What is content conversion?

As your business grows, so does the volume of your paperwork and physical documents. The stockpiled paperwork requires additional storage space and also makes searching for information quite cumbersome. A simple solution to mitigate this problem is to convert your content into a digital format. Using digital content conversion services and techniques, you can convert all your print content into digital documents and store them either on the cloud or on your own server.

From extending the life of old documents to ensuring greater security, and increasing accessibility and reach, content conversion offers a range of benefits for all types of enterprises. Also, going paperless adds to your green credits. Digital documents are easy to manage and can eliminate loss of critical data.

Enterprises receive a lot of documents on a daily basis such as invoices, receipts, and other hard copies. All these need to be filed and retrieved for various purposes at different points in time. Content conversion services and digitization solutions are effective strategies to enable easy storage, retrieval, access, transfer, and updates. Besides, you can also convert electronic documents from one format to another. Content conversion reduces business costs, improves efficiency of processes, and minimizes or eliminates any loss of business due to misplaced or damaged documents.

What are the types of content you can digitize?

You can convert all types of content into electronic versions, including but not limited to:

  • Contractual agreements
  • Financial papers
  • Official correspondences
  • HR files
  • Survey maps
  • Bills and invoices
  • Books, journals and research papers
  • Medical records and more

Benefits of content conversion

Share content easily: With content conversion, multiple departments across geographies can access the same document at the same time. Also, digitized documents are easier to share than physical mail, fax or hand-delivered documents.  

Safely store information: Digital content is easy to store on the cloud, or remote or onsite servers that have high-security protocols. Besides, you can also take backups and ensure that there is no loss of crucial data.

Saves time and money: Digital content can be easily accessed on any system such as a laptop, desktop or mobile, implying that you don’t have to search through heaps of paperwork or have a dedicated storage facility to store your print documents.

Improves customer service: Digital content can be indexed with different metadata, making it easy to search. Frontline retail employees can readily access the information they need to serve customers and make crucial decisions. Similarly, sales representatives can access important documents on their devices while pitching their products to clients.

Helps meet compliance regulations: Some industries have strong statutory compliance norms, mandating documents to be maintained in digital format. With content conversion, you can achieve compliance quickly and cost-effectively.

Different types of content conversion services to digitize your business.

Depending on your business requirements, you can avail any of the following content conversion services.

XML conversion: You can customize your content by converting old data formats into versatile XML files. XML conversion offers cross-platform syntax which allows you to use content in flexible ways. For instance, you can pass data to and from different operating systems, software, and applications.

PDF conversion: The PDF format is searchable and independent of operating systems and software. You can easily access the content without any particular PDF view application. This format is ideal for documents, journals, books, brochures, reports, and invoices or any other content type that requires a more accessible format.

Still image files: Still images are converted into digital objects/files using a digital scanner. JPEG and TIFF file formats are commonly used for converting photographic documents while PDF file format is used for all types of text-based documents.

Optical Character Recognition: Optical character recognition, or OCR, is a tool that converts a scanned image into text. In the OCR process, data is first extracted and then stored in the bit-mapped file in TIFF format. When a page is scanned, it is converted into black and white dots, and displayed as words on the screen. Documents digitized with OCR capabilities are editable, enabling you to conduct a search within the content based on keywords and metadata.

Flash to HTML5 conversion: With Flash becoming obsolete, enterprises can convert their legacy Flash content into HTML5. For HTML5 conversion, you will need the source files of your Flash content and then use a tool for content conversion. By doing this, you will not only be able to salvage your existing content but also make it ready for consumption on all devices. HTML5 is a widely accepted format to create digital content because of its cross-platform compatibility, ability to provide multimedia support and hyperlink content to both internal and external sources. The format can be accessed across devices such as eReaders, tablets, and smartphones.

HTML to PDF: There are several tools that allow you to save HTML files or an entire or part of a web page, as PDFs right from your web browser. To convert HTML into PDF, open the web page on your Internet browser, and then use a content conversion tool on the Adobe PDF toolbar to convert the file. The page will open in a PDF file which you can save on your computer or any desired location.

ePUB conversion: The ePUB standard is developed and maintained by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). ePUB3 is an HTML5 format, which allows you to hyperlink text to refer to both internal and external content for more information. ePUB3 also incorporates SEO capabilities, enabling you to search content based on keywords.

In conclusion

Content conversion is a means to convert your print content into digital format and also from one digital format to the other. Digitization helps you preserve your legacy content, keep your business compliant with various regulations, improve efficiencies and reduce costs.

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