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This magazine is copyright of the publisher - Micrographics Marketing Ltd, Burbage LE10 2BA UK Tel: 024 7638 2328 Fax: 024 7638 2319 Email: gsinfo@green-sheet.net

THE GREEN SHEET SHEET to go BI-MONTHLY for 2004

The Green Sheet (TGS) was born out of the marriage between The Micrographics Market Place from the UK and the US Micrographics and Hybrid Systems Newsletter. Since its inception in January 2002 TGS has kept the news of the Records Management industry in front of the relevant players on a monthly basis, but has struggled to attract sufficient advertising revenues to fully finance the editing, printing and mailing of the publication on a monthly basis.

As we are absolutely against the idea of allowing the high standards of production to drop, we have decided to revert to t*he original UK distribution pattern and go bi-monthly. This will clearly offer some savings on the mailing although, as we are anticipating each issue to be larger, averaging 32 pages per issue rather than the current 24, there will be minimal savings on the printing.

This increase in the content of each issue by one third, with the reduction in number of issues by one half, actually works out that the total reading matter will still be two thirds of the current situation. In a non-expanding market, we are confident that you will agree that this is a sensible move.

Advertising The advantages to you, as advertisers are clear, however, as you will now be able to participate in every issue without breaking your budgetary restrictions. And, because for the non subscribing portion of our circulation we operate a rolling selection from our total worldwide database, this means that no opportunity to reach your potential customer will be missed.

Alternatively, you may wish to place larger advertisements in which to promote your products or services, and still significantly reduce your annual spend, ie. Six half page adverts cost less than twelve quarters and placing six full pages is more economical than twelve halves. Series discounts will still apply when you book four or more insertions on the same order.

Editorial The editorial policy will remain unchanged, with comprehensive coverage of Records/Document Management of all types, from paper archives, through microfilm and electronic files, to the latest web-based systems.

Although bi-monthly we will still be looking at twelve features per annum and for 2004 they will be as follows:JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003 Review. A month by month backward glance at 2003.

Record Management Legislation. We will highlight some of the relevant legislation from the plethora that is continually being added to, both in the U.S. and Europe.

COPY DEADLINE 16th JANUARY 2004 MARCH/APRIL Capture Software Special. Many of the specialist softwares available will be featured.

AIIM Review. We will bring you the highlights from the 2004 AIIM Show.

COPY DEADLINE 19th MARCH 2004 MAY/JUNE Hybrid Systems. It is now accepted that the Hybrid is the optimum system where records need to be kept for 5 years +.

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Health Et Medical Records. Some interesting case studies, as well as feature articles.

COPY DEADLINE 14th MAY 2004 JULY/AUGUST Document Scanning and Microfilm Scanning COPY DEADLINE 16th JULY 2004 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER Archives on the Internet. Many bureaux are now offering ‘Internet Archiving’ as a regular service.

Records in the Financial Sector. A subject that is becoming more and more critical with the increasing legislation.

COPY DEADLINE 17th SEPTEMBER 2004 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER ARMA Review. We’ll keep you fully informed on what the U.S. records managers are up to.

General Micrographics. Microfilm still plays an important role in Document Management.

COPY DEADLINE 12th NOVEMBER 2004 Subscriptions We will ensure that subscribers are not exploited by reducing the cost of annual subscription pro rata. For subscribers who have already paid, we will honour their contract by extending their subscription period to include the issue numbers as quoted on their individual invoices. The new rates will be available shortly on request.

For further information contact <tim@green-sheet. net>

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The Move towards e-government

PAGE 4

By David Aspinall, Datum Solutions Limited

Wherever you live in the world, you may well have noticed that the way you interface with both local and central government, from both a personal and business perspective, is changing.

Five years ago there was hardly a computer in my local library, but today, in a small town in the south of England, there are fifteen internet connected systems. I recently completed my annual tax return on-line and facilities exist for all sorts of other transactions.

Behind these external signs of change there has been a huge investment and associated initiatives to standardise the ways in which organisations and individuals communicate. Have a look at http://www.unpan.org/egovemment2.asp - this is a joint United Nations/American Society for Public Administration report looking at e-governance in over 190 UN members.

Underlying all these initiatives are three strands: 1) - Use of common technological standards. Using the Internet as a standard method of communication, web browser’s at the user interface and a number of associated standards for security, electronic signatures and the way we hold information.

