Doc Management w/Savin MFP

[Guest]

I am going to be the black sheep poster here....definitely feel way underqualified to post but I read all the time.

I am an end user rep/trainer for a doc management software retailer (name is DocStar)....my boss is a small retailer that sells to very-small to medium-sized schools (mainly rural). When I took the job, the plan was for me to focus on training and keeping customers happy while our tech guy handled all the networking issues. Well, that hasn't worked out entirely, and although the owner has found someone to handle the nuts and bolts, the "WAAAY above my head networking issues", I've ended up having to self-educate and just slowly figure some stuff out. This site has been hugely helpful and has saved us WEEKS of time sometimes, enabling me find out info about a given MFP myself instead of having to wait on the slooow hands of beaurocracy that is the public school. :-)

Here's my question at the moment.....our current end user has 3 Savin MFP's...a C2820, an 80305E, and a 40225P. Can I expect for all of these/any to have "GlobalScan" or "ECopy" running? Or are these "extra" packages that the school would have had to purchase? Basically I'm wondering if I can 100% expect to see one of these or if it's a 'maybe'. I know I can ask their IT person, but some of these smaller schools don't have an on-site IT guy and it can be tricky to track down....so I thought I'd ask you guys.

Thank you if you've read this far....Christy

[zed255]

GlobalScan and eCopy are extra solutions that would have to be a separate purchase. I haven't worked with eCopy, but did the GlobalScan class a while back. I have only seen a few GS installations in my area so I don't find either one really common.

[mansart]

I'm not a Savin tech however looking at machine info it appears that the C2820 comes standard with scanning (scan to folder being one method)
8030 appears to come in different configurations some have scanning some don't Savin 8030e Series Configuration Table
4022 appears to come standard with scanning http://www.avcoffice.com/sw/swchanne...addinfo/SWID/1

All these machines are capable of scan to folder. So with DocStar designate your "Hot Folder" for DocStar to watch. Once file hits designated folder you can do further processing with DocStar

[mansart]

Sorry I may have not understood your post. As "Zed" stated do not expect eCopy or Global Scan. I was assuming that school had DocStar, after re-reading I'm guessing that is not the case

[unisys12]

Correct... eCopy and GlobalScan are software options. Expensive ones too! So don't expect to see them in schools. Either way... mansart is correct. Just designate a "Hot Folder" for your docStar software to watch and use your BDP module to create work flows from there.

Unfortunately, without something like eCopy, GlobalScan, DigiDocFlow or the like, the end user will not be able to apply meta-data to the scanned document. But, I have seen software very similar to docStar that can do what was suggested above with OCR Templates. Even if you have to separate the work-flows into separate one touches within the scanner interface (done by setting up separate folders on the server for each work-flow and then creating separate entries in the address book of the MFP for each folder destination). I have done this several times with a variety of systems, but the process is still the same. All your doing is using the OCR Template to capture the meta data for you. Your work flow takes over from there, with the captured meta data.

Does that make sense? If not, I can explain further with examples. By the way... Welcome aboard and please feel free to ask more questions. We are all here to learn from each other and poke fun from time to time.

[christybaloo]

Awww, thanks guys!! I knew I would get HELP here!

Okay...."roger" on the ecopy and globalscan. But unisys12, when you say that w/out one of those two programs or the like, my end user won't be able to access use of OCR (I think that's what you're saying.) If Docstar does have OCR capabilities, does that make you change your mind about that, or am I still not understanding one of the processes?

One more question...our networking guy is wanting some initial info about the school we're setting up for docstar, and I can handle the first two columns: IP addies, Scanner make/model, but what exactly is he asking for with "Repository Share Name"? And if this complicates things one more smidge.....these Savins have not ever been set up for scanning yet! So there's no "Scan" interface on the Savins' screens at all yet. sigh.

[RicohSE]

Repository Share Name would be the SMB share on the PC or Server where the documents would be deposited by the user/MFP and could be retrieved by DocStar.

