Category Archives: Capture

The opportunity of Network Scanning

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Network Scanning

By Kevin Neal

fi-6000ns_scan-searchable“We live in a connected world”.  It’s a simple phrase, but it means so much.

At the present time, most of us take for granted things like cell phones, blackberries, PDA’s,  Bluetooth, pagers, etcetera.  All these communication devices are examples of being “connected” all the time;  however this wasn’t always the case.  Not all too long ago we lived within a very disconnected world in comparison to the technology currently available in 2007.  With the dramatic adoption of the Internet over the past decade, more people  than ever are connected via their home computers with a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Cable modem or even broadband  wireless.  According to Gartner, the number of households with broadband connections will double between 2005 and 2010.  The rate of business connectivity is a great deal of the same, just on a grander scale with greater bandwidth and a higher level of service guarantees.

With this rapid growth of computers and servers connected with high speed networking, the likely next step was to connect peripherals.   One of the most prevalent examples of a connected peripheral in an office environment would be a laser printer.  There are many advantages to having a networked printer, including sharing among groups of users, because the volume of printing for each user did not dictate a dedicated printer.  Network printers are fairly common these days; however a new, emerging trend is to use network connectivity to INPUT information into computer systems via a scanner instead of OUTPUT via a printer.

 

Networking Scanning enters the connected world

Network Scanning is the concept of taking a scanner engineered specifically with mission critical scanning considerations.  This includes paper handling, image quality or advanced multi-feed technology, subsequently connecting them directly to a network without the need for a computer system to be physically connected to the scanner.

These advanced scanning solutions, on the other hand, should not be confused with digital copiers or multifunction devices, which most of us are familiar with. While these sorts of devices are handy for extremely low-volume  scanning requirements, the majority of these devices lack either the physical attributes or true integration desired to effectively utilize them in the connected business world.  As an example, when performing  automated forms processing with advanced data extraction techniques such as Optical Character Recognition, or OCR, good image quality and excellent paper handling provided by dedicated network scanners, could dramatically increase the automation process, thus, decrease human intervention.   This undoubtedly increases efficiency, reduces costs and improves customer service.

 

Concepts and Terminology of Networking Scanning

Basic  connectivity is the most rudimentary to direct network attach solutions used for a scanner.   This translates into a scanner, which can be used as a network device and the scanner appears as a local device on the network. Or, as I like to refer to it “extends network connectivity”.  This is the least expensive, yet most restrictive option.  It is ideal for ease of use and is cost effective however it is deficient on flexibility for true integration.

Biometric connectivity is the ability to attach a scanner directly to the network exactly as in the Basic connectivity scenario;  however, it incorporates much more intelligence into the scanning process.  For example, with a biometric scanning solution, users could merely walk  up to a supported scanner, position their documents in the scanner, place thumbprint on, or hover their palm over, a biometric device then initiate scanning of the documents based on pre-configured profiles, destinations and/or applications.

‘Push-Scanning’ refers to a scenario where the scanner operator walks up to a scanner, drops the documents into the automatic document feeder, or places them on the flatbed, then initiates the scanning process to send the images to the desired location on the computer network.   This could perhaps be a “watch folder” for high-volume OCR processing for example, or it could be a shared network drive of the scan operator’s personal computer.

‘Pull-Scanning’ is a term  characteristically used when a scanner  operator controls the scanner to connect to a device, scan images and transmit, or pull these images from the scanner to a certain location.   The ability to pull these images can be achieved in many different ways and one of the most common ways is to scan via a web browser.   In other words, the user would enter the name of the device and would have the ability to scan images as well as send them to the destination of their choice.

ECM Scanning.   Enterprise Content Management, or ECM, scanning takes one or more of the above Network Scanning concepts; however, it adds an additional powerful layer of functionality.   ECM scanning incorporates a network scanner directly into content management systems via software drivers and scanning software.   The document imaging industry has seen a dramatic focus on the importance of document capture, for example.   These are extremely focused software packages so as to assist in the ability to extract important business data from scanned documents.

ECM + Secure  Scanning  is the next logical step in the networked scanning connected world.  Now that the benefits of document imaging have been proven via return on investment, increased productivity or compliance reasons, more than ever mission critical business data or highly confidential information resides in a digital format and not on paper.  It’s crucial to secure this sensitive information during the entire lifecycle of the data.  From the instant the data is scanned, when it’s hosted on the network, until the time of its destruction, or the end of the retention period.

