One of the most prevalent ways to scan documents is via the copier’s scan to email function. (Full disclosure: I scan to email pretty much every single day)

It’s completely understandable, because it’s easier:

• your inbox is already open
• it’s a central location
• you probably need to email it somewhere else, anyhow. 

There are several downsides, though, too:

• you already receive a TON of email every day. Scanned documents are an unnecessary add on to that load
• security options are limited. If someone has access to your workstation / phone / PC / email, they have access to all of the documents you’ve scanned, too
• finding the right ‘scanned image by xyz corp‘ email can be frustrating. (I know from experience)

One alternative is using an automated scan workflow. All manufacturers now have some API or interface for running software that will allow you to:

• Sophisticated processing- clean up, de-speckle, straighten 
• File naming- make sure your documents have a better, more descriptive name that makes sense to your organization
• Redaction- have ssn or sensitive information automatically redacted 
• Barcode recognition- route documents based on a barcode that is printed on the document (or use a cover sheet to send it somewhere automatically)
• Optical character recognition- more and more courts are requiring this, but even if it’s not required in your line of work, OCR makes searching for client names, dollar amounts, account numbers INSIDE documents possible

If you’d like to talk a little more about this, please contact me here or email me here. 

Read more over at the Xerox Enterprise Matters blog.