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May 01, 2012

Replace the Tupperware box with a ScanMate

In April of 2011, Mrs. B. Roth blogged about the snapshot of her college education: “This Is What My College Education Looks Like”

It provided a synopsis of an assignment to write a paper, the subject of which was every other class. Kind of like an evaluation and ranking of all of the classes taken by Roth.

In the body of the blog was this picture:

Clearly, there is a lot of hard work going on there, and we certainly hope the paper turned out well. The obvious effort alone should merit an A— however, may we suggest a Kodak Scan Mate to scan the paper to searchable PDFs? Now that it comes to mind, how about an affinity program so that institutions can deliver that technology to their students at a better rate? That would free up the Tupperware for a more fitting use of storage in a college dorm room.

 I had this one big Tupperware box. When I finished a class, I’d gather all the paperwork and notes and pile it in the box. Kind of like how I used to keep all my bills in a shoebox. Once I put something inside, I forgot it existed.

Definitely one of the challenges of using a shoebox or Tupperware for document storage: to not forget about it. Check out the Kodak Scan Mate desktop scanner to make your college life more manageable.

View the Scan Mate page and contact us if you would like more information: The Kodak i920 ScanMate document scanner

April 05, 2012

Flatbed Thursday: Peeps and Matzos

This week’s Flatbed Thursday is a preparation for the upcoming holiday weekend. We trotted down to Price Chopper to pick up some matzos and peeps, two products that show a spike in sales this time of year.

This scan was done on a Kodak A3 tethered flatbed at 600dpi. You can view the picture here or use the viewer below.

April 04, 2012

Scanner deliveries

Today, we received two shipments of scanners to be delivered to customers. The i1120s are a desktop scanner capable of scanning up to 20 pages per minute (40 images per minute) and are a perfect fit for light use scanning. The i4000 Series are classed as a production scanner, delivering up to 100 pages per minute (200 images per minute) and geared for backfile scanning or high-volume, day-forward document conversion.

Two Kodak i1120 desktop document scanners
Kodak i4000 Series production document scanner

April 02, 2012

Times Union Job Fair 2012

If you’re a regular attendee or employer at previous Times Union Job Fairs, you know the impact they’ve had on the job market. Once again, hundreds of seekers (both employers and career hunters) will converge to match talented individuals with exciting new job opportunities.

On the Edge blogger Kristi Gustafson Barlette points out “women in business” focus that will be featured during the noon-to-1p.m. panel discussion “Women on the Move: Grabbing the Next Rung on the Ladder of Success.”

E-BizDocs will be there again, greeting hopeful job-seekers just past the door to scan résumés so that they can be more efficiently shared with and utilized by companies who are looking to hire their next outstanding team member. Operations Director Edward Canary will be using a Kodak i2800 to create searchable PDFs of paper résumés.

In the past, we’ve seen some interesting résumés. Occasionally, we receive one that has several pages. While most Human Resources managers recommend a more concise résumés , it doesn’t really slow down the scanning at 70 pages per minute.

Other tips we’d like to point out are that papers that are not white or have flecks or textures don’t always OCR well, nor do handwritten résumés. If you’re asking the question, yes, we have seen them.

Learn more about the i2000 Series of Kodak document scanners

Have you been to past Times Union Job Fairs? If so, what did you think of them?

March 27, 2012

Kodak’s desktop scanners outpace competition

Kodak’s line of desktop scanners have received two accolades for their quality and performance.

Kodak’s i2600 document scanner
“As a heavy-duty scanner in a small office or workgroup, Kodak’s i2600 is fast, has a whopping 75-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF), and a rated duty cycle of 4,000 sheets per day,” said Tony Hoffman, Analyst, PCMag.

You can learn more about the scanner on our product page: i2600 document scaner

Kodak’s i920 document scanner
Better Buys for Business (BBB), the leading independent buyer’s guide to office equipment, selected the KODAK SCANMATE i920 Scanner as the “2011 Innovative Product of the Year.” BBB describes the i920 as an affordable, entry-level scanner with robust features, including Kodak’s Perfect Page Imaging Processing.

