Why Scan Historic Documents?

There are two main reasons why historic documents need scanning... Either they take up too much space, or they take too long to find, or usually both.

• The information held in a standard four drawer filing cabinet can be reduced to a single CD-ROM. The expense of office rent alone could mean that back scanning normally justifies the exercise.
• The average filing cabinet with access space takes around 8sq ft and, at £20 per sq ft the cost is £160 per annum on rent alone - not to mention the cost of heating and lighting the space, business rates, cleaning and maintenance. In fact it costs on average £350 per annum to look after the average filing cabinet. And what about accessing the data? If it's used regularly then the time of someone physically entering the cabinet and taking out the file has a cost and if it's rarely used it may take considerably longer to find.

What about the need for simultaneous access or the problem of lost files?

How much time is lost to these activities? A well planned electronic archive with a good index will save enormous amounts of space and time. In fact in most cases, the scanning exercise can pay for itself in a matter of months.

Start as you mean to continue...

Why bother circulating physical documents around the company?

By scanning and committing to an electronic media early, most of the issues of wasted time and space can be eliminated. Immediate retrieval, multi-user access, and a clear desk are the main advantages of scanning and archiving current documents.