Background
One of the largest councils in Sydney faced a pressing challenge. Their archive of physical planning and development records was stored in a facility scheduled for redevelopment, meaning decades of hard copy documents needed to be either relocated or digitised. These records included development applications, construction and completion certificates, subdivision plans and related correspondence.
The council also aimed to preserve the integrity of these originals, improve accessibility for staff and the community and ensure digital files could be integrated into core council systems. After a competitive tender process, the council selected Fujifilm DMS for its secure and standards-aligned digitisation and communications platform.
Discovery & solution design
Fujifilm DMS held discovery workshops with council stakeholders to confirm imaging requirements, data capture scope and quality controls. We worked closely with these teams to define the document preparation and quality assurance processes so their specific expectations were addressed, giving the council high confidence in the digitised records. A lean operating model was designed to minimise council IT effort while preserving accuracy and auditability. Indexing was limited to a batch-level UniqueID barcode to avoid document-level metadata while keeping ingestion simple. AI-assisted text extraction and metadata generation were also selected to maximise searchability and downstream integration.
Implementation highlights
- Secure intake and exchange: Archive boxes were collected and returned under an auditable chain of custody with manifests supplied as encrypted CSV files. Fujifilm DMS enriched these manifests during preparation and sorting to create an Enhanced Manifest for each batch.
- Preparation, scanning and tracking: All file covers, bindings and fasteners were removed and any damaged pages were repaired before scanning. Fragile items and oversize plans were handled separately while non-scannable media such as CDs and USBs were clearly labelled and returned. Where condition allowed, documents were digitised on production-grade, high-throughput rotary scanners (up to A3) to reduce handling time. Fragile materials were imaged on flatbed scanners and large plans on wide-format devices. All imaging was completed at 300 dpi, 24-bit colour, duplex with advanced compression. Calibrated equipment and operator checks ensured fine pencil marks and coloured annotations were accurately captured. Each batch header carried a UniqueID barcode, which was recorded and tracked through every stage of the process.
- Leveraging AI for PDF/A and metadata file production: Fujifilm DMS used and tuned AI extensively to process the digitised documents and achieve high-quality full-text extraction across printed text and handwriting (including faint annotations). Those results were used to generate searchable PDF/A files for long-term retention and AI also produced an XML metadata file for each PDF/A to support document indexing and records management. In addition, AI was used to transform the client-supplied manifest and the notes captured during document preparation into XML aligned to the council’s requested data structure as defined in its XSD, which streamlined ingestion into council systems.
The same AI capability also opens options the council can enable. It can generate per-document summaries so teams can assess and triage faster without opening every file. It can automatically redact or mask personal information to support disclosure workflows. And it can build a text-searchable dataset across the corpus so staff can ask natural-language questions and receive the most relevant documents and passages. For example: “Show applications for a swimming pool lodged between 2010 and 2015 where the certifier was [Name]” or “Find correspondence that mentions asbestos in [suburb]”.
- Quality assurance and delivery: Structured QA checks were performed at preparation and post‑scan stages; batch‑level QA reports (CSV) were delivered with outputs; and the final PDF/A files, XML metadata and QA reports were delivered via encrypted SFTP. Physical files were repacked in their original order and returned.
For councils considering digitisation
Turn scanned archives into searchable, usable records and unlock:
- Faster triage with brief AI-generated document summaries.
- Privacy controls via redaction and masking to support disclosure workflows.
- Deeper discovery using natural-language search across the corpus.
Results & outcomes
Staff can now locate historical records quickly. Searchable PDF/A and XML metadata surface information that was previously hard to find, including faint handwritten annotations. The council has shifted from blanket post-vendor checks to targeted sampling, easing workload while maintaining confidence in outputs. The lean delivery model reduced client IT effort and project overhead without compromising security or quality. Use of high-throughput rotary capture (where appropriate) also reduced handling time per page, helping contain unit cost while maintaining image quality.
To date, multiple batches have been processed, spanning standard A4/A3 documents and a significant volume of large-format plans. Given the age and condition of materials, preparation effort has been the largest component with scanning hours adjusted accordingly. The approach is built to scale to larger tranches as required, supported by Fujifilm DMS’ national digitisation capacity, without trading off legibility or auditability.
