Sittin' by the "Doc-link" in Gig Harbor

by Nelson P. Holmberg

Document imaging has made a place for itself at Peninsula Light Company (Gig Harbor, Wash.), and with the success they've had, it looks like this technology could be the wave of the future.

At Pen Light, the company has joined the growing ranks of businesses that have begun using document imaging. The utility recently installed doc-link™ software by Altec, Inc., and Canon hardware to make document imaging a real possibility.

By allowing a user to store documents electronically, document imaging technology eliminates the reams and reams of paper that are required kept by different regulations.

"We really do like it," said Janis Barrett, Pen Light's accounting manager. "What we were looking at was paper storage issues. The other thing is with doc-link you can have not only AP, but when you buy doc link you also are getting the rights to expand it to any other document sources that you want to permanently store."

Barrett said the accounts payable department alone was filling two fivedrawer file cabinets per year with paper documents.

While the utility didn't disclose the amount it paid for the system, Barrett indicated that the initial investment doesn't necessarily have to be a huge outlay of money. She said Pen Light purchased a new server that was dedicated to the doc-link storage, and that a scanner is required. Page-feed scanners are highly recommended, and they can run from $500-$800. But Pen Light needed a new copier anyway, so the utility purchased a Canon eCopy 5000 digital copier that has the capabilities to fax, scan, copy, and print. In terms of scanning, the Canon machine feeds 50 sheets per minute.

Barrett said a utility looking to install doc-link doesn't need to make a huge investment in a machine like their digital copier that does everything but make coffee.

"It's a very expensive piece of equipment," she said. "Depending on what you need, you don't have to buy that to be functional."

The utility has integrated doc-link software to its accounting software. This allows documents the likes of checks, purchase orders, and registers of receipt of goods to be automatically indexed and saved in a digital format on a database.

Those documents that have been built outside of the accounting software, such as packing slips, manual purchase orders, letters, memos, etc., are scanned into digital format, and can be indexed manually at a computer workstation.

By indexing the information, Pen Light employees are given the ability to use the database of documents in a manner similar to the archive of a newspaper's Web site. Users are able to view, retrieve, or print any documents that are recalled with common information. They can also track the progress of invoices and accounts using the system.

"What our accounts payable clerk really likes," Barrett said, "is that she can monitor where the documents are at any given time. She can always see what's out there and hasn't been fully processed."

Pen Light has started the program slowly, using it mainly in the accounts payable department. But, because of the license it owns, Pen Light can use the software to do all of its document imaging and storage.

"Right now we're only using it in the original form that it was installed with," Barrett said. "It's really doing what it's supposed to. We're all coming up with ideas on how we can increase the efficiency of our processes and reduce the amount of physical paper we handle."

Now that employees are comfortable with the basics of using the doc-link system, they're dreaming up new ideas about how to utilize the system.

"The managers like the fact that the support document is there imaged with the invoice," Barrett said. "Instead of having to create manual purchase orders, and then having to scan it, we're developing a system where we can create it in an excel format and have it automatically created into the doc-link system.

"I would like to expand it to imaging of our inventory issues and salvages," she added, "so that when people are researching certain items, they can get a history of those items."

Nelson P. Holmberg is NWPPA's
Associate Editor. He can be reached by
telephone at (360) 254-0109, or by
e-mail at nelson@nwppa.org