The BIC Theory

Your first thought upon reading the title of this article might be, "why is he writing about a pen?"

Actually, this title came from one of our webinars, when one of the attendees referred to "BIC" as an acronym to describe how his department could increase its productivity: Butts In Chairs!

At first blush, this seems a little harsh. But in the October 2007 issue of Men's Health magazine, there is an article called "Do you have office A.D.D.?" The article describes a Microsoft study. Researchers found that workers who responded to an email that interrupted a task took up to 15 minutes to return to that task.

So what happens when you get up to retrieve a file or report that is stored in your filing cabinets? If you are like me, you'll get up, but someone will stop you to talk, and you'll eventually return to your desk having forgotten what you had originally gotten up to do.

So what does this have to do with document imaging you ask? Plenty: At AMC, one of the first places we examine when we are reviewing business process improvements for our clients is the time it takes to retrieve a file. It still amazes me how much time this task actually takes, not only for entry-level personnel, but for upper management as well. The most common file finding method we hear about is, "we just ask someone who has been around for a while, and they can usually tell us where it is!"

If the BIC theory were implemented at your place, how much more productive would your company become? How much easier would your job be? These are tough questions, but asking them usually turns on a light bulb that not only shows how much time is being spent finding paper, but also illuminates the fact that there is no plan for disaster recovery of data and records.

If you want help implementing the BIC theory at your place of business, please write me at mzecy@americanmicrokc.com and put "BIC" in the subject line.

Mark A. Zecy