The larger an accumulated archive of paper documents and the more employees use the data found within those documents, the more important their digitalisation, assurance of safe access to, storage of and, last but not least, the proper archiving of those original documents is.
Although this task is new and unplanned for a significant percentage of organizations, digital transformation projects are not a novelty on the market. There are numerous examples of millions of pages, or of particularly sensitive documents in regards of both their historic value and the information stored therein, being digitalised.
One of the most impressive digitisation projects implemented in our region up until now is digitization of archive family facts documents of residents stored in the Archives of Estonian Ministry of Interior. As early as 2008-2009 Andmevara AS in cooperation with Andmevara Services OU digitised more than 4.3 million personal records, prepared the metadata, identified the relationships therein, and linked them to the Estonian Population Register. In other words, digitised data was not only registered, but also linked to specific individuals.
At the moment, Andmevara is working on another digitalisation project in Estonia: cultural heritage documents (books, posters, works of art, other paper documents) from 12 Estonian museums are being digitalised, creating metadata for 2.7 million paper documents in total. At a time when museums across the globe are generously sharing access to digitalised archives, thus aiming to reduce the pitfalls of social isolation, this project has become particularly important and pressing in Estonia. The project is expected to be finished on schedule, by the end of this year. This example shows how an organisation can adapt to new work safety requirements during the pandemic, continuing to operate at full possible capacity, according to government safety recommendations.
The General Manager of BAIP, Gytis Umantas, who oversees Andmevara Services OÜ, commented on the situation:
"Most organisations were unavoidably moving in the direction of digital transformation, and all the pandemic has done is accelerate those processes. We all understand that the changes which have occurred in the way work is organised and how services are provided are not limited to one instance and are not finite. In fact, most organisations have altered their operational principals permanently. As a company providing such important services, we had to take on the responsibility to ensure their continuous provision, guaranteeing the smooth fulfilment of obligations despite the conditions imposed by new work safety regulations. In Lithuania today, BAIP and its subsidiary Andmevara Services OÜ, can offer quality document digitalisation services provided by specialists with many years of experience working with vast quantities of particularly sensitive documents. Documents may be digitalised on both our and the client’s premises. If required, we can offer search and management solutions for digitalised documents, as well as archiving and storage services. In short, an entire package of quality services from reliable hands."
