A recurring question we receive at Steel City Shredding is, “Do you offer bulk document scanning?”
As a team, we were all on the same page that making this service available should be one of our most important initiatives for 2025. And we’re proud to now provide high-volume document scanning solutions for business and personal needs.
If you’ve ever been tasked with digitizing old paper documents and files, you have three options.
- Try do-it-yourself workarounds.
- Take it to a retail shipping/printing service or office supply store that offers scanning.
- Choose a professional document scanning service like Steel City Shredding.
When weighing your final decision, it’s important to consider cost, convenience, and security. Steel City Shredding provides the best combination of all three, with added benefits that DIY and retail chains can’t match. Let’s explore.
DIY Bulk Scanning: A Huge Time Drain
While scanning apps or standalone printer/scanner may suffice for a handful of documents, attempting to use one for high-volume scanning turns your schedule into a black hole.
Cost?
While most scanning apps are free, they may charge for important features like storage and Optical Character Recognition (OCR), which is how scanned documents are converted into editable files. Plus, there’s a hidden cost in the quality. A scanning app may not offer the same image resolution as a professional scanner would. If you buy a digital scanner, that incurs an expense that eats up even more budget.
Convenience?
The whole purpose of document scanning is to deal with less paperwork, but if you’re the unlucky soul who takes on the thankless task of scanning everything manually, you’ll be drowning in paperwork.
That’s because you’re responsible for all the prep work: separating the documents, positioning them, and holding your camera steady to capture everything you want in the frame. If you’ve ever dealt with creased or crinkled documents, you know it’s not as easy as it looks to get the documents to stay flat. What seems like minor nuisances aren’t so minor after all.
Security?
Like any other piece of technology, scanning applications are susceptible to data breaches. So if your documents have sensitive information, using your phone to scan them is a questionable decision. It’s also a no-go for companies who must comply with strict privacy laws and regulations.
For all these reasons, these types of applications won’t suffice for bulk document scanning.
Bulk Scanning at Big Box Stores: Still A Chore
Many shipping and delivery companies or office supply stores also offer document scanning services. Although it’s a more attractive option than a scanning app, there are hidden drawbacks.
Cost?
Stores usually charge per page or per pound. Flat fees are rarer but available at some companies. Some have self-service kiosks and charge per minute spent scanning.
Regardless of which option you choose, you’ll have to be price conscious, because if you have several boxes, the fees will quickly add up. You may also be charged for the prep work to separate and organize the files.
Convenience?
While it can be more streamlined, you’re at the mercy of how busy the store is and whether it’s fully staffed. There’s also the reality that you’ll have to spend time traveling there and waiting there. Depending on the volume of files you have, that could take hours.
Security?
These services will have more robust data security protections compared to scanning apps, but any place that’s a high-traffic location is vulnerable to breaches. Additionally, team members likely don’t have the level of training requisite to be handling sensitive information.
Big box stores are in the business of selling supplies. Shipping and delivery companies specialize in logistics. In each case, their information security protocols are not as robust as NAID AAA certified scanning services like Steel City Shredding.
Ultimately, a big box store won’t be the money-saver or efficiency-booster that you bargained for.
Professional Bulk Scanning Services: The Total Package
Bulk document scanning projects are not a job for the generalist. They require proven expertise, especially if you want the complete combination of cost, convenience, and security.
At Steel City Shredding, our scanning process eliminates all the hassle. Here’s a quick overview of how it works.
- Pickup: We can pick up the physical documents at your location.
- Transportation: Our team places your files into secure storage containers and brings them back to our facility via our mobile trucks.
- Prep: We do all the manual setup of the documents to be organized and scanned.
- Scanning: Our scanning technology converts the digital scans to searchable, editable PDF files through OCR (Optical Character Recognition).
- Delivery: The end deliverable is an encrypted hard drive containing your files that you own.
Cost?
One thing that clients love about Steel City Shredding is that we don’t have hidden fees. The price you pay includes all the steps required to complete the project, from pickup to prep to scanning to delivery. Our goal is to deliver maximum value and keep prices affordable. One study found that scanning can cut costs by nearly 30% per document.
Convenience?
Nothing kills team morale more than having to do extra administrative work on top of their normal duties.
The Steel City Shredding team takes care of all the prep work as well, giving your team relief from prying out staples, smoothing out crumpled documents, and sorting the files.
Our pickup and delivery service saves you from having to burn a day by going back and forth to the library, a big box store, or a shipping service to scan your documents. We’ll come to your office, pick up the documents, securely transport them to our facility, and prep/scan them. We will then deliver the files back to you in the form of an encrypted hard drive.
If you prefer, you can drop off and pick up the files yourself by visiting our location at 3220 Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh.
Security?
One of the advantages of working with a professional document scanning service provider like Steel City Shredding is that you know who you’re dealing with.
We’re an NAID AAA certified shredding company. What that means is the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) has vetted our team and operations in a rigorous certification process. We have demonstrated the highest level of commitment to the industry best practices, including:
- Advanced employee screening and background checks
- Secure handling and transportation of sensitive documents and devices
- Approved document disposal processes
- Regulatory compliance with privacy laws like HIPAA, FACTA, and GLBA
- Chain-of-custody procedures to track documents from pickup to destruction
We also submit to scheduled and surprise audits by accredited security professionals. As you can see, we didn’t take a 30-minute online course then declare ourselves the cream of the crop.
