Data storage has always been an important part of every business operation. Whether you are in the finance sector or the FMCG sector, you must be dealing with a vast amount of data on a daily basis. But the way data has been stored and accessed has changed a lot over the last couple of decades.
There used to be a time when businesses didn’t have any other option than using microfilms for storage. Microfilms completely replaced the old method of data storage as it used to store vast amounts of data in a small space and it was even a good method of storing data for an extended period of time.
But nowadays, even microfilms are failing the companies and all of this has happened because of the advent of the internet and the proliferation of digital storage. With digital storage, access improves, security increases, and the chances of losing the data are nullified. But to get your microfilm digitized, you have to first choose professional scanning services.
In this blog post, we are going to discuss how any business can choose the best scanning services for the digitization of their microfilm.
Why should you choose microfilm scanning services?
By the look of things, investing in professional scanning services might look like another costly expense. You already have all the data stored in microfilms, so why is there a need to invest in digitization? But once you delve into the reality and fathom what you can gain, you will understand you should have gone for the scanning services a lot earlier.
Here are a couple of important reasons why it is high time for your business to digitize the microfilms-
- Improves access
- Enhances operational efficiency
- A better way to preserve and store data
- Occupies no physical space
- Allows you to save money
- Gives you the option to create backups
- Get rid of physical handling
- Reduces retrieval time
If you are still not satisfied with the above list, let’s elaborate on the point ‘reduces retrieval time’. When you access your microfilms six times a week, it can take 20 minutes to retrieve them each and that is equal to 2 precious hours every week. When you do this for a whole year, you end up spending almost 104 hours of office time just retrieving the microfilms.
When you choose the best scanning services, you bring down this time to almost 10 minutes and this means you will be saving a whole week of time and use it on other important business operations.
What to look for in a microfilm scanning partner?
While scouring the internet, you will come across a long list of companies claiming that they offer the best scanning services but not all of them will be good for your company. Here is what you should look for while finding the best microfilm scanning company-
Expertise
The potential company offering archive scanning services should have to know every nook and cranny of microfilm. Doesn’t matter which type of microfilms you have, or how old they are, as long as they can be digitized, your potential scanning company should be able to deal with it.
Keep in mind, scanning papers is not similar to scanning microfilms and that’s the reason why you are not scanning microfilms in the first place. You should always make sure that the company has dealt with projects like yours before and they have delivered them without any errors.
Bespoke approach
Every microfilm scanning project is different and this is the main reason why experienced companies never use a one-size-for-all approach while dealing with any scanning project. The size of every microfilm is different and they are also in different conditions, this is the main reason why experienced scanning companies use a bespoke approach in every project.
If the company you are choosing is not ready to listen to you, you should start looking for other options without any delay.
Experience
Another thing that you should never miss to check while choosing a scanning partner is to assess their experience. A more experienced microfilm scanner will know what you need when it comes to digitizing your microfilms and therefore, you wouldn’t have to sit with them for hours and discuss what you need.
You can either check how long they have been working in the industry on their official website or you can directly ask them through email, chat or phone call. Never trust a microfilm scanning company that is a new kid on the block.
Choosing the right microfilm scanner is necessary to get desired results and that too without spending too much money. You might need to do a little bit of research and then find the best scanning company that can easily digitize your microfilms.
