The goal of a document management system such as Worldox is to provide the firm with a single electronic repository of all its documents, emails, scanned documents (PDFs) that is completely searchable and indexed.
While such a system is known to break down in a number of ways – non-compliance by users, failure to store emails, etc., there is a “hidden” hole that is potentially much more serious. And that is the failure to OCR PDF documents that have been scanned or received from clients or other firms. When you scan a document, the resulting PDF is an “electronic xerox” – a picture of the original. Unlike a Word document, you cannot search for anything it in, it is just an image. The process of Optical Character Recognition (“OCR”) “reads” the document and creates a text overlay that enables the document to be searched and indexed. Studies have shown that for most firms, 20% to 30% of their PDFs are not OCR’d and hence not searchable. I recently ran diagnostics on some clients, and that number seems to be accurate.
Not only will users not be able to locate information they need, but in terms of reviewing your document store relating to discovery, records requests, subpoena responses, issues during corporate transactions, etc., the firm could face serious liability if it fails to locate and produce required documents or information. Sanctions due to incomplete/improper document production are every attorney’s nightmare.
There are a number of solutions to this issue, apart from paying your copier company extra money. Some PDF programs (such as Nuance) let you set up a “watch” directory. Scan documents to the watch directory and they are OCR’d.
The solution I prefer is a program called Symphony, from Trumpet, Inc. Symphony sits on your Worldox indexer and OCRs all documents stored in Worldox. It will also OCR your backlog – all those documents that already exist but were not previously text searchable. At $45/user/year (tied to the number of Worldox users) with no page count, the program is extremely affordable. There are also more advanced, somewhat more expensive, options that will greatly enhance your productivity when scanning documents. Check it out at www.trumpetinc.com.
One way or another, all firms need a solution to this issue.
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