Laserfiche Solution Contributed By: Debbie Cate, Managing Director and Arthur Pare, Associate Managing Director, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

Established in 1923, Texas Tech University is located in Lubbock, TX and has an enrollment of 36,000 students. The university offers degrees in more than 150 courses of study through 13 colleges and hosts 60 research centers and institutes.

Texas Tech implemented Laserfiche in order to streamline operations and reduce paper. As part of their paperless mission, the General Services department at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) operates the centralized scanning bureau for the university. In an average year, one employee and 12 student workers scan two million pages into Laserfiche. Here are the department’s strategies for managing change, scanning and importing huge batches of documents into Laserfiche.

The first step in going paperless and implementing new technology is getting buy-in from a major department. An effective implementation of Laserfiche in a major department can serve as a successful example of how it can improve records management and workflow in other departments.

In the case of Texas Tech, the Finance and Administration department volunteered to serve as the trial case. Since nearly every department needs to view purchase orders, Laserfiche WebLink gave every employee of the university access. This helped significantly in getting other departments interested in scanning their documents.

Helping new departments become paperless is a very important function of TTHSC’s scanning bureau. Many departments and employees are initially resistant to change. Here are some strategies for overcoming initial resistance:

Once initial resistance is overcome, it is time to scan in a sample of the project. The sample should be a size between one and two percent of the entire project. Once the sample is scanned in, sit down with employees and show them how to retrieve the documents by searching. Demonstrate different but common scenarios employees might face when managing documents and how Laserfiche can address these issues.

Make sure that the employees are impressed with the ease of finding documents. Once they are comfortable with Laserfiche, give them a two-week trial period to use and work with the sample. Afterward, gather feedback and make sure that the system is set up in accordance with the department’s needs.

If a lot of modifications are needed, implement another trial period. It is better to make changes on a small sample than the entire library of a department’s documents.

Streamlined operations are essential to a well-functioning scanning bureau. TTUHSC has split the scanning process into four steps:

All of these tasks are performed by student workers supervised by one full-time employee.

Step 1: Prepping

Most of the paper that needs to be scanned arrives at the bureau in boxes. A typical scanning job consists of approximately 30 boxes. As part of the prepping task, color labels are attached to each box and designated job and box numbers are written on each label. Each job has a different colored label to distinguish it easily. Before prepping a box a student worker writes his name on the colored label.

The required folder structure is created in Laserfiche. Folders are created for each job number with each folder containing a separate folder corresponding to each box.

The student worker prepares the individual documents for scanning by removing staples, binder clips and paper clips. He then binds a stack of 100-150 pages with a rubber band. When a box is completed it typically contains between eight and ten bound stacks.

Step 2: Scanning

Once the documents are prepped, they are scanned by another student worker. The student scans one individual paper bundle at a time. Each bundle becomes one large document in Laserfiche. During the scanning process, the student verifies that the images are scanned and readable.

Virtual ReScan (VRS) automatically ensures color background removal, deskew, despeckle, line removal, and blank page deletion.

Step 3: Indexing

Once the stacks of paper have been scanned, another student worker performs indexing. The student performing the indexing has the physical document in front of her and the electronic document on the screen. Each physical document is separated by a colored coversheet so that the student knows where each document begins and ends.

The student then does the following:

 Step 4: Quality assurance (QA)

The final step is QA. The student worker responsible for this aspect of the process writes his name on the colored box label before beginning. He takes a random sample of documents from the box and looks them up in Laserfiche to make sure that they have been scanned correctly. After the student checks the document sample, he OCRs all documents in that folder. They are then moved and billed by the supervisor.

A department’s needs change over time. For example:

It is important to periodically re-evaluate the Laserfiche implementation to take into account any of the changes listed above. Continue to work with departments after the initial scanning project has been completed to make sure that the Laserfiche system continues to meet their needs.

For example, some departments at Texas Tech have embraced Laserfiche Forms and have started importing documents internally rather than using the scanning bureau.

The Accounting department has several forms, including this example of an ACC Fund History form.

This form is used each time documentation is uploaded relating to the various accounts being used within the institution. Different types of funds, such as service department revenue, state grants, federal grants and appropriated state funds have required documentation that needs to be maintained throughout the duration of the fund’s use.

The person filling out the form selects the appropriate document template based upon whether the documentation uploaded is transactional or historical. In this case, the template selected is the ACC Fund History template. When the name of the template is selected, appropriate fields appear for the user to fill out.

Currently, the form allows for only two templates to be selected. If another template must be used, Laserfiche Forms emails an administrator who will either add new template data to the form or revise the submission.

Once the form is submitted, the form is saved in the correct Laserfiche repository and properly indexed with the designated fields.

Implementing Laserfiche Forms within the accounting department has resulted in the following benefits for TTUHSC:

Get started managing your organization’s content with this free step-by-step guide: How to Improve Document Storage & Imaging Across Your Organization.