heavy duty scanner

[navychop]

As we move into a new office building, and hire an additional person, we are changing some of our procedures. We will scan in every piece of paper related to job costs - invoices, quotes, proposals, etc. This is so all concerned can view the pertinent documents over the network, and stop using the paper files ("Alright, who's got the XYZ file?").

We need to buy a better scanner, one that is both flat bed and sheet feed. Dedicated scanner, not an All In One. And that plugs into the network directly (RJ-45), not thru a PC. Will likely be scanning in 50-100 items per day to begin with, increasing later. Faster is better.

Any suggestions? What to consider, what to avoid? We well expect it to cost in excess of $1,000.

 

[StevenD]

Are you by chance leasing or purchasing a new network copier? Many newer copiers have printing and scanning capabilities.

Stay away from an HP "solution". Their desktop scanning software is extremely buggy and only connects to the network scanner about 50% of the time.

 

[navychop]

Yep. Sad to say, we've never been satisfied with any HP scanner. We bought a scanjet 8250 for something like $900 maybe 2 years ago, very roughly. Never did get the sheet feed (ADF) to work. Too bad it was on the shelf unopened for months before we put it to use. By the time we (& an outside guy we hired) gave up on it, it was outside the warranty. Fine as a flat bed scanner. But it's not network capable, and we're not thrilled with using h/w print servers (we still have an HP 2250 on one).

We have a Canon IR2020 that we might use for this purpose, to some extent. Problem is, this is not the most reliable machine, and Vista does not seem to like it. Sometimes it sees it, sometimes not. One Vista machine we got never would recognize it, even when putting in the IP address.

Come to think of it, I don't think we've ever tried to use it as a scanner- just as a copier up to 11x17 & as a printer. Have to explore that capability.

Really need a machine dedicated to scanning.

Thanks for the help so far- greedily hoping for more.

 

[docpadds]

We had used various incarnations of high speed scanners at one time but in the end we stuck with our Kyocera copiers that did it all for us. we used the KM-5050 systems for this and 50 ppm printing. They arent cheap but the TCO is low, and Kyocera is a great company to work with (they even customized drivers for us for a weird setup we had, and we only had 8 copiers, not a huge customer).

 

[gabshere]

haven't tried these but seen a listing plus they have a small adaptor that will allow it to connect usb to a network

also you might consider a digital sender, it scans documents into a pdf type format and send it as e-mail, to a printer, save it to a folder, and fax for communications. ours is a HP product.

 

[navychop]

Which one (HP digital sender)? Link, please. Might be just what we need.

Will pursue the Patriots you linked. My, they aren't shy about charging. But we'll have to pay whatever it takes.

 

[gabshere]

hp digital sender its in the range of 3k

 

[vodad]

I would second the Kyocera route. We have one from OKI systems, it is the 3050 model, it scans documents up to 11X17 to our workstations or to the server. Comes in handy.

Navychop, what kind of work do you do?

 

[navychop]

I'm Comptroller for a small business. Less than 100 employees (my, how things will change once we hit 100). I also handle IT, risk management, HR, vehicles and pretty much anything no one else wants to do. Got a Master's in HR, but did not finish the one in CS (IT). Got a divorce and transfer overseas instead.

In our field, yes, 11x17 might come in handy.

 

[vodad]

I do design work, used to just do structural steel, but now I am working for a machine shop, almost all our prints for the shop are on 11x17 and the drawings we put in our manuals are on 11x17.

But it seems like the last couple of places I work at I have done a lot of the computer stuff, usually just fixing what someone else breaks. Last place kind of complained the first time I fixed something, but we had a hard drive fail on us they paid some company like 200 bucks to look at it, they told them all the data was gone and sent the drive back. I took it home and came back the next day with a DVD of all the files that the guy needed. From that day on, I looked at everything before the outside IT guys where called. I needed a raise

I am working for a company now that has an outside IT guy, but he actually seems to know what he is doing, although, I swear sometimes he makes stuff up

 

[harshness]

Something else to think about: ask all of your partners to send their documents in electronic form (other than Office format as their's too much confusion). Many of my employer's partners were able to accommodate.

Sounds like you might benefit more from using a basic job costing software package as opposed to the shoebox method. Then again, some products (especially services) don't lend themselves as well to putting in a database.

 

[navychop]

We use Job Costing in our accounting software. That's where I want to link all the images to. A printout listing
"xx/xx/09.....AP.....Schmidlapp Parts..........$330.79"
doesn't tell them if that part was part Y or part Z. An image of the invoice would.

Most of our partners, and all the ones demanding the latest iteration of Office files, including PP & Project Manager, are FAR larger than us. They merely inform us, often as a belated afterthought, of the requirements. We are often submitting documents into their system. They can generally go elsewhere. Lockheed Martin does not accommodate the needs of their local office supplies company or janitorial services firm.