Starting a Document Scanning Project

By engaging Octacom to assist in document scanning, indexing and hosting your paper files, you will see improved search-ability and rapid access. Your team will have more time to focus on important tasks, as opposed to spending hours upon hours looking through paper documents.

Converting your paper records to digital documents requires a lot of time, money and effort. Octacom provides various solutions that can make this process quick, cost-efficient and simple.

However, in order to ensure that your document scanning project is successful, here are a few things to consider before you the start of your project:

1. Determine What You Need From a Document Scanning Project

Is it a One-Time or Ongoing project? Are your digital documents only for archival purposes or will they need to be accessed on a regular basis? What are the various types of documents that are involved in the project (i.e. HR, Finance, Other)

2. Understand Your Workflow Needs

Every company has unique workflow needs, and it’s important to understand yours. What are current and future document retrieval needs? Are you looking to incorporate an automated workflow?

Whether you need to scan an individual backfile project or are looking for a document management solution for all types of files, Octacom can help.

3. Assess Your Paper

Review your paper files.  What is the size of the documents? Chances are that most pages are 8.5 x 11” paper, but there might be some irregularities that could slow down the scanning process. These things include small receipts and oversized documents.

What is the estimated volume of documents? Click here and learn how to calculate how much paper you have.

4. Indexing

Indexing is the process of applying logic to your documents and determines how your documents will be organized and retrieved electronically.

If you work in accounts payable and are sending invoices for scanning and indexing, details such as invoice number, invoice date, PO number and invoice amount may be beneficial such that those criteria can be used to locate a specific document.

Documents can also be named according to index fields if you would like to simply take your images back to store on an internal shared drive, or an alternative document management system.

5. When Scanning Is Complete

When you are done scanning you may want or be legally required to preserve the original paper documents; while it is now rare, some industries do require it. If you plan to keep them in their original state, it is a good idea to determine this ahead of scanning. Document destruction is the more common approach if you want to recover floor space and reduce storage costs.

Whether you decide to keep the original documents or destroy them, it is wise to have a post-scanning solution in place.

Odiss™ Document Management Software:

Using a document management system is the best way to make a post-scanning plan. It makes simple for you and your employees to find and manage important information from any place, anytime.

Odiss™ Document Management Software is Octacom’s cloud-based document archive with workflow capabilities. It provides:

• Secure and compliant cloud archive

• User access permissions

• Full audit trail of users and actions taken

• Direct upload and indexing capabilities

• Robust integration capabilities

• Reporting and analytics by document type, volume or data

Odiss™ eliminates manual processes and makes your company more efficient, saving money and time.

Octacom is a SOC 2, Type II Audited enterprise software and services company focused on document and data automation solutions, including automated data capture. Founded in 1976, Octacom specializes in accounts payable automation and automated invoice processing, among other digital / automated business process outsourcing services. 

If your organization is looking to learn more about our solutions and services, please contact us and we would be glad to help.