Document Scanning Blog

If you walk through the aisles of a computer store, or look at all the document management software available online, it would appear that the transition to a paperless office is easy, but do-it-yourself document management isn’t for everyone.   Most small to medium sized businesses need more than a software program or an online document management account; they need a document management “solution”. 

 

What is the difference between document scanning software and a document management solution?

 

More often than not, a professional document management system relies is web based.  This allows employees to access their office files without physically going into the office.  Much more secure than a paper document file or network based storage, an online document management system requires passwords to access files.  Each employee has “clearance” to access certain file types, and their security level may also determine whether they can edit or add to a file. 

 

The larger the company and the more people who “touch” a given document, the more complex a document management system becomes.  The actual scanning of paper documents is just the first step along the way to a paperless office.  It is what happens afterward, and how well the system is managed, that will determine its success. 

 

Working with a professional Document scanning company will give your business certain advantages over the do-it-yourself methods:

 

·         Reduce employee “downtime” by taking the scanning project off of their hands

·         Securely scan and archive paper documents for later retrieval without interrupting daily business activities

·         Install and customize a document management system, using a variety of tools, and ensure a compliance with federal and state privacy laws

·         Set up the database and train employees on how to use it

 

Now that document management systems have reached critical mass in many industries, businesses are looking at all of their options for a digital office.  While it is certainly possible to manage the process internally, it may be a lot more cost-effective to work with a team of document management professionals.

Up until recently the primary focus of document scanning and online document management has been to get medical practices and law offices into the 21^st century.  This was immediately followed by the financial and insurance industries.  Now that so many businesses are managing everything digitally, other companies may find it easier to switch to a paperless office.

 

As the American labor force becomes more accustomed to electronic documents, the use of paper in an office seems a lot more cumbersome.  Gone are the days when there was a line at the copy machine and a stack of manila folders on every worker’s desk.  Without even trying, today’s worker has gradually changed the way they manage paper documents in an office environment.

 

It’s hard to say when it happened, but at some point it become redundant to keep a file of paperwork for each client, when there was already an electronic file in existence.  It probably happened around the same time that people started “trusting computers” and realizing that their documents wouldn’t be lost in a computer crash.  IT professionals have become very adept at maintaining back-up files and ensuring the safety of network drives.  In most modern offices, client documents and important files are saved to a network drive instead of existing solely on a workers computer.  As a result, the average worker feels a lot more confident maintaining electronic document scanning without the requisite paper file. 

 

This shift has impacted various industries in different ways, but there are very few businesses that still operate in a paper-only model.  In the interest of efficiency, it appears that the American business owner is ready to follow the example of medical and legal office and embrace electronic document management solutions. 

 

Getting started with a document management solution for your office may require the help of a document scanning company.  These digital imaging professionals are the most effective way to make sure every employee is on the same page with the transition, and they can recommend the right software to securely manage employee document access.  In addition to actually document scanning and archiving your paper documents, most document scanning firms offer training for your employees. 

One of the main reasons so many offices are still “pushing paper” instead of using an electronic document management system is because they think going “paperless” will be too difficult. What many don’t realize is that all they need is a decent document scanner and some OCR scanning software. Larger organizations will often outsource their document scanning and digital storage needs as a way to get started, since these companies will eliminate the need to spend weeks in the office at the scanner. However, once the initial work is done, many offices choose to do the scanning themselves. A relatively inexpensive scanner will help you keep up with the influx of paper documents into your office, including letters, faxes, invoices and news articles. Using OCR scanning software in conjunction with the scanned images allows you to convert the PDFs into an editable, search able text format. Some companies choose to use the software that comes bundled with the scanner, which works well for controlling image quality, but does nothing to make the images search able. You will need a powerful OCR scanning software package with an intuitive user-interface. The best software will recognize different languages and fonts, read the text from screen-shots, and even extract text from a scanned document containing tables and pictures with ease. After your documents are all converted into digital formats, you will want to decide on an easy way to store and archive them on a secure server, or store them on an external hard drive. An easy way to index your search able scanned images is by using Google Desktop or the built-in search index tool on Windows Vista. Once you get the hang of it, you will wonder how you ever managed your documents any other way.

