What is Document Scanning?
A. Document scanning, or digital archiving, is the process of scanning a document into a digital image. The documents are then stored on a hard drive, online, on an external drive, or on CD’s.
Many companies use document scanning as a way to back up copies of important legal, financial, and other documents essential to their business. Some companies rely solely on document scanning to store important documents, and with good reason—digital archiving can save companies thousands of dollars per year in paper. It also saves on space, and keeps documents far more organized than they would be in hardcopy form. In addition, copies can be made much more economically in digital form, ensuring an easier and cheaper way to back up these important documents.
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What are the benefits of document scanning?
A. Apart from saving on paper costs and storage space, digital archiving has many benefits. Added security is one—with electronic copies, you can keep a record of who has viewed a document, as well as keep them confidential if you need to. Ease of access is another—you can send documents instantaneously through email, find documents much more easily, and never worry about misplacing a document again. Some industries have strict privacy standards as well—standards it’s difficult to comply with if you’re using a hardcopy filing system to store documents.
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Why use document scanning and imaging services?
A. Companies interested in transitioning from hardcopy records to digital archives have two choices: do it themselves, or hire a document scanning company. Many companies underestimate the complexity of the job at first—some businesses can have thousands of documents that must be scanned to a high-quality image and then stored in an easily accessible manner, and many businesses don’t have the resources to do the job right. That’s where a document scanning and imaging company comes in.
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What is the process like?
A. While every company is different, you can expect the scanning process to be similar with many of the scanning companies out there. Most scanning companies will provide you with an assessment of your needs first, with a proposal including a price estimate for the project. You may have to mail them your hardcopy documents and have them mailed back; expect secure, reliable shipping, and for any confidentiality issues to be addressed to your company’s satisfaction before signing on.
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Are scanned documents admissible in court?
A. At the time this article was written, the law was fairly clear on scanned documents’ uses in court: as long as the document is an accurate reproduction of the original, it is admissible. Other technologies that are valid in court include faxes, photocopies, and microfilm as well as digital imaging.
Digital archiving is the wave of the future—and many companies are signing on to transform rooms full of bulky filing cabinets into easily stored electronic format. By converting your
hardcopy documents into electronic files, you can save your company room and money while improving security and access.
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What is Backfile Scanning?
A. Backfile Scanning is scanning your recent and archived paper
files, documents, blueprints or any other paper and converting
them into an electronic format, giving you the ability to
access them via your PC, network, or even online using the
World Wide Web.
Most companies after some investigation find that the resources
required to start their own backfile scanning processes are
very costly in more ways then one, and that most times the
lack of accuracy and the amount of time your staff will devote
to the project is more costly to your business by pulling
them away from their normal everyday tasks. Deciding to implement
a "paperless office" is very beneficial, and the
day-forward aspect of scanning in all the new documents increases
your productivity. Most companies who decide to move towards
a "paperless office" face backfile scanning issues
and this is very common.
What options are there? Which one is right
for you?
In-House vs. Outsourcing: How to Choose
1. Purchase an in-house system and direct
your staff in an on-site backfile scanning and conversion
process.
2. Purchase an in-house system and direct a vendor’s
staff in doing the preparation, scanning, and indexing on-site.
3. Contract with a vendor to operate their system, using their
staff at your site.
4. Send your files and documents off-site for scanning and
indexing, making them available via CD, DVD, or on the Web.
Most organizations differ in their availability of staffing,
resources, and goals. In a private study, a group examined
the broad issue of electronic document management solutions. The group identified these four general combinations
of in-house and outsourced services to consider. The first
three required dedicating space in-house, the first two required
purchasing and maintaining equipment, and the first required
hiring more full-time employees.
Only the fourth option relieves all the burdens of the first
three.
AccuServe ONE can offer a host of document scanning services to handle all
your backfile scanning and conversion needs and can make your
documents available through any form of media such as CD's,
DVD's, availability online for download, or even secure online
web access.
AccuServe ONE can also provide In-House solutions for your
document management needs.
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How much office space can I save?
A. Good question. It depends on the amount of paper files you
have taking up your valuable office space.
In most offices, there are filing cabinets everywhere. We've
become attached and dependant on our paper files. Since most
companies are mandated to hold their records from 3 to 7 years,
that adds up to an exhaustive amount of paper needed to be
maintained and stored. Where do you store it? In your office?
A records storage company? What are those costs? All these
questions lead this topic in a new direction. Why are you
keeping these records in paper format? Why not an electronic
format? Let's investigate.......
Some Statistics
OK, let's look at some statistics. But before we do that,
let's set the standard office environment so we have a reference
point to start from. Now for the breakdown:
A typical filing cabinet drawer holds about 3000 pages when
full.
So a full 4 drawer cabinet holds about 12000 pages.
A lateral file drawer holds about twice or 50% more files.
So a full 2 drawer lateral cabinet holds about 12000 pages.
The Simple Math
Ok, now that we know what we have in the space of our filing
cabinets, let's look at space on storage media.
