Key takeaway
<p>Many of us tech heads are quick to give you an answer to your technical needs and propose a solution even if you did not ask. I’m no different, if you tell me you want your documents digital I will explain OCR to you and then explain the best solution for your document types. To my dismay, if you work for a large company your response will likely be, “but I’m not allowed to install anything.”</p>
<p>It’s very common for large organizations to lock down their employees’ computers to the point it becomes more of an appliance than a computer. This lock down makes perfect sense especially considering the amount of personal and private information these organizations encounter. The lock down however makes it very difficult for a technical operator to increase their efficiency with new technology. While the offer stands to approach an IT department with requests for new technology, the reality as we know is very small, especially with the current situation of shrinking IT departments.</p>
<p>Most recently I was in a conversation with someone working for a bank. She had stacks of business cards that needed to be digitized and of course being the tech head that I am, I got excited and explained about business card reading ( BCR ), and that perhaps it would be easier to get a document scanner that could scan the business cards and everything else. But to no avail, she could not install the software.</p>
<p>The real hurdle with the computer lock downs is not so much hardware installations. This can be overcome with a simple request. It’s the approval of new software that requires many months of review and approvals. Because OCR is a software driven process, this complicates things. Eventually, I hope that document automation becomes a part of the standard build for end-users machines. Until then, the solution is a scanner and an OCR service either web based or on an intranet.</p>
<p>If an organization can deploy centrally an OCR server that users send documents to and receive results from, they will eliminate the risk of installed software. Alternatively, an end-user with an attached scanner can leverage the OCR web based services that exist, either via FTP or E-Mail upload documents and receive results.</p>
<p>I hope soon we all have OCR as a standard so we can start removing the reliance on troublesome paper, but until then, the OCR services exist to get the job done, and may sometimes be the preference.</p>
<p>Chris Riley – Industry Expert</p>
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Many of us tech heads are quick to give you an answer to your technical needs and propose a solution.