Source: http://graphics.kodak.com/US/en/About_GCG/News/2012/120319a.htm

March 06, 2012

We don’t always ask a lot of questions

We pride ourselves on the amount of preparation and research we put into our customers’ projects, and we do it because while our customers know their own documents better than we do, our knowledge of document management can be applied in specific ways to optimize the way each solution is implemented.

Customized Document Management Solutions
Some may have a need for more index values while others may have a greater need to refine the cabinet security. Some of our customers use a line-of-business tool that needs to have documents imported, while others will be scanning directly to a document management solution that we install, like CNG. Capture may be detailed and require a robust capture solution like Kodak’s Capture Pro, and other times, simply scanning with Smart Touch is all that’s needed.

A Flexible Process
Thus, a detailed and possibly lengthy process is initiated whenever we have a new contact. It involves having a look at the documents, the users, the network structure, and the workflow. However, there are those times when we’re approached by an organization that has done all of their research and have already decided on the solution they would like to use. In those cases, we’ll respect our new customer’s privacy and acknowledge that there is a lot of great information already out there, allowing purchasers to be more informed than ever before.

Call, Request, Receive
So when we were approached by a local firm saying they wanted to buy Capture Pro Group B license, it was clear they knew what they wanted and how they wanted to use it. Sure, we asked a couple of questions regarding the types of documents that were going to be scanned and how they might be used across the office, but the answers were vague, and that was our indication that the prospect had already done their homework and were ready to buy. As the leading authorized reseller for Kodak in the region, naturally, we were able to accommodate.

 

August 04, 2011

E-BizDocs improves productivity in large-format scanning

Service Bureau Eliminates Bottlenecks by Scanning Wide and Office Documents in the Same Workflow

ECMConnection.com

Project Manager Chris reviews the process of scanning large-format documents.

Contex, the world’s leading developer of wide format scanning and imaging solutions, recently announces that Albany, NY-based E-BizDocs reports increased productivity when using Contex wide format scanners with KODAK Capture Pro Software. E-BizDocs, an electronic document management service provider, uses the combined solution to scan wide format drawings within the same workflow as office-sized documents. The Contex and Kodak solution uses the same interface for narrow and wide format scanners, which streamlines the document scanning process. As a result, E-BizDocs reduces multiple steps from its workflow and improves overall efficiency in its scanning services.

“Before installing the Contex SD4490 with KODAK Capture Pro Software, we handled wide format documents differently than office-sized documents,” comments Howard Gross, President of E-BizDocs. “The workflow required setting up additional workstations and forced us to compete for scanning resources. We had to turn away some business because these wide format projects caused difficulties in our standard scanning workflow.”

Today, we can scan technical drawings using our Contex scanner and Kodak’s Capture Pro Software with only minor changes to our workflow. And we can use the same resources we use to scan our customers’ office documents. This saves steps in our process and eliminates the need to notify the quality-assurance team about variances in the document sizes. It makes scanning wide format as easy as scanning standard office-sized documents.

Howard Gross, President – E-BizDocs

“Because of increased demand to share drawings electronically and to use ECM and cloud-based document storage, Contex is offering solutions that streamline the scanning process and allow users to become more efficient, regardless of the document size,” comments Phil Magenheim, President of Contex Americas. “The combined solution from Contex and Kodak gives users the tools to improve their scanning workflow and, in turn, become more productive.”

The Workflow
Customers provide E-BizDocs with volumes of documents to scan and archive; sizes can range from standard office-sized to large format sized documents. For example, a surveyor’s document may include a five-page, letter-size executive summary and a structural and landscape view of a property on large format paper. The document may also include letter-sized pages describing the components of a building, such as plumbing, electrical, and foundation. E-BizDocs scans the files using a combination of narrow format scanners from Kodak and Contex’s SD4490 wide format scanner, and the images are sorted and reassembled in Capture Pro Software.

