Document Scanning Blog

Some of the most forward-thinking companies in the world are still lagging behind much smaller businesses when it comes to electronic document management.  Perhaps this is because for a larger company, the prospect of moving every internal piece of paper onto a digital platform is daunting.  While most small companies can get by with a do-it-yourself document management solution, medium to large-sized businesses will do better with a professional document management “team”. The team approach to document management usually starts out with a personal consultation to assess the needs of an organization.  For large businesses, this may mean including representatives from accounting, human resources, upper management and customer service, as each department will be affected by the transition in different ways. After this initial consultation, a electronic document management solution will be presented to the company.  The proposal will include a timeline, budget and departmental deadlines, with the goal of transferring all documents to a secure and easily accessible digital format.  An important goal at this stage is for the document scanning team to transfer documents to a digital format that is in line with the company’s current system.  Without the continuous flow of data available, the transition process will be much more costly and time consuming. When a document scanning company understands the nature of their clients’ business and the special information needs associated with it, the process of scanning and digitization process will go much more smoothly, clearing the way for a paperless office.  All in all, document management solutions are all about making business run more smoothly and efficiently in the 21^st century.

Using an Electronic Document Management System, or EDMS, is becoming the preferred method of managing data in an office environment. It is growing so quickly that many business owners are scrambling to convert their paper documents into digital files. Document imaging is nothing new. Even a common office copy machine or microfiche can be considered a form of imaging, but the type of digital imaging done today is designed to dramatically affect the work flow in an office setting. The integration of existing paper records into digital record keeping involves a lot more than document scanning. Most electronic documents also contain readable text, which allows for the words on a scanned page to be read and manipulated by computer software. This technology is known as OCR, which stands for Optical Character Recognition, and it is done by converting dynamic text into Unicode or ASCII formats. Once this is done, the text can be indexed and searched, just like every other document in the electronic office. Another way to index scanned documents it to attach meta data to the document, which can be bar-coded and indexed into the work flow. Perhaps one of the most compelling reasons to consider EDMS is the accessibility of documents, especially in larger enterprises. When electronic files are stored on an external web server, they can be accessed from anyone in the organization, provided they have the access level needed. Besides making offices run more efficiently, converting from paper documents into digital formats dramatically reduces paper requirements and the related overhead costs associated with them, including copiers, faxes, shredders and storage space. Overall, document scanning and management produces many concrete benefits, from speeding up the flow of work to reducing paper storage and handling expenses. It also reduces a business’s ecological impact on its community.