[unisys12]

Awww, thanks guys!! I knew I would get HELP here!

Okay...."roger" on the ecopy and globalscan. But unisys12, when you say that w/out one of those two programs or the like, my end user won't be able to access use of OCR (I think that's what you're saying.) If Docstar does have OCR capabilities, does that make you change your mind about that, or am I still not understanding one of the processes?

Great questions! No, I did not say that. I said that the end user would not be able to apply meta-data to the scan document without the use of something like eCopy, GlobalScan, DigiDocFlow or the like. What I said (and the others suggested) was with the use of OCR Templates, you can use OCR Templates; within your software, to take advantage of these simple scanned images and turn them into usable data that can then be used by work-flows created with your software.

One more question...our networking guy is wanting some initial info about the school we're setting up for docstar, and I can handle the first two columns: IP addies, Scanner make/model, but what exactly is he asking for with "Repository Share Name"? And if this complicates things one more smidge.....these Savins have not ever been set up for scanning yet! So there's no "Scan" interface on the Savins' screens at all yet. sigh.

Ok... Sounds simple, butt... yeah, there's always a butt in the bunch!

The "repository" he is talking about is the "Hot Folder" that we referenced earlier in this thread. What he's looking for is a single folder, on the clients network, that all scan jobs will be scanned to. For example, C:/Scans.

Yeah, I know... this is were things gets a little complicated!

If your client only has the need for one (1) work-flow, then all you have to do is ask the IT guy for the school district to create a single folder on his server for those scanned files. At that point, a single address book entry would be needed to point to this folder and your software will take over from there. Simple enough, right? Well, that's were it gets interesting!

If your client has several work-flows... Then the IT guy for the school system will have to make different folders for the different workflows on the server. In this case... Let's say you have to have one work-flow for teachers to upload test grades to a database with a link to the actual test and another to just send a copy to the teachers personal folder.

What would have to be in place for this to happen? A database (schools job), A work-flow to connect a scanned doc to that database(your job), a place to store a archive of the test (schools job), a link to the test (schools job).

OK! So let's work through the work-flow here.

Actually, the more I've thought about this, it could be all combined into one action.... but we will take a step at a time.

Given the school has created the given database and shared folders we can continue!

Go to User Tools, System Tools, Admin Tab, Address Book.
For Name, name it something similar to the work-flow.... ex. Test DataBase
Then choose the Folder tab and browse to the shared folder for this task.

At this point, you create a work-flow that watches this folder and when something comes in, it applies the OCR Template you designed for this work-flow. The meta-data is pulled from the OCR Template and extracted into the database.

Then, create a e-mail workflow, which e-mails a A/PDF of the actual test scanned.

Again, I think you can see how these two actions can be combined into one action. All you have to do is get IT to combine a e-mail parent/student address database. Then, given the student name, captured from the Test OCR Template,... it can go on and on... but hopefully you see what I mean.

[christybaloo]

Ouuuchh....brain....is....hurting. Unysis12, I"ll have to reread your post a few times but a huge thank you for the ideas!

[RicohSE]

Very well put Unysis12

[KenB]

You may want to check out AutoStore, which comes from Notable solutions, Inc.

Their web site is: Notable Solutions Inc.

They are experts at this; AutoStore's mantra is "Capture, Process, Route", which is exactly what Unisys so eloquently explained. (Good Job!!)

You may not go with their product, but there's a ton of useful info to be had on their site.

If you're really into it, I believe that you can download a trial version. In fact, AutoStore is actually an advanced component in GlobalScan, which you should have available to you as a Savin dealer.

[RicohSE]

The workflow piece in GlobalScan V3.0 and v3.1 was actually created by NSI. I have often sold the AutoStore Express version as a stand alone product that runs on Java on the MFP. AS Express can read barcodes and do zonal OCR. This will run quite well on any Ricoh manufactured machine all the way back to Java B. NSI has many connectors available for ECMs. KenB is correct, NSI is definitly a product to consider when looking at the capture process.