8 Advantages to Document Scanning
Regular scanning of company documents offers companies, charities, and public sector organisations eight significant benefits.
Searchability
Electronic documents can be indexed and searched, making it easy to find specific information.
If you wish, each document we digitise on your behalf will undergo the process of Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
OCR reads the contents of any document we scan for you and it embeds those contents in the PDF. You and your colleagues are then able to search through the text of all of the documents we’ve digitised on your behalf so you can find the information you need quickly. You can also extract that text to create a separate Word or Excel file, if you wish.
Space savings
Scanning documents eliminates the need for physical storage space, freeing up valuable office space. More space gives you the opportunity to employ extra staff to either increase revenue or to look after your customers better.
Accessibility
Scanned documents can be easily accessed and shared electronically, making it easier for multiple people to access the same information. You and your staff can search for and retrieve company documentation online at any time via our cloud storage platform. You can access the information you need at any time on any device as long as there is a Wi-Fi or mobile phone connection available.
You may also download your digitised files via Secure download link. In addition, we’re also able to supply document images on CD, DVD, or USB/memory stick.
Security
Electronic documents can be password-protected and encrypted, providing an extra level of security for sensitive information. You can control which members of staff have access to which documents by password protecting downloaded individual file and file batches and for cloud users, restricting which information is available online to which colleague
Compliance
Scanned documents can be easily stored and retrieved to meet regulatory compliance requirements. With every company and customer document available for immediate retrieval and viewing, you can react quicker to external/internal audit requests and to subject access requests made under GDPR.
Backup
Scanning documents helps with backups by creating digital copies of physical documents. These digital copies can be stored on a computer, server, or cloud storage service, providing an additional layer of protection against loss or damage of the original physical documents. This can be especially useful in case of natural disaster or other emergency situations where the physical documents may be destroyed.
Cost-effectiveness
In general, the cost of scanning can be offset by the benefits of having digital copies of documents, such as improved organisation and accessibility, reduced storage costs, and improved disaster recovery capabilities. It can also save time and money in the long run by reducing the need to manually file, search and reproduce physical documents.
Environmental credentials
In recent years, awareness of the impact that businesses have on the environment has risen among members of the public and business decision makers. Now, many millennials (including those with corporate purchasing responsibility) choose potential suppliers partly based on their ethical policies.
A policy of ongoing document scanning and subsequent responsible disposal of the original paper documents (if you request this) will demonstrate your organisation’s commitment to responsible corporate citizenship.