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Kodak Scanners and Ademero
Content Central: Overview
M. David Stone, Senior Contributing Writer
Like most scanner and MFP manufacturers, Kodak knows that support for Content Central and its interaction with the scanner
having a solution to a problem is a stronger selling point than comes primarily from Ademero (which says it offers support
simply having a spiffy piece of hardware. It’s not surprising, 24 hours per day, all year long). Kodak handles support for
then, that the company has been working to emphasize that the hardware itself.
its scanners work with software solutions. A case in point:
the recent announcement of Kodak scanners being certified to There are actually two versions of Content Central. One is
work with Ademero Content Central, a document management nominally meant for workgroups, at $299 per seat, with a
program with workflow features added. maximum of nine seats. The other is the Enterprise Edition,
meant for 10 or more users at a per seat price that varies with
Content Central works with all of Kodak’s desktop scanners, the number of seats. Ademero says the program is scalable
according to Kodak, including both its workgroup and for anything from a single practitioner office on up to a large
departmental scanners, some of which are inexpensive enough enterprise. As shipped, with Microsoft SQL Server 2005
to use as personal document scanners. We decided to take a Express Edition, the database is limited to roughly 700,000
look at the program in combination with Kodak’s ScanMate pages, but you can also use Content Central with the full
i1120 Scanner, which costs $375 street, and is an appropriate version of SQL Server 2005 or higher, which is limited only
choice for anyone who needs to conveniently scan documents by disk size.
from his or her desk. Other certified scanners include the
i30, i40, and all of the models in the i1200, i1300, and According to Ademero, most people buy the Enterprise Edition,
i1400 series. since the price includes one year of support and upgrades.
Support contracts for either version -- including the Enterprise
Edition after the first year -- are on a yearly basis, at 20 percent
of the initial cost per year.
Aside from the first year of support, the two versions differ in
two important ways. The Enterprise Edition adds workflow
features and uses a different optical character recognition
(OCR) engine. Ademero says the Enterprise version’s OCR
is faster, more accurate, and more flexible, with a zonal OCR
feature that the Workgroup Edition lacks.
Both versions of the program are included in the same piece of
software, so you can upgrade from Workgroup to Enterprise
Editions simply by entering the appropriate keys. I used the
Enterprise version in my tests.
Basic installation for both the scanner and software is easy.
For the scanner, you simply run the automated installation
routine from the supplied CD and plug in the USB cable. You
can also optionally install the programs that come bundled
with the scanner -- PaperPort 11.1 (for document management
on an individual PC), OmniPage Pro 15.2 (for OCR on an
individual PC), and BizCard 5 (for scanning and managing
business cards). I tested the scanner using both Windows XP
and Windows Vista. According to Kodak, the drivers and
Kodak says you can buy the scanner, software, or both directly programs also work with Windows 2000.
from Ademero or through a Kodak dealer. In either case,
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You can ask to receive Content Central on a CD when you Once you’ve set up the catalogs and folders, you can move files
buy it, or download the program from the Ademero Web you already have on disk into the Content Central database,
site. Either way, it comes with its own automated installation and let users start scanning new documents directly into the
routine. Anyone can download it to install and run as a database.
demo. To turn the demo into a working version, you enter
the appropriate key. As an administrator, you can also create workflows and set
Content Central to use them automatically. The program can
Content Central runs as a server application on a computer watch multiple folders, for example, and attach workflows to
running Windows XP Professional or, preferably, Windows documents scanned to those folders. Similarly, you can use the
Server 2003, with zonal OCR feature to
IIS installed. In most recognize documents,
installations, your so the program
document database can assign them to
will go on the same workflows based on
computer, although you the document type.
can keep the database You can also create
on any shared drive on Qcards, which include
your network. barcodes. Users can
print the QCards, stack
One of the nicer touches multiple documents
for Content Central is together with the
that you connect to it appropriate QCard on
from a browser, which top of each document,
means you don’t need then scan the stack.
client software on other The barcodes will tell
computers. Simply the program how to
enter the server address route each document.
in your browser (or use
a shortcut) to go to the sign on screen. Then type your user As a user, in addition to scanning documents directly into the
name and password to load the program. Administrators can database, you can find documents by searching through the
define users within Content Central or take advantage of users full text, through key words in defined fields, or by browsing
already defined in Active Directory. through the folders. Once you’ve found the file you’re looking
for, the program gives you options to E-mail the file, Download
Once the program’s installed, setting it up is straightforward. it (which lets you either open or save the file), Zip and Save
Reasonably self-explanatory, menu-driven choices let you the file, and (if the administrator has allowed it) delete the file
create a hierarchy of catalogs and folders, create fields for or assign it to a workflow.
searching for documents (by client or project for example),
and set options. Even so, you’ll almost certainly want to take Users can also check files out, work on them, and check them
advantage of Ademero to walk you through the steps. in later. If you need to see an earlier version of a document,
however, that’s not a problem. Content Central maintains
The hard part of the setup is deciding how you want to organize all versions of each document and gives you the choice of
the documents and coming up with the best choice of options searching for all versions or just the newest one.
for searching for documents. In going through the process
with Ademero support, there were any number of times when I I ran into a couple of minor issues with the way the Kodak driver
realized it would have been smarter to do something differently interacts with Content Central, but the key word is “minor.” In
earlier in the setup. According to Ademero, however, the some scans, for example, black text on a white background
design process is usually handled in two steps, precisely to showed up as white on black. There’s a simple workaround
address this issue. to avoid the problem, however, and Ademero says the issue
will soon be fixed in any case. Overall, the combination of
The first step is a proof of concept -- a kind of rough draft. the Kodak scanner and Content Central is well worth a look
Normally done before buying the program, it gives you a for essentially any size business that scans paper files to disk
chance to see how the program works, and gives Ademero and needs a document management solution
support staff a chance to get familiar with your needs. The
second step is the actual installation, at which point you should
be past the kind of false starts I ran into.
©BERTL, Inc. 363 Route 46 West, Suite 100, Fairfield, NJ 07004 USA, All rights reserved. Copying, distributing, or storing of this copyrighted material is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. To order additional
copies or to buy a reprint license, telephone BERTL (1) 973 882 0200. The publishers accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions contained in this publication. www.bertl.com