Document processing first turned in style within the Nineteen Nineties, when corporations dealing with giant quantities of correspondence realised that misplacing a single piece of submit might have substantial monetary and authorized implications.It was the monetary sector most impacted with its reliance on paper communications so systematically ingrained.
However doc processing is about greater than merely scanning all of the mail onto an inside server every day. It’s about what occurs as soon as that has occurred, and due to these problems, many in IT weren’t eager on managing the big quantities of information or the specialist {hardware} that correct doc imaging calls for.
These venturing on the doc processing journey want dependable tools and straightforward administration to get the early wins that justify the funding, and that’s what the Raven Pro Document Processing Scanner guarantees.
Is that this step one to an workplace devoid of folders and piles of paper or one other gadget that may quickly collect mud in a submitting cupboard?
(Picture credit score: Raven)
Value and availability
Raven provides 4 scanners designated as Unique, Customary, Compact, and the Pro mannequin reviewed here. The Pro design comes straight from the makers in black and white color schemes and prices $649.85 with free 2-day delivery within the USA. That value comes with free entry to Raven Cloud Document Storage included, and at the moment, there are not any limits to what number of scanned paperwork you possibly can retailer on this facility.
(Picture credit score: Mark Pickavance)
Design and construct
In contrast to different scanners, doc scanners designed for doc processing workflow aren’t like a budget and flimsy {hardware} printer makers throw on their multi-function printers.
That’s as a result of a sheet of paper may seem clean to most individuals, however when one million sheets are pulled by way of a scanner, it has an identical affect to having scanned sandpaper repeatedly.
The strong mechanics of the Raven Scanner Pro deflect a few of these considerations, although most customers may simply confuse this {hardware} with a small fax machine.
Out of the field, the machine solely requires the doc in-feed tray to be added and the ability block to be hooked up to be prepared to be used.
Along with the ability block and cable, a USB line and an ink stamp with the phrase ‘Scanned’ lower into it are additionally offered.
A method to make use of the scanner is through the 8-inch contact panel on the entrance of the scanner that dwarfs these on multi-function printers however dominates this {hardware}.
This show is giant and shiny, nevertheless it has a viewing angle difficulty the place it's fairly tough to see when you find yourself sitting in entrance of the scanner. It’s more simply seen standing.
It’s fascinating to notice that one of many obtainable equipment is a stand for the scanner that will increase the angle, and utilizing this merchandise ($29.85) may tackle that difficulty.
Whereas you should use this machine with a pc, related by USB or networking, it is going to additionally function in isolation in the event you present a WiFi password or join a LAN cable to enable it to entry the web.
Web connection is important to entry updates to the Android system, but in addition to ship scans to Cloud or electronic mail locations.
Once you first join the scanner to the web, you possibly can signal as much as have an account with Raven enabling entry to the Raven Cloud from the machine and thru web entry.
Raven Cloud is likely one of the potential locations for paperwork scanned, and you'll configure these, the kind of scanning wanted and the standard from the contact interface.
(Picture credit score: Mark Pickavance)
After we first powered our assessment {hardware}, it recognized that an update was required, and through that update, it revealed that the working system is Android. Not which you could set up any apps on this method, nevertheless it exhibits that the contact display screen is an Android pill with a personalized interface.
All these features may also be carried out away from the scanner utilizing the Raven Desktop utility. This performance permits the scanning job to be simply divided between an individual loading and unloading the paperwork and one other managing the scanning. That’s a way more environment friendly method of dealing with the job and maintains increased scanning throughput.
From a scanning perspective, this machine is remarkably simple to deploy and use. As much as 100 sheets could be loaded onto the sheet feeder on the prime and subsequently ejected from the entrance as it really works its method by way of them.
There appears little considerable distinction in scanning pace between the single-sided and double, color, monochrome or the totally different resolutions obtainable.
The distinction is available in how lengthy it takes to dispatch these to their vacation spot based mostly on the elevated measurement of upper decision scans and using color.
The utmost scanning decision is 600dpi, however if you wish to save area and settle for the lowered element, a scanning dpi of 400, 300 or 200 could be chosen.
Pages could be grouped right into a single PDF file and organised by folder if the vacation spot is storage. You'll be able to scan to JPG format, however that format doesn’t permit a number of photographs to merge right into a single file.
(Picture credit score: Mark Pickavance)
A major power of this method is the variety of potential locations that scanned paperwork may need.
For people who belief cloud storage, potential locations embrace Raven Cloud, Field, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, OneDrive, OneNote, QuickBooks Online and SharePoint.
If the intention is to maintain information internally, customized locations based mostly on the file system of the Raven Desktop laptop or any community locations may also be used.
You aren't solely required to have a single vacation spot, as a scan can go to a number of locations robotically.
Documents may also be OCR processed within the Cloud, permitting them to be looked for key phrases that may assist establish the supply.
The one downside with the OCR answer used here is that it solely works for these paperwork despatched to the Raven Cloud, as there isn’t any mechanism to go looking domestically saved PDFs.
Raven did embrace a self-inking rubber stamp, however some competitor designs have stamping constructed into their scanners to streamline this course of.
We additionally famous how American the software program answer is, as paper sizes do not even point out A4 or A5. As many outdoors the USA do not use Letter sized paper, that is one thing that wants addressing.
The scanning {hardware} is usually about scanning the pages, however doc processing can be about dealing with these paperwork, as soon as scanned.
