Cutting spine can greatly enhance the scanning process i.e. making it faster to scan. In this case when he only wants to OCR the scans, pressing book on flatbed will work.
But I'm with you murraypaul, some books will cast spell on you if you cut them
Sometimes the heart is not cold enough to cut/rip/press the books, you see.
By the way, I wasn't aware Office has OCR built-in?? I use FreeOCR for my humble efforts. Even tried Google OCR demo, as well.