Return on Investment ROI

A cost justification comparing your current costs against the new systems costs viewed over a specific time will reveal if your investment presents a positive or negative return. The costs outlined below should help you determine what your costs may be regarding your current paper process. Once you have those numbers you will need to figure out the numbers for implementing an imaging system and for outsourcing the whole project.

Present costs without document imaging or forms processing

• Real dollars paid to employees to locate paper documents
• Real dollars paid to employees to locate lost paper documents
• Document warehousing for archival purposes
• The cost of regenerating a lost paper document (As high $200)
• Disaster Recovery
• Office space to house paper
• Filing cabinets
• Customer Service
• Data Entry
• Couriers
• Growth Rate – Can you handle the paper you might have two years from now

Cost involved with purchasing operating and imaging system

• Purchase of Scanner and Software
• Employees to operate new imaging system
• System training
• Software and system maintenance
• IT people
• Image storage
• Space to operate and house the system
• Destruction or Archival of original paper

Additionally, there may be other types of gains that are difficult to measure. These gains are direct results of the new process. Offering better and faster customer service as a result of being able to locate client files much more quickly may give your business a competitive edge and a better ROI.

Costs involved when using a document imaging service bureau?

• Per page scanning price
• Search and Retrieval Software
• System training
• Image storage
• Destruction or Archival of original paper

Of course, different service bureaus can charge for any services they desire or negotiate. Most reputable and honest ones will offer an all inclusive per image scanning price or a detailed itemized cost per service. When getting quoted make sure the following costs are included as they are all necessary in the process.

• Single seat search and retrieval software
• Document preparation
• Scanning
• Scanning Resolution
• Quality control
• Scanning
• Indexing (Data Entry)
• Double Keying
• Release into a database or ASCII text file with image files
• Destruction of original paper
• Pick-up and delivery

Always know exactly what you are being quoted on. Never sign an agreement without knowing all the costs involved. I hate hidden costs and I’m sure you do as well.

Now that we know the possible costs of imaging or not imaging, we need to look at the benefits of all three processes.

Benefits of a paper process

• No additional hard dollar expense
• No additional training
• I can’t think of any others can you

Benefits of a document imaging and scanning system

• Disaster Recovery
• Better Customer service
• Reduced data entry
• Increased productivity
• Labor reductions
• Remote work capabilities
• Ability to share documents
• Cost saving on file cabinets and off-site storage

Benefits of a document imaging outsourcing

• Disaster Recovery
• Better Customer service
• Reduced data entry
• Increased productivity
• Labor reductions
• Remote work capabilities
• Ability to share documents
• Cost saving on file cabinets and off-site storage
• Avoid purchasing expensive hardware and software
• No new systems implementation or training
• No new employees to manage and operate an imaging system

Payback Period

Payback period is the time it takes for an initial investment in a particular system to pay for itself. If an imaging system cost $100,000 dollars and the system saved the company $35,000 per year the payback period would be 3 years. Other aspects of cost justification to consider are Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Net Present Value (NPR.)

A Cost Benefit Analysis pits the costs of a proposed system versus the benefits it provides. When putting together a CBA you should get as detailed, and accurate as possible. Compare all the numbers and make your decision. After you have all the data you can safely figure out your ROI.

How much does a scanning and document management system cost?

What does a typical scanning project cost to outsource?