Every business operating today uses paper as a means of communication. Since the invention of paper, companies have been challenged with every facet of paper management: creation, distribution, storage, and disposal. Many companies have enormous warehouses holding millions of business-critical, paper-based documents. This is not only expensive, but it is also leaves these documents extremely vulnerable.

Today, companies are striving to reduce the amount of paper generated and distributed by using workstations to view information electronically. Companies are finding this solution faster and less costly than distributing stacks of computer output to multiple recipients. Digital sending is a very cost-effective method to convert paper-based information into an electronic format as it enters an organization. Digital sending can also be used to transform existing paper-based information into electronic information that can be distributed, viewed, stored, and retrieved almost instantly.

Many companies are using scanning devices in their organizations and are seeking ways to expand the functionality of these devices. Hewlett-Packard has responded to this need by developing a new category of office communication device, digital senders, which is optimized for sending, distributing, and sharing paper-based information over digital networks. With the release Cobra Image Router (CIR) version 3.52, Cobra Technologies seamlessly joins the HP 9100C Digital Sender with the powerful routing and data store capabilities of Lotus Notes, Domino, and Domino.Doc.

Business Factors Driving the Need for Digital Sending

Most company documentation today is paper-based. As technology progresses, companies look for other ways to facilitate information viewing, but by and large, paper is still continually generated and stored. Some paper-based documentation must be generated and remain in paper form due to unavoidable legal and validity issues, but having that documentation available by way of a workstation can completely change the way information is handled. There are several factors supporting the use of digital sending in the business environment:

· Paper Cost - Paper is a cost for almost every company whether it is reams for the copy machines, rolls for the facsimile machines, "green bar" for reports, or even sticky pads and legal pads for notations. The cost of a year's worth of paper for a company is usually surprising. Today, the information on a sheet of paper is typically generated and stored on a computer. The printed copy is exactly that, an at-cost copy of what is already available electronically. This is not new information to the business community, though it cannot be understated. Computer technology can reduce paper cost if it is used effectively.

· Storage - People have filing drawers at their desks. Departments have large filing cabinets throughout the office. These drawers and cabinets are usually filled with paper that needs to be quickly accessible. These papers are excellent candidates for digital sending. The costs associated with storing paper can range from the cost of a filing cabinet (that also consumes valuable productivity space) to the maintenance of a large warehouse that can include power, staff, insurance, security, and storage hardware. Storing and maintaining these documents electronically can vastly reduce the costs associated with traditional paper storage.

· Accessibility - Retrieving paper that is stored in filing cabinets can be time-consuming and unproductive. Even worse, paper stored in a basement or off-site warehouse may need to be requested for retrieval. After the request is processed, it may take a few hours or a few days to locate it and deliver it to the requester's desk. If someone else requests the same paperwork, it will remain unavailable, or checked-out, until the current user is finished with it and returns it to the storage site. In addition, if someone in a different location were to request the document, there would also be shipping costs to send it as well as to return it. With paper, there is only one copy unless duplicate copies are generated. This only adds to the paper problem. If the paperwork is sent electronically using a digital sender, it remains available almost instantly to anyone else requesting its retrieval.

· Distribution - Distribution of paper usually begins with duplication. If, for instance, ten employees request a copy of a report, ten paper copies are generated and then distributed. If a recipient is not on-site, it must be shipped, which is an additional cost. If the document was sent electronically using a digital sender, it could be distributed using e-mail or published to an intranet, eliminating the paper cost of duplication and drastically reducing the distribution cost.

· Disposal - Storing and retrieving documents electronically can also significantly reduce the costs associated with paper disposal. Instead of disposing of the paper when a report is out-of-date, its electronic counterpart can be removed from computer storage instead, immediately making that disk space available for other uses.

The Advantages of Digital Sending

With the known disadvantages of paper-based information and the continual advances in computing technology, businesses are looking to digital senders to reduce the flow of paper and to build and strengthen the use of electronic information. The following examples illustrate how digital sending technology and CIR can be used to benefit a company or business process.

Human Resources - Resumes that are mailed or faxed to a company can be sent digitally into a central resume tracking database and categorized by department, name, and area of expertise. After built-in optical character recognition (OCR) is performed on the processed resume, the database becomes searchable for any information included in the resume. All hiring managers with appropriate access can then view the database.

Insurance - Paper policies can be processed using a digital sender for on-line viewing by agents, significantly reducing the time that customer need to wait for files to be retrieved. Claims adjusters can send paperwork, hand-written claim information, and claim photographs to an on-line claim file using a digital sender. These claim files on every insured are available in a format that is viewable and routable to anyone in the company The Notes document, containing the digital images, could have processing fields in it so that claim progress can easily be tracked. Claim progress can also be published to a web site so that the insured can check the status of a claim using a web browser.

