The OhioERC is proud to promote its latest tool to assist in the managing of public sector agency records. While today the majority of our records are born digital, many public sector agencies are still pressed with issues of storage, retrieval, and management of growing or displaced physical, paper-based records in their possession. A possible solution for managing these documents is to scan them, thus converting them to digital documents which then can be integrated with born digital documents and enterprise systems.

Public sector agencies using paper in their operations should consider whether the conversion of paper to digital will improve operations before investing in such a project or workflow. They should consider potential efficiencies in information accessibility, management, and disposition, while also feasibly complying with organizational records retention and management policies.

This new tool provides a means to assist public sector agencies in properly analyzing the records they manage and maintain to determine whether to digitize them. It encompasses several factors, including employee costs, storage space, supplies, equipment, reproduction, and migration to future systems. This tool is not intended be used to conduct a cost benefit analysis (CBA) nor business process management (BPM); it would be wise to conduct these business and financial analyses along with using this tool. The Scanning Feasibility Tool can be  found on our Document Imaging Guidelines page.