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Case Study: Digitally Converting Microfilm for Enterprise Level Content Management with MCS Vancouver

MCS Vancouver scanning service bureau has an insurance company client that had committed to an EDMS (Electronic Document Management Systems) platform back in 1999. Previous to them implementing this digital records system, they had historically microfilmed all important business records, from application forms to beneficiary documents, memos, updates and remittance advice.

Implementing Enterprise Level Digital Records System

While all new correspondence since 1999 had either been created or captured electronically, there was a gap of several decades where the originating and follow up documents only existed on microfilm. At the height of their microfilm program, the insurance company had a fleet of microfilm reader printers which allowed the retrieval and printing of the records in question. With the digital conversion of systems, the old microfilm reader printers had been retired one at a time to the point where the remaining machines were in very sad shape. New machines were available, but were very expensive, to say nothing of the human labour to make them function.

Converting 1000 Microfilm Rolls to Digital Images

A study was undertaken to consider alternatives to replacing the reader printers. MCS, Vancouver’s Leading Microfilm Digitization & Document Management Service was contacted to suggest a solution. We proposed converting the 16mm microfilm rolls to digital image using our Sunrise microfilm scanners.

sunrise_microfilm_scanner Converting 16mm Microfilm Rolls to Digital Images

Cost Savings Converting Microfilm with MCS Vancouver

Given the fact that there were approximately 1000 rolls of microfilm, and that every image on each roll of film needed to be captured, we were able to give our client an extremely attractive price.

4 Million Pages Digitized, Now Searchable & Accessible

The decision was made to proceed with this project last fall and scanning began in mid October 2012. In all, over 4 million images (representing single page paper forms) were converted, which represented well over one terabyte of data!

Our client is extremely pleased with the quality of the digital images they have received, and delighted that no specialized hardware is required to search for or read images from their new digital archive. Their response times to their client’s customer service requests have shrunk, and the quality of the images they forward to their clients is a significant improvement over what was possible from the old microfilm reader printers.