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If your company is planning to outsource its document scanning requirements, you’ll want to make sure you hire the contractor that’s right for your business. This article outlines some of the important factors to look out for and will give you some idea of the right questions to ask.

Scanning services required

Firstly you’ll need to ascertain which services you actually require – do you need just scanning and indexing services or a full document management solution?

Do you need hands-on help or just some consultation and advice?

Security

When it comes to documents, security is likely to be a key consideration for your company. Find out about a contractor’s security arrangements and how documents containing sensitive data will be handled. In some circumstances, contractors will need to be registered with the Data Protection Agency – ask about this too if you handle personal data.

Documents which need to be transferred to a contractor should be transferred using a secure courier service and all staff who handle confidential documents should be police-checked.

Ability

Don’t presume that all document scanning companies can meet your requirements. Ask them how long they have been established. Who have they worked for? What sectors do they have experience in?

It might be a good idea to ask for evidence and case studies of when a document scanning company has worked with another client with similar requirements to you.

Companies should also be ISO 9001 accredited and have a wide range of equipment to handle all types of documents and sizes.

Software and support

Some contractors are tied in with third-party vendors and may not be well placed to offer you the widest selection of solutions for your scanning needs.

Independent companies can choose from everything that’s available on the market to find the best solution for you.

Key questions to ask

These questions are a good start to help you choose the best scanning services contractor for you:

1. What relevant experience would your ideal contractor have?
2. Are there any key security issues which need to be considered?
3. What ongoing support do you need?
4. Once all your main files have been scanned, will you continue to maintain scanning in-house or do you require a contractor for this?
5. Do your documents include personal data?
6. What kind of documents can the contractor deal with?
7. What kind of equipment do they have available?

This is a short guide to what a document scanning service can offer you and your business.

First of all, yes, we are talking about the document scanning that you’re thinking of. There really is only one way to do document scanning, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t better ways to do it and companies out there that can do it for you with a great deal more accuracy, and speed than you might imagine. Ultimately, document scanning companies are set up to bring a little more clarity to the businesses that use their services and they do this by providing their services with a quick turnaround and a promise of improvement in efficiency and lots of savings besides.

But how does this work? Well if you have thousands of documents that you have a use for and may even use on a regular basis which are all paper based, document scanning and managing your files digitally can offer you something that is unarguably better. Document scanning companies are able to take all of those documents, scan them relatively quick, depending on the capabilities of the company and their scanning equipment and convert them into an easy to manage and find digital file which can be indexed by whatever elements that you wish. These usually consist of the reference number on the piece of paper, the client name, the address or other similar things. This means that, once they are saved onto your systems, you are then able to do a quick text search on your computer system to find the appropriate file that you need. This in turn saves lots of time and staff time usually spent searching through paper-based files in order to find the information they need to do their work.

This means much more can be done in the day which saves the company considerable outgoings. On top of this if you are also storing documents in a document storage facility, as the majority of big law firms do, then this can be a major cost saver. This is because the documents that were being stored in the facility at a monthly charge with retrieval fees on top of this as standard, no longer have to worry about the recurring fees because the files are now on their systems and available to access at any time with no waiting and no additional charges on top.

The cost of a scanning service is also probably a lot less than you might imagine, with scanning from a penny per page usually depending upon the quantity you are wanting to be scanned. This is because of the speed on the equipment available which can usually scan thousands of documents each day.

On top of improvements within your own office environment, document scanning also provides additional environmentally friendly benefits and green credentials. If you decide to use less paper, you won’t be needing to purchase any more paper. Although the amount of unauthorised tree culling, which costs animals and humans their homes and food, has been reduced it is still a major problem throughout the Far East and you can never truly know where your money is going. It also means a reduced use of ink throughout your office which is one of the hardest materials to recycle and makes paper that contains a considerable amount of it virtually impossible to recycle.

The advantages of document scanning go on and on, with very few downsides.

Investing in document scanning services can bring a wide range of benefits to your business. Documents can be scanned in bulk, at speeds of up to 500,000 documents a day.

Stop wasting space

Storing documents such as invoices, receipts, letters, articles, POs, drawings and more requires a significant and ever-expanding amount of storage space. Documents such as these can be scanned in bulk.

As a guide, you can potentially store three filing cabinets’ worth of data on one comparatively tiny CD-Rom. Imagine the money and space this could save you. Depending on the size of your company, this can easily translate to thousands of pounds of savings.

Slash administration costs

Studies suggest the average office worker can spend up to three-quarters of an hour looking for lost, misplaced or badly filed documents. Using document scanning and document management software can dramatically reduce this as documents will be accessible at the click of a mouse.

Estimates suggest that a department of 10 members of staff could save around £1,250 per month. It’s easy to see how these savings can really add up and make a persuasive business case.

Manage risk

It is essential for businesses to have continuity plans in place in case anything should go wrong. Potential catastrophes include:
Flood Fire Terrorism Other disasters

Using document scanning and software is the most fail-safe way of backing up documents. They can not be destroyed unlike paper-based files. Some businesses have lost all their paper files as a result of such a disaster and seen their business go under permanently as a result.

Quality control

Choosing a reputable document scanning contractor will mean that you can rest assured that all documents are scanned to the highest quality standards, following the appropriate British Standards such as BS DISC PD0008.

Any good scanning contractor will be able to provide details of their security procedures as well as case studies of other clients they have successfully worked for.

Tailored service

The scanning service can be tailored to fit the needs of your business. Professional staff can collect documents from your business premises and scan them off-site. Alternatively, they can be scanned on-site if you prefer it. After scanning, your documents can be destroyed securely and you’ll be presented with the appropriate certificate.

Staff can also help you stack, sort and pack documents if necessary.