Agency Tech Case History: Scanning To Efficiency

"We owned an awful lot of file cabinets, and it seemed like we were spending a lot of time handling that paperwork and maintaining an ongoing file system," Mr. Reiter reflected. "We were also spending an inordinate amount of time looking up information."

Deciding to combat this problem, Mr. Reiter spent the next year reading, asking questions and doing a lot of research into finding a better way to keep track of this paperwork.

His answer was to use off-the-shelf computer technology, modify it to his needs, and over a year, scan the cabinet-loads of paper document files into electronic file folders, leaving the documents to the shredder afterward.

"To make a long story short, at the end of 12 months, we sold a bunch of file cabinets to a used furniture store," Mr. Reiter cheerfully admitted.

The office uses PaperPort version 8.6 for its filing and scanning system. The software is manufactured by ScanSoft, headquartered in Peabody, Mass. The company, Mr. Reiter said, makes hardware for a company named Visioneer, Pleasanton, Calif., which also happens to be the company whose scanners he uses.

Realizing the tedium involved in scanning documents, instead of purchasing the conventional flatbed scanner, Mr. Reiter purchased sheet-fed scanners. These machines allow the user to put up to 50 sheets of paper into the feeder and scan away. Older models the agency had purchased were small devices with limited resolution. Today, the agency has graduated to more sophisticated models with greater capacity and great electronic reproduction.

However, Mr. Reiter admits, he was not technologically savvy at the start and began his research "at the bottom of the learning curve" with a lot of research and picking of a lot of brains before embarking on this program.

Selling the program to his staff of four was not a monumental problem, Mr. Reiter explained.

"They were thrilled to death," he said. "I explained that what we were doing was in their own best interest and that it would be a lot easier to do their jobs."

The process did see some points of frustration as personnel learned and implemented a new technology, but "it was not as bad as we thought," said Mr. Reiter.

"We understood it was a one-time thing and once we got through the initial process, it would be a lot easier," he said.

One selling point of the technology to the staff was not only that their jobs would eventually become easier, but that the time they saved in filing and research would also make them more productive. In turn, this would lessen the need for hiring more staff, allowing Mr. Reiter to increase the existing staff's pay as the agency became more profitable.

"The important thing was to explain the changes in a way that they could relate to," Mr. Reiter pointed out.

In addition to PaperPort and Visioneer, the office uses Microsoft Access, a database program, for its filing, and the ACT for Windows 5.0 contact management database for its general office management. In fact, Mr. Reiter noted, the office has been using ACT since it was in a DOS version.

Today, Mr. Reiter said, while the office is not totally paperless (because the office still receives paper documents from carriers and agents), the paper they do get does not sit around very long.

"It either leaves by mail or goes into the trash," Mr. Reiter observed.

Fax documents are received as electronic files that are immediately put into electronic files, he explained. The same faxes can be forwarded electronically, never being output as paper documents in the office.

"The important thing is it does not become paper," said Mr. Reiter.

Connecting to the Internet via a full T-1 line, the office contracted with Connected, headquartered in Framingham, Mass, an Internet provider of office services, to back-up the agencys computer files.

No longer worrying about saving information to a disk and securing it in a fireproof box, the office personnel leave the computers on overnight and the service backs up that days data. Should there be a disaster, Mr. Reiter explained, he would need only to secure a few computers, then download the information from his backup service over the Internet.

"Ive never had to use it, but I sleep better at night," Mr. Reiter remarked.

Is your agency a star when it comes to technology use? If so, wed like to tell our readers about it. Drop us a line at atrembly@nuco.com or mruquet@nuco.com and let us know how technology has benefited you and your agency.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, August 19, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.