The "paperless office" revisited.

• Author: Arnstein, John

Several years ago there was much talk about how the computer would result in the "paperless office." That phrase soon dropped out of favor as users learned that computers often spew out as much paper as they replace. Now, a new form of information technology promises to achieve the goal of the "paperless office." In many offices, electronic images may soon replace hard copies of handwritten forms and applications, text, signatures, pictures, x-rays, fingerprints and other documents.

Imaging systems allow users to electronically store, manage, retrieve, display, distribute and print images and associated data. Like the first data processing systems, earlier imaging systems often were based on costly mainframe computers and could generally be justified only in large production-type environments. Today, costs are dropping dramatically, as imaging systems are based on increasingly powerful, inexpensive personal computer (PC) workstations.

Some potential benefits offered by imaging systems include:

* reducing physical document storage space;

* allowing a document to be shared by different users simultaneously;

* reducing or eliminating time spent filing, searching for and retrieving documents;

* facilitating the off-site backup protection of vital records;

* reducing or eliminating misfiled or lost files;

* speeding the flow of documents which are processed by multiple people or work groups;

* providing tools for measuring paperwork processing productivity; and

* allowing work processes to be reengineered to increase productivity.

How Imaging Systems Work

The image management software is the heart of an imaging system allowing for the storage, manipulation and routing of the images. Image management software can reside on the imaging workstation, as well as the central image server. The server can be a PC, minicomputer or mainframe.

Images are first captured using scanners attached to workstations. Scanners may interface with optical character recognition (OCR) software which "reads" the contents of a document; however, OCR works most effectively when reading predefined document codes or key fields. Significant advances in OCR technology still are needed before systems can easily read all incoming text. At present, an OCR cannot be expected to read all handwritten or even typed text (e.g., a police officer's typed narrative could not be reliably scanned and searched using existing technology).

Imaging systems often are referred to as optical...