Moving Toward Processing Inbound Transactional Content

Organizations can cut costs by centralizing and automating the processing of inbound transactional content – any content of an inbound document that initiates a business transaction on the back end. The first post in this short series discussed centralized versus distributed processing, re-use of existing assets, and planning for e-discovery. This one explores issues raised when transitioning to such a model.

The information contained in different pieces of digital content varies, from names and ID numbers to addresses, dates, procedure codes and more. By the time the content is fully processed, it will flow through many different stages and potentially will be handled by several authorized users. Organizations need to implement safeguards that ensure the content isn’t accessible by unauthorized persons and that the content has gone through the necessary stages before reaching its destination.

This can be achieved through service level agreements that define certain parameters at different management levels, based on the regulatory requirements at each stage. Any activity that occurs through this process should be recorded for tracking purposes, as well as any potential audits.

Handling a Variety of Document Types

Each line of business will have a different type and volume of inbound documents. These documents will have an impact on the type of authorization that takes place through the processing workflow, including the achievable SLAs and the technological components of the solution.

Organizations should evaluate what type of documents need to be captured and then design the documents in such a way as to optimize the ability to capture the information to cut the processing time and reduce manual handling.

Compliance

Organizations that have a large geographical footprint might want to move into a centralized shared process in order to leverage a low-cost and effective resourcing model. Business leaders will need to assess all applicable regulations related to every area in the end-to-end processing of the content.