Paper-free world just around the corner
EVEN after 40 years of computing, the paperless world has so far eluded us. Computers are lightning fast at processing words and numbers, but cannot economically handle, for example, signatures or photographs. A further complication is the variance in operating procedures that prohibit many computers from working together.
However, two major changes indicate that we are approaching the paperless world. These are the dramatically decreasing cost of processing, which makes image processing as opposed to data processing practical; and the growing popularity of open systems, which allows computers to work together.
Within the next couple of years, microprocessor-based computers will be shipped that offer more than 100,000 million instructions per second (Mips), exactly the level of processing power needed to support image processing as a routine application.
Today, paper documents are held in massive filing systems with complex indexing procedures. And, once one person has a file, others must wait to use it.
However, electronic document management not only enables users to locate one out of thousands of documents within seconds, but creates the possibility of universal files that are available to all users, in any networked location.
One of the complications in computing has been that manufacturers developed a number of disparate computer systems that responded to different computer needs.
Also, different computing platforms - the mainframe, the mini and the PC - further isolated computers and computer users.
Open systems enables computer technology to become an enterprise, rather than a departmental resource.
One of the prerequisites of effective image processing is the ability to move images throughout an organisation.
Images represent a challenge never faced with data, and there is the challenge of combining it with the traditional representation of data.
Achieving this requires a co-ordination of computer systems, or an integration of resources.
The model for the new era is a family of scalable, object-code compatible computers based on the same microprocessors and the same operating systems, extending from a portable notepad computer to loosely coupled, massively parallel supercomputers.
Document processing will be applied quite quickly to several tasks.
Work management in which documents that once existed only on paper become electronic and are processed in a computer-assisted, step-by-step procedure, as in the case of insurance claims.
Storage and retrieval, involving a database of great volumes of documents, such as credit card vouchers.
Data entry, particularly areas in which considerable data must be entered, such as tax forms.
Item-based transaction processing in which documents such as cheques are entered into the system and handled electronically.
Self-service data entry, in which no keying is required but users enter documents for processing.
General office automation in which computer-generated reports combine words, numbers and graphic aids such as charts.
Technology predictions are always risky, but this time it really does seem that a paperless world is in the offing.
Greg Sewell, is manager, government and commercial division of NCR (Hong Kong).
