Archive Project

[KH7210]

I am looking for a program for didgital imiging for a archive project. I am hoping to find one that I can scan documents to a pdf and then index for retrieval.

Any ideas which one would be the best? Ease of use and processing is important.

Any help is greatly appreceated.

Thanks
KH7210

 

[FredWagner]

What scale will the project be - how many people will be retrieving documents ? Will there need to be Web Access ?
Will you want to be able to view the document while entering the data about it for the database? Will you want to be able to search the documents based on content as well as by the data about them (metadata)?

Our organization uses FileNet Content Services 5.4 for the back end and retreival, and Kofax Ascent Capture for the front end. info on both at

http://www.filenet.com

and

http://www.kofax.com.

There are other solutions out there - some are best for installations that won't get too large, others scale to enterprise level. Ours is a small version of an enterprise level solution. Where are you located ?

Fred Wagner

 

[KH7210]

Fred,
Thanks for the help here and on my other posting.
I am the Custodian of records for a small corporation.

We are located in California near Lake Tahoe.

I have herd of file net from my record Professor.

I am looking at the Fujitsu model 5220 have you ever worked with this model? Your impressions?

Thanks
Kurt

 

[FredWagner]

I haven't used the Fujitsu 5220 , but I have the 3093GX, 4097D, and the 5530C in various user departments. They are all excellent and long-lasting. One way of making life simpler - the newer models can work with USB 2.0, don't need the SCSI card and driver complications any more, and the performance seems to be just as good.
Another question to ask - are you going to retrieve the documents only as Images, but index fields, or are you going to store them as searchable PDF's, so you can search by words contained in the document. That makes a big difference in the storage and retreival product, and which scanner you choose (whether it will create searchable PDF's directly from the scanner, through the documnet capture program, of as part of a release process).
Other products in the Document Manasgement and Archiving space = Documentum, OpenText, and LaserFiche. You might want to check into all of them, as far as ease of entering documents, whether you can do full-text indexing, Web-based retrieval, ability to interface with other programs, and licensing (initial and ongoing) and support costs. You'll also want to get factory training on Administration and Support of whichever product you go with, even if they insist on having it installed by one of their certified partners.

Fred Wagner

 

[KH7210]

Fred:
At this point I am planning on storage as searchable PDF'S for later retrevial. I believe this machine scanns straight to a searchable PDF.
What kind of documental retrieval program do you use?

You bring up some good points that I will have to look into. I will also check out the machines that you mentioned.


Thanks
Kurt

 

[FredWagner]

the 3000 and 4000 series Fujitsu's are out of production. Just look at the 5xxx models. Also consider Xerox and Panasonic and Bowe- Bell and Howell.
Creating a searchable PDF does NOT happen in the scanner. Many scanners will create non-searchable PDF's, which are really TIF's in a PDF wrapper. Creating a searchable PDF requires some serious crunching while the program OCR's the image that's been scanned. Even with a fast PC, it can take 10-20 seconds per page if it's single spaced. Kofax Ascent can do it in their own software, most other products require you to also install Acrobat Professional, and the software running the scanner feeds the image to that software. Or you can control the scanner from within Acrobat Professional. An older solution was to release through an Acrobat Capture server - your capture software dropped the TIF file into an input folder, Capture converted it to a searchable PDF, and the release script passed it on into your back end. That's not done any more that I know of, though I still have one of those servers available.
For the back end, we use FileNet Content Services 5.4, which has a Web client as well as an integrated desktop client. It's not a current product - they have a newer series, called P8 Content Mangement. You're probably going to need a consultant to set you up, even to choose which system to go with. It's a major system investment, and you want it to be designed and configurd properly from the beginning!

Fred Wagner, KQ6Q

Fred Wagner