Digital Transformation Doesn’t Start With Document Scanning

Common digital transformation models suggest scan documents first.  Sadly, this is incorrect for several reasons. Our first recommendation? Start with an assessment of your information assets. After this, look at record scanning.  Why is it so bad to scan first if you plan to scan your documents anyway? Here are just three of many reasons. 

Touch It Once

This principle, the idea that when you touch something, you act on it, saves time. Scanning everything first requires that you handle the document to convert it. Then someone must handle the document in its digital form a second time to name and index it. Most organizations don’t set standards for categorizing and indexing documents. At best, this double handling is inefficient. Once you see what you have, you may decide that you don’t need the document at all.  This means you wasted the effort and labor hours for no reason.  

Scanning Addresses Only Part Of The Information Set

Digital transformation involves all the documents coming into your office.  You receive mail and email from external sources. You create spreadsheets and run reports from other systems. Often, after a document assessment, we find duplicate records in the system. Users print emails and files they create and store two, or more, copies.  We often find that paper created internally also exists digitally. If you jump straight into scanning, you scan a lot of documents that you already have digitally. Again, this translates to wasted labor hours. 

Define Your Buckets

A document and information study separates documents into categories or buckets.  Each category is then divided into even smaller, more specific, buckets.  Your buckets can (and should) start big like “Client Files,” and then be refined into smaller buckets based on how you retrieve them. If you’re only going to touch it once to file it, it helps to know where to put it. 

We recommend all clients start with a document study. An added benefit? A study allows you to evaluate multiple solutions based on clearly defined needs.  It allows you to compare how solutions will perform in your environment, because you know who will use the system. A high-level document assessment often exposes problem areas. The assessment can also calculate the cost of doing business in your current state.

Deau works with clients to define requirements.  For sizable undertakings, we can train in house staff to perform the assessments. If you’re considering a move towards digital transformation, don’t skip this important first step. It can save you significantly in the long run.