As part of MTL Document Services’ commitment to quality, we have formal written procedures for all aspects of document handling. Our Quality Management System is accredited to ISO 9001:2000 and subject to both internal and external auditing.

Any discerning user of outsourced scanning services will be concerned that their documentation is handled in a professional, secure and confidential manner. Although price is often a key part of any selection decision, the cost of exposing the documents to unnecessary risk has far wider implications. Our philosophy at MTL Document Services is to offer competitive pricing, matched with internationally recognised standards of quality, systems and service.

Our document handling procedures include the following:

Pre-collection Arrangements
All collection arrangements are made by a member of the Management Team and a unique order number generated from MTL database. Documents are normally removed from Client premises in their current format – e.g. archive boxes, lever arch files, bundles or folders. Archive boxes can be supplied to the Client prior to a collection, or to be loaded by MTL logistics staff onsite.

Collection of Documents
Collections are undertaken in unmarked, secure and alarmed vans. Our standard van is “Transit” size with a capacity of 7.5 cubic metres. All employees carry identification badges and wear a shirt or sweater bearing the company logo during a collection.

Upon arrival, all boxes are labelled for identification purposes and an assessment undertaken to ascertain the content of each box.

Document Handling
MTL has developed two distinct document handling procedures based on the sensitivity of the source documents. Our standard procedure covers the collection and logging of client records onto the racking system at our premises and their subsequent tracking through the production process.

Highly sensitive client records are dealt with the utmost confidentiality, and are subject to separate handling procedures. Within our archive area we have a securely caged section with authorised key holder entry only. Thus internally, we can control the access of individual employees to the project level, ensuring only authorised employees handle sensitive documents.

Boxes containing Client documents are logged onto the MTL Box Level Tracking database, a unique feature of our control system. Each box is logged and its progress through production is tracked, allowing us to pinpoint any box or file during the conversion process.

The Bureau Manager identifies projects for production and operators are assigned the appropriate boxes to process. Boxes are individually removed from the Archive Area to the Production Area, where they are prepared, scanned or microfilmed in accordance with the pre-defined Client specification.

Upon completion of the process, the operator writes the relevant details on the box label and returns the box to the correct bay location in the Archive Area. Images are subsequently indexed and a series of quality checking procedures are undertaken. Once the quality checks have been complete, the final product is mastered, ready to be securely despatched to the Client.

Unless otherwise agreed with the Client, MTL will store the source documents for 30 days from the date of Invoice.

MTL Document Services actively encourage both present and potential Clients to undertake a site visit to assess and audit our document handling procedures.