Document Conversion Facility Tour

At SoftFile, we can not advocate enough that the document conversion customer should first tour the potential vendor's facility long before the contract is awarded. Let us delve into the various reasons why this is so.

First, there are essentially two types of document conversion service providers out there and they are in separate leagues. The problem is, the customer often does not know which they are talking to. The leagues are;

• Legal copy services
  
• Professional document conversion service bureau
  

Both websites from the various companies may lead the customer to believe they are dealing with a large and reputable organization. Which unfortunately, is not always so.

Legal copy service providers are often small companies that provide attorney-type services. For example, when two parties are in a lawsuit, they will call a legal copy service to go in and scan each others records. This is sometimes referred to as 'document discover,' or the like. Typically, the service is provided for on-site and is of a very small volume (e.g. the scanning of a medical record).

Often times, this legal copy service provider (which very often consists of one employee) will respond to a large volume document conversion bid which has been posted online. The problem with this scenario is that the legal copy service provider typically does not have the resources (e.g. manpower) required to fulfill the contract requirements. This problem is not typically discovered until after the award has been issued and the workflow begins to slow. Even if the contract is subsequently canceled, they typically don't care because at least they have generated some revenue that they otherwise would not have.

For your large volume paper to electronic document conversion project, you want to utilize what the document management industry refers to as, a document conversion service bureau.

Often times, the only way for the customer to know which of the two they are dealing with is through a facility tour. The following is what you want to look for at a facility tour;

• First, did the vendor ask you to sign a non-disclosure agreement? After all, during the tour, you may see confidential documentation.
  
  
• Did you see evidence of other large volume projects undergoing document conversion?
  
  
• Did you see a considerable amount of the vendor's employees doing manual data entry? If not, why not? This would be a red-flag that this same company would ship your digital images offshore for data entry.
  
  
• Did you see closed-circuit cameras monitoring all of the the entrance and exit pathways?
  
  

For more information with respect to what to look for during a document conversion facility tour, contact SoftFile at (916) 927-4211 or info@softfile.com

Document Imaging Calculator

Do you need a ballpark figure for a document imaging project?

• Calculator Here
  

Many people call or email SoftFile asking about our price per image.

The reason why a blanket price per image is an inadequate quote is because of the following reasons;

• The time it takes for document preparation (to get documents scanner ready) varies wildly. Sometimes there is no preparation involved, the documents are scanner ready. At other times 1,000 pages can be prepped in an employee hour. Yet at other times the ratio is closer to 500 pages per employee hour.
  
  
  
• What does the image resolution need to be? At 300dpi the actual document scanner is a little slower than at say 200dpi.
  
  
  
• What is the final electronic format; TIFF, PDF, JPG, or PNG?
  
  
  
• What are the data entry requirements (e.g. how are you going to find the scanned files) AND how many pages are each record? Obviously the requirement to capture a first and last name every three pages is a lot more labor than say every 200 pages.
  
  
  
• What is the total volume? Are we talking about 20 boxes or 2,000 boxes?
  
  
  
• Is there a rush? Sometimes customers are in a rush (e.g. a legal case going to trial) and at other times, they are simply scanning the records because of extremely long records retention schedules (7+ years). If the latter is the case, perhaps the customer does not really care if the project takes a week or even six months? Perhaps we would be inclined to charge less knowing that there is no rush.
  
  

Collectively, all of the above considerations affect the overall price (including the cost per image) like a stereo equalizer.

All of this said, it might be more revealing to think about a ballpark quotation in terms of the cost per box where at $100 per box the project would be an easy job and $300 might be really complicated.

Kodak ScanStation 500

At SoftFile, we are often asked to recommend a good departmental scanner. For simple, departmental-type documents, for everyday users, SoftFile recommends the Kodak ScanStation 500.

The unit has a built-in networked PC. For all intents and purposes, the ScanStation is like a scanning kiosk.

For the novice end user, the unit acts very much like a fax machine. Simply walk up
to the unit, stack up to twenty-five sheets of paper and push couple of buttons and you're done.

There are no confusing scanner dialogs, just a few logical choices (e.g. black and white or color).

As the unit is connected to the organization's network, the images are scanned and sent to a pre-specified location on the LAN (a personal folder or a shared drive), as a fax, as an email, over FTP to a specified location (e.g. SoftFile), or to a USB flash drive. As an attachment, you can even include a voice notation if you like.

The Kodak ScanStation 500 retails for about $2,495 and is worth every penny.