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More and more, businesses and government agencies are switching from paper-based information to digital data. They realise that "business-at-the-speed-of-paper" will no longer be economically feasible in just a few years' time. 68 percent of the respondents to a current study titled "Paper Wars 2014 - an Update from the Battlefield" by the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), shared this opinion. The international study reached a further conclusion: improved searchability and shareability of business documents is the biggest driver behind the scanning of paper-based data.

Electronic data is not just the domain of the corporate world, though. Government agencies in many countries have long ago turned their attention to digital data. Governments throughout the world are also striving to provide digital data in an effort to reinforce citizens' trust in government. For example, the UK NHS plans to go completely paperless by 2018.

The initiative aims to diminish bureaucracy in order to deliver health care to patients more efficiently. Digitisation is also proceeding apace in the legal system; every courtroom is expected to go completely digital by 2016 with the help of data capture technology. The Ministry of Justice in Great Britain is investing 160 million pounds so that it will be able to exchange information securely and efficiently by electronic means.

CROSS-BORDER DIGITISATION
Digitisation is arguably proceeding more rapidly in our European neighbouring countries. For example, The Digital Government 2020 programme in Germany is intended to propel the shift from paper to electronic files at the federal level. The goal is to digitise and link the federal government's internal processes thoroughly across all media and to make government electronically accessible for citizens. Electronic invoicing is another key German initiative covering everything from the time an order is placed until payment is made and has huge implications for suppliers, restaurants and other service providers which issue a large number of invoices and receipts.

Initiatives to reduce the amount of paper consumed are also widespread in France, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry. The "Dossier Pharmaceutique" states that any citizen who possesses health insurance from the state can create a pharmaceutical file. Paper-free initiatives in Poland have likewise taken aim at the healthcare system. The goal is to have all medical documentation digitised by 2017, while Italy's Digital Agenda focuses on the areas of digital identity, digital administration, digital education, digital health, the digital divide, electronic payments and invoicing, and digital justice.

The Netherlands plans to have a "Digital Government" by 2017 while the Belgian government aims to have a digital federal government by the end of its tenure.

HOW EUROPE DOES DIGITAL
In principle, all the technologies needed for implementing the various initiatives for digitisation (as well as other digital initiatives) already exist; it is not necessary to re-invent the wheel. However, there is a lot more work to be done. Scanning solutions are as varied as the initiatives taking root across Europe and while considerations like scanner format, functions and capture quality can vary the constant is ensuring that scanned documents are useable. Aside from image formats like TIFF or JPG, documents are usually converted into searchable PDFs.

Search functionality is particularly key given that there is not a single government agency that can do without forms to capture handwritten information. Forms also play an important part for insurance companies and businesses that see a lot of standardised paperwork or invoices. It is therefore essential for businesses and government that scanners recognise forms and are able to quickly extract, interpret and classify contents. Interpretation here means automatically capturing the content of forms or questionnaires.

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