IN-HOUSE VS. OUTSOURCING

THE TEMPTATION OF KEEPING IT IN-HOUSE

The first decision a business must make when thinking about a document scanning project is

whether to do it themselves in-house or find an outsourced scanning company. For many

businesses, the lure of keeping the process in-house is strong.

Outsourcing to an imaging expert may appear to cost more up front, but inevitably results in

a superior document scanning experience –and often a lower total cost.

Types of Scanning Projects

Any business embarking on a document scanning project must first make a few fundamental decisions. Do

they want to try to do it in-house or hire outside experts? And if they choose to outsource, where do they

want the work performed?

All are key factors. And all play huge roles in the amount of money, time, and effort the project entails.

THE REALITY OF IN-HOUSE IMAGING Initially, in-House scanning looks great on paper—that is until you add up all the numbers. A

scope of work is set based on the number of pieces that need scanning and a budget is allotted

for equipment and labor, but when the process starts, the drawbacks become apparent. Often,

the scope is underestimated leading to higher labor and equipment costs and extensions to the

project’s duration. Also, in-house projects rarely see 100% page-for-page quality due to

organizational errors and poor image quality.

Here are a few things to consider before determining if a large in-house scanning is right for

you:

HIGH SPEED SCANNING EQUIPMENT IS EXPENSIVE

While it may seem like the cheaper solution up front, maintaining scanning equipment over

time accrues cost, and high cost at that. Scanners are typically rated at three to five times their

actual capability in a high production environment. In an office environment, it could even be

worse than that.

MAN HOURS PILE UP QUICKLY

Experts work quickly and consistently, but your team most likely doesn’t include any imaging

experts. Learning a skill on the fly rarely, if ever, produces optimal results. It’s one thing to scan

for a day or a week straight, but scanning over a longer period of time requires a dedicated staff

and management.

SCANNERS JAM, BREAK, AND FAIL TO REACH THEIR PROMISED SPEEDS

Again, if you aren’t employing imaging and scanning experts, this can cause large delays in your

process.

DATA INACCURACIES BECOME RAMPANT

Contrary to what OCR software vendors tell you, the system isn’t perfect. If you don’t have a

quality assurance process in place, your data inaccuracies will pile up. If you are manually

entering indexes and adding metadata tags to your documents, errors are inevitable. Once a

document is indexed wrong, it is as good as lost forever.

MANUAL INDEXING CAN BE TAXING

Even the most simplistic manual indexing proves to be time-consuming, tedious, and prone to

errors.

THE TYPICAL CONCERNS ABOUT OUTSOURCING When considering outsourcing, businesses usually become worried about cost. While the initial

price vs. an in-house operation is cheaper, the lack of experience and expertise leads to a less

than perfect scanning process, leading to countless mistakes. You ALWAYS pay for mistakes.

THE BENEFITS OF OUTSOURCING Using experts for any type of project is usually recommended and scanning and imaging is no

exception. Hiring an imaging expert will provide many benefits, such as:

LOWER TOTAL COST

A professional scanning company will have proven, efficient scanning workflows and project

management in place. The scanning center will be staffed by specialists trained to use high

volume scanning and indexing equipment, project managers overseeing the execution and

quality of projects, and supporting staff to aid in machine repair work. By working with an

expert, you benefit from their workforce, their experience, and their knowledge. This is realized

by lower projects costs. Each of the benefits listed below contribute to a lower total cost.

LEADING VENDORS OFFER COMPLETELY SECURE PROCESSES

You aren’t the first business to be worried about sensitive documents being handled by an

outside company. The experts know this, so they have developed secure processes in order to

protect your sensitive information.

Before hiring an off-site imaging vendor for your document scanning project, check their

business practices and take a tour of their facility. Who are their employees? How do they

maintain proper chain of custody?

Do they ensure sensitive documents are always held in secure locations?

FAST TURNAROUNDS

As we mentioned while explaining the lower total cost, experts work fast. A good imaging

company will have your documents scanned and indexed in a fraction of the time it would take

you to do it yourself.

SUPERIOR ACCURACY

Imaging experts have processes in place that provide near-Six Sigma data accuracy. It’s much

more convenient to rely on proven systems than to create your own.

YOUR DOCUMENTS ARE IMMEDIATELY USEABLE AND USEFUL

This is pure convenience. Top imaging service providers make sure that your documents

become available as they are scanned.

