Technology
A wide range of advanced, specialist technologies have been developed specifically for document management. Diversity and the rapid rate of development call for a high level of competence for their sucessful integration and the provision of costeffective, reliable business solutions.
Here is a brief tour through some of the main elements of these technologies. They include scanners, data storage, standards and software. A glossary explains relevant abbreviations and terminology.
Scanners
Paper documents are still being generated and stored in vast quantities despite the technology available to virtually eliminate them. As a workaday medium they can be very convenient.
However, paper is an awkward beast. It does not come in uniform shape, size, quality or condition. As a result it represents a challenge to the manufacturers of scanners used to convert such material into a digital stream. There is no problem with a single page. Place it on a flatbed scanner. Close the lid and press start. But if there is a need to capture thousands of pages a day, then automated feed is required.
The first problem is the purely mechanical task of ensuring that the variations in paper can be handled and only one page is picked at a time. The second is to ensure that the quality of the image captured is an acceptable facsimile of the original, especially where the original is faded or in poor condition.
With scanners, as with most things in life, users get what they pay for - particularly with regard to mechanical elements. Better scanners use ultra sonic detectors to monitor and correct single page feeding. They work by sensing resonance caused by air pockets trapped between two sheets of paper.
Microchip speeds are increasing all the time and the cost of processing power is falling inexorably. It is now possible to have significantly more intelligence in scanners. For example, to assist in the correction of images by automatically adjusting contrast levels and handling full colour. Once the preserve of the most expensive scanning equipment, such features are now becoming increasingly standard.
Beware of compromise or penny pinching, high volume scanning needs reliable, quality solutions. A scanner fit for the purpose may cost £5,000 more than an alternative that is at the upper limit of its capabilities. However, when account is taken of scanner labour operating costs over a typical four or five-year lifecycle it soon becomes apparent which is the more cost effective purchase.