What Processes Can Be Outsourced?

Virtually any process at any company can be outsourced. There are certain functions that a company would probably never feel comfortable outsourcing, but this is a case by case decision.  Apple outsources manufacturing.  Caterpiller outsources most of its sales.  Many companies outsource accounting and legal.  Many companies also outsource document processing.

As we all have heard, these outsourced tasks are generally referred to as non-core functions.  With documents, the receipt and routing of the document is generally not a core function of any business.  Its what you do with the document or with the content of the document that is probably a core function of the business.  If you are in the business of processing medical claims, the core function is to understand the billing codes and content of the claim request to make a judgement on paying that claim. Opening the envelope and delivering the document to the claim manager is not core.

Here is a short list of document related processes that can be outsourced and how:

- Mail receipt and routing:  have mail directed to a PO Box that an imaging service sweeps each day, opens the mail and forwards to an electronic inbox.  Intelligent routing rules can be established based on the PO Box number or a code on the document.

- Fax receipt:  Faxes can actually be received electronically and routed electronically without every becoming paper.  The faxes can be routed based on the fax number that they are sent to.

- Email receipt:  Documents delivered to a specific email address can be routed to specific workflow queues

- Data Entry:  Accounts payable documents can be scanned and even the information from the payable can be captured and entered into a system that feeds the accounting system.  This takes all but the approval process and cost code assignment and outsources it.

 - Contract Data Extraction:  Documents can be scanned and routed electronically to a company that will extract the terms into a contract management system.

- Conversion to PDF and OCR:  Documents that are scanned locally can be routed to outsourced back end processes that just convert the files to PDF and OCR the documents.

- Document Translation:  Documents that need to be translated can be scanned and routed to an outsourced service for translation

- Mail merging and printing: Many companies will mail merge from a data list and print and send paper documents (yes, paper is still created and sent).  Of course, mail merging and send electronically is what iContact and other newsletter services do every day.  This process can be used for investor letters, client notices, vendor communication, reporting and many other uses.

Visit us at www.mgdocs.com

We Have Seen the Light - And We Want You to See it Too

Very sorry for the long absence from this blog.  We have been busy searching for the meaning of Scanning so to speak.  Millennia Group has been a scanning service bureau or scanning services company for 17 years now.  We have always put customer first and that has meant providing our valued customers with scanning services that they wanted and were willing to fund.  There is no question that when the economy was really good, the willingness to fund scanning projects was far greater than it is today.  The underlying reasons to scan have not changed, but the willingness to fund them has, shall we say, tightened up a bit.  And we understand that.  This has caused us and our clients to look deeply at the reasons for a scanning project.  The results of that look are really not surprising.

What we have come to fully embrace and advocate is that scanning needs to be looked at as part of business process improvement.  Scanning is not a means to empty a basement full of boxes or to Go Paperless.  Scanning is also not just a means to satisfy the disaster recovery team or to eliminate some file cabinets.  While it is true that those things can be the result of scanning, scanning must be tied to business process improvement to get past the justifiable financial scrutiny.

For this reason, over the past year, we have been starting the conversation with companies that call and want us to "scan all of their documents" with this simple question - Why?  What is this project going to do to improve your business?  Will it turn a paper based routing and approval process into a paperless process with tracking, notices and an audit trail?  Yes, we are on board and we can help you with that.  Will it give your dispersed and mobile workforce better access to customer and project documentation and let those remote users upload new documents?  Yes, we are on board with this too and we can definitely help.

Be willing to have a thick skin and maybe look hard at some internal processes that may not be optimal or in fact broken.  Embrace some well thought out change.  Now scanning is really going to improve your business.

visit us at www.mgdocs.com