Document Imaging Storage Considerations

When considering implementing a document imaging solution, or a change to an existing document imaging system, it's important for business decision-makers to think about where the imaged documents are going to be stored, and how much space they'll take up.

Even if there will no longer be physical filing cabinets, there will be digital ones, and those take up space, too.

Avoid the need to upgrade hardware by calculating your storage needs ahead of time. One way to do this is to assign a certain kilobyte amount to each of your documents. This will obviously vary depending on the type of document you're working with.

Then multiply the assigned kilobyte amount by the number of documents you're planning on imaging, and then do the math to get a rough idea of how much digital space you need.

Thanks to Moore's Law (technology gets smaller and cheaper all the time), the purchase price for digital storage is constantly dropping. Some thinkers suggest that the cost to store the entire contents of the Library of Congress will fall to $1,000 by the year 2018.

You may also want to consider hiring a records management company to store the documents for you. No need to reinvent the wheel, after all...