YOUR EMPLOYEES ARE FREE TO DO WHAT THEY DO BEST

Instead of spending their time learning new scanning and indexing processes, your knowledge

workers can immediately start reaping the benefits of the new document system, using these

tools to propel your business forward.

CHOOSING AN APPROACH TO OUTSOURCING Should a business choose to outsource their imaging and scanning, they’re faced with their next

decision: Off-site imaging, on-site imaging, or a hybrid of the two? Each carry their own set of

concerns and benefits, so businesses have to choose which approach they want based on their

own unique needs and desires.

OFF-SITE IMAGING

While off-site imaging provides imaging services with the most ideal environment to maintain

their quality controls and custody chains, many businesses have concerns when sending their

documents off to a third-party. We’ll cover a few of those concerns here.

Concern: Will the confidentiality of the documents be compromised when they are sent to a

third party?

No. Any reputable imaging service will have processes in place in order to maintain

confidentiality and protect sensitive materials. Top imaging vendors take steps such as using

trained couriers and requiring background checks and confidentiality agreements from their

employees.

Concern: Many of the documents being sent are essential to business. How will they be

accessed?

Top imaging vendors have processes in place to make this a non-issue. The best solution for this

is utilizing state-of-the-art document tracking technologies, giving near real-time access to any

document with a simple email or phone call.

While there still may be concerns about off-site imaging, the benefits greatly outweigh the

drawbacks.

Benefits:

• Space for an on-site operation does not have to be allocated

• Top imaging services maintain their quality controls and custody chains easiest at their

own facilities

• The cost is much lower when compared to an on-site operation

ON-SITE IMAGING

Despite the processes that are put in place to protect privacy and provide access to documents,

some companies still prefer to have their document scanning performed within their own

facility. While the company may be more comfortable with this process at first, it does present

some challenges and drawbacks when compared with its off-site counterpart. When

contemplating on-site imaging, you should consider that:

• On-site imaging usually costs between 15 to 50 percent more than off-site imaging

• A client using on-site imaging must provide a properly sized and climate-controlled

facility in which to host the imaging company

• Electrical needs of the equipment must be met

• Furniture must be provided

• Reliable and secure internet access must be provided

HYBRID IMAGING

The hybrid approach offers a middle ground between on-site and off-site. Often, companies will

hire the outsourced vendor to properly sort, manifest, and box documents in the on-site facility

before shipping them to the imaging center. This maintains an absolutely secure chain of

custody from storage to imaging and archiving.

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STEP 1: BUSINESS CASE FOR A DOCUMENT

SCANNING PROJECT At the start of the process, there must be a case made for the document scanning project.

Typically, the case revolves around the creation of efficiencies in the work environment. A well-

indexed archive stored on your servers or in the cloud eliminates the need for bulky, space-

wasting file cabinets, and facilitates instant electronic access to documents and information.

Planning & Procedures

Years of experience with complex document scanning projects have helped top outsourced scanning services

establish tried and true procedures for completing the process.

Normally, there should be a four step plan for an implementation. We’ll cover what a good plan should include.

Traditional paper isn't the only medium that can be converted into a digital archive. Top

imaging vendors can also scan microfilm and microfiche, aperture cards and oversized

engineering drawings, as well as image to image conversions.

STEP 2: DESIGNING THE DOCUMENT SCANNING

PROCESS Once the business case has been presented and accepted, the structure of the specific job must

be designed. This process essentially defines the "who, what, where, when, and how" of a

business' scanning project.

Going back to Chapter One, a company must choose between in-house and outsourcing at this

point and then, assuming they choose outsourcing, they must decide between on-site, off-site,

or hybrid imaging.

At this point, it must be determined which documents and sets of documents should be

included in the document scanning project. Top candidates include:

• High-Value Documents

• Workflow-Dependent Documents

• Documents with Legal Requirements for Retention

• Indispensable Documents that are Necessary Infrequently, but must be Retrieved

Quickly when Needed

• Any Document that is Considered Vital to the Business

Also, any specific document security concerns and the business’ indexing needs should be

addressed at this stage.

Before choosing an outsourced imaging service, check their quality control procedures.

What is their accuracy rate? How satisfied are their past customers? Do they utilize

Continuous Improvement and lean Six Sigma protocols to improve upon previous

performance?

