The AIIM report compares strategies for outsourced, centralized and distributed scanning, and concludes that there is a move back to centralized scanning operations, along with a greater investment in capture and recognition software to automate data capture and document indexing processes. Although outsourcing delivers cost and management benefits, users are concerned with the quality of indexing and the difficulty of integration back into their electronic archives.

Doug Miles, Director of Market Intelligence for AIIM, comments, "We have seen a steady increase in the use of scanning and capture as an input to business processes, with 42% of documents now being scanned-to-process rather than scanned-to-archive. Proximity to the process and the level of integration with other enterprise systems become more important in these applications. Users find that distributed processing with departmental scanners and MFPs improves ownership by the process owners, but office staff and knowledge workers need training and encouragement to ensure accurate indexing."

The AIIM survey also found that 46% of users report payback on their scanning and capture investments within 12 months, with two-thirds seeing returns within 18 months. These returns are consistent across many types of content and process, with invoices, contracts and application forms being the most popular.

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