Document imaging. Document management. Backfiles.

What is the hidden cost of imaging?

It isn't the cost of the scanner or even the software that rings up the dollar signs in imaging, as substantial as those costs might be. It's the people costs.

You'll need desk space and people to handle the necessary tasks. At the beginning that may be a substantial effort, depending on how far back you want to go with backfiles, and where your cutoff date will be.

Compounding the problem of backfiles is indexing, the specific information points you assign to each document that impact how readily you can retrieve it. It's a trade off between creating a detailed indexing system with a special index point for nearly any document, and creating a simplified indexing scheme. The more index points you create whose information has to be manually input, the longer it takes for a document to be classified.

Will this be an electonic copy of a failed approach, or a new way of managing documents?