Going Paperless and Selecting a Document Scanner

To be successful in achieving a goal, it is important to have the right tools for the job. Setting yourself up for success with the appropriate document scanner is the first step to success in your document scanning and data capture initiatives.

Let us walk you through a guide to help in your evaluation of which scanner to select for your project. 

What is your current scan volume?

How many pages are you currently scanning on a daily, monthly, or annual basis? This is very important to know because if you purchase a scanner that will not scan at a speed that can keep up with your organizational needs, you will get behind on your workflow and have a backlog that will decrease efficiency; the exact opposite of what you are trying to accomplish.

One or two-sided documents?

While in your discovery phase, you will see the terms “simplex” and “duplex”. Simplex refers to scanning documents one side at a time and duplex is a scanner that will scan both sides of your document in one scan. If you will have documents that contain content on front and the back, be sure to take this into consideration and opt for a duplex scanner.

Color or black & white?

Take a look at your current documents received or shared. Will you need to maintain any type of color, such as highlighting or color images as they are scanned, processed, and stored in your ERP, EMR, or ECM system? If so, you will want a scanner that allows for color scans vs one that supports black & white only.

Paper size

Engineering firms, construction companies, and law firms tend to have larger documents to scan. There are also cases where documents are much smaller than the standard 8.5″ x 11″ sheet such as receipts, insurance cards, ID, and business cards. It is helpful to take inventory of the size and style of documents that you may need to scan to be certain that your scanner will accommodate documents of all sizes.

Flatbed, automatic document feeder (ADF), or both?

A flatbed scanner is one that allows you to lift the lid and place a document, book, magazine, or other material face-down to scan.

A scanner with an ADF, Automatic Document Feeder, is one that you can set a stack of documents on a tray, sometimes referred to as a hopper, and the ADF will scan automatically by pulling the documents into the scanner

Want to read more about this topic? Here is a good resource for further information.

Support, warranty, and replacement

We talk to a lot of people that are planning digital transformation in their offices. They are preparing to build their business processes around digital data. They need a scanner to transform the existing and incoming paper into digital format that can be accessed in software they are using to run their business.

When you build processes that rely on the scanner being in place, if that scanner goes down for any period of time, workflow is disrupted. Having a reliable warranty that will support you adequately is crucial. Be sure to ask about AUR or Advanced Unit Replacement. Also ask about same-day, next-day, or within whatever time frame you need your support to take place if you have a scanner outage.

Another great tip is to purchase an additional scanner of the same model to keep in reserve in case you do have a unit down. It may sound like an unnecessary cost, but if your business processes rely on the scanner, having a spare on hand will hold you over until your support tech arrives or your replacement unit reaches your office.

Personal, Desktop, Departmental, or Production

Personal scanners are pretty self-explanatory. These are typically used for the lowest volume scanning needs. Scan speed is typically up to about 40 pages per minute.

Desktop scanners are perfect for users that need something convenient at their desk at work. An example would be front office staff that accept new patient document registration forms, insurance cards, and various forms of ID. The speed of desktop units is usually up to around 60 pages per minute.

Departmental scanners are typically used in government agencies, law firms, universities, and other higher volume scanning environments. These scan up to around 80 pages per minute.

And finally, production scanners. Production scanners are used in high volume document processing centers. Optiform sells the software to handle the information capture and data transformation; and production scanners make this process possible. 210 pages per minute is the impressive scan speed to be expected from production scanners.

We can help

We are authorized resellers of both Fujitsu and Kodak Alaris document scanners. Not only do we sell them, but we can guide you with installation and technical support long after you have made your purchase.

or

Our sales team is here and happy to help. Please either start with our contact form or call us at 317-822-8150!