Imaging Source FAQ

Table of Contents

Why Do You Need Imaging? Eliminate file cabinets!
Why Do You Need Imaging? Save time and labor in locating documents!
Why Do You Need Imaging? No more misfiling of documents!
Why Do You Need Imaging? Immediate access to documents!
Why Do You Need Imaging? More reasons for imaging!
What is document imaging?
How can I benefit from document imaging?
How can Filing Source’s document imaging system improve the quality of my original documents?
Why would I want to change the quality of my original documents?
Can my scanned images be accessed on the web?
Will having my documents on the web compromise the security of my documents?
Where will my images be stored?
How many documents fit on a CD?
How do I retrieve the information I need from electronic documents?
What is OCR?
How are my documents indexed?
Are there advantages to letting an outside service convert my paper documents?
Will my scanned images be contained in one database, or can I have multiple databases?
What about document security? How secure are my scanned images?
Can I modify my scanned documents in any way or add notes to them?
Can your imaging system recognize handwriting?

Why Do You Need Imaging? Eliminate file cabinets!

Eliminate the need for file cabinets. Instead – store all of your documents electronically so that they are at your fingertips all the time! Did you know that the floor space for each file cabinet costs your company about $250 per year?* And did you know that the annual cost to maintain one five-drawer file cabinet is about $2,150?*. top ^

Why Do You Need Imaging? Save time and labor in locating documents!

The average employee wastes around 400 hours per year chasing paper!* Have you ever found yourself spending hours – or even days – looking for a piece of information, file or document? Don’t you think that those hours would be better spent doing something more productive? With our document imaging system, files and/or documents can be located with just a couple of mouse clicks and you won’t even have to leave your desk. top ^

Why Do You Need Imaging? No more misfiling of documents!

We all know that it's easy to misfile a document! It just happens sometimes. When it does, it is not only frustrating for the person looking for the document, but it's also frustrating for the supervisor or client who is asking for the document. A person could waste many precious hours or even days looking for a misfiled document. With our document imaging system, documents cannot be misfiled because they are stored electronically! You can view, print, fax, e-mail, and annotate them – but you can't lose them! top ^

Why Do You Need Imaging? Immediate access to documents!

Is this a familiar scenario? You get up from your desk, go to the file room, locate and retrieve the document your boss has asked you to retrieve, make a copy of it, take it to the fax machine – wait for the other fax in front of yours to finish going through – then you fax the document to the individual you've been asked to send it to. Then you return the document to the file room to re-file it. That has taken you at least 15 minutes – and that's assuming that you found the file in a timely manner in the first place. 

With our document imaging system, you will never have to leave your desk! Retrieve documents in a matter of seconds from your own desktop. You can view, print and e-mail documents from your desktop. Turn that 15 to 30 minutes job into a few mouse-clicks. top ^

Why Do You Need Imaging? More reasons for imaging!

By now it should be plain to see the cost and timesaving benefits of changing from a manual filing system to an electronic document imaging system. The manual system of maintaining your records requires that each and every file have an index, such as a name, date, etc. Each file requires a folder with tabs containing index information. During its active life, it needs a place to “live” – file cabinet, file room, etc. At the end of the file's “active” life, it must be manually removed and either archived or destroyed:

• Eliminate the need for duplicate copies
• Lower paper product expenditures
• Replace file cabinets with a productive desk
• Put a file cabinet full of documents on one CD – or a room full of documents in the space of a shoebox
• Multiple users can have access to the same file at the same time
• Improved customer service
• Find files knowing only partial information
• Increased security
• Protect paperwork from disasters like fire and floods

What is document imaging?

The process of capturing, storing and retrieving your paper-based documents, microfilm, and microfiche in an electronic format. top ^

How can I benefit from document imaging?

Some of the benefits of document imaging are:

• Fast and immediate access to your records and documents
• Increased employee productivity
• Disaster recovery
• Faster response time to customer inquiries, as well as internal inquiries
• No more photocopies – just fax, print or e-mail documents right from your desktop
• Reduced paper costs
• Reduced labor costs – spend less time looking for lost or misfiled documents
• Electronic documents take up less physical space
• Preserve the quality of your originals by handling them less
• Improve the quality of your originals

How can Filing Source’s document imaging system improve the quality of my original documents?

As important as the retrieval part of imaging is, we feel that capturing the image is just as important. By image capturing, we're not talking about just scanning your document. We're talking about, through the scanning process, cleaning up the image. We can straighten crooked images, remove unwanted black dots (pixels) from images, crop unwanted space out of image, darken/lighten the text, remove black borders and punch hole marks and more...  top ^

Why would I want to change the quality of my original documents?

Cleaner image quality, enhanced readability, sharper printing, improved OCR accuracy, less space for archiving/searching and more. top ^

Can my scanned images be accessed on the web?

Yes, we offer a web-enabled document management, which comes with unlimited users. It provides access to your documents 24 hours per day, 7 days per week from any web-browser on any operating system. top ^

Will having my documents on the web compromise the security of my documents?

Your system administrator can completely control the functionality available to users on a per-project and per-document level. Documents are never fully exposed to the Web. Our system temporarily caches documents from your internally secured network to your FTP site at the instant they are requested, and then removes them before security is compromised. top ^

Where will my images be stored?

Store them on a DVD/CD, Virtual Jukebox, Iomega Jaz, Optical drives, and hard drives. top ^

How many documents fit on a CD?

Approximately 10,000 to 20,000 pages fit on a single CD, depending on page size, color and quality. top ^

How do I retrieve the information I need from electronic documents?

Extremely easy, yet powerful, search capabilities allow you to locate any desired document in seconds. Search across an unlimited number of projects (a group of like documents) for common index criteria. Full-text data searching provides extensive search capabilities across all scanned images within a single project or within a single document. top ^

What is OCR?

OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. OCR technology reads your electronic images and converts them into an electronic format. Using OCR, you can index long documents and use the powerful full-text search capability to locate and find any word or phrase immediately. top ^

How are my documents indexed?

We'll help you determine an indexing method that works for you. Methods include setting up pre-defined index fields for each project (up to 25 index fields per project) and hand-keying index fields, using existing computer databases to electronically populate the index fields, automatically populating index fields using the OCR technology available with our system. top ^

Are there advantages to letting an outside service convert my paper documents?

Yes. By allowing us to convert your paper documents to scanned images, you can have all the benefits of document imaging without having to make the capital investment required to implement an in-house system. It allows you more time and resources to carry on your normal day-to-day business. top ^

Will my scanned images be contained in one database, or can I have multiple databases?

Our “standard” document imaging system, unlike many of our competitors, allows you to set up as many databases as you want. With our system, you can set up as many clients/departments as you want. Within each client/department, you can set up as many different projects as you want, and each individual project can be contained in its own database. top ^

What about document security? How secure are my scanned images?

They are as secure as you want them to be! Your system administrator can maintain control over accessibility and functionality of users and user groups within individual departments, individual projects, and individual documents contained within a project. top ^

Can I modify my scanned documents in any way or add notes to them?

Regardless of how your document images are stored, whether it is a CD, a hard drive, or any other storage media, you cannot modify them in any way. However, you can use Filing Source's “annotation” feature. The annotation features, such as highlight, attach notes, draw arrows, pin-up text, rectangles, straight and free-hand lines, and redaction, allow you to “mark up” the images for viewing and printing. top ^

Can your imaging system recognize handwriting?

Our system allows you to optionally customize multiple index fields within a single document by utilizing various recognition engines such as optical character recognition (OCR), handwriting recognition (ICR), MICR reading, Braille, dot matrix recognition, and optical mark recognition (OMR). top ^