Shipping - Regional offices in shipping ports around the world can digitally send manifest documents to a tracking database that is categorized by equipment or container. The company updates the database as the shipments pass checkpoints. As the database is updated, customers can check the shipment status by looking at the database using a web browser.

Legal - All correspondence can be sent into an electronic case documentation management binder for each client. Documents can be "checked out" for updates, but even when checked out, other staff members can view a read-only copy, eliminating delays in accessing information. All case documentation can be quickly viewed by anyone with appropriate access.

Credit Applications - A customer wanting to purchase a new car could complete a credit application that can immediately be sent to a financial institution in an electronic format for a rapid decision, reducing wait times for the customer and increasing the productivity of the salesperson.

Information Distribution - Product literature and advertisements constantly arrive in the mail. It is almost impossible to read all of it as it arrives, and the unread pile continues to grow. In addition, literature and advertisements may not be delivered to people that can make the best use of them. Sending these articles and advertisements in a digital format not only removes the pile from the desk, but the information can then be categorized by product area and made available to anyone in the company, anywhere in the world.

Cobra Image Router – An Overview

Cobra Technologies has been working comprehensively with Lotus Notes/Domino, the leading Groupware product, since its early releases. Notes has a compound document structure, allowing it to accept many kinds of data including text, rich text, sound, images, graphics, and video. This aspect of Notes makes it an excellent data store for images processed by a digital sender. Notes also has powerful routing capabilities that ensure quick and secure delivery of an object. In a Lotus Domino environment, Notes documents can be easily and rapidly published to a web site for viewing using a client browser over an intranet or an extranet. Cobra Technologies uses the strong store and forward document capabilities of Notes in conjunction with CIR to rapidly process, route, and deliver paper-based information electronically.

Hewlett-Packard has used its scanner expertise to take electronic distribution of documents to the next level with its new class of products called digital senders. CIR v3.52 is closely integrated with the first product offered in this new line, the HP 9100C Digital Sender. The HP 9100C Digital Sender includes many native features that allow the digital sender to analyze and decompose pages, convert them to PDF format on-the-fly, and talk intelligently to SMTP gateways as well as negotiate the best file format when sending documents to a printer.

There are two major functions of CIR v3.52 in a HP 9100C Digital Sender environment:
1) Lotus Domino Application Support
2) Enterprise Administration and Management.

Lotus Domino Application Support

CIR v3.52 retains the most popular application support features that existed in CIR v2.1, the earlier product release which supports the HP Network ScanJet 5, to the new architecture of the HP 9100C Digital Sender. To send directly to a Lotus Domino application, CIR now supports automatic updating of the HP Customized Function Keys. Simply use the CIR 3.52 Configuration Database to compose a Function-Key Configuration document to define your application and select your options. When you save the document, the application destination will appear on the digital sender control panel.

CIR v3.52 supports the following document destinations:

· Any Domino.Doc binder
· Any Lotus Domino Database application
· Any web site based on Lotus Domino
· Any Internet mail address using your SMTP/MTA gateway
· Any Lotus Notes mail database using the native mail router, by-passing SMTP
· Most FAX Gateways (Lotus Fax Server and Domino Fax Server are supported)

In addition, Scansoft TextBridge Optical Character Recognition (OCR), which allows for instantly editable and searchable documents, is built into CIR v3.52.

Enterprise Administration and Management

The HP 9100C Digital Sender includes support for sending paper-based information to e-mail using your SMTP gateway, type-ahead LDAP lookups, private user profiles, and processing color documents as well as support for PDF, TIFF, and PCL file formats. Most of these features of the HP 9100C Digital Sender are managed using the HP Address Book Manager (ABM). Each digital sender is a self-contained, standalone network device containing multiple tables or address books. With the exception of the LDAP feature, all features are administered and updated by logging into each Digital Sender using the ABM software.

The CIR v3.52 Enterprise Administration and Management feature provides the Domino Administrator with a Lotus Notes-based tool to centrally administer a multiple digital sender environment from a single Notes Database. Using our CIR 3.52 Configuration database, you can manage all of your HP 9100C Digital Senders from one location. The database contains two types of documents: Function-Key Configuration documents and ABM Configuration documents. The Function-Key Configuration documents are used for configuring the HP Customized Function Keys and were discussed earlier in the Lotus Notes Application Support section of this document. The ABM Configuration documents are used to control the following HP entities: Public/Private Email, Public/Private Distribution Lists, Public Printers, and User Profiles. Using the ABM Configuration documents, CIR v3.52 will support the following features:

