Why should India embrace the potentiality of document scanning across all industries in 2024?

Few years back, there used to be a small locker room in almost all organizations where millions of paper documents are stored in more than hundreds of filing cabinets and shelves. Whenever they require any specific file, one authorized person needs to visit that locker room and bring out all the documents for finding that specific data.

But is this an ideal solution in today’s competitive market scenario?
NO.
The world has digitized, and technological advancements are finding new ways to revolutionize how we do business in a global sphere. If your company is still relying on paper documents for running its business operations,  it’s high time to switch to digitization to achieve its full potential in today’s modern technological realm. 

In 2020, the global revenue of the document scanning market was valued at around USD 2,852.8 million which is expected to rise approx. USD 5,834.9 million by 2028, registering a CAGR growth of 9.6% during the period of 2021 to 2028.

In India, the acceptance, and the implementation of new technology into an existing business infrastructure is a difficult thing. The main reason behind this challenge is the difficulty in convincing people about the advantages of new technology Document scanning or document digitization is a technological revolution that has transformed the record-keeping system of businesses. The business entrepreneurs in India compare technology with manpower. They think manpower is the strength but sometimes, It also becomes problematic, in most cases, manpower involves errors and cost related issues.

Adopting or embracing the power of document digitization will not only change the business process but also improve the value for customers. Document digitization facilitates instant accessibility, quick sharing and improved security that reduces both time and cost. Here, in this blog we are going to talk about why businesses in India should adopt document scanning and how it can benefit their businesses across all verticals. 

Top challenges in managing paper documents

From security concerns to accessibility issues, the challenges in managing physical documents varied and complex. Let’s have a look at them below – 

• Cost: When an organization handles paper documents, it imposes a significant financial burden on the organization that encompasses  physical storage cost, labor cost, cost required for upkeeping filing equipment etc . The traditional approach of keeping data in papers creates serious challenges in different facets of document management. All these things contribute to major financial challenges faced by organizations for keeping their data on paper. 

• Security: A lot of business documents contain confidential information that needs to be secured. Manually processing documents has no security cover. It is easy to break into such systems and retrieve confidential data that can adversely affect the functioning of an organization. 

• Loss of important documents: Handling a company’s crucial data through a paper-based system involves the risk of human error that leads to mislabelling a document with a wrong file name or sudden data loss during emergencies such as floods, or fire breakouts like natural calamities. If such a situation occurs, it costs a significant amount of loss in respect of money, labor and time as you may have to re-create those documents entirely. 

• Time-consuming: This is one of the crucial challenges of document management. If your business keeps its documents on paper, the physical transfer of documents from one department to another consumes a lot of time. Similarly, if you need to retrieve a specific data on an emergency basis, it will turn into a tiring job of retrieving data from piles of documents. This time and effort could be given to more productive work if the organization chooses to digitize its data through document scanning. 

• Physical storage: Storing paper documents in file cabinets, drawers, and cardboard boxes consumes a lot of valuable space. As the volume of paper starts to grow, the limited area of physical space becomes a significant obstacle, resulting in poor organization and difficulty in retrieving data instantly. 

• Accessibility: Managing paper documents manually poses a major challenge in accessing documents quickly. Unlike digital records, physical documents need proper filing and sorting, making it a time-consuming and tiring process. This manual retrieval of documents hinders quick accessibility of data, impacting the workflow efficiency of an organization. This delay not only drains the productivity of employees but also leads to inefficiency in the decision-making process and collaborative efforts within the organization. 

All these challenges highlight the importance of document digitization across all industries in India. 

What is document scanning?

Document Scanning is the process of converting paper documents into digital records. Here, the digitization is done using a scanner that captures the digital image of the documents and OCR technology helps in transforming these digital data into machine-readable language. Once a document is digitized, it is stored in a secure cloud platform for quick accessibility and easy sharing. 

Digitized documents are quickly accessible from anywhere at any time across all devices facilitating collaboration, saving space, reducing cost, and enhancing productivity. It also ensures the security of documents, lowering the risk of data loss or theft. 

How does the document digitization process work? 

The process of document digitization is simple and hassle-free. When you choose to hire a professional scanning service provider, they evolve a few steps for converting paper documents into digital format that include – 

• Preparation: To ensure high-quality image capture, documents are first prepared for scanning which involves removing paper clips, staples, and other things. After that, flattening is done if there are any folds or creases.
   
