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AMS Adviser *
Volume 3 Issue 4 - July / August 1998
Welcome to a new issue of the AMS Adviser.
AMS adds new scanning equipment.
We continue with the third part of our series on the Dynamics of Cost in
Image Capture.
Take special note of our new services.
Plus we have all the usual bits (Funny
Bit? and AMS Services).
AMS
AMS
adds new scanning equipment
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AMS has added another Wicks & Wilson Scanner to it's production
equipment. The Wicks & Wilson (W&W) 3400 Scanstation is a
production based Aperture Cards Scanner. Capable of scanning 100’s of Cards per hour.
Not only supplying them in the correct format already rotated, deskewed and cleaned, but
at four times the speed of our other aperture card scanner.
The W&W 3400 is capable of scanning resolutions up to 400dpi, this
in conjunction with the SmartScan software allows AMS to get quality scans from the
poorest of quality aperture cards.
Contact AMS for a demonstration or for more information.
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The Dynamics of Cost in Image Capture (Part 3)
Analyzing Capture Costs
The most straightforward way of determining the costs of document
capture is to examine both the initial capital costs and the ongoing Labor costs of each
step in the document capture process:
Capital equipment is the most visible aspect of the cost of
document capture. Capital costs include high-speed scanners costing anywhere from $5,000
to nearly $100,000 each, PCs, specialized image processing accelerators, high-resolution
monitors, and so forth.
Direct Labor consists of the people who prepare the physical
documents for capture, scan the documents, index the images, check for quality, and
integrate the resulting information into the document imaging system.
The table below summarizes the capital and Labor costs involved in each
of the steps of document capture.
| Capture
Operation |
Capital Cost |
Labor Cost |
Comments |
| Batch Preparation |
None |
High |
Purely clerical task. However,
very little scope for automation. |
| Scanning |
High |
High |
Capital costs include the scanner,
controller board, and PCs. Labor costs include scanner operators to operate the scanners. |
| OCR and Image Cleanup |
Medium |
None |
Capital costs limited to PCs and,
sometimes, accelerator boards. Usually unattended. |
| Indexing |
Medium |
Very High |
Capital costs
limited to PCs. Very high Labor costs (typically 2-3
index operators per scanner), but considerable scope for automation. |
| QA and Rescanning |
Medium |
Medium |
Capital costs limited to PCs.
Labor costs include QA operators to inspect images and some additional scanner operator
cost. |
| Release |
Low |
None |
Capital costs limited to PCs. If
done after hours, can reuse PCs used for scanning and indexing during the day. Usually
unattended. |
Table 1. Capital and Labor Costs of Different Document Capture
Operations.
Scanning is by far the most expensive capital cost, thanks to the
scanners themselves and the scanner controller cards. The capital costs of the other
operations are generally quite low.
However, as the rest of this white paper demonstrates, Labor costs
normally dwarf the initial capital expenditures of a capture system. The biggest culprits
are the ongoing cost of the operators at the scan and indexing stations, and these are the
areas that should be targeted most aggressively for cost reduction.
In the next issue we cover the Strategies for Reducing the Cost of
Document Capture.
This series has been reproduced from a Kofax
white paper and will be continued over the next few issues.
As usual, the whole article is available for those impatient types. Just
contact AMS and it can be mailed, faxed or
e-mailed in full.
Go to top.
Alchemy
Gold - Version 5
 Click here to look at Alchemy Gold -
Version 5.
Go to Top.
Funny Bit?
A bloke wanted to go to Surface Paradise for a holiday, but he had a problem - his pet
cat. At the end of the first week he rang the neighbour from Surfers and asked,
"How’s my cat?"
"Dead."
The bloke was deeply shocked by the news and when he recovered, complained to the
neighbour about how he presented him with the bad news.
"You should have been more subtle, and said, "You're cat’s on the roof
and we can’t get it down. Ring back tomorrow". Then when I rang back the next
day you could have have said, :The cat fell off the roof and we took it to the vet".
And on the third day, you could have broken the news to me gently that the cat had died.
Then it wouldn't have come as such a terrible shock. Incidentally, how’s my
Mother?"
She’s on the roof and we can’t get her down...."
Go to Top.
AMS Services.
For the complete run down on what AMS can do for you, click on
the following link.
AMS Services
Next Month
The next issue for Volume 3 will continue with part four of the article on the Dynamics
of Cost of Image Capture.
Plus all the usual bits & pieces.
Should you want a topic covered or need an article in full, please
feel free to contact AMS.
Go to AMS HomePage.
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