Document Scanning Strategy Helps Companies Get Ready for Enterprise Search

Document imaging and metadata preparation allows companies to make their entire confidential archives as searchable for staff as the public web.

At companies around the world, workers have made a simple shared request of managers, IT buyers, and even CEOs. They want enterprise search tools that work as well as Google, Bing, or Yahoo. The real power of document management lies in the ability to convert a companys entire recorded history into a searchable index that responds to user intention. Natural language search not only helps make companies more efficient, it actually boosts morale among workers who expect their intranet to behave the same way as the public web. However, preparing company archives and customer records for real time search requires a three step process to ensure accuracy and effectiveness.

Step Number 1: Prioritize the Document Scanning Process

Many organizations implemented enterprise search as a document management strategy for technical teams. Search appliances and databases can easily digest technical documents, especially when those documents were created in electronic form. The challenge, for most companies, involves preparing older archives for the day when internal search becomes essential for customer service and for product innovation. As Web-savvy workers arrive in other departments, project leaders must develop document scanning protocols that can accommodate:

• Internal memos
• Public announcements or press releases
• Customer correspondence
• Customer contracts and forms
• Third-party news and information relevant to customer needs

Sequencing content by priority makes sense when project managers attempt to handle document imaging with small, in-house teams. Document scanning companies can speed up enterprise search index population by scaling with client demand.

Step Number 2: Automate Document Imaging for Special Content

Some organizations face challenges when loading legacy documents and multimedia archives into enterprise search engines. Advanced optical character recognition makes it possible to convert most text-heavy papers into searchable data. However, an enterprise search strategy also requires platform developers to consider images, such as:

• Signature capture on forms or contracts,
• Large format or legal-size documents,
• Color photos, and
• Blueprints or technical layouts.

Not only must a document management strategy account for these different types of information, it must include the metadata necessary to provide accurate search results. Document scanning services not only create high resolution files of important company images, they provide the context necessary to make a company-wide database meaningful.

Step Number 3: Unite Document Management Across Company Silos

Chief information officers at companies with robust document management and enterprise search programs report that their biggest wins often stem from the ability to access information across departmental lines. In practice, this means blending content from multiple functional teams, such as:

• Marketing
• Sales
• Customer Service
• Legal
• Operations
• Finance

As more companies wrestle with the complex social changes required to adopt open enterprise search policies, the need to coordinate documents from multiple departments can overwhelm IT and records teams. Document scanning services offer confidential cataloguing and secure destruction programs to ensure that critical team secrets remain intact.

When companies combine strong document management policies with innovative enterprise search technology, employees report higher satisfaction and customers enjoy more powerful interactions. Document scanning services allow companies with paper archives to fully integrate their collective knowledge into online databases, unlocking teams full potential.

Sources

Enterprise Search Blog

ZDNet