead to trouble.
File backup and system recovery provisions are essential to guard against system failures. Backup image files should be created at the end of each day and stored at a location other than where the operational files are located. If the imaging system fails, procedures must exist to resume operations from a specific checkpoint and re-enter all documents that had been scanned between the checkpoint and the time of system failure. Backup and recovery are often overlooked. Once again, with imaging, we have the "black box" syndrome. Black boxes do not malfunction, so why worry? Why indeed! Be prepared.
Training is crucial for all levels of staff who will maintain and use the imaging system. Imaging is like any other system in that it can be used effectively and fully only if staff know how to take advantage of all its capabilities. We need to see the big picture--not just how to image one or two forms. That means thorough training. Different types of training are necessary for technical staff who maintain the system, users in the workflow who scan documents into the system or use imaged documents to enter data into other systems or for other work, and users outside the workflow who need information from imaged documents. If these staff have been involved in the imaging project from its inception, as they should be, training will be a step in the evolution to imaging. Each staff member should be comfortable with the software and familiar with the system documentation as they relate to him or her. With the constant flow of paper coming through court clerk’s offices and the public waiting at the counter to be served, there is a great temptation to keep staff on the job and cut corners on training. Resist the temptation. Figure out a way to handle the paper and train staff properly. It will pay big dividends.
System supervisors and administrators should receive more detailed training because they should know most user functions and enough about the system to answer questions and categorize problems. These people need to be involved in every stage of the implementation process. It is especially important that they work with the person installing the software and hardware so they understand that process.
Several things usually happen throughout implementation. System tests are conducted to make sure the imaging system is working properly--first as a separate entity and then with other systems, computers, and networks. You should carefully review, or ideally participate in defining, the tests so that you are sure all the requirements are satisfied. The statement that "tests should be conducted in a test setting" is not as simple-minded as it sounds. Not that courts are the only offenders, but how many instances can we name in which system problems have been found while processing an actual case in an operational setting? Then it can be serious and embarrassing. It may even lead to a lawsuit. If that happens in your court, you will wish you had tested the system more thoroughly.
File conversion, with an inventory of converted records, should occur throughout implementation if you are going to start the new system with active documents from the old system. For some organizations, this is a massive effort because they convert all of the old documents, whether they are on paper or an earlier image storage medium. Other organizations simply start the new system with documents received from that point forward and keep the old system in operation until all its records are closed. Still other organizations seek a middle ground by entering some old documents into the new system and retaining the old system for the other documents. If old documents are to be converted, which ones are converted first? Most organizations begin with the high-activity documents such as those that are retrieved frequently and worked on by several people. While these are among the main elements of the conversion strategy, the specifics depend on the imaging application in each organization. All organizations share at least one thing about conversion: it is critical and must be planned and executed properly, with appropriate staff, if it is to succeed. Many organizations relocate staff out of
their normal workplace so they can concentrate on the conversion. It is a tedious and systematic process to prepare massive volumes of documents for scanning, scan them into the imaging system, verify the scanned documents’ accuracy, and prepare and enter indexes. The scanners seldom work as rapidly as anticipated. Momentum must be maintained. Some organizations use contractors because they cannot extricate staff from everyday work to concentrate on the conversion. For courts that retain and use records for many years, such as probate courts, imaging usually means either converting all documents to images or using a combination of microfilm and imaging. Such high-volume courts may require as much as one year to convert all documents to images. At the other extreme, traffic courts have short-lived cases and may convert none of their documents in a changeover to imaging. You must assess your situation and adopt the proper conversion approach.
One of the implementation steps is to modify, or re-engineer, any procedures affected by the imaging system. If the re-engineering is extensive, it probably will take place throughout most of the implementation period. If only minor re-engineering is required, it can be accomplished at the end of implementation. Although the actual modification is done at the end of the project, you should emphasize reevaluating work processes from the beginning of the analysis. As you analyze the work processes and how imaging could apply to them, you should envision and begin setting the stage for the re-engineering that will be needed to realize the full benefits of imaging. But go beyond imaging. A significant by-product of an imaging project comes from the process of evaluating the way an organization does its work. Use imaging as an opportunity to improve a wider group of work processes.
Streamline as much of your operation as possible. And begin preparing your staff for the impending changes so that they will understand and feel less threatened by--and perhaps even support--the improvements that imaging will engender. Analogous to training, make re-engineering evolutionary as much as possible.
Implementation concludes with acceptance testing, changeover from the old to the new system, and management sign-off. Acceptance testing includes the system, its documentation, and all other vendor deliverables. During changeover you must phase out or, at a given moment, stop using the old system and phase in or, at that same given moment, start using the new system. Some organizations make changeover easier by gradually introducing system users to the PCs and other workstations that will be part of the system, by first using the system in a pilot test workgroup, or by installing a prototype of the system and gradually enlarging the prototype until the full system is achieved. In their excitement over the new system, organizations sometimes forget that implementation of new system policies and procedures is part of changeover. This includes maintenance, records retention, operations, and supplies. Changeover can become complicated in courts in which several existing systems will function with the new imaging system. For example, suppose imaged documents were to be entered into and used with separate civil, probate, and domestic relations case processing systems. In such instances, changeover to imaging--and perhaps the entire imaging implementation--may occur in separate phases. In its sign-off, management verifies that everything promised by the vendor or included in the plan and requirements analysis has been completed and is acceptable.