Outsourcing document recognition

It's common for organizations to outsource their scanning, and document conversion. Organizations find sometimes that the skill required, the convince factor, and liability is worth the additional cost. Other organizations that have one time backlog conversions save money by using an outsourcing company vs. bringing the software in-house. In recent years service bureaus and business process outsourcing companies have dramatically improved their use of recognition technology, if they are utilizing it, and prices have dropped substantially. Though as an organization who chooses to outsource you are removing the responsible of picking document conversion technology, do you know what technology your service bureau is using?

YOU SHOULD! Absolutely you should be concerned about the OCR and Data Capture technology that your outsourcing company is using. It's no less important than if you were bringing the technology in-house. It's your job to make sure your vendor is using the not just the best technology but in the best way. The education level between outsourcing companies is different and they each often specialize in one document type or one type of processing. Proper evaluation of a service bureau will include review of sample results. You should have your prospect service bureau or BPO run a good number of your production documents and provide you a result. Make sure the technology they used to produce the results is the same that is used when in production. Don't be afraid to ask the vendor what engine or engine's are being used, even what version. Make sure you understand how your vendor handles exceptions.

While it's easy to overlook these items when you are looking at a service instead of a technology, it's important that you are educated. Service bureaus make money based on how much they save. This occasional can create motives to use poor technology to gain greater margin. Some outsourcing companies put customers into categories by volume, those with the greater volume get the best technology. Most the outsourcing companies out there are very good at ensuring their document quality, and many will even go as far to give you a guarantee on quality. But the nature of production environments is such that you cannot check everything always. It's about relationship. Some times paying a higher price per page for a better solution is worth it!