Scanning and Digitization Service

Scanning and Digital Imaging is the conversion of physical documents and images of any kind, in any format, into their digital equivalents. Reduction in physical space requirements and a much quicker document search and retrieval are just two of the many benefits of digitizing your paperwork.

It is always imperative for any organization to meet accepted standards for managing its large official records. These standards are designed to ensure that electronic images of paper source documents, where the image is intended to replace the original as the official record, are captured in a way that ensures their reliability, authenticity, and usability over their entire retention period and that allows the images, or copies produced from the images, to be authenticated as true copies of the originals and to be admissible as evidence in legal proceedings. It is desired to achieve the following by scanning and digitizing documents for various departments across the country:
  • Less Storage space for preserving the documents
  • Reduction in overall Searching time.
  • Increase in productivity of processes and office personnel
  • Availability of the document for sending over email
  • Reduced turnaround time of processes
  • Increase control over all the important digitized documents by restricting access

Scope of Work

Setting up the Scanning and Digitization Center

  • On receipt of confirmed purchase order Siddhast shall furnish details of estimated space/area requirement, estimated electric power required, estimated technical/ non-technical personnel to be deployed to set up digitization facility in buyer’s premises; within 10 days from award of contract. The plan may contain requirement of gate passes/ permission for manpower and machines. The plan may also include graphical representation of the comprehensive strategy to execute the project with in specified time schedule.
  • Siddhast    shall set up the digitization and scanning facility commensurate with the requirement of delivery schedule and the type and number of document to be scanned, digitized and the format of its storage. This activity will be completed within 10 days after buyer provides space for installation.

Pre-scanning

  • Siddhast will perform all the pre scanning activities which may include (but not limited to) collection of documents, removal of unwanted dust, removal of tags, pins, threads, rubber bands, application of curative techniques to biologically infected or otherwise damaged documents etc., sorting and numbering of pages in the document file in correct order.
  • The documents would be handed over in lots as agreed mutually between the  Siddhast   and the Buyer. The  Siddhast   shall provide acknowledgement of number of documents and number of pages in each document received from the Buyer. Number of documents/ pages in a file shall be checked in presence of the representative of the Buyer.
  • The  Siddhast    will maintain a record of the document details in a log register while collecting these documents. This log register should contain at least the following details:
    a.Description of the document collected
    b.Size of the pages in document (A4/legal/Full scale/note-sheet) along with the count
    c.Total number of pages in the document
    d.Collected from (Government Official)
    e.Collected by ( Siddhast    representative)
    f.Date of Collection
    g.Expected date of return
    h.Returned to (Government Official)
    i.Returned by (Siddhast representative)
    j.Actual date of return
  • Siddhast   shall maintain and return the documents in their original form to the Buyer. Document shall be handled with extreme care so that their chronology is not disturbed. For example, Multi-page documents that must be kept together (e.g., a letter with an attachment).
  • The  Siddhast   will carefully unfold and flatten the documents to eliminate creases and wrinkles and ensure that document maintain its original form without any damage.
  • The  Siddhast    will take special care in preparing the documents which are too old and that may not be in good physical condition or are very delicate and may not be directly scanned. This may include (but not limited to) pasting of torn pages, straightening of pages, UN-binding of files that cannot be scanned directly. Some old documents may require flat-bed scanners too.  Siddhast    may use ironing process to straighten them. Documents should be prepared such that normal scanner can scan it.
  • Siddhast    shall be responsible for any damage caused by them during the process of scanning and digitization of records and ensure that all such records are repaired at their own cost and information is retrieved. In case such retrieval of data or repair of record is not feasible the  Siddhast    will compensate for the same by making payment to the Buyer towards the value of the damaged or lost data/document/record as valued by the Buyer.

Scanning and Digitization

  • Scanning resolution shall 200/300/400/600 dpi or better as per S.O., raw master image uncompressed and clean master image loss less compression shall be in file format Tiff 6.0 or better.
  • The scanned documents shall be converted into any of the standard file formats such as TIFF/PDF/JPEG/RTF/ODT/PNG/GIF or other standard formats as per the requirement of the Buyer. All the pages of a single file have to be stitched together to generate an exact replica of the physical file. The stitched document should be represented in a TIFF/ PDF format or any other standard format as per user requirement.
  • The  Siddhast will be responsible for quality assurance and will go through all documents to see if they are complete and legible. The Siddhast will undertake Quality Assurance processes for all aspects of processing and post-processing of records including image capture, indexing, storage and return. The Siddhast staff will perform quality control to ensure that each page is fully rendered, properly aligned, and free of aliasing/ distortions. Inspection and quality control data shall always be recorded on the worksheet accompanying each volume. When necessary (e.g., poor image capture of an illustration), the staff will re-scan from the original text and insert the image(s) into the proper image file sequence.  Siddhast employ automated quality analysis mechanism to ensure 100% percent quality check.
  • Annotation and bookmark for relevant pages is to be recorded in the PDF files and stored as separate attributes in the database for search.
  • Metadata of each file / record is required to be recorded with the PDF file itself with conformance to the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) specification for storing rich metadata.
  • Metadata should be exported in XML format with other details of the PDF file as and when required.
  • If applicable the  Siddhast   shall perform the OCR or any Technology on the document with 100% accuracy so that the documents can be searched using the text in the document.
  • The  Siddhast  ensure that the quality of scanned images is enhance to the optimum level and shall perform all such activities required to bring the scanned image to optimal level such as skew, de-skew to make the image straight, cropping and cleaning of images like removal of black noises around the text and providing equal margins around the text etc.
  • In case the documents are not legible, the  Siddhast   scan the documents at a higher resolution or in Grayscale. No extra payment shall be made for the same.
  • All the pages in a document including blank pages (only when such blank pages are numbered in the file/document) shall be scanned to produce exact replica of the original document. No page shall be scanned more than once.
  • The  Siddhast  will deploy its own human resources for all the above mentioned activities. The  Siddhast   will deploy adequately skilled manpower resources to complete the job within the specified time and of specified quality.

