The Challenge:
In 2020, the Department of State (DoS) was seeking vendors to accomplish the ambitious goal of digitizing over 1.7 million OCR-readable documents to augment their machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. This project also had a tight deadline, with all document digitization to take place in under 4 months. DoS turned to the Nakupuna Companies whose team was ready and capable of delivering high-quality results within the short timeframe.
The Approach:
The Nakupuna Companies team was able to quickly ramp up production to ready documents for digitization while meeting National Archives and Records Administration baseline standards. First, all documents were securely transported from Virginia to Missouri and stored securely before they could be processed. Staples, metal fasteners, paperclips, folds, crinkles, and sticky notes were removed from all documents to ensure high-quality digitization and scans could be produced quickly and without error. We were also sensitive to anything marked, written, or stamped on the documents and ensured these markings displayed clearly once the document was processed.
Using our in-house equipment, the Nakupuna team scanned and inspected each image before exporting the documents as PDFs with naming conventions derived from the contents of each document. Digital records were then OCR scanned prior to ingest into the designated DoS file repository. Each week, files were transmitted securely via a Secure File Transfer Protocol channel to DoS along with a robust 1:1 verification of shared data, ensuring the client received all required documents on schedule and in the desired format. We then worked with a local document shredding company to ensure proper disposal of all physical materials.
The Results:
At peak output, the Nakupuna team was scanning over 140,700 images weekly with an error rate of zero. By the end of the project, we had scanned 802 boxes containing 11,315 contracts, which wound up being roughly 1.7 million images. The project was completed on schedule and exceeded the client’s expectations for quality imaging.