Our leadership and team has put in the work to be the best of the best, and it extends to our bulk document scanning services. You simply won’t get the level of information security at a big box store or through a scanning app.
Plus, Steel City Shredding delivers even more benefits you may not have considered.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
Our industrial scanner is optimized for Optical Character Recognition. In layman’s terms, that means your scans are converted into searchable and editable PDF files. We also go the extra mile by indexing your digitized files according to type so you can easily find them.
Enhanced File Quality
Like anything else, paper files wear down, fade, and may suffer damage. But that doesn’t mean your digitized files have to look the same. With our scanning technology, Father Time doesn’t get the final word on the clarity of the digitized documents.
- Get sharper images to deliver more accurate data to applications via OCR, searchable PDF, and barcode reading.
- Turn even poor-quality originals into crisp images with Perfect Page technology and Dual Light Illumination while scanning at rated speeds.
- Enjoy streak removal, background smoothing, image edge fill, and more automatic image enhancements.
Large Format Scanning
We’re not limited to the traditional 8.5×11” documents. Our scanners can handle large format document scanning or files other than paper.
- Blueprints
- Engineering schematics
- CAD scans & architectural renderings
- Photographs
- Medical records
- Photographs
- Artwork & graphic designs
- City planning and zoning documents
- Land surveys
Document Scanning & Shredding
If you don’t want to keep your old files after they’re scanned, Steel City Shredding will properly shred and dispose of your document, providing you with an official certificate of destruction.
When clients come to us for bulk document scanning, they’re usually in the process of a periodic file purge, an office relocation, or digitization initiative. It makes sense to shred the documents after they’ve been scanned so no sensitive data can be drawn from them. Because sustainability is a core aspect of our operations, we recycle 100% of shredded paper.
If you’d like to keep your existing documents, we’re happy to accommodate and will provide them upon delivery.
Personalized Service
When you love what you do, it’s easy to spot. Being in such a specialized industry instills a sense of pride and devotion to excellence that informs every aspect of our business. When you call, you’ll speak with a local Steel City Shredding team member, not a third party call center.
We’ve been serving the Pittsburgh region for 97 years, so whatever your shredding or scanning needs, we can work with you to create a custom plan.
Bottom Line Benefits of Bulk Document Scanning
The combination of scanning and OCR delivers more than just searchable, digitized documents. It streamlines operations in a number of ways.
High-Volume Scanning Reduces Bottlenecks
When you need files fast, you don’t have the time to rummage through filing cabinets and thumb through documents. You also want to avoid playing phone tag, going back-and-forth in messaging chats, or waiting on email responses for document requests. This is especially helpful for companies whose teams are composed of both remote and in-office workers.
Digitized files allow your team to consolidate information, control access, and maintain a central source of truth for everyone to work from. That means no one has to be the physical “file hoarder” to keep just in case someone needs a rare document from eons ago. It also prevents files from getting lost if someone in your company retires or transitions out.
Most important of all, your team can focus its efforts on higher-value tasks than file procurement.
High-Volume Scanning Frees Up Storage Space
Instead of devoting space in your office or at offsite storage units, you have your files available digitally. This saves on costs and clutter. Because documents are easily searchable, you don’t have to worry about them getting misplaced in the event of changing technology platforms or office moves.
High-Volume Scanning Enhances Data Security
Steel City Shredding delivers your digitized files on encrypted hard drives. You can then transfer those files to your company’s servers or document management system.
The encrypted hard drive also gives you assurance that your information is protected from loss due to fires, floods, and severe weather that would endanger physical documents.
High-Volume Scanning Helps Maintain Compliance
Another critical function of bulk document scanning is that your company complies with privacy regulations.
For example, a healthcare provider is under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and is legally obligated to secure Protected Health Information (PIH) through proper channels.
Bulk Document Scanning Solutions for All Industries
Almost any company or organization processing large amounts of paperwork and files can benefit from our combined paper shredding and document scanning services.
- Law firms
- Financial institutions
- Accounting and tax firms
- Automotive retailers
- Human resources teams
- Local municipalities
- State and federal governments
- Courthouses
- Insurance companies
- Doctor’s offices, hospitals, healthcare providers
- Surveyors
- Real estate companies and realtors
- Libraries and archives
- Higher education organizations
If you need document scanning services near Pittsburgh, PA, make Steel City Shredding your preferred shredding and scanning partner.
Schedule Your Bulk Document Scanning Service
Whether for personal or business use, bulk document scanning from Steel City Shredding can save you time, decrease costs, and secure your sensitive data.
We’re proud to make this service available, because it’s part of our holistic effort to help clients responsibly manage the lifecycle of their sensitive documents. As Q4 2025 nears its end, there’s no better time to complete a one-time document purge and convert them to digitized files.
To discuss your scanning or shredding needs, call us at 412-496-1240 or contact us for a quote.