Document Capture may appear to be a simple process. Many who embark on the task are unfortunately frustrated. Like so many undertakings, it sounds simpler than it is. Here are a few elements to consider:
How will the documents be retrieved? Will the current manual filing system be replicated? Do you plan to access the files in a more discrete manner? More to the point, what is a file? Is it an accordian folder with multiple manila file folders? An individual manila folder...a multipage document...each individual page?
What are the indexing criteria? Will searches be done by Date, Account or Project Number, Name, Originator, Recipients, Document Type, Revision, Multiple Criteria? The more index values, the easier to locate a specific document, but also the more expensive to capture.
Who will do the work? Is knowledge of the files necessary? Are experienced employees comfortable with removing staples, scanning, etc.? How much management time will be needed to assure that quality is acceptable?
Have resources been projected accurately? The calculators on our website may be useful to size the job. Has a sample test of preparation and scanning time been done to project manhours?
Is there a Control and Tracking procedure? How will the documents be transferred for processing? Will there be batch controls? Who will respond to exceptions?
What is the Quality Control plan? Are physical pages counted and reconciled to the number of images scanned? Will images be inspected after scanning? Should inspection include physical pages compared to electronic images? Will manual data capture via key entry be verified visually or by using double-key verification?
Are there performance standards? How many pages per day should be prepared, scanned and quality reviewed? How will quality performance be tracked? If regular staff does the data capture, what will be done if their performance falls short?
Anything else to consider? Of course...there's lot's more, but that's why we're in business; to provide expertise and efficiently convert documents at your site or ours.