Do it yourself: trying to figure out how to implement and manage document imaging on campus? Go into the document image delivery business.

In a world where "single solution" is now a panacea-like catchphrase for so many campus technology ills, why would an institution of higher education opt for a multi-faceted, multi-vendor document imaging technology solution--and then decide to play value-added reseller and application service provider?

At The Ohio State University where enrollment runs over 54,000 students, the use of myriad technology solutions and vendors across divisions and campuses is actually nothing new. The institution's colleges, departments, and administrative offices often choose, install, and run their own technology systems. This is in stark contrast to other mammoth IHEs such as Big Ten competitor Penn State, which routinely purchases a site license for a single technology solution and then deploys it at myriad departments over 27 campuses statewide.

Yet at Ohio State, administrative units enjoy considerable autonomy and purchasing discretion, and efforts to promote integrated solutions have often been met with reluctance and skepticism. It was no different when the issue became document imaging. As document imaging, workflow, report management, and related technologies developed through the 1990s, various units at Ohio State looked at an array of solutions, but there was no consensus. Every department had different needs and wants, and no universal technology solution or distribution method seemed suitable.

That was when administrators saw the opportunity for a new solution distribution model. Certainly they were aware of the more common methods for distributing solutions--those that run from direct vendor sales (even "single-partner" technology sales) and application service provider (ASP) partnerships, to sales via the reseller channel. They were even aware of newer, "hybrid" models of distribution and deployment--vendor-provided hybrids that can carry elements of direct sales, value-added reselling, systems integration, and the ASP model. But as it turned out, though these options were close to the mark, they were still not on target for Ohio State.

Going Into the Document Imaging Business

In 1996, University Retail Services (www.ohio-state.edu), one of Ohio State's business operations departments, was already caught up in the business of providing comprehensive--if not conventional--document services to the university. Then, as now, URS ran a large print shop, leased copiers, developed Web sites for campus organizations, and offered addressing services with mailing lists. The department also placed, supplied, and repaired printers on campus, and connected them to networks. It still does.

"Between mailing, printing, and copying, we were right in the middle of documents," says Jeff White, URS manager. Then, says White, "My boss called me in one afternoon in 1996, and said he had been looking at document imaging for quite a while. He said now was the time to offer it as a service to the university."

White and his staff then launched a document imaging technology study. They evaluated the marketplace, talked to vendors, hit the trade shows, and searched the Web for solutions. In the end, their research revealed what they had suspected: Document imaging was an expensive, complex technology. The technologies were also too big a commitment and resource drain for URS to develop and offer alone.

"So," White remembers, "we said, 'Let's buy the back end and operate as an ASP.'" Under the ASP model, end users buy software licenses for their front end (the capture and entry of information as well as the PC-resident image viewer) and the back end (hosting and maintaining the databases, indices, servers, and storage) is leased to users.

At first, URS struck an agreement with a local imaging company and began offering image capture, storage, and retrieval. This worked well for about three years. Then URS customers began asking for additional, related technologies such as computer report management, workflow, and Web content management. These were more complex requests that were clearly above the capabilities of the local imaging outlet.

Defining requirements. "We needed full-featured, state-of-the-art software, so we brought in multiple vendors and told them where we wanted to go," White explains. "Our criteria were: We needed to leverage the investment we already had, including the legacy images, the indexes, and (as much as possible) the hardware. We needed a comprehensive, integrated suite with a consistent interface. And we needed a scalable solution so we could start small and expand." Another critical requirement was for robust Internet capability. URS' service area includes Ohio State's five satellite campuses, and White knew he would need the Internet to deliver document and content management remotely.

Short-list winner. In the end, White and his team chose Optical Image Technology (www.docfinity.com) and its DocFinity suite of content management products. DocFinity met all of the URS criteria, and when White checked with other OIT customers (Vanderbilt University (TN), Penn State, and several others), he received good feedback. After validating the software and the company, White sat down with the OIT people to sketch out a functional, appropriate business relationship. Although there was no existing model that exactly fit his needs, OIT management was open to sculpting a mutually beneficial agreement. According to White, company president Scott Buchart recognized the value of a relationship that might not be replicated elsewhere.

"They had no problem," White recalls. "In fact, they encouraged us to start small, with the possibility of building up to a site license. When we reached a critical number, then we would pay a flat fee and add unlimited installations."

How to Get (and Keep) Customers

Empowered with a competitive product, White embarked on a marketing campaign to potential customers in the Ohio State community. Although URS is part of Ohio Slate, the department receives no blanket preference in school procurements and must compete fairly against all interested vendors. "Our potential market runs from Admissions to Alumni Services, with all of the administrative, academic, and student service offices in between," White notes. He marketed via multiple media, including hosting a technology exposition. Existing customers of URS' other services (like the print shop) were good candidates for document/content automation.

Selling life cycle. The sales process is familiar, says White. "We push the life cycle of the whole document. We analyze a prospect's needs, decide on the appropriate technology, and draft a proposal. Our price is based on hardware (like scanners), software licenses, and on our services such as access to servers, daily backups, security, training, and support. Additionally, there are maintenance fees for software upgrades and service." In the setup, URS acts as VAR (value-added reseller) for hardware and software, but also as an ASP for services and storage. URS partners with Optical Image Technology, and university departments buy their licenses directly from the department.

