Document Scanning Blog

In North America, the market for document scanners grew by 7% last year, primarily due to new solutions that reduce costs and improve the overall efficiency of manual processes at an office. A renewed importance has been placed on the document capture technology sector because of the growth in document scanning devices. Even in this challenging businesses environment, more and more companies are adopting the technology and resources they need to go completely paperless. Whether you choose a professional document scanning company or try to do it yourself with in-house scanning devices, document scanning and management ultimately give businesses the tools they need to remain competitive. By improving a company’s ROI, they also mitigate risk, reduce overhead, and improve productivity and customer service. Your document scanning should be done on the right type of scanner, and not every scanner model is suitable for going paperless. Most inexpensive flatbed document scanners lack and automatic document feeder, and cannot process your materials fast enough to be cost-effective. Some high-speed, sheet fed scanners seem right, but they cannot handle books and magazines, and in many cases cannot handle fragile or odd shaped documents. Your scanner should combine the benefits of both flatbed and sheet-fed scanners, with the ability to process images at the rate of at least 10 per minute. These can run about $800 or more, but on a page-per-minute basis, they will quickly pay for themselves. Alternatively, a professional document scanning service can offer better ROI, since they not only scan your documents professionally using a variety of appropriate scanners, most can also store and archive your paper records. This type of service works especially well for medical and legal practices.

While most organizations have invested in “document capture” technologies, including document scanning and digital document storage, only about half of them are scanning 50% of their documents. Perhaps this is because of the time it takes to scan documents in-house, and IT measures necessary for carrying this out successfully. It’s true that document scanning and implementing a paperless office can dramatically improve ROI in just 12 short months, but not unless the time is available to do it correctly and efficiently. While it may seem less expedient to send documents out to a document scanning facility rather than doing it in-house, if the right conditions don’t exist at your place of business, no amount of new technology will make it work. A number of businesses – and their number-crunchers – have found that outsourced professional document scanning and document storage is the most cost-efficient way to go paperless. Not only are documents scanned quickly and efficiently, they can be properly stored and archived outside of the office. Plus, most professional document scanning companies work with your existing computer systems to ensure a seamless transition for accessing scanned documents. Most of the time, archived documents are scanned and stored on web based platforms, allowing you and your employees to access them easily from any computer. In summary, a survey called “Extending Capture Capabilities – Measuring the ROI” has shown that carrying out a document scanning and online records management solution improves overall ROI through cost efficiencies, which can be realized within 12 months of implementing a document management solution. They include: - Productivity nearly doubled in 42% of businesses surveyed, following the inception of document management programs - Improved ROI was achieved by two-thirds of companies surveyed, within 18 months, and by 43% of companies within 12 months - In half of the companies surveyed, paper storage costs fell by 40% Document scanning and digitized document storage is beginning to take hold in offices across every industry and region. Not only is it a more cost effective way to run a business, it also makes sense for the environment.

Anyone who has ever lost valuable data from a computer crash or virus will tell you – it is very important to keep your important files safe from disaster. This way, the next time you experience a power surge, hardware malfunction, natural disaster or computer theft; document storage will no longer be a concern. Electronic document storage and backups have changed quite a bit over the years, evolving from the old-fashioned tape method, with a slow pace of recovery, to writable CD-ROMs and DVDs and USB drives. While the USB, or flash drive, can provide easy access and portability, they can also be stolen along with the computer, or become damaged. Also, files stored on USB drives are often more difficult to share or manage remotely. A better option is electronic document storage; the natural next step in the “backup evolution”. Online document storage allows files to be stored in a safe and secure environment, as well as the benefit of remote access, encryption and document sharing. Secure document storage usually includes a 128-bit encryption, which occurs locally on your computer, before your files are even sent to the document storage site. The files, which are stored in their encrypted format, are only readable when you access them through an encrypted password. This keeps information and files from falling into the wrong hands. You can also backup all of your computers using one account. Many document storage services offer a “set it and forget it” automatic backup option, which allows you to schedule the folders and documents to be backed up, and a specific day of the week/month for regular backups. Collaboration with friends and business partners can sometimes allow documents to become “viral” on the internet, but an online document storage company can help with that too. By allowing you to send an encrypted link to the file that will give them exclusive password access to the file; you can keep others from accessing the file. Easy upload is another feature to look for in a document storage service. Look for one that allows you to perform a simple “drag and drop” from your Desktop, Windows Explorer menus, or other applications. The easier it is to upload, the more often you will do it, which can only make your data safer and more secure.

