I am looking to add to WIN XP network (12 workstations):

1. Ability to receive and send faxes from desktop to administrator who
will manage and archive digitally;
2. Software and hardware to start imaging on approximately 1300 75
page files; Files are accessed daily.

Hardware Vendor and Software?

---

Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 25 Nov 2005 07:52 PST

Can you expound on item 2?  What do you mean by "start imaging?"

Thanks,

jbf777

---

Clarification of Question by baybig-ga on 25 Nov 2005 16:18 PST

We are an insurance agency We have several file shelf banks containing
paper files for active customers and on any given month we receive new
business applications. By "start on" I mean we want to digitize all
active files and, once done, to access/handle files from digital and
not paper copies. We are drowning in paper.

Needless to say, we need to retain policy and underwriting documents
to meet legal requirements. Computer abilities of personnel vary from
expert to novice. Likewise incoming and outgoing faxes need to be
retained as evidence of receipt of apps and confirmations of binding
of insurance coverage.

---

Request for Question Clarification by welte-ga on 27 Nov 2005 07:04 PST

Hi baybig-ga, Do you have a price limit in mind?  How quickly do you
need to digitize the 1300 x 75 pages?

     -welte-ga

---

Clarification of Question by baybig-ga on 27 Nov 2005 09:45 PST

Hardware venddors have quoted $8K to $18K; I question the need to
spend this much, although I am not adverse to spending for appropriate
high quality. Another informally queried expert on paperless offices
said in the range of $2K to $3K. Reliability and quality of service
are paramount;

As to implementation, we are not going to plunge into this because of
the legal record keeping requirements and the unevenness of staff
spohistication. Little steps for little feet. We do have acces to a
world class system administrator -- who is 3,000 miles away. Microsoft
certified, runs large universety web site and had independent IT
consulting business.

---

Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 28 Nov 2005 09:08 PST

Hello -

Thank you for the clarification.

Can you explain how your office is or will be configured for faxing?  For example:

Do you have one central fax machine with one central fax number?  Or
do you have several fax machines, perhaps at each workstation?  Or do
you not have any faxing capability right now, and want each
workstation to be able to receive faxes at their own workstations,
from one central phone number, where they will in turn forward faxes
on to the administrator?  Will outbound faxing be happening at each
workstation, or will they all transfer outbound faxes to a central fax
machine?

Thanks,

jbf777

---

Clarification of Question by baybig-ga on 28 Nov 2005 09:29 PST

We currently have one physical fax machine for all incoming and
outgoing faxes. No ability to store images -- i.e. an ordinary laser
fax machine. THe desired revised configuration will be to forward fax
to a fax administrator who will send and store; and who will also
receive images of imcoming faxes, save copy in central server file and
forward copy to addressee by e-mail or by some other means.

Hello -

Thank you for your question.

For the first part of your query, I would suggest replacing your fax
machine with a computer (on your network) installed with a fax modem. 
You can then opt to use a fax server software package such as GFI
FAXMaker (in use by companies such as Microsoft, Mercedes Benz, and
Volkswagen).  This software will "Fax-enable" your network using your
existing email setup, and give you the exact revised configuration
you're seeking.  It's touted as zero-maintenance, and is $700 for 25
users.  See:

http://www.gfi.com/faxmaker/

Feature set is here:
http://www.gfi.com/faxmaker/faxfeatures.htm
(additional archiving capability may require purchase of another one
of there software modules -- Archive

Other fax software offerings:

Goldfax
http://www.goldfax.com

ZetaFax - $695
http://www.deksoftware.com/zetafax.htm

Biscom is another company offering very high-end faxing network
software and hardware ($3k+):

Biscom
http://www.biscom.com/products_solutions/network_fax.htm?gclid=CJrB_Yu-1YECFQRGGgodP1SWMQ

For a more budget-minded solution, it's always possible to do simple
outbound and inbound faxing with a fax modem and standard
shareware/freeware or <$100 fax software.  The archiving and workflow
management can be handled with your document management software
package (discussed below), if you plan on installing this for your
office.  (You'd simply store your incoming faxes as PDF's, and add
them to the database.  Outgoing faxes are scanned using your scanner,
and saved in digital format on your system, ready to be archived
before/after sending.)

Pages of shareware/freeware/inexpensive fax software lists are here:
http://shareware.pcmag.com/category.php%5Bid%5D105%5BSiteID%5Dpcmag

Something as simple as SnappyFax by Snappy Software may fit the bill:
(http://www.snappysoftware.com/snappyfax/features.htm)



Another, increasingly more popular option, is to remove the fax setup
entirely from your office, and use an outside fax service, such as
eFax, MyFax or jConnect.  For a monthly fee and/or pennies per fax,
these services will automatically convert all incoming faxes to PDF
and email them to you, and automatically send out faxes via emails you
send to it (which are scanned in using a scanner on your network,
discussed below).  This outsourced solution eliminates busy signals
and any potential hardware/softwrae headaches.

eFax
http://www.efax.com

MyFax
http://www.myfax.com

jConnect
http://www.j2.com/jconnect/twa/page/faxServices


There are several other services such as this (simply search Google
with "efax" or "internet fax")

With regard to the second portion or your query, I spoke with a
company called Kofax, a market leading manufacturer of software for
document capture and processing, who counts hundreds of the largest
companies in the world as their clients.  They sell a program called
Ascent Capture, which, for $995, will entitle you to a 5,000
image-scan/month license.  The 25,000-image license goes for $3300. 
It handles the entire capturing, optical character recognition, and
metadata indexing of your documents at a very professional level.  The
database/archiving/document managmeent portion will be handled by
another piece of software (options for which are discussed below).

Contact:

  Kofax
  http://www.kofax.com/products/ascent/capture/index.asp
  16245 Laguna Canyon Road
  Irvine, CA 92618-3603
  Phone: 949-727-1733
  Email: info@kofax.com

Hundreds of scanners are officially supported by Kofax to interface
with their software.  You can use their Scanner Configurator to see
available models:

http://scadmin.kofax.com/KCSearch/Search.aspx

Transform Magazine cites the Xerox DocuMate 262 as one of the
latest-in-class values for higher speed scanners.  The 262 is a 66
page-per-minute sheetfed scanner, available at a sub-$1000 price
point.  Vendors offering the product are here:

http://froogle.google.com/froogle_cluster?q=documate+262&pid=4834532080208795412&oid=625873490539825313&btnG=Search+Froogle&lmode=&addr=&scoring=p&hl=en

Xerox's home page on the product is here:

http://www.xeroxscanners.com/default.asp?pageid=128

It is listed as being compatible with the Ascent software above. 
(While this scanner does have one-touch OCR and PDF conversion
capability, any use of it beyond pure scanning may or may not be
appropriate in a situation requiring thousands of scans.)

Some of the latest scanners are at this Transform Magazine article link:
http://www.transformmag.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=53200355


To effectively manage and archive your library of documents, it's
necessary to purchase a document management software package. 
BuyerZone is a website that allows you to enter in specific criteria
to search for document management software from several vendors. 
Check out:

http://www.buyerzone.com/software/doc_man_software/qz_questions_839.jhtml?_requestid=24358

Additionally, I spoke with a few notable vendors in this space:

Hummingbird DM - Products used by 90% of Fortune 100 companies
http://www.hummingbird.com
Price is per seat/workstation; for 12 users, under $12,000 
(specific price given directly to you)
Contact: 877-425-6245x6323 (Patrick)
Recommends for Kofax for integration.

DocumentLocator - used by Texas State Bank, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, NetFlix, etc.
http://www.documentlocator.com/
Contact: 503-892-3972 (Chris) / 800-298-1172
Price is "per seat" and is $11,760 for 12 users.  Extra $1200 for
run-time SQL, if you don't have it.

DocuXplorer - used by CitiMortgage, Intuit, Johns Hopkins, Wells Fargo, etc. 
http://www.docuxplorer.com
Contact: 212-496-9871 - Ira Fogel
Price is "per simultaneous user"; at 5 simultaneous seats: $6457 +
$500 import option ($12,460K for 10 users) -- they say 5 is typically
enough for 12 workstations.
Their software works with Kofax Ascent, but they also have "DX
Capture" for $3000, a competitive alternative offering unlimited
number of captures.

Other vendors to look at include:

Laserfiche
http://www.laserfiche.com/

Captiva
http://www.captivasoftware.com/index.asp

Documentum
http://www.documentum.com/

Co-Star by Keynet (also has inbound/outbound fax-management capbilities)
http://keynetinc.com/

TokOpen from Tokairo
http://www.tokopen.com/document-management-workflow-solution.htm



I discuss two lower priced options in a previous Google Answer; these
are lower end, ~$2K budget solutions, and may or may not efficiently
handle the volume you're requiring (i.e., possibly slow down when
dealing with tens of thousands of documents):

Nuance PaperPort Professional
http://www.nuance.com/paperport/professional/

SentryFile - Corporate edition 
http://www.sentryfile.com/index.cfm?index=PRODUCT/HOME

  There's a downloadable demo of it available:
  http://www.sentryfile.com/index.cfm?index=TRYANDBUY/HOME
  Purchase it for $1995 from here:
  E. Accufile, Inc.
  Glen Macpherson
  270-268-1656




If you anticipate low-volume conversion of documents in the long term,
but have a high-volume upfront requirement, a possible option to
contemplate may be to hire an outside document-conversion service to
provide you with a one-time bulk conversion of your existing
documents.  This would obviate the need to purchase equipment for the
job, pay staff to man the equipment, and alleviate any possibility of
technical angst encountered with setting up an in-house scanning
solution.  It would arguably be the fastest, turnkey solution,
supplying you with a point-and-shoot disc containing all your data,
scanned, catalogued, and ready to go, to your specifications.

There are several companies on the net that do document conversion,
and one such company I contacted (and also suggested in the previous
Google Answer mentioned above) is Golden Images, LLC; they estimate
somewhere in the neighborhood of $.10-$.12/page for a full-service job
-- disassembling documents as needed, reassembling them once scanned,
indexing, etc.  This company's rates are very competitive.  Contact:

  Golden Images, LLC
  http://www.pdfdocument.com/
  1680 Trinity Circle
  Arnold, Missouri 63010
  Phone: 636.375.9999
  Email: stan@pdfdocument.com


Document Scanning Companies of America lists companies that do these
services by state:
http://www.docuscanamerica.com/index.htm#rhodeisland

Business.com also has a listing
http://www.business.com/directory/management/operations_management/business_support_services/data_and_word_processing/document_scanning/


If you need any additional clarification, please don't hesitate to ask.

Thank you,

jbf777


Select search strategy:
  Terms: affordable data conversion
         fax software pdf
         document management software pdf
  (made several phone calls)

---

Request for Answer Clarification by baybig-ga on 02 Dec 2005 09:08 PST

First -- I indicated a $25 tip for your excellent response. As I do
not see it anywhere, I am not sure you got it. Bear with me, this is
the first time i have used Google answer and it is unclear to me how
payment is made to you. This will be the last question.

We have purchased the faxing software, thus limiting the required
functionality ot the hardware to scanning only, per the following
specs:

We need a scanner that functions just like the high-end copiers:

Program scanner with FTP/network share information 
Insert document 
Self-feed the 100+ page document, scanning each page 
Convert to PDF 
Dump in network share with generic file name including date stamp and
sequence number
 

Price is not important, but it does need to be compact, have a 10/100
ethernet interface, and operate in the fashion above.

IMPORTANT: NO SOFTWARE IN BETWEEN

---

Clarification of Answer by jbf777-ga on 02 Dec 2005 12:55 PST

Hello baybig -

Ricoh makes the IS200e, which a representative has informed me to have
the functionality you're seeking.  See:

http://www.ricoh-usa.com/products/product_features.asp?pCategoryId=25&pSubCategoryId=37&pProductId=266&pCatName=Printers&pSubCatName=Printer+Options&pProductName=IS200e&tsn=Ricoh-USA

Also, the alternative IS300e is a scanner offering which connects as a
peripheral to an existing laser printer:

http://www.ricoh-usa.com/products/product_features.asp?pCategoryId=25&pSubCategoryId=37&pProductId=237&pCatName=Printers&pSubCatName=Printer+Options&pProductName=IS300e&tsn=Ricoh-USA


See Froogle.com for the latest pricing:

IS200e
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?hl=en&btnG=Search+Froogle&scoring=p&q=ricoh+is200e&lmode=online&price1=1,400.00&price2=3,000.00&lnk=prsugg

IS300e
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?hl=en&btnG=Search+Froogle&price1=2,000.00&price2=3,000.00&q=ricoh+is300e&lmode=online&scoring=p

---

Clarification of Answer by jbf777-ga on 02 Dec 2005 12:57 PST

Also with regards to the tip, I very much appreciate it (I left a
comment for you at the bottom of the screen in the comments section). 
You can see the $25 tip amount that you added in the purple-colored
rating strip just above that comment section.

Thanks again,

jbf777

Exceptionally strong answer. I will need a few days to digest this and
I may ask additional questions. THank you very much for the
thoroughness of this response.

I think you need  'scan file to pc' function.

Some copy machine can scan paper file to every PC via network in
office.Then every desktop could transfer e-files to administrator via
Mail daily.

Sure,every user could also use it directly scan file to administrator's PC.

To Buy a copy machine which has network scan function is the best choice.

FYI
http://www.xerox.com/go/xrx/portal/STServlet?projectID=ST_DC240_250_DFE&pageID=DC240_250_DFE&Xcntry=USA&Xlang=en_US

baybig -

Thank you very much for the kind words, rating, and tip!  Please stop by again.

jbf777