Are You Committing these 5 Document Scanning Mistakes? Back

As a specialist document scanning company we commonly see a number of document scanning crimes being committed around our customers’ offices. To prevent these crimes against humanity we’ve outlined the top 7 document scanning mistakes we commonly witness. We also outline steps you can take to avoid these mistakes in future.

Mistake #1. Highlighting important information on documents you intend to scan

Highlighting key information on documents is a clever way to keep track of important details. However, this reasoning does not translate well to the document scanning process. This is because the information that you highlight will become completely illegible once it is digitalised. This is particularly the case when you use black and white scanning. The coloured highlighting will be converted into a big and bold patch akin to an oil spill.

This mistake is illustrated in the image below:

Mistake #2. Do not staple together items intended for scanning

If you staple documents together then you risk damaging your scanning equipment. This mistake is more than likely an accident on your own part, and accidents do happen. But be on the lookout for documents stapled together, because this mistake could cost your several hundred pounds if you damage your expensive scanning equipment.

Mistake #3. You do not invest in adequate scanning equipment

It is essential for your scanning equipment to suit the level of its intended usage. If you are a mid-to-large sized organisation, then you will probably require a commercially graded scanner. These scanners are capable of scanning many thousands of documents per hour. A commercial scanner is capable of scanning the same amount of documents per hour as hundreds of cheaper models intended for personal use. So save your own and your staff’s sanity by investing in scanning equipment with maximum capacity. Work out your average daily scanning volume and then match that volume to the scanner you purchase.

Or why not consider our professional scanning service?

Mistake #4. You do not invest in an Automatic Document Feeder

We also recommend you purchase an 'Automatic Document Feeder' (ADF). This handy piece of equipment will feed documents into a scanner so you or your staff do not have to. This alone will save you many hundreds of working hours over a year or two.

Mistake #5. Not providing adequate file archiving

Many scanned documents end up in a disorganised mess on your hard drive or network. Over time, this mess will become so unmanageable that you will simply procrastinate on the issue. You may pray those digitalised documents will just ‘sort themselves out’. Other people may over rely on optical character recognition (OCR) technology in an attempt to ‘automate’ the document indexing process, despite the inherent inaccuracy of this technology.

Instead, devise a suitable file archiving system where your documents can permanently reside. This aids the document retrieval process.