Information and Communication Technology in Action - Assignment Example

One can just imagine the volume of storage space occupied by the microfiche images and equipment. File Cabinets, indexing materials and rooms must be provided for the storage of the images. Since microfiche images are not considered as "legal archives", there is really a need to provide storage and indexing mechanism for the paper documents. File folders, envelopes, cabinets, rooms, and indexing materials represent a rather large cost to the business. Added to this is the labor cost associated with the people employed to attend and safeguard the documents and images.

The Imaging system eliminated the need for microfiche images and paper document storage. Because of this, there is no more need to purchase filing and indexing materials. Provision for storage space such as rooms is no longer necessary. Furthermore, the pre-existing materials and rooms can be sold or used in other business works. Added to this is the labor cost associated with the people employed to attend and safeguard the documents and images. The Imaging system eliminated the need for microfiche images and paper document storage.

Because of this, there is no more need to purchase filing and indexing materials. Provision for storage space such as rooms is no longer necessary. Furthermore, the pre-existing materials and rooms can be sold or used in other business works. The Metropolitan can also cut down labor costs as the system does not require many filing personnel.b. Maintenance CostsPaper documents and microfiche images can be corroded by environmental elements thereby reducing it to a useless material. This problem becomes more important since the insurance business operates in a very wide time frame.

This temporal criterion makes it imperative that the documents are properly maintained. Furthermore, insects or animals may reside in the file cabinets and consume/ruin records. There is a need to purchase chemicals to prevent corrosion and animal destruction. Maintenance personnel must also be properly trained for them to be able to protect the documents. All of these represent a large capital cost for Metropolitan. Since the document's images are stored in the computerized database and since this is considered "legal archives", the paper documents need not be thoroughly taken cared of.

Environmental and animal concerns are also eliminated. These improvements lessen the need for chemicals and maintenance personnel.3B. Explain how the System shortens cycle time. The system also shortened cycle time because it eliminated the need for manual imaging of the pertinent documents. It eliminated the tedious tasks of manually locating the image or document, making a copy of it, sending it to the requesting party and then manually filling it again. This enabled Metropolitan to reduce the average retrieving time from 3 hours to less than 5 seconds.