by Regarding the 1993 AIIM document image show and conference taking place
place between April 5 and 8 in McCormick Place in Chicago, the president of
AIIM (The Association for Information and Image Management) has just written
an article in the March issue of Imaging World which starts off:
Imaging Catalyzes Business Process Redesign,
Alters Corporate Organization Chart
Caught as we are in the rush of activity that precedes the imaging industry's
biggest event, the AIIM Show, it's an appropriate time to step back and
take stock.
All in all, it appears that imaging is on track with what we have forecast,
at least quantitatively. There are some interesting qualitative departures
from what industry seers had predicted, and they are worth examining.
A Health Technology
There's no question that imaging is healthy. True, micrographics as a
mature technology has felt the impact of the economic slowdown, although
not universally. Computer Output to Microfilm, for example, continues to
enjoy vigorous growth.
At the same time, electronic imaging has not only fulfilled its
optimistically growth forecasts (19% in the sluggish 1991 economy)
but is making itself heard in many ways that were not anticipated when
it was first introduced as a quick way to file and retrieve documents.
That impact, of course, is as a tool for business process reengineering.
Imaging is proving to be a catalyst for business redesign and hence is
influencing the actual organizational charts of the nation's corporations.
Although sobering in its downsizing implications, reengineering (and by
extension imaging) is turning out to be a key to increasing white-collar
productivity and therefore to competing in the global economy.
A Competitive Necessity
Those who predicted that imaging would turn out to be a competitive
necessity a few years ago have been proven correct........Imaging itself
is being changed by this process. It is being regarded less and less as
a separate technology as more and more users insist that imaging
integrate into their other information processing functions....The AIIM
conference, which used to be dominated by debates about technical
feasibility, is now almost entirely devoted to the various aspects of
making imaging work from a management perspective.
(If you would like a copy of the full article, please let me know.)
For more information on the show and conference, call (800) 723-2000.