Record keeping is among the most challenging tasks encountered by any business. As the company grows from a start-up to an established business, the records you have to maintain will continue to increase.
Larger corporations then have to lease off-site storage facilities where they can store all their important documents. In smaller businesses, it doesn’t take long for the paper records to begin taking up valuable office space.
When this occurs, it becomes necessary for you to start looking into the document digitisation processes. These are processes designed to save your business important storage space and the money that would have gone into leasing an off-site storage facility.
Document Digitisation—What Is It?
For those not in the know, digitisation is where you get to turn paper files into electric files. Each document is individually scanned, allowing for its image to be transformed into a digital format.
The transformation may involve the use of an optical character recognition system or an OCR conversion software. Both methods work by scanning the document images and transforming them into text versions.
When the conversion is complete, you can locate the documents using keywords entered into a computer.
According to the Maltings Document Storage Solutions, the digitisation of documents follows a series of steps, which include:
• Collection of documents
• Scanning of the files
• Indexing of the files already scanned
• Performance of quality checks
• Digitising the files to optical disks
• Delivery of the scanned (electronic) files
Benefits of Scanning Documents
Having looked at the different services on offer and the process followed when digitising documents, it’s now time to look at the benefits offered by document digitisation. The following are the key benefits that come with digitisation.
It Saves You Money
Digitising your business documents will save you money by increasing your productivity. Businesses that rely on paper documents are constantly experiencing setbacks. Having many files will require the workers to spend several hours sorting through them every time they need to retrieve a file.
Shifting to the digital format means that employees can easily pull a file from the system at the click of a few buttons. It enables them to work at a faster rate and to become more efficient in executing their duties.
Get to Free Up Some Office Space
Every square foot occupied by boxes filled with business documents costs you money. Digitising the records will allow you to lower your office overhead costs by moving the business to smaller premises.
Alternatively, you can use the resulting space to host new office equipment or have it converted into offices for the workers without offices. In the long run, it’s not cost-efficient to store paper documents in the office.
It offers Better Security
Paper records are a serious security risk. They are easy to misplace and can easily fall into the wrong hands. Moreover, criminals can quickly restore documents that have already been shredded and sold to your competitors.
The only way to protect the integrity of your business operations is to digitise all records. Digitisation will guarantee their security and offer you better control over who gets to access them, including how those with access can use them.
Types of Document Digitisation Services
Document digitisation involves the use of a scanner lens to capture the digital image of each record. In most cases, the normal scans aren’t helpful as they are merely digital images, and the most you can do is see them.
An ideal service will make it possible for you to continue building on some of these basic functions. It’s possible to do so by incorporating a set of new features. For example, putting in place a system that can capture high-resolution images in both black and white and colour. Allowing for the use of different storage formats to cater for both small and large scale paper scans, making it possible to edit and mark all the scanned documents.
Currently, the available document digitisation amenities include:
- Bulk Scanning: High-quality gadgets are used to scan tens or hundreds of records at a go.
- Large-Format Scanning: Large scanners are used to scan large documents and allows you to specify the preferred resolution, size, and colour of the scanned record.
- OCR Scanning: It allows you to create editable images that you can locate using relevant keywords.
- Microfilm and Microfiche Scanning: It’s a service that converts the information stored on microfilms and tapes to digital files that can easily be indexed.
- On-Site and Off-Site Scanning: On-site scanning is where documents are scanned at your offices, and off-site scanning is where the company does this at its offices. When dealing with sensitive documents, you may want to opt for on-site scanning.
Digitisation comes with many benefits. Before choosing a digitisation service, check whether it provides scan on-demand and document retrieval services. It should be possible for your people to access all the scanned documents using relevant keywords.
