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www.binfo.co.uk
Banks, utilities, councils and other
organisations that receive large
volumes of incoming mail know all
about the benefits of digitising the
post using an in-house facility, an
outsourced service or sometimes a
combination of the two e.g. to cope
with sudden peaks in volume. These
include faster mail distribution (and
payment if handling cheques), reduced
manpower requirements, lower
costs, better compliance, improved
document management and faster
document retrieval.
Any business that receives 2,000
letters a day could make a strong
financial case for implementing a digital
mailroom solution. For smaller businesses
with lower mail volumes, the benefits
are less to do with the balance sheet
and more to do with process efficiency
and its effects on customer service,
productivity and even the working
environment.
The ability to scan letters and other
documents at point of entry into a
business, i.e. in the mailroom, reception
area or a secretary’s workstation,
and route them to the appropriate
department or individual could speed
up document distribution and will
certainly reduce the amount of paper
circulating around an office. However, the
greatest benefit is to enable a business
to store images of paper documents
with PC-generated files so that it has
a complete record of dealings with
customers and suppliers that can be
called up with just a few key clicks. This
saves time wasted walking to and from
paper storage systems and makes it
more likely that queries can be resolved
at the first time of asking.
To help smaller businesses achieve
such efficiencies, Neopost has just
launched an all-in-one electronic
document management system
comprising a duplex colour scanner
(with 50-sheet ADF); computer with
touch screen display; embedded
archiving server with 1000GB disk
storage (enough for 3 million B&W
pages); and software for scanning,
digitising, processing, storing and
retrieving all manner of paper
documents, including letters, invoices,
internal documents, forms and receipts.
Unlike general scanning solutions,
the IMW-20 includes specific
workflows both for invoice validation
and mail scanning. The latter includes
the ability to route scans directly to a
department, departmental supervisor
or to the virtual mailboxes of individual
workers who receive automatic email
notification of any new mail.
Other useful features include
built-in traceability so that a scanned
letter can be tracked on its route to the
intended recipient; stamp and barcode
separator for batch scanning; OCR
data extraction for automatic indexing;
and a network capability that allows
remote groups, warehouses and offices
to be integrated into enterprise-wide
systems.
www.neopost.co.uk/imw-20
0800 731 1334
4G
Mail scanning made easy
Organisations with high volumes of incoming
mail are already capturing and digitising
their post to save manpower, speed up the
document workflow and improve access to
information. Now, Neopost is launching an
all-in-one electronic document management
system that brings the same benefits to small
and medium-sized businesses.
...the greatest
benefit is
to enable a
business to
store images
of paper
documents
with PC-
generated
files...
magazine
30
What does 4G mean for business?
“Organisations that want to
mobilise a workforce through the use
of enterprise apps need to realise that
4G will increase the need to use an
application development framework
that has reliable communication
workflow processes built in, and
provide for rigorous testing in real-life
connectivity situations before making
the app available to a workforce.”
Michel Robert, Claranet:
“The UK
has been lagging behind other major
economies in rolling out 4G, so it is no
surprise that there is a lot of excitement
about the initial roll-out by EE, as well
as the coming auction of the rest of the
spectrum. However, 4G on consumer
mobile devices is a bit of a red herring
– at least until battery life improves. As
the
New York Times
recently pointed
out, 4G absolutely kills mobile batteries
due to a combination of increased
processing power required for data-
intensive communications and the need
to switch between 4G and 3G networks
in areas of patchy coverage.
“Until this issue is resolved, 4G
will be most relevant to businesses,
not consumers. Businesses will be
able to use a 4G-enabled router to
access cheap, fast and effective backup
connectivity in the event of any
disruption to their main network. Rather
than invest in redundant physical
networks, businesses will instead be
able to connect via a superfast mobile
connection.
“The implications for businesses
could be immediate, by enabling them
to switch seamlessly to a service
delivered over the mobile spectrum at
a fraction of the cost of a redundant
cable connection, making it especially
attractive to smaller businesses. And
because this would predominantly
involve mains-powered devices, the
issue of battery life wouldn’t arise.
“I’m looking forward as much as
anyone to getting broadband-level
speeds on my mobile devices. In the
short-term, I expect that 4G will be a
curious novelty for consumers, enabling
them to claim a bit of one-upmanship
over their friends. However if service
providers partner with mobile network
operators, then the benefits for
businesses will be real and immediate.”
...continued