Our state-of-the-art document scanning bureau is ready and waiting to capture your documents, releasing your staff to deal with more important tasks.
We have invested heavily in equipment, training and support to be able to offer you an unparalleled range of services and can scan any type and volume of documents in high quality and to deadline. A variety of delivery methods and formats are available, ensuring that you will be able to quickly access the scanned images either using you own existing software or an
Integrated Document Management System provided by us. All work is thoroughly checked for quality assurance before return and is guaranteed 100% against your specification, quality and correctness.
Our professional scanning bureau provides an exhaustive range of services.
Contact Us for further details
Collection and Delivery
Collections and deliveries of your documents are made using our own unmarked vehicles and drivers.
Although it may not sound important, efficient and professional collection of your documents is a crucial part of the process and we have numerous procedures in place to ensure that it runs smoothly and that a clear, auditable trail is maintained.
Lists of documents can be produced and signed off by our drivers and then checked again upon receipt at our production centre. Uniquely numbered delivery / collection notes are produced and are used to track your documents right the way through the scanning process.
We have regular weekly transport runs throughout the south east and London and can easily arrange collections throughout the UK.
Document Preparation
To scan documents quickly and efficiently, we use state of the art production machines capable of scanning hundreds of pages per minute. In order for documents to pass through the machines at speed, they need to be prepared.
This process involves removing paperclips, staples and bindings, unfolding oversized pages, repairing tears etc. Our trained operators are also able to sort, vet and remove duplicates prior to scanning.
Preparing the documents yourselves can reduce the cost. Our experienced team will work with you to establish the most agreeable method for preparation and can supply tools to make the process more efficient.
Once documents have been scanned, our full finishing services enable us to return them to you in exactly the same condition as they were supplied
Small format document scanning
Documents up to A3 in size are captured using high volume scanners. These machines are capable of scanning in colour or black and white at high speeds and benefit from sophisticated tools to ensure the highest quality images are produced, even from poor quality originals.
Ultrasonic double-feed detection systems ensure that no originals are missed out and all scanners are manned continuously by trained operators who view the images on screen as they are captured. Suspect images are re-scanned until a suitable quality is achieved.
Scanned images are produced in all common formats (i.e. Tiff, Jpeg, Pdf) and can then be viewed, printed and emailed from your PC using free software or exported for use in a database or document management system.
Large format document scanning
Our specialist large format scanners enable us to capture almost any document, regardless of size, material, thickness or state of the original.
Rotary fed document scanners can capture large volumes of drawings - in black and white or colour - in a cost effective manner. Our quality enhancement services can be used to de-skew, crop, scale and clean up poor quality originals.
If you need to edit the drawings, we can provide them back in DWG or DXF format for use in CAD systems, which is substantially quicker and less expensive than re-drawing the documents from scratch. Otherwise images can be produced in common formats for viewing on your PC such as Tiff, Jpeg or Pdf or using document management software.
Microfilm Scanning
Using our range of specialist equipment, we are able to capture any format of 16 or 35mm microfilm, cartridge, jacket or fiche. Combination fiche (mixed 16mm and 35mm images), aperture cards and COM (Computer Output to Microfilm) fiche can also be captured in large volumes.
Business documents captured from microfilm can be indexed and stored in a document management system in the same way as scans from paper documents. Drawings captured can be enhanced using cropping, de-skewing, scaling and image cleansing operations.
Whether you are migrating archive microfilm files to an electronic system, extracting data from mainframe COM fiche or scanning old films so that they can be printed out, we can help.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
OCR technology reads the content of a scanned image and produces electronic text. We can provide two main types of OCR on your scanned images:
The first is "Background OCR" which retains the original scanned image for viewing, but creates a layer of hidden text. This enables you to find relevant content in a document regardless of where it is located, how it was produced and what it is called.
The second, "Full OCR" creates an editable record (typically word-processor, database or spreadsheet) and is often used to reproduce documents that only exist in hardcopy (or microfilm) without the need for re-typing or for converting large volumes of data for use in a database.
Quality Assurance
Numerous quality assurance procedures are in place to ensure that only data of the highest quality and integrity is produced.
As well as supervision, various checks and verification parameters at all stages of production, we also provide post production quality assurance by checking random samples of output from each batch of work for each customer.
All works are subject to our 100% guarantee so if somehow, something does slip through the net, we will rectify it free of charge.
Document Options quality assurance procedures are ISO standards accredited and our image capture output is monitored by Kodak
Returning Your Data
Once your data has been checked for quality assurance, we can return it to you in a variety of ways:
Your images are typically returned on CD or DVD. Typically one DVD holds around 120,000 A4 images (or 8 filing cabinets!) and a backup can be produced for offsite storage and disaster recovery.
Otherwise, images can be sent directly to your servers or loaded to Document Options Dot Net, our secure online document management system for retrieval from any PC with an Internet connection.
If you require an alternative method or are still unsure, please contact us for friendly, professional advice.
Returning Your Originals
We will store your originals free of charge for 30 days following the completion of scanning. Once that time is up you have a number of options available to you.
We can simply return the documents to you and if necessary they can be reconstructed to their original state so that they look exactly the same as when they left. Often this is not required.
If you do not want to see them again, we can securely destroy them in an environmentally friendly manner, or you can choose to store them long-term using our inexpensive document storage services.
