Counting documents during an assessment

Written by Byron Aulick | February 17 2010

When you are performing an imaging assessment, getting an accurate document count is crucial. You need this number to size equipment, both for imaging and storage. You also need to identify the volume for both primary and exception imaging process workflows--that is the main document type and the outliers. Counting documents is both an art and a science. In fact, an experienced consultant can walk through a facility and get an accurate count with the customer hardly even recognizing that he is busy counting away. Here's an example of how I do it in the field.

I count my documents in linear feet. Whether they are on a shelf, in boxes, in file cabinets, or stacked on a desk, I estimate in feet--2,000 pages per foot to be exact. If I walk into an office with four cubes, I first ask the person giving the tour if all the docs are to be scanned. They tell me which ones to include and which to not include. Let's say for example I see about half a foot on two desks, a foot on the other two. There is 1.5 feet of files in each desk. I open a couple cabinets and see a total of four more feet. Then they have a common wall-mounted three foot three-shelf unit for a total of nine feet.

Then I write down a few other pieces of information such as % density, % duplex (and % color if the customer wants color, and other sizes if present). Let's say the shelves contain all three-ring binders and all duplex; I would estimate 50% density and 100% duplex. That gives me 9 feet x 2,000 pages x 0.5 = 9,000 pages and 18,000 images.

Let's say the remainder of documents are in folders (90% density) and only 50% are duplex. That is 13 feet x 2,000 pages, x 0.9 density = 23,400 pages and 35,100 images.

I always do ask the customer to tell me what they think they have for documents, but I also prepare estimates in the manner described in this article to ensure I get an accurate number. In fact, I once had a customer with two tractor-trailer sized roll-offs full of file boxes. They had a detailed manual count of the documents. I, in turn, performed my quick estimate and derived a number just thousands off of their number (the result was in millions of pages). This system is quick, efficient, and with a little practice, extremely accurate.

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Tips on the Use and Maintenance of your Scanner Bulb

Written by April Aulick | January 05 2010

When a scanner bulb turns on, it warms up from room temperature to its operating temperature. When it turns off, it slowly cools down. The color balance of the light is dependent to some extent on the temperature of the bulb, and changes in color balance are more pronounced with less expensive scanners. What this means to you is that the color balance of your scans can change as result of changes in bulb temperature. The first image you scan during a long session may look a lot different from the 100^th, depending on your scanner. You may not find this a problem, but here are some tips.

• Some scanners leave their bulb on all the time. As long as you wait a few minutes after turning the scanner on before making your first scan, bulb warm up should not be a problem.

• Some scanners have an option for "quick" scans and for "high accuracy" scans. With a quick scan the bulb comes on and the scan is made right away. With an "accurate" scan the bulb comes on for about 30 seconds and then the scan starts. Use the latter setting for more consistent results.

• If your scanner offers no option other than the bulb coming on just as the scan starts, try scanning at regular intervals - one scan every 30 seconds, for example.

Scanner bulbs also change slowly with age. You can compensate for age changes by calibrating your scanner on a regular basis.

PDI+ Printing and Document Imaging certification how can that help me??

Written by Byron Aulick | December 03 2009

We work very closely with CompTIA, the owners of the certification for technicians called PDI+. They were looking for a good case study to share with their contemporaries, so I reached out to a training client that became certified last year after taking our online training course. Our client's original intent for the training and certification was to add another certification to their long list of credentials to show-off to their clients. They got way more than they expected!

In short, here is what our client said about PDI+:

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The DataVault Cop at New England Business Expo 2009

Written by Nick Inglis | November 02 2009

Our Clients Watch Our Progress, Do You?

Written by Nick Inglis | October 14 2009

Our web design and marketing clients can now participate in the progress of their projects! Our project management suite now offers our clients access to see how their project is progressing as well as get support, comment and upload pertinent documents. Our clients love us for good reason. Next time you need a website refresh, go with the best. See our project management in action:

We've heard horror stories about firms making promises and not delivering. We want our clients to have peace of mind knowing that their project is unfolding just as planned, on the discussed timeline and just as they would like it to look.

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Document Management Animation

Written by Nick Inglis | October 08 2009

Window of Opportunity: Scanning and Archiving Have Become Imperative For Business

Written by Byron Aulick | September 17 2009

Image by Peejay via Sxc.hu

The old days of sorting through scads of paper files are fading fast!

Medical, legal, manufacturing and government all have one thing in common. Each day they produce or generate large volumes of paper files. If you add this to the already existing load of paper in the office, you can see it fast becomes unmanageable. This is a golden opportunity for scanning solutions!

The amount of ‘unstructured data’ in the form of scanned paper files is increasing at break-neck speeds! Also, this data has increased substantially in just the last few years. Moreover, this is true for any type of business. In the age of electronic communication, information overload is endemic across the public, private and nonprofit sectors.

Organizations are confronting the fact that capturing, archiving and storing data is a major undertaking. Massive amounts of important information must somehow be captured and converted into a useful form so that it is readily accessible.

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Disaster recovery and YOU!

Written by Byron Aulick | August 04 2009

One of the more difficult questions we typically do not want to think about is: How well is our company protected in the event of a natural disaster? If one did occur, it could cost your company a huge amount of money, and possibly the future of your business!

It is estimated that, in the event of a disaster:

* 29% of companies close within two years
* 40% of companies will go out of business within five years
* 43% of companies never reopen

A disaster can make a paper trail extremely difficult to recreate, which is why it is necessary to take the preventive steps to assure the safety of your business information.

Some companies do not store their documents in a safe place, which could cause them to lose irreplaceable records. Do not rely on your paper documents alone to keep your business running!

It is easy to prevent huge losses of valuable information. The best way is to store original documents in an online repository for easy, secure and wide access. You can also store documents to a disc, with a copy kept at an offsite location. The advantage of having an archived copy of all your documents is that you can retrieve your documents immediately as needed.

This archiving process is fully compliant with government regulations for having an off-site ‘disaster’ recovery copy of information. For more details please refer to your state’s individual website for regulations.

The Mystical Number: 1,024

Written by Byron Aulick | July 30 2009

Image by adrenalin via Flickr

Acting as a subject matter expert to CompTIA, the owners of the Certified Document Imaging Architech™ (CDIA+) exam, for almost 10 years, I have often provided input ‘from the field.’ One of the areas of contention remains the issue of dividing by 1,000 or 1,024 to reduce a number. I am referring to changing a file size [for example] from kilo-bytes to mega-bytes. Let’s say I have a number, 2,500KB, and I want to reduce it to say, mega-bytes. I could simply divide by 1,000 and come up with 2.5MB, but on the exam that is not one of the multiple choice answers. So now what?! Let me explain why…

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Scanner Maintenance in a High Production Environment

Written by Byron Aulick | July 22 2009

Image by jepoirrier via Flickr

Anyone working in a scanning service bureau quickly finds the impact of NOT doing scanner maintenance. –A stoppage in production, or even worse –scanner damage!

Scanner maintenance is often not thought of during the initial conversations, especially with sales people. It is viewed as a ‘necessary evil’. One that is best left to be ‘discovered’ not brought up voluntarily!

Let’s take a look at it and begin to realize maintenance is a reality. A scanner is a mechanical device that has rollers, belts, gears and motors that all server to move the paper along its path. As we know, anything that moves at some point requires cleaning, lubrication or replacement. Well, a scanner moving 50 to 100 pages of paper in one minute is certainly working hard. The scanner will also have an electronic counter that records the amount of pages scanned. This is used to gauge when cleanings should take place.

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