"I also want to tell you what a wonderful job your staff did over the past 18 months with [the] backfile project…. I can’t say enough good things about how you all came through for us…. It truly was an amazing accomplishment."
- COTR, Department of Commerce, Patent and Trademark Office
Digital Imaging
Digital Imaging is now an extremely practical choice for many organizations. Technological advancements in the last few years in scanner quality, extremely reliable Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and low cost scanners deliver better information capture than ever before.
DTSV has the experience
- DTSV is currently providing services in every aspect of digital imaging. We have performed successfully on document processing contracts of very large size and complexity in high-pressure production environments where our work must be nearly 100% accurate. On one recent contract alone, we have prepared, scanned, indexed, and verified approximately 120,000,000 pages. We have also maintained over 200,000 published records in well-managed file inventory rooms.
- We have managed document processing for over a decade. Since January 1995, we have performed increasingly complex document management tasks in Northern Virginia for the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), and since 2002 for the Department of Justice (DOJ). Proven management and quality programs provide low risk and high customer satisfaction. We have “field tested” our quality, management, work control, and reporting systems in demanding environments. Our near 100% accuracy and timeliness on highly complex, comprehensive tasks testifies that our approaches work.
- We have responded successfully to growth. If requirements change, we have a proven track record in managing growth. At the PTO, we have regularly taken on new tasks, for which we designed and implemented new processes, and recruited and trained new staff. We hired and trained over 300 employees for new tasks in just three months, and put in place production, quality, and reporting procedures that have met stringent requirements.
- Scanning Equipment. DTSV owns a number of high volume industrial scanners that are Kodak i830s, from their flagship 800 series product line. The scanners enable stack after stack of documents to fly through at speeds of over 5,000 pages per hour—day in and day out. The scanner features robust features like advanced image processing and paper handling to allow quick production with high-volume workloads. Before scanning we conduct scanner maintenance. Twice each work shift, and prior to the scanning process, operators perform maintenance functions including vacuuming of the scanner, cleaning of the scanner sensor, and calibration of the equipment.
- Form Design. When some of the documents to be processed have not been created yet, any chance to influence the layout of those forms can have a great impact on the cost of processing them. DTSV knows the aspects of form design that are critical to the ability to quickly and accurately prep, identify, and perform Data Capture on these forms. For large volume printings, DTSV knows how to create easily modified, exacting form designs for mass distribution. DTSV can also work with a pool of third party software products to define and evaluate compliance with the requirements necessary to reproduce a form faithfully, even with elements like registration marks and 1D or 2D barcodes. DTSV can also create custom forms (such as bar-coded separator sheets or forms containing index information) both off site and during processing.
- Document Preparation. A labor intensive part of the process is document preparation. Of course, staples, clips, and notes must be removed and each page examined for potential batching issues. We typically create barcoded package sheets to separate and manage each batch.
- Document Indexing. DTSV creates electronic files which contain the index structure into which the records will be scanned. The index structure for the documents in each batch as required by the indexing software can be reflected on the separator sheets or as a post-scanning image review process. In support of indexing and scanning, our operators enter into application systems a variety of indexing information including each document type. We perform quality checks on all data entry to ensure accuracy.
- Scanning. As part of the scanning process, the operator aligns the papers to ensure smooth feeds through the scanner and to minimize instances of skewed images. As the documents are passed through the scanner, the images are displayed and reviewed on a monitor.
- Image quality checks. Images that are deemed unacceptable (examples: upside down, skewed, and illegible) require stoppage of the feed and corrective action. Errors are logged and entered into a management database. We then re-scan according to the initial scan process. Once the images pass the quality checks, the operator annotates the physical batch sheet with the date scanned, and the equipment group number on which the batch was scanned.