Technology doesn't do us much good if we don't use it. In this issue of Optimal Impact, we discuss our own observations on one of the basic steps of office modernization—scanning.
In the late 1990’s, we all thought scanners were the ultimate harbingers of the paperless office. Now, of course, we know better. A truly paperless office will probably never be a reality. But scanning policies do make sense—especially if your organization has a sophisticated document or client management system for storing and organizing electronic documents. And, although hard copies are still necessities for some documents, it is pretty nice to have meeting and project notes online and readily accessible to all team members. Is it feasible, though, to require employees to use a centralized office scanner? After some research, and a careful look at our own experiences and those of our clients, we’ve found that the answer is no.
The Problem with Centralized Scanners
We purchased a very nice networked scanner for our office a couple years ago. Employees were encouraged to scan important client communication and service documents. There was only one problem—it was inconvenient. You had to walk the document over to the scanner, wait in line to use it, scan and save the document to a central folder, and then return to your desk and search for the document to file it into the correct folder. Needless to say, people avoided this tedious process whenever they could. Except for the most important pieces of communication, our scanner was ignored. Then, we talked to one of our clients.
A Different Approach
Our client (a law firm) had thousands of scanned documents—created by employees on an ongoing and consistent basis. The trick? A desktop scanner. Although they can be at bit pricey ($300 each, on average), they are small, fast, and easy to use. And because these scanners are physically located on the employees’ desks—at the point of paper contact—they are extremely convenient. Turns out this is a trend that is catching on. According to an article in a 2008 issue of Dedicated Scanners, “Many large practices, even though they have high-volume, centralized scanners, find it more productive to also keep a scanner at individual desks in order to reduce time spent away from the workstation.” So, we tried it.
It Works!
The desktop scanners get the job done and people use them. Since we implemented them, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of company documents scanned and stored in their rightful places. Other companies report similar positive results. An article titled, Multifunction Printers (MFPs) in Distributed Scanning, reported that there was a 30 percent increase in scanning among those companies that installed scanners at individual work stations. Moreover, 56 percent of those respondents with scanners at their desks estimated that their scanning volume would increase.
Last Word
With today’s emphasis on collaborative work environments, the ability to share information electronically is increasingly crucial. Today’s scanning technology allows us to digitize documents, making them much easier to store, search, and share. By switching from a centrally-located scanner to individual desktop scanners, you can significantly improve the likelihood that staff will make good use of this essential technology.
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