When your images are saved in one of the aforementioned document repositories, they need to have relevant keywords and data associated with them so they can be organized and found later when you need them. The most basic way to do this is using folders and filenames on your hard drive. More advanced document mangement solutions will let you assign specific labels to each document such as name, date, reference numbers and any other information you might want to use to find each file. They can also include integrated viewers, storage systems, security and records management functions.

So before you begin choosing a scanning solution, you need to think about what type of document repository you need and what information you will use to label and organize those file in that repository. Some things to consider when selecting a document repository are:

• Who needs access to the documents? People on the office network, or people around
  the country or worldwide? Authorized users only or the general public? How many users?
• What information technology resources are available to support this solution?
• What is your budget?
• What searching capabilities do you need?
• What are the security, privacy or legal concerns of this application?

When deciding what data you want to use to find your documents, consider these questions:

• How do people currently find this document? What information do they know about this file before they start looking for it?
• Is the data printed on the page somewhere?
• Is this data available in an existing database, Excel spreadsheet or XML file?
• Are you creating these documents yourself? Can you add a barcode with the data you need somewhere on it?
• Do you need to be able to search the contents of the document?
• Do I need to be able to search on this value so badly that someone has to type it in on every document?

You can learn more about document scanning in our guide.