When a bank brings on a new customer, the process is still a hands-on experience, typically involving the completion, process and storage of many documents. The process is even more time consuming if the customer’s situation involves the need for compliance and document retention. And these lengthy procedures aren’t just a challenge for the bank; they also result in inconvenience for the customer eager to get an account up and running.

But a better, faster, more evolved solution exists. Sophisticated document capture software can both speed up the process on site and eliminate the need to ship documents to a central scanning and storage location. Unfortunately, according to Kollabria Research, while 87 percent of business applications are web-based, only 2 percent of businesses are using web-based technology for document capture.

Slow Adoption Means Slow Onboarding

Adrian Francoz, founder and CEO of Zeta Sky, an IT services provider that specializes in cloud solutions, is not surprised by these figures. He says the 87 percent probably includes applications such as hosted email and offsite backups, which are easier first steps for companies to adopt.

“For document management and even accurate file storage, businesses are definitely still behind,” Francoz says. Attachment to legacy systems, the additional cost of moving to a new document storage solution, and concerns over security are the primary roadblocks to new technology adoption, he adds. However, Francoz believes that adoption of web-based document capture among businesses will pick up. “In five to 10 years, it’ll be the exact opposite.” Allen Falcon, CEO of Cumulus Global, a cloud solutions provider, sees the same momentum.

“The biggest trend we see—particularly in situations like customer onboarding, where the types of documents or set of documents being managed are known—is to get the information into electronic form as quickly as possible,” Falcon says. “When you’re onboarding customers, you might be filling out paper forms that require physical signatures, maybe for regulatory requirements. You want to get those documents into electronic form where they can be categorized and made searchable.”

The Way Forward

The ideal solution for optimized efficiency lies in empowering the front lines—that is, enabling the employees processing a customer’s documents to perform scanning operations, from within business applications they’re comfortable using. The key is eliminating the use of an entirely different application and attach tracking identifiers to the documents automatically, for easy retrieval later.

The biggest trend we see—particularly in situations like customer onboarding, where the types of documents or set of documents being managed are known—is to get the information into electronic form as quickly as possible.-Allen Falcon, CEO of Cumulus Global

These are the kinds of benefits provided by the KODAK Info Input Solution. Info Input is a secure, Java-based, browser-oriented application that lets employees capture documents on almost any system. It stores scanned documents in a centralized, secure hub, which enables workers to categorize and retrieve information quickly and easily. Info Input integrates with existing enterprise content management and line-of-business applications, so its document scanning and management functions can easily be incorporated into existing workflows and data structures.

Unifying scanning and data management this way has the added benefit of breaking down information silos. Most banks organize their business processes, such as document management and customer onboarding, according to the product offered. In other words, the people in charge of new accounts handle document management for their products, those in charge of loans handle those documents, and so on. But successfully serving a customer who interacts with more than one product group requires a cross-product view.