Would you let someone else scan your documents?
(myorganizedbiz.com) – Does your business create a lot of paper? When you feel buried in piles of paper, you start looking for storage solutions.
After a while, you just can’t physically store that paper any longer, can you? That’s when it’s time to consider scanning as much as you can. Since scanned documents are much more acceptable than they once were – including tax receipts and some legal documents – and storage devices are continually dropping in price, it’s a good time to start scanning.
But would you trust someone else to scan your documents? A company called Pixily proposes to do just that. For a fee, you drop a pre-paid envelope in the mail with the items you want scanned. They scan, post to your account, and then mail you back the paper.
Interesting. Would you do that if your office generated more paperwork than you could process by yourself? Or do you have just enough paper that buying a small scanner of your own is a better investment? (A review of one of those small scanners is coming soon.)
What do you think of a service like that?
(via: unclutterer)
Image: morgueFile
7 Comments
This takes me back. In junior high, I worked for a couple of small businesses, just sitting and scanning (and shredding document after document). Not exactly the most thrilling or well-paying job. But it did teach me something very important — if you are going to scan in a bunch of documents, you absolutely want a scanner with a sheet feed.
My answer would be a big fat “no.” This would take more work in the long run for me. And with some paperwork, it’s just too sensitive. For example, back when I was an active real estate agent, there was paperwork galore. I wouldn’t want someone (other than me or someone I know and trust) to touch possibly sensitive documents. I have a full-color, multi-doc scanner in my home office and I LOVE it. Guess I’m just too much of a control freak to let something like this be out of my hands…
@Thursday – I can’t imagine scanning a ton of paperwork with a flatbed scanner. That could be why mine is sitting on a shelf, waiting for me (but it can scan negatives, so I’m not quite ready to give it up) and why I haven’t scanned in all of my papers.
@Tina – I think it’s different if you’re trusting your own info to someone as opposed to a real estate customer’s info. You’d want to be extra careful with a client’s stuff.
If the papers were contracts and things that were important, but didn’t have SSNs or other things, it might be worth considering. But I’m not even sure I want to let my grown daughter scan for me, much less a stranger. I guess I have control issues, too.
What kind of machine do you have – is it an all-in-one unit?
I work for a company that does digital imaging, scanning, OCR and PDF conversion and document hosting services. We have already digitized billions of documents globally. It is frustrated for the first timers, so we send an expert to supervise their project to their special needs. Minimum order for our services is one million document.
@Becky. Thank you for writing about us. I wanted to highlight some of the key measures that we take from an online and physical security perspective:
Physical Security:
* All of our scanner operators go through extensive background checks, similar to those employed at financial institutions.
* Most documents are shipped back the same day they are received.
Online Security:
* All communication between Pixily and the browser are encrypted, similar to the encryption done when accessing your bank’s application
* We are Truste Certified for Privacy and McAfee Hackersafe tests are run everyday on our system.
For more information on our security and privacy policies, please refer to our FAQ at http://www.pixily.com/help/category.php?catID=7
@ Sam – wow, that’s a big minimum order! Thanks for your comment.
@Anand – thank you so much for stopping by and adding some of your thoughts. I really appreciate your time and the additional information.