 

What could be the future of Network Scanning

Now that connecting persons and computer systems for personal and business uses is nearly common-place, emerging technologies are being introduced that will continue to stimulate connected systems.  One of these emerging methods being utilized by Information Technology (IT) departments is called “Service Orientated Architecture”, or (SOA).  SOA is a way to create new business applications by re-using or better utilizing current technical assets within the organization.  Connected systems played a major role in developing the SOA model with industry standards such as HTML, XML and Web Services.  In a nutshell, SOA is a way to add functionality and features to a computer networks without the disadvantage of closed or proprietary systems.

SOA plays an important role for Network Scanning in particular.   While the conceptual design of SOA may be applied in traditional scanning configurations with a dedicated computer controlling the scanners operation, there are a few important considerations making a Network Scanner quite appealing to network administrators, Chief Intelligence Officers and end users.  These  important considerations include system security, updates/patches and ease of use, just to name a few.

•  From a Network Administrators point of view, the SOA Network Scanner allows them to deploy network scanners in a controlled  method  making future firmware/software updates much easier.

 •  System Administrators could ship one integrated device, or a scanner plus a network connectivity device, directly to any location where they  would like to deploy scanning.  Once the physical hardware is received the user would simply plug the network cable into the hardware and one could, in theory, be scanning in minutes.   This eliminates the costly and time-consuming tasks such as updates operating systems with patches or installing new software when versions change.   In addition, the Network Administrator would be able to diagnose any technical issues or view usage reports easily from one intuitive interface.

CIO’s, or Chief Information Officers, must earnestly consider a Network Scanning SOA approach from the understanding of compliance, security and regulation.  A scanner attached directly to a network via SOA architecture  gives the organization the ability to provide activity reports based on the individual device for example, which could help play a major role in assisting with adherence to these corporate policies and governance.

Finally, ease of use for the scanner operator plays a chief role in that it is driving the adoption of network scanning within the SOA infrastructure.  In fact, should a corporation wish to use the Pull Scanning technique, they have the capability to assemble a system that could in effect eliminate the need for any sort of user intervention whatsoever.  Imagine the power of this total SOA/Network Scanning approach.   Let’s use a Customer Service example to illustrate a few of the benefits.

In our example, the Customer Service scanning deployment will demonstrate too many remote site locations.  Our IT department benefits from the fact that they would avoid building a computer system to act as the connectivity/scanning device; we simply ship the hardware to the remote site and they plug it into the network.  Subsequently, for Pull Scanning, all the user would be required to do is physically place the items to be scanned on the scanner itself, and someone in a completely different part of the connected world would initiate scanning; receiving all of the resulting images.

 

The opportunity of Network Scanning

While Network Scanning is quickly becoming the buzz among the industry, there still are certain technical deficiencies that will need to be addressed with some of these devices in order to be considered part of a true IT integration.

As the connected world continues to improve infrastructure and new, innovative ways  to communicate emerge, the industry trend towards more Network Scanning should continue.  For example, organizations most likely will move forward on plans for additional remote location “Telecommuting” of individual workers and satellite office locations.  Couple factors that include ease of use, simplified IT management of hardware and software resources as well as additional adherence to compliance and regulation standards and the future of Network Scanning seems bright.

 

Frankie-the-frustrated worker dealing with lack of direct Line of Business integration and Manual Data Entry

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1For this particular blog post I would like to use a light-hearted approach to a major problem.  The problem is lost productivity and user frustration around populating data into Line of Business applications via Manual Data Entry versus Automation.

To illustrate my point let’s take one of the most popular Software as a Service (SaaS) applications ever, Salesforce.com.  And while the application is absolutely simple to use and easy to manage, what lacks is the ability to take information from paper and/or an image and put it directly into Salesforce.com database fields.

 

1.  Let’s take a moment to go through the steps to import data into Salesforce.com and follow the steps Frankie-the-frustrated worker must take to get this task done.
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2.  Commentary of Frankie-the-frustrated worker:

 

“Frustrating!  Step 1 of 7????”

 

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3.  Commentary of Frankie-the-frustrated worker:

 

“MORE FRUSTRATING!!!  WASTING TIME!!!”

 

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4.  Commentary of Frankie-the-frustrated worker:

 

“MORE THAN EVER FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!!!  WASTING TIME, MONEY, AND ENERGY!!!!!!!!!!!” 

 

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5.  Commentary of Frankie-the-frustrated worker:

 

 “FORGET IT!!!!!!!!!!!! 
 THIS WILL NEVER END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
 WHY IS IT LIKE THIS????? 
 ISN’T THERE AN EASIER WAY????????????????” 

