Archive Scanning To Memory Stick Or Disc.

So you're out on a client visit and they ask for information you dont have with you

. Or you want to refer to a technical document but thats back at the office. Now imagine one, yes one 8 meg memory stick containing the contents of 12x 4 drawer filing cabinets! The entire contents of a medium sized businesses filing on your laptop and viewable in seconds. Not science fiction but today's reality.

Have you considered outsourcing your document archive problems? Not to physically store but to electronically store within your server. Every UK business uses paper to a lesser or greater degree. This can be a few boxes of files or a veritable paper mountain of filing cabinets. Accessing filing cabinets for important information that may have been misfiled or misplaced or just plain missing being one of them. There are literally millions of filing cabinets in the UK, most containing vital information that needs to be saved but is seldom referenced! Here is the alternative.

What a waste of space and money this can be. Not to mention unsightly and poor use of valuable square footage i.e. revenue producing staff.

The best and by far, most efficient way to store documents is NOT in a filing cabinet but to digitally store it directly to your computer or server. This is where documents are scanned to disc or server giving instant access with no danger of misfiling. The subject of document scanning is totally different however. Some businesses we talk to will have hundreds of filing cabinets or archive boxes containing historical files going back many years in certain cases. Taking the time to unpack all of these files and scan is a daunting task, taking up valuable labour resource and taking serious chunks of time to get right.

Imagine how much simpler this could all be if you could outsource this. Digital document scanning is nothing more than a replication of your physical filing system. Its not reinventing the wheel, just allowing you to reference and search documents in a faster and more efficient way. e.g. A customer file when physically accessed requires the person viewing to find the relevant delivery note, invoice, letter, note or dispatch advice. By indexing these sections electronically when they are scanned, you can pull up many different reference points at the click of a mouse. For example, you may want to see all handwritten notes by a certain manager or author, all relevant technical drawings for a specific building or project. Indexing various search fields by document management software will facilitate this.

Of secondary but equally important consideration is security. With physical storage you have no protection against unwanted eyes. Perhaps competition or a disgruntled employee. Ensuring security levels are maintained is a breeze with document scanning and management. Simply issue "need to know basis" passwords to staff, affiliates or partners. Job done!

Finally, at the end of the outsourced scanning project you decide whether you want the originals back or, as in most cases, simply destroyed freeing up all of that valuable space that was taken by the ubiquitous filing cabinet(s) A certificate of destruction will be provided to show the audit trail and HMRC no longer require originals but are happy to see scanned copies so in very few cases do you actually need to keep the originals. Legally you can never shred or destroy a legal document such as a will or epa (enduring power of attorney). They must be kept for a minimum of the lifetime of the originator.

If you are keen to move into the paperless world then outsourced scanning is a good start and highly recommended as a massive improvement over conventional filing methods.

by: Geoff Shilton

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