With the new year now in sight, we wanted to take the time to analyze the document scanning market and go over some upcoming trends, in order to help you better prepare for a successful new year. 

It comes as no surprise that the market focus on digitization that picked up drastically in the spring of 2020, will continue to be a major focus within the business landscape. 

In fact, The global digital transformation market size is expected to grow from USD 469.8 billion in 2020 to USD 1009.8 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.5% during the forecast period.

In this blog we will go over the reasoning behind this growth, some implications of it, and how you can best prepare for this.

The Strong Push for Digitization

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit back in 2020, it made many businesses realize how stranded they were without access to their physical files. The solution to this? Going digital.

At the same time that businesses were realizing this need, supply chains were disturbed, budgets were tightened, and the process of physically getting thousands of paper documents, transporting them to a scanning facility and starting the digitization process was postponed. 

While many businesses were stuck, it gave them time to plan. Those plans started coming to fruition in 2021 when restrictions eased, but this caused another bottleneck. Scanning companies were overwhelmed with new projects coming in, and companies who wanted to scan in-house were having a hard time finding scanners and softwares to do the job themselves/ 

Since the need for digital documents was stronger than ever, this caused document scanning companies to get booked for projects months in advance. 

This strong demand carries into the new year with many companies starting to book projects for 2022. If you plan on going digital, the time to inquire and book those projects is now. Having budgeted for a document scanning project is no longer enough, you need to make sure you book in advance for that project as well. 

The Increased Demand for Scanners

The alternative to outsourcing a document scanning project is to do it all in-house. While in-house document scanning projects come with their own challenges, the pandemic added to those with a shortage of scanning hardware. 

The good news is, 2022 seems to be a little more promising. With restrictions having eased up around the world, document scanners will have better availability in the new year. You’ll be able to get your hands on a new dedicated document scanner that will help with your in-house document scanning project. 

The Proper In-house Scanning Process

In-house document scanning might be the more feasible option for some companies. If you think you fall into that category, let’s see what that process looks like!

To have documents scanned correctly, it involves establishing the right scanning process. This means getting a dedicated document scanner to obtain the best possible quality. Sourcing some Capture software that allows you to properly index your files. 

The next step, and a very important one that ensures a high quality outcome, is taking the time to prep documents in order to feed them through the scanner. Now while this doesn’t sound like hard work, it is all a very manual process. 

The best practice for in-house scanning is to establish a scanning department, or if that is not feasible, having a scanning station and an internal employee who is trained on the process and technology to ensure the process runs smoothly. 

The best person for this job when it comes to doing it in-house, is by choosing one of your own employees. They add directly to your bottom line and they are enticed to help the company be efficient. This option might very well be feasible depending on your resources and the amount of files you have to scan.

Set Yourself up for a Successful New Year

So how do you ensure that your upcoming document scanning project goes well in 2022? It’s simple: plan ahead!

Think of what you’d like the end result to look like. Then, look at all the paper that you have and get an idea of the resources it’ll take to convert it all to digital files. 

Based on that information, think about whether it makes more sense to outsource the project or do it all in-house. Contact a few companies and get a few quotes. Some companies offer trials where you can see the end result, so make sure to take advantage of those if you can. 

Set a timeline of when you’d like the project to start and finish. Think of how you’ll manage the documents once they’re digital. Do you need an electronic document management system, or is a simple folder structure on your server enough? 

Having all of this planned out ahead of time will not only ensure that you can get your project done in a timely manner, but it’ll also ensure the best outcome possible. 

If you’re interested in learning more about document scanning, check out our free e-book titled “Document scanning: What’s it all about”.

If you’d like to get an idea of what your project would look like, contact us today for a free consultation! We can help guide you through your own project, or book you for a project in 2022.