Clear your Desk with a Document Scanner
This article was first published by iowabusinessjournals.com
If there is one piece of technology your office needs to invest in as soon as possible it is a document scanner. Unless your business is super ahead of the curve, you undoubtedly have piles, drawers, and cabinets full of old documents. It doesn’t matter if you’re a 100 year-old business or a 1 year-old business, the paper storage and paper waste struggle is real. Thankfully there is very few instances where you need to keep hard copies of anything. Of course if you’re a lawyer or immigration official you might say otherwise, but on the whole 95% of the paper sitting around our offices is superfluous.
Now you might be thinking “we have a copy machine with built in scanning functionality, why do I need a dedicated, uni-tasker piece of technology.” See all-in one machines are fantastic; they allow for more floor space, fewer places to go if you need to print, scan, or fax, but that all demands getting up and going somewhere. Most professionals work with documents within an arm's reach and while the thought might cross their to scan everything away, that means getting out of your chair and eating up a chunk of your day.
The beautiful thing about document scanners is they equally roofly the footprint of a toaster and if placed next to computer monitor they can be used quietly and quickly between tasks. The downside is quality document scanners generally cost over $100, and many over $200. Still price is truly the only negative.
Don’t mistake a document scanner for an all-around scanner. There are certainly times that you need to scan photos, and maybe even old slides, but in the professional setting it not nearly a daily routine. Almost all document scanners work wirelessly and once they are setup they can be programmed to immediately send every document to your cloud platform of choice or desktop. Many even come with built in annotation tools that pop-up when a document is scanned so users can make quick notes. For every meeting that has hand-outs, every check-up, repair job, or bill that you receive and a hand-out a desktop document scanner could be a godsend.
Finally there is one last beautiful tool of the modern age. Digital documents can easily be digitally signed thanks to smartphones and applications. The only thing keeping you from clearing your desktop clutter is a couple hundred dollar investment and laziness.
Patrick Boberg is a central Iowa creative media specialist. For more tech insights, follow him on Twitter @PatBoBomb
If there is one piece of technology your office needs to invest in as soon as possible it is a document scanner. Unless your business is super ahead of the curve, you undoubtedly have piles, drawers, and cabinets full of old documents. It doesn’t matter if you’re a 100 year-old business or a 1 year-old business, the paper storage and paper waste struggle is real. Thankfully there is very few instances where you need to keep hard copies of anything. Of course if you’re a lawyer or immigration official you might say otherwise, but on the whole 95% of the paper sitting around our offices is superfluous.
Now you might be thinking “we have a copy machine with built in scanning functionality, why do I need a dedicated, uni-tasker piece of technology.” See all-in one machines are fantastic; they allow for more floor space, fewer places to go if you need to print, scan, or fax, but that all demands getting up and going somewhere. Most professionals work with documents within an arm's reach and while the thought might cross their to scan everything away, that means getting out of your chair and eating up a chunk of your day.
The beautiful thing about document scanners is they equally roofly the footprint of a toaster and if placed next to computer monitor they can be used quietly and quickly between tasks. The downside is quality document scanners generally cost over $100, and many over $200. Still price is truly the only negative.
Don’t mistake a document scanner for an all-around scanner. There are certainly times that you need to scan photos, and maybe even old slides, but in the professional setting it not nearly a daily routine. Almost all document scanners work wirelessly and once they are setup they can be programmed to immediately send every document to your cloud platform of choice or desktop. Many even come with built in annotation tools that pop-up when a document is scanned so users can make quick notes. For every meeting that has hand-outs, every check-up, repair job, or bill that you receive and a hand-out a desktop document scanner could be a godsend.
Finally there is one last beautiful tool of the modern age. Digital documents can easily be digitally signed thanks to smartphones and applications. The only thing keeping you from clearing your desktop clutter is a couple hundred dollar investment and laziness.
Patrick Boberg is a central Iowa creative media specialist. For more tech insights, follow him on Twitter @PatBoBomb
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