Workflow
Spec Sheet
Listed here are the complete specs of the Raven Pro:
Document Feeder Capability: 100 Sheets Day by day Scan Functionality: 6,000 Pages Dimensions: 12.44 x 8.15 x 7.01 inches Networking: WiFi and Ethernet LAN LCD Show: 8 in Contact Display Most Scan DPI: 600 Pages per minute: 60 Duplex scanning: Sure Scan to the Web: Sure Scan to Community: Sure Scan to USB: Sure Software program: Raven Desktop for PC and Mac
With any doc processing answer, the target isn’t only a scan of a doc. Equally vital is the additional data that connects that doc to a enterprise course of.
The Raven Pro is specified to scan as much as 6,000 pages a day, and that’s a considerable quantity of scanning to carry out on one machine in a working day.
Whereas every web page may solely take a second, it’s the organising of the place the content material goes and what occurs with it that takes the real effort, as it's pointless scanning paperwork after which not with the ability to discover the one that you simply want later.
Raven has an OCR processing functionality that may index the contents of a doc permitting it to be looked for these phrases. That’s a very good begin and appreciated, nevertheless it’s solely a tiny a part of the broader course of.
Most corporations that utilise doc scanning have a particular mechanism to link these paperwork to a specific contact or process.
The Raven method to this requirement is named a ‘Workflow’, and totally different workflows are accessible from the Raven Desktop utility. A Raven workflow defines what sort of paperwork to anticipate, units the standard of scanning and the vacation spot for these information as soon as they’re created.
What’s good about these definitions is that they'll additionally tailor the naming of the information and the folders they're despatched, together with having a number of locations.
Due to this fact, it’s potential to have a doc scanned and have a duplicate despatched to an area server plus Raven Cloud along with being emailed to a particular tackle.
That’s a helpful characteristic and one cause for utilizing the Raven Desktop utility slightly than the contact interface on the scanner.
(Picture credit score: Mark Pickavance)
Nonetheless, this isn’t the true definition of ‘workflow’ on this context, because it doesn’t embrace how the doc is likely to be the preliminary level of an inside enterprise course of.
For full integration, the scanning of the paperwork must be related to an exterior database or CRM answer, and the scanning group must tag every doc not directly to create that link.
Ideally, that is likely to be figuring out a quoted account quantity or reference, however the Raven system has no means to make use of the OCR on this method.
We additionally observed was that even when the Raven Pro scanner can settle for 100 pages on the feeder, there isn’t any solution to inform the system that these are, for instance, ten totally different paperwork with separation pages in between.
The scanner could be instructed to disregard blanks, however it might’t use them to establish a brand new doc set, and that’s an unlucky omission. What Raven customers are compelled to do is just not reject clean pages after which use them as a information to subsequently lower up the mixed PDFs in Raven Cloud.
That’s a clunky method that may very well be considerably improved with both an choice to provoke a brand new doc on a clean web page or a web page with a particular image on it, however this isn’t at the moment an possibility.
(Picture credit score: Mark Pickavance)
And, whereas the Raven Desktop app helps a lot of targets, what it fails to supply is any database interactions making a document to prime a correspondence dealing with system {that a} letter has arrived that may want a swift reply.
Most CRMs do have a mechanism that may take incoming emails and create duties from them, however then dividing up that job for a number of departments from a single level of entry could be decidedly hand-cranked.
The flexibility to work together with a database to create a document listed by different employees viewing the scans could be useful for a lot of corporations.
The upshot of those limitations is that the Raven Pro doc dealing with answer isn’t applicable for companies that wish to use doc scanning to drive a group of response employees. It’s a really normal answer that's more appropriate for people who must scan a set of pages with the restricted probability that these will want reviewing or connecting to different occasions sooner or later.
(Picture credit score: Mark Pickavance)
Closing verdict
For the modest sum of money it prices, the Raven Scanner Pro is a powerful piece of apparatus that might deal with scanning an affordable variety of paperwork every day.
Nonetheless, it’s largely plastic, and we’re not sure precisely how lengthy it would final in the event you despatched 6,000 pages a day by way of it. In our expertise, by no means underestimate the abrasive potential of paper.
We’re additionally unsure that the interface of the Raven Cloud would cope properly with that variety of paperwork, because it solely shows them in a most of 100 per web web page.
You'll be able to create folders to construction the contents, however an computerized folder era operate the place folders are created by yr, month and day by default could be massively useful for quantity customers.
Probably one of the best facet of this answer is Raven Cloud, because it at the moment isn’t restricted in how a lot you possibly can place on there, and there's no subscription price to utilizing it, extremely.
It’s additionally the one method that OCR performance works, enabling the looking out of scanned paperwork. Scanned paperwork held domestically can have third-party OCR software program used on them, however that’s outdoors the scope of this product.
(Picture credit score: Raven)
The opposite lacking piece of this jigsaw is that the Raven Pro scanner can’t separate a number of paperwork intelligently, slowing the scanning course of. Every set of pages have to be loaded individually and never in bulk, regrettably.
That undermines the effectivity of the scanning workflow and having to manually stamp every web page as ‘scanned’ can be time-consuming for these working it.
Due to these limitations and the lack to link to databases, this method isn’t well-positioned for the varieties of doc processing performed within the insurance coverage and returns dealing with operations.
What it’s excellent for are these jobs the place senior individuals resolve that they don’t just like the area that many submitting cupboards occupy with paperwork that have to be stored reside. With the proviso that they’d prefer to ship all that paperwork to be warehoused or shredded however nonetheless be searchable if want be.
For a scanning blitz mission, the Raven Pro and its related Cloud and app are completely suited and affordably priced.
SociallyTrend.com is an Entertainment News Portal. It shares the Latest Entertainment News and Updates we provide the latest updates on various topics globe.
