Implementing digital scan and capture technology can remove this burden and deliver significant time and cost savings for businesses. Marketing departments and agencies have traditionally relied heavily on printed materials. This has led to an abundance of manual, hardcopy-based processes and high-printing costs for these organisations.
Marketing is, by definition, content-heavy. From flyers and posters to brochures and web copy, marketing professionals are constantly writing, reviewing and editing content. Usually, the information needs to go through a strict approvals process before it can be sent to print or otherwise published.
Marketing organisations should consider scan and capture software, which turns hardcopy documents into electronic ones, including encrypted PDFs, using a multifunction device.
The documents are then automatically routed to the correct location, whether it be a file server or email, based on a workflow. The people that need to see that document then receive an alert that it has been scanned and is available for them to view.
The benefits of this approach can be significant, especially when it comes to version control, keeping documents secure, and keeping track of approvals. For example, being able to scan a flyer to a Word format lets marketing professionals make changes and edits more easily and efficiently. This can help minimise the potential for errors that creep in when people make handwritten annotations to printed documents, which then need to be translated back to digital documents.
Setting up automated workflows for specific types of documents offers a number of key benefits, all of which lead to significant time and cost savings. These include:
- all documents will be scanned with the same scan settings and consistent file naming formats according to pre-defined rules, eliminating situations where different workers use their own personal settings – this ensures compliance across the business
- automated workflows eliminate the need to train employees in how documents are handled
- using optical character recognition (OCR) technology makes the scanned document searchable, making search and retrieval faster and easier
- scanning documents eliminates the chances of paperwork going missing or getting damaged
- all paperwork can be easily accessed for auditing purposes.
It’s relatively simple to set up workflows for different types of documents, and once it’s done, the business begins to see the benefits immediately. Chief among those is the virtual elimination of errors due to lost paperwork or employee handling decisions. Employees no longer have to decide how to handle documents; the workflow automates that process.
Marketing organisations that adopt scan and capture technology can achieve efficiencies that help them work more efficiently and spend less time on administrative tasks, freeing up time for more value-added activities, such as developing the next creative campaign.
Adam O’Neill, Managing Director – Australia, Y Soft
