Document Scanning Basics

Find out about document scanning services

Getting an understanding of document scanning basics is the first step to take when you decide it's time to reduce paper documents. With increased regulations about retaining and securing documents, inability to find important documents could spell disaster. It's difficult to keep important paper documents safe and secure in a storage space that is protected from flood, fire, dampness and other poor storage conditions. Filing paper, finding documents when they're needed and maintaining files is a drain on staff that can waste time and cause frustration. Scanning your paper documents eliminates some of these issues.

Despite these benefits, the process of scanning documents is usually expensive. To determine whether purchasing document scanning services is a good investment for your company, ask the following questions:

1. Will scanning documents save time and money for the organization?

2. What is the best way to scan documents and how much will it cost?

3. What has to be done with the documents once they are scanned?

 

Decide whether document conversion services will benefit your company

Before embarking on a scanning and digitizing project, it's important to understand how it can benefit your company and affect your bottom line. It's also necessary to design a plan so that you scan and keep what you need.
Try: Sisco provides an application that allows you to compute the actual filing and document pulling costs at your organization. For more generalized information, check out a white paper from Zylab that details costs of filing, concluding that the handling cost of documents is about 6 percent to 15 percent of a company's revenue and that 85 percent of all archived documents never leave the file cabinet. Get an overview about the benefits and disadvantages of digitizing and guidelines for what documents should be scanned and saved from The Effective Admin.

Get reviews and comparisons of scanning companies

Once you have a plan for what documents to digitize, the next step is scanning them. Depending on how many documents you have, you could handle the scanning yourself or have a company do it. Determine how much time and money it will cost to have staff do the scanning. Compare these costs to services provided by scanning companies.
Try: Use VendorSeek to fill out a form about how many pages you need scanned and get quotes from multiple vendors in your area. OnlineOrganizing provides links to dozens of scanning and digitizing companies. You'll also need to choose a scanner for future document imaging. Check out ScanTips for an overview of features to look for in a scanner.

Compare digital document management software

After the documents are scanned, you'll need a way to access them. Document management software provides indexing to locate and view scanned documents.
Try: ScanStore offers a software comparison for several different vendors that includes price ranges and supported scanners and file types. Check out reviews of additional document management software from CNET and WebCPA.

Check out specialty document scanning companies

Find out whether your files include X-rays or other unusual documents. You may need a specialty scanning company to handle them.
Try: Trialgraphic performs specialty scanning and digitizing,including microfilm and X-rays. MedTec Imaging digitizes X-rays.

 

• Some document scanning and imaging companies provide on site scanning, which can be easier if you have many boxes of files to be scanned or are worried about security and lost documents.

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