Moving to a digital system cuts down on the time, effort, and expenses linked to organizing, locating, and sharing files. Additionally, paper-based workflows lead to significant costs associated with printing, manual in-house distribution and mailing.
Industries that benefit from bulk document scanning
Backfile scanning delivers value across virtually every sector, but some industries see particularly strong returns. The following examples illustrate how backfile scanning makes a significant impact.
Healthcare
Healthcare organizations benefit when scanning things like patient charts, lab results, imaging reports, and referral documents. Digitization helps improve access, collaboration, and compliance with privacy regulations like HIPAA. Backfile scanning reduces physical storage needs and the corresponding cost, and speeds information retrieval. This allows clinicians to make faster, better-informed decisions. Hospitals and clinics also benefit from seamless integration with electronic health record (EHR) systems, enhancing patient care and operational efficiency.
Finance
Financial institutions, including banks, credit unions and investment firms, are document heavy operations. Scanning invoices, loan applications, account statements and other documents works to dramatically streamline operations, reduce storage costs, and meet regulatory requirements. Digitizing records also improves accuracy, accelerates transaction processing, and enables secure, audit-ready access for internal teams and regulators.
Government agencies
The mountain of documents government agencies manage is astounding. But agencies that digitize permits, licenses, public records, and internal reports find that they can greatly enhance accessibility, transparency and efficiency with digitalization. Again, digitization allows staff to retrieve documents quickly, share information more easily, and ensure secure, compliant storage. Another important benefit is the improvement to disaster recovery and the enhanced ability to safeguard sensitive data from unauthorized access or loss.
Auto dealerships
Every visit to a dealership generates a pile of paper, even before a sale is made. For instance, dealerships are required to keep copies of driver’s licenses and proof of insurance collected before every test drive and dispose of them securely when the retention period ends. Requirements vary state by state and range from a few months to several years. It’s difficult to maintain compliance and protect data privacy when the information is stored on paper. Digitizing these documents and automating retention workflows ensures that dealerships meet state-mandated standards.
Day-forward and backfile scanning
For businesses buried in paper records, shifting everything to an electronic system without interrupting daily operations can be a challenging task. This task becomes even more complex when new paperwork keeps landing on your staff’s desks every day.
Day-forward scanning is the digitization, indexing, and storage of paper documents as soon as they are generated or received. Other paper documents that are relevant to daily business operations should also be digitized before the system launches. With this approach, your company will avoid accumulating paper in the future and ensure current files are merged into a single digital repository rather than scattered across multiple filing systems.
Backfile scanning projects are large-scale efforts to digitize a significant volume of records collected over time. Most companies use both backfile scanning for archived documents and day-forward scanning to keep up with new ones.
In-house or outsourced bulk scanning
Consider scanning in-house if:
- You’re dealing with a small-scale project.
- Your staff has the time and process knowledge to handle the work or you’re willing to hire temporary employees.
- You’ve budgeted for training and buying high-volume scanning equipment.
- There is no pressing deadline for digitization.
Consider outsourcing if:
- Your project is very large.
- Your internal resources are limited.
- Quality, accuracy, and data security are top priorities.
- You require a fast turnaround to meet a strict deadline.
Case Study: DocuWare digitizes medical records for Medicenter
Medicenter is a healthcare network in Chile with 330+ employees in 7 outpatient health centers. The organization faced inefficiencies caused by managing a mix of paper and digital records. Before DocuWare, everything was filed in its original format: medical referrals and paper documents brought in by the patient, examinations and X-rays in electronic form, final reports as audio or text files. However, the parallel use of paper-based and digital filing led to considerable problems in the day-to-day running of the clinic.
Patients often had to carry documents between departments, billing was delayed, and complete patient histories were hard to retrieve. To solve these issues, Medicenter implemented DocuWare, which integrated seamlessly with their hospital information system and handled various document formats, including scanned referrals and medical images.
Today, new documents are scanned, indexed and linked to digital patient records, enabling staff to access comprehensive files instantly. The system also supports a vendor-independent imaging and communication setup, improving workflow and regulatory compliance. As a result, Medicenter streamlined operations, enhanced patient care, and advanced its digital transformation goals.
Moving forward
Bulk scanning turns stacks of paper into easy-to-access digital records, helping your team work faster, cut costs, stay compliant, and keep operations running smoothly. With careful planning and the right tools, organizations can unlock efficiency while preserving valuable institutional knowledge. DocuWare helps organizations turn legacy paper archives and active paper documents into secure, actionable digital assets that drive productivity, insight and growth.