Norcom. e-fileplan Electronic Cabinet System

Transcription

1 Norcom e-fileplan Electronic Cabinet System Revision 2.0 \ Phone: (866) sales@norcom-inc.com

2 e-fileplan Overview e-fileplan is an electronic filing cabinet and document imaging system. e-fileplan provides you with the tools you need to take control and manage your paper and other electronic documents. Managing large amount of paper document can be a very challenging and time consuming problem. e-fileplan is a state-of-the-art document imaging system and Web-based publishing system. The system will allow you to create and manage your own custom electronic document imaging applications. You know that a misfiled paper documents can be forever lost. You increase your chance of having the document misfiled or damaged every time the document is touched. A document imaging system can provide you with these key benefits: Save storage space Save time in searching for the documents Safely make documents available anytime to anyone you grant access to, even globally on the Internet Save cost of duplicating the documents and mailing it Have multiple backup copies of the documents e-fileplan features a fast scaleable document scanning system that is capable of handling a few scans per day to thousands of documents per day. Document retrieval and image display can be performed on the traditional Windows workstations or from the Web Browsers. This means the documents can be available to users in your organization or across the Internet. In the past the cost of implementing a needed document imaging system has been very high. The costs not only included hardware, software, and setup of complex systems but also ongoing system administration and modifications/upgrades to the system. The costs are even higher if the documents are to be published on the Internet. e-fileplan was designed to reduce all these costs and bring the much needed document imaging system down to a very cost-effective level. e-fileplan will allow you to take control of your document management in ways you never thought possible. There isn t a better value for a full-featured document imaging and publishing system. Key Features Here are on some of the key features of e-fileplan: User Customizable -You can easily create custom document imaging systems to satisfy your needs. Some example may include inventory tracking, shipping and receiving, registration forms, maintenance and service tracking, human resource records, and contract documents. As you start using e-fileplan, you will begin to realize the benefits and usage you may not

3 even have thought of. Modifications to the applications you developed are just as easy as creating the system. As a time saving feature, the system allows you to use the templates provided by the e-fileplan or use templates of the imaging systems you have created. Open Architecture System - e-fileplan allows you to implement a wide variety of configurations, from a standalone system to multiple scan and view stations located through out your network and even across the Internet. For the Web Server option, the server runs on Windows 2000/XP/2003 systems. The data retrieval and image-viewing clients can run on Windows systems or Web Browsers. Proven Reliability - The Norcom imaging systems have proven their ease of use, scalability, and reliability by usage at sites that have no computer support (the users are managing the system), large military installations, and customers that must have the absolute reliability such as the Air Force Flight Test programs. Low Training and Administrative Overhead - The document retrieval and image display functions are designed to be used by users on the Internet with no training needed. The document scanning and database creation function is very intuitive and can be learn in a few hours. The system administration functions can to be performed by the users or computer staff. Utilizes Standard Components - This includes every component such as servers, PC s, scanners, CD/DVD drives, and printers. You are not tied into a single vendor system freeing you to upgrade your system capacity or take advantage of new technology developments.

