Bulk Scanning: Digitize Your Files with Less Time and Effort

Bulk scanning can’t be overlooked as a valuable tool for the modern office. Despite living in a digital world, paper is still prevalent in the workplace. Even with most offices closed in 2020, an estimated 2.8 trillion document pages were printed last year, and 50 percent of all files that employees printed from home were work-related, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).

While IDC does forecast the volume of office paper usage to decline by 2025, the projected amount is still extremely high—about 4.4 million pages printed each minute. As a result, 70 percent of workers spend 1 to 3 hours each day searching for information on scattered paper files.

Paper costs your business valuable time and decreases productivity. But what if your business still relies on paper? What if you are forced to print and store paper files for legal purposes? In this situation many businesses print the document, then scan it into their system then shred the paper. This process, however, can be time consuming if you have a business that generates thousands of pieces of paper each day.

Instead of letting paper slow you down, streamline the file share and storage process with bulk scanning.

What Is Bulk Scanning and How Does It Work?

Enter bulk scanning. Instead of scanning files one by one like you would at home, bulk scanning lets you scan multiple documents at one time. While this is often done with commercial-grade equipment, it can also be accomplished with most widely available scanners, as long as you have the right bulk scanning software.

The key is to find software that will not only scan, convert and upload the materials, but also index, sort and organize them into a virtual filing system for simple retrieval. Having digital files is useless if no one can find them.

How Does Bulk Scanning Benefit Your Small Business?

Bulk scanning is more convenient for employees and more functional and practical for business operations. That’s not all—there are many ways this software and business practice benefits you as a small business owner.

No Manual Data Entry

When choosing your bulk scanning software, make sure it can automate file naming. When scanning hundreds, or even thousands of files, any manual process, however small, will slow you down.

Modern bulk scanning software solutions can determine the document type based on the format or content by using a technology called Optical Character Recognition (OCR). It then automatically adds the document name and transfers it to the correct folder. This simple process can save hours of work each week, freeing up your team to focus on more important tasks.

Improved Search

If your bulk scanning software offers OCR, you can turn document scans from flat images to text based documents. Once scanned, all document content can be searched instead of just the file name.

This means someone can search for something generic like “brake pads” and get back all documents that contain that term. This is particularly useful if you don’t know the specific file name. Instead of wasting time digging through each and every document, employees can now do a quick search to find what they need.

Faster Scanning

With bulk scanning software, you can digitize stacks of paper documents, from contracts and invoices to work orders and HR reports in minutes. The best part is you can do it right in your own office—no need to send important documents out to a third party to do it for you.

Once scanned, you can also sync these digital files with a Document Management System (DMS) to facilitate seamless document sharing across any device. This is especially useful for remote and distributed teams or companies with multiple offices, allowing everyone to scan and then access those documents no matter the location.

Enhanced Security

When you think of data breaches, cyber-attacks usually come to mind. However, according to research from Verizon, 36 percent of security threats occur due to human error or file misdelivery, regardless of whether the document is electronic or hardcopy.

Mistakes will happen—someone could leave a paper document in a highly visible location, forget to shred it, or misplace it altogether. Bulk scanning minimizes the risk of scattering or losing sensitive paperwork and ensures that your files are protected in a secure, encrypted database.

By bulk scanning your documents into a DMS, you have more control over who can access what and ensure that your files are safe and protected, yet still readily available to those who need it.

Greater Efficiency

Bulk scanning requires much less time and labor than scanning documents one by one in the office, plus automated data entry makes it even easier to scan multiple pages quickly without worrying about time-consuming manual work.

This automation can be invaluable to your business. According to Salesforce, 74 percent of business leaders agree automation can help their employees save 11 to 30 percent of the time they would otherwise devote to manual tasks.

What’s more, 38 percent of leaders feel that automation elevates performance quality, according to a WorkMarket poll. With bulk scanning, employees can focus on more critical tasks instead of filing papers or scanning them one at a time, then labeling and organizing them.

Improved Collaboration

If your team is located in different offices, or is working from home, bulk scanning allows everyone to collaborate with greater ease. With access to all documents no matter the location, employees can retrieve any file in seconds, instead of waiting for someone to email them an attachment or drive to a physical office location to dig through file cabinets. With a quick search of the database, they’ll have what they need to be productive.

More Office Space

If your file room is taking up valuable office space, you can reclaim that space with bulk scanning. Once scanned, the paperwork can be shredded so it doesn’t need an entire room or multiple bulky file cabinets to hold. Even if you have thousands of files to digitize, bulk scanning will make it easy to clear out that space quickly.

Use Bulk Scanning to Digitize Your Files

Whether you have a few hundred paper files to scan or an entire archive that dates back ten years, bulk scanning software will make your life easier. Convert those documents to a digital format with efficient scanning and reap the benefits. If your small business is ready for a digital transformation, our team is here to help!