From its roots in southwestern Ontario 30 years ago, POLAR IMAGING INC. is continually growing to be a large Canadian owned and fully diversified imaging service bureau.

Since its earliest days as a growing microfilm service bureau, POLAR IMAGING INC. has developed strong relationships with its clients in the banking, healthcare, financial services and other sectors. For customers, there were perennial concerns that they would be left behind in the technology sweepstakes, but even worse was the concern that replacing older media would mean losing records or being saddled with huge conversion costs. By providing its clients with both customer service and a continuing ability to stay ahead of technological developments, the company grew its business steadily. POLAR IMAGING INC. developed innovations in microfiche technology, backup storage systems and film management systems that helped its clients reduce costs while improving the quality and safety of archived materials.

This same philosophy has now been used to address digital and other computer technologies. Compatibility, security, and protection against the pitfalls of rapid change have been guiding principles in POLAR IMAGING INC. projects.


EXPERTISE

Solutions to Information Management

"Technology is only a benefit if people understand how to use it"

Information is the basis of insight. Information technology enables business management and key decision making.

Harnessing information technology is not always easy. There is an overwhelming array of tools that can assist business, with more technology arriving every week. Some of that new technology is useful, some is fad, some simply doesn’t work.

Where to turn for the knowledge and understanding that will assess, address and solve information management issues with a sensitivity to corporate goals and needs? With an in-depth grasp of the current software and hardware available and a commitment to research and investment in order to remain ahead of developments, POLAR IMAGING INC. is a safeguard against short-term solutions and soon obsolete systems. As a technological partner to its clients’ endeavours, POLAR IMAGING INC. can advise and implement appropriate technology with an industry encompassing perspective.

The correct solution to information management needs will accomplish many goals:
• Reduced time to access documents
• Reduced costs of storage
• Provide backup/disaster protection
• Improve personnel efficiencies
• Improve corporate communication

Experience, innovation, vision and knowledge are necessary to make a service company valuable to a client. At POLAR IMAGING INC., we have the history, the personnel and the commitment to understanding technology – requirements that make us an indispensable resource for our clients.

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

The Starting Point

"Combating paper paralysis"

Site surveys and facility audits are the cornerstones of systems development. With decades of experience, POLAR IMAGING INC. analysts consider many factors before recommending a course of action. Imaging systems cannot be bought off the shelf, so working closely with clients is essential in order to customize a system to meet needs today and in the future.

The organization itself is studied in depth, including fiscal and physical structures. Business goals and objectives are considered to achieve the correct balance of today’s needs and tomorrow’s expectations. Systems currently in place are understood and respected along with the personnel and “human” considerations of new system implementation. Technical requirements are analyzed in detail.

Within the organization, users are interviewed; employee usage loads and volumes are carefully documented. Perhaps most importantly, costs are carefully assessed so that complete cost-benefit analysis can be provided including detailed case studies.

Critical issues to consider:
• What is the ideal storage media for the application?
• Does your Hierarchical Storage Management strategy meet your document life-cycle requirements?
• Legal admissibility/ regulatory compliance.
• Who needs to access the records?
• Timely access to information.

Only after research and analysis is completed, will a workflow plan be developed. From that plan emerges individualized systems, including hardware, document handling, retrieval systems, training and transitional details. By committing resources to a thorough understanding of the current condition, POLAR IMAGING INC. is able to develop and implement systems that meet business information needs by integrating leading edge technologies in a practicable, cost-effective system.

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DATA MANAGEMENT AND ARCHIVING

Choosing the tools

"In today's business environment access to information is power"

The power of the pyramid is a valuable tool when it comes to managing large banks of data. To keep costs under control, the small amount of vital information at the top of the pyramid must be treated in one way – providing instantaneous accessibility – whereas, the comparatively large amount of seldom needed information should be treated differently, thereby avoiding the costs associated with high-speed media. In this way, costs are managed while the use of data is optimized.

Speed of access, form of access, costs, security, on-site / off-site considerations and other factors affect the medium and storage systems selected. Often, more than one medium is appropriate, saving current records and historical records in different, but compatible ways.

