IDEAL Newsletter - Volume 2 Issue 4

Friday, July 28, 2000 Rockville, MD - IDEAL Scanners & Systems, Inc. announced today that beginning August 2000, IDEAL will offer One-On-One Online Demos of large format scanners and cutting edge software in a real time and fully interactive environment. In January of this year, IDEAL introduced Online Demo sessions for groups, which continue to be popular and well attended.

"Managing time and resources is crucial in today's fast-paced business world," said Jay Magenheim, President of IDEAL. "We recognize that some industries have unique requirements that are better addressed in a private, one-on-one setting." IDEAL will provide virtual demonstrations that will enable decision makers within an organization to see the latest software and even a large format scanner perform - live and on their own PC without even having to leave their office.

To register for a One-On-One Online Demo, visit Our Online Demo Section and let us know how we can help address your document imaging needs.

Every Tuesday at 11:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time), IDEAL Scanners & Systems, Inc. will be conducting a live and interactive demonstration of our scanners and dynamic scanning software programs on the Web. Register online at www.ideal.com. Once registered, you will receive an e-mail confirmation with easy to follow instructions f or attending an upcoming IDEAL Online Demo. IDEAL's Online Demos are offered on a first come, first serve basis, so register early.

Every Thursday at 4:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time), IDEAL Scanners & Systems, Inc. will be conducting a live and interactive demonstration of our scanners and dynamic scanning software programs on the Web. Register online at www.ideal.com. Once registered, you will receive an e-mail confirmation with easy to follow instructions f or attending an upcoming IDEAL Online Demo. IDEAL's Online Demos are offered on a first come, first serve basis, so register early.

United Defense, LP - Ground Systems Division (UDLP-GSD), one of the nation's leading military vehicle contractors, recognized the need for a web-based archive management system and IDEAL Scanners & Systems, Inc. (IDEAL) came to their aid with the IntraNETIX™ solution. With global accolades for their fighting vehicles, such as the Bradley Fighting Vehicle - one of the hallmarks of Operation Desert Storm, it was important for UDLP-GSD to allow their internal personnel access to the drawing archives in their Wide Area Network (WAN). From needs assessment, customization, to launch and deployment, IDEAL delivered UDLP-GSD with a more efficient document acquisition and distribution system.

Between January 1999 and May 1999, UDLP-GSD developed a functional specification for their Engineering Data Viewing and Printing System (EDVS). Their plan stipulated the need to implement a browser based interface that was platform independent for company wide access to released CAD drawings in their archives and to scanned legacy drawings.

"A year earlier," said Arlene Gerst, Regional Sales Manager for IDEAL, "United Defense implemented IDEAL's PC based aperture card scanner and ScanDEX software. This provided them with an archive management system for archiving virtually any document type to an ODBC compliant database, like Oracle software running on the Sun servers at United Defense."

United Defense uses a high speed WAN to link its three main facilities located in York, Pennsylvania, San Jose, California, and Aiken, South Carolina. Over the years, they acquired some of the best parts design, configuration management, database and networking tools. For example, UDLP-GSD uses powerful CAD systems, including Pro/E, ComputerVision, Unigraphics Solutions, and AutoCAD. UDLP-GSD stores many of their drawings in their Oracle-based Optegra Electronic Document Vaults that they actively use in San Jose and York, while they store other drawings on UNIX and PC servers. Their varying platforms, files formats, and array of directory locations presented challenges for their staff. They needed to determine how to find and distribute released drawings from all of these systems. (See Figure 1. Topology Under Old Process).

"I led a team that wrote the functional specifications for what we required," said Bill Kerns, CAD CAM Manager with UDLP-GSD and their EDVS Project Manager. UDLP-GSD decided to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a system providing company wide access to their engineering documents with Internet functionality and browser based tools. (See Figure 2. Topology Under Proposed Process).

Under the proposed process, users will visit a specific Intranet web address to enter search criteria. The system will then search for documents containing the given search string and display a list of documents found. From this displayed list, the user will then be able to select items for viewing, printing or saving to disk.

"We were looking for a web-based interface to locate and view our drawings that exist in multiple platforms - Optegra Vault, Unix, and PC," said Kerns. "We wanted to be able to point to these files no matter where they existed and bring them back to a browser. The biggest challenge was that we were in a multiple platform environment and we had a need to bring them together through one, easy interface."

The requirements were straightforward:

"IDEAL was one of the eight companies that responded to the RFP and IDEAL won the bid," said Kerns. UDLP-GSD decided on IDEAL's IntraNETIX™ solution due to affordability, ease of use, and integration with their multiple vault systems. Moreover, IDEAL's proposed technique was very close to what the Information Systems staff at UDLP-GSD was planning. IDEAL met the requirements of the RFP and, in the process, made it simple for the user. "IDEAL delivered the web interface, worked out a solution to access the existing documents residing in multiple platforms, and enabled us to initiate batch printing of user sets," he added. "While security was an issue, it was addressed through the operating system and IntraNETIX™ group restriction policies. It's a secure system and we are able to monitor usage."

