Scanning, copying, printing – these everyday tasks may seem simple, but actually consume a lot of time and resources in offices around the globe. That’s just one of the reasons why so many business owners seek to optimize these tasks with the aid of document scanning, copying, and printing providers. This guide focuses specifically on document scanning, looking at what it is and some signs why you might need it.
An Introduction to Document Scanning
Before digging into the situations where document scanning services are useful, it’s important to have a clear, comprehensive understanding of what these services are. Put simply, professional document scanning is just what it sounds like – it’s when a professional provider scans your documents on your behalf. Typically, you’ll simply have to box up your docs, and the provider’s team will come to collect them and scan them into the system for you, taking various measures to make the process private and secure. So, instead of relying on your own employees to scan papers, you’ll have a whole separate team doing it for them. It’s similar to Managed Print Services but specializes in scanning. This has many advantages in terms of time savings, resource management, and even improving productivity and morale.
7 Signs It’s Time to Invest in Professional Scanning Solutions
It might be time to consider professional document scanning if:
1. You’re Starting to Run Out of Office Space
A single sheet of A4 office paper weighs around 0.15 ounces and takes up almost no space at all. But, when you have hundreds of thousands of sheets all adding up, and more added to the pile every day, it starts to become a problem.
Many businesses end up with filing cabinets taking up tons of space in their offices. That’s space that could be put to better use, in the form of functional areas, like break rooms, or larger employee workstations. Document scanning helps you tidy up and reclaim some of your office space.
2. Too Much Time Is Being Wasted on Trivial Tasks
As mentioned in the intro, tasks like scanning and copying are simple and mundane. They require minimal effort, but you might be surprised if you measured how much time your office workers spend on these trivial tasks every single day.
If a worker is walking back and forth to the scanner or waiting around for documents to scan, that’s time they’re not spending on more useful duties. By letting an outsourced team handle document scanning for you, your workers will be free to focus their energy and effort elsewhere.
3. You Want to Go Paperless
In recent times, there’s been much talk about the concept of the “paperless office”—one that is fully digitized and does not require reams of physical documents to take up space. If you’d like to realize that concept for your company, document scanning is absolutely essential.
Through scanning, you’ll digitize your many documents, whether they be contracts, reports, receipts, or anything else. You may still need some physical papers around, as very few workplaces are 100% paperless, but professional document scanning will help you get at least partway to a paperless state.
4. You Struggle to Find Important Documents
Does it ever feel like you have to organize “search parties” just to locate a single document? Or dig through box after box and filing cabinet after filing cabinet looking for one particular paper? If so, your company is crying out for better document scanning.
There’s no value in having workers waste hours of time tracking down documents, day after day. If you scan everything, with the aid of scanning providers, your docs will become far more organized. You’ll be able to locate any paper in an instant, create copies, share it around, and so on.
5. Documents Regularly Go Missing and Cannot Be Found
Following on from the previous point, you may have some instances where documents simply cannot be found. Even with a so-called “search party” trying to track it down, the paper you need might be impossible to locate, and that can cause a whole lot of problems.
Imagine you can’t find an important contract or compliance report, for example. It could generate all sorts of drama for your business and potentially damage its reputation, too. Again, by scanning everything into the system, there’s a drastically smaller chance of any document going missing.
6. Morale Is Suffering
Workplace morale is paramount for productivity. When morale is high, everything seems to flow better. Workers feel happier and get more done as a result, and there’s less risk of any conflicts, disputes, or other unwanted issues around the office.
Believe it or not, scanning can impact morale. If workers feel that they’re wasting time hunting down documents or waiting in line to scan something, their morale tends to suffer. If scanning is done for them, and they can focus on more engaging tasks, they’ll typically feel more content.
7. Your Business Is Growing
As your business grows, it almost inevitably will start accumulating more and more documents. You’ll have more forms and papers to fill out, additional contracts to keep track of, more customer data to manage, and so on.
When that happens, many of the problems listed above, like documents going missing or time being wasted searching for papers, only get worse. It’s vital, then, for your company to be proactive, taking steps to keep up with all those extra docs, and professional document scanning is often the top solution.
Invest in Document Scanning for a Simpler, Happier, and More Successful Office
So, if you’re struggling with any of the scenarios outlined above, don’t delay. A document scanning provider could make everything so much simpler for you, helping with everything from morale to productivity and more.
When it comes to document services you can trust, Metro Sales is the name to know. We offer document scanning and other essential office services for those in Burnsville, Twin Cities, Fargo, Duluth, and St. Cloud. Contact us today to learn more.