Bar Coding Your Way To Imaging Sales

Bar coding is commonly used in automatic identification and data collection (AIDC) systems to track inventory. For example, a warehouse management system can use bar codes to track shipments of packages.

Businesses also need to track their paper. A successful document management system enables a user to more efficiently track its business documents.

"ARMA (Association of Records Managers and Administrators) estimates that each document a business can't locate costs that business $60-$200. This is due to time spent looking for that document, and revenues and opportunities lost by not having the information contained in the document," says Steve MacWilliams, chairman of Document Control Solutions (DCS). "Bar codes can help businesses track their documents."

Document Management Systems Can Include Both Electronic and Physical Documents DCS is a Fullerton, CA-based company with a base of about 600 records and document management customers. To many integrators, document management means imaging, which is the conversion of paper documents to electronic format. To DCS it means more.

MacWilliams says some customers are not quite ready for imaging installations. "In 15-20 years, all documents may be in computerized format," he says. "Currently, though, there is still a generation in the business world that is more comfortable working with paper documents, file folders and labeling techniques," says MacWilliams.

When DCS was founded in 1976, its customers' documents consisted of paper files, microfilm and maybe some tape cartridges containing data from a mainframe computer. These items were kept in boxes, on shelves, in filing cabinets, and often in warehouses.

"Today, many business documents exist as computer files. These files are stored on PC hard drives, servers, optical discs and CDs. "However, some businesses still have the same filing systems they had 20 years ago," says MacWilliams. "It can be intimidating for them when an integrator approaches with a proposal for an imaging system."

Gaining Control Of Documents With Bar Coding
A document management system that uses bar codes is less intimidating than an imaging installation, says MacWilliams. "Everyone has seen a bar code. As consumers we see them every day at stores," he says. "Also, creating and applying bar codes to documents is similar to creating and applying labels to file folders."

DCS offers its customers systems that use bar coding of documents to ease the transition to imaging systems. Bar coding of documents provides two main benefits to an end user, says MacWilliams. "First, it gives the end user a better system for tracking documents. With a bar code, documents have identifiers which can be scanned each time the documents are removed from a shelf or cabinet. Second, bar coding prepares an end user for an imaging installation later on down the road."

This second benefit can also be a benefit for resellers who sell image management systems. "Typically the installation of a bar coding system for documents generates less immediate revenue than the sale of an image management system. In that respect, it is also less of an initial investment for the end user. But I'd rather have ten $100,000 document management installations using bar codes, than one $1 million imaging sale," says MacWilliams. "Eventually, those 10 bar coding installations are going to turn into imaging installations.

"When that time comes, the VAR that sold the bar coding installation is going to have the inside track on the imaging sale, because that VAR already has control of the customer's document management account."

The Benefits Of Bar Coding For Document Tracking
Although DCS began offering imaging systems in 1990, it has been offering records and document management systems that include bar coding since 1982. In these systems, bar code printers and software are used with bar code readers to identify business documents.

For example, in a law firm, bar-code reading software could be programmed to recognize bar code number 12345 as meaning a document is related to the O.J. Simpson case. (The document would also have a bar code identifying what type of documents it is, i.e., a deposition, witness list, testimony, etc.). Thus, the law firm's filing clerks would apply bar code 12345 (plus a bar code identifying the document type) to each document associated with the O.J. Simpson case.

In this type of system, the bar codes are used to automate the recording of who has which documents. This is done by scanning the documents each time they are removed and returned to their storage area. Documents bar coded could be paper, tapes, computer discs, microfilm, etc.

In the law firm's case, say a lawyer wanted to study documents from the Simpson case. When law librarians removed the Simpson documents from the shelf, they would scan the documents with a bar-code scanner. The librarians would then enter the lawyer's identification number. This can also be done through a bar code typically found on a library card or ID badge.

Combining information from the document scan and the ID-badge scan, the law firm's document management software program can update its record of the Simpson file. This is a benefit when another lawyer goes to retrieve the Simpson documents and they are missing.

Records of documents also inform businesses which documents in their filing system are being used the most. This is important information when a business decides to install an imaging system. "It helps them choose which documents to image, and which to retain in paper storage," says MacWilliams. "Because it costs at least 10 cents to image a document, businesses typically only image the documents they use the most."

