Going Paperless: Planning and Implementing a Digital Scanning Project

(1)

Going Paperless: Planning and

Implementing a Digital

Scanning Project

Melissa Mencotti and Josh Tysiachney

Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania

APRA International Conference San Diego, California

(2)

Introduction

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Digital Imaging for Beginners

z

Our goal is to provide an overview of the

many issues one should consider when

embarking on a document imaging project,

from putting together a team, to

completing a cost-benefit analysis, to

archiving data.

(3)

Agenda

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Document imaging defined

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Basic components

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Putting together a team

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Reviewing your current system

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Developing policies and procedures

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Selecting a vendor or software package

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Designing the database

(4)

Agenda

z Staffing

z _{File preparation and scanning} z Training z _Challenges z Budget z _Reporting z _{Future applications} z Resources

(5)

It

’

s Just Copying Files, Right?

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Mega gift leads to project

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Deceptively complicated

Design Vendors Policies Team Review Choices

(6)

What is Document Imaging?

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It is the process of scanning documents or

forms using specialized software and

saving the resulting image files on a

(7)

Document Imaging

9

Provides quick access

9

Online

9

May be edited and printed from screen

9

Saves space

9

May save paper

9

Can be text searchable

(8)

Basic Components

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Scanning

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Indexing or Coding

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Archiving

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Retrieving

(9)

Putting Together a Team

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People who are responsible for files

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Database overseer

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Representative end users

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IT folks

(10)

Reviewing Your Current System

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What is the purpose of your files?

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How are your files utilized? By whom?

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Where does the information come from?

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Where does it go?

(11)

Surveying Your Colleagues

1.

How often do you utilize our paper files?

2.

Why do you look at prospect files?

– General briefing – Before trips

– Need specific information not on database – Other

(12)

3.

If you use the files infrequently, why?

4.

Would you use them more if it was more

(13)

Surveying Your Colleagues

5.

When you are reading a constituent’s file

you are usually looking for:

– General history with the institution

– Specific correspondence or gift agreements – Business information

– News clippings – Other

(14)

Surveying Your Colleagues

6.

When reviewing a file you would prefer

to see:

– Material presented chronologically with current information at the front

– Material grouped by subject

(correspondence, gift agreements, financial information, etc.)

(15)

7.

What information is critical to keep in

constituent files?

8.

When searching for a file, you would

find it easiest to look for it based upon:

– Last name, first name – ID number

(16)

9.

How computer literate do you think of

yourself?

– Expert

– Pretty good

– I know enough to get by

– Can’t I just use a typewriter?

10.

Do you know what a Boolean search is

(17)

11.

Would you like to be able to choose from

a short number of preset queries or would

you prefer to set your own queries?(Note:

not a replacement for the organizational

database!)

12.

Do you have any questions, concerns, or

suggestions for implementing our

project?

(18)

Return on Investment Survey

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Intense analysis of files and use

– Helps to estimate the scope of the project – Helps with ultimate database design

(19)

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Analysis includes:

– Number of existing files and pieces of paper – Number of new documents created/sent to

files per day and length of time to prepare and file them

– Number of documents retrieved daily and the amount of time it takes to retrieve them

– Number of documents distributed daily and the length of time that takes

(20)

Return on Investment Survey

– Number of daily refiles and length of time devoted to refiling

– Percentage of misfiles

– Actual number of misfiles

– Average length of time it takes to find or refile misfiles

– Total space devoted to in-house document storage and cost per square foot

(21)

Return on Investment Survey

– Monthly cost of off-site document storage – Annual cost of file folders, boxes and file

cabinets, and paper

– Monthly copies of documents to be filed and cost per copy (include documents printed from personal computers)

– Average number of courier deliveries per week and cost per delivery

(22)

Return on Investment Survey

– Average number of long distance fax

transmissions per week, average number of pages, and average cost per page (Ikon Office Solutions)

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With these data, one can compare an

existing manual system with the proposed

document management system and even

determine how long the period of time is

before the system pays for itself.

(23)

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Allow as much time for this as possible to

increase the accuracy of your data.

