When starting a new scanning project, it is important to thoroughly understand the needs and expectations of the business. Each new project comes with its own set of challenges and requirements and it is essential to have a complete understanding of these before starting the work. That is why the first thing that many scanning companies, such as OptiScan®, do is set up a meeting to actively discuss the project scope with the business.

The first part of the evaluation process is to clearly define the overall scope of the job. How many files will be a part of the project? Is the scanning company staffing the entire project or will there be assistance from the office staff? How much office space is available for the overall project? Are there any special requirements of the office? What is the expected timeframe for project completion?

Using this information, the scanning company will be able to determine the best equipment to use, the number of personnel required and what special challenges this project will bring. Limited workspace is one of the more common challenges that scanning companies face when starting a new job.

During this meeting it is also important to clearly identify the processing rules of the pages being scanned. For example, OptiScan must determine how and what index data must be associated with the documents so they can be easily searched in the new database. If a business has an existing database of records with unique reference numbers associated with them, a barcode cover sheet can be used to associate index data with the scanned documents. If this is not possible, often Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software can be used to automatically read the index data from the relevant pages. As a last resort, if data is difficult to read, handwritten, or located in different areas of the page, the index data may have to be keyed-from-image. With the many years of experience in processing millions of pages for a variety of different industries, companies such as OptiScan can provide the most valuable and cost-effective processing methods.

Once the job and expectations have been clearly defined, it is possible to determine the right pricing structure and timeline for the project. It is the goal of OptiScan, like many scanning companies, to provide the practice with the best quality images and service within the agreed upon timeframe and at a fair price.