A 1981 New York Times article (“Next, a computer on every desk”) proclaimed that businesses would eventually have a computer on every desk. Indeed, almost 40 years later, it would be nearly impossible to walk into a business that didn’t have at least one computer on every desk. The digital infiltration of business started long ago, but the true digital transformation of business is still taking place.
Digital transformation, which is defined by Salesforce as “the process of using digital technologies to create new — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements,” offers many obvious benefits, such as analytical insights, improved customer satisfaction, consolidated business processes/operations and easier collaboration.
Some businesses and industries have been slower to fully make the jump to digital transformation. For some industries, the transition was less linear than others. For some businesses, it was simply a matter of being stuck in old ways or doing things how they’d always worked. Whatever the reason, digitization today isn’t an option – it’s necessary for survival.
Much of what fuels the digital fire is data. And many businesses, especially those that weren’t born digitally, have loads of non-digital data. This data is contained on paper records or microforms. It’s stored in boxes, file cabinets, storage rooms, maybe even in off-site warehousing.
Fortunately, this data isn’t necessarily relegated to a useless future of rotting away in dust. Thanks to digital imaging technology, a company’s old data can be just as useful and accessible as its new data. These paper and microfilmed records can be converted into electronic documents, meaning they can be accessed and shared across or beyond the organization.
By adding index tags and other metadata, the files become searchable in your records management system. Furthermore, it reduces storage requirements for physical records and the time-consuming practice of flipping through countless files in search of the one you need (not to mention paper cuts).
Regardless of how neat and orderly your physical data is filed – and let’s be honest, it’s probably not totally neat and orderly – digitizing these documents makes your business more organized and more efficient, two of the important advantages of digital transformation.
Better yet, with the right equipment, digitizing your records can be done in-house. This is extremely important if your organization has sensitive data that you want to or must protect. It also provides you with flexibility. Perhaps it isn’t cost-effective to scan 100% of your old files at one time. With in-house equipment, you can scan what you need, as you need it, keeping the original document if you choose.
Digital business is the order of the day, and part of the promise of digitization is efficiency and organization, which is made possible through intelligent document management. Scanning technology can bring that old data into the digital present and give it a valuable future.
The ScanPro® All-In-One™ is a small desktop on-demand reader, printer, and scanner for research, and a conversion scanner for roll film, fiche, and jacketed fiche. Not only is the All-In-One affordable, it is easy to operate and allows organizations to perform conversion scanning in the security of their own facilities – offering the best secure, low-cost solution. Looking to start a conversion project? Contact e-ImageData for more information.