Ooops. Can I have a do-over? 

Ah, the rush to production. Between over-zealous timelines and management that just wants quick results, SharePoint rollouts can become quite messy. We see quite a few SharePoint Scanning project rollouts, so we want to share with you some of the common mistakes we see:

1. Lack of scanning volume research: Many organizations really have no idea how many pages they scan on a monthly or annual basis. This is critical in the overall scanning project planning and storage design. The average image file is 10-20 times the size of a word file. If you really have no feel for your scan volume, work with your copier vendor to grab statistics from the hardware. If you use dedicated desktop scanners, most drivers will maintain scan counts for preventive maintenance reasons and you can access them quite easily. So why the counts? Nothing brings a SharePoint farm to its knees like an organization scanning 10 times the estimated volume, from both a network traffic perspective and a backup perspective. Check out this post all about SharePoint Scanning Storage and Sizing.
2. Scanning in Color: Most copiers/MFPs are configured out of the gate to show their beautiful full-color scanning capabilities. This is all well and fine until the SharePoint content databases are being hit with 60 MB color files. Most scanning only requires 200 dpi black and white; in some cases, when using OCR and Advanced Data Extraction (ADE), you may need to bump to 300 dpi. Work with your vendor to set a standard panel configuration for all devices.
3. A half-configured SharePoint Library: We see quite a few organizations under the gun to get the project rolling, only to not go deep enough in their search plan. How are you going to find data? What are your key metadata fields? Are all your content types configured? Are you using managed metadata? Ensuring everything is configured from the start can alleviate great pain down the road.
4. No file or folder naming strategy: Many of the technologies on the market do not let you use customizable file naming or foldering strategies. The reality is that letting your scanning device name your PDF or TIFF with nonsensical names can be a tragedy. “0000A3X3.PDF” can come back to bite you if you ever need to export data or migrate to a new repository.  Come up with a standard and use an advanced document capture software to enforce an organized naming system.
5. The use of Franken-capture: Many organizations rush into projects and don’t do their due diligence when evaluating what they really need from a scanning and capture perspective. In the end, they have a cobbled together mish-mosh of five technologies that are a nightmare to maintain, and end up bloating their annual maintenance costs. Pick one extensive product to help you scan and capture, and go from there.

Find out how Capture can help you optimize your SharePoint project.