"OIT has been extremely accepting of our need to be a little different and to address the varying needs of our customers," White adds. "Frequently, our clients ask for a new feature or additional function, and we pass on the request. OIT considers it, and usually, it appears in the next release. For something truly unique," adds White, "the vendor will offer us the feature at a price, and our customer can then decide whether it is worth it."

Spreading the ward, making a difference. As of Q1 2003, URS' customer list included Ohio State's Accounts Payable department, the Office of Enrollment Services (Admissions, Registrar, and Student Financial Aid), Facilities Planning and Development, Undergraduate Student Academic Services, the Marion regional campus, and the Ohio Supercomputer Center.

Top-grade document imaging technologies and services are now making a very real difference across campus. At the Accounts Payable office, where invoices for the university are received, there's a lot less paper clutter. Before installing the document imaging software from URS, clerks entered invoices into a PeopleSoft system where workflow notified offices that they had a bill to pay. Workers saw the data but not the bills. If they needed to see an invoice, Accounts Payable made three copies, filing the original.

URS jettisoned the paper. "We set them up with a system where, in PeopleSoft, there is a custom button [linked to DocFinity]," White details. "The invoices are all scanned and indexed, so that when a worker dicks on the button, it launches a browser and calls a URL with the voucher number. Our database picks up the voucher number, goes out and finds the scanned image of the invoice, and delivers it to the desktop. Once there, workers can save it, print it, or send it as an e-mail attachment." Accounts Payable scans about 300,000 invoices a year and keeps them for four years, says White, so total storage will reach 1.2 million files with most having multiple pages. "The Research and Medical Centers also use PeopleSoft for Accounts Payable, and they will be adding the imaging system soon," he adds.

And at Enrollment Services, much of the information entered into the legacy mainframe system also serves to index DocFinity images. Terminal emulators connect the desktop. "We put in some 'screen scraping' to automatically populate the imaging index fields," White says, referring to a process whereby data is "snooped" from one source, to help populate another. "That eliminates keystroke errors, shrinks the time necessary for entry and quality control, and ensures that data and images are in sync."

At the satellite campus in Marion, where staffers use an OIT/URS solution for academic advising, all counseling notes are scanned and indexed locally. When staff members key in the "save" command, the software sends the images over the Internet to the URS repository in Columbus. URS stores images and information magnetically in RAID 5 towers with a nightly backup to digital linear tape, which is stored offsite. (RAID is short for Redundant Array of Independent [or Inexpensive] Disks, a category of disk drives that employ two or more drives in combination for fault tolerance and performance. RAID disk drives are used frequently on servers, for storage.)

Each of URS' customers has unique needs, so flexibility is a key component of the system's success. White notes that between the comprehensive abilities of their document imaging software, and the vendor's openness to adding additional features, he is never at a loss for a solution. He feels that URS has barely tapped the potential market. "For example, there are 13 undergraduate academic counseling offices," he states. "We could scan all the records into a single system. Then, if a student moves between colleges, the records would be integrated and follow."

Until the entire university, with all its disparate schools and departments, is under the umbrella of the URS system's document imaging capabilities, White sees no limit to growth. And because the department had insisted on a scalable solution, the software can easily handle the load, he asserts.

Vendor/IHE 'business' partnership. As for the new "distribution" model forged with OIT, URS' software solution vendor, there were surprisingly few stumbling blocks along the way. "It didn't matter whether we were a VAR, an ASP, or some other initials," White concludes. "They accepted us for what we are and put together a positive program."

Making Room at Admissions

William Karl, senior associate director for Undergraduate Admissions at Ohio State, has 17 years experience at the institution, 13 in Admissions. "Initially, I was responsible for imaging in the Registrar and Financial Aid offices, and I administered the procurement," he explains. But when URS competed against five other vendors for his business, the department "won it fair and square," he says. By the time URS won the contract for the Office of Undergraduate Studies, of which Admissions is a part, he was confident of the department's abilities. The first project there digitized all transcripts dated before 1977--a backfile conversion of over a million records.

The current project at OUS creates electronic files of all transfer-student applications. While most of those applications arrive as PDF or TIFF images, supporting documents such as transcripts and letters of recommendation typically arrive on paper. When a worker scans a transcript, it launches a workflow to take the image to the Transfer Credit Center for an evaluation. That report flows to the appropriate college office where it is available for academic counseling.

"Our office moved to its current location a year ago," Karl reports. "We underestimated the amount of office space we would need, but we knew getting rid of paper storage could make up the difference." Karl says that he and University Retail Services Manager Jeff White worked on identifying needs for hardware, staffing, training, and budget. "All of our records were to be on his servers," he points out, "so we had to be precise."

Though square footage requirements were certainty reduced when the paper was eliminated, "We don't see imaging as saving staff," says Karl. "The real benefit is being able to find a student file faster from anywhere." The system enhances OUS services to students and college offices, he maintains. His ultimate goal for his office? "To get all parts of all student applications online."--GEJH

Gordon E.J. Hoke is VP of eVisory Consulting (www.evisory.com), an enterprise content management consultancy. He is e veteran of the document/content industry, end a contributing editor to Transform Magazine (and previously to Imaging World and Reseller Management). He was founder of the AS/400 Document Technologies Special Interest Group.