Few people realize the origins of Optimal Character Recognition, or OCR scanning services, used today for processing image files into text-searchable and editable documents. It all sounds quite simple, in our technologically advanced world, but OCR scanning was heralded as a highly futuristic discovery at the time of its debut. At one time, OCR scanning services were even regarded as a form of artificial intelligence. While OCR has been used quite commonly by the US Postal Service since 1965, it wasn’t until 1974 that well-known futurist Raymond Kurzweil started a company that would develop the first “omni-font” OCR service. The earliest systems required the use of a single font, but today they are quite accurate with most fonts. Kurzweil’s earliest application for this product was centered on helping blind people “read” written text by having a computer read it for them out loud. Originally called the Kurzweil Reading Machine, this early OCR scanning device covered an entire tabletop. On the day of its unveiling, Walter Cronkite even used the Kurzweil machine to read his signature “And that’s the way it was” signoff. A commercial version of Kurzweil’s OCR scanning service was released in 1978, enabling companies to upload paper documents onto online databases, and the rest is history. Today’s OCR scanning services are far more sophisticated, enabling the transfer of scanned data to editable text in multiple formats and fonts. Clients using OCR scanning services today can search for desired words within the document and manipulate them, storing their changes in a revised version of the document. OCR services are ideal for legal practices, archive facilities, educational institutions, museums and any other business that uses text-rich documents. Some of the better OCR scanning services allow clients to access their images in many different languages, or even convert them to HTML for easy upload to their web site.

The electronic scanning of paper documents has been available for awhile, but only recently have document scanning companies begun to offer a full range of document imaging services to fully automate the electronic management of scanned documents. These systems can manage a full range of paper documents, photos and prints. In its earliest form, electronic document storage was managed with only a limited number of file types. These document imaging solutions were designed to capture, store and index image files. Electronic Document Management (EDM) systems evolved to where they could manage any type of format, as long as it could be stored on a network. Applications were then developed that encompassed electronic documents, auditing capabilities, and tools for collaboration. Today’s EDM and document imaging service options are designed to include higher storage volume, metadata, versioning, data security, as well as much more sophisticated retrieval capabilities. Some of the Document Imaging Solutions being offered today include: o Metadata: For each document, metadata is used to catalog and properly identify the document storage information for later retrieval. Extracted text from the scanned document can also be used a metadata component. o Integration: Many document imaging services are offering new ways to integrate document management into other applications, which allows the user to open the scanned document, make changes, and save it back to the repository, all without leaving an application. o Capture: Optical character recognition software (OCR) is used to convert digital images into readable, editable text. o Indexing: By tracking electronic documents’ metadata or word description, indexing allows users to retrieve stored documents by entering a few words pertaining to their contents. Electronic document storage and retrieval can be a highly sophisticated method of information management, allowing businesses to operate virtually anywhere, with more reliable data availability and security.

With the medical industry facing so many challenges from insurance providers and government agencies, it is becoming more important than ever for physicians, hospitals and other medical providers to implement medical records scanning and healthcare document scanning. It is not only our computerized world and our insatiable need for instant information that will drive providers to begin scanning medical records. It is also a public health issue. When we consider how important it is for patients’ medical data to be readily available in the event of an emergency, it is amazing how long it has taken for medical records scanning to become commonplace. Today’s document scanning services offer OCR scanning as well, enabling providers to make changes to permanent medical records quite easily, and upload that information into their database. Just think of how easy it would be to access important medical records if every provider were required to begin medical records scanning. Here are just a few ways that healthcare document scanning would improve the safety and reliability of healthcare in this country. o A database of medical records would allow pharmacists to see what other medications a patient is taking before filling a prescription, thereby preventing possible overdoses or incompatible medications. o Medical records scanning would allow a primary doctor to access your chart from any computer, which would give patients access to the right kind of care in an emergency. o Healthcare document scanning would let insurance companies have immediate access to information on any conditions a patient has had, without the need for lengthy medical forms to be completed via mail. Now that the US government is considering a national public health insurance program, the need for healthcare document scanning has never been greater. Not only will it cut costs by eliminating time-consuming paperwork, it would allow patients a safer, more reliable, source of medical information in the event of an emergency.