Workflow

Kodak partner gives away scanning software for Sharepoint users

Ron Miller — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:30:14 -0400

When you have a user base the size of SharePoint's, you are going to have people who want to come along for the ride. Millions of users can create business for you, and the partners who want a piece of the action, if you can build an ecosystem of tools that are appealing and move beyond the base system. Perhaps that's why Kodak is giving away free scanning software for SharePoint users through its partner Atalasoft, Inc. The free software works with the Kodak SCANMATE i1120, i1220, i1320 and i1420 scanners.

Chances are Atalasoft wants a bigger piece of the SharePoint/Kodak action and is luring customers with the free software in hopes they will become paying customers down the road. The pay version of the Vizit suite of products works directly in SharePoint in a browser. After scanning their documents, users can view, annotate and clean up scanned documents in SharePoint and create a scanned document repository.

According to the press release announcing the free software add-on, "Vizit Scan-to-SharePoint software allows users to configure shortcuts to commonly used document libraries to streamline workflow process saving minutes for each scanned document and to eliminate errors when identifying the file destination."

With a pool as large as SharePoint's, if even a minuscule percentage were to buy the pay version of the software, it could lead to a lot of new customers, and for Kodak it's just a nice goodwill gesture for its customers. It's a reasonable strategy, and further proof that giving away something valuable now, can be profitable later.

For more information:
- read the Kodak press release

Related Article:
Check out SharePoint

Fujitsu readies new network scanner

Ron Miller — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:06:14 -0400

Fujitsu announced this week that it will soon be unveiling the new fi-6010N iScanner. It says, the network scanner should aid in collaboration and enable companies to deliver scanned documents in multiple formats, across a global network. That means, you scan a document from anywhere and make it available to the entire company, regardless of the geographical location.

The scanner boasts a number of key features including the ability to scan directly to network faxes or printers, or even to an email. Users can also send the scanned document to a network folder or an FTP site, and companies concerned about the security of sending documents in this fashion have a number of security options including scanning to a password-protected PDF file. Companies can also tie into HTTPS, FTPS or LDAPS security protocols.

Administrators have complete control over scanning via a web-based administrative console to allow network administrators to assign scanning profiles to users or groups of users and deliver the latest software updates remotely. Companies that want to create business process workflows in conjunction with this scanner, can use the Software Development Kit (based on the Microsoft Windows development platform).

All in all, the fi-6010N iScanner looks to be a sophisticated networking scanning solution that can give a company complete control over the scanning process, while ensuring documents get distributed securely.

For more information:
- see the Fujitsu website

CMS glitch causes premature publication of Jobs' Obit

Ron Miller — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:09:27 -0400

Bloomberg, the financial news service, mistakenly published Apple CEO Steve Jobs' obituary last week, causing great embarrassment for the company. It likely happened when a staffer assigned to update the obit, clicked 'Save and Publish' instead of simply clicking 'Save.' This highly visible content management glitch highlights the need to put safeguards in place in your CMS to protect your staff from themselves.

Since we don't have access to the Bloomberg CMS, it's hard to know exactly what happened, but one thing is certain: the employee was assigned to update Jobs' obit, a common practice by major publications for famous individuals. There has been a lot of press lately regarding Jobs' health, and perhaps the publication thought it would be prudent to make sure the obituary was current. The person updating the story obviously had the right to publish directly to the site, a practice that Bloomberg may want to revisit. Meanwhile Jobs got to see his obituary, and learned that it wasn't all that flattering.

While Jobs may want to use this as a life lesson (a la, "A Christmas Carol"), Bloomberg may want to take the opportunity to analyze its workflow. When designing your CMS, you have to walk a fine line between not having it get in the way of employees doing their job and providing checkpoints to ensure mistakes like this one don't happen. While you can put gates in place, employees may still blow through them, but it's still worth the effort to ensure highly visible mistakes like this one don't come back to haunt your organization.

For more information:
- read the article

Pay attention to sharepoint electronic forms services

Ron Miller — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:51:25 -0400

CMS Watch suggested in a report released last week that companies using Sharepoint (and there clearly are a lot of you) should be taking advantage of the under-used forms service. CMS Watch, which is a vendor-neutral analysis firm concentrating on content issues, believes these forms, when used properly, can actually replace time-consuming and inefficient email-based processes. They recommend if you are using the Microsoft Office Sharepoint Service, aka MOSS, you should check out these forms. They are easy to create and incorporate into a simple workflow. The process still requires an administrator or developer--putting it into the hands of end users would be nice--but it does replace more complex Excel solutions for common enterprise tasks such as travel expenses.

For more information:
- here's a release on the report