Why you need a document scanning and imaging system with advanced capabilities

Why You Need a Document Scanning and Imaging System with Advanced Capabilities A document imaging and storage system needs certain capabilities to ensure efficiency, and some of these are discussed here.

2016

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Any organization that requires digitizing, processing and storing paper documents need strong and reliable document imaging capabilities such as those ensured by experienced document scanning and imaging services. Digital imaging systems enable you to quickly locate the information that is crucial when making important business decisions.

When planning to install a document imaging and storage system, an organization needs to first evaluate where they have the maximum paper documents that is slowing down their business. It may be in human resources, accounts payable, medical records, order forms, and so on. It is on the basis of this that they can decide what type of imaging system is most appropriate for their particular use. Let us consider the capabilities an ideal document capturing system should have. 

High volume capture: This is a very important feature and you should be able to store large volume documents safely. It should be easy to access the documents whenever needed. You should be able to import documents in many ways – from scanning single sheets of a document to batches of documents. Moreover, in this “mobile” age, it should be possible to import photos taken with tablets and smartphones directly into the database.

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Smooth and efficient workflow: It should be possible to route documents to all parts of the organization. Reliable electronic workflows are highly effective in distributed environments where paper-based workflow can be expensive and time-consuming. Ideally, the system should have a built-in master index of searchable text that is usually created using OCR or optical character recognition.

It should also be possible to search for information by document name, related metadata, path/creator and so on.

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Collaboration:

This

is

important

for

sharing

documents

among

different

departments in the organization. Compared to sharing paper documents, this is a more cost–effective, secure and convenient method. At its most basic, scan to email applications are an example of this capability. Other examples include imaging applications that provide direct connections to popular EFSS (enterprise file sync-and-share) platforms such as Google drive, SharePoint and Dropbox. 

Records management: Records management feature enables controlled access to the scanned documents and also monitor who is viewing the document and when.

This is very significant in healthcare settings and other such

regulated

environments. This capability also ensures that documents are destroyed after their lifecycle, which minimizes the risk and cost of discovery in prospective litigation matters.

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

Annotation capability: This is a desirable and useful feature that allows users to collaborate on the creation and modification of documents that are stored in different departments of the organization. Annotation methods include photos or images, sticky notes, text boxes, stamps and black and white-out redactions.

Importantly, annotations can be used as bookmarks and make it easy for users to locate a desired section in a long document.



Security: Some document imaging systems have advanced security options to protect information. With these capabilities, only authorized users can view particular content or perform certain functions such as deleting a document within the system; other systems allow users to track the person who made changes to the documents and when those changes were made.

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Document linking: If the required information is to be found in a timely manner, document imaging systems should be able to link related documents together.

Take the case of an invoice that will have a purchase order and payment proof associated with it. A good document imaging system will allow users to refer to linked documents even when they are stored in different locations.

Outsourcing Document Imaging – a Practical Alternative Document imaging brings major advantages such as easy sharing, quick document search and retrieval and also helps organizations to stay compliant with applicable regulations. If you do not want to invest in an expensive document imaging and storage system, you can always choose to utilize a document scanning and imaging service. This is a more affordable and efficient alternative for small and mid-sized businesses.

www.managedoutsource.com

(800) 670 2809