Document Management: Why Outsource Back File Scanning Services
The integration of electronic document management systems and other document capture and processing services for back file conversion are complex
. Aside from the equipment and staff requirements, the process for back file scanning is significantly different than day-forward scanning. Inexperienced management and operators using fast robust equipment with improperly designed process engineering for a specific scanning project only increases the problem.
The mistakes often made in the planning of conversion services are in the estimation of the length of time required to complete the job. In-house scanning always encounters problems resulting from a serious miscalculation in the effort required. Often times the majority of the time spent in a scanning project is image QA, validation and correction. The process, document management team and experience required to create a QA system that finds scanning problems is an issue in itself. THE LATER IN THE PROCESS A MISTAKE IS FOUND THE GREATER THE EFFORT TO CORRECT.
Inexperienced document management teams and operators will probably find problems much later in the process, multiplying the effort to correct. Using a robust system only adds to this problem. While some agencies successfully complete scanning services, most encounter problems which are usually the result of the large number of intangibles and unexpected issues that pop-up during such services.
A document management service provider's expertise incorporates these issues into the development of each detailed project plan. With this inaccurate information in hand, it's easy to see how in-house scanning can be a difficult and costly non-core business process. Productivity and competitive advantages gained from outsourcing document management conversion services are multiple.
Additionally, training allowances are usually ignored in the estimate of the amount of time required to learn how to efficiently use the equipment. Since most documents are not in perfect condition, it's unlikely that 100% acceptable images will be captured, or the operators will know how to acquire the necessary quality until several thousand images have been converted.
Once you have become an expert in all aspects of the document management and scanning process: hardware/ software, document preparation, scanning, indexing, quality assurance, and document tracking methodologies, how useful will this information be once the back file conversion has been completed? In most cases it's useless because it is a one-time event. Listed below are a few reasons to outsource your back file scanning requirements to a document management service provider.
Eliminate risks
There are tremendous risks associated with investing in a new back file scanning operation. Markets, competition, government regulations, financial conditions, and technologies frequently change - and an agency's investment in a one-time project over a one-time period can have multiple possibilities of failure. Keeping up with changes, especially where each next generation requires a significant investment of resources and dollars is very difficult.
Outsourcing document management is a vehicle for eliminating these risks. Outsourcing providers make investments not on behalf of just one company, but on behalf of their many clients. By sharing these investments, the risks acquired by any single company are significantly reduced. The result is that when agencies outsource to a document management company they become more flexible, more dynamic, and better able to change themselves to meet changing opportunities.
Technology timetable
"1/2 paper content plus 1/2 digital content = 0 solution"
Using a file retrieval system that is partially digital and partially paper is inconvenient and may lead to incorrect record retrieval. The commitment to a software/hardware system and the imaging solution to fit this software is at risk the longer a scanning project takes to complete.
Outsourcing scanning to a document management company with a history of fast high-volume turnaround reduces this risk and enables the day-forward scanning to begin earlier.
by: Ron Thompson, Jr.
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