Think of the word “cloud” as in Cloud computing. What immediately comes to mind? Is it white, fluffy cumulus clouds floating across a sunny, azure sky?
I’ll tell you what I think of when I hear “cloud”: oil. Better yet, grease.
The technology that makes distributed capture work is more like the kind of thick, viscous grease auto mechanics pack into wheel bearings to help car wheels roll freely.
A Cloud-based distributed capture system is all about lubricating business processes for faster processing, access and decision-making.
Digitizing the documents that trigger a business process allows those documents to enter a workflow, making them accessible to all participants. Easier accessibility aids faster processing, speeding up responses to customers (good for them) and faster recognition of revenue (good for you).
Here are nine ways the Cloud lubricates and frees up your business:
Reduced costs: You eliminate a cost center for your organization. There are far less hardware, software and overall IT expenses with the Cloud. In addition, you only pay for what you use. Users also save on shipping costs of sending documents to a centralized location.
No capital expenditures: The decision making on specifying, buying and installing expensive hardware is removed. There is no hardware or software to buy.
Scalability: Need more capacity? Storage needs can be increased seamlessly rather than having to go out and purchase programs or hardware.
Automatic software updates: Eliminates IT and paying for future software updates, patches and hot-fixes.
Remote access: Anyone can access and update information wherever they are.
Disaster backup: Company data is secured off-site. Power loss due to natural disasters, or human error, won’t keep users from getting back to work as long as there is access to an Internet connection.
Ease of implementation: Set-up will take no more than a day, plus several days for training. The tedious and time-consuming process to search for solutions, meet with vendors, hold system demos, obtain quotes, make a selection, complete the procurement process, then install, configure, test, train, rollout and support an on premise document capture system can be a thing of the past.
Response Time: Cloud computing accomplishes a better response time in most cases than standard server and hardware.
Evens the playing field: Cloud-based distributed capture allows small companies to complete more effectively with larger businesses. Smaller businesses can utilize the same tools deployed at Fortune 100 companies.
Deciding between maintaining and upgrading an on-premise capture solution or transitioning to a distributed data/document capture system in the Cloud comes down to one simple question: How much more grease could your business use?
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