Document imaging is nothing new, and any office equipped with a scanner has basically the same capability that most third party software developers tout as “state of the art”. In truth, the state of the art as far as document imaging is concerned was developed many years ago through a series of inventions that culminated into what we now know as optical character recognition (OCR) scanning.
Fundamentally, document imaging and OCR scanning these are two separate things. In the context of business, however, document imaging at the professional level implies the inclusion of OCR. OCR, which is available as a standalone software but far more accurate at the professional level (via software integrated to outboard machines) takes document imaging a step further by actually transferring the text to a workable digital copy. End users can make alterations to the document just as they would be able to with any word processing program generated doc.
Nonprofessional PC software OCR intended for home or small business use certainly has its place, but these types of applications rely on recognized fonts from an already scanned image, the quality of which may be suspect, and transfer accordingly. The percentage of mistakes the software makes during the transfer process can be as high as 5%. For businesses with many documents to convert, proofing and fixing those errors can be a time consuming, costly endeavor.
Professional OCR, such as that offered by professional document imaging service providers, is capable of converting the hard copy document to readable, writable electronic documentation regardless of the font variants. Error rates for professional OCR can be as low as .05 percent. As OCR is further perfected at the professional level, error rates will continue to fall. Of course, the higher the speed of the transference, the greater the error rate. Manufacturers of pro level OCR software are now attempting to make it more intuitively compatible with scanning equipment in order to increase speed and reduce error rates.
Even if OCR isn’t on the agenda, scanning scores of documents with only one or two scanners can take a great deal of manpower. Most professional document imaging service providers have the capability to scan and store hundreds of files at speeds that most printers can collate. For businesses with file after file of paperwork that needs to be transferred, this can save countless man-hours and a great deal of money as a result.
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