The significance of documentation is well-recognized these days. However, there might still be some workplaces that don’t realize the importance of organized digitization of documents. This sets them back by a huge margin in the current competitive market.
This is why I have prepared this guide on how to organize and digitize business documents. I will share some of the most effective techniques for this. Using these techniques, businesses will be able to convert their paper-based databases into a digital ecosystem.
But before we share the actual process, the following section briefly describes the importance of this.
Why Digitize Documents?
As hinted before, almost all businesses are working with digital documents nowadays. This is because of the immense benefits that come with digitization. Some of them are listed here so you can know what you can get from such a conversion.
- Digital documents are much easier and faster to share with each other.
- Digitization offers increased protection of documents from physical threats such as theft, loss, or damage caused by water or fire.
- If you digitize your documents, they become much easier to edit. This can potentially allow you to reuse the same document with minor changes instead of drafting the same file again and again.
- Digitized documents are much more cost-effective than paper documents.
These, along with many other reasons, tell us that digital documents are now essential for modern businesses. For example, a survey reveals that 43% of employees would consider leaving their job if their company didn’t have an efficient way to access the records they need for work. So, let’s show you how you can get this done.
Effective Method for Digitizing and Organizing Your Documents
Here is a breakdown of what steps you should take in order to digitize your paper-based records efficiently.
1. Sort Your Documents
Before you start the digitization process, it would be a good idea to sort your documents in some way. You can do a date-based organization in which older documents come first and new ones later.
Similarly, you can do a department-wise organization. Such organizing beforehand can save you time later on.
2. Scan Your Documents
The next step is to take scanned images of your documents. This is because you can’t convert a document directly into an editable digital format. So, first, you need to have scanned copies of the required documents.
A mobile device with a scanning app is enough for small-scale digitization. However, a specialized document scanner may be a good option for large volumes of documents.
This task is simple and can be easily delegated. However, you need to make sure the scans are easy to read and visible. Always remember that low-quality images may not provide accurate results. So, pay special attention to the quality of the scans to avoid any inconvenience later.
3. Choose a Conversion Tool
After you have your documents in a convertible form, you have to select an OCR tool that you will use to transform them into the final digital form. Look for an image to text converter that is capable of processing multiple images at once, because businesses usually have a large volume of documents that need to be digitized. Having 24/7 live chat support is also a big plus.
These tools use OCR technology to read and extract text from an image. They take a few seconds to convert a scanned document into a digital, shareable file. The final output text can either be copied or downloaded as a text file.
4. Convert Scanned Documents into Editable Files
A brief functioning of OCR tools is given in the previous heading. Some of these tools also offer API integration, which means everything will be automated and you will not have to do anything. However, for basic needs, a simple online converter is often more than enough and doesn’t require any technical setup.
Here is what you need to follow:
- Upload the scanned copy (or copies) of your paper-based document into the tool.
- Click on the convert button.
- If you are using the free version, you might have to go through a CAPTCHA verification (you can bypass this by purchasing the premium plans). After that, wait for the conversion.
- After a few seconds, the text preview of your document will be displayed. You can either copy this text or download it as a document.
These simple steps will allow you to use an online converter for effective digitization.
5. Review the Results
As a last step, proofread the documents that you have converted. This is because no matter how accurate the software, there is still a chance for an error. Even though modern OCR capabilities are quite advanced, you can never blindly trust this technology.
Therefore, you should match the converted documents with the original files to be sure. The good thing is that even if you find some mistakes, fixing them is very easy.
Final Words
As you know now, digitization has immense benefits. But the more important thing is how easily you can achieve these benefits. The process of digitization might scare businesses because it sounds like a resource-draining procedure.
But as you can see now, it is a straightforward process. So, why not take advantage of it? My last advice to all the readers would be to integrate digitization and organization in your business as soon as possible.
