Document Imaging Blog

Read About Free PDF Readers -- ITBusinessEdge.com

I previously made my case for moving away from Adobe PDF Reader, which despite frequent patches, continues to hold an appalling security track record.  In a nutshell, hackers and malware writers increasingly are using vulnerabilities found in this popular PDF document viewer as a base from which to break into and commandeer computers.

via www.itbusinessedge.com

Above is the beginning of a blog post by Paul Mah from ITBusinessEdge. Read more of what Paul has to say about PDF Readers here. Paul provides Expert tech insight and advice for small businesses with big goals.

PDF Readers, JavaScript and Security

ScanSafe recently called out in its Annual Global Threat Report that malicious PDF files (often opened with PDF reader software) comprised 56 percent of Web-encountered hacker exploits in 1Q09, growing to 80 percent in 4Q09.

 

The security experts believe, "this trend is likely indicative of attackers' preference for PDF exploit, likely due to the increasing availability of vulnerabilities and the continued widespread use and acceptance of PDF files in the workplace."

 

The ScanSafe research follows a McAfee Labs report that predicted Adobe would overtake Microsoft as the primary target for hackers and virus writers in 2010.

 

There is a simple way to avoid these hazards -- do not install JavaScript processing with your PDF reader. You will loose a small amount of functionality, but it may be well worth it.

 

Unfortunately, this is something users cannot do with Adobe Reader. And that means hackers can potentially use the PDF JavaScript vulnerability to gain control of a user's computer - exposing users to system attacks and the transfer of personal information simply by viewing infected PDF files.

 

However, an answer to this troubling PDF security threat has hit the market - the free Nuance PDF Reader, which creates a safer PDF environment for the end user by allowing them to prevent JavaScript installation. This approach adds an additional safety net for IT professionals looking to safeguard their organizations.

 

We encourage you to download the free Nuance PDF Reader and share your experiences with us.

CNET Review of Nuance PDF Reader

Nuance's first free PDF reader is a strong entry to the growing field of zero-cost Adobe Reader alternatives. It has a reasonable set of features, including free document conversion via the Nuance Web site, and a crisp interface that should be accessible to anybody.

via download.cnet.com

CNET reviewer Seth Rosenblatt rated Nuance PDF Reader at 4.5 stars out of a possible 5 stars. Read the review at PDF Reader.

Watch Neo use scan to PDF software and the paperless office to escape Mr. Smith in eCopy video below.

Information Input and Output Relationships

I was talking to an IT director at a large customer of ours recently about his information management strategy and was impressed by his realistic and holistic view of information management…or Enterprise Content Management (ECM), to use AIIM’s industry term. Like many organizations, he has an ECM application in the center of his content management strategy. And, like many organizations, he has mapped out the connections from that ECM system to his line of business applications, Intranets, Extranets, desktop applications and email systems, as well as paper.

 

Where this conversation became interesting was his view of the input/output relationships between every one of these parts, including paper. This input/output relationship is often forgotten when considering paper, with the focus being solely on the act of converting paper-based information to electronic form (input). But conversion and input is only half of the story. Understanding how users work with electronic files (both scanned and digitally originated), is critical to the success of an information management strategy. What he has delivered is an information management strategy that encompasses the complete document or content lifecycle.

 

 

Think about your users’ work processes. Getting a paper document into an electronic system is good for storage, but most of the time that document needs to be accessed again, edited, possibly combined with other documents, and either shared or checked back into the system. These tasks typically consist of performing multiple steps and opening multiple applications. However, using standard document formats like PDF, and working with PDF software that is integrated directly with your other applications, can significantly reduce the number of steps…improving productivity, saving labor costs, reducing resource contraints, and creating a better work environment.

LegalTech Keynote on e-Discovery and Imaging

During yesterday's LegalTech keynote given by Fred Borchardt, a Partner at KPMG for 25 years, Mr. Borchardt talked about how law firms need to shift their e-Discovery strategy "to the left" in the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) and take a more proactive approach to information management.  In the same speech he also mentioned how prevalent paper remains within the legal industry. 

 

 

Given the prevalence of paper in law firms, moving leftward in the reference model means law firms should scan paper documents and convert them into searchable text as early as is practicable.  The workhorse of printing and copying in many legal firms, the MFP, when outfitted with intelligently integrated scanning and OCR software will play a vital role in making this shift in electronic legal records management a reality.

Printing Costs – it’s not all about output

A lot of work has been done by printer and MFP manufacturers to help companies reduce their printing costs, mainly around improving utilization of printing devices and consolidation of those devices. Many of those vendors even have developed sophisticated software technologies and methodologies to help automatically identify what printers are being used, where companies should place their printers, where color printing is necessary, etc. One example can be seen here.

A good example of the effect that better management of print costs can have is at HP, where they have saved $7 million in annual costs, as reported this week in a Network World article. That was almost a 50% reduction from its $15.2 million printing operating costs.

That's impressive! But what the article doesn't cover -- and HP doesn't discuss in their own research note on the project -- is an often overlooked cost savings opportunity that is widely available thanks to the fact that more and more printing devices are scan-enabled. Reducing print-related costs is good...reducing the overall amount of printing can be even better.

For example, one of our customers (who averages more than 300,000 printed pages per month), began a corporate-wide initiative to promote scanning at their MFPs instead of printing and copying. They recognize that printing and copying aren’t going away, but by offering an easy way for employees to scan documents, they were able to reduce the amount of printing and copying, and increase the usage of their MFP infrastructure. Over the course of two years, they increased the # of employees that they supported by 50% but only increased their output volume by 31%. This has led to a monthly savings of $25,000 in reduced output costs alone. And the savings reach well into seven figures when including device consolidation, reduced support and administration costs, and productivity increased by including paper in electronic workflows.

Further emphasis of the benefits of scanning also just came out in a recent Gartner research note by Don Dixon that talks about how document imaging – once the domain of trained workers in centralized environments – can now easily be handled by office workers at “smart MFPs”. These smart MFPs not only print, fax, copy and scan, but can also integrate with applications, are management friendly, and behave well on the network. And from an IT and user perspective, offering scanning to office workers is becoming even more attractive as a single software platform can be used across MFP brands, offering easy administration and a standard imaging process for all employees. I’ll have more on document imaging standards and platforms in future posts.

So yes, follow the example of companies like HP who are improving the utilization of printing devices. But also look at what you can do in terms of using your MFPs for document imaging to further reduce those print costs.