Thanks to everyone for their continued support throughout 2011, a difficult year for many of us, so lets look forward to a better 2012.
This year we will continue with Demelza Children’s Hospice www.demelza.org.uk as our nominated charity and as I am now a trained volunteer with them I hope we can get even more involved this year.
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Last week I listened to a seminar about scanning to the cloud given by Fujitsu. It seems cloud computing is the next big thing and is only just taking off in a big way. The real advantages seem to be that there is no need for IT management. Even though at first we were totally unaware of the term cloud computing, at Technofile we have been offering this as part of our service for a number of years now, with our secure filing to the web service.
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Its just over a year since Amazon launched the kindle in the UK and its certainly become very popular, at Technofile we have helped a number of authors convert their books to digital format including the Kindle. Using both both rotary and overhead scanners with sophisticated page capture technology we are able to get very accurate results. If you are looking for guaranteed 100% accuracy we also offer a proofing service.
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Whilst the majority of our scanning is large volume office scanning, having specialist equipment also enables us to scan other projects such as fine art. This month we scanned several hundred drawings for Dan Hillier. You can see Dan's work at http://www.danhillier.com.
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Our nominated charity for this year Demelza Children’s Hospice www.demelza.org.uk is organising an exciting outdoor summer event of world-class music performances and entertainment.
Three separate and different events are to be staged over the course of the weekend of 24, 25 and 26 June 2011 offering a wide variety of entertainment provided by internationally renowned artists:
KATHERINE JENKINS - Fri 24th
MCFLY + SUGABABES - Sat 25th
FAMILY SUNDAY WITH STACEY SOLOMON, BJORN AGAIN, ABC- Sun 26th
If you happen to want to go to McFly & the Sugababes, you might meet up with me as an official program seller.
So if you fancy a fun day out in Kent visit the Demelza website for information on tickets.
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With 4 public holidays in the space of 2 weeks, as a result of, a late Easter, early May day and a Royal wedding, many people seem to be taking extended holidays at the moment and it does feel quieter on the roads. Fortunately, we have a large amount of student files to scan during the easter break which is keeping us busy. Perhaps more strangely we also seem to have a number of newspaper and magazine scanning jobs, I am not sure why, at this current time, but we are one of only a few companies that have specialist software for this type of scanning and use both state of the art rotary scanners and overhead scanners where papers and magazines cannot be unbound.
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This month, Pryers solicitors became the first customer to use our new X-ray scanner.
The quality of X-ray scans can be very important when it comes to litigation and I am pleased to say that our new scanner was a success: "I have received the disc of x-rays today. They have been scanned very well indeed".
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Last week I attended a "Capture Clinic", at the Fujitsu offices in Hayes. Run by Kofax, it was to show off the latest release of their scanning and capture 'VRS elite'.
Kofax provide the software that we use to enhance our scanning output, some benefits we saw included: Improved accuracy of character recognition (OCR and ICR) Lower document preparation time for certain documents and more auto recognition/auto adjustment for difficult documents. This should lead to even better quality output for many types of files, particularly those multi coloured and size papers held in the likes of NHS patient notes. www.kofax.com
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As we reach the last month of the year, I am currently stuck in my office at home due to the worst weather conditions I can remember in this part of the country for many years.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers for their continued support in 2010 and wish all our customers and visitors to this site a merry Christmas and a happy & prosperous new year.
As in previous years we will not be sending out christmas cards but will be donating the money we would have spent on cards to our nominated charity, Demelza Children’s Hospice based in South East London and Kent. www.demelza.org.uk.
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ZyLAB, our partner whose software suite we have a scanning licence for, have announced that key modules from its system were used by the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials/Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (UNAKRT/ECCC) to help achieve the first conviction of a major Khmer Rouge figure. The July 26, 2010, verdict against Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, convicted him of crimes against humanity, murder and torture. It is an historic first for a U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal, and other cases are still pending against Khmer Rouge leaders connected to the deaths of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979.
The United Nations have used Zylab's ediscovery module before in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and its prosecution of of Slobodan Milosovich. It's good to know that this software is being used by organisation's like the UN.
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The Records Management Society has changed its name to become the Information and Records Management Society.
This change took place after a vote of members to change the constitution using an online voting system in August. The result was overwhelmingly in favour of the change with 496 votes for and only 48 against.
