is it advisable to use barcoding although there are serial numbers being used in documents?

is it advisable to use barcoding although there are serial numbers being used in documents?
we are in2 memorial business and we are going to use bar coding for our documents. what is the best way to start bar coding when there is already serial numbers being used? how should bar coding works in processing and retrieval of documents?

Best answer:

I’m assuming that you are capturing hard-copy documentation for memorialization by scanning the documents. I believe your desire to use barcodes is to create a unique document control number (DCN) for each document.
It sounds like the documents have some sort of barcode control number applied to them before they get to you.
Unless you have a way to be absoultely certain that the existing barcode numbers are globally unique, you should not capture them as your primary DCN. You may wish to record the existing barcode — that’s fine, but you will likely need to assign your own barcode, using a schema that is distinct (you can tell it’s your number) and unique (no duplicates!).

A typical way to differentiate your number from another barcode number on the document is either a unique format, a unique prefix or suffix, or both. An alternative is simply to use a GUID — the class library for generating GUID’s is pretty common to most modern development frameworks — Microsoft’s .NET framework certainly has it.

As each document is captured, and the barcodes are acquired, you differentiate your DCN from other fields based on format or prefix/suffix. This might also be done positionally, but this can be a problematic approach. An even simpler approach is simply to attach a DCN cover sheet to each document. This “wastes” a sheet of paper on each document, but depending on your volumes and margins probably isn’t a huge problem. The risk here is that a torn-off cover sheet results in an ambiguous hard-copy. If you shred after scan, this isn’t an issue – it’s more of a problem if you are also physically archiving.

Once a unique DCN is assigned, and the document has been scanned to an image file, the image file and associated DCN index key are stored in your document management system. Depending on your requirements, the document image might also be run through optical character recognition software in an attempt to also store the content as searchable text. The content would also be parsed and indexed by a full-text search index.
Commonly, key operators will manually enter additional data fields characterizing/classifying the document being captured. Some additional information — such as the time and date the document was scanned — can be acquired automatically.
Documentum, Filenet, and Adobe are three keywords you might want to research in association with “document management” for further information.

Good luck!

-Jon

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