A standard 8 1/2 x 11 page scanned at 200x200 DPI (dots
per inch) is about 50k in size (average)
There is 1024k in 1 megabyte of space.
There are 700 megabytes of space on a CD.
There are 4,700 megabytes of space on a DVD.
Ok, here's the simple math.
1,024k (1 megabyte) divided by 50k (standard scanned document)
= 20.48 documents per megabyte
700 megabytes (1 CD) x 20 (scanned images per megabyte) = 14,000 documents per CD
4,700 megabytes (1 DVD) x 20 (scanned images per megabyte)
= 94,000 documents per DVD
So here are the facts.
1 CD = 1 filing cabinet full of paper documents
(12,000 documents)
1 DVD = 7 filing cabinets full of paper documents (84,000
documents)
Once these documents are scanned and placed on a CD or DVD
(write once only media) they become legal documents that can
be archived and retrieved later in the event you would like
to print, fax, or email them.
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What
is Document Management?
A. Document Management is the ability to manage all of your
paper documents in an electronic format. Let's define "paper
documents in electronic format". This requires us to
convert them first.
Document Conversion
What is the easiest way? Scanning them using either a single
page flatbed scanner,
or maybe even a more sophisticated departmental or production
type scanner which has
the ability to scan multiple pages at once, using an Automated
Document Feeder (ADF).
These can scan documents faster, and these typically have
a higher Daily Duty Cycle
or (DDC). What is a Daily Duty Cycle? This means the maximum
number of documents the
scanner should be able to capture in a day.
Viewing the Electronic Documents
Now that the documents are in an electronic format, how do
you view them? Easy, just find a viewer that
is compatible with the format you are using to capture your
documents. Ok, that's a loaded answer. Finding
a viewer is a little more complicated, and warrants further
discussion. Most scanners (and software)
capture these documents in Tiff format. Finding a tiff viewer
is a easier these days, and with the built-in document viewer
in Microsoft XP, it's a snap. The older versions of Microsoft
Windows required you to locate and install a 3rd party viewer.
So, now that we can view the documents, what's the best way
to keep them
in order? Ok, so you see where this topic is going now....
a Document Management solution.
Finding a Document Management Solution - In-House vs. Hosted
Solutions
Basically, there are two types of
systems, either an in-house solution, or an outsourced hosted
solution.
Which one will best suit your needs? Good question. Most companies
base their decision on available staff to maintain these systems,
and the technical abilities of those staff members. Cost of
a solution is also a deciding factor. While the cost of an
in-house solution is higher up front, having the technical
staff to support it, it typically pays off in the long run
due to the calculated Return On Investment (ROI). The lower
cost of a hosted solution is appealing to many companies because
this solution puts the technical responsibilities on the solution
provider. It's also beneficial in that most of these solutions
are web-based. While some companies can truly benefit from
the hosted solution, many can't due to confidentiality of
the information contained within their organization.
Finding a solution to fit your company's needs can be a time
consuming venture. We recommend you first determine what solution
fits your organization best, then shop for a solution with
the features best suited to your business needs. AccuServe
ONE presents both of these solutions (In-House and Hosted),
and can help you define which is best suited for you.
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What
is Day Forward Scanning?
A. It is the>scanning of all your documents, invoices, and any
paper that is currently in use to date. Many companies today
are choosing not dedicate in-house staff to scanning in their
current documents in an effort to save valuable resources
and allowing them to be more productive in their jobs. Most
of these companies already have a document or information
management solution in place and, currently in use at their
location.
The Benefits of Outsourcing Day Forward
Scanning
Many firms find it cost effective to outsource day forward
scanning due to the inability or lack of desire to assign
dedicated staff to these projects. AccuServe One is a leader in backfile and day forward scanning services and can easily
provide the day forward scanning service on a daily, weekly,
and or monthly basis. We will scan all of your documents using
the index information you choose, assign that information
to each document and then output the indexing information
to an easy to use import file for inserting your documents
and information into any host document or information management
solution.
What can I expect to pay for Day Forward
Scanning Services?
It solely depends upon the amount of documents AccuServe
ONE scans for your company on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
The more documents AccuServe ONE scans on a regular basis,
the lower your overall cost. Our document scanning services and indexing prices
start at $0.05 per page. If you calculate the amount of time
and effort involved with in scanning your documents using
the cost of hardware, software, maintenance, and human resources
dedicated for your scanning project, it's easy to see that
outsourcing day forward scanning is practical, efficient,
and a more cost effective solution.
For more information, contact:
Info@AccuServeONE.com or
Call Sales Toll Free (866) 630-4248
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Comparing
Image Quality?
A. These are actual images scanned with our Fujitsu 4099d high
speed scanners using VRS. It's easy to see the difference
the VRS technology offers by providing superior image quality.
The links under each image provide downloads of the actual
Tiff images where you can print them to get a true representation
on the difference in clarity and image quality.
Click here to compare image quality
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