4 Comparison Chart The chart below provides a comparison of the proprietary document imaging systems with e-fileplan s open architecture system. The bullets in the proprietary document imaging systems are not necessarily descriptions of any particular system, but rather general characteristics of proprietary systems. This chart will help you in the evaluation of the different available imaging systems on the market. Image View Workstation Server Proprietary Document Imaging Systems May not provide a Web Browser solution at all. Requires software to be installed on every workstation to view the data and images. A Web Browser solution may provide poor image viewing quality and very little or no image viewing functions such as scale to gray (this feature significantly improve the scanned images from a FAX type quality to easily readable on screen viewing), zooming, rotating, etc. A Web Browser solution may require a plug-in. The advantages and disadvantages of a Browser Plug-in solution are listed below. ADVANTAGES Plug-ins generally provides more features than a Java Applet. The plug-ins needs to be downloaded and installed once. Plug-ins will run faster than a Java Applet. DISADVANTAGES Plug-ins are usually large (1 MB or more) and would not be effective if the workstations connections are slow such as a dialup connection. Plug-ins will only support a specific operating system such as Windows NT/2000/XP. Plug-ins requires every user to run an installation program which, as with any other installation program, may cause problems or conflicts. Usually requires proprietary hardware or the entire system must be purchased from the manufacturer. The required database engine may be very complex and require significant overhead just to manage the database. The server may actually be an old program utilizing a gateway utility for Web access. This type of system is potentially more complex to implement Norcom e-fileplan Data retrieval can be performed from Windows NT/2000/XP workstations or from a Web Browser. A Windows-based view stations with the e-fileplan client software installed provides more functionality. A workstation running just a Web Browser provides less functionality but requires no software installation. A Web Browser workstation supports all standard Web Browser using pure HTML or combination of HTML and Java. The advantages and disadvantages are listed below: ADVANTAGES No software installation required. Support standard Web Browser on multiple operating systems. The imaging viewing utilizes standard Java Applet providing high quality image viewing functions such as scale to gray, zooming, rotating, and navigation to specific pages. DISADVANTAGES The Java Applet (about 140 KB) must be transmitted from the server to the Browser for every new connection. Subsequent documents image viewing during the same session would use the same Applet. Java Applet is inherently slower than a Browser plug-in once the plug-in is initially downloaded and installed. Utilizes standard off-the-shelf hardware. You are not tied to any particular hardware from a particular manufacturer. As a service, we also offer complete turn-key packages. The hardware and software are off-the-shelf systems that you can purchase and upgrade as needed and utilize for other purpose. Compatible with the major web servers on the market. This allows you to select a web

5 Custom Application Creation System Configuration Scanner Proprietary Document Imaging Systems Norcom e-fileplan and maintain. server software utilize your existing web High initial implementation cost. server. High cost for upgrade and maintenance. Supports industry standard SQL database User can not readily take advantage new engines using standard API function calls. industry development (new products and Very cost-effective initial implementation price drops). and future upgrades. The entire imaging system is designed to require very little overhead to administer. Very hard to learn and use and you may find out when it s too late! Very time consuming to create and modify custom applications. May not support true customization. For example, the system may actually use a predefined number of fields and data types such as 15 text fields, 10 number fields, 5 date fields. So if you only need 3 text fields and 2 number fields you end up wasting a lot of space. If you need more than 5 date fields the system will not allow you to have it. May not support options to run standalone and in a network. You may have to pick between implementing a standalone or large systems and may not be able accommodate growth. You may be tied to a limited configuration that the manufacturer offers. May support only a few scanners made by the manufacturer. Depending on the scanners supported, maintenance cost may be high. Very intuitive to use. The system provides templates for common custom applications as a starting point. You can create a custom application literally within minutes. You can use applications you have created as templates for other applications. Modification to applications you create is just as quick and intuitive as creating the applications. Scanning and retrieval can be run from Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP systems. Retrieval can also be run from standard Web Browsers. Option to implement a single standalone workstation to perform the scanning, retrieval, and archive CD storage functions. Allow implementation of distributed network imaging environment which can include multiple scan stations, retrieval stations, Web Browsers, and archive CD storage. You have tremendous flexibility on how you can implement your imaging system and allow for future growth. Supports users across the corporate Intranet and Internet. Supports most industry standard document scanners. Scanners can be used for other applications.

6 Optical Storage User Interface Proprietary Document Imaging Systems Norcom e-fileplan May use proprietary optical storage drives. Creating additional or backup optical disks may be difficult or not available. Only one copy of the images is available with no recourse for recovery if the optical disk becomes corrupted or damaged. New optical drives may not be compatible with existing optical disks. Drives can become obsolete and expensive to maintain. May not be intuitive to use and you may find out about it when it s too late. Uses inexpensive standard CD/DVD drives. Supports the CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RW and proprietary optical storage drives. Supports CD/DVD Towers. Images can also be viewed on existing standard CD/DVD drives on the PCs. A CD-R disk can store 15,000 to 20,000 pages. Users can easily create multiple copies of the CD/DVD during the initial writing or any time from another CD/DVD if needed. The CD/DVD writer drive can be used for other applications. Intuitive and efficient Microsoft Windows Graphical User Interface for the scanning and retrieval functions. Users can retrieve data and images using a Web Browser. Data Format The image format may be in proprietary format which can only be read by the manufacturer s program. Image export utilities are often limited or not available. You may be stuck with data that can only be read by the manufacturer s program. The images are stored in standard TIFF of PDF format. Most third-party programs supporting the TIFF format (MS Word, MS PowerPoint, etc) or PDF can read the images. Export utilities available to export the index data and images.

