Industry: Energy exploration and production
Synopsis of Services Provided
The iKAN Virtual Document Center was implemented to supplement the existing legacy document management system. The VDC is a cost-effective solution for remote capture of hard copy documents.
What the Company Does
This energy company focuses on discovering new reserves of oil and gas and supporting production facilities for both offshore and on-land leases. Operations are active in the U.S. Mid-Continent, Rocky Mountain, and Gulf of Mexico regions. Foreign operations are primarily in the waters near Malaysia and China. The company employs more than 1,500 people in six field offices.
The Business Challenge
The company was utilizing hard copy document management technology as a business practice for many years. They developed policies for which types of documents were to be archived, how long each should be stored, and created a document services department that provided the personnel to scan the paperwork into the system. HR records, accounting, and contractual documents were mandated for imaging. Otherwise, each department had the freedom to determine what documents were scanned and stored. Records center personnel made daily rounds to collect documents and imported them into the system the same day. This legacy system resided on-site in the operations center at company headquarters.
When the company began to expand, opening new offices in other regions and countries, management was sensitive to privacy concerns associated with off-site storage, insisting that all electronic archiving be performed at their headquarters facility. Documents were shipped to the records center to be scanned, causing visibility lag times and creating the need to copy the documents as a precaution to loss. Time sensitive information contained in hard copy documents was being faxed, further adding to costs. Legacy document systems were expensive to upgrade, making remote scanning from field offices cost prohibitive with the existing system. Instead of improving hard copy workflow productivity, extra manual activities were mandated, decreasing the return on investment of the existing system. Mixing the demands of management and the budgetary limitations of the legacy system proved to be a burden.
The iKAN Virtual Document Solution
The iKAN Virtual Document Center® provided a comprehensive solution in three key areas: flexibility to integrate with older legacy document applications, information security, and cost-effective remote file capture. Each remote office utilized The VDC software as a service delivery option. This option allowed them to budget incrementally on a monthly basis, drastically reducing the expense of remote scanning versus that offered by the legacy application provider.
For smaller scanning volumes, existing scanning equipment (multifunctional copier) could be used, eliminating the need for capital outlays for new equipment. Using 128-bit encryption, the hard copy documents were secure during the transfers from remote locations, through the iKAN server, and to the headquarters location. By customizing the VDC protocols to meet the metadata requirements of their legacy system, a seamless transfer was possible with no additional user steps. This was critical due to the significant investment to integrate their legacy application with Oracle and MS Sharepoint.
Results
The iKAN Virtual Document Center® with the Distributed Capture module has saved the company countless hours of tedious manual paper handling and reduced hard-dollar costs (copying, faxing, and mailing expenses). The flexibility of iKAN’s application enabled the company to have a choice of increasing their investment in the old system or leveraging a low-cost, compatible alternative to meet their policy of best business practices. Additionally, real-time collaboration between corporate and field managers was improved, all without the sacrifice of security and privacy.