Background

Newspaper companies have had to reinvent themselves for the digital age. Yet, even as they move to online journalism and multimedia storytelling, these companies may be slower to evolve when it comes to their document management.

 

A move to a new building prompted one New York City media company to look to conserve real estate by digitizing documents from several key departments. Partnering with Forrest Solutions, the company found cost and space savings while enjoying the peace of mind that its sensitive documents were in good hands, safely onsite.

 

Challenge

The well-established media giant decided in February 2017 that it was time to digitize over 3 million pages of documents from its Corporate Records, Labor, and Employee Relations departments. The company was reluctant to take the risk of sending the sensitive documents offsite to a third party vendor for scanning and storage.

 

Solution

Forrest Solutions drew on its experience and valuable partnerships to customize a solution that would result in quality digitized documents, rich in metadata that would enable quick and easy future data retrieval. Converting the decades-old varied media, from paper all the way to microfiche, the Forrest Solutions team leveraged its deep background in document scanning and management for legal and financial services clients creating an efficient process for the delivery of a final electronic form. Production operators hired and trained by Forrest Solutions work in the company’s building with high‐volume scanners at their workstations ensuring no documents ever leave the custody of the client.

 

A key element was ensuring that stakeholders from the various departments maintained ready access to the many types of files including contracts, compensation summaries, severance packages, business plans, acquisition contracts, and more while guaranteeing the digital retrieval system would be completely searchable. That’s where a long-held partnership with an ISO-certified data capture vendor came into play. After meeting individually with representatives of each of the relevant departments regarding their specific metadata needs, Forrest Solutions and its strategic partner worked together to ensure quality scans and accurate capture and coding of the data needed to integrate smart PDF-A with the client’s document retrieval systems.

 

Results

Forrest Solutions’ comprehensive solution, customized in alignment with a strategic partner, mitigated risk, increased efficiency, and provided a foundation to deliver the best product for the client while proving more cost effective than competitive bids. Through a customized approach, strategic partnerships, and white-glove service, Forrest Solutions continues to add value to the relationship with this media company client.