The combined solution from Contex and Kodak makes it easy to merge and route documents, eliminating any chance for human error.

The Technologies
Contex’s wide format scanning solution for the EDM market features EMC Captiva ISIS drivers. Users can eliminate workflow processing bottlenecks with this industry-standard interface by scanning large format drawings, charts, maps, or other oversized documents directly into EDM/ECM systems and electronic capture software. The scanning solution makes it possible to manage large format documents within the same workflow process as letter- or legal-size documents, while achieving high-quality scans with document-specific presets.

Imaging Specialist Ben lines up the document to be scanned.

Contex scanners are the only wide format scanners certified by Kodak for use with Capture Pro Software. This software delivers full-featured document and batch capture applications for either standalone or network enterprise-wide environments. Capture Pro Software includes a simple but powerful post-scanning quality control tool that makes it easy to re-process images, even when the original source document is not available. This allows customers to increase the efficiency and accuracy of downstream data recognition processes and human image readability, helping to speed up important business processes.

About Contex
As the world’s largest developer and producer of large format imaging solutions, Contex leads the market with innovative technology and advanced scan and copy software applications. Over the years, Contex scanners have received numerous awards from leading trade publications and analyst firms including Cadalyst, Wide-Format Imaging, and BERTL. Sold worldwide in more than 80 countries, Contex solutions are recognized in a wide range of industries for reliability, value, high performance, and superb image quality. For more information, visit www.contex.com.

About Kodak
Kodak’s Document Imaging business enables customers to capture and use valuable information from electronic and paper documents. Its document imaging solutions include award-winning scanners and capture software, and industry-leading service and support. From small offices to global operations, Kodak has the right solution to feed your business the information it needs. For more information, visit www.kodak.com/go/pro.

About E-BizDocs
Founded in 2000, E-BizDocs is a document scanning service bureau and electronic records management company based in Albany, NY. The company helps businesses, organizations, and agencies use less paper and better manage their office workflow. For more information, visit www.E-BizDocs.com.

August 02, 2011

Kodak Capture Pro goes wide

KODAK Capture Pro Software Adds Compatibility for CONTEX Wide-Format Scanners to Integrate Large and Small Document Workflows

ROCHESTER, N.Y. and HERNDON, Va. , July 26 – An agreement between Kodak and Contex will allow enterprise organizations to unify information from large-format and standard sized documents into KODAK Capture Pro Software. The new compatibility between Contex’s wide format scanners and Capture Pro Software will provide users with a single interface to integrate information from these sources and deliver into databases and EDM/ECM applications.

“Contex and Kodak working together provides users a major step forward to help bridge the divide of managing large and small documents in a single workflow,” said Phil Magenheim, President, Contex Americas. “Channel partners selling scanners along with EDM/ECM services and solutions can now provide a common interface and common support for diverse sources of document-based information.”

Contex’s large format scanners are used to reproduce large format drawings, charts, maps, or other over-sized documents directly into EDM/ECM workflows. KODAK Capture Pro Software provides users with a single interface to efficiently capture and manage images and critical index data from small and large format scanners within an office setting. KODAK Service and Support will also be available for users of all CONTEX XD and SD Scanners, and for new CONTEX Scanner installations including the CONTEX XD2490, SD4450 and SD4490 Scanners.

“This compatibility enables an essential link for streamlining content from diverse sources into a single, unified database,” said Brian Bagan, Director of Business Development, United States and Canada, Document Imaging, Kodak’s Business Solutions and Services Group. “This solution demonstrates the broad capabilities of KODAK Capture Pro Software.”

Projects that include both wide format and standard sized documents can pose challenges for enterprise workflows managed by service bureaus and medium- to large-sized businesses. E-BizDocs, an electronic document management service provider based in Albany, N.Y., sources information from a variety of documents including larger surveyors’ records, to letter-sized building code regulation papers. The new compatibility between CONTEX Scanners and Capture Pro Software eliminates steps in the process to improve overall user productivity.

