What benefits does outsourced document scanning offer?

To Scan or not to scan, that is the question.

For many rural hospitals, financial institutions, or businesses in highly-regulated industries, “just scan everything” is often the answer. While it’s seemingly the obvious solution, it’s never the easiest, and, in many times, it’s the most expensive. Many times, the scan projects we’re asked to quote are simply cost-prohibitive. Shredding it all is against the law without knowing which records have met their retention requirement. But continuing to store it just kicks the can down the road for someone else to deal with, putting the company at risk for an expensive breach or legal discovery court order.

At Secure Records Solutions, we’re focused on solving problems. Sometimes that means giving clients what they need, not what they ask for. The good news is scanning everything is not always necessary. In fact, most clients never have to access up to 95% of their stored documents. So why pay to scan files they’ll never need? In this quest to better solve problems, we’ve come up with a comprehensive document management system that simplifies the lives of our clients. The cost of a document management solution is oftentimes about 90% less than the cost to scanning everything. What are the benefits of this approach over scanning?

Comprehensive Document Management

1. It is much cheaper than scanning. Scanning everything is extremely labor intensive and time consuming. Our indexing team goes through all of records, then meticulously indexes and inventories everything, right down to the metadata level for each box.
2. Clients can better understand what they have. We provide a database of inventory with recommendations on what to shred or scan and how long the remaining boxes should be stored. What’smore, our digital access system allows clients to view inventory.
3. Clients can easily access what they have. We can find the files clients need within minutes, using advanced barcoding technology and our dynamic filing system. Our “Scan-on-Demand” service makes it easy. We’ll pull the document, scan it, and get it to the client within 30 minutes in a secure manner. If clients need an entire box, we’ll handle all the logistics, so they receive it without delay.
4. It keeps companies compliant. Retention policies vary greatly across industries, and even by state. It’s a complex subject, but one that is extremely important to get right. We work with clients to understand, and, if necessary, create retention policies that meet or exceed regulatory requirements.
5. It creates efficiencies. Many times, poor organization systems mean that records with shorter retention policies are mixed in with longer retention records. We organize records by retention date, separating records with short (or expired) retention records from those that need to be kept for longer periods. This new indexing system allows for the destruction of an entire box at a time.
6. Costs typically decrease over time. After the initial project, SRS manages records in our facility, and notifies clients monthly as boxes meet their retention requirement and can be destroyed. As records are destroyed, costs to store them will decrease and eventually will decline to zero. There are also significant cost savings associated with regaining office space.
7. Your records are secure. As our name implies, we take great care to ensure clients’ records are secure. Our security requirements and compliance standards are among the industry’s highest. We’ve earned the AAA Gold Standard and Custodial Membership Certification from the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), as well as accreditation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s GCIC (Georgia Crime Information Center).

Scanning

There are times scanning everything does make more sense. When records are permanent, such as CAD drawings or building files, or are archival in nature, such as memorabilia or delicate historical documents, outsourced scanning is sometimes the best solution.

Secure Records Solutions’ scanning fleet can digitize all standard large format documents clearer, quicker, and cheaper. Other benefits include the following:

1. Instant Retrieval through digital index: Full-text search allows clients to find any scanned document instantly.
2. Immediate Accessibility: Documents will be instantly accessible by the entire team.
3. Cut overhead costs of machinery and software: Clients no longer need to justify the capital expense and annual maintenance expenses.
4. Reclaim space for higher value purposes:  Clients can use reclaimed space for profit building purposes.

Secure Records Solutions will also index new digital images on original microfilm or microfiche.  We utilize an Optical Character Recognition software which allows clients to search scanned documents using keywords. Consider how much time and energy this saves you from having to sift through boxes and boxes of micromedia.

Our goal is always to create a total scanning solution that’s precisely tailored to satisfy each organization’s needs and budget constraints. Whether that’s a full scan job or a more comprehensive and tailored document management solution, we’re here to help clients create the most value from their documents.