Converting documents, sourcing large format scanning services, converting microfiche, and many other file and scanning services are crucial to the operation of the modern business. Professionals in IT in a global survey recently estimated that document challenges are accounting for more than 21% of all productivity loss. One of the best ways to minimize this loss is to call for large format scanning services who can do scanning on-site to make sure that all of your documents are easily accessible and searchable. As you go looking for document imaging companies to outsource your scanning, what should you look for?

Specialized Expertise

The first thing you should be looking for is a document scanning service that can handle the type of documents you have and the type of end product you want. Some scanning services will be able to do historical documents that are fragile and need special care. Others will specialize in scanning bound books. You may also find scanning companies that specialize in large format scanning services or in how to convert microfiche. Think about what specialization would be most beneficial to your company and its needs.

Integrity and Honesty

Anytime you call a third party in and give them access to your documents, you have to be completely certain that your documents and your business are safe. Never use a document scanning service unless they have a good reputation and can provide references that you are able to check. When you’re checking out the references, make sure there were no issues with compliance and that it was easy to work with the company. This is also a good time to ask whether the images they produced were easy to search and clearly legible..

Quality Scans

The whole purpose of calling in large format scanning services is to make sure you can use the documents. It is crucial that the quality of every scanned item be as high as possible. Every page needs to be readable. Every page needs to be printable. What kind of scanning technology does the company utilize? Will they be able to scan to microfiche? Will they be able to scan to whatever file type you prefer, from PDF to JPEG? Is their optical character recognition software any good? This is also the time to ask whether there will be an individual operator who will take a look at every single page to verify the quality of the scans, or whether they’re just loading the scanner up and leaving it to do its job unsupervised.

Extra Services

A quality scanning company should be ready to offer you several services in addition to the scanning itself. These should include an initial consultation where you can plan out how to name each file and structure the scans in a way that will make sense to you and your personnel. After that, look for scanning companies that will also offer document preparation for you so that your employees are not throwing away valuable time removing staples.

What about scanning services in particular? Can they offer black-and-white scanning, grayscale, high-resolution, ledger scanning, or large format scanning services? Do they offer tracking for your important documents so that you know where those documents are at every moment? Finally, ask about what happens when they’re finished. Will the documents be destroyed or returned? If they are destroyed, what’s the process for doing that and are they open to different arrangements that might be better for you?

Office professionals, on average, take 18 minutes to locate a document and spend half of their time searching for information. Filing a document costs any company an average of $20. When a document is misfiled, it costs $120 in labor to find it. When a document is completely lost, an average of $220 worth of labor is needed to reproduce it. One of the best ways to protect your files, and your finances, is with onsite document scanning that will put all of your information at your fingertips and guarantee that you never lose a file again. As you look for large format scanning services, look for companies of integrity, with a good reputation, and that can provide the specialized services you need.