Document Scanning and Digitisation Services

Ideal For:

Streamlining your processes
Retrieving documents easier
Improving workflow efficiencies
Collaborating with wider team members

Organisations of all kinds hold large volumes of documents: contracts, personnel files, manuals, property records and more. Many of these have been scanned and stored, but scanning alone doesn't make a document collection easy to search, navigate or use. Without consistent indexing, categorisation or structure, finding the right document at the right time can still mean hours of manual searching.

Document Intelligence uses AI-assisted automation to bring order to complex document collections. Whether you need smarter indexing, clearer categorisation or easier navigation within large files, our technology works through your documents systematically, extracting, identifying and structuring information so your team doesn't have to.

As with all our AI services, outputs are designed to be reviewed and verified by your team before use, giving you the efficiency of automation with the confidence of human oversight.

Want to discuss more?

/ Document Management + The Power of AI

/ Document Assistance

Smart Indexing

Make your documents easier to find from the moment they're scanned. Smart Indexing uses AI to read document titles and file names and automatically generate accurate, consistent index entries, reducing the manual effort involved in processing large document sets and making collections easier to search and retrieve.

Document Categorisation

Bring structure to historical and high-volume document collections. Our AI analyses document content and automatically sorts files into defined categories such as document type, subject matter or department, making it far easier to manage, locate and work with large sets of records. Particularly well suited to HR and personnel files, legal records and property documentation.

Bookmark Generation

Navigate large documents without the scroll. Our AI reads through your document, identifies the structure and key sections, and automatically generates clickable bookmarks of the kind that appear in the navigation panel of Adobe Reader and similar PDF viewers. Whether it's a contract, an operation and maintenance manual, a building manual or a property file, users can jump straight to the section they need, saving time and reducing frustration.

/ Why choose Us?

It’s a family affair

We’re proud to fly the flag for family-run businesses, and although our team has grown significantly over the last 70 years, we still bring a personal touch to everything we do.

Credible document protection

To keep your documents safe in our care, we implement strict security measures and undergo regular disaster recovery and business continuity risk assessments. You can read more about our processes, standards and accreditations here.

Individual design

Our bespoke document management and cloud management systems are tailored to support your business or organisation with its own unique challenges.

Respect for privacy

80% of the materials we work with contain sensitive information that you can trust us to handle in the strictest confidence. At your request, we’re happy to comply with non-disclosure agreements too.

We’ve got you covered

We work with a team of document management specialists, leading industry partners and state-of-the-art technology to provide one of the UK’s most comprehensive range of document management services.

Integrity guaranteed

Taking into consideration format, age and condition, your documents are treated with the greatest respect by our skilled, knowledgeable and experienced handlers.

/ Reviews from our Customers

Microform are one of the best companies that I have had the pleasure of working with in a long time. They work as part of the extended team, so communication isn't an effort; it is a natural part of the process of getting the job done and delivering results.

Alison John Registration Services Manager, Warwickshire County Council

I love REG...the slick, quick and accurate re-production of any register entry is great, none of the staff at this office would go back to life without it!

Anne Atherton Superintendent Registrar, St Helens Registration Service

We have found the REG system a joy to manage and work with. Not only does it give us easy, speedy access to the certificates, we can now also offer a more professional, timely service to the public. All the staff have been impressed by how easy it is to use.
Microform Imaging have been a great company to work with, delivering excellent service and creating a unique, bespoke partnership.

Dawn Titherington Superintendent Registrar, Blackpool Council

Due to our repository being off site it was vital that we looked at alternative ways to work. Working with Microform and the REG system they had designed has transformed the way we work. No longer do staff have to leave the office to access registers on a daily/hourly basis all records are accessible instantly. Staff have welcomed the system and have full confidence in how to search, edit and print certificates. It has enabled us to offer a 2 hour turnaround certificate service for a premium fee increasing our income. Working with Microform has been a pleasure and one of most successful partnerships.

Gillian Greeson Superintendent Registrar, Wigan Council

REG has transformed the way in which we produce certificates. The process is simplified and streamlined and together with our ongoing indexing project has enabled us to achieve the efficiency targets required by the local authority.

Pat Evans Superintendent Registrar, The Register Office, Liverpool

From the first meeting we had to discuss our requirements with Mo, all the way through to now, communication in all forms have been exceptional. I very much doubt you could improve the quality of customer care and satisfaction. The relationship with Rachel throughout the project gave exceeded all my expectations, she has made the project a pleasure and stress-free experience. The level of professionalism and 'can do' attitude she has shown from day one has been amazing and made what could have been a time of worry and concern for me, in to a feel-good working experience. Microform go the extra mile to make life easier!

Robert Harrison IT Director and Partner, HGF

I was thrilled to bits with the hard drive containing the scans of all my scrapbooks and would like to thank you very much for doing such a splendid job and for treating them with such great care.

