Document Imaging and Document Management is a process where images of paper documents are electronically captured and stored.

In a nutshell, Document Imaging or Document Management involves scanning paper documents converting them into electronic images of the paper document. Electronically generated documents such as word-processing, spreadsheet, presentations, etc. can also be stored in their original format without the need to scan them.  These electronic images must be identified or indexed to allow finding them later.

Once a paper document is captured, the document can quickly and easily be retrieved and displayed, annotated, processed, routed, distributed to other users and faxed electronically right from your workstation.  Of course, it can also be printed if required.

The advantage of converting a paper document into an electronic digitized image is that it may now be routed electronically to a person or group, it may be sent to a recipient via email or fax and it can be viewed by any number of people at the same time.

The best part however, is that this electronic image of a document never has to be returned to a file room or re-filed. Document scanning and indexing is a fairly simple and quick process when compared to preparing and labeling file folders and filing them.

There are many devices available to properly scan documents.  Proper care must be taken to evaluate the requirements prior to selecting a scanner.  Every scanner can scan documents.  However, each scanner is designed and build to handle specific needs.  Some scanners are extremely fast and are equipped with amazing document feeding and paper separation capabilities.  Others are designed to scan a single page at a time on a "flat-bed" similar to a basic photocopier.

Among the most critical criteria that must be considered while selecting a device to scan your documents with are:

• The condition of the paper to be scanned

• The colors, shades and hues of the paper

• The acceptable quality of the scan copy

• Paper sizes and shapes

• The type of paper to be scanned

• Do Bar-Codes need to be identified and decoded

• Does any data need to be extracted from the documents

Most scanners are built with paper type and size tolerances.  For example, some scanners may not be able to scan anything smaller than 3" by 5", anything thicker than 20 lbs paper or slick items such as photos or postcards.  If you need to scan thick documents such as cardstock or postcards, you may want to select a scanner with a straight paper path.  This way the paper does not need to be bent as it goes through the document feeder.

Even more critical to the success of a document imaging implementation and deployment is the software you select.  With the wrong software, even the best, most expensive scanner will not provide a competitive advantage.  In fact, it may actually reduce productivity. 

If you need to identify information on the documents during or after a scan, you may require additional software.  One example is the need to recognize Bar-Codes.   You must make sure that you vendor or software developer provides for the ability to recognize bar-codes.  Some scanners can be equipped with Bar-code recognition hardware.  However, if your software does not support it, you will have spent money unnecessarily.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition) are two other technologies that may help.  OCR allows reading "machine-printed" words and numbers from scanned documents.  ICR allows reading hand-printed words and numbers.  Both of these are usually add-on modules or processes that are performed after the scan. 

In legal litigation scenarios, the entire contents of some of the documents needs to be recognized and converted to machine print for searching.  This is knows as Full-Text OCR.  After the scan, the document is recognized and can be searched for key words, much like on the internet.  Fuzzy-search technology allows finding pages even if you mistype or partially type search words.

Imaging101 supports hundreds of scanners from dozens of manufacturers such as Kodak, Bell & Howell, Fujitsu, Visioneer, Canon and many more.  Imaging 101 can drive scanners via industry the key industry standard interfaces; TWAIN and ISIS.

Imaging101 helps you streamline your organization by removing paper at the beginning of the process.  You can scan your documents where they first come into your business automatically route and assign electronic copies of these documents to your employees, supervisors, managers and administration.  Imaging 101 is a no-nonsense and cost-effective solutions that allows your organization to achieve its true potential without wasting time and money.

With Imaging 101 you can manage your people and your processes to ensure effectiveness and efficiency like you've never experienced before.