Customers who choose us for scanning services include professional services, the public sector, contracting and construction companies – from nationwide corporates to smaller local organisations. Whilst client requirements for scanning can vary greatly, there are some questions we are often asked.
Why do organisations scan?
Organisations scan their documents for a variety of reasons: to improve document find-ability, security and compliance; free up cabinets/reclaim office space and/or eliminate offsite storage; and streamline business processes. When you put business documents in a filing cabinet, warehouse, or off-site storage, they can be forgotten or lost. Scanning makes it easier to quickly locate and access documents instead of wasting time searching for or recreating the ones that go missing. Furthermore, knowledge of a paper file archive can sometimes rely upon a specific staff member who “just knows where everything is”, so what happens if that person leaves the organisation?
How does scanning provide security and disaster recovery?
A paper-based filing system leaves your documents susceptible to being misplaced, lost, stolen or destroyed from fire or water damage. When you convert your paper documents to digital, you’re getting a layer of security unmatched by paper. Scanning helps you manage your policies for compliance and record retention – be that in relation to Health & Safety, Audit, Human Resources or other requirements. Besides, you never know when a disaster could hit so why take the risk? You always need a back-up plan when it comes to critical data. Scanning your documents can help you prevent data loss and keep your documents safe from disaster.
What types of documents do you scan?
Paper documents of any kind can be scanned from small sizes like receipts, or A4 size files, manuals and similar documentation, right up to large sizes such as plans, charts and engineering drawings.
What if documents have staples, wrinkles or tears? Do I need to do anything?
Preparation for scanning can be done by us. We will remove staples, paper clips, binder clips, post-it notes, and carefully handle any damaged documents for scanning.
What is OCR?
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) extracts typed text words from your paper documents and stores it as data that can later be searched. OCR is used to create a searchable PDF.
Can you scan handwritten documents?
Handwritten documents can be scanned as easily as typed text. However Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is not used for hand-written documents.
What file format can my scans be saved as?
We can scan your documents and save them as PDF files or JPEG images.
What’s the image quality like?
The image quality depends on the Dots Per Inch (DPI). The higher the number, the better the results. Most scanning is done at 200 or 300 DPI.
How will I be involved in my scanning project?
We want to make sure that you are satisfied with the quality of our scanning services. Upon scanning your first batch of documents, we’ll ask you to review them. Throughout your scanning project, if questions arise, we will ask you to provide input.
What are the costs? How do you determine pricing?
We’ll consult with you on what you need such as indexing, file reassembly and volume of files to be scanned. Often we will do a a test on a sample of your files. Our price to you will reflect these factors.
Copyright and/or Intellectual Property:
It is the customer’s responsibility to ensure that no copyright or intellectual property rights have been breached with any copying, scanning or other reproduction services provided by Gawdy Green Ltd. Any such services we provide are done so only on this basis. Gawdy Green Ltd accepts no responsibility or liability in the event of any potential issues. By using Gawdy Green, you accept these terms.