Sir Stirling Moss

/ Our Accreditations

/ Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between DIA and DAA?

Document Intelligence Assistance (DIA) uses our own AI models to analyse your documents and organise your collection. It:

Extracts key information from each document, such as people, places, organisations and dates, and adds it as searchable tags.
Categorises documents by type and subject, so the collection can be browsed and filtered in meaningful ways.
Clusters related documents together, bringing out connections and themes across the collection that are hard to spot by hand.

This makes your collection richer, easier to search and quicker to catalogue, and no third-party AI provider is involved.

Document Archive Assistant (DAA), also known as Archive Assistant, is an AI research assistant for your collection. When you ask a question, it works out what you are looking for, searches your archive, and summarises what it finds, with references to the exact documents and pages it used.

It works only with your archive. It does not search the internet or use outside sources to add to its answers.

What happens to my data when AI is used?

DIA and DAA handle data in different ways.

DIA: All processing uses our own in-house AI models. They run on our on-premises servers or, temporarily, on dedicated GPU servers in London hosted by our partner RunPod. Your documents are never sent to a third-party AI provider, and no third party uses your data to train models.

DAA (opt-in only): When you ask a question, DAA finds the most relevant passages in your collection and sends only those text excerpts, never page images or full documents, to an external large language model (LLM) provider, which writes the answer. We use Google's enterprise Gemini service. Under Google's enterprise terms, your data is never used to train or improve their services.

Where is my data processed, and who can access it?

Your data is stored on our own on-premises servers in the UK. Some processing runs temporarily on dedicated GPU servers in London provided by our hosting partner, RunPod. This is used for DIA only, and data is not stored there once processing is complete.

If you opt in to DAA, the text excerpts sent to answer your questions are processed by Google under its enterprise data protection terms.

Within Microform, only specifically authorised employees with a genuine business need can access customer data. This includes support staff where their role requires it. Access:

is limited to the minimum needed for each person's duties
must be approved by the data owner or authorised management
is reviewed regularly and removed when employment or contract work ends
requires multi-factor authentication for privileged access to production systems

Outside Microform, your data is only handled by our hosting partner's servers while DIA processing is running and, if you opt in to DAA, by our LLM provider as described above.

Can OpenAI, ChatGPT or any other third-party AI provider access my documents?

With DIA, no. DIA uses only our own AI models, which run on our servers or on our UK hosting partner's servers. No third-party AI provider is involved.

With DAA, which is opt-in, our LLM provider, Google (enterprise Gemini service), receives only the excerpts needed to answer your question. It never receives your full documents or your full collection, and it cannot use your data for training.

What cybersecurity protections are in place?

We use technical and organisational safeguards to protect customer data, including:

Encryption: Data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2 or later) and at rest (AES-256), on both our on-premises systems and cloud services.
Independent audits and testing: Regular third-party security assessments, ISO 27001 certification audits and surveillance visits, and penetration testing.
Data protection and integrity: Compliance monitoring, data accuracy checks before transfer, regular backups, and annual restore tests to verify that backups can be recovered.
Access controls: Role-based access permissions, and multi-factor authentication for access to sensitive data and critical systems.
Certifications: ISO 27001:2022, Cyber Essentials and BS 10008:2020.

Will I get different answers if I ask the same question more than once?

The wording may change between answers, because AI models do not produce exactly the same text every time. The answers are drawn from the same source documents and include references, so you can always check them against the originals.

How does the AI understand my collection?

When you ask a question, the assistant first works out what you are asking. It then runs targeted searches across your collection's documents and page text, and writes an answer using only the passages it finds, with references that link back to the source pages.

The assistant does not search the internet or any other outside source. Its answers are based on what it finds in your archive.

Like all AI tools, the assistant can sometimes make mistakes. Please check important information against the referenced documents.

Do customers keep full IP and copyright ownership of their material?

Yes. You keep full ownership of your material. This includes any metadata, tags and AI-generated outputs created from it.

Can customers opt out of AI processing?

Yes.

DAA is off by default. It is only enabled if you choose to opt in.
DIA can be excluded from your service on request. Contact ai@microform.digital to discuss this. Without DIA, your documents will not be automatically tagged, categorised or clustered, so search and browsing will be less effective.

How much experience does Microform have with AI projects?

We have worked on AI and machine learning projects since 2018, in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Sheffield Hallam, we developed machine learning tools for historic archives, including image recognition for document analysis and natural language processing for intelligent search.

Read the case study: Helping Microform leverage the latest technology to drive business performance (Sheffield Hallam University)

Is there a technical expert customers can speak to?

Yes. Questions about our AI services, data handling or security are answered by our technical team, led by our Technical Director. Email ai@microform.digital or ask your account manager to arrange a call.

How is the service priced, and are there ongoing costs?

There is a one-time setup fee. After setup, you pay based on usage:

DIA is usually charged per image or page processed.
DAA is charged according to how much your users use the assistant.