Chapter 5: Better Access To Better Data

Making Images Useful

Every business maintains and stores thousands and often millions of records - from customer and employee information, to financial and tax records, reports and letters, contracts and invoices, receipts and signatures, photos, drawings and handwritten notes.

Even when the data itself is generated in electronic form,
an order or invoice for example, much of it is still stored as paper in files, boxes and warehouses across the nation.

ISDN offers an alternative. It lets corporations and government agencies store, access and use these mountains of information. It lets them convert images - photos, forms, signatures, fingerprints and more - into digital form, and store, reference and access them just like any other data in a computer.

What's more, the digital speeds of ISDN mean that instead of sending millions of paper copies and faxes from place to place, virtually any office, anywhere, can have fast, efficient access to the original - simply by dialing the computer where the information is stored:

One manufacturer, for example, has scanned product documentation from the past 15 years into an image database. Service representatives at headquarters or in the field now have instant access to data and drawings to help with troubleshooting and repair.

A magazine publisher has put scanned advertiser claim forms on-line. With immediate access to the data, customer service agents have reduced settlement times from 70 days to under 30 days.

A major bank now scans forms, reports, signatures and other visual data used every day. Its studies show that imaging not only improves a document's usefulness, but reduces the number of times it is physically handled from 14 to four.

In Europe, both Apple, for computer retailers in France, and Philips, for repairers of its CD units, electronically "publish" manuals and other technical documents. Text, diagrams and illustrations can all be accessed through ISDN-linked desktop systems. Customers use only the most recent updates, while manufacturers significantly reduce the cost of maintaining and upgrading huge volumes of paper.