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Keep a chart noting the date, person

sending the filing, and number of pages of

each document filed.

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Ask each of your colleagues to keep a log

of documents they distribute to others:

date, document title, pages, to whom.

(24)

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Do not forget to include labor expenses

– One can determine daily copying, filing, retrieving, and distributing costs.

z We utilized an average hourly wage for the entire

division. If one’s administrators do little or none of this work, one might consider using an average support staff rate.

z

In our case, we determined that our system

would pay for itself in fewer than six

(25)

Developing Policies and

Procedures

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Once your system is reviewed and you

have a sense of how filing works (or needs

to work) it is important that you review or

create policies and procedures to guide

(26)

Procedures

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Every advancement office should have file

retention guidelines that include at a

minimum information on what is retained,

how one handles exceptions, how long

materials are kept, and how materials are

destroyed.

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What will your files look like in ten or 20

years?

(27)

Procedures

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Understanding the purpose of your files.

– Are they repositories for anything that was ever captured about a constituent?

– Do they include staff working notes?

– Do you keep documents in your files simply to verify information in your database?

(28)

Developing Policies and

Procedures

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These are the documents that we are

retaining:

– Biographical information including:

z Alumni surveys

z Award nominations z Genealogies

z Obituaries

(29)

Procedures

– Correspondence

z Agreements

z Inter-office email about a constituent (with care!) z Proposals

z Reports of contact filed before we had our current

database

– Data entry information

(30)

Developing Policies and

Procedures

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Gift Information

– Estate documents

– Planned gift calculations that become part of an agreement

– Stewardship reports (cross-filed with the named fund)

(31)

Procedures

– Research

z Business information

z News clippings not available online

– Other

(32)

Procedures

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These are documents that we are

discarding:

– Biographical information

z Admissions application cover sheets z Funeral programs

(33)

Developing Policies and

Procedures

– Correspondence

z Attachments to outgoing notes (copies of

commencement programs, etc.)

z Outgoing notes

(34)

Procedures

– Data entry news

z Address and employment change notification z Alumni information update forms

z Business cards z News notes

(35)

Developing Policies and

Procedures

– Gift information

z Checks

z Copies of stock certificates z Old giving history cards z Planned gift calculations

(36)

Procedures

– Research z Early profiles z Financial information z P!N Reports

(37)

Document Destruction

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We are reducing the volume in our files by

30 to 50 percent as we clean them out

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Shredding everything

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Recommend that one contracts with a

document destruction company

– Easy to find on the Internet

(38)

Selecting a Vendor or Software

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Generate a list of potential vendors

– Internet search – PRSPCT-L

– Sample vendors (many more):

z IBM Business Services z Ikon Office Solutions

z Kodak Document Imaging z Sharp Document Imaging

(39)

Selecting a Vendor or Software

– Be sure to consider vendors’ area(s) of expertise (law firms, medical facilities, businesses, educational institutions)

– Reputation

(40)

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Request proposals

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Key criteria:

– Volume capacity – Accuracy – Turnaround times – Technical integration – Cost

(41)

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Does one really need to use a vendor?

– Does your institution have a dedicated IT division?

– Do your IT folks have the time and ability to contribute to this project?

(42)

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Using a vendor was the right thing for us

– Our IT folks are under-staffed and over-worked

– No one had any experience with such a project – Vendor was able to share best practices and to

explain potential problems with some of our ideas

(43)

Selecting a Vendor or Software

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Ask vendors to apply in writing

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Conduct interviews and/or request

demonstrations

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Check references

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Scan and index a variety of paper sizes,

colors and weight and to scan double-sided

documents

(44)

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A vendor will recommend a specific

soft-ware package – many, many on market

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Critical features include:

– Optical character recognition (OCR) – Image enhancement

– Full text indexing

– Bar-coding compatibility – Web access

(45)

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Software should allow one to:

– edit documents

– customize database and index fields – support search queries using Boolean

operators

(46)

Selecting a Vendor or Software

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Another available feature in many software

packages is the ability to access the

database over the Internet.

