Are there not huge privacy issues with scanning certain items in and
also of identifying likely content from the outside of an envelope ...?
Is this one to hold until Friday ;-)
Presumably benefits forms and others contain confidential information
relating to home address, age, salary, etc. Presumably mail includes CVs
and job applications showing current salary, etc.
How do companies doing such scanning make sufficient provision for DP
and privacy issues? A member of staff may be more embarrassed about
their grievance being scanned than that their personal postcard got into
the system?
Regards, Kathryn
-----Original Message-----
From: Reynold Leming [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 16 December 2003 09:09
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Business case for scanning the post? i
Hi,
One thought would be, is there a business case for scanning certain
documents? - then at what stage is it best to scan them?
- Working with scanned images can reduce filing costs (equipment, floor
space etc)
- More office space can be made available
- The process bottlenecks associated with single copy paper information
can be reduced
- The photocopying costs to enable concurrent working can be reduced
- Information can be more easily located/retrieved
- Telephone charges incurred when making return phone calls because
information was not immediately available can be reduced
- The costs associated with the time spent on filing, and the time spent
searching for and even recreating mis-filed or lost information can be
reduced
- Recognition (OCR etc) techniques can be applied to scanned images to
reduce the overheads associated with manual data entry
- Potentially a more controlled environment is available for the
application of records management policy
- Vital records can be easily available following disaster
- Generally it fits well with e-gov, FoI and DP initiatives
However, a key decision is required as to what stage in the process
documents are scanned. For example, applications may often require
reworking or completion; would you want to scan all submissions or just
the final (accepted) form? Or is it important to keep an audit trail?
Is it ergonomically better for staff to work from hard copy on certain
documents? Are there fraud and similar verification tasks that require
study of an original document? How complex would the implementation of
mail scanning (preparation, scanning, quality control, indexing, routing
etc) be as compared to end-of-day/case scanning for archive purposes?
Kind Regards,
Reynold Leming
www.mintsolutions.co.uk
> Tony,
You need to be very careful with the business case and ensure that it
properly represents the mail that your business is currently receiving.
It may not be the case for you, but nowadays, up to 90% of incoming
business mail is regarded as "junk mail" or unsolicited marketing
information. You may therefore have difficulty justifying a business
case based on mail which mostly gets trashed.
If your organisation receives lower volumes of junk mail, obviously this
would not apply.
From my experience, the primary business case for scanning mail is for
the long term management of incoming records. In other words, if you are
going to scan documents at some point in their lifecycle for document
management purposes, the best place is on entry into your organisation
in order to maximise the benefits.
Remember also, that there are organisations that will receive your mail
on your behalf (i.e. through a P.O. Box number), scan the mail and route
it to you electronically. I believe Williams Lea offer this service.
Regards,
Eldin Rammell.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony May [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 05 December 2003 11:37
Subject: Business case for scanning the post? i
Hi all
Has anyone got a business case that supports scanning the mail? I have
told the powers that be that this is what we need to do to but they want
other examples. Thanks in anticipation Tony May Documents Manager
Hertfordshire County Council
Phone: 01992 556 729
Comnet 26729
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Mint Business Solutions Ltd
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