It is important to get things right from the very outset of a project. Pagefree work very closely with prospective clients to ensure that all stages of the archive process are carried out to the clients complete satisfaction. Archives are by their nature large and unwieldy so care must be taken to plan ahead. It is important to know if the archive is to be moved to storage in sections or at one visit and if it is to be handled in several batches the timing and quantities should be agreed well in advance. The way in which the archive is to be scanned is important it maybe that there are set time scales, possibly even with penalties, or it may be that this is not important giving the scanning service provider more flexibility. This is a situation often reflected in a reduced scanning cost.

At this time it is also important to know if the documents need to be scanned and returned in a particular order. If this is the case then the storage containers must be clearly marked and a schedule for removing the documents from their current location determined.

Document Collection

Once the above planning is complete and the time for collection arives it will be necessary to load the documents into storage crates and clearly mark these so that they can be handled in the correct order upon reaching the scanning bureau. There are many methods to acheive this from a simple labelling sytem to the use of sophisticated Bar Code tecnologies.

Document Scanning

Pagefree will carry out the scanning of documents according to the previously agreed instructions. This will obviously detail the type of images required, the retreival method ( CD, Internet ect ), the fields of indexing and the format Indexed Tiff, PDF etc. In addition the quantity and regularity of the scanning must be controlled and reports on the progress fed back to the client as agreed. The final considerations will include the arrangements for invoicing and also the destruction or return of documents.

Access to Documents

Scanning of a large archive will invariably mean that the documents are away from the owners for some amount of time. This will tend to be much longer than in the case of scanning ongoing documents due to the quantities. The need to access documents during this time will no doubt arise. This is not a problem as individual documents or whole files can be retrieved and either scanned and emailed, faxed. the originals returned or scanned and posted on the internet for collection by authorised persons. Pagefree thus ensure that the client is never without access to the documents during the scanning process.

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Ongoing Scanning

When contemplating the scanning of ongoing documents many of the problems encountered in scanning large archives no longer apply. The quantites are invariably much smaller and as they will arrive at regular intervals it is possible to set up regular procedures for dealing with them.

The reason for scanning documents may well vary from one type to another. Some documents may be scanned and then the scanned versions will be the ones to worked , in some cases the paper documents may go directly to the scanning company and only the electronic copy provided to teh client for processing. This is a very different case than one where the paper documents are worked on by the client and only released for scanning when the amount of work still to be carried out on them has dropped to a very low level.

Pagefree will work closely with you to determine the most effective frequency of collection taking into account the above and also the turnround time agreed at the planning stage. when this is finaly determined it will be incorporated into the scanning scahedule and specification.

Document Collection

A collection schedule will be drawn up and put into action. Pagefree will call you a few days before the collection is due to ensure that your documents are ready and that we have arranged a time convenient for yourselves.

Document Scanning

The procedure for document scanning is much the same as for the archive documents but it is often more important that documents can be retrieved quickly if they are needed before they are scanned but after they have been collected.

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DIY Scanning

This is a section for you who have made the decission to go it alone and do all your scanning in-house

When I say go it alone thats not quite true because we have produced a series of guides based on our 12 years as a scanning bureau and more year than we care to remember in the microfilm arena. Due to the amount of material we have decided to make it available as a series of free white papers. To obtain the first paper, available now, and then later papers when available please tick the appropriate box on the form provided.

The first paper is on

                    Preparing Documents the way that the professionals do - VIDEO’s

Subsequent papers include:     Scanning your documents

   Indexing and Data Entry

   Producing CD’s & DVD’s

  Disposing of Scanned Documents

I would like to receive White Papers

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