If you are a company that is looking to outsource digital conversion to a document scanning company, then you have a lot more important decisions to make.  Unfortunately, it is more than just a plain old Google search.

First, you should think about what kind of records you’re going to be scanning.  What IS your business?  Are you an insurance company, a medical practice, a hospital, a veterinarian office, a law firm, accounting firm, etc?  Any reputable company should be able to professionally scan any type of paper documents IF they have state-of-the-art equipment and software, and most importantly expertise and experience.

With that being said, when picking a scanning company, if you have too many options, it may be overwhelming.  Find a company that you can trust.  If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.  A company should be able to examine your documents, provide you with a quote, and explain everything about what their plan is for converting your documents.  If there are any “let me find out” answers to your questions, you’re not talking to the right company.

How secure a company keeps your documents should be discussed in the first meeting.  If you’re handing over your office’s medical records, then you’re going to want to ensure that they’re as secure as they can be, e.g. are they familiar with PHI and HIPAA terminology and safeguards, do they lock down the Internet in production areas, etc.  Ask questions, see examples, and ask for a tour, does the company have reference letters they are willing to provide?

A clear sign of the right company is a company that takes the stress out of the process for you.  All you should ever have to do is sign on the dotted line, and pay.  The company you choose to scan your images should arrange a pickup, boxing services (if necessary), job configurations, deadline adherence and of course the scanning, indexing and reassembly (again, if necessary).  You should be able to request to be kept as up to date as possible during the scanning process without an eye-roll or hesitation from the company.  Another good feature to ask about in scan-on-demand.  Does the company you’re looking at offer a service for scanning records you need access to while they have them?  Are they going to charge you for it, essentially meaning you’ll pay twice for those records?  Be sure to read the fine print!

As much as this process should be about business, it should also be about trust.  You can choose the company with the lowest prices, but can you trust that they’re going to do a good job?  Can you trust that you’ll get your documents in the turnaround time they promised?  Does the company want your business, or do they want your money?  Silly question, yes, but think about it – have you ever made a financial decision out of pressure?  Who benefited from that?  You’ll know the right fit when you find a company that can put you at ease, don’t settle on the first one, and don’t be afraid to say no!

If I can offer one last piece of advice, it is this: remember that you get what you pay for.

Let me know what your experiences have been with scanning companies.  Have you ever felt taken advantage of?  Have you had a bad experience?  Or, have you had a great experience, only to make you wonder why you didn’t go digital sooner?  I’d love to hear from you!

The post Document Scanning – Tips For Finding Company You Can Trust! appeared first on Brown & Meyers, Inc..

We do have clients that say no to our proposals, and when I ask them what their plan is, they often say they’re going to do production “in-house”.  We strongly advise against this.  In fact, I would rather you choose a different company over ours to save yourself that frustration. You will not save any money, and you might even spend more.

As I stated above, document imaging is more than running paper through a scanner.  You need to be organized and methodical when it comes to how you’re going to start the project.  What are you scanning?  Medical records?  Legal Documents?  General office records?  They all need to at some point be indexed so you can easily find them.  You’ll need to assess how you are going to want to search for these records in the future.  Is “Tax 2009” going to be specific enough, or do you need them broken down further into “write-offs”, “income”, etc – we would call this bookmarking.  What are you going to save your documents as?  PDF’s?  Do you want them OCR’d?  Lots of decisions.  And the information needed to make your project the most optimal, efficient and cost-effective will come from a professional company that knows what they are doing.

The next step is buying the scanners, or maybe even renting them.  However, as you know, renting them means paying a lot of money, only to return them!  What is the tech support that comes with the scanner?  Can someone set them up for you?  Do you have the space for the scanners?  Are you going to hire a temp to run them, or have an employee do it?  Either way, there is going to be a learning curve, as there is with any new process, and you’re going to have to train them.

You will have to prep these documents to go through the scanner.  This is the most important part as junk in means junk out.  You’re going to need someone, a temp or a regular FTE, to sit there and remove all staples, paperclips and rubber bands, fix dog ears, etc.  All post-its need to be removed and taped to the back of the document it was stuck to.  Are you planning on using the bookmarks I mentioned earlier?  If so, your bookmark barcode separator sheets are going to have to be made and inserted somewhere along the way so the scanner knows how to batch your images.

Hopefully, your documents are ready to be scanned in the timeframe you need them scanned in!  Are your employees trained to scan them?  Do they know what to do if there is a jam?  Do they know what to do after the batch is done scanning?  Is there a quality control process?  Are you sending them through an OCR software?  Do you know what format the images will be saved in?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed and frustrated reading this, think of how you’ll feel when you’re actually doing this project in-house.  It is a fact that companies who choose to do their work internally look for the lower end software and scanners, which means limited to NO tech support without additional payments.  Trust me, you will hit speed bumps.

Companies that outsource their work to us, or any other scanning company, will say that it is absolutely worth the money.  The turnaround times are met without any stress on their end.  We also offer scan-on-demand, so you’re never really without your records.  Good scanning companies keep their technology up to date and are protected behind the strongest firewalls and virus protection available.

My writing this is not mean to discourage you out of going digital – but to inform you of the risks of doing it yourself!   The greatest error in scanning is human error – leave your sensitive information conversion to the professionals.

The post Document Scanning – Don’t Pull Your Hair Out!! appeared first on Brown & Meyers, Inc..