When considering the conversion to digital documents, most business look at the big picture from a financial perspective, such as how document scanning will save money on storage costs and create more efficiency for employees. However, most companies fail to consider how digital documents fit into their overall marketing strategy and database management. With communications flowing from organizations to recipients happening in greater numbers than ever, one challenge to effective document management is the ability to capture customer data for future marketing initiatives. Using a number of unsynchronized databases can be a challenge when moving from customer relations to mailing, tracking sales, and accounting. The Database of the Future The ideal scenario is to have one database that captures customers throughout all stages of their relationship with your company – from prospect to client and from post-sale to up-sell. It would connect with external partners and feed market intelligence back into the system at the customer level. By structuring a document management system in such a way, companies can realize greater effectiveness in their targeted marketing efforts and achieve more meaningful relationships with customers. Managing the digital document lifecycle requires an understanding of enterprise content management (ECM), as well as archiving and storage. Using the right document scanning company with the resources to implement a strategic storage system for live documents allows companies to harness documents and make them work for us, instead of against us. Organizing all of this information, and keeping it secure, is at the heart of successful content management. Business documents are a vital part of your company’s strategic, financial, intellectual and operational assets, and managing them effectively across vertical processes is essential. When searching for a document imaging service, consider how your digital assets will integrate with your existing databases, with the goal of optimal flexibility.

Picture this: You are in charge of mid-sized law firm’s legal library. You manage an archive of legal documents and memoranda so vast that you appear more like a museum curator than an employee at a law practice. (Not an unusual description of most law libraries, by the way). And all of the time, document storage space, and money that you spend in managing that library has become a significant problem. So what is the fix? Thankfully, these days a digital conversion, wherein the majority of your legal paper is transmitted through digital document imaging to a digital platform, will usually do the trick. But not so long ago, in the days before OCR service (optical character recognition), if you ran a business, non-profit or an archive and you wanted to convert certain simple text-heavy paper documents to a safer, more efficient and cost effective digital platform, you would have been, well, swimming in a world of paper. In other words, you would have been stuck and out of luck. Fortunately, today that is no longer the case. But what is optical character recognition scanning, anyway? Well, to put it simply, OCR is a method of document scanning and converting “image files” (IE pictures of text such as “TIFFs” and “PDFs”) into editable documents that are text searchable. (IE “SPDFs and “.DOCs”). In other words, optical character recognition technology turns practically useless picture of documents into functionally workable documents that can be opened and edited on most word processing, desktop publishing and editing software. Revolutionary as OCR service technology has been, it has its risks as well. Most notably is the fact that no OCR transition is perfect. Typically, OCR transitions work best when the source material to be converted is simple (EG Times Roman or Courier font), clean, large (12 point or higher) black text against a white background. But the bottom line is that if maintaining the accuracy of your data in conversion is particularly important to you, you need to work with an experienced OCR document scanning company that takes additional steps to ensure that the new digital copies will be as close to the originals as possible.

We had a thriving family business. We were on a first name basis with most of our customers, our employees were treated like family, and even our suppliers could come and go behind the counter as they pleased. We ran our business on trust and good will. Of course, that was in 1956. We didn’t feel need to take measures to protect our information. And of course, technology such as digital document imaging and OCR scanning services could not have been imagined even. In 2009, however, regrettably, a business simply cannot operate like it did in the glory days without risking the safety and security of your workforce, your clients, and your confidential financial information. To say that business data can contain sensitive information is a huge understatement. Indeed, the document storage maintained by businesses and non-profit organizations of all sizes can have life wrecking consequences if stolen or placed in the wrong hands. This is why it is imperative for any serious entrepreneur to make data security and secure document storage a top priority. Moreover, the need for professional document destruction services as well as secure document storage has grown more and more urgent. Question: Why do I need a document destruction company to dispose of my company’s records when I have a perfectly good paper shredder? Answer: No you don’t. The truth is that paper shredders are to data thieves as car alarms are to car thieves. They are ridiculously ineffective when it comes to stopping or even discouraging a motivated thief who wants what you have. At this day and age we have the technology to cease relying on vulnerable paper documents as high speed scanning of documents is readily available to businesses. Data and identity theft is a multi-billion dollar global enterprise. And it is still growing. If you are running a business, it is your responsibility to keep that growth away from you, your employees, and your clientele. Employing the expertise of a document scanning company may help protect you and your customers from these dangers.