A scan is only useful if the right person can find it and understand what it contains. Before planning equipment or scanning volumes, take a step back and consider how your records are used.
1. Who needs the information?
List the teams that create, reference and maintain the records. Their working requirements help you decide how to organise the archive and who should take responsibility for it.
2. What does a useful search start with?
Talk to people who retrieve documents every day. Do they start with a project name, reference number, date or department? Use those answers to agree the indexing fields and naming conventions.
3. What is actually in scope?
Build an inventory of the material. Include document formats, condition, approximate quantities and handling considerations. Establish the rules for originals with the appropriate record owners before work begins.
4. What does a successful handover look like?
Agree the delivery format, quality review process and acceptance criteria. Decide who will maintain the archive and what familiarisation they need.
The result is a more useful project brief: one that connects scanning activity to the information your organisation needs to use.