What with your corporate Web site and your branded publications
of all shapes and sizes, it seems like almost everyone in your company
eventually needs to scan documents and insert the images into something.
But who's stuck with having the scanner accessible only from their one PC?
And how are they going to get any work done when people are constantly
interrupting them to make a scan that'll "just take a minute"?
A Client/Server System for TWAIN Scanners
The solution to this problem is easy with RemoteScan Server, a $49.99
piece of software that makes almost any scanner available to any
PC user on your network — even to an authorized user across the Internet.
The pieces of the puzzle are:
• RemoteScan Server.
The server software, developed by RemoteScan Corp., installs on whatever
PC a scanner may be directly cabled to. The PC can be running any version
of Windows, all the way back to Windows 95, and the scanner can be anything
that supports the ubiquitous standard known as
TWAIN.
• RemoteScan Client.
Any PC that might be used to control the scanner gets a copy of the
client software. The purchase of RemoteScan Server includes a license
to install the client on an unlimited number of PCs.
• Internet Access.
If the server that's attached to a scanner has a static IP address
(one that isn't dynamically assigned), the scanner can be operated
from any Windows PC that's connected to the World Wide Web. This would
allow, for example, a secretary to place a document in a scanner at
headquarters so a traveling executive could download a perfect copy
of it into his or her laptop in a hotel room or Internet café.
A Capability With High-End and Low-End Uses
Those who are accustomed to nudging some poor worker off his or her PC in order
to use their scanner may find it hard to imagine what the ability to
run the thing from any nearby PC would feel like. Let's consider, then,
some examples:
• Corporate Production Scanners.
For those with truly high-end scanners — which are used for professional
graphics production and are located in dust-free rooms — having a remote
scanning ability can save huge amounts of time and money. An operator
inside the "clean" room need only position the item to be scanned onto the
device; he or she can then return to whatever other tasks might be at hand. The
end user of the scanner output (presumably a lower-paid individual) can then
fiddle with the preview settings ad infinitum and make as many scans
as necessary until the image looks its best.
• Service departments.
Companies with centralized copying and reproduction centers can benefit
from a similar division of labor. The person behind the counter merely
places the desired document into the scanner, while the customer does most
of the work of completing the scan.
• Wireless networks.
If your company owns laptops that have Wi-Fi capability — and these
days, who doesn't — it's inconvenient to have to hook up and unhook
cables to allow a laptop to control a scanner, hardly of which natively support
wireless. Using RemoteScan, however, images can be downloaded
from a scanner on the LAN into a laptop via any wireless access point.
• Home networks.
Some executives like to work at home and scan the resulting documents in
preparation for the next day's intranet update. They can use their home PC
or laptop to access a personal scanner without disturbing the teenager
whose PC the scanner is probably hard-wired to.
Although RemoteScan is primarily designed for standard TWAIN scanners, Steve
Sarnoff of the company's marketing division says, "We're continually adding
software features to support the many different varieties of available
scanners and network configurations."
Some of the scanner features that the software already takes advantage
of are page feeders for multi-page documents, duplexers that can image
both sides of printed pages, and communications via Microsoft's Windows
Terminal Services. If you can think of any other features you might want, the
developer of the program seems eager to hear from you.
Conclusion
RemoteScan Corp. is currently offering the server software and
unlimited client licenses on the company's
Web site
for a discount from the list price. For even less risk, you can download
a trialware version of the application from such download libraries as
ProgramURL.com.
Once you've got this thing installed and working, whatever administrative
assistant was formerly being nudged aside so others could get at the scanner
controls should take you out for lunch.
What with your corporate Web site and your branded publications
of all shapes and sizes, it seems like almost everyone in your company
eventually needs to scan documents and insert the images into something.
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