Turning documentation into real information

The promise of the paperless office never quite came to pass, though progress is being made. One significant stumbling block, however, is legacy documentation: a vast and endless supply of paper, from forms to notes and correspondence to crucial records, that contains much of the crucial information in an organisation.

Already well-known in the medical sector for its work digitising patient records, Datascan Document Services is now working to expand its business in other practice-based sectors, such as law.

Many of these firms are doubtlessly interested in reducing their reliance on slow, paper-based processes. However, moving to digital data brings some onerous tasks with it.

For one thing, legacy documents need to be scanned and indexed. In addition, cyber security needs to be taken seriously.

“When you have stuff in the cloud, or anywhere online, you are responsible for it,” said Orla Cafferty, chief executive of Datascan Document Services.

Indeed, Irish businesses today are faced with new cyber security regulations in the form of the updated EU Network and Information Security directive NIS 2, a legislative act that aims to achieve a high common level of cybersecurity across EU member states.

“NIS2 is coming into force in October and many businesses will feel its impact,” Cafferty said.

Notably, NIS2 will apply much more widely than its predecessor, something Cafferty said will have an impact on how these businesses think about data.

“The scope of all these things is being broadened out. Originally it applied to high-powered banking, hospitals, financial institutions and so on, but now it has been expanded out to smaller, but important, entities. As a result, all of our customers will now fall into that scope,” she said.

As a result, Datascan can demonstrate its commitment to security through having the right processes in place.

Every bigger customer we take on puts us through their due diligence

“Every bigger customer we take on puts us through their due diligence,” Cafferty said.

In practical terms, this means Datascan has to demonstrate that it is certified and compliant.

“We are ISO 270001-certified, which customers want to see, and they want to see we are insured, have the right procedures and processes, and have completed SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports, which we have,” she said.

Indeed, Datascan has achieved ISO 27001:2022 certification, marking it one of the earliest adopters of this newer and more rigorous standard, meaning its customers can put their trust in the company’s commitment to security.

“Everyone has to do their due diligence on who is below them in the supply chain,” she said.

Beyond security

As well as cyber security, the push to becoming data-driven businesses means documents need to be accessible. In other words, the information contained in them needs to not simply be scanned but classified properly so that staff – and, indeed, software and systems – can actually work with it.

In the legal sector, Cafferty said that despite ongoing digitisation, a vast amount of paper was still produced.

“Contemporary documents in many legal practices are already digital; however, if they're dealing with other entities, they can't say ‘We only take digital documents’. As a result, the mid-range law firm can get a lot of assistance from us. There is opportunity for smaller firms, too around retirement or selling the practice,” she said.

Once Datascan scans a document it makes sure that it is machine-readable and then classifies and indexes the information so that it is actually usable and, therefore, useful.

“A medical record file, or a HR file, will have things like contact details or sick notes perhaps. That needs to be indexed, so they can’t be scanned and stored as one big lump,” Cafferty said.

In addition, Datascan helps sort, classify and index data that originated digitally. After all, office-based computing is not new and, as a result, even data generated and collected digitally can become confused or get stuck in silos.

Cafferty explained that Datascan works to ensure that this data is properly managed and, indeed, manageable.

“We’re now at about 25 to 30 years of everyone using a computer at a desk. As a result, companies have systems that are no longer fit for purpose. They supply us with a chunk of data and we index it,” she said.

Whether the data source is paper or digital, though, the end goal is to take the data and turn it into information that professionals, such as lawyers or doctors, can use to inform their judgement.

“The legacy stuff is really what people want to see. Imagine you are a doctor: you know a patient has broken their leg, but what you need to see is, has a similar thing happened before,” she said.