“Prior to this solution, the scanning of large format documents was detached and separate from our workflow. The integration between Kodak and Contex makes it easy to combine documents into a single file, and route them to specific locations,” said Howard Gross, President of E-BizDocs. “Since implementing the technologies, we have vastly improved our workflow efficiency.”

Kodak is a global advisor and provider of integrated services to help companies transform and optimize their businesses. Through a network of service professionals in 120+ countries, Kodak provides technical, professional, consulting and managed services to enable customers to focus on growing their businesses, maximize productivity, and more effectively manage risks. All KODAK products and software are backed by KODAK Service and Support. To learn more, visit http://graphics.kodak.com/

About Contex

As the world’s largest developer and producer of large format imaging solutions, Contex leads the market with innovative technology and advanced scan and copy software applications. Over the years, CONTEX Scanners have received numerous awards from leading trade publications and analyst firms including Cadalyst, Wide-Format Imaging, and BERTL. Sold worldwide in more than 80 countries, Contex solutions are recognized in a wide range of industries for reliability, value, high performance, and superb image quality. For more information, please visit http://www.contex.com.

About Kodak

Kodak’s Document Imaging business enables customers to capture and use valuable information from electronic and paper documents. Our document imaging solutions include award-winning scanners and capture software, and industry-leading service and support. From small offices to global operations, Kodak has the right solution to feed your business the information it needs.

July 21, 2011

Lunch and Learn at Little Italy, 2011

Frank Guido's Little Italy at 14 Thomas St., Kingston.

We had a great time, and managed to talk about document scanning and electronic records management amidst the food and great company that attended. At events like this, it’s often easy to forget what you’re there to talk about because of the engaging personalities involved. But we managed.

We reviewed applications of document management in multi-user, and multi-location environments. Many businesses or offices are distributed, and access to the organization’s documents needs to be fluid for all involved. The demonstration included several such solutions, ranging from having Kodak scanners at multiple sites and scanning paper documents to a hosted installation of CNG-Online, which is one great option for just such a business.

The staff at Frank Guido’s was amazing. They provided everything we needed, and even had a server focus directly on us so that everyone was comfortable and well-taken care of. Even bringing in our large equipment, including the Kodak i4200 document scanner, was a breeze with their level of accommodation.

Overall, it was a great afternoon, and a huge success for our first event in Kingston as we introduce ourselves to business owners in Ulster County.

View the original flyer

See more pictures

Director of Technology at E-BizDocs, Jason Abare, shows the features of Kodak document scanners.

Steve Crabb of CNG demonstrates their document management software.

Steve Crabb of CNG demonstrates their document management software.

June 15, 2011

Getting started with document management

As Todd Johnson of CDW/NetworkWorld states:

Time is money, and time spent searching for lost paperwork is money down the drain, as is money spent making unnecessary copies.

Todd Johnson
Getting started with document management

The Primary Benefits of Document Management

Continuing, Johnson covers the benefits of implementing a document management system, which fall right in line with our four pillars of document management: reduce cost, improve efficiency, ensure compliance, and mitigate risk. You can see how even though he expands into a little more detail, the concepts are the same:

Document management systems also offer businesses rapid return on investment (ROI) due to benefits such as:

  • Reduced costs associated with storing and retrieving paper documents and electronic content.
  • Reduced storage space, both physical and digital.
  • Improved operational efficiencies throughout the organization.
  • Improved security of electronic content and paper documents.
  • Enhanced business continuity (BC) capabilities in the case of a disaster.
  • Improved regulatory compliance.

In the article, Johnson covers all of the components necessary in a good electronic document management process, one that will bring all of the above benefits to your company.

If you don’t have time to read the whole article, make sure to bookmark it and return to it later when you have a chance to really absorb it. It’s good information.

Of the four primary benefits of an electronic document management system, which is most important to you? Efficiency, cost, compliance, or risk?