Indexing and cataloging

  • Siddhast   will create metadata fields required for indexing as per the requirement of the Buyer. Scanned documents / images stored in digital form shall be indexed in the metadata fields using manual entry.
  • Siddhast   will establish procedure for checking the accuracy of indexing and making necessary corrections as accurate indexing is required for efficient retrieval of digital documents from digital storage media.
  • Once all documents are verified and pass  Siddhast   quality assurance phase, they will be stored on final digital media of the user’s preference, complete with their indexes. At the end of the process all paper documents will be returned in their original form to the concerned department.

Post Scanning

  • After scanning, the physical document would be pinned together/ tagged in the same form as it was given for scanning by the individual units of any department. At the end of the process all paper documents will be returned in their original form to the department.
  • Each page shall be serially arranged and shall be counted while giving the documents back to the department.
  • Version Control mechanism should be allowed. Version control has to be done in case of addendum to the pre-existing digitized file. Siddhast   will have to make this facility available in the capture and indexing module.
  • The  Siddhast   is required to use their own MIS tool to generate fortnightly reports for tracking the digitization status. These reports would contain basically summary of records scanned and stored. The release of payments is linked to fortnightly submission of these reports and the status of work to the End User Department and subsequent receipt of acknowledgement.

Storage and Backup

  • A folder structure/ configuration management policy has to be followed while storing the digitized data in the DVD/ hard disk and or central storage.
  • Nomenclature of the digitized file should be in accordance with the e-Gov standard and should be discussed with the End User Department.
  • Siddhast will integrate scanned and digitized documents into the existing document management system (DMS) of the Buyer as per his requirement.
  • Copies of the scanned data (and metadata) shall be provided in DVD /hard disk. Siddhast  will create a Master copy for the End User Department and will provide the replica of Master copy as per the requirement of the End User Department.
  • Siddhast  use standard methodology for Scanning & digitization and archiving so that in future, any  Siddhast   can access the archival database.
  • Siddhast train the respective users on retrieving the records after file conversion.
  • Siddhast  will hand over DVD/ hard disk to user of the following:
    a.Raw Master Image
    b.Clean Master Image
    c.PDF/A Image or any other format as decided by buyer

Training

Provide training to Buyer’s staff in accordance with their role and responsibilities which may be categorized as under:

  1. IT personnel
  2. Administrators
  3. Data entry operator
  4. Information viewers and users Training program should include following topics:

    a.Overview of the digitization initiative, its size, time frame, purpose and desired outcome.
    b.Use of digitization hardware and software, metadata creation, digital signature, process workflow.
    c.Digital image format
    d.Record handling techniques to avoid damage to records
    e.Use of file classification scheme for organizing images
    f.Maintenance of the records in their original order.
    g.Identification and processing records containing sensitive information.
    h.Documentation requirement for digitization.
    i.Standards and procedure for quality control.
    j.Varying work to avoid fatigue from repetition.
    k.Identification and process of specialized digitization techniques.
    l.DMS administration, Use and maintenance

Transition Management

  • Post the contract period, the  Siddhast   shall handover of all the knowledge material and assets to Buyer.
  • Post the contract period, if a new agency is selected by Buyer for the next contract, the Service Provider is expected to provide adequate knowledge transfer and training to the new agency for a period of three months. The knowledge transfer/training should necessarily cover details on the following:
    a.Document Management System, Document Retrieval,
    b.Nature and type of queries arriving at the helpdesk,
    c.FAQ’s, manuals, documentation and other reference material prepared for issue resolution and any other.

Buyer’s Obligations

  • Buyer shall provide adequate space and access to the authorized personnel of the Service Provider to work in the specified area. Buyer shall also nominate a Nodal officer from its organization to coordinate with Service Provider to set up the digitization facility.
  • Buyer shall nominate officer (department/unit/cell wise) who will hand over the records to be digitized to the authorized person of the Service Provider and also take back the same.
  • Buyer shall nominate officer (department/unit/cell wise) to receive and verify the quality and quantity of the digitized records. Such officers may be authorized to verify Service Provider’s invoices / bills /claims and to issue receipts certificate (CRC) to enable the payment to the Service Provider.
  • Buyer shall nominate officer (department/unit/cell wise) to verify the violation of any conditions of the service level agreement (SLA) and impose penalty/deduction if any from the Service Provider’s claims.
  • All storage area networks (SAN), network area storages (NAS), all type of server’s hardware including application servers and web servers, operating system software, RDBMS, firewalls, LAN etc. required to host the digitized records and document management system (DMS) software shall be provided by the Buyer.
  • Metadata field description shall be provided by Buyer along with documents.