Space, personnel and cost control make the use of imaging a necessity for most large corporations and institutions. For example, some organizations cannot find significant portions of their documents. Conventional storage of paper costs $25 per document per year! By analyzing needs, then selecting from the broad range of equipment, software and peripherals available to it (including many exclusive distributorships in Canada), POLAR IMAGING INC. can cost effectively develop systems that meet corporate needs now and for the future. Once designed, installation, training and POLAR IMAGING INC.’s support ensure that the system works reliably and all users’ are needs accommodated without staggering technical training.

The combination of expertise and system knowledge has made POLAR IMAGING INC. Canada’s fully diversified imaging information manager.

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Document Capture

50 Billion new documents annually

"All documents follow the Law of Documents - wherever you are, the document is not"

In Canada, 100,000 new documents are created each minute. Every day, 140 million documents are produced. Every year, 50 billion new documents are churned out by banks, business, health care facilities, government and other institutions.

Managing its share of that load is an important task for any organization, but very often, it cannot alone accomplish its goals of efficiency, accessibility and compatibility with current and future needs. POLAR IMAGING INC. is both a consultant and a service bureau, providing file conversion, systems integration, document management and microfilm services.

Backfile Conversion
Often, the first step in implementing a modern system is to capture the past through conversion of existing records. These may be in micromedia format, on paper, or a mix of both.

Continuous Capture
By providing systems to capture and convert documents or by providing service bureau capacity to accomplish the task, POLAR IMAGING INC. partners with its clients to make information management work.

There are two key areas in the image enabling process. Document capture includes automating the document indexing process and storage of the document. The second step in the process is the storage of the document index and location information. This process must integrate a mechanism by which the end user can select and retrieve document images.

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Electronic Patient Records

The Heart of Healthcare

"Cost-effective management of patient records, charts and data is essential"

The Electronic Patient Record System integrates patient healthcare data, ancillary system reports and images of paper-based documents into a consolidated electronic patient record. It provides the functional tools for managing the patient’s medical record and financial information in a paperless environment. Using PaperVision Enterprise, POLAR IMAGING INC. provides access to complete patient information including information from HIS applications, document images and medical images. Clinical, radiology, record keeping and administrative staff can access information quickly and securely. Data is accessible by several stations or locations simultaneously. Costly storage is eliminated and records are secured against loss or destruction. System flexibility allows POLAR IMAGING INC. to tailor the technology to each healthcare provider’s needs, increasing efficiency and care standards while reducing costs.

As healthcare moves into the 21st century, healthcare data management is undergoing a revolution, too. POLAR IMAGING INC. is at the forefront of adapting new technologies to patient care and fiscal needs of Canada’s healthcare community.

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New Technologies

Future Crop: Information Harvesting

"The library - the Corporate Virtual Library - will be business fundamental"

Data, documents, and using them to advantage is what will differentiate successful organizations from the rest. The incredible explosion of digital and other media over the past decade paves the way for useful adaptation. So what will corporate information technology look like?

Consider POLAR IMAGING INC.’s role like the telephone utility’s used to be – as a supplier of technological service. When you used the telephone, you were concerned only with the content of your call, not with the technology that carried it across the city or country or the expertise required to make that technology work.

Tomorrow, documents and data will be handled in a comparable way. Your data service provider will manage, route, store and retrieve your documentation using a variety of technologies. Your concerns will not be the technical aspects of this service, but rather the service quality and cost. POLAR IMAGING INC. will concern itself with optimizing those aspects while the corporate world uses the service as a tool to support its core business. Bankers will be concerned with the financial aspects, rather than the document management concerns of their business. Healthcare providers can address patient needs rather than worrying about patient records.

POLAR IMAGING INC. will continuously adapt to changing technologies. In the short term, this will mean “faster, cheaper, better” as current technology techniques are refined and improved. For example, digital video disc systems, developed for the movie industry, offer extraordinary capacity and cost reductions which will be realized as this technology comes on-line. Improvements in Internet speed and capacity offer breakthroughs in document delivery and workflow procedures.

Through this period of development and into the next, as technologies that are only in their infancy mature into real tools, POLAR IMAGING INC. will provide seamless support, security and cost effective service leaving the company’s clients free to concentrate on their core business.

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