We recently received a call from a potential client who was new to the concept of document scanning. They had been conventionally filing paper documents in filing cabinets for years (like 90% of UK business do) but were running out of space to put people! Legally they had to retain records for upto 10 years so destroying them all was out of the question. They needed to purchase a document scanner and document management solution but  were confused by the literally hundreds of scanners and solutions available.  One of their first questions was "Why didnt anyone produce a simple guide that helped the 'new to scanning' business community decide on the right scanner to suit any and every need" Good idea we thought and who better to compile it than the UK's fastest growing and truly independent document scanning & document management company. We hope you find it useful and any feedback, good, bad or indifferent is welcome.

 

 

 

 

Now we're not saying that some companies will try and sell you a higher specification  document scanner than you actually need but buyer beware here please. First and foremost you need to establish the amount of documents you are going to scan in any given day, week or month, allowing for seasonal highs and lows. Secondly think about the size of original you need to scan, A4, A3 etc. FInally, find out what operating system you use. There are far more scanners compatible with Windows than with Mac.

 

At the lower end of the volume capability spectrum and particularly for home use, there are some good document scanners, Canon's excellent new P-150 for example, for just a few hundred pounds, which are more than adequate for occasional scanning of bank statements, the odd photo, bills etc. No more shuffling piles of paper looking for the water rates from 3rd quarter 2008 but everything neatly filed and indexed on your home PC. These small scanners are also highly portable and ideal too for the business person on the move, great for scanning receipts and business cards etc.  

 

As we move into scanners designed purely for the business user the biggest effect on price will be the document scanners volume ability.  Most manufacturers will quote a recommended daily maximum volume and these vary from a few hundred scans to tens or even hundreds of thousands of scans. A good quality mid range document scanner should easily handle 5000 scans daily, more than enough for most types of business. Expect scanning speeds of circa 50 scans per minute and to pay anywhere from £2500 to around £4000 here. 

 

Those who are more heavily reliant on paper records and have higher throughputs i.e. accountants, lawyers, government bodies, logistics or large manufacturing companies etc, will certainly be better suited to higher volume document scanners with capabilities in the region of 50,000 scans and upwards per day. Document scanning speeds of around 100 scans per minute are the norm at this level and typical prices range between £12,000 to £15,000

 

 

 

For profit conscious businesses today the game is all about revenue vs cost. NOTHING wastes more time in any office environment than paper handling in the form of constant trips to the photocopier or filing cabinet. Accessing documents at your PC is therefore a major benefit, as is document scanning them to your PC or server. Its important therefore to make sure that your document scanner has the right productivity features. You definitely do not want to be buying a flatbed scanner without a document feeder knowing that you need to scan several thousand documents a month. Feeding that amount of documents manually, sheet by sheet is highly labour intensive and definitely not going to help the bottom line. There will be applications however where only a flatbed scanner will do, technical drawings or generally anything larger than A3 and the flatbed comes into its own. Most document feeders will handle somewhere between 50 and 500 sheets of paper. 

 

 

Nearly all document scanners today will offer you 600dpi (dots per inch) resolution. To put this into perspective, most magazine photographs are 300 dpi so the quality of finished scan is extremely high. You may however only need to scan black and white text where 300 dpi is more than acceptable. The ability to offer both is built-in to most medium and high volume scanners. 

 

 

One of the most impressive features of a proper document scanner is the ability for scanning both sides of the paper at the same time. In addition, most document scanners will have a blank page removal setting as well and to make sure you do not scan two pages at the same time, Ultrasonic Double Feed detection will stop the scanning if it thinks a page has been missed. This allows really accurate scanning which is essential for compliance and to maximise throughput and processing time.

 

 

 

Generally no as every document scanner will have some form of pre-loaded software package installed by the manufacturer and the great majority are USB interfaced so plug and play straight from the box. 

 

 

 

There you have it. A basic guide to document scanner choice. Not comprehensive by any means but enough to ensure you dont fall foul of buying totally the  wrong scanner. Document scanning is a simple process requiring minimal operator training but getting the basics right will ensure the transtion from physical filing to electronic filing is as seamless as possible. Thanks for reading.