Dislikes: 0
Admittedly I have zero experience with this, but I have a lawyer customer asking about it.
From the searches I’ve seen it appears any embedded solutions are unreliable at best.
What would be the best, user friendly option for this?
Thanks in advance.
Purchase the Adobe Acrobat program. You can OCR the documents and modify as well as make the documents searchable.
Attorneys like the searchable feature, they can enter key words in a large document and Adobe will find the words.
While I agree that Acrobat is normally a good, solid choice, it may or may not always be the best, especially in a document intensive environment such as in a law firm.
The right questions need to be asked, such as how they intend to reference and access the documents, do they have a software in place now to handle their docs, etc...
There are a ton of good document management products out there made specifically for the legal (and other) markets.
The one definite though, is not using the available built-in OCR. They'd learn to hate it in no time flat...no matter what other system it tied into.
Some days you’re the dog, some days you’re the fire hydrant.
Generally speaking Ricoh's scan to OCR is unbearably slow. Like minutes per page slow. And it does not send to the destination until it is finished processing all pages.
Ken, exept Acrobat, what OCR program would you recommend that has globally good performances?Originally Posted by KenB
One that I think it was Ricoh that used to bundle with MFPs as an alternative to the now long discontinued ScanRouter V2 lite was ABBYY FineReader. It can also be use to do pull scans from older MFPs that do not support SMB v2/v3. Current version is 15 and can be found online at Walmart. https://www.walmart.com/ip/ABBYY-Fin...541fe73a7e3ceb
Another option could be to use RSI (Ricoh Smart Integration) which does OCR-scanning, i suspect the free option where you can only scan should be enough.
In some of my law firms large and small I use PPDM. It supports hot folders i.e. SMB shares and runs on windows 7-10 pro. At one firm we set up 4 windows VMs for each machine. Any problems can be fixed by the office manager when a scan job hangs-up. No renewal needed. Its a Nuance product and also will reduce the file size by 30%. PPDM is no longer supported and sold by Ricoh.
RSI also does a good job reducing the file size but I have not tested it in a law firm workflow yet. The RSI solution is cloud based and is supported and maintained by Ricoh with all the security and updates that would be needed. Here is the over view of RSI.We are starting to add this solution to more of our customers due to the low month to month price. Sign up for one year and then cancel at anytime after.
Ricoh Smart Integration (RSI) Workflows is a collection of cloud and subscription-based document routing applications that are built on the Ricoh Smart Integration (RSI) cloud platform. The RSI applications can be accessed from a SOP-equipped device (SOP G2 and higher) using Browser NX.RSI has 4 packages:
- Smart Integration Essentials
- Smart Integration Connectors
- Smart Integration Workflows (standard)
- Smart Integration Advanced Workflows
With RSI Essentials, you can send documents to email with the option to convert scanned documents to searchable and editable format using OCR. You can also send a print job from your mobile device by attaching the files and sending to print@ricohprintcloud.com.
RSI Connectors adds basic scanning to cloud accounts like Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Office 365, and others. With RSI Workflows and Advanced Workflows, you can automatically route information to multiple destinations in a single process. Scan to readable text with optical character recognition (OCR). Scan to and print from multiple popular cloud accounts without hassle. Gain file routing options using QR codes and automated batch processing.
With RSI Workflows, you can enjoy simpler scanning, routing and mobile printing. Print cover sheets with embedded QR codes to enable automatic routing. Trade labor-intensive processes for direct scanning into supported cloud accounts — including Box™, DropBox™, Google Drive™, OneDrive® for Business, SharePoint® online, DocuWare and Ricoh Content Manager.
For advanced scanning with native integration directly to SharePoint®, choose the RSI Advanced Workflows. Scan to a document library in SharePoint Online®, with metadata fields automatically populated based on information provided at the multifunction printer (MFP). Scan a stack of documents and route to a cloud application destination folder — the application will auto classify document types for you. Save time and reduce potential manual data entry errors.Eliminate the need for complex drivers and infrastructure and enjoy on-demand printing of documents stored in your cloud accounts. It's easy to print files from a cloud repository — such as Box™, Dropbox™, Google Drive™ and others — by browsing and selecting files from the MFP operation panel.
RSI has new enhancements that unlock more features and functionality by adding these “Add-Ons” to one of the existing RSI base packages (Essentials, Connectors, Workflows, and Advanced Workflows.The RSI Device Enhancement add-on provides device level authentication (including support for Proximity Cards), Scan to Me, Secured document release without release code, device management, utilization reporting (user and device lever), and centralized user management across multiple devices.The RSI Legal add-on provides two commonly used legal applications (Bates Stamping and Court eFile prep). Court eFile Prep simplifies document preparation for electronic court submission. Documents are split automatically based on a set maximum file size to meet court guidelines. Bates Stamping provides digital bates numbering to scanned documents. Scanned documents can be sent to an email or a local folder destination.The RSI Healthcare add-on provides a streamlined patient onboarding process by creating new patient records by scanning a driver’s license. In addition, it provides the ability to scan and route medical records directly to a patient record right from the MFP.
As of this writing, the RSI Healthcare add-only is only compatible with DrChrono, a cloud-based Electronic Health Record (EHR) system.
The MPC2004ex was discontinued in 2017 with a 1.33 Ghz processor. I am not sure if you can purchase the OCR option anymore.
I am not sure if it has a Dual core processor. A single core processor will really bog down the copier when trying to process OCR.
Certainly, regardless of manufacturer, any OCR software that uses the processing power of the PC that it is installed on or the web server that it is hosted on will be faster and more accurate than any app installed on a copier. No doubt, a good OCR package can save a law firm a lot of time.
Except perhaps for Searchable PDF. If this is all the law firm really wants than a copier app is probably good enough as this does not require a lot of computing resources.
Even straight text is not too difficult to process into a .docx format.
Often text documents will contain, lines, boxes, images, graphics, lots of text formatting and this is where a copier app begins to struggle.
OmniPage Pro, Abbyy FineReader and Adobe Acrobat Pro are the industry leaders.
To get 98% OCR conversion accuracy, the law firm is going to have to spend some money. 2% may not sound like much but if you are processing dozens of pages, manually correcting the errors can become tedious.
As I mentioned earlier, it needs to be known how the scans will be stored and accessed.
Will the docs be best hosted on a local server, or possibly on the Web?
Will they be dropped into other applications?
Some courts require the docs to be at a certain version of PDF or higher, and will reject older versions. Don’t assume that a current version of software will be current with PDF versions.
Would a workflow be desirable, performing zonal OCR and filing the docs based on those fields?
Is Bates Numbering desired?
eCopy ShareScan and AutoStore are two other solutions to consider.
Sorry to apparently overcomplicate the subject, but these are the types of questions that need to be answered and accounted for.
Some days you’re the dog, some days you’re the fire hydrant.
Posting Permissions
Thanks: 
Likes: 
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks