InoTec 8X1 Document Scanner to have North American Unveiling at ARMA 2014
Crowley Company Expects Scanner to Provide Market Competition
Frederick, Md. and San Diego, Ca. – At 10:45 a.m. on October 26th, The Crowley Company and InoTec Organisationssysteme GmbH will unveil the InoTec SCAMAX 8×1 production scanner in Booth 1621 at the ARMA records management conference in San Diego, California. This unveiling is significant, says Matthew McCabe, Crowley vice president, because “it introduces another competitor to a market that has been owned by a very few well-respected brands such as BancTec, OPEX and ibml.” States McCabe, “InoTec is known internationally for manufacturing high-volume desktop scanners with excellent image quality and an unusually low cost of ownership.” Now, he says, “they’ve taken this formula and engineered the next generation of the SCAMAX family – an ultra-high-performance scanner suitable for all daily high volume scanning applications including mailrooms, business processing operations, accounting records, medical records, claims processing and others.”
Wolf-Christopher Gramatte, InoTec vice director of international sales, will be present for the debut and notes that “high performance scanners used in daily production environments are subject to very high expectations. Owners and operators require high scan speeds, strong image quality and a long life expectancy. In addition to meeting these expectations, the 8×1 design also offers outstanding paper handling, maximum operator comfort, space savings and a low total cost of ownership.”
With a considerably smaller footprint than the competitive open track scanners, the SCAMAX 8×1 is built up instead of out. This construction means that the scanner does not require the physical space of its competitors to perform the same task. It is height adjustable for best operator ergonomics and has a patented dual hopper system. Says Gramatte, “With the SCAMAX 8×1, a single operator is able to run two scanners easily or to be more efficient on a single system. Being able to scan a project with few operators or in less time is an automatic cost-savings for the owner.”
“I first saw the beta 8×1 in Germany earlier this year,” says McCabe. “It was impressive then and the modifications and improvements that have been made since to bring it to market this quarter have elevated it even further. This is a scanner that should offer end-users and service bureaus – especially those with space and staff constraints – a competitive option that we believe will quickly pay for itself. Many of these will be at ARMA, so this is the ideal opportunity to bring the SCAMAX 8×1 to North America for the first time.”
To highlight the efficiency of the scanner, attendees will be asked during each demonstration to estimate the speed (in seconds) at which the SCAMAX 8×1 will digitize a high volume of test documents. The participant that guesses the closest at the end of the show will win an ipad mini.
A preview video of the SCAMAX 8×1 can be seen here.
For those who will not be attending ARMA, Crowley is also offering an East Coast preview at its Frederick, Md. headquarters on Wednesday, November 5th. The Crowley Company is the exclusive U.S. distributor of InoTec document scanning products.
Additional Scanners To Be Demonstrated
While the debut of the SCAMAX 8×1 is expected to be a big draw, The Crowley Company will also demonstrate capture hardware and software for other areas of records management and preservation. The company’s booth will be divided into three stations: document scanning; micrographics; and patron scanning.
“By far the greatest need of records managers,” says McCabe, “is the ability to digitize, archive and distribute records electronically, either in-house or to the public. To that end, for production-level clients, we’ll be demonstrating the SCAMAX 8×1 document scanner, of course, and InoTec’s desktop model, the 4×3 document scanner. For smaller volumes, or for clients that need a scanner at every desk for distributed scanning, we’ll be showing two products from the extensive Avision line, the AD240 and the 320E2+.”
Micrographics
Crowley’s micrographics station will feature the firms’ two manufactured brands, Mekel Technology and Wicks and Wilson. “Although much of records management is document-based,” says McCabe, “there are still millions, if not billions, of images on microfilm, microfiche and aperture cards that require access. These can include personnel records, financial records, engineering drawings – you name it.” The systems on display will include the Mekel MACH10 microfilm scanner, the Mekel MACH 7 microfiche scanner, the IMAGELINK i7380 Reference Archive scanner, the Wicks and Wilson C400 aperture card scanner and UTrieve, the company’s cloud-based image retrieval system, which is also making its debut.
Patron Scanning
“For many of our records management clients, especially those who have requests for copies of records from walk-ins – those that just walk in the door looking for information – such as county offices, medical facilities or libraries who may not have all of their archives digitized, Crowley provides two types of scanners,” says McCabe. “Both are very affordable and allow a patron to walk in the door, research something like a deed, medical chart or genealogical record from either bound materials or microform, and then scan to thumb drive, email or the cloud.” The Zeutschel zeta is an overhead book copy system that allows for the scanning of bound books or single sheets. The UScan Universal Film Series scanner reads and scans from microfilm, microfiche, aperture cards, photo negatives and more. Not suitable for high-volume scanning, it is ideal for walk-up patrons or small corporate archives.