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| Pilot Project Report -- Summary |
There are significant problems and costs associated with maintaining and sharing large collections of paper files. Several University of Washington (UW) departments have looked for imaging solutions to improve their services while reducing costs, but they have not been able to justify the investment. Even if they could, the resulting variety of proprietary applications would be difficult and expensive to maintain.
The Office of the Executive Vice President (EVP) sponsored a Computing & Communications (C&C) study of the central office files. The study found several good candidates for imaging, and a group of representatives from several offices met to discuss the opportunities. Although the requirements varied between departments, the group concluded that a generic imaging application could provide substantial benefits.
Based on potential benefits, technical infrastructure and management commitment, the student loan files were chosen as the pilot site. Technical and business experts worked together to develop the application, called the Open Document Image Network (ODIN).
Users in multiple locations needed access to documents, so the system had to conform to internet standards instead of LAN standards. To support different desktop environments, including PCs and X terminals, ODIN relies on the platform-independence of web browsers. No other client software is required. Most of the code is contained in scripts that run on the University web servers. The images are stored on disk on their own high performance servers, and the index data is stored on a separate database server. This makes it possible to modify one part of the architecture while retaining the others.
The project was launched May 19, 1995, and ODIN went into production July 8, 1996. New documents are scanned as they are received, and old documents were converted within a year. All 19,000 student loan files, containing over 215,000 pages, are online.
ODIN hardware and software cost $55,500 and the project took 4,225
staff-hours from approval through implementation and conversion of all
historical files. Benefits include increased productivity, recovered
office space, improved customer service and greater job satisfaction. The
measurable financial impacts suggest ODIN will pay for itself in less than
four years. Expanding it to serve other departments could bring
additional benefits at a lower marginal cost.