– Positive and negative consequences

– We did not choose a package with this feature but can migrate to a more advanced software later

(47)

Selecting a Vendor or Software

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When selecting software one should

consider:

– Compatibility – Stability – Scalability – Customer support – Ease of use

(48)

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A note about OCR (Optical Character

Recognition)

– Critical for full text searching – Must use a higher resolution

z Takes up more hard drive space z Slows down the indexing

(49)

Hardware

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The physical infrastructure is relatively

simple

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The four key pieces:

– Scanner

– PC for the scanner

– Server for the imaging software – PC workstations for end users

(50)

Hardware

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Range and quality of scanners vary

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Price can vary depending upon scope of

project

– Small or short-term project – may wish to lease a scanner or buy a less expensive one and essentially wear it out

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Dedicated PC for scanner (no additional

(51)

Hardware

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When choosing a scanner one should

consider:

– Speed

– Ability to scan a variety of page sizes – Resolution

– Duplexing

(52)

Hardware

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Server is specific to scope of the project

– Our Return on Investment survey provided us with the data needed to determine the size

– We are estimating a ten percent annual volume increase (liberal)

– Our vendor provided a scanning calculator to assist with current and future disk storage

(53)

Hardware

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Individual workstations

– Software may be installed on every

employee’s pc but one does not need to purchase a license for every user

– We are using a 1:3 ratio

– Workstations may need to be upgraded for memory and/or speed

(54)

Designing the Database

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How “granular” do you go?

– Documents within the database organized under broad categories or many

subcategories?

z Biographical information z Correspondence

z Data entry information z Gift information

(55)

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Our vendor cautioned us not to be too

granular

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Also the results of our staff survey

indicated that staff preferred broad

One back file document type: constituent

– Applies to individual, corporate & foundation, and fund records

– All documents within are considered “subdocuments”

(57)

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Indexed with searchable fields

– Constituent ID – Spouse ID

– First Name – Last Name – Spouse Last

(58)

Designing the Database

– Spouse First – Maiden Last

– Source (Alumni, Parent, Non-Alumni, Corporation, Fund)

– Class Year

(59)

z

Forward filing will be more granular

– Once back filing is completed, new

subdocuments cannot be added to the original subdocument.

– Every subsequent document will be indexed as a new subdocument under the constituent’s name.

– Readers will need to open one to hundreds of subdocuments to view an entire file

(60)

Designing the Database

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Forward filing subdocument types:

– Gift information

– Biographical information – Correspondence

– Research

– Data entry information – Photographs

(61)

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Readers will have the option to open the

main subdocument (back file) and then use

an arrow to review each subsequent

subdocument OR

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Search for documents depending upon

their subdocument type, i.e., can search

correspondence alone

(62)

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Option to go to back filed subdocuments

and make them more granular

– Useful for larger files and files of more prominent constituents

(63)

Designing the Database

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All documents are text searchable

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Developed preset queries for end-users

– Research (allows searching under any index field as well as full text)

– Alumni

– Non-Alumni

(64)

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Anyone can use any of these queries

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Most often will search for documents

under last names or ID numbers

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Access:

– Administrator (add, modify, delete and view) – Staff (add, modify, view)

(65)

Preparing the Files

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Recommend that you clean them out

before scanning

– Files need to have all paperclips and staples removed

– Remove duplicates

– Remove materials that do not belong per file retention guidelines

(66)

Preparing the Files

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Consider photocopying:

– Odd-sized pages – Fragile documents

– Documents on heavier paper stock

– Newspaper clippings that have been pasted onto paper

(67)

Preparing the Files

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In theory, these things will all go through a

scanner but they may slow you down.

– May have to scan them one page at a time – May need to make adjustments on the screen – We found that clippings pasted on paper are

read by the scanner as a double feed which causes an error message

(68)

Scanning and Indexing

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Started with back filing and will gradually

implement forward filing

z

Bar-coded cover sheet for each file

– Elfring Fonts, Inc.

