Posted by Francis Hart on Mon, Mar 15, 2010
There is an encouraging sign. The number of times on a monthly basis I've heard prospects and clients that want to improve their AP workflow processes. Of course, when the dialog begins, the main theme is the amount of time and "touches" any person has to make when dealing with paper and accounts payable invoices ... It really can be overwhelming.
From receipt by mail, photocopying, file cabinet storage, interoffice mail for approval & signatures, routing to payables, pulling invoices back out of storage for audit, monthly ends and fiscal year ends ... How many times does one have to repeat this? Well, factor in the number of monthly invoices X, number of people Y and number of unique processes Z and you may have a formula ... for what? that depends on the level of pain each organization goes through on the monthly paper merry go round ... It may not be rocket science but it also doesn't have to be that complicated either ...
The rationalization is, that if one were to implement a scanning automation process, they can "get rid of three processes in a busy day". Of course this entire exercise begins with the common copier printer fax scanner. Of note, a recent blog comment (http://blog.abctechsolutions.com/2009/09/copier-printer-fax-scanner-costs-on-the-rise/) puts into perspective the rising costs of keeping the hard copy use of these machines;
" ... According to the GSA, company's printers, fax machines and copiers cost "on the average $1000 per employee per year or more." According to Xerox, company's copier printer environment costs an average of 3% of a company's TOTAL GROSS revenue ..." Something like EEK!
"Every dollar you save in your copier printer scanner increases your company's profit. Budgets for toner cartridge supplies are growing by 20-40% per year; Dataquest, IDC and CAP Ventures have all concluded that copier printer scanner page volumes are growing at a compound annual growth rate of roughly 8%. Printer cost is increasing not decreasing and the majority of the company's do not have controls in place ..." Or more appropriately YIKES!
So, here's a final thought ... accounting departments have finally grasped that they have to do something about their accounts payable workflow processes ... they are the ones feeling the pain of overwhelming manual and paper processes and the associated "many touch" costs at each step along the way. Many have just starting to use the scanner, either standalone smaller desktop units or the more central photocopier scanner hardware to begin to scan invoices ... all in the direction of accounts payable automation ... so why not use this step to help drive down the hardware cost and printing costs of all this paper?
One caveat, we haven't even started talking about e-invoicing ... Stay tuned!
Posted by Jarrod Levitan on Wed, Sep 10, 2008
If you're thinking of scanning all your documents and getting more paperless, and looking for a scanner, read this. We recommend the Fujitsu ScanSnap to all our customers who are now big fans and can't live without them.
Here's why;
• They're small and compact and fit neatly on a desk. No more time wasted walking to the central copier to scan.
• Scans straight to pdf, even if adobe acrobat the application isn't open.
• Software included is easy to setup and use. You can save scanning profiles for particular projects and decide where all the files should be saved, ie on a network drive on a directory. There's even a direct to email profile which will open an email with a pdf attached, with one scan button push.
• It does a great job with color as well as black and white.
• It scans both sides, with a high resolution at a speedy 18 pages per minute. Auto-deletes blank pages for you. Great for docs that have info on both sides.
• It auto-detects different size pages. Does good job with those pesky little restaurant or retail receipts.
• They have models for both mac and pc.
• They're reliable and not too costly, two models approx:
o 310 - $275
o 510 - $400
• The only real difference between the models is scan speed and their size. All the software is the same. All said it's worth the extra buying the 510.
• It includes the latest version of adobe acrobat free ($200+ in value).
A few negatives are;
• The scanner needs a dedicated pc or mac. So if it's shared you need to either connect it to a computer no one is using, or hardly using, or the person doesn't mind their machine being used to scan once in a while.
• They're not widely available at the big box stores, Staples or Office depot, Best Buy... Best bet is to buy one online.
• Finally, I'd say it's what to do with the scans after you scan them that's challenging, but that's for another blog.
Lets us know if you have one, or bought one and like it, or have something to say. If there's another scanner out there that rumbles your hamburger, we want to know about it.
