Managing and handling paper documents is expensive and inefficient. Paper files are vulnerable to theft, being destroyed by fire or flood, and loss due to human error of misfiling paper. Now is the time for your office to convert from paper to digital. It will not be difficult to find a document scanning service to accomplish this task for you.
This is not as overwhelming as it may sound, as it is done one box at a time. Your employees place the paper documents in file folders and name the folder appropriately. The folders are placed in boxes and picked up by the scanning service. They prepare the files for scanning by organizing and removing paper clips and staples. Then the paper is scanned and the digital files are created in a PDF or TIFF format. Ask that optical character recognition, OCR, be included in the process to enable searches with key words.
After the files are scanned, your business can either have them returned, or better have the service securely shred the paper. People are frequently reluctant to let go of their paper, but saving the paper after scanning sort of negates the whole purpose of scanning. Try to overcome the resistance to shred. It will better and cheaper for your business.
You can receive your digital files on a disc or access them securely online. Of course there is maintenance, and your business and the scanning service will repeat the process as necessary. If you need assistance with strategy, a representative of the scanning company will be there to help.
Most companies will offer to manage the digital files. Your staff will still be able to access records as needed, but they will never have to deal with managing the file system. The records can be backed up on the cloud, at your place of business or to a remote location, or all three options. Redundancy in backing up is a good thing.
For medical records and credit card information, it is necessary to follow government regulations to be in compliance with HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and PCI, Payment Card Industry, standards when storing, saving or retrieving private information. The scanning service should be aware of these regulations, but do not be afraid to verify their certification in these two areas.
Ready or not, here it comes. Digital is the way of now and the future. Your business would be smart to accept this fact and get on with the conversion from paper to digital. Eventually the goal is one hundred percent digital. That may never happen fully, but then again it probably will. Technology is sure to meet this challenge, so do not waste any more time. Just get on the digital track.
This is not as overwhelming as it may sound, as it is done one box at a time. Your employees place the paper documents in file folders and name the folder appropriately. The folders are placed in boxes and picked up by the scanning service. They prepare the files for scanning by organizing and removing paper clips and staples. Then the paper is scanned and the digital files are created in a PDF or TIFF format. Ask that optical character recognition, OCR, be included in the process to enable searches with key words.
After the files are scanned, your business can either have them returned, or better have the service securely shred the paper. People are frequently reluctant to let go of their paper, but saving the paper after scanning sort of negates the whole purpose of scanning. Try to overcome the resistance to shred. It will better and cheaper for your business.
You can receive your digital files on a disc or access them securely online. Of course there is maintenance, and your business and the scanning service will repeat the process as necessary. If you need assistance with strategy, a representative of the scanning company will be there to help.
Most companies will offer to manage the digital files. Your staff will still be able to access records as needed, but they will never have to deal with managing the file system. The records can be backed up on the cloud, at your place of business or to a remote location, or all three options. Redundancy in backing up is a good thing.
For medical records and credit card information, it is necessary to follow government regulations to be in compliance with HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and PCI, Payment Card Industry, standards when storing, saving or retrieving private information. The scanning service should be aware of these regulations, but do not be afraid to verify their certification in these two areas.
Ready or not, here it comes. Digital is the way of now and the future. Your business would be smart to accept this fact and get on with the conversion from paper to digital. Eventually the goal is one hundred percent digital. That may never happen fully, but then again it probably will. Technology is sure to meet this challenge, so do not waste any more time. Just get on the digital track.
About the Author:
Loris F. Anders is an office management specialist focused on optimizing workflow processes in document management. If you would like to learn more about Instant SAAS document scanning vendor he recommends you check out www.docufree.com.
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