Digitization is the conversion of physical information into digital format and can be accessed from an electronic device such as computer or smartphone.

Have you ever thought that your Paper documents will deteriorate and get  damaged with time and the information stored on them may get lost especially if the intention of keeping the documents is to use them in future.  Digitization is much more complex than document scanning because it includes more components which includes capturing specifically content, classification and indexing of the paper documents as per your documenting process.

Documents that are digitized include

Standard files

These are paper documents which are usually in A4 size 

Plans and Maps

These are large format paper documents which can be as big as A0 size or even larger.

Photographs and microfilms

Photographs are in paper format while the microfilms are different though they still also get damaged and deteriorate with time.

Factors to look at when preparing for digitization.

Condition of the paper document

This will determine how the document will be scanned and which scanner will be used. 

Demand for the document

If there is a high demand for a specific document, it is best to have the document digitized to minimize damage to the original document

Intrinsic value of the information held by the paper document

The document should be of value to the company for it to be digitized.

Intellectual properties

The company should have rights to the paper document to have it placed in a digital format. 

What is the risk of damage on the document being digitized? 

The technical aspect 

Is the company capable of capturing, describing, storing and making accessibility to the digital format easy. 

Mass digitization of documents should not affect the quality of the digital document. Quality digital versions should be available for the users.  

Challenges in digitization

Different sizes of paper

You may encounter different paper size which might slow down the process. The standard size of paper is usually A4, 

Paper thickness or thinness

The standard paper thickness is usually around 70gsm to 80 gsm but you will encounter documents which are 80gsm and above. 

Paper texture

Some paper documents are produced in rough paper such as embossed paper which might affect the clarity of the documents because of the rough surface. 

Coloured paper

Depending on the choice of scan whether in black/white or in colour will determine the outcome of the scan. If a colored paper is scanned as black/white it might appear as a solid colour black.  A test scan can be done before going through the whole process to avoid double workload.

Bulk no. of documents also can cause challenges because the sorting period becomes longer to ensure that the documents are sorted out correctly..

Security of the documents is also an area of concern which is considered during the digitization process to ensure there is no leakage of information while the process is going on.

Speeding up the process of digitization would require a large no. of personnel. The other alternative is to outsource and leave the employees to continue with their everyday duties.

You can actually configure your scans to get scanned directly to your google drive or dropbox or your selection of cloud storage saving you the hassle of double work of scanning and transferring later.

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