Making the most of document scanning

Our advice on how to maximise the benefits of document scanning

Following on from our recent blog post on the benefits document scanning could offer your business, we thought we’d offer advice on how to make the most of this valuable document management tool.

Planning for scanning

As with many things, when it comes to document scanning, planning ahead can help you save time and money. With this in mind, identifying and prioritising in advance which documents are to be scanned is probably the single most important step in the scanning process. Whilst it might sound obvious, many of our clients underestimate the length of time that this stage can take. The identification process should comprise of two different stages: finding the documents you need to scan and making sure they have been indexed appropriately.

The first thing to remember is that it is important to identify documents which will offer the most benefits to efficiency once they have been scanned. Over time you are likely to find that some documents are accessed less frequently which means that there might not be any benefit to having them digitized. Remember that you can always have additional documents scanned at a later date. However, by ensuring your most used documents are scanned immediately is a good way to help keep costs to a minimum.

Duplicate documents should be removed and although it does take time to sort through files, it is definitely worth it in the long run in terms of time and expense.

To ensure your business enjoys maximum benefit from scanning, it is vital that you identify which document management system you are going to use before the project begins. This is the best way to ensure that the process is configured according to your requirements and that the scanning process is as logical and streamlined as possible. Our team are happy to provide further advice and guidance on this if required.

Last and by no means least, you will need to spend time considering how and where you will store paperwork once it it has been digitised. A range of options are available, from off-site document storage, through to secure shredding and disposal. Whichever option you choose, don’t forget to make sure that you aren’t in breach of data protection rules.

Contact PDM to find out more

As document management specialists, here at PDM we work with businesses and organisation of all shapes and sizes. If you would like to find out more about the benefits document scanning could offer your business, or to talk through solutions designed to meet your individual requirements, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.