Scan to SharePoint or OneDrive

[BHM]

Did not want to revive the old thread so starting a new one.

Recap, we have a customer that has several 8 and 9 series machines that need to scan to OneDrive or Sharepoint. They are currently scanning to a local server using SMB but their IT people can not get the syncing with OneDive. I tired getting it to work with using webdav and I get a not enough memory error on every machine I tried including two i series.

There is a OneDrive and Sharepoint Marketplace app but this will not work for this customer. They have around 100 employees and they do a lot of scanning. The app does not allow storing of addresses so every employee would have to log in each time they want to scan. Our Konica solutions rep is at a loss but is trying to find some solution for us.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.

[bsm2]

I believe they can pull the files from the local smb.
But it will not sort them into specific folders.

[BHM]

So there are two flavors of OneDrive. The personal and "enterprise" versions. The personal has a Windows app that will sync you local folder with the cloud. The enterprise version does not have that feature. We could get the personal version to work but would require scanning directly to every employees computer. Doable but would probably lead to a nightmare of constantly working out scanning failures.

[femaster]

So there are two flavors of OneDrive. The personal and "enterprise" versions. The personal has a Windows app that will sync you local folder with the cloud. The enterprise version does not have that feature. We could get the personal version to work but would require scanning directly to every employees computer. Doable but would probably lead to a nightmare of constantly working out scanning failures.

This posted ended up longer than anticipated, but I hope you can follow what I'm trying to convey in it...

I must not be following this correctly or something, because this seems like it should be a simple problem to work out. Perhaps it is not possible to install OneDrive personal on the server? I've never dealt with a server in the loop, so I don't know.

I have some thoughts here, but I'm not sure how the users would be accessing their scans, be it from their own install of OneDrive on their PC, or by accessing them from the "cloud" (OneDrive website).

As you said, OneDrive Personal syncs to the cloud, then back down to other PCs with OneDrive that are linked to that same account. My only concern with my current suggestion might be a limit imposed by Micrsoft on the number of OneDrive installs that can be linked to a personal account. My thoughts:

If they only need access to their own scans (and maybe a shared folder or 2), and you can install OneDrive personal on the server, then my best suggestion would be to create a folder in OneDrive on the server for each person that needs to scan. Set up quick links in the copier for each person to scan via SMB to their own personal folder inside of the OneDrive folder on the server. If they are to access their scans from their own PC, OneDrive would need to be installed on each persons PC, and each install would need to be linked that OneDrive account on the server. During the initial setup of OneDrive personal (and also in the configuration settings after the fact,) you can select which folders will sync to that specific install of OneDrive. You would select only the folders that that person would need access to, i.e. their own scan folder and any "public" or "shared" folder(s). The only files that will ever sync to their PC are the files within whatever folders you selected to sync to that specific PC (See image below of my own setup).

OneDrive Folder Sync.jpg

The only "security" issue I can see with this would be that it could be possible for a person to go into the OneDrive settings on their PC and select to have other folders sync to their PC. This could potentially give that person access to files/scans that they shouldn't have access to. I'm not sure if a limited user (non-admin) would have access rights to change those settings in OneDrive or not, so that might be something else to consider.

[rrrohan]

do they want to be able to easily browse the folder structure of onedrive to scan directly into that folder

Ive seen customers setup a old laptop next to copier/sitting on top of a 100 sheet staple finisher and just scan to a folder and manually move it using laptop

[BHM]

Thanks for the input and sorry for the delay in responding. We had discussed using the personal version and having each workstation sync with their OneDrive. Their IT is considering this but is concerned about the added overhead. I had proposed ShareScan embedded but we all agree that it would add too many steps to the scan process and the spoiled end users would not be happy. They like hitting the Scan button, selecting their name and then pressing Start.


Just got a call this morning from the customer and they are switching their IT support company. Hopefully they can at least figure out why the syncing on their server keeps stopping and our problem will be "resolved".

Thanks again for the suggestions. I will try and update when we make progress.

[Rewind!]

Adding my two cents, as I am currently also reasearching alternatives to the marketplace connectors. Confirming that opposed to the native scan appliations embedded in the MFP's the marketplace apps just have way to many steps involved to get a user to scan a doc. I am sure we can all agree that the more the end user presses buttons the higher the percentage well end up receiving support calls. Our customer is also using the OneDrive Business sub, and does not want any users to save any work related docs to onsite local comps. I managed to always get the connector as the default on screen app (at all times) but whenever the user makes a copy and goes to the home screen, the same steps have to be taken to start the connector. Have any of you used different third party apps or services to help aleviate this issue?

Thanks!

JC

Thanks for the input and sorry for the delay in responding. We had discussed using the personal version and having each workstation sync with their OneDrive. Their IT is considering this but is concerned about the added overhead. I had proposed ShareScan embedded but we all agree that it would add too many steps to the scan process and the spoiled end users would not be happy. They like hitting the Scan button, selecting their name and then pressing Start.


Just got a call this morning from the customer and they are switching their IT support company. Hopefully they can at least figure out why the syncing on their server keeps stopping and our problem will be "resolved".

Thanks again for the suggestions. I will try and update when we make progress.