7 Technical Specifications This section provides the e-fileplan technical specifications. e-fileplan e-fileplan is designed to meet a dynamic document imaging system with built-in querying and image display utilities allowing you to quickly develop and modify systems to satisfy your requirements. Document Scanning Flexible document scanning options. Supports batch scanning mode and single document scanning mode. Supports workflow implementation. Documents may be scanned into different folders by different organizational sections on the network and quality checked and filed by one or more quality control sections. Support document barcode document separator sheets. The each barcode can specify the directory and filename for the scanned document. Provides utility to add, delete, and replace pages from the documents. Supports user-definable archival periods with customs expiration dates. A default archival period can be specified and document scanners can override the archival period at the time of filing. The expiration date is used for purging expired documents from the system. The images in each archival period can be written to CD separately. Typical archival periods might include: none documents do not have an expiration date and should be kept forever short-term documents with a short expiration period such as 2 years mid-term - documents with an expiration period such as 5 years long-term - documents with a long expiration period such as 7 years Provides automatic stamp for the username of the document scanner, scan date, document modifier, and modify date. Provides image pre-view utility of scanned documents. The utility allows image rotation, scrolling, and mouse selectable zooming of any image area. Provides software scanner setting utility including brightness control, image resolution (200, 300 DPI, etc.), and page size. Each document index record can have more than scanned document associated with it. The scanned documents can be organized in hierarchical sub-folder structure. In addition to scanned documents, e-fileplan support filing and retrieval of any valid data file such as Word, PDF, Excel, etc. Document Retrieval Supports query of scanned document data by any combination of fields and wild card characters. Sample queries include:

8 Query Value Sample Meaning Smith All last name of Smith. S* All last name beginning with S S*m All last name beginning with S and end with m < H All last name beginning with A-G between 18 and 21 All ages between 18 and 21 >= 01/01/2000 All employees hired on or after Jan. 01, 2000 By using combinations of field values and wild cards you can make very complex queries to provide information such as All employees with last name beginning with S between the ages of 18 and 20 hired after Jan.01, The query field values used would be: Last Name: S* Age: between 18 and 21 Hire Date: >= 01/01/2000 The system automatically searches for the document image in the image directories and network mounted CD/DVD drives. If the image is not found, the system identifies the volume name of the CD/DVD and prompts the user to mount CD/DVD volume. Powerful imaging viewing utility allows image rotation, scrolling, and mouse selectable zooming of any image area. Provides thumbnail preview of document pages. Print images and data to local or networked printers. Image Format Supports most industry standard scanners. Uses industry standard TIFF or PDF format for image storage. Image storage compatible with CD-R, CD-RW, and DVD-RW Drives. Image retrieval compatible with CD, DVD, and CD/DVD Tower. Data Export Supports data export for the index fields and pointer to the scanned document in XML or pipe delimited format. Custom program can be developed by the end-user or Norcom to further modify the exported data. System Security System provides the following levels of security: Manager - Perform all administrative functions such as add users, delete users, change passwords, modify security level assignments, and modify system parameters. Creator Create new database applications.

9 DBA Perform database administration such as modify application layout and design, database optimization and repair. File - Allow document scanning and filing. Scan - Allow batch scanning of document for subsequent quality check and filing. Read - Allows retrieval of document data and viewing of document images. Data Types The system currently supports the following data types: Type Description Character Text string Integer Integer numbers in the range of 2,147,483,648 and 2,147,483,648 Float Floating point number in the range of +/ and +/ Supports specification of the number of digits after the decimal point. Date Stored as YYYY-MM-DD format. May be entered or query using Other valid date format such as 18-Oct-2008, 10/18/08, 10/18/2008, Today, , etc. Display Types The system currently supports creation of the following types: Type Text Text Box DropDown List Check Box Description Single line text field with definable number of characters Can be used for characters, integer, float, and Date data types. Multiple line text field with automatic scroll bar used for Large character fields. Text field with definable drop down list of values users can select from. Can be used for characters, integer, float, and Date data types. Selectable box used to specify Yes/No type data.