RLB Management Services Ltd. will host the seminar and feature guest speaker, Robert Smallwood, the managing partner of Louisiana-based Image Associates.

Ms Lynn Ball said that Mr. Smallwood has been in the imaging business for 12 years and can provide information useful to the insurance, banking legal and accounting professions.

She said: "The process would be useful for government and any business that generates paper. It is a way of reducing the amount of paper and cutting down on the time it takes to find documents.'' Image Associates is an imaging and information technology consulting practice that provides document imaging research, assistance, management and systems integration internationally.

The firm has been used by Fortune 500 companies such as Xerox and AT&T, and can provide a "hands on'' service.

Document imaging processing involves the capture, storage, indexing, retrieval, distribution, tracking and output of document images. They have been considered to be as legal as paper documents, although the company recommends that companies investigate the legality within their own jurisdictions.

The firm claims 95 percent of business information processed is stored on paper and is not easily accessible. But the imaging process allows the product to be easily stored, immediately reducing the processing time.

The system reduces storage space and improves security. A single disk holds as many documents as two filing cabinets and allows users to work off the same document from different terminals at the same time.

Ms Lynn Ball