Everyone is talking about multi-channel capture. While many capture vendors message they have it, do they really HAVE it?

What is multi-channel capture you might ask?

If you’re reading this blog, I hope you understand what we mean when we say “capture”. That is essentially the ability to capture document-based information to enable a variety of other uses. When we get to the “multi-channel” part, what is really meant is that acknowledgement that documents aren’t just paper forms or business information that is scanned. Documents can come through email, fax, mobile cameras, multi-function peripherals (MFPs), portable scanners, Web forms, online document management systems, and literally any other way to get a document from “point a” to “point b”. It also acknowledges that there are many different motivations to capture documents. Either through high-speed scanners for production scanning, capture through mobile devices for ad hoc, and capture through line of business applications to support process-centric needs.

For a more detailed read, you can find The Forrester Wave Multi-channel Capture research online at several sites.

But just like anything, there’s the claim and there’s the truth. In support of truthiness, I ask you this question: Do you want to have a capture solution that is specific to one method or need? Or do you want a capture solution that can manage all ways to capture? And if you answered yes to the latter, to make it a little more interesting, do you want multi-channel support in a “silo” approach that requires different modules, different business rules and different configurations based upon the channel or do you want the ability to apply rules uniformly and one time?

And do you want the ability to capture documents in their native format or do you want to convert everything to an image?

The reality is that while many vendors claim to support multiple channels, they do so by forcing a view of the world that includes special add-ons, different configurations, and different business rules that really drive-up complexity and overall cost.

Why can’t solutions offer a single workflow approach regardless of the capture channel you use? Why can’t rules then be applied to the specific channel in a single module rather than in separate GUIs?

Capturing documents from any source is an easy problem to solve. The problem is that the solution providers have approached the problem from a revenue maximization perspective rather than provide comprehensive capture that makes it easy for businesses to use.

We’re taking a different approach. Capture information in its native form, apply rules that are consistent and also accommodate special rules for different channels, all from one single solution. We’re more interested in solving the problem and we’re pretty sure that satisfaction with a solution will earn us some money along the way!

Learn more about advanced document capture: