Scanning
What is it ?
The scanning process involves passing a paper document through a scanner which captures an image of the document as an electronic file - typically a PDF, TIFF or JPEG format. This file can then be used in place of the paper document and the paper document can be destroyed or placed in long-term storage. The kinds of scanners for commercial use process hundreds of pages a minute and perform automatic image correction, character and barcode recognition. Domestic scanners and multifunction devices (which combine scanning, faxing and copying in one inexpensive machine) are usually too slow for commercial use, however can be useful to complement high-speed scanning solutions.
Why scan ?
The primary advantages of working with scanned documents are
- Storage - one modern hard disk-drive the size of a paperback book can store every piece of paper you are likely to generate throughout your lifetime
- Security - because electronic backups are easily done remotely, the chance of valuable documents being destroyed by fire or flood is much lessened
- Sharing - more than one person can read a file in different locations, whereas this is not possible with paper
- Finding - because scanned documents can be easily converted into a text-searchable format through the process of OCR it is possible to search through all documents in seconds to find a keyword or phrase. Additionally, documents can be explicitly indexed and placed in folders in exactly the same way as in a filing cabinet.
- Co-existence with other electronicdocuments. Electronic documents such as email, web-forms, word documents, accounting packages and spreadsheets are now commonly kept in an electronic folder system. It is extremely useful to have paper documents kept in the same way
- Legal admissability - scanned documents are now widely accepted by the courts as having equal legal admissability to the original document, provided the scanned documents are in a format and have been kept in a manner which precludes the likelihood of them being altered.
- Environmental - no more wastage of paper through photocopying. Electronic copies of documents have a negligible environmental effect.
So what's the catch ?
The problem with scanning is that it is typically only cost-effective if done on a large scale, which is why it is mostly large enterprises which have set up in-house centralised mail-rooms scanning thousands of documents a day who can benefit from electronic documents. . Bear in mind that the cost of scanning is not only the cost of the personnel doing the scanning and the scan machines, but also the costs of document preparation (batching, staple removal and sorting) ,rescans in the case of a poorly-scanned page (up to 1 in 20 pages can need rescanning) , indexing and data-correction .
How can Webrecs help ?
We can help you in 2 ways :
Onsite scanning
- We provide tools, advice, recommendations and products to enable you to scan your own documents and upload them to your Webrecs hosted repository
- We provide a full onsite scanning service. Our trained scan operators will come to your premises with a mobile, high-speed scanner, and sort, batch, scan, index and upload all your documents.
Offsite scanning
We provide varying degrees of service which encompass one or more of the following aspects :
- Pickup of documents
- Sorting and scanning
- Indexing, OCR and data correction
- Return and/or storage and/or destruction of documents
- Provision of DVD