CPA TechDay Digital Copiers and Scanners

1. CPA TechDayDigital Copiers and Scanners

2. Information is doubling every 2.5 years (Gartner) Pages per employee is increasing at 10% per year (Gartner) Organizations now maintain 30 times more data than in 1999 (Gartner) The U.S. annually spends $25-35B filing, storing and retrieving paper. (IDC) The number of pages consumed in the U.S. offices is going up at the rate of 20% per year. Dollar cost of a document, as a percentage of total company revenue, ranges for 6-14%. (All Associates) “The Cost of Paper” Adapted from Doculex, Inc. “Why Electronic Document Management?”www.doculex.com

3. 75% of the cost of a document is in management and logistics (All Associates) Typical office workers spend 40% of their time looking for information. Professionals spend over 500 hours annually reviewing and routing files, and another 150 hours looking for incorrectly filed documents. The average document is copied 9 times (Gartner) It is estimated that 80% of information is still retained on paper even though more than 80% of the documents we work with are already in a computer somewhere. (CAP Venture Group) “The Cost of Paper” (cont’d) Adapted from Doculex, Inc. “Why Electronic Document Management?”www.doculex.com

4. The Cost of Handling Paper • A survey published by www.futurelawoffice.com with regard to a modern law office shows: • 70% of time is spent processing paper • 90% of documents are paper • 7.5% of documents are lost • 15% of documents are misplaced • 30% of documents contain obsolete information • One four drawer file cabinet holds 15K-20K of pages, costs $25,000 to fill and costs $2,000 per year to maintain Adapted from Doculex, Inc. “Why Electronic Document Management?”www.doculex.com

5. Essentials for a Paperless Office • Scanner • Desk-top • Network • Multi-functional Product • Software • Procedures • Data • Personnel

6. Objectives of this presentation: • Review of types of scanner devices • Explanation of specific features and functions to evaluate • Review of scanning equipment • Review of "intelligent scanning" software tools to streamline your scanning and data entry processes • Alternative scanning operation strategies • Best practices for optimizing your scanning operation

7. Types of Scanner Devices

8. Types of Scanners • Desktop Scanners • USB connection to single computer • Document Feeder – dual scanning • Flatbed option • Portable • Network Scanners • Connect to network • Multifunctional Product • Connect to network • RADF or Dual Scan Document Processor

9. Desk-Top Scanners • Sheet-feed Scanners • Dedicated workstation vs. decentralized scanners • Readily handles various sizes of paper • USB connection to individual workstation • Volume matched to speed • Workgroup - < 50 ppm • Departmental - 51 – 100 ppm • Production - 100+ ppm • Simplex / Duplex scanning speeds • Bundled with OCR software

10. Network Scanners • Network Scanners • Direct connection to network • Example: Fujitsu fi-6010n – 25 ppm (simplex)/ 50 ipm (duplex) • Network Adaptor • Use in conjunction with Fujitsu scanners to connect to a network • Share USB scanners on a network

11. Multi-functional Products • Range of scanning speed • Selectable resolution • Simplex or duplex scanning from the platen or the RADF or Dual Scan Document Processor • Capacity of Document Processor • Monthly duty cycle • Network device

12. Scanning Methods

13. Push vs. Pull Scanning Pull Scanning • Traditionally done on dedicated scanning devices. • Documents are scanned using TWAIN or ISIS drivers, or proprietary software application. • Push Scanning • Typically done with multi-functional products and network scanners. • Utilizes system utilities to deliver scanned documents to a desired destination.

14. PUSH Multi-functional Products and Network Scanners • Scan to PC • Scans are delivered to individual computer or destinations on the network • Folders are preset • PDF can be subjected to OCR immediately or at a later time

15. PULL Desk-Top Scanners • Control scanning process at the workstation • Create Job Profiles for ease of use • TWAIN Drivers • ISIS Drivers • Proprietary software such as RTIV – “Reliable Throughput Imaging Viewer” (Panasonic) and Kofax VRS “Virtual ReScan” – used to clean and optimize images

16. TWAIN Drivers “Technology Without An Interesting Name” A set of standards that regulates communication between software applications and imaging devices TWAIN compliant applications Send the correct commands to a scanner to determine file attributes Examples: Adobe Photoshop, Nuance Paperport

17. ISIS Drivers • An ISIS driver creates an interface between the scanner and other software, such as Adobe Acrobat Messenger or Adobe Acrobat Capture. • The ISIS technology, developed by Pixel Translations, lets applications communicate with scanners so they can view, compress, and convert image data into various formats. ISIS drivers perform functions similar to TWAIN drivers.

18. Optical Character Recognition OCR software packages • A set of standards that regulates communication between software applications and imaging devices • OCR converts characters in an image into a text document that can be read by a word processing program • Creates editable and searchable files • ABBYY FineReader is frequently bundled with scanner hardware

19. PUSH / PULL Factors to Consider When Selecting a Scanner • Types of Source Documents • Quantity of Source Documents • Who Is Using the Scanner? • Document Storage • Document Quality

20. Scanner Features and Functions

21. Scanner Features and Functions • Duplex Scanning • Mixed Documents & Multiple ID Card Feeding • Double-Feed Prevention Roller System • Easy Maintenance • Advanced Imaging • On-board Image Enhancement Technology • Automatic Application Launcher • Auto Erasure Security

22. Scanner Features and Functions • Auto Color / Monochrome Distinction • Blank Page Removal • Double Exposure • Smooth Backgrounds • Multi-Color Dropout • Multi-Stream • Auto Cropping / De-Skew • Dynamic Threshold

23. Auto Color / Monochrome Distinction No more need to pre-sort documents. This function automatically detects when a set of documents contains some color sheets and some monochrome (B/W) sheets. You can feed these together without sorting, and the machine will automatically compress the data efficiently according to whether a sheet is color or monochrome (B/W), so the electronic file size is minimized. This is a feature typically found only on high-end scanners.

