Considering Document Storage? - Scanning tips for dealers

Dealers are increasingly focused on expense reduction and it is obvious that document storage and document scanning is a great place to start, but may not have considered that proper implementation requires some process and cultural changes.

You’re investing in the future.

Many people place more emphasis on their current time, rather than time saved in the future. Other than the space saved due to digitisation of documents, the main efficiency gained from document storage is the speed to search and find a required document in the future.

With a good document digitisation solution with OCR and advanced search capabilities, the speed to find a document is well understood. But what a dealer and their employees need to recognise is that some time and efficiency is sacrificed upfront which is expected to yield a more productive business in the future.  

It is difficult however, for employees to understand that an added task such as scanning documents is worth it – the key is to make it as easy as possible with slick processes.

Staples are the devil.

There is no room for staples in a workplace that intends to scan documents, they simply take too much time to remove and often tear the corners of documents which often creates paper jams. Staples can easily be replaced with removable and reusable clips or plastic sleaves.

Keep scribbles to minimum.

The main attraction for dealers using a document storage solution is the ability to capture notes which are often written by admin staff or technicians. However, advanced document solutions employ OCR and may also use machine learning which may be affected by notes and scribbles. For example, employees might highlight a mobile phone number by circling the contact details, but if that circle obscure’s part to the text, then the ability to search via that number is lost.   

Invest in a good scanner.

For the typical dealership, the quality of a document scan does not have to be photo quality – however some OEM’s may require technician notes on warranty claims to have specific colour pen for example – so this must be considered. The scan should be legible – especially if you are using a solution that uses OCR. 

The greatest consideration should be on pages per minute and the number of sheets the tray can handle. The scanner you purchase should maximise the speed (ppm), ideally 80ppm or greater and you should spend as much money as your business can afford – as time saved in this area is valuable.

Process, process, process.

It is not economical to employ the resources of an employee to solely scan the whole days documents at once, therefore the scanning of documents must be incorporated into your departments task flow. For example in the service department, it is important to have the service advisor or costing clerk place the repair order in a scanner directly after finalisation. If you have purchased a good scanner, then all the settings can be defaulted and documents are scanned while the user is processing another task - such as costing the RO.  

Is your head in the clouds?

Your document archive is your last line of data storage – for most dealerships, the DMS is the source of truth of the dealerships data – and still most DMS are hosted on-premise. It is a key risk to also store your archived documents at the same premises as your database. Therefore, it is essential risk management that you choose a solution that is cloud based.                                                                          

Document storage is one of the best long-term investments you can make in your dealership – but it is important that you consider the process changes and solutions that are needed to maximise success.