I'd like to be able to scan about a thousand documents a year, keep
them on a PC & then archive the paperwork.

I'll need to be able to index each document with a few descriptions of
what it contains, along the lines of:
"persons name"
"document type"
"document date"
and to be able to locate the scanned docs based on those fields.

In an ideal world I'd like to have this system on one of our servers
(Netware or NT) so it can be shared with colleagues in the department.

We want to do this ourselves in the office, we do not wish to hand
over the paper documents to a third party to be scanned and
catalogued.

I'd like to know some prices & sources for a cheap :-) setup of
scanner & software that would be available in the UK.

Hello fiz-ga, 

It's difficult to know what you mean by cheap :)  DocuTrack is
described as modestly priced document archiving software.  It is
produced by a UK company:
Tracker Software Products Ltd, Units 1-3 Burleigh Oaks, East Street,
Turners Hill, RH10 4PZ, Sussex, England.
Tel:+44(0)1342-719150 Sales/Administration
Fax:+44(0)1342-718060
Sales@docu-track.com

http://docu-track.com/docutrack.htm

The software supports any Twain compatible scanner or device, and it
is also possible to archive documents directly from Windows
applications such as MS Word, Excel etc. DocuTrack also integrates
with e-mail clients such as MS Outlook so that you can e-mail
documents directly from your archive.

The software allows both system and user-defined index fields, and
offers different levels of document and feature access, so that users
not entitled to view documents are oblivious of their existence.

Curiously the company lists prices in US dollars but wants to be paid
in UK £! The cost of the software is $199.00 Single User, $1899.00 10
users, $3325.00 25 users or  $7895.00 for a site licence (presumably
with unlimited users).  You can download a trial version from the
Docutrack site.

As for scanners, you can chose any Twain compatible models to fit your
budget.  Morgan Computers currently has one for as little as £29.99 ex
VAT http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/default.asp?Category=18
 
Hope this helps

---

Clarification of Answer by tehuti-ga on 28 May 2002 11:36 PDT

PS, the UK distributor for DocuTrack is Excelerate Technology, Telephone 
+44 1242 235544 FAX +44 8700 516792 
5 Kemerton Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 2QB 
General Information: info@excelerate-technology.com
Sales: sales@excelerate-technology.com
http://www.excelerate-technology.com/index.htm

http://www.nmatrix.com/documatrix.html

This may be silly, but how are the document generated? If they are
generated on a comuter, why do you need to scan them? They may be sent
or archieved directly into your data-base.

You can make a very simple database and publish it as a web site. The
images are just another field in the database. This gives you the
advantage of not having to install software on every workstation as
they would use a browser. One product that has won many awards for
doing this sort of thing is Filemaker Pro. http://www.filemaker.com

Specific information about sharing files for the web can be found @
http://www.filemaker.com/customers/Share.html and you can even get a
free trial version @
http://www.filemaker.com/products/try_filemaker.html

You can have up to 10 users accessing the database at one time for
about $250USD. Many more users can use it but only 10 within a certain
time frame. (1 hour as I recall) I taught FMP for a few years and I
would guess that if someone did not know the product but understood
computer type stuff they could create the database in a single day. If
they have done database work, cut the time in half.

Here's a tip: Use google to find good pricing on software. Type
"filemaker pro" into a google search and you will see paid links (up
and right) for companies that offer price shopping services or
specials on software. Try one!

Good luck

Bienville

One last thing. I am no attorney and certainly not in the U.K. but
where I live for a document management system to be admissible in
court the files must be written on a read only memory device such as a
CD-ROM recorder. I don't know if it is a consideration for your needs
but for what it is worth...

PaperPort Deluxe 8.0

"PaperPort Deluxe 8.0 is the easiest way to turn paper into organized
digital documents that everybody in your office can quickly find and
use... manage scanned documents along with all your other electronic
documents in one convenient and easy-to-use filing system on your
computer or network. PaperPort’s thumbnails allow you to visually
organize, retrieve, and use your scanned documents, Word files,
spreadsheets, PDF files and digital photos. PaperPort’s powerful
SimpleSearch engine ensures you can locate any document in PaperPort
in seconds..."


http://www.scansoft.com/paperport/

$99 US

-K~

I found the information about PaperPort as well, however, the
description of the product did not mention the ability to include
specific user-defined indexing fields, which I understood were
required by the asker.  If PaperPort is suitable, you might like to
know that it is bundled, together with OCR and other software, with
scanners produced by Visioneer.  Visioneer scanners are available from
high street retailers such as Dixons, Currys, Toys R Us, PC World, and
also from the on-line shop at the company's web site.
http://www.visioneer-europe.com/

Visioneer UK Ltd (sales-europe@visioneer.com)
1st Floor 
Edgeborough House
Upper Edgeborough Road
Guildford
Surrey. GU1 2BJ
Tel: +44 (0)1483 445 480
Fax: +44 (0)1483 445 490

I would also recommend the Visioneer Paperport line of document
scanners.

I used to work in a Medical office where I designed and implemented a
system for scanning and archiving all third-party medical records that
were forwarded to the office.

I found that even in Paperport's early versions of software/hardware,
it had the features that I need to quickly scan copious amounts of
documents (hundreds a day).

I would recommend using a Macro/Hotkey program so that you can
optimizing the saving process of the files.  You will find that the
actual scanning of the document is not the slow part but rather
dealing with the saved image is...
I ended up using QuicKeys for Macintosh but I guess they have versions
for Windows now. Check out: http://www.cesoft.com/products.html

Also you may want to look into a image databasing program to help you
keep all the images in an ordered fashion. I used Canto Cumulus
(http://www.canto.com) back in 1997 but there may be better products
available now. The cool features of Canto Cumulus is that there you
can use the client versions to view the images over your network. (if
applicable)

Hope this helps add to the tips...