24. Blank Page Removal You can convert only the desired pages into electronic form. When scanning a set of documents that contains both single-sided and double-sided sheets, this function automatically skips over the blank sides. It saves you time and trouble by eliminating the need to sort the sheets beforehand or remove the blank data after scanning. It also helps reduce wasted memory space in your computer.

25. Double Exposure Two-in-one convenience. Double Exposure automatically scans then saves two-sided documents into a single-page file. It is highly effective for documents printed on both sides, such as checks, stock certificates, post cards, and business cards.

26. Smooth Background No more fuzzy backgrounds. The Smooth Background function analyzes images while scanning for background color content, and outputs the images with the background color solidified. This increases viewing clarity and reduces JPEG output file size.

27. Multi-Color Dropout Convenient for OCR processing. Any of up to three specific color ranges on the document can be selected as a dropout color. This function, when used in form processing applications, can greatly improve OCR performance and accuracy, resulting in increased productivity and potential cost savings.

28. Multi-Stream Single pass for dual output. The MultistreamTM function enables a single scan to be saved as two separate formats simultaneously. For example the document will be saved in monochrome (B/W) for OCR and archival purposes, and saved as a full color image for short term on-screen retrieval.

29. Auto Cropping No more scan mistakes or time-consuming trimming. Different sized documents can be scanned each according to its own size. This raises work efficiency by preventing size setting mistakes and eliminating the need to later crop scans to the desired size.

30. De-Skew No need to make manual adjustments. When scanning documents of different sizes, any that are accidentally scanned at an angle are automatically corrected by de-skewing. This also boosts work efficiency by eliminating the need to worry about skewed pages while scanning.

31. Dynamic Threshold Excellent readability and accuracy. With the Dynamic Threshold function, the background density and color are automatically detected section by section, and the scan setting (brightness control) is automatically adjusted to ensure sharp scanning of both text and images.

32. Review of Scanning Practices

33. A complete document imaging system comprises five elements: • ScanningMajor advancements in scanning technology make paper document conversion fast, inexpensive, and easy. A good scanner will make putting paper files into your computer easy.  • StorageThe storage system provides long-term and reliable storage for documents. A good storage system will accommodate changing documents, growing volumes and advancing technology.  • IndexingThe index system creates an organized document filing system and makes future retrieval simple and efficient. A good indexing system will make existing procedures and systems more effective.  • RetrievalThe retrieval system uses information about the documents, including index and text, to find images stored in the system. A good retrieval system will make finding the right documents fast and easy. • AccessDocument viewing should be readily available to those who need it, with the flexibility to control access to system. A good access system will make documents viewable to authorized personnel, whether in the office, at different locations, or over the Internet.

34. Accounting Firms are doing one or more of these: Back-end scanning: one file or PDF for tax and a separate document for source documents. Mid-level scanning: scanning after tax preparation and digital review of return. Front-end scanning: scanning tax source documents at the front end of the process or prior to review. Utilize “intelligent” tax compliance software to capture information from OCR scanned data and insert into tax preparation software - Roman Kepczyk of InfoTech Partners North America, Inc. presentation at AICPA Practitioners Symposium 2009 Evolution of the Scanning Continuum

35. “Intelligent” Software • Examples of “Intelligent” Software include: • Copanion Gruntworx • Automatically identify, organize and label scanned tax forms into a PDF file. Extracts data from bookmarked documents and automatically imports data into tax preparation software. • SurePrep 1040 Scan • OCR product which recognizes documents and creates organized, bookmarked and referenced PDF.

36. “Intelligent” Software • Examples of “Intelligent” Software include: • Intuit Document eSort • Service which recognizes scanned tax documents and organizes them into a tax return-ready electronic file. • ThomsonReuters UltraTax CS & GoSystem RS • Provides workpaper organization and adds OCR capabilities. Enables automated population of client 1040 returns processed using the UltraTax CS professional preparation system.

37. Summary of Practices Survey • Survey conducted by Association for Accounting Administration • Objective: determine the status of paperless office practices in accounting firms in 2009 as compared to 2007 • Results summarized by Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP - published in Info Tech Partners North America Inc. (December 20, 2008)

38. Paperless Office Best Practices

39. Paperless Office Best Practices (cont)

40. Paperless Office Best Practices (cont)

41. Benefits of A Paperless Office • Reduce storage space requirements • Improve disaster recovery • Gain remote access to documents • Increase productivity • Ease of document sharing with clients • Ease of document sharing with staff

42. Thank you for your attendance. To request additional information on multi-functional products and document scanners, OCR software, document storage and retrieval systems, contact: Jan L. Sabran-Wolfert San Diego Digital Solutions (858) 486-5692 ext. 316 jan@sddigitalsolutions.com