Nine Document Management Risks trusted - Blue …

1 White paperNine Document Management RisksJohn R. RapuanoDavid M. Bridgelandtrusted23 nine Document Management RisksDocument Management , while offering numerous benefitsfor today s public sector organization, is rife with Risks Risks that must be managed to ensure a successfulproject. In addition to the usual software engineering andproject Management challenges that are common to allnew implementations, there are also issues peculiar todocument Management . This paper describes the nine most prevalent documentmanagement Risks , based on Unisys public sector clientsthat have undergone Document Management projects along with proven methods for mitigating or avoidingthese 1: Implementing Custom Software Insteadof a COTS SolutionUnisys has extensive experience working with largeorganizations requesting custom-developed documentmanagement solutions.

2 The rationale these clients havegiven for choosing custom-developed solutions instead ofcommercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) solutionsincludes the following: Existing legacy systems already provided most of thefunctionality and simply required modernization and theaddition of business logic to accommodate newdepartments. Requirements were too complex for a COTS package. The expense of a COTS solution far outweighed the costof a custom solution. The client s understanding of their own business led themto believe they could quickly develop a custom , COTS solutions are often the most logical example, after evaluating the requirements for a client sunemployment compensation process, Unisys determinedthat a COTS workflow and imaging product couldaccommodate all the requirements including providingout-of-the-box (OOTB) functionality for more than 80% ofthem.

3 The question was not whether a COTS system wouldwork, but which of several was the best , the IT staff was looking for a mainframe-based workflow. This preference seemed to be based ontheir comfort and familiarity with operating systems,programming languages and support, rather than on anyeconomic rationale. With the majority of that staff close toretirement, a custom-developed system would be difficultfor incoming employees to support. COTS Document Management solutions offer mature,proven product technologies. Vendors focused on workflowand Document technologies have continuously improvedtheir product technologies. Many products providenumerous OOTB features and functions and can beconfigured (versus customized) to simplify implementationand 2: Undervaluing Document PreparationOne of the most important steps in the digitization ofpaper is Document preparation.

4 The mundane tasks ofopening mail, unfolding paper, removing staples and paperclips, and ordering and aligning the paper are majorcontributors to a successful Document managementoperation. Many organizations implementing documentimaging fail to consider Document preparation, and bydoing so fail to realize the benefits of the recent experience with a large state s Department ofRevenue (DOR) provides an example of this risk. TheDepartment s process for receiving tax return formsconsists of several steps that occur after a taxpayer mailsa return to a post office box. Upon receipt, the DOR:1. Opens the return, unfolds the pages, flattens them tosimplify the process of feeding them into a scanner, andremoves all staples and paper Fans the pages to avoid double page Scans the return to ensure that it is of the right typeand that it has been mailed to the proper post office box(depending on whether the taxpayer is making anadditional payment or claiming a refund).

5 4. Places a header sheet with a patch code for recognitionby the scanner in front of the Document . 4 Risk 3: Replication Architecture Gone AwryDocument Management often occurs at multipleprocessing centers. It is natural to support multiple centerswith a replicated architecture, so each center has its ownscanners, image capture servers, image file servers, imageworkstations and databases. These centers are then tiedtogether over a proprietary wide area network (WAN) or viaa virtual private network (VPN) across the Internet, givingeach center the freedom of working independently using itsown hardware without waiting for network bandwidth foreach step of the process. At the same time, the centersare tied together so the documents are availablethroughout the organization.

6 Replication also provides failover: in the event of failure in one center, processing canbe directed to replicated architectures are not easy to design. At oneorganization, processes were replicated across four siteswithout mirroring structures and environments. As eachsite had unique attributes, technical administration of thesystem required detailed knowledge of each operatingcenter. The differences were so vast that the organizationdecided to assign an administrator to each site,dramatically increasing support is also an example from another state s Departmentof Revenue. While this DOR had four separate taxprocessing systems located at four separate sites, eachwith its own unique attributes, they were all based on thesame three COTS packages.

7 Users were confused as towhich system they were required to log into, whileadministrators had to keep up with the locations of eachoperating system and COTS version. In this case, Unisys worked with the client to consolidatethe environments into a single operational center,eliminating two redundant sites. Users had a single signon, and based on their role, received access to theappropriate environment. The state saved both onadministration and on example involves a recent project for a federalagency. Unisys designed a replicated architecture tosupport the agency s remittance process, in whichindividual taxpayers and businesses submit checks andvouchers to one of 10 service centers. Up to 300,000images are archived daily at each center. Optical platters5.

8 Places the W2s after the header Inserts the actual tax return after the W2s, with apreprinted barcode on top that identifies the form typeand tax year. The W2s can be automatically identifiedbecause they are sequenced between the header pageand the tax Places all other pages after the Places the Document in an outbox, aligning the leadingand right edges. 9. Batches documents when they have prepared a stack of50. Subsequently places the batch in a folder andsecures it with horizontal and vertical rubber folder color indicates the type of batch: payment,refund, amendment, etc. The number of documents inthe batch is noted on the folder and the preparationperson initials process avoids the need for a person later examiningimages to determine how the pages combine into the taxreturn.

9 Implementing this process for the state requires aseasonal temporary work force of 30 employees fromFebruary through a presentation of a new feature-rich, high-speedscanner, the Deputy Commissioner of the state heard thatdocuments could be placed on the scanner withoutsorting. He jumped to the conclusion that this new scannercould eliminate the Document preparation process several sessions, Unisys convinced the DeputyCommissioner that reducing the Document preparationstaff would lower productivity and greatly increase the costof processing a return. The discussions pointed out the lowlabor cost of the Document prep personnel versus thehigher cost of the scan operators and the even highercost of the knowledge workers who would have to pagethrough images to find the appropriate return or Document ,causing additional hold time with the accessed to reconcile deposits for federal repositoriesand commercial banks, answer questions from customerservice representatives, and provide images of checks andvouchers for audit Remittance Processing System (RPS) includes both the10 production sites and two test sites.

10 These 12 sites aremaintained to an identical architecture including allprograms and operating modules. This architecturesupports new and continued development, test,installation, implementation and maintenance of RPSsubsystems. Subsystems developed and supportedinclude: A Document imaging and workflow system A transaction Management system using a customizedCOTS product A network payment processing system for the Unisyscheck sorting hardware Each RPS component is built to share hardware, COTS software, common data processes, and procedures andsupport structure. RPS provides each Service Centerwith a standard and common set of operational systemsthat include: Common data model for operational databases andarchival storage Common processes and tools to audit, cleanse, updateand load or transfer data to the archive Integrated processes to move data through theoperational check processing platform to archival storage Single plans and processes for transitioning to the RPSdata architecture A common repository of data for RPSC reating a replicated architecture requires both experienceand an understanding of available technologies including the wide array of available operating systems,database Management systems (DBMSs)