Scanning, Digitization, and Archival Services

SERVICES HIGHLIGHT:

Document Scanning, Digitization, and Archival Services

 

Are Your Documents Managing You?

If so, let’s talk about scanning. We often associate this word with something clinical and medical when we hear it. Most often not with paper documents, and perhaps that is why they are kept in closets, rooms, and trailers because “out of sight is out of mind” until something happens or goes wrong.

Your organization spends considerable time creating, retrieving and storing documents only to find out they have been lost, damaged, misfiled, or destroyed, and derived at that conclusion with countless employee hours. More than half of all organizations have an unmanaged document environment, and the average cost to recreate just ONE “lost” document can cost hundreds or maybe even thousands of dollars to recreate or replace.

Home and office printing accounts for more than 800 billion sheets of paper in the United States. The cost of one filing cabinet and space to put it is over $200 per year! Alternatively, how much does it cost you in staffing time to file, retrieve, find, and recreate documents that could have been scanned safely into a digital file?

Or what about the frustration of finding hundreds or thousands of rolled-up plans in a storage room? Do you wonder how you can organize and create a functional system from the chaos? Are you wasting time trying?

In today’s world, there is never any time. Businesses are short-staffed. Finding the human resource to spend countless hours organizing a storage room full of plans doesn’t make sense when running your business should take priority. So sometimes, we close the door and leave the mess as is.

Aside from plan sheets and blueprints getting heat exhaustion and gathering dust, there are some crucial things to consider. Big or small, your business can be vulnerable. Poorly managed and unsecure plan rooms can pose a threat to your business. Not just with sensitive documents that go “missing” but also environmental hazards like flood, fire, and merely time alone.

When documents and files are dispersed throughout an organization, such as in management offices, construction trailers, off-site storage, and individual workstations, problems arise. Access to the information and requests to provide specific documents regarding a project to different team members are typical and frequent.

Requirements to access the documents rapidly become more critical as the usage increases when the organization must repair systems or improve space. A chaotic nightmare exists when what you need isn’t instantly accessible because the necessary information is trapped inside folders or unmarked rolled-up plans. This disorganization leads to multiple man-hours spent searching for a single roll or piece of information.

Paper files are no longer viable for most companies because the storage of paper documents requires space and comes as a premium asset, contributing to most organizations’ disparate location and filing practices. Documents and records vital for the operational support of Commercial, Industrial, Institutional, Educational, and Health Care properties are retrieved and distributed in various formats and methods.

In most cases, a considerable amount of information resides on paper. An example of this information might include:

• Architectural Drawings, Specifications, and Addendums
• Tenant Improvement Drawings, Specifications, and Notices
• Property Inspection Reports
• Building and Equipment Permits
• Photos, Renderings, and Schematics
• MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets)
• Operations Manuals, Environmental and Soils Reports

So, what is scanning and digitization, and how is it done?

Digital Document Management deals with capturing and managing documents within an organization. It is the document imaging, online storage, management, and retrieval of the electronic images of your documents. At A&I, we scan your documents and create a secure, digitized project library that enables employees to view, print, download, and email files 24/7. We transform your paper archives (big or small, color or black and white) into digital assets that can be backed up and preserved indefinitely.

What A&I Can Do For You

• We consult with your team to perform an inventory of your materials and review the quality of the originals to determine the technical requirements based on your project specifications.
• We scan and digitize your documents, reviewing for quality control and readability before outputting files in the appropriate format. We will then name and organize the files in a digital library according to your requirements.
• We return your original paper documents along with your new digital library in the method of your choice. Once we receive confirmation of your acceptance of the project, we will destroy the temporary data stored at our location.

You may consider that one backup isn’t enough, especially if you plan to destroy the original hard copies. A&I does offer the additional service of creating multiple backup libraries and store in a safe, off-site location for disaster recovery. We do suggest you have this set up for critical documents.

With a digital library, your team can access company documents in real-time to get the most up-to-date information anytime they need it. If you are not convinced yet how much better and more efficient your company would be with a digital library, here are some more facts:

• Better alignment across your company. Share company information assets and standardize processes by creating one source of information that every employee can reference.
• More production workforce. Indexing and search capabilities allow employees to locate critical documents much faster than by thumbing through rolls of plans or paper files stored in file cabinets and storage rooms. Employees can be productive and get what they need faster and without frustration.
• Peace of Mind. Minimizes the threat of lost, damaged, stolen, or misfiled documents by securely storing your information on servers in your office and/or secure file-sharing and transfer service. Redundant backup systems can ensure that your data is safe from a single catastrophic failure or security breach. Your documents will be assessable to the employees you choose to grant access to. These records will not be deteriorating away in a storage room, and you will have any information scanned at your fingertips in minutes.

Office space is expensive. Why not let us help you clear out that storage room and have it put to better use?

A&I can assist you in turning your paper documents into digital assets. Information that was once trapped on paper is freed up to improve your organization’s performance and efficiency. We have helped multiple clients, such as Whittier Unified School District, Arrowhead Regional Hospital, and San Bernardino City School District, label, scan, and archive thousands of pieces of paper into readily accessible, valuable electronic data.