 

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Education and modern technology reduce Frankie’s frustration

Are we still living in the stone age when it comes to data entry into computer systems?  Isn’t there a more efficient method to automatically populate data in your software application instead of costly manual data entry?  It’s 2012 after all, not 1912.  Why do we accept such primitive methods of data entry?

 

Answer:  Because we need to educate the market on the capabilities of capture technologies.  We also need to strive to make integration and usage as easy as possible.  If you build it, they will come.

 

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Eliminating Frankie’s frustration with Ubiquitous Information Capture
Realizing the dream of Ubiquitous Information Capture directly into applications is much easier than you might think but we must educate the market on current capabilities.  The idea is simple, yet highly effective.  Embed the ability to take photos with a smart phone and/or capture paper documents from a scanning device directly into your software application.  Note that all I’ve done in the screen prints below is add a small icon of a camera and scanner directly into my CloudConnectMashup software application.

 

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Now, I can offer my users a truly great user experience because contributing information is nearly effortless and removes pain associated with manual data entry.  This translates directly into reduced operational costs, improved efficiencies and an overall better work environment.

 

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Think about all the lost opportunities to drastically reduce labor costs, most likely in the billions if not trillions of dollars, associated with manual data entry in just the use cases below:

 

1.  Transportation applications with Bills of Lading, Proof of Deliveries, Trip Sheet or Scale Tickets

 

2.  Field Service applications with Proof of Work delivered, Vehicle Identification Number, Work Orders or Assessment documentation

 

3.  Contracts Management applications with Amendments, Terms and Conditions or License Agreements

 

4.  Invoice Management applications with Invoices, corresponding Packing Lists or Proof of Performance

 

5.  Sales/Contact Relationship Management applications with Business Cards, Agreements or Correspondences

 

Do you know a Frankie in your organization?  Do you have a story, good or bad, to tell?  I’d love to hear your feedback.

 

Thanks,
Kevin

Fujitsu fi-5900C Mid-Volume Production Scanner

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I was the proud, and extremely passionate, product marketing manager for the life cycle of the Fujitsu fi-5900C Mid-Volume Production (MVP) Scanner in the United States, Mexico and Latin America.  In the Mid-Volume Production Scanning segment Fujitsu had historically been #3 market share or often worst behind Kodak and Bell & Howell.

The truth of the matter is that I was lucky with timing, but it was also a lot of hard work, team effort and excellent execution of a plan and we eventually achieved #1 market share in MVP for the first time ever.  I proudly helped establish Fujitsu as a player, in fact, THE #1 player for years and when I left the company in 2011 we were still #1 in spite of Kodak acquiring Bell & Howell.

Below is a collection of image memories of the awesome fi-5900C which revolutionized the industry!

article_4 article_d1 5900_london_1 fi-5900C johnsondiversey Corry Publishing: BuxCo Domestic Relations for Quality Assoc. In

The world’s largest scanning device event ever – Dreamforce 2012

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If you had to select from the list below what the world’s largest gathering of scanning technology would be, what would be your guess?

    1. The AIIM conference
    2. The ARMA conference
    3. The CES tradeshow
    4. The Macworld conference
    5. None of the above

The answer is not as obvious as most of us would have guessed such as the AIIM conference.  After all, AIIM is known as a leading organization in ‘image management’ so of course this would be the world’s largest collection of scanning devices ever.  The correct answer is “None of the above”.  I would strongly argue, and have plenty of evidence, that Salesforce.com’s recent Dreamforce 2012 conference in San Francisco was by far-and-away the largest collection of scanning technology to ever be assembled at one conference.  Specifically I’m referring to the number of camera-enabled devices at this conference and creating images from smart phones instead of document feed paper scanners.  There were 90,000 registered attendees and each attendee probably averaged two devices whether they were iPhone’s, Andriod’s, iPads, Galaxy’s or whatever.  These devices were in abundance, that’s for sure!

Therefore, conservative estimates of around 180,000 camera-enabled mobile devices plus all the devices in the vendor’s booths themselves probably puts the number of “capture” devices at around 200,000!  This is a remarkable opportunity to leverage the fact that most of the devices these days include high-quality cameras.

            

 Of course I’m not talking about large production-type scanners typically seen at the annual AIIM conference where you would capture a stack of 100 or 500 pages at a single time, for example.  I’m talking about ‘transactional’ capture where the use case is to capture one, or just a few, documents at a time.

