One of the things I talk about during my presentations is that while capture is a mature technology (i.e., it actually works as advertised), the capture market is still relatively immature. Specifically, while a relatively high percentage of user organizations are scanning to archive, relatively few are extracting data from images to doing indexing or metadata, even fewer are extracting data to drive processes, and still fewer have a true enterprise capture strategy.
These themes were reinforced by the recent AIIM white paper, Capturing Data to Multiple Business Processes - What's holding you back? Here are the major conclusions:
Opportunities for document capture remain strong.
Within organizations surveyed, 23% do not have a formal mechanism for systematic scanning and capture, and a further 20% are primarily scanning-to-archive. 55% are primarily scanning-to-process.
Benefits of archive scanning are well acknowledged.
62% of respondents agree that they have made very real storage cost savings from their scan-to-archive project, and 71% also agree that they have achieved much-improved response times and better customer service.
Scan-to-Process ROI is strong.
62% of scan-to-process projects equaled or improved on the expected return-on-investment payback period through greater productivity.
There is considerable scope for capture-enabling more processes.
40% of organizations have 3 or less processes capture-enabled.
Users are keen to expand use.
60% of existing users are very keen to expand their capture system utilization.
Lack of awareness is holding things back.
The main reason respondents are not capture-enabling more processes is a lack of IT resources, and next is the lack of awareness among process owners.
Capture platforms make integrations easier.
The majority of respondents felt that IT resource issues and technical issues would be eased considerably if they had a common capture platform with standardized data integrations.
Capture is considered to be a vital part of business processes.
When describing the importance of capture to their business processes, 28% consider it to be a “Crucial component,” and a further 36% consider it to be a “Key enabler.”