February 28th 
Comments When hiring an outsourced document scanning service like microMEDIA, it helps to have a good understanding of the typical roles and responsibilities. There are certain tasks that the scanning service provides, but the client ultimately has to be actively involved in the scanning process and responsible for oversight of the final result. With clear communication and open collaboration along the way, we can make your document conversion project a success.
Questions to ask before starting a document conversion project
Every document conversion project is its own unique creation. There are so many variables that go into determining the right approach and process.
Before hiring a document scanning service, clients need to consider the following questions:
- Where will the scanning be done – on location or off-site? Depending on the volume of work and the particular details of your project, it might be more cost-effective and efficient to do the scanning on-site at your own location.
- Are the images in color or black & white? Color scanning adds complexity and cost – how important is it that the documents be scanned in color? And if they must be scanned in color, what level of fidelity do the colors need to have – do the scanned images need to match the original colors, or is it acceptable for the colors not to perfectly match?
- Do the back sides of any documents need to be scanned, or will we be scanning one-sided documents only? One-sided scanning is faster and cheaper – but if the information on the back sides of the original documents is critical and needs to be saved, then it needs to be included as part of the document conversion project.
- Do you want Optical Character Recognition (OCR) included to provide for easier searching of the scanned data? Not every scanning project includes OCR – this is an added level of complexity and cost. It can be done, but you need to decide how important OCR is, and how much you’re willing to pay to get it.
- What condition are the documents in? Are they fragile or damaged in any way? Do the documents need to have staples removed? The more fragile or complex the condition of the documents, the more complex and costly the document conversion project can be.
All of these variables can contribute to making a document conversion project lengthier or more complex and costly. There is no single “right way” to do one of these projects. Every company has unique needs and their documents might be arranged in a multitude of ways, requiring special handling and attention to detail. This means that every document conversion project has to be customized.
At microMEDIA, we certainly don’t expect our clients to be experts in all the details of document conversion projects – that’s our job, and we’re happy to help people learn the ins-and-outs of scanning their documents and converting them to digital format.
But before your organization gets started on hiring a scanning service for a document conversion project, give some thought to the questions on this list. The more you know prior to starting a document conversion project, the more you’ll be able to stay actively involved with the process and help ensure the project’s success.
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Learn more about how microMEDIA can fulfill your imaging services needs.