· Centralized Administration - Manage multiple HP 9100C Digital Senders from a single Lotus Notes Database.
· Public Email - From a single CIR ABM Configuration Document for E-mail list, you can fully synchronize your Lotus Notes Name and Address Book (NAB) with one or many HP 9100C Digital Senders. The document will update the respective HP Address Book on each configured digital sender. The document will track new, updated, and deleted records. Synchronizing with multiple Lotus Notes Name and Address Books is supported.
· Public Distribution Lists - From a single CIR ABM Configuration Document, you will be able to build a distribution list using a standard selection formula from any existing Lotus Domino Database or Lotus Notes Name and Address Book that contains valid e-mail addresses. The distribution list can be pushed to one or many HP 9100C Digital Senders.
· Public Printers - From a CIR ABM Configuration Document for Printers, you will be able to define which printer is available from which HP 9100C Digital Sender. This many-to-many relationship is controlled from one document. This allows for easy configuration of the send to printer (i.e. copy) feature. NOTE: The printers must be JetDirect printers attached to the network.
· User Profiles - Synchronize your Lotus Notes Name and Address Book with your HP 9100C Digital Sender address books.
· User Specific Password Protection - By creating user profiles with passwords, you can maintain secure control over your all of your HP 9100C Digital Senders. To completely eliminate unauthorized access, you must disable Guest Account access as well.
· Private Email and Distribution List - Once the Administrator has created a User Profile, the user or the Administrator can create private Email and Distribution Lists. These lists can be synchronized with a local Lotus Notes Name and Address Book or any local database containing valid SMTP e-mail addresses or groups of addresses. These private lists can be pushed to one or many HP 9100C Digital Senders.

Issues with Digital Sending in a Business Environment

Transforming paper documents into electronic documents can be extremely beneficial for a company; however, there are important points to consider before implementing a digital sending solution using Cobra Image Router.

How will CIR affect my servers? Stored images can consume considerably more disk space than plain text. Image size is also affected by the saturation of information on a page that has been processed using a digital sender. With CIR the processed images will be placed in the Notes environment for storage or routing. Therefore, Notes mail databases and application databases can increase in size depending on the size and quantity of images stored in the databases. If the databases become too large to be used efficiently or if documents are infrequently accessed, a mass storage server would be an alternative for document storage.

How will CIR affect my network? CIR was designed as a workgroup digital sending solution. Adding network digital senders to an existing network infrastructure would essentially be similar to adding additional network users. There will be increased network traffic. The impact of this increase of traffic depends on the current network conditions and the planned digital sending volume. CIR's only network requirement is TCP/IP.

Is there special or additional client software required to view images that are sent digitally? Lotus ships its 4.x releases of Notes with an image viewer that provides basic viewer capability; although, any viewing software that can recognize a TIFF or PDF file type is suitable for viewing images sent with CIR. For image file manipulation, a software package such as Lotus' Domino.Doc Imaging Client can be used for annotations, highlighting, optical character recognition, and redactions in addition to other functionality.

Benefits of Cobra Image Router

The greatest benefit that CIR offers users is the ability to eliminate the issues associated with viewing and storing paper-based documentation using their existing Notes infrastructure.

· Images can be placed directly into the Lotus Notes and Domino.Doc environment.
· Documents can be accessed by anyone with access to a Notes network by using a Notes client or a web browser.
· All users can view one copy of the document image rather than viewing multiple stored copies
· Multiple sites can view the image eliminating the need for multiple paper-based copies.
· Documents and images can be used and viewed while working remotely.
· Documents can be sent digitally to workflow applications that involve the use of paper-based information.
· Implementation can be optimized by reviewing and monitoring CIR usage.

Summary

Cobra Image Router increases productivity by improving information access. CIR contributes tremendous value to a company planning a networked digital sending solution by joining the versatile HP 9100C Digital Sender with the proven, productive, and open environment of Lotus Notes.

· Document storage and distribution costs are reduced.
· Document retrieval times are shortened.
· Digital sender administration is simplified.
· Dedicated digital sending workstations are not needed.

These characteristics position Cobra Image Router as a cost-effective paper-to-electronic document routing tool.

System Requirements

Software
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 (or higher)
Lotus Notes Server 4.5x (or higher)
TCP/IP

Hardware
Intel and compatible systems
One or more Pentium, Pentium Pro, or Pentium II processors
96 MB minimum for the Windows NT Server

Specific Companion Requirements
For Domino.Doc 2.0, 2.5 or 3.0, Domino 4.6 is required.
For fax capability, Lotus Fax Server 1.1 (or higher) and Domino Fax Server 4.5 (or higher) are supported.
For integrated OCR support, 128 MB of RAM is recommended.

Contacting Cobra Technologies

If you have questions or issues regarding Cobra Image Router, please contact Cobra Technologies directly.

World Wide Web:
http://www.cobratech.com
Updates relating to CIR issues, bug fixes, and future point releases are available at the Cobra Technologies web site.

Internet:
cirsupport@cobratech.com
Submit CIR comments or support questions

Mailing Address:
Cobra Technologies, Inc.
2930 Wellington Circle, Suite 201
Tallahassee, FL USA 32308

Telephone: 850.553.9393 (8:30am to 5:00pm Eastern Time)
Facsimile: 850.422.1535