Document Imaging Blog

Corporate Developers & Document Imaging SDKs

In a post on the Xerox blog Big I, little t, Roger Ellefson writes from the AIIM Expo that:

I was speaking with a senior manager from the IT department of one of our largest customers - he was very interested in how the software developers on his staff could gain access to our SDKs just as any of our traditional ISV partners can.

eCopy also has found that many of our end customers are interested in using our SDK to create integration between eCopy's document imaging platform and their software applications. Like the Xerox SDK, it will allow developers to create integration so that end users can use the document scanning capabilites of their Xerox MFPs to incorporate paper documents. eCopy's SDK includes a powerful "connector" development wizard that makes it nearly effortless to create native integration. Over 80 ISVs, SIs and corporate developers already have created integration that works with Xerox MFPs.

AIIM’s State of the ECM Industry Report – Paper Déjà vu

This month, AIIM released its annual State of the ECM Industry Report, which is always a good read and full of good data points collected from AIIM’s survey of end user organizations. Among the many observations in this year’s report, AIIM President John Mancini highlighted a topic that is near and dear to document imaging -- Paper Déjà vu. He says:

There are three dimensions of this problem that we need to help organizations understand. The first is the traditional one – getting rid of paper. The second dimension relates to getting rid of paper from information that was actually born digitally. We have a tendency in the work of blogs and wikis and Enterprise 2.0 technologies to somehow imagine the paper is a thing of the past… And lastly, I think that part of the renaissance of paper concerns in organizations will center around green concerns.

I agree with all three dimensions, but think that a fourth needs to be added to that list: information access. John references this as one of the four major trends in ECM, but in an echo of what I hear from end user organizations, he focuses on electronic information access. For organizations to capitalize on the value that applications like SharePoint and other document tools the reach the desktops of workers across an organization, electronic and paper-based information need to be merged together in these new workflow processes. Providing all employees access to an easy to use document imaging solution can help meet this goal.

MFP Development Platforms – Part 2: Cross-Platform SDKs

The topic of MFP platforms and the SDKs for writing to these platforms is gaining steam. Take a look at Alan Joch’s post today on the Print & Imaging Blog.

In Part 1 of our post on document imaging platforms for MFPs, we talked about some of the considerations that developers should consider when choosing a platform to write to when looking to integrate MFPs with software applications.

The biggest may be cross platform support. Developers should look for a document imaging platform that offers a single SDK that allows the development of a connector or document service that will work across any type or brand of scanning device – whether that is an MFP or a scanner. Even if your environment today only has one brand, taking a cross-platform approach will prevent problems that result from being locked into a specific brand or type of device and allow flexibility in office equipment purchasing decisions down the road. 

There are also other advantages to a cross platform approach:

• A single SDK – eliminates the need to track changes to SDKs from multiple vendors that support different and limited capabilities
• Scanning Services – eliminates the need to learn how different MFPs and scanners scan documents, change scanner settings and handle scanning errors, etc. This is built into a cross-platform document imaging solution
• Administration – you can integrate any connection or document service into a single administration console that can be used for any MFP or scanner in a heterogeneous environment.

Whether you are a corporate developer or software vendor, the emergence of development platforms for MFPs are certainly worth looking into in order to help get paper-based information into software applications.

Making Scanning & Sharing Documents Easier with SharePoint

Microsoft posted a SharePoint customer case study article today on the Microsoft Momentum site. The article features eCopy document imaging software customer Introgen Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company that used SharePoint and eCopy to meet government regulations. The author, Alan Earls, discusses how eCopy duplicates the Microsoft SharePoint user experience at the MFP. To read the article click on Microsoft SharePont document imaging.

EMC & eCopy Webinar on Distributed Capture

On Tuesday, March 18, EMC and eCopy will be co-presenting a Webinar on Distributed Capture. A distributed capture approach is a highly effective way for organizations with multiple locations – across a campus or the world – to quickly and securely share information between remote locations and a central processing site.  This is particularly true for transactional, paper-based content that may need to be processed through advanced document processing software -- such as EMC Captiva – but arrives in a location separate from the central processing site.

Tune into this Webinar on Tuesday to learn how to:

• Leverage the office equipment that you currently use – like MFPs/copiers and scanners – to capture incoming paper documents from multiple locations
• Add intelligence to remote scanning operations – from content capture to classification, extraction, validation and delivery
• Control access to sensitive paper documents by eliminating the need to ship outside the office
• Reduce document processing time from days to seconds

To register, click here.

AIIM Picks City of Torrance for Best Practices Award

Last week during its awards gala event, AIIM announced that it had selected the City of Torrance for a Best Practices Award. AIIM picked well. Never before have I seen an organization that used technology to so thoroughly transform itself. The Torrance City Attorney's Office used document imaging, document management and case management software to:

• Eliminate nearly 300 cubic feet of file cabinets, easing City Hall space constraints.
• Bring over 95 percent of legal work performed in house, saving outsourcing costs.
• Save administrative staff expenses estimated to be $240,000 annually.

If you would like to know more about why AIIM picked Torrance for a Best Practices Award, see the eCopy case study by clicking here for the PDF.

eCopy Launches The Document Imaging Wiki

The Document Imaging industry encompasses a lot of technology, companies, experts and products – from scanners to MFPs, desktop applications to enterprise-wide software and everything in between. When conducting research about document imaging, information is not always easily accessible or consolidated in one place.

To help solve this problem, eCopy has created and launched the Document Imaging Wiki as a centralized source of information open to anyone who is researching document imaging technologies and trying to learn what would best benefit their work environment. It’s basically a Wikipedia for the Document Imaging industry, including information on industry terms, companies, industry experts and analysts, and sources to find additional information on document imaging.

The Document Imaging Wiki is a public Website and is designed to be updated at any time by individuals with knowledge of the document imaging industry. In addition, people are encouraged to contribute questions to be addressed by the document imaging community in the discussion forums.

For more information on the wiki, you can read the press release. We look forward to seeing your contributions to the site and helping it grow as a resource for the industry.