"IDEAL's IntraNETIX™ solution has a link and view feature that puts viewers over CAD vault applications so that you can move them around as needed," said Richard Morris, Configuration Manager with UDLP-GSD. "This is important due to ever changing business requirements."

IDEAL customized the configuration over a several month period and provided additional development to deliver UDLP-GSD more features. "We developed software to search their network file servers and document vaults for released drawings, index the links into the database, and developed a custom interface to retrieve documents out of the vault environment," said Sean Eikenbery, IDEAL's IntraNETIX™ Developer and Product Manager. "We went the extra mile to provide automated updating within their WAN."

"Without interrupting workflow," said Eikenbery, "IntraNETIX™ Builder software scans the network servers for newly released drawings to index into the EDVS database at scheduled intervals. Designers are saving their files the way they have been before, with the drawing number, sheet number, and revision embedded in the filenames. Different CAD systems use different conventions, but with IntraNETIX™ Builder, settings can be applied to individual folders to automatically capture this information using different rules."

Now, all UDLP-GSD released drawings are available online via their EDVS. About 400 company users can access these documents using their web browsers, even at the factory shop floor. They are able to view CAD drawings and scanned images, and collect images in a 'User Set', similar to a web shopping cart. They can batch print the contents of the User Set to a network printer if needed. IntraNETIX™ tracks their usage, and administrators can assign allowances for viewing, downloading, and printing. Kerns designed an online User Authorization Request form to activate users. UDLP-GSD can also enforce group restrictions. Users can be restricted or allowed to view only the records in the database for the projects that they are working on, a unique feature of IntraNETIX™. This will also allow them to grant web access to contractors, customers and vendors in the immediate future for greater connectivity. (See Figure 3. IntraNETIX™ Enabled EDVS System).

EDVS is really a 'Data Junction' of designs, specifications, and other assets for United Defense. Future possibilities for EDVS include indexing office documents, and also interfacing IntraNETIX™ to some of their other business systems, including workflow and configuration management. As EDVS traffic, activity, and document capacity increase, IntraNETIX™ will provide the expansion power necessary to scale up. The ability of IntraNETIX™ to use server replication and clustering will ensure data integrity.

"We invited all of the responding companies in for an 'up close and personal look' at the products," said Morris, one of the team members who developed the specifications. "The IntraNETIX™ solution from IDEAL was definitely competitive from a price and functionality standpoint," said Kerns.

With 99% of the global market, MS Windows Explorer is currently the de facto international standard for archive management. Windows Explorer is great when working with a limited number of files that are properly named, dated, and placed in intelligibly named folders and are not buried several levels deep.

But what happens when a company has a need to manage thousands of large format documents? And there are many users, teams, or departments that need to search, retrieve, and work with documents in the archive? MS Windows Explorer will fall short every time because it is only a graphical tree of the network, not a database.

"ScanDEX allows you to build a multi field database, but instead of directories, we use fields," said Henrick Rasmusen, ScanDEX Family Product Developer and Manager. "Getting the data on the network allows workgoups to be more productive and to collaborate."

"The big challenge is to migrate from paper to digital," said Ed Delaney, IDEAL's National Sales Manager. "Paper chaos to digital chaos will result without multi field indexing. And ScanDEX is the best migration path that ensures ease of use."

Many companies that manage large archives justify their transition from MS Windows Explorer to IDEAL's ScanDEX due to five simple reasons.

ScanDEX is fast and reliable. Because of multi-field indexing, users can quickly locate archived documents using numerous search words, rather than roaming the MS Windows Explorer tree and opening and closing documents in a trial and error search method.

ScanDEX is hardware independent, which means that it can run on SCSI, ISIS and TWAIN compliant scanners.

ScanDEX is a semi and fully automated processing system for quick and intelligent archiving. Users, teams, or departments can define the countless ways they need to be able to query the database for ease of access. Moreover, ScanDEX allows indexing and archiving from numerous sources, such as existing files on the network or another database that needs to be linked.

The upcoming 2.01 release of ScanDEX will include enhancements that will have index and archive capabilities for eMail and FAXes coming in from multi-functional copiers.

ScanDEX employs MS Windows Explorer styled searching with the difference that there is a built in Search Engine with advanced and customizable field searching. The interface is familiar and easy to use and will easily adapt to various workflows and environments.

ScanDEX displays the image, values and information all in one window. The thumbnail preview serves to confirm the queried result. ScanDEX easily integrates third party software for viewing and editing images and documents created and saved in more than 150 file formats.

ScanDEX allows everyone within an organization to share documents. Additionally, features such as redlining and notating allow drawings to be kept current. Since new documents can also be combined with existing documents, all associated documents are kept together for increased file management and user set control.

The Check In and Check Out features allow work groups to monitor activity while Lock Files for Editing ensure that finals are secure from accidental changes. The ability to specify authorized individual or group users ensures that sensitive material remains secure. The ability to control user rights and limit or increase access to files is another feature for added security. The save the file's "History" allows for an audit trail. Finally, the export and Back Up database to storage medias, external locations, etc. allows the administrator to ensure disaster recovery.

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