Scanning Services for Contaminated Documents and Archives

We scan documents contaminated by mold, mildew, fungus or dust. Contaminated documents represent an occupational health risk for individuals that are handling them. Mold or dust can cause adverse health effects, induce allergic reactions and be potentially toxic. If your paper archive has been exposed, we can help you protect your staff by expertly scanning the affected documents and safely destroying the contaminated paper originals. Your archive will be preserved in a perfectly safe digital format and your staff will no longer be exposed to unnecessary risk.

With over 30 years of experience in scanning, indexing and archiving massive volumes of documents, we know everything there is to know about document scanning and handling of contaminated documents. Our scanning services are delivered through our ScanFactory division by highly qualified, security-cleared personnel that are dedicated to quality document scanning. To guarantee health and safety of our employees we have a certified Health & Safety (Prevention) Consultant on staff, ensure that our personnel are always protected by Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in compliance with regulations, and provide our staff with occupational health & safety training.

Scanning & Conversion Services for Microfilm and Microfiche - We Scan and Convert Microfilm and Microfiche to Digital Format

Superior Equipment & Technology

We use only the highest quality document scanners available on the market. Our production grade scanners come with state-of-the-art features that enable us to provide you with top quality digital images. In addition, we use our own proprietary technology to control, streamline and automate all our scanning operations, from A to Z – ScanFactory Resource Planning (SRP). It was developed entirely in-house by our expert personnel. Its main purpose is to reduce human intervention to an absolute minimum and remove the risk of human error. This highly sophisticated, one-of-a-kind technology offers complete traceability and provides full real-time reporting functionality.

Customer Portal

The Customer Portal allows you to search for and consult the status of every document processed by ScanFactory at any point in time (e.g. In Transport, In Scanning, etc.). The Portal also makes it possible to make requests for urgent scanning or physical delivery of a particular document, and view full history of such requests. All information and metadata about every single document, including its exact physical location, are stored in the SRP database and can be retrieved on-demand.

Document Scanning Process

All stages of the document scanning process are controlled entirely by our SRP, including quality control, human resource allocation and our high-end document scanners. It is a clear and fully transparent step-by-step process that guarantees superior quality and full confidentiality:

Pick-up, Transport & Intake at Our Facilities

We pick up your documents and prepare them for transport to our facilities. Our personnel arrive at your site, register all documents in SRP, put them in specially designed archive boxes / containers (depending on type and level of contamination), assign a unique barcode to each box / container, and stack them on sealed europallets. The moment a document is registered, iGuana and your staff can trace the exact physical location of each box / container and the processing stage of each document in real time via the SRP. Sealed europallets containing your documents are then transported in a sealed vehicle to the iGuana facility. All transports are dedicated, meaning that no items other than your documents are transported at any one time to guarantee full confidentiality & security, and to prevent cross-contamination. When your registered documents arrive at iGuana and the integrity of all seals is confirmed, we scan barcodes on every single box / container and assign each box / container a unique location in our warehouse. This information is automatically stored in our SRP system.

Preparation & Scanning

We prepare your documents for scanning along strict guidelines, including health & safety guidelines. File folders, staples and paper clips are removed, if necessary, file / document separation pages and/or toggle pages are inserted to give special instructions to the scanner, etc. All your documents are scanned according to scanner settings pre-defined in the SRP system for your specific project. Scanning is controlled entirely by the SRP system and the risk of human error is essentially reduced to zero. Image quality is guaranteed by sophisticated scanner hardware and technology (see Quality Control & Image Enhancement).

Indexing & Classification

The SRP platform automatically classifies and recognizes the incoming document stream. It identifies all content types and leverages 4 classification technologies: image-based, text-based, separation page-based and rule-based. It also identifies, sorts and separates documents with multiple pages and uses various recognition technologies, such as OCR, ICR, OMR and barcode recognition. Data are either automatically extracted or manually indexed using double-keying methods. Automated and manual verification checks are performed to ensure data accuracy.

Quality Control & Image Enhancement

A set of clearly defined procedures governs every single step of our document scanning operations, from Pick-up to Metadata & Image Delivery. Every action taken in relation to your documents is tracked in the SRP system in real time. Our document scanners have built-in image quality control features, such as Perfect Page technology, blank page removal, double feed detection, Dual Stream scanning, Intelligent Quality Control, iThresholding, auto-deskew, etc. The Image Enhancement module in our SRP system utilizes a 16-core server dedicated exclusively to post-scan image processing and performs a series of complex algorithmic image enhancement tasks. In addition to numerous manual quality checks, our Quality Supervisor is also automatically notified by the SRP of any quality issues detected by SRP’s sophisticated quality control algorithms.

Last but not least, our employees are trained to apply ISO 9001 Quality Management principles in all their work.

Metadata & Image Delivery

Delivery of images and metadata can be done via a Direct File Transfer method (VPN) or External Storage Device method (e.g. encrypted Hard Disk, USB sticks, etc.). You decide which option suits you best. Delivery is a fully automated process governed entirely by SRP. During scanning, all scanned images and metadata are stored directly in the SRP database. These images and metadata are automatically exported from SRP without any human intervention whatsoever. As a result, you have virtually unlimited flexibility in choosing your preferred image and metadata file formats, such as JPEG, TIFF, PDF, PDF/A, etc. for images, XML file or CSV file, etc. for metadata or any import format for your document management software.

Certified Destruction

All contaminated files are kept in quarantine (sealed storage) for a standard period of 1 month from the day scanned documents and metadata are delivered to you. This gives you the opportunity to perform your own quality control. Upon expiration of the quarantine period and your express approval, all quarantined documents are subjected to safe and secure confidential destruction using Security Level P3, DIN 66399 standard. Once physical documents are safely destroyed, all scanned images and metadata are erased from our SRP system. You receive a confidential destruction certificate.

Privacy & Security

iGuana takes matters of privacy, security and data protection very seriously. We have an in-house Data Protection Officer (DPO) on staff who is responsible for ensuring compliance with internal privacy & security policies and implementing procedures in line with GDPR and with the ISO 27001 standard for information security.

  • In-house DPO on staff
  • Strict access controls; 24/7 monitoring
  • Ban on Wi-Fi & mobile phones
  • Background checks & confidentiality agreements
  • Secure transportation & sealed storage
  • Secure image & metadata delivery
  • Confidential certified destruction

Health & Safety

Health and safety of employees is a top priority for iGuana, especially when they handle contaminated documents. We employ an internal Health & Safety (Prevention) Consultant certified by Idewe, our staff are provided with all the necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and are health & safety trained. Useful resources:

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