Section
4:
Document Imaging Cost Considerations
The decision to convert documents or records
to digital images is based on business need. Keeping records “just
in case” a legal need may arise is not a legitimate business need.
The costs to scan hard-copy originals simply for retention
purposes are not usually justified in comparison to the lower cost
simply to box and store records that have a relatively short retention period
and that are not subject to frequent retrievals.
The industry average to scan records is between $0.08 and
$0.15 per page. A standard box of records is 3000 pages, typically costs about
$250.00 - $450.00/box to scan with Optical Character Recognition
(OCR) and metadata. The cost to store on a system is another factor.
Considerations in cost to scan paper include:
- Document Preparation.
- Scanning (200 - 600 Dots Per Inch - DPI).
- Indexing (# of Fields).
- Auto Classification of Documents.
- Searchable (Optical Character Recognition) Format.
- Bound materials, Drawings, Photos, etc.
- Image Enhancements.
- Notes (Post it Note or clipped) Capture.
- Pick Up, Delivery.
- Hosting Images.
- Output File (Preferably Portable Document Format (PDF) or Portable Document Format/Archive (PDF/A).
- Storage of Materials.
- Software Costs.
- Transmission of Documents to TxDOT repository.
- Document Destruction After Quality Assurance (QA) Quality Control (QC) is performed and validated by TxDOT.