• Scanning: The second step involves scanning where a high-end scanner is used for capturing images of the paper documents. Industrial document scanning devices are capable of processing multiple types of documents at one go. Some scanners can capture both sides of a document in a single attempt while other scanners need to scan each side separately.
  
• Document processing: Scanned images of documents are first processed through software that can correct any type of errors or distortions in the images such as adjustment of brightness, removing stains or any kind of smudges, or cropping an image to remove the excess background.
   
• Data extraction: The next step involves data extraction which is done by applying the most advanced technology called OCR (Optical Character Recognition)  that transforms these scanned image text into machine-readable language. The extracted text through OCR is both searchable and editable.
  
• Storage and indexing: For easy accessibility, digitized documents are indexed with the file name and date and then stored centrally in a cloud-based platform that can be accessed by any authorized user from anywhere at any time across all devices. 

These are the few steps that are followed for converting paper documents into digital format. If you have a huge bundle of documents to be scanned within a short period of time, you can avail Bulk document scanning service where you just need to put all your paper documents into a box and send it for scanning. The advanced scanning devices will scan the boxes and transform all documents into digitized data within a short span of time. 

What are the benefits of document scanning? 

Managing a lot of paper documents is a strenuous, time-consuming, and less efficient job. Digitization can help you to go paperless and bring efficiency to your workflow management. Here are the five reasons why you should embrace the power of document scanning and enhance the record-keeping process. 

Accessibility 

One of the key benefits of document scanning is instant accessibility. Digitized records can easily be accessed from anywhere at any time by authorized users across all devices, no matter whether they are onsite or offsite. Imagine an organization that handles a large volume of paper invoices from different vendors on a daily basis. The accounts handling team sorts these invoices manually and keeps these physical files for record-keeping purposes. This process is not only tiring but also time-consuming. 

By implementing document digitization in this respect, the company will not only be able to improve the process of account management but also ensure 100% accuracy, quick accessibility, and enhanced capability for analysis and reporting. This real-time example clearly shows the importance of embracing digitization in today’s business context. 

Data security

Document scanning improves data security by retrieving paper records from physical storage and converting them into digitized data for storing them in a secured cloud platform that will be accessible to authorized users only. Due to this, critical business data can be kept safe by preventing unauthorized access, accidental loss, or theft. 

Efficiency 

When data is kept on paper, it is difficult to find any specific file from piles of documents and filing cabinets. On the other hand, Digitization of documents makes it easier to find any file or specific information in just a few clicks as they are saved in digital versions on a cloud-based platform. Along with this, the involvement of OCR Scanning service provides quick accessibility to information as it converts scanned text into machine-readable language. 

Collaboration

Document scanning helps improve collaboration among different departments as it makes it easier to manage and share digitized data instantly, regardless of the work location. Any authorized user from anywhere at any time can access those data. And when the employees of an organization can collaborate properly, it leads to improved productivity, communication, and better decision-making ability. 

Space saving 

When paper documents are stored in cabinets in an organization, they take up valuable space. The more the business grows, the more will be the number of documents and therefore, when you need to set up some new systems for better work efficiency, we will face the problem of space crunch. Document scanning helps to deal with such challenges efficiently. Digitized documents eliminate the requirement for physical space and free up space for better revenue-generating activities.   

Cost saving

By embracing the power of document digitization, businesses can save money by eliminating storage costs, money spent on hiring resources for managing documents, and costs related to printing and shifting of physical files. 

Disaster recovery 

If you keep your business data on paper, there always exists the risk of data loss due to unforeseen disasters that may take place at any time anywhere. Natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, and fire can destroy all physical files, leading to a significant loss of business data. With digitization, data can be protected as well as retrieved throughout your entire life cycle as it can be backed up and stored in different locations for quick accessibility and retrieval during any emergency. 

Digitize your documents with Skysite’s Document scanning services

Is your business flooded with files that need to be scanned for better work efficiency? Skysite’s document scanning services can help you convert your business into a digital workplace. We offer the most advanced form of document scanning and archiving solutions that include on-site scanning, large format scanning, small format scanning, bulk document scanning, etc. No matter what size of document you have or how much quantity of documents you need to scan, our expert professionals can help you accomplish the job in the most efficient and manageable manner. At Skysite, we believe that only scanning documents is not enough, it has to be properly indexed and archived for easy searching and quick accessibility. Skysite is a one-stop platform for document scanning to archiving. 

Request a free consultation 

Contact our Skysite scanning team to learn more about the document scanning process and how it can help your business to gain more profit in the coming days. We will be happy to serve you in the best way.