Time to go paperless? Spending too much time at the post office mailing documents? Concerned about record keeping but no time to worry about filing or storage? Perhaps you’ve been meaning to digitise your business’ projects and collections for safekeeping and archiving. If so, it might be time to update your business processes with the lease or purchase of a scanner. 

 

Scanners are not only a great way to turn your paperwork into digital files for secure storage, but can also help digitise and collate backlogs of business records, freeing your administration or preparing for auditing time later. The addition of a scanner to your business will help get your office lean and organised, eliminating trays, storage boxes and filing cabinets, utilising space on your computer or network.

 

A scanner works similarly to the way a computer prints digital files to paper, but it reverses the process and places a digital version of your printed or physical document into your computer. Some scanner software allows you to easily edit, refine the document, or add notes, keywords and titles that make the retrieval of business documents photos or images much simpler.

 

 

Here, we’ve put together 5 basic points to help you consider the lease or purchase of a scanner for your office.

 

Purpose

 

There are lots of different types of scanners and all sellers will tell you that they offer the best, and this may well be true. However, it is important to know exactly what you want to achieve, the volume of work to be scanned and what types of things you want to scan.

This could be anything from book pages, invoices, receipts, contracts, business cards, photos, film, images, graphics or illustrations. Knowing how often you’ll need it as well will help you understand the value of your lease or buy.

 

We know that there is no point buying something for the sake of it, so if you are unsure exactly what you might need for your office or projects, we offer a free no-obligation initial consultation. We’ll get to know exactly how your business works and find the perfect tailored solution for you.

 

Speed

 

If you have a lot to get through quickly, it is worth looking for a model that will give you fast processing as well as quality images. It may be frustrating working with some scanners that will essentially do the same job, but at a much slower speed. If you are having to spend several minutes per page waiting for a document image to be scanned and uploaded, then this may not be ideal for large volumes of pages or projects. Look for features such as page feeders or document scanning only if you need to process lots of pages, fast.

 

Size and Portability

 

Does your office have a space to house a larger size flatbed model, or would it be easier to work with a handheld or smaller portable type of scanner? Some handheld devices are perfect for quick scrolling over text pages and allow you to work anywhere with a data connection and power socket.

 

Some scanners are now wireless operated, or offer direct upload of documents directly into your cloud storage. This could be ideal for freelancers or business who need to access documents on the go. Scanners operate on image resolution, similar to a printer, TV screen or camera. Look for the dpi number on any scanner product; the higher the dpi. number, the higher the quality of your file.

 

The large standalone flatbed scanner can be more bulky, but are fastest for images and bring levels of sharpness and colour to photographs, graphics and artwork.

 

 

Price

 

For any small to medium business, price is usually going to be the deciding option when it comes to investing in any new equipment. For a short term project, leasing a scanner gives you a cost effective way to meet your needs without the long term investment of equipment.

For those looking for something more long term, cheaper isn’t always better and your needs may have to come before price. Again, we can work with you on your purpose, balanced with price. We will never sell you something for the sake of it.

 

Ease of Use

 

Scanners nowadays are generally very simple to install and use but if you’re not the most confident when it comes to technology or computing, there are lots of options for easy to use, straight forward ‘scan and file’ systems. Some software also includes character recognition within your scan, allowing you to edit the document, or search for keywords and phrases.

 

No matter what type of scanner you lease or buy, it will need a computer connection and the installation of compatible software, so be aware of your computer’s requirements to ensure it can operate effectively. We offer ongoing service and support for all our scanning products, so if you’re not 100% sure, simply get in touch.

 

Want to Know More About Scanners for Your Office?

 

If you’d like to find out more, then why not get in touch with North West Digital today to find out how we could help?

 

 

You can contact us by email at info@, by phone on 0161 477 8950 or simply complete the contact form on the website and one of our friendly team will get back to you for a chat.