From scanning to archival, these services will give you a head start on digitizing your organization.
To operate a business at the speed of the 21st century, more organizations than ever are working to digitize documents and physical media. Even beyond the obvious environmental benefits of reducing paper use, digitization increases organizational efficiency and reduces operating costs, allowing employees and customers access to important information at a global scale.
Developing and implementing a plan to scan and digitize documents from scratch may not be feasible due to a lack of time or resources. Or the sheer volume of media your organization needs to scan may make it seem difficult to tackle. Luckily, digitization services can help organizations of any size start digitizing the right way. Read on to learn more about how these services can scan, organize, and archive your media.
Read The Complete Guide to Document Digitization discover the benefits of digitization, get process recommendations, and much more.
What are digitization services?
Digitization services are businesses that specialize in converting paper documents, photos, film, and other physical media into digital assets. These services usually have access to specialized equipment that allows them to scan, process, and archive mass quantities of physical media without damaging the integrity of the original copy, though many can also securely destroy the physical originals if desired.
A digitize documents service can also be helpful for small businesses without the equipment to process large volumes of documents or for organizations that need to archive their media on a rapid timetable. Additionally, some document digitization companies also provide data hosting or archiving services for organizations looking for a complete solution for digitizing their workflow.
Did You Know?:The RICOH fi-8950 can hold up to 700 pages in its hopper and scan up to 150 pages per minute, making quick work of any large-scale digitization project.
How can companies that digitize documents benefit my organization?
Siloed data is one of the largest pain points for growing organizations in the 21st century. Paper documentation takes up space and, unless photocopied, only exists in a single location. Plus, physical limitations make paper documents and other media more difficult for employees or customers to access, with difficulties compounding for businesses that operate on a global scale. By digitizing media, organizations can provide important documents on network servers and customer portals, dramatically speeding up access to information and decreasing service times.
When organizations digitize paper documents, they can store the important information they contain on network servers and customer portals as well. This dramatically speeds up access to information and decreases service times.
A document digitization service allows organizations to outsource their digitization processes to an organization that is purpose-built to handle large amounts of media. Here are a few ways these services can benefit organizations of all sizes:
- Ease of use: For less-intensive digitization work, companies that digitize documents may provide a flat rate per document or image at the moment you sign up. Fill out the online form, pay the necessary fee, print out a shipping label, send in your documents, then wait a few weeks to receive your digitized files along with your originals.
- Analysis: Many services will work with larger enterprises to perform an initial survey and provide an optimal plan for digitization and archival. That way, you’ll have a reliable schedule to structure your digitization efforts around while ensuring nothing gets lost during the transition.
- Rapid turnaround: To digitize documents across an entire organization is no small undertaking — it requires developing internal processes and managing teams that will oversee the work on scanning devices a business may not currently have. Document digitization services can quickly handle the bulk of this work for organizations in a time crunch.
- Specialized equipment: Some media, such as books, newspapers, old photographs, or microfilm, require special hardware to scan or are especially delicate and can degrade rapidly with improper handling. Digitization services are equipped to handle these sorts of uncommon or fragile documents and media.
- Indexing and organization: Documents will be organized based on client specifications and provided with standardized file names or optical character recognition for easy retrieval.
- Return delivery, archival, or destruction: Some digitize document services offer off-site archival for storing backups or will shred documents if a physical backup is not required.
3 digitize document services for businesses of all sizes
For photos: ScanDigital
If you’re looking for a simple solution for digitizing old photos or video reels, look no further than ScanDigital. It specializes in digitizing photos, slides, negatives, video cassettes, film reels, and audio tapes, offering flat rates per media scanned. ScanDigital also provides digital download or flash drive formats for returned digitized media.
Once you order a digitization service, ScanDigital provides a secure shipping kit. Pack it with the media you’ve specified, send it back to ScanDigital, and wait a few weeks for processing and return shipping.
For enterprise digitization and storage: Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain is a document digitization company that offers a full-service approach to enterprise digitization. In addition to essential document scanning and digital storage services, Iron Mountain also provides a digital mailroom solution, which scans and indexes incoming mail and uploads it to a secure content service platform. Here, permitted employees can remotely log in, view, and share incoming mail and other scanned documents and files.
Iron Mountain also offers multiple offsite storage solutions for records, tapes, and other media. Strict chain-of-custody procedures govern these facilities to increase security. That way, your organization can use digital files for day-to-day work with physical archives to fall back on when necessary, without needing to store and maintain them on-site.
Did You Know?:PaperStream ClickScan makes it easy to digitize documents fast. Its simple yet efficient scanning interface and versatile capabilities make it a great fit just about anywhere. Click here to learn more.
For medical and legal documents: ARC Document Solutions
Medical and legal documents require extra care to be securely digitized. Medical files, in particular, need to adhere to HIPAA compliance regulations, as failure to do so can lead to steep fines and even jail time. ARC Document Solutions provides scanning and digitization services to meet these vital requirements.
Organizations send their files to a secure HIPAA-compliant center, where inventory is confirmed, prepared, and scanned. Once digitized, documents are available based on the specified file name and folder structuring then delivered through physical media or secure file transfer protocol (SFTP). Documents can then be returned securely to the origin or destroyed at the HIPAA center if they are no longer needed.
Our recommendation: RICOH fi and SP Series scanners
Those in the market for a better way to digitize documents have no shortage of options. We take great pride in having spent the last 50+ years researching, designing, and developing some of the most advanced and powerful electronics in the world, including our professional grade fi and SP Series of scanners.
Built to purpose for the most demanding document handling jobs, fi and SP scanners are capable of processing tens of thousands of pages per day at the highest levels of accuracy. Their intuitive integration capabilities with all existing work suites minimize time-to-value for businesses looking to invest in tools that will pay dividends for years to come.
While document, image, or newspaper digitization services can help do the hard work for you, investing in your internal digitization framework can help you control the process and reduce costs in the long run. The RICOH fi and SP Series scanners offer a wealth of options for digitizing your home office, small to medium business, or the entire enterprise.
Digitize paper documents with the push of a button, capture and organize them with our high-powered PaperStream document imaging software, and access them across your entire network. Click here to learn more or shop the rest of our production scanner line.
