Microfiche Scanning Services - Selection And Benefits

By Author: Scanlee
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Microfiche scanning allows you to convert your existing legacy documents that have been archived on microfiche into digital images. There are many benefits of scanning microfiche such as:
• Documents can be made accessible throughout your network and at remote locations
• Retrieval time is greatly reduced
• Digital images do not degrade with use like microfiche
• Digital images mitigate the risk of loss of physical images
• Information can be linked with other applications (ECM, HRIS, CRM, EMR, etc)
There are many factors to consider when planning microfiche scanning. The first is should you purchase equipment and do it yourself, or should you outsource it? In most cases outsourcing microfiche scanning make more sense for a variety of reasons, including these:

• Quality microfiche scanners cost $50,000 or more, so outsourcing saves money
• Learning curves on the equipment and software is steep
• Microfiche scanning is very time consuming, outsourcing will complete your project ...
... sooner since your vendor should have many scanners and run multiple shifts.
• Professional microfiche scanning service companies have advanced Quality Assurance processes
• Professional microfiche scanning service companies offer data entry and indexing and can help you load the data into your software systems.
Once you have decided to outsource your microfiche scanning you should consider a company's experience in microfiche scanning, as well as the capacity they offer to do your project quickly. You will also have to decide if you want bi-tonal images or grayscale images scanned from the microfiche. If your software allows it, grayscale images are often the best choice for older or poorly filmed microfiche, where the image quality is not so good.

In addition to the scanning of the microfiche, you will also need some level of indexing in order to retrieve the images. This is usually as simple as capturing information from the fiche header or off the images on the fiche such as name, account numbers, etc.

AUTHOR BIO:

Lee Embrey is the Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Scanning America, Inc. Scanning America, Inc. is national provider of document imaging services, including: microfilm scanning, microfiche scanning, high volume paper scanning, aperture card scanning and more.