SUMMARY: Faced with being thrown into remote work, one of the largest, industry-leading title insurance groups in the U.S. needed a way to gain access to files that were being stored in filing cabinets. With the help of IMR Digital, they were able to digitize and backup 708,750 active records in two months, allowing quick retrieval of documents that were about to become inaccessible.

THE CUSTOMER: For over 100 years, the “Title Company” has helped Americans protect their property rights while providing peace of mind for one of the biggest investments homeowners will make. Headquartered in Florida, the company works closely with title agents, real estate professionals, lenders, and industry experts to secure safe and efficient real estate transactions. They provide comprehensive title and escrow products and services for individuals, businesses, and government.

THE CHALLENGE: In 2020, the Delaware offices of the “Title Company,” located in 3 different counties, were bracing for changes about to impact businesses across the globe – the shift from working in an office to working remotely, with the possibility of it being indefinite. They primarily worked with paper files in dozens of filing cabinet drawers. In a typical office situation, the search and retrieval of paper records would already be cumbersome to navigate and unproductive for staff, but remote work compounded the accessibility issue.

THE SOLUTION: After several discovery meetings, a solution emerged including a phased approach for a file conversion project. All documents that were currently in filing cabinets, would be digitized for future use, creating a nearly paperless environment. This would allow a safe and secure method for credentialed employees to access company and client records while working at the office or remotely. First steps included IMR Digital deploying its bonded and insured couriers to each office for retrieval of all stored documents. At each location, a pre-transport document box inventory was conducted, which included the labeling and securely sealing of each box. The secure fleet of transport vehicles was tracked along the route to the IMR Digital production facility where the boxes were then logged into the company’s production tracking system. The next step included document scanning and conversion from paper to digital records using single-pass OCR (optical character recognition). This was an extremely important step, not only for archiving documents long-term but also for actively looking up information while the initial scanning was taking place. The change in workflow allowed the “Title Company” to not to skip a beat, even while the documents were off-site with IMR Digital in the staging area. Once the conversion process was complete, IMR Digital provided the “Title Company” with an electronic file containing all digitized documents. After a quality control review, the offices opted to have the original records destroyed and were provided with a certificate of destruction 45 days after scanning.

THE RESULT: The “Title Company” quickly saw the many benefits of scanned documents. They came to IMR Digital with several search requests early in the process, while the scanning was underway. IMR Digital quickly located and sent the requested assets for their immediate need. Additional benefits of single-pass OCR were recognized as the newly transformed digital documents could be edited and printed. Quick keyword searches were also possible, which was not an option previously with paper-based files. More importantly, the document conversion allowed the “Title Company” to securely store their digital records and protect them from unauthorized access and damage from the elements – the first step in facilitating a disaster recovery plan. This new workflow has reduced both hard and soft costs for the “Title Company.” IMR Digital was also able to negotiate and secure national pricing for the scanning and conversion of paper documents for all of their 50+ U.S. offices for the remainder of 2021.