Matthew Stephenson The RMS,(now IRMS) Chair, described it as one of the most important things ever to happen to the RMS. Whilst I will take some convincing that a name change can ever be that important, the RMS is an excellent organisation when it comes to helping and informing its members and I am sure things will continue that way as the IRMS.
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For many years now the quality of scanning software has been steadily improving both in terms of quality and compression. This gives you better looking images and more images per gigabyte.
We have now decided that greyscale rather than black and white is the best point to start as a standard. The mixture of document type and colour make this ideal for many mixed documents like medical records.
Recent scanning software has now alleviated many of the problems that previously scanning in Greyscale caused.
We will, of course, continue to carry out tests as some documents e.g. sales invoices are best scanned in black and white, text enhanced, with colour drop outs.
Where colour is needed we will continue to offer this service and where documents just require the occasional colour image, the latest software form the likes of Kofax that picks up and scans just the colour images can be particularly helpful www.Kofax.com.
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A client, who we set up a document scanning system for a couple of years ago called this week to say that they had encrypted some personnel files and had lost the password, could I please reset the password for them. As we had not set the password up in the first place there was unfortunately little I could do to help. This got me thinking about the importance of looking after your passwords particularly for encrypted files.
When using websites we all get used to being able to reset passwords that we have forgotten and are simply e-mailed a new password, However this is not the case with encrypted files on your hard drive.
Whilst we have procedures in place for our passwords at Technofile, I must admit that my password systems for personal use might need looking into. Banks have advised not to write down passwords, which I don't. Passwords often require different criteria and changing, so I have a lot of them. In the unfortunate event that I should pass away, my executors and family would have serious problems. Having checked the web there are specialist companies offering services to cover this, but do you know who they are, will they be in existence years in the future?
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Another case of the ICO (The Information Commissioner's Office) finding a company having inadequate security systems on their mobile devices.
This time the ICO has found that the Royal London Mutual Insurance Society breached the Data Protection Act after eight laptops, two of which contained the personal details of 2,135 people, were stolen from the company's Edinburgh offices. The individuals affected were employees of various firms which had sought pension scheme illustrations.
Yet again, the laptops were password protected but the information on them was not encrypted. Royal London have now taken remedial steps to prevent this in future but whilst encryption software is becoming more user friendly, the reality is encrypting and decrypting takes time and requires discipline. It is likely therefore that large volumes of unencrypted confidential data will continue to be held on Laptops, memory sticks etc.
One way in which companies can store encrypted confidential data which can be easily accessed on the road or wherever you are in the world without the worry of having laptops stolen and that is to use a secure website, such as our filing on the web site. Perhaps companies should be looking into this as an alternative.
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Under this scheme, led by the National Council on Archives, archive services will be able to showcase how they are developing new projects. Projects that demonstrate innovative practice will have use of the Archive Pace Setter brand.. For further information about the scheme visit:www.nca.org.uk>>>>>
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We are now using the latest version of Kofax 4.5 with its advance clarity capabilities and improved crop and deskew. This allows us to offer you better quality images, lower file sizes and improved recognition for full text retrievals.Learn more about Kofax image enhancement atwww.kofax.com >>>>>
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Security is one of the greatest concerns of the millions of users who now store their information electronically.
ISO/IEC 19772 will give confidence to users that their data is safe.
Learn more about protecting information by contacting Technofile or visiting www.iso.org >>>>>
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The Obama administration has purchased Zyimage licences for the storage and retrieval of their documents.
It is expected by the end of the administration there will be over 1 billion e-mails alone.
Learn more about Zyimage by contacting Technofile or visiting www.Zylab.com >>>>
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AIIM has updated two of its Certificate Programs to reflect changes in the Enterprise Content Management and Enterprise Records Management sectors. The programs now provide education on new, emerging best practices and technologies for managing information assets.
Learn more at www.aiim.org/training >>>>
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A new International standard, iso 18938:2008, has been introduced which establishes the general principles and gives recommendations for the care and handling of digital optical discs with a view to maximising their effective life.
For further information visit ISO >>>>
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Research for the AIIM market IQ report “Content Creation and Delivery - the On-Ramps and Off-Ramps of ECM” found that 90% of organizations are using the PDF file format for long-term storage of scanned documents, and 89% are converting Office files to PDF for distribution and archive.
Download The Full Market IQ Report >>>>
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Our IT development consultants CYM Consulting have improved the OCR search facility on our secure "Filing on the Web" browser. Although we would recommend that you use your own documents for a demonstration of this system. We have now put together a quick demonstration for you on the web-site.
More >>>>
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This month the British Standard Institute is due to publish a
brand new standard of "Evidential Weight and Legal Admissibility
of Electronic Information" Technofile always work to the
latest British standards and is happy to help you with any legal
issues on the storing of electronic files.
Details form the BSI Website >>>
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Our new slide scanning service is introduced, it's an ideal service
for clients who have found their archives contain this media and
want them transferred to a digital format along with their other
records.
More >>
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Our new demonstration site for our secure web filing system is
now ready, complete with security permissions and SSL encryption.
Please phone or e-mail to get your log on and password details
to view a typical application. Alternatively we can collect some
of your own documents, scan and upload them.
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Storage and retrieval of medical records can be a real problem
for medical centres, and in Central London it can be very expensive
as well. This month we collected our second set of records from
a Central London medical centre for scanning and uploading into
their individual systems.
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At Technofile we are very aware of the importance of having a
good knowledge of both records management and electronic imaging
and always encourage staff to take recognised qualifications.
This month we achieved the City & Guilds 6922 certificate
in digital imaging.
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Security is always a priority at Technofile and this month we
have installed a new advanced digital indoor CCTV system. In line
with our outdoor system, this system now has complete remote monitoring.
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Many of our customers have a need to scan only those documents
that they are likely to see or require for disaster recovery,
however there are other documents that they need to keep but are
unlikely to want to retrieve or have a security copy of. Technofile's
scan and store combination provide the ideal solution.
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We have now added the scanning of X-rays to the wide range of
formats we can already scan.
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Our latest full colour scanner enables us to offer even more
formats and resolutions for your large format plans, drawings
and maps.
....... Details on large format scanning >>
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Microsoft are now previewing their Office 2007 suite which for
the first time includes Document Management, this looks like very
much like a basic introduction into records management, you can
preview it yourself at the
preview site
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AIIM is the international leading organization focused on helping
users to understand the challenges associated with managing documents
and electronic records. For information about these new Certificated
Programs.
www.aiim.org/training >>
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Zyimage has again been improved and now offers Workflow, Redaction,
Enhanced Security, 64-Bit Search Technology, and New E-Mail Archiving.
Technofile offer competitively priced, Zyimage ready, scanning
and indexing.
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We introduce our new document scanning to web service. Designed
with the help of WSI, Greenwich, it offers many new features including
multiple levels of access, multiple login system, group access,
systems option control, activity reports and much more.
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Details of the new National Archives Standard for record repositories
is now available from the National Archives Web site, www.nationalarchives.co.uk. It is the recognised benchmark for all aspects of caring for records
and providing access to them. This Standard also includes guidance
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Adobe Acrobat 7.0 is launched,
customers can now have their documents scanned in PDF and use
the free Adobe reader to mark up and add comments to their files
before distributing them throughout the network.
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With the huge increase in volume
over the past few years, many companies are struggling to address
the filing and management of e-mails, particularly in terms of
legal requirements and business disruption. Technofile have introduced
solutions to help you set up and organise your e-mail policy.
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Canon, Kodak and Fujitsu have all introduced, faster and improved
image quality Document Management scanners. Contact us for further
details on our latest range of scanners.
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Recent articles in the press have given rise for concern about
the quality and longevity of CDs and DVDs, prompting us again
to look into and report on our procedures relating to this storage
media. Please contact us for a copy of this report.
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BSI (British Standards Institution) have introduced an up-to-date
code of practice for legal admissibility and evidential weight
of information stored electronically, BIP 0008, which updates
PD 0008. For more information on this and any other concerns you
may have on legal admissibility please contact us.
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ZyIMAGE 5.0 is introduced. It delivers extended support for business
processes in law enforcement, security, intelligence, and legal
environments and also includes major technical improvements with
full XML framework for storage and integration.
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Adobe have introduced Acrobat 6.0. It will now be sold as 2 separate
products, Standard and Professional. Both have more control over
document sharing, exchanging and reviewing. We await the new features
with interest.
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If you are still processing your forms manually, Technofile's
new form processing might save you money. Using the latest specialised
software Technofile will scan your forms and extract the data.
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High volume colour scanning is now added to the list of services
offered by Technofile. Whilst most projects have been fine using
black white scanning, some projects have been hampered where colour
was essential to the project, or contrast problems have left some
information unclear . Colour scanning will now eliminate these
problems.
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