Forum Moderators: phranque
This company is making a move and plans to go paperless (Yeah, right:)) before the move (December). As part of that effort they are currently planning to hire a temp for an estimated six weeks of full time scanning. That person will use one of the company's copiers or they will rent a copier specifically for the job. There are approximately 600 file cabinets of mission critical documents that will have to be scanned.
They have their own IT staff and they do not seem concerned about average file size that this scanning will create, network space for the new data, or effect of backup time/resources. This department is one of many that has taken heavy personnel cuts, so they may not have time to think about this issue - and in fact may not even be in the loop on the specific plans and to what degree it may effect them once the decision is made and too late to make the most efficient choices.
It has been my experience that the device/software used to scan documents can make a monumental difference in the file size of the digitized files and and the time involved in creating the files.
My experience is limited to very minor amounts of scanning, but have done so on a wide variety of machines; a document scanned on one printer may generate a PDF of 100kb, while another printer may generate a file of 400kb for the same document. Have noted big differences in file size and scan time.
In a consultation, what would be 'best practice' recommendations be for a project of this scope with regard to the equipment used? Scanning settings?
They are planning to just hire somebody, give them a printer and have them scan away. I'm concerned that this has not been thought through in terms of equipment, preparation, and procedure regarding the file sizes created - but need more ammunition (actual professional experienced opinion) before it would be appropriate to intercede.
Most likely, the temp will have to spend quite a bit of work taking out staples, paper clips, and taped pages, as well as making sure sticky notes aren't covering up any information. Not to mention fixing paper jams caused by pages that still stick together after the staples have been removed.
I'd never considered that HW could make a difference, but I guess it could (although more likely as a result of the underlying software/drivers it uses).
We had a system specifically designed for scanning/storing/retrieving electronic documents. The scanner was a 2-sided scanner and could detect if there was actually anything to scan on the second page. The software let you adjust the tolerance so you could skip the pages that only had "this page intentionally left blank" messages printed on them. I don't think I would rely on a multifunction printer for this level of scanning. But I guess it really depends on the hardware.
It sounds now like maybe a good number less total cabinets than I thought, but still a large number and that the time 'estimate' is going to be way, way off.
Most likely, the temp will have to spend quite a bit of work taking out staples, paper clips, and taped pages, as well as making sure sticky notes aren't covering up any information. Not to mention fixing paper jams caused by pages that still stick together after the staples have been removed.
Definitely. Most of the pages are two-hole punched at the top and in the multi-tab red-file folders, ..... They have staples, paper clips, bulldog clips, stickies, and are highlited, which means black and white scans might not be effective. Excel files are done in color – same problem. If you work from scanned files, how does one high-lite, post-it, paper clip, and otherwise isolate/identify pertinent items/issues.
They really have two issues to work out here. Priority One is the best way to scan thousands of pages becuase this is a 'done deal'. Their IT department has a lot of resources, but I am still concerned about how much data will be generated if they are not using efficient hardware/software? I can bring some of these people/departments together and maybe save a lot of grief, time, and money - but am loathe to get involved without knowing more of the answers before the questions are asked. They already have uninformed, inexperienced people (for this issue) in key slots calling the shots on this.
Priority Two is the whole paperless scheme. They have tried to go down this road before and the result has been dismal failure. Idea is floated, approved, required - and then crashes and burns for a variety of reasons; poor planning for one, the need for actual hard copies in many situations for another.
