The Merits of Document Scanning
Document scanning involves the conversion of a paper document into an electronic image on a computer. You could have a document management system for the scanning and archiving of your company’s documents, but outsourcing the service to a document scanning bureau has more benefits. These include cost benefits (you do not have to invest in the equipment and supplies needed for scanning and archiving), professionalism, and the fact that your employees get to concentrate on running the business. So, why should you scan your documents?
Reduced Carbon Footprint
You should work towards ‘green’ company operations to play your part in protecting the environment. More and more customers/clients and would-be partners are considering how ‘green’ a company is before dealing with it. Papers are made from trees and you will, therefore, have a reduced carbon footprint with the paperless office. Another way of ensuring that you get the paperless office is using emails instead of traditional typed memos.
Improved Security
One of the greatest problems with paper documents is that they can be easily misplaced, lost, or stolen. Scanning your documents solves this problem. Once documents are scanned, they are stored in servers as images. You will get guaranteed security if you have an EDMS in place. This keeps records of all the documents that have been scanned such as when the scanning was done, who has accessed the documents, when they were accessed, and who edited them.
Simplified Regulatory Compliance
If you are in an industry where there are government regulatory guidelines that require that you archive documents, document scanning is a good idea since regulatory compliance will be simplified. Once you scan and archive your documents, keeping track and retrieval is simplified. This helps you avoid fines and penalties. Note that it is a government requirement that you have scanned documents in some industries.
Easy Backup
Most organizations produce tons of papers each year. Manually keeping track of such documents is very difficult, let along making backups. When you scan documents, you can save the primary images and make backup copies and store them on different systems and networks. Making backups is important in case of such disaster as fire and flooding since you will be able to retrieve important documents.
Cost Savings
Outsourcing scanning service is cheaper than investing in storage space and excess office space, storage boxes, and filing cabinets. You also save money in that you do not have to hire dedicated teams to photocopy and file company documents.
Operational Efficiency
You will get operational efficiency with document scanning because there will be no room for human error or sabotage that leads to the misplacement, destruction, or loss of important documents. The fact that employees get to concentrate on their core mandates means improved productivity. There is a lower risk of duplicate files since the archiving system can detect duplicates and delete them. The fact that all documents will be stored in a central location, the use of search tools, and digital cataloguing means more efficient operations.
