was just hired as a freelancer for the first time - need halp!

we do document imaging at our company. theres a lot more invoved than just scanning the pages with a scanner.

what type of documents are they?
are there barcodes on them?
how are they planning on retreiving them once theyre scanned?
will they have a front end that will allow the staff to search by various criteria (customer name, invoice number etc) if so you need to identify the documents during the scanning phase, probably with some sort of data entry
are you storing the images in a database? or in the file system?

if you want to do more than a hack job for them, you should look at some sort of enterpise class document imaging solution. something with an SQL back end.

have you committed to a price?
have you agreed on a scope of work more specific than 'digitizing the documents'?
what are their expectations?
even if theyre not defined, they will absolutely want an easy way to retreive them once theyre indexed and wont be happy/likely wont pay you if you havent thought this through anc cant deliver it
 


fyi, insurance companies have lots of money. if i were you i wouldnt touch this for anything under 2k
 
ebtek said:
we do document imaging at our company. theres a lot more invoved than just scanning the pages with a scanner.

what type of documents are they?
are there barcodes on them?
how are they planning on retreiving them once theyre scanned?
will they have a front end that will allow the staff to search by various criteria (customer name, invoice number etc) if so you need to identify the documents during the scanning phase, probably with some sort of data entry
are you storing the images in a database? or in the file system?

if you want to do more than a hack job for them, you should look at some sort of enterpise class document imaging solution. something with an SQL back end.

have you committed to a price?
have you agreed on a scope of work more specific than 'digitizing the documents'?
what are their expectations?
even if theyre not defined, they will absolutely want an easy way to retreive them once theyre indexed and wont be happy/likely wont pay you if you havent thought this through anc cant deliver it
Click to expand...

They are insurance application files... what program do you suggest for this?

I told him if he wanted I could just make a folder with folders embedded inside of it with the names of clients.
 
You're going to need a couple of these

scanner.jpg


and a couple of these

IndianCallCentre2.jpg
 
Squats said:
They are insurance application files... what program do you suggest for this?

I told him if he wanted I could just make a folder with folders embedded inside of it with the names of clients.
Click to expand...

how many pages per file? just one?

and youre just saving them as clientname.pdf?

you could try the microsoft document imaging. ive never used it but youll likely be able to find an "Evaluation" copy somewhere online. more likely than some of the others
 
Get something that scans directly to a memory card; sheet feeder or not, if you're not interested in color you can get several hundred pages- maybe even several thousand if the card is big enough. This way you can set up batch jobs for the file conversions.

Alternatively, if you have a lot of space to work, you could also lay them out in the floor and shoot them with a digital camera. The resolution of todays cameras is more than enough to get a clear image from a reasonable distance. You'll need to keep the camera stationary and the floor should be dark enough to provide some contrast so an imaging program can slice them and also do batch resizing/conversions.

Or you could always take it to Kinko's and do some arbitrage.
 
take the upfront money then go back and tell him you need more in order to complete the project... do this about 10-15 more times....
 
There are companies that do high speed bulk scanning - take a look at how much they would charge for this, it doesn't make sense to buy a scanner and do it yourself. You can also drop by your local print shop and check if they have scanning equipment that has an auto loader.
 
I used to work in accounting for a large retailer, and we had an epic scanner that would handle hundreds of pages of multi-sized invoices at a time no problem. I looked it up at the time and it was about $2k of equipment..
 
ebtek said:
how many pages per file? just one?

and youre just saving them as clientname.pdf?

you could try the microsoft document imaging. ive never used it but youll likely be able to find an "Evaluation" copy somewhere online. more likely than some of the others
Click to expand...

Some files contain up to 25 files. And no, I was going to have the client name on the folder, and the client pdfs inside that folder. Sound good? It's a small-medium sized company. But if there is good software for this then I guess I can do that as well. He's already dropping $900 for my computer / desk / scanner setup so I dont think I should charge him 2 grand...
 
Always, I repeat ALWAYS, Know what your getting paid upfront. Written document stating that is always better ofcourse. Don't be greedy, your 19, and anything over $10/hour is money. Use it to fund your next PPC campaign and triple it.
 
UGH,, I hate people like you.

I was abit naive in the when I started to outsource and I assumed that somebody that applied and accepted my Job offer would know wtf they were doing. Sadly that is far from the reality and its annoying and a waste of time.
 
Lol at not knowing what you are being paid, but this is what you need- two sides at one pass, and 75 page autofeeder, etc. Bit over 3 hondo, though...

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OATBEQ?ie=UTF8&tag=hotcellscom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001OATBEQ"]Amazon.com: Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50 Document Imaging Scanner: Electronics[/ame]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom