Network Scanning

“We live in a connected world”. It’s a simple phrase, but means so much.

Nowadays most of us take for granted things like cell phones, blackberries,
PDA’s, bluetooth, pagers and so on. All these communication devices are
examples of being “connected” all the time, however this wasn’t always the case.

Not all too long ago we lived in a very disconnected world in comparison to the
technology available now, in 2007. With the dramatic adoption of the Internet
over the past decade, more people than ever are connected via their home
computers with Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Cable modem or even broadband
wireless. According to Gartner, the number of households with broadband
connections will double between 2005-2010. The rate of business connectivity is
much of the same, just on a much grander scale with greater bandwidth and a
higher level of service guarantees.

With this rapid growth of computers and servers connected with high speed
networking, the natural next step was to connect peripherals. One of the most
prevalent examples of a connected peripheral in an office environment would be
a laser printer. There are many advantages to having a networked printer
including sharing among groups of users because the volume of printing for each
user did not dictate a dedicated printer. Network printers are fairly common
these days, however a new, emerging trend is to use network connectivity to
INPUT information into computer systems via a scanner instead of OUTPUT via
a printer.

Networking Scanning enters the connected world

Network Scanning is the concept of taking a scanner engineered specifically
with mission critical scanning considerations including paper handling, image
quality or advanced multifeed technology then connecting them to a directly to a
network without the need for a computer system physically connected to the
scanner.

These advanced scanning solutions, however, should not be confused with
digital copiers or multifunction devices that most of us are familiar with. While
these sort of devices are handy for extremely low-volume scanning requirements
most of these devices lack either the physical attributes or true integration
desired to effectively use them in the connected business world. As an example,
when performing automated forms processing with advanced data extraction
techniques such as Optical Character Recognition, or OCR, good image quality
and excellent paper handling provided by a dedicated network scanners could
dramatically increase the automation process and decrease human intervention.
This clearly increase efficiency, reduces costs and improves customer service.

Ways to use Networking Scanning

Basic connectivity is most basic of direct network attach solutions for a
scanner. This simply means that a scanner can be used as a network device
and the scanner appears as a local device on the network, or as I like to refer to
it “extends network connectivity”. This is the least expensive, yet most restrictive
option. Ideal for ease of use and cost effective however deficient on flexibility for
true integration.

Biometric connectivity is the ability to attach a scanner directly to the network
exactly as in the Basic connectivity scenario however incorporates much more
intelligence into the scanning process. For example, with a biometric scanning
solution users could simply walk up to a supported scanner, put their documents
in the scanner, put thumbprint on or hover their palm over a biometric device
then initiate scanning of the documents based on pre-configured profiles,
destinations and/or applications.

‘Push-Scanning’ refers to a scenario where the scanners operator walks up to a
scanner, drops the documents into the automatic document feeder or places
them on the flatbed then initiates the scanning process to send, or push, the
images to the desires location on the computer network. This could possible be
a “watch folder” for high-volume OCR processing for example, or this could be a
shared network drive of even he scan operators’ own personal computer.

‘Pull-Scanning’ is a term typically used when a scanner operator controls the
scanner to connect to a device, scan images and transmit, or pull, these images
from the scanner to a certain location. The ability to pull these images can be
achieved in many different ways these days and some of the most common ways
are to scan via a web browser. In other words, the user would either enter the
name of the device and would have the ability to scan images and send them to
the destination of their choice.

ECM Scanning. Enterprise Content Management, or ECM, scanning takes one
or more of the above Network Scanning concepts however adds an additional
powerful layer of functionality. ECM scanning incorporates a network scanner
directly into a content management systems via software drivers and scanning
software. The document imaging industry has seen a dramatic focus on the
importance of document capture, for example. These are extremely focused
software packages that assist in the ability to extract important business data
from scanned documents.

ECM + Secure Scanning is the next logical step in the networked scanning,
connected world. Now that the benefits of document imaging have been proven
via Return on Investment, increased productivity or compliance reasons, more
than ever mission critical business data or highly confidential information resides
in a digital format and not on paper. It’s crucial to secure this sensitive
information during the entire lifecycle of the data. From the instant that the data
is scanned, when it’s hosted on the network until the time of it’s destruction, or
the end of the retention period.


What could be the future of Network Scanning

Now that connecting persons and computer systems for personal and
business uses is nearly common-place, emerging technologies are being
introduced that will continue to stimulate connected systems. One of these
emerging methods being utilized by Information Technology (IT) departments is
called “Service Orientated Architecture”, or (SOA). SOA is a way to create new
business applications by re-using or better utilizing current technical assets within
the organization. Connected systems played a major role in developing the SOA
model with industry standards such as HTML, XML and Web Services. In a
nutshell, SOA is a way to add functionality and features to a computer networks
without the downside risk of closed or proprietary systems.

SOA plays an important role for Network Scanning in particular. While the
conceptual design of SOA can be applied in traditional scanning configurations
with a dedicated computer controlling the scanners operation, there are a few
important considerations that make a Network Scanner quite appealing to
network administrators, Chief Intelligence Officers and even users alike. These
important considerations include system security, updates/patches and ease of
use just to name a few. From a Network Administrators point of view, the SOA
Network Scanner allows them to deploy network scanners in a controlled fashion
making future firmware/software updates much easier. System Administrators
could ship one integrated device, or a scanner plus a network connectivity
device, directly to any location where they would like to deploy scanning. Once
the physical hardware is received the user could simply plug the network cable
into the hardware and one could theoretical be scanning in minutes. This
eliminates the costly and time-consuming tasks such as updates operating
systems with patches or installing new software when versions change. In
addition the Network Administrator would be able to diagnose any technical
issues or view usage reports easily from one intuitive interface.

CIO’s, or Chief Information Officers, should seriously consider a Network
Scanning SOA approach from the perceptive of compliance, security and
regulation. A scanner attached directly to a network via SOA architecture gives
the organization the ability to provide activity reports based on the individual
device, for example, which could play a major role for Sarbanes-Oxley regulation.
Lastly, ease of use for the scanner operator plays a major role in that is
driving the adoption of network scanning within the SOA infrastructure. In fact,
should a corporation wish to use the Pull Scanning technique, they can build a
system that could virtually eliminate the need for any sort of users intervention
whatsoever. Imagine the power of this total SOA/Network Scanning approach.
Let’s use a Customer Service example to illustrate just some of the benefits.

In our example, the Customer Service scanning deployment will be to many
remote site locations. Our IT department benefits from the fact that they would
avoid building a computer system to act as the connectivity/scanning device; we
simply ship the hardware to the remote site and they plug it into the network.
Then, for Pull Scanning, all the user would have to do is physically place the
items to be scanned on the scanner itself and someone in a completely different
part of the connected world could initiate scanning and receive all of the scanned
images.


The opportunity of Network Scanning

While Network Scanning is quickly becoming the buzz among the industry,
there still are certain technical deficiencies that will need to be addressed with
some of these devices in order to be considered part of a true IT integration.

As the connected world continues to improve infrastructure and new,
innovative ways to communicate emerge, the industry trend towards more
Network Scanning should continue. For example, organizations most likely will
move forward on plans for additional remote location “Telecommuting” of
individual workers and satellite office locations. Couple factors that include ease
of use, simplified IT management of hardware and software resources and
additional adherence to compliance and regulation standards and the future of
Network Scanning seems bright.