An Unconventional Intro to Cryptocurrency

 

8 considerations before settling on a digitization supplier for your organization.

We all agree that it is common best practice to have more than one option for the service provider to choose from when seeking to buy something. For example when a company is looking to secure a development loan, it goes shopping to various banks and financial institutions to do comparisons until it settles on the best option. Likewise when selecting a service provider for digitization the best practice is to have a number of options and from them, select the best fit for your organization. Below are 8 considerations that will help you select the best digitization service provider, for your organization.

 

1.    Integrity

This is probably the most basic of all questions to ask. It is important to ensure that the company you are dealing with is legit and has a physical location that you can visit, to avoid being scammed. Depending on the procedures that your organization has in place for procurement, you may even demand to see evidence that the pitching organization is one with high standards of integrity. The documents that may verify this are the current certificate of tax compliance and certificate of incorporation.

 

2.    Capacity

If the organization is large and the amount of documents to be digitized is considerably high, your organization should ask for a bank guarantee from the procuring entity so as to ensure that it has enough funds to keep the project running smoothly until the end.

 

3.    Track Record

Your organization should also seek proof of a good track record from the pitching company, and the best way to do this is to ask for a list of referrals, in form of letters, of organizations for which the company has worked and successfully completed digitization projects. This could also include letters of project completion from various organizations the company has worked with.

 

4.   Professional site survey

Ensure that the procuring entity seeks an opportunity to visit your business premises so as to assess the scope of the digitization project and give a realistic quotation. The scope of the project is not only about the number of records, but also the type of records and the condition of the records. This way the procuring organization will be well informed about what is expected of them, and this way they will them on their advice on their ability to fulfil your expectations. This is also a good tell on if the company will be hindered by constraints such as distance and workforce.

 

5.    Timelines

After the pitching organization has had a look at your records, the next important question that needs to be asked is how long the project is likely to take from the service provider’s. Decisions such as whether to do the project all at once or in phases can be decided here. Of course the decision to be made will depend on the convenience of your organization or the urgency that your organization has to digitize its records.

 

6.   Storage

Your organization may also be in need of storage facilities for your digitized data, if you don’t already have them. There are two modes of storage, one is on cloud via cloud computing and the other is on premise via a physical server. Whichever choice your organization picks will have a direct effect on the price of the digitization process. However, the storage service or device can be sourced from a different provider.

 

7.    After sales service

Your organization should have a plan not just for digitization but also for post-digitization. This means that you should get a service provider who is able to provide training services to your records department for a period of time, called hand holding, as well as maintenance agreement that can be negotiated.

 

8.   Ability to give other ICT solutions

Most organizations, after digitization, will require a software solution that will serve the purpose of making he digitized documents available and useable at the click of a button. This would effectively be the use of an Electronic Document Management Solution (EDMS). It is a business automation solution that streamlines core business processes both for the organization and the organization’s customers. This is also a good tell about the organization’s experience in the field of digitization.

 

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