Terminology

A lot of words get thrown around when it comes to records and document management. We want you to feel comfortable in entrusting us with your documents. Familiarize yourself with the terminology. If you have any questions or are interested in a free quote feel free to contact us.

Document Management Terms

Back Scan – The scanning of a document archive, often done to get a company up to date with their scanning so they can scan daily moving forward.

Backup – The process of copying stored data onto another medium to avoid data loss. It is best in the event to avoid simultaneous loss of the original data and the backup from external factors (ie. fire, flood, etc.), to store the backup in a different location.

Batch Scan – The process of automatic scanning and archiving of large batches of documents. The documents in the batch do not have to be the same document type.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) – The process of outsourcing time-consuming jobs or processes to a third party.

Compliance –  Maintaining regulations on the state and federal level concerning records security, sharing, and retention.

Computer-Aided Drafting (CAD) –  A method to digitally create 2D drawings and 3D models of real-world products before they’re ever manufactured.

Data Capture – The process of capturing data from a document to digitize, archive, or work with.

Digitization/Digitize – The process of scanning your documents and changing from analog to digital form, also known as digital enablement.

Document Management Software – Software that stores, manages, and tracks all its documents.

Document Management System (DMS) – Typically integrates different techniques in the context of Document Management. Document scanners and a sophisticated OCR (Optical Character Recognition) are needed to digitalize paper-based documents.

Document Prep – The work done to documents ahead of the actual scanning. This could be as straightforward as just straightening up the documents to get them ready to go into the scanner. In most cases prep involves removing staples, paper clips, turning pages around the right way and splitting files into logical groups. It is an essential step ahead of scanning and ensures quality from the start.

Dots Per Inch (DPI) – The number of ink droplets a printer will produce per inch while printing an image. The more dots of ink per inch the picture has, the more detail you will see when printed. For normal paper documents a DPI value of 300 is optimal.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) – Computer-based tools used to store, visualize, analyze, and interpret spatial geographic data visually. Geographic data (also called spatial, or geospatial data) identifies the geographic location of features.

GIF – Stands for Graphics Interchange Format. It is a file format that images can be saved in although rarely used for scanning purposes.

Indexing – The process of tagging scanned documents with different search terms/fields (ie. invoice number, vendor name). Indexing allows you to search the scanned documents database.

Information Governance  –  The development of a decision and accountability framework that defines acceptable behavior in the creation, valuation, use, sharing, storage, archiving, and deletion of information.

JPG/JPEG – Stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group and is often shortened to JPG. It is one of the most common file formats for compressed images.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) –  The technique used to analyze images and recognize the alphanumeric characters within the image. These characters can then be extracted and converted to an image or document.

Paperless – Recording or relaying information by electronic media rather than on paper.

Patch Codes – Documents with unique codes that distinguish where one document ends and another begins when a pile of documents are loaded into the sheet-feeder of a document scanner.

Photo Restoration – Manually repairing damage done to photos from time, light, scratches, elements, etc. using digital software.

Photoshop – Adobe software used to digitally enhance and/or repair photos and create graphics.

Portable Document Format (PDF) – Invented by Adobe it is an open standard for electronic document exchange. PDF is the most common format for scanned documents to be saved to.

Portable Document Format Archive (PDF/A) – An archival format of PDF that embeds all fonts used in the document within the PDF file. Fonts are embedded to provide compliance with PDF/A standards.

Quality Assurance (QA) – A systematic process of determining whether a service meets specified standards, guidelines and procedures to prevent quality issues and maintain the integrity of the document.

Retention Period – The length of time records and documents must be kept before they can be legally destroyed.

Tag Image File Format (TIFF) – A computer file format used to store raster graphics and image information. TIFFs are a handy way to store high-quality images before editing if you want to avoid lossy file formats.

Workflow – The pre-determined process of organizing and mapping out the steps of a project with a number of staff members working on the project in a pre-determined order.