 

Education and awareness – Old habits die hard

Even with all these devices readily available to all attendees, and all this revolutionary software on display I witnessed utter failure, not because any of these people or technologies were bad, but because people were not aware of the incredible advances in Mobile Data Capture.  Let me clearly explain what I mean by utter failure with specific examples.

 

1.  Mobile Data Capture Use Case # 1:  Business Card with recognition on device

First, I had several people hand me their business cards.  Why?  Why not just take a picture of the card and automatically put in to Salesforce as a contact?  Yes, the technology does exist!

 

2.  Mobile Data Capture Use Case # 2:  Marketing materials with recognition hosted

The next utter failure was when I was handed some marketing materials.  What typically happens with these items?  That’s right; they often get filed right into the circular file cabinet (a.k.a. trash bin) to never be found again.  Why not just snap a photo with a smart phone and have the document made into a fully Searchable PDF image and then stored in some system?  Then I can quickly, and easily, retrieve it in the future based on some keyword related to the material that I was looking for.  This functionality is not only very useful for retrieval purposes but also general organizational purposes.  For example, at a typical tradeshow you will meet many people and get introduced to new companies that you probably hadn’t known of before.  In these cases you will most likely only remember something vague about the company, person and/or product but not the actual name of the person, company or product.  Therefore, you can easily search for a term such as “consulting” to retrieve all the documents with that particular word contained in them.

 
 

3.  Mobile Capture Use Case # 3:  Batching and document collections

Then one of the last utter failures I would like to share is a personal story but it just goes to illustrate that capture from mobile devices is not top-of-mind like it should be because the technology is so new.  Like most of us returning to our offices after a business trip, we will have acquired various documents during our travels such as meal receipts, contracts or just environmental photos to save and share with our fellow colleagues.  While the types of documents themselves could be vastly different, the collection of these documents will most likely have something similar such as the location or name of the event.  In my case the similarity between these documents was ‘Dreamforce 2012’.  So what I did was whip out my handy iPhone and snapped several photos at once to create a collection of documents.  This was a very different user experience that I was used to where I would take a picture of one image, and then uploaded.  Then take a picture of a second image, then uploaded, and repeat the process until I was finished.  This was simply a horrible experience and I would delay getting this information saved electronically because I dreaded the time wasted doing this activity.  With the ability to capture many images at once, it allowed me to get these images uploaded quickly without much effort at all.  Next, since the documents were different sizes, I used the auto crop feature to automatically resize the images to the proper size.  Then, to make my stored images really smart I added ‘tags’ so that I can type a search term such as ‘biz card’ and find all the business cards stored on my phone.  I then had the option to send to a wide variety of popular cloud storage destinations, send via e-mail or even print.

 

Batch capture

Capture several items at once instead of one at a time.  Greatly saves time when gathering a collection of related images.

 Enhance Image

Auto binarization, auto cropping, page rotation and other useful features to create excellent image quality.
Tags

Easily add tags, or metadata, to each image to make them searchable or better organized.  Custom tags can be added at anytime.

 Batch Collections

Your smart phone can now be a simple version of a mobile document management system with the ability to save collections of images on the phone itself.

 

So the question begs, with this great capture technology literally at people’s fingertips why is it that we seem so naïve about this amazing technology?  I think there probably are several viable reasons including, but not limited, to the following:

    • Awareness that this type of technology exists in the first place.  More education is needed.
    • As a society we are on “mobile application overload” so we have a difficult time weeding through all the available applications and try and find the most useful ones.  There’s an app for that!
    • We are still in the early days of mobile application development.  Companies rush to get an application to market first, then will gradually add business productivity capability such as mobile data capture.
    • Use case scenarios need to be clearly defined and return on investment needs to definitively articulated.

 

Therefore if, as an industry, if we can provide more overall education and bring awareness to this type of technology, then the greater likelihood there is that everyone can benefit from the tremendous potential of Mobile Capture.  When we truly consider all the great possibilities of using mobile devices to contribute content, instead of just purely information consumption, then we can absolutely achieve the next major milestone in achieving the ultimate in business efficiency.

Fujitsu fi-6010N network scanner Job Menus

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This was a video that I wrote the script and narrated about the Fujitsu fi-6010N network scanner Job Menu functionality.  This was a feature that we incorporated into the device after the initial product launch based directly on customer feedback.  This was a very popular feature because it allowed for an easy level of customization on the touch screen.  The screens could be configured based on user login credentials.  This customization could be on the device itself, or it could be configured on the Central Administration Server and then pushed out to all the scanners on a network.