Migrating An End User From Bar Codes To Imaging
Bar coding documents can also help customers automatically index their documents efficiently in an image management program. The same bar codes that are used to identify documents to track their location can be used as identifiers for paper documents being converted to images.

A Document Bar-Coding Application
A document management program that is image-enabled, not only contains records of a business' "on-the-shelf" documents, but provides listings and links to a business' document images. A document and image management program can contain listings for thousands of documents and images.

For example, last year when Wells Fargo Operations purchased First Interstate Bank (FIB), DCS installed a document imaging program which used bar codes to create listings for the images of over 30 million pages from loan documents. Depending on the type of loan, documents that were imaged included agreements, car titles, house deeds, etc.

Sets of bar code digits were defined for each documents type. Bar code digits 5678, for example, might have been defined as identifying a document as a house deed. Sets of bar code digits were also created to identify each document by their loan identification number. Loan ID number 12345 could have been identified by the bar code digits 12345. So, the house deed for loan 12345 would then receive the bar code 123455678.

The documents were then converted to images by being passed through document scanners. When a document is scanned, scanning software makes an electronic picture of it. Software can also be installed in the document scanner to read bar codes on images.

Bar Code Data Used As Reference Point For Documents Within Imaging System
The information contained on its bar code determines how an image is listed in a document imaging program. Using the previous example, in a Windows-based document imaging program, the house deed for loan 12345 could be listed as the document "deed" under the file folder 12345.

This listing or indexing is done by programming bar code-reading software to insert the value of the first five digits of the bar code into the primary indexing, or file folder, slot in the document imaging program. The bar code reading software would also be programmed to insert the value of the second four-bar-code digits as the document name.

Alternatives To Bar Coding Systems For Indexing Images
Aside from bar coding, indexing of documents in a document imaging program can also be done through manual data entry of indexing information, or through using OCR (optical character recognition) to extract indexing information from images.

"Both manual data entry and OCR indexing require that a user employ PC operators to extract information from on-screen images. If documents are bar coded, they are indexed automatically. Even though OCR is supposed to be automatic, there are still going to be letters and numbers of which an OCR software program is unsure. A PC operator will have to check these," says MacWilliams.

MacWilliams says it is difficult for a business to retrain its regular filing clerks, who are used to working with labels and paper, to become PC operators working with images. "Creating and applying a bar code to a document is a lot closer to what these file clerks are used to doing," he says.

Where Bar Coding Of Documents Works Best
Bar coding of documents works best in applications where several documents can be indexed by the same value, says MacWilliams. "In the loan application, for example, there were thousands of documents that had to be indexed as "title" in the document imaging program. One combination of bar code digits was defined to identify a document as a "title" to the document imaging program. This reusable combination of digits saved the bank's having to enter the data "title" (either manually or through OCR) as indexing information for each title document as it was scanned.

"The data was only entered once, to define a combination of bar code digits. Then, one keystroke was used to attach those digits to a bar code which was applied to each title document. The document imaging program automatically extracted from the bar code that the document should be indexed as a 'title.'"

Bar coding does not work well when each document image in an application has a unique indexing value, and bar codes can not be defined automatically using a database listing of those values. "For example, a business has 1,000 personnel documents, each belonging to a different employee, and wants to index the document images only by employee names. To index these documents with bar codes, a different set of bar code digits would have to be defined as the identifier for each name.

"Using a database listing of those names, bar code printing software could be programmed to automatically generate a separate bar code for each name. Without a database of names though, the data entry done to define each bar code digit combination as an identifier for a name, would be the same amount of data entry required to index an image manually or through OCR. If defining a bar code does not simplify the defining of an index for an image, the bar code is not a useful indexing tool," says MacWilliams.

Document Bar Coding Systems Offer Competitive Edge For Both AIDC and Document Management Resellers
Overall, offering bar coding of documents gives both AIDC and document management resellers an edge over their competition. "Not everyone is offering systems which bar code documents. There is still some mystery in it," says MacWilliams. "As the old saying goes, 'when the mystery goes in the margins go up."

For document imaging VARs, bar coding of documents provides an edge over competitors who only offer imaging systems. For AIDC resellers it could provide an entry into document management. Concludes MacWilliams, "Bar coding of documents gives resellers an angle to land accounts that might not produce millions in revenues right away, but when imaging is added these could grow tenfold."