– Eliminates the need for manual

(69)

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Cover sheet fields include:

– Constituent ID – Spouse ID

– Last name – First name

– Spouse last name – Spouse first name

(70)

Scanning and Indexing

– Class year

– Spouse Class Year

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The scanner “understands” that every

document that follows the cover sheet

belongs to that constituent until the next

cover sheet

(71)

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Bar-coding complications

– Cover sheets for constituents with no files – Files for constituents with no cover sheet

– Women married to non-alumni are filed under maiden name but cover sheets were pulled by current last name

(72)

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Using sheet feeder to scan whole files at

once

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May scan more than one file at a time

– Will scan 500 pages at once but OCR process slows things down

– We have found that it is about as quick to scan one document at a time, always keeping one in the pipeline ready for scanning

(73)

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Forward filing

– Coincident with back filing?

– Each document will need to be indexed manually at the time of scanning

– Can also send documents directly from one’s pc to an electronic in-box for indexing to

(74)

Back Ups

z

Software must be backed up regularly to

tape

– Our database is backed up daily and monthly

z Daily – tapes are overwritten every other week z Monthly – tapes are sent to an off-campus vault

and are overwritten annually

– Tapes are expensive but nowhere near as expensive as the potential loss of data

(75)

Staffing

z Recommend a dedicated project manager

– We created a temporary fulltime position to oversee the back filing

z Four months - probably not enough time

– Strong computing skills advised

z _{Manager Job Description}

(76)

Training

z

Vendor trained project administrators

– Provided two huge, unwieldy manuals

z Project manager is developing a user manual for

project administrators

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Project manager and administrators train

project staff and end users

– Project manager will develop user manuals for them

(77)

Training

– It is imperative that the instructions for end users be as simple as possible

– Most end users will be viewers only

z

Also developing a planning and

implementation manual for other campus

divisions who are considering this project

(78)

What

’

s the Cost?

z

This is a fairly expensive undertaking in

terms of out-of-pocket costs

– Vendor – Software – Hardware

– Direct personnel

(79)

What

’

s the Cost?

z

Indirect costs

– Personnel (planning, developing policies and procedures)

– Food and beverages for meetings – Postage

(80)

What

’

s the Cost?

z

Our project’s non-personnel cost so far:

– $43,000 vendor – $11,000 server

– $1,200 dedicated scanner pc – $100 bar-coding software TOTAL $55,300

(81)

What

’

s the Cost?

(82)

Challenges

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Challenges

– Lots of odd-sized paper in the files (time-consuming)

– Old student cards on heavy, colored stock are not scanning well

– Finding a number of paper files for

(83)

Challenges

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This whole project has been SLOW!

– Took seven months between initial discussion and signed contract with vendor

– Took another month for database design, installation on computers, and testing

– We had to move in the midst of it

z

Allow far more time than you think

(84)

Future Applications

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Magazines, newspapers, yearbooks

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Branching out to other divisions

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Prospecting

(85)

What About the Paper Files?

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Options:

– Keep them on campus somewhere

– Send them to an off-site storage facility – Destroy them immediately

(86)

What About the Paper Files?

z

Options:

– Keep them on campus somewhere

– Send them to an off-site storage facility – Destroy them immediately

(87)

What Have We Learned?

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Allow as much time as possible

z

Put together a team with broad

representation

z

Return on Investment survey is critical as

(88)

What Have We Learned?

z

We recommend contracting with a vendor

who will assist with software selection and

database design

z

Bar-coding speeds up the scanning process

z

Document imaging is expensive but the

(89)

Other Resources

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CASE

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PRSPCT-L

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Archivist or librarian

z

Other institutions (web search, “records

(90)

Other Resources

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“Document Imaging 101: Going Paperless

Without Pain” by John Ley, Advancement

Services: Research and Technology

Support for Fund Raising, John H. Taylor,

Editor (CASE Books, 1999).

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“Investing Wisely for the Future,” by Alan

A. Andolsen, The Information

Management Journal, September/October

2004.

(91)

Other Resources

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“Tech Support: Putting Paper in Its Place”

by John Ley. CASE Currents, September

1999.

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Association of Records Managers and

(92)

Contact Us

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Josh Tysiachney, Associate Director of

Prospect Development

– (814) 332-5911

– [email protected]

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Melissa Mencotti, Director of Prospect

Development

– (814) 332-5912

www.arma.org