There are many aspects to consider when embarking on a major back scanning project, and one of the most daunting if pursuing an in-house approach is acquiring the necessary scanning hardware and software to digitise the archive, as well as developing the expertise to make it all run smoothly. Scanning specialist EzeScan is gaining traction with a headache free option providing the ability to rent scanners and the necessary software for the duration of a project, with setup and training included. Once the project is completed, the user simply hands it all back having had the ability to better manage cash flow by choosing to either CAPEX or OPEX the solution costs.

The retrospective digitisation of existing paper records is conducted for a variety of reasons: to provide better access to historical records, save storage space or provide a digital backup.

Large back scanning projects always need careful analysis to determine if they are genuine value for money, taking into account retention and access requirements, re-use and ongoing business value of the records concerned.

There are a number of cost considerations when deciding to digitise in-house or outsource to a service provider. At first glance, in-house appears to be the easiest option, but it can be more expensive.

For two Australian organisations, choosing EzeScan scanner rentals made the decision to stay in-house much easier.

Coal Services

Coal Services is an industry-owned organisation committed to providing critical services and expertise to the NSW coal industry. It operates a Specialised Health and Safety Scheme that provides an integrated suite of services aimed at preventing injury and illness in the workplace.  These include the provision of workers compensation, occupational health and rehabilitation services, the collection of statistics and the provision of mines rescue emergency services and training to the NSW coal industry.

Coal Services Records Manager Stephen Parkes said the organisation was at the very early stages of its digital journey, and most of its interactions with NSW coal miners were paper-based, including medical records and forms, reports and drug and alcohol tests.

A first step towards digital transformation was the adoption of Office365 in 2017 then RecordPoint for managing records management in SharePoint Online.

“Our first focus was back scanning tens of thousands of legacy files with millions of documents containing the health records of miners who were no longer in the business,” said Parkes.

“This has now evolved into also scanning 23,000 active files which will take place over the next few months. We have to comply with a range of legislation for heath files so RecordPoint was required to assist with managing retention.

“Initially we looked at scanning bureaus that could deal with our files, which are broken up into nine different sections, in an automated fashion using barcodes. I was familiar with EzeScan’s capabilities in this area and so we contacted them for a solution.

“Being able to hire scanners from EzeScan for the duration of the back scanning project and benefit from their support in configuring the software has been a great advantage.

“We now have two sites in NSW scanning our heath files and we have bought one Kodak scanner and leased three more. We know this project has an end date and we didn’t want equipment that we would no longer need after that date.

“We have only had one issue with a scanner since beginning the project and it was great to be able to just hand it back to EzeScan and have them quickly send us a replacement.”

“Having branches across the State, and with miners often being transient and not always staying in one location, having the digital file is now a great advantage.”

Pitcher Partners

Pitcher Partners is a national association of independent accounting, auditing and advisory firm firms, with each at differing stages of their digital transformation journey. In support of the Melbourne firm’s business strategy, a digital transformation journey was launched. The timeline was purposely aligned with a new office being built and a move-in date of June 2018.

An analysis was performed to decide on whether the scanning requirements would be completed in-house or outsourced to a third party. It became apparent that the requirements could be best fulfilled if the activity was performed in-house and, on this basis, EzeScan was engaged to assist in providing both hardware and software to deliver the agreed outcomes.

Supported by Glen Roy, the firm’s Practice Services Supervisor, EzeScan seamlessly completed this requirement at short notice which ensured the firm’s deliverables were met.

“We ended up deciding it was better to do it in-house and the solution was to rent the scanning hardware and software from EzeScan for three months.

"We already have two permanent Kodak i4200 scanners and the EzeScan software for mailroom processing and accounts payable, the rental solution meant we could deal with this short-term back scanning project quickly and simply”.

“We rented three more i4200 scanners and brought in a couple of temps. Then once the project was completed we just handed the hardware and software back to EzeScan,” Glen commented.