STEP 3: PROCESS DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING After a project plan is developed in conjunction with the client, the imaging vendor begins

development on the individualized document scanning blueprint. Parameters for the job—on-

site, off-site, or hybrid—are established, internal responsibility is assigned, and review

procedures begin.

At this stage, small-scale trials are performed to test the efficacy of the process plan and source

materials. Sample documents are scanned and viewed in the system to confirm quality and final

preparations and adjustments are made before the document scanning is actually performed.

STEP 4: RAMP-UP, PERFORMANCE, AND

PRODUCTION Once testing has confirmed the specific scanning procedure will function as required, the actual

scanning work is completed.

While within the overall scheme of document scanning project we consider ramp-up,

performance, and production to be one step of the process, there are also various processes

within this step. Let’s get into them now.

Top outsourced imaging services log every step and change made to every document—for

instance arrival time, removal of a staple, and departure time.

CLASSIFICATION AND INDEXING

To make scanning an effective long-term tool, the proper classification and indexing of

documents is absolutely key.

Classification, essentially, is labeling a document as a particular "type"—for example, an

invoice, a purchase order, or a contract. This can be done manually, but top outsourced imaging

services offer autoclassification—complex sets of business rules that automatically classify

documents based on the information they contain. Elite vendors create unique document

classification manuals for every document scanning job, and then certify employees separately

for each project.

Indexing turns the massive image archive that results from the scanning process into a wealth

of usable business information. Documents can be indexed before or after the scanning process,

automatically or manually.

Pre-Indexing

Indexing before the scan is called pre-indexing. In this process, barcodes are affixed to

documents or inserted between them, "telling" the imaging service's software what taxonomies

and metadata to attach to each image.

Post-Indexing

Indexing after the scan, or post-indexing, can take either manual or automatic form. Manual

indexing involves the physical keying of information from each document or image. Auto

indexing utilizes intelligent capture technology to extract information, apply business rules, and

auto-create taxonomies and metadata.

SCANNING

Top outsourced imaging services use state-of-the-art scanning production equipment to

capture pages extremely quickly. Scans are typically done in color or black and white at either

200 or 300 DPI. Grayscale image capture is rare, but possible.

QUALITY CONTROL

Quality control checks are, perhaps, the most important part of the entire scanning project.

Elite vendors employ a dedicated quality control team, which checks each scanned version

against the original page for resolution, density, skew, dog-ears, folds, and other imperfections.

Unacceptable or missing images are flagged with electronic notes, indicating why the image

was rejected, and rejected images are staged for reprocessing, rescanning, and reinspection.

FINAL DELIVERY

Once the prep, classification, indexing, scanning, and quality control procedures are completed,

the digital documents are delivered to the customer. The new digital information can be

uploaded to any system of the client's choosing, including internal file management systems

and third-party content management systems. Top outsourced imaging services offer their own

cloud-based digital document repositories. Physical documents are then returned, stored at a

third-party facility, or shredded.

What if I need a document while it is being scanned?

Top outsourced scanning services offer customers easy access via email to any project file

during any stage of the scanning process via "checkout" procedures.

IMAGE-TO-IMAGES

Image-to-image conversion involves the transfer of images from a legacy imaging or document

management systems to a new one. This could be because the legacy system is obsolete or no

longer serves the business' needs. Top outsourced imaging services can even convert outdated

or proprietary image file formats to contemporary formats, like .JPG, .TIFF and .EPS.

IMAGE ON-DEMAND

Image on-demand scanning, also called "scan by request," involves digitizing documents (or

files) individually as needed, rather than all at once. This option is useful for companies with

large numbers of rarely accessed, but extremely important, legacy documents.

Specialized Document Imaging

Top outsourced imaging services offer several types of specialized document scanning solutions, in addition to

the traditional method of scanning, indexing, and archiving the entire physical paper archive.

These include scanning oversize documents, microfilm, microfiche or aperture cards, image-to-image conversion,

and image on-demand scanning.

IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEMS, INC.

150 MEADOWLANDS PARKWAY

SECAUCUS, NJ 07094

201.553.0200

IPSSERVICES.COM

LEARN MORE ABOUT SCANNING PROJECTS.

Contact IPS to receive a free consultation for your scanning project. You can also familiarize

yourself with scanning terminology by reading our Imaging Glossary.