Services available in the UK
A very wide range of services are available
to assist those planning the introduction or expansion of a document
management system. These range from total outsourcing of the entire
operation to. the sub-contracting of specific elements. Consultants
offer general or specialist knowledge and there are also a number of
associations, publications and exhibitions to help system designers keep
abreast of new developments.
Outsourcing
More and more organisations are concentrating on their mainstream
activity and outsourcing subsidiary
operations. An electronic mailroom, for example, may be
operated as an in-house system or entrusted to an experienced bureau
which will receive and scan all mail and distribute it digitally to the
appropriate recipients. Our commercial section already lists some
companies offering outsourcing but an increasing number of bureaux are
entering this field and we will add them as we are notified.
Consultancy
For many years G G Baker & Associates offered
independent consultancy services so we have a rather strict interpretation
of the term. Many software suppliers offer excellent consultancy services
relating to the products they offer and we intend no disrespect by omitting
them from our listings, but we feel that no advisor can claim to be totally
independent if he or she is engaged in selling a particular solution.
However, nobody knows everything about the 500 or more items of document
management software on the UK market and some degree of specialisation is
essential. For this reason we try to ensure that any consultant we
list has a good general knowledge of document management and in-depth
experience in certain areas.
The companies we list as
independent consultants are, so
far as we are aware, able to offer unbiased advice on many aspects of
document management. When we have sufficient information, we also list them
under their specialities including
Business Process Management,
Case and Project Management,
Document and Image Management,
Indexing and Retrieval,
Records Management and Archiving,
Security and Legal Admissibility, and the preparation of
Training Courses for
document management.
Document Scanning services
Most document scanning bureaux offer the
scanning of office
documentation up to A3 size. For this reason we list them both
alphabetically and
geographically to
assist selection. Many also offer
large format scanning
for maps, plans etc. and these are separately listed. More specialised
scanning services include those relating to
scanning books, manuscripts and
delicate input which require considerable expertise, careful handling
and sometimes special equipment.
Film scanning services
The majority of bureaux that offer
film scanning facilities can
digitise roll film. High volume fiche and jacket scanning requires special
equipment and the choice of service houses is more limited. Aperture card
scanning is also a specialised area usually undertaken by bureaux which
offer other drawing-related services such as large document scanning.
Other input services
Scanning is, of course, the prime input service for document management and
we have devoted several sections of the directory to its various facets, but
there are other services connected with input that are available from
service bureaux.
Forms
processing captures data from input as it is scanned using ICR, OCR, OMR
and other techniques. Typically only specific areas of each page are
involved - such as boxes on a survey form - but OCR can be employed to
capture the entire page content in machine-readable format while the
document is also recorded in image format. - this technique is often used
for index compilation.
Key entry
is laborious as it involves an operator sitting before a screen and typing
in the screen content. It is best avoided but it is sometimes the only
effective method of creating machine-readable data from manuscripts or
unusual documents.
Conversion services
A wide variety of conversion services are
available in the UK, The conversion of digital data to microfilm is
generally known as Computer Output Microfilming (COM) but if the input comes
from a CAD system it is more often called COM Plotting. If data is output
from a computer system to optical disk it is known as Computer Output to
Laser Disk (COLD). Other frequent conversions are from raster to vector
format and vice versa and - for material on film - conversion from large
formats to 35mm.
COM input may be on-line from a computer
system but it is normally from transportable media such as disk or tape when
COM is performed as an outsourced operation. According to the
application, output can be on 16 or 35mm roll film, microfiche or aperture
cards Thought must be given to the method of subsequent retrieval of the
data from film and COM service bureaux can assist with suitable indexing,
cartridge labels etc.
Reformatting of digital information is often
necessary when new software is introduced or two incompatible systems are to
be amalgamated. Companies offering file conversion to PDF format and those
supplying raster to vector facilities are also included in this section.
COLD - Computer Output on Laser Disk is sometimes promoted as an alternative
to COM, it relieves the computer system of large volume storage requirements
but it does not overcome the problem of migration to new software and
long-term preservation.
Typical applications for COM include archival storage of
large volumes of digital data which must be retained but is seldom
referenced. By holding the information on film those responsible for the
computer system generating the data are relieved of the necessity to
preserve access to outdated media as the system matures, while maintenance
tasks such as reformatting for compatibility with new software can be
avoided. Information held on magnetic tape requires periodic rewinding as
tape tends to stretch over time but film requires minimal maintenance.
All microfilm formats are fully standardised and it is
just as simple to use a roll of film produced fifty years ago as one
generated yesterday. Film life is estimated at up to 500 years under
suitable conditions and abundant information is available for those seeking
the best possible long-term preservation. If information stored on film is
subsequently needed by a computer system it can be scanned and digitised -
most COM service bureaux also offer film scanning facilities for this
purpose.
For many years COM was widely used as a publishing medium
by banks, airlines and automobile manufacturers to keep information on
microfiche updated at remote locations including branches, dealers and
distributors, but it has been overtaken by the web and on-line systems for
those applications. Microfiche, including colour fiche, of books and
research resultsare still widely used in libraries and film produced by COM
still plays an important role in the preservation of records such as census
and survey results after they have been analysed.
It is simple and inexpensive to make duplicate copies of
microfilm and this greatly increases security. Additional copies can be held
in different locations for protection against loss by fire or flood. When
records are made available for use by the public, the master films can be
kept in perfect condition and copies used for reference. Special microfilm
readers have been developed which are robust enough to withstand use by
inexperienced operators for use in libraries and similar area where there is
an interface with the general public - some can be fitted with coin slots
and timers to permit charging for their use.
When G G Baker & Associates first made use of computers for book
production IBM had not invented the PC and the market was dominated by
Commodore and Apple. All of our early publications were held on floppy disks
in cardboard sleeves and none of them can be read today. This scenario is
typical of computing, with new and superior hardware, software and storage
media continuously being introduced. For some applications this poses few
problems, but for others vital data has to be converted to a new format
every time new software or storage methods are adopted - sometimes with
significant loss of data and layout. Expert help may be needed and some
service houses specialise in such data migration. Other common services
include data conversion to PDF format to make it universally readable when
offered on the web.
Some bureaux claim to offer reformatting services without specifying exactly
what they can undertake, but we have included as much information as we
could obtain from their websites in the commercial section of this site.
Micrographic services
Many document scanning bureaux in the UK started life as
microfilming services and still offer
filming and duplicating,
printout and
reformatting
facilities for users of microfilm. The technology is explained in detail in
the microfilm section of this Guide.
When reformatting of microfilm is necessary, it is usually an
isolated operation which does not warrant the purchase of special hardware.
Some microfilm bureaux offer film conversion services to make photographic
collections available on roll or fiche, old half-plate records of drawings
can be converted to standard aperture cards and roll formats can be
converted to microfiche.
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