Using document scanning services can have several advantages and benefits. Whether you use one or not really depends on each individual business. For some businesses, it may not be worth it while for many others, outsourcing this task is the only way to go.
In fact, some businesses may even question whether it is prudent to outsource such a task. After all, the business may have the capability to do it in-house, so it is understandable to question it. As mentioned earlier, it may not be necessary for some businesses, however, let’s take a look at why businesses should outsource document scanning.
1. Labour-Intensive
When you want to do this in-house, just remember that this is going to be a monotonous, labour-intensive undertaking. It requires experience and good organization in order to be free from errors and omissions. All the files need to be prepared and it may need to be converted into a specific electronic format. Your business may not have these capabilities and even if it did, it can be time-consuming. Can your business handle any type or size of document, some of which may be really large? Think about all angles and then you can decide if outsourcing or in-house is the way for you to go.
2. Logged & Barcoded
When you send off your boxes full of documents to be scanned, it will be professionally organized, logged as well as barcoded. This allows for complete tracking of a project all the way. During this process, you also need not worry about having access to these documents when needed. The documents can be delivered electronically to you, so if you ever needed something quickly, you will always have it.
3. Sorting & Organizing
When you drop off your documents, the first thing that is done is to prepare for the scanning. There will be documents that will be stapled together and some of them may also have dog ears and paper clips. All of this will be taken care of with great care. Once the barcodes are inserted, it automatically creates breaks in the document during the scanning process.
4. Outsource & Keep Your Staff Productive
If you have a lot of documents and you did this on a fairly regular basis, by outsourcing, your staff can remain productive and keep doing what they do best. Otherwise, you may need the help of a consultant to organize everything into a comprehensive plan. Then, your staff have to be trained and dedicated to such a time-consuming endeavour. Your staff will be wasting time on doing this and possibly making errors that may not be caught. Outsourcing solves this.
5. Save Capital
To do this, you will need to invest in hardware and software which can get pretty expensive. Then there’s the question of maintaining and updating it. Let’s face it, this would not be your core business, so there seems little point in going through setting up an IT infrastructure and managing it.
6. Quality Control
When outsourced, once the documents are scanned, it will undergo a quality control review. Everything is painstakingly checked and images are scrutinized. If there is doubt, it will be flagged for further review and possibly a re-scan. These places are very professional and thorough, so you can expect the best results only.
The outsourcing company will export documents according to your preferred format in order to integrate it with your system. Your office may not have a dedicated space to do this work. For efficiency and professionalism, the best thing to do would be to outsource document scanning so you can devote more time to your business.