2) - Policy measures to bring disparate legislation in many countries into line, thus ensuring a secure and predictable legal framework for electronic transactions that provides the necessary confidence for both business and consumers.

3) - Common goals such as those initially approved by EU leaders in Lisbon in March 2000 (see http://ue.eu.int/en/info/eurocouncil/ select Presidency Conclusions and then Lisbon). Further meetings have resulted in eEurope2005 which identifies those areas where public policy can provide an added value.

These include: ★ Connecting public administrations, schools, health care to broadband. ★ Interactive public services, accessible for all, and offered on multiple platforms. ★ Online health services.

These measures also emphasise e-inclusion, including eaccessibility for people with special needs. E-inclusion means that key services must be available not only via personal computer but also via interactive digital television, third generation mobile phones and cable networks.

Governments worldwide have been pumping money into these projects and need to show a return to their electorates, but this is not as simple as it sounds. At a local level authorities are working hard to make services available to the public, whilst, in parallel, the laws, standards and infrastructure are still being developed. In the UK, the government has given financial incentives to local authorities and health service trusts to introduce electronic systems to improve service. At the same time it is investing in a National Health Service information backbone which will cost in the region of US$6 Billion. It has also spent a considerable amount of time and effort developing standards for secure access, a central government portal, electronic signatures and, hence, systems for electronic payments.

Although much of this work is in place, development continues. Meanwhile, at the sharp end, local government and health service administrators have been required to show a return on investment without all infrastructures in place.

It’s obviously not possible to develop an “all singing, all dancing” solution straight off and, generally, government reports consider the online delivery of public services as a three stage process: Stage 1 - information services: ensuring all public service information is available online through websites as well as delivery through traditional channels.

Stage 2 - interactive services: delivery of public services online, enabling complete transactions to be conducted through electronic channels.

Stage 3 - integrated services: whereby a single point of contact is used for all services, information available to one application can be used (where appropriate) by another application and service delivery becomes seamless and organised round user needs. For example, if one’s name and address already exists on file, why should an individual have to enter it every time they complete an online form?

Looking at various local government web sites in the UK, it soon becomes apparent that, with one or two notable exceptions, most organisations and most services are at Stage 1. Emphasis has been placed on providing information about services, giving online access to forms (although these frequently need to be printed out, completed and then posted) and meeting statutory requirements which have been introduced as part of these changes, including requests under the Freedom of Information Act and ensuring compliance with the revised Data Protection Act, which brings the UK into line with EU standards.

Arun District Council in West Sussex in the south of England is typical of many councils struggling to deliver better services. Talking to Paul Askew, who is Head of Revenues and Benefits, provided an insight into the sort of actions being taken to improve service levels. But first some background.

Councils in the UK gain a proportion of their revenues by means of a Council Tax which is imposed on private properties and Business Rates on commercial properties. Individuals can claim some relief from Council Tax by means of a benefits system. Councils also provide assistance to people on low income to help with rent. A benefit claim form is in excess of 30 pages long. Needless to say, those who require benefit are frequently those who are most disadvantaged and may often require help in completion of this formidable document. It is also not unusual for fraudulent claims to be made and almost every council has at least one individual assigned to fraud detection and reduction.

Arun District Council, as with the majority of councils, runs a combined Revenues and Benefits office. Although the two functions are different, they frequently require access to the same information and, of course, the Revenues group need to know about any Benefits associated with individuals in a given property. Traditionally, all this information was held in paper files in the Revenue and Benefits office.

Arun have 65,000 domestic properties liable for council tax

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and 4,000 commercial properties liable for Business Rates.

They kept files on more than 20,000 people for Benefit claims, of whom 10,000 would be active in a given year. The initial problems were very simple; they needed more space because of the large filing requirements and, because of retrieval problems, it was taking them 72 days to process benefit claims.

Arun introduced an EDMS (electronic doc ume nt management system) three years ago to address the issue.

The DocFinity system from OITUK was selected because it could be interfaced with the existing legacy system to access the mainframe database and because it was a general purpose system which could be used council­ wide for other applications if need be. In addition to freeing up all the filing space by moving to an electronic solution, Arun also used the DocFinity workflow system, which allowed them much better control of the overall business processes involved. In addition, the associated forms and supporting information was made available to the public via the Arun District Council web site.

So, what was the result and how does it help in the move to e-government? Well, first of all, Paul posed a very interesting situation. One of the driving factors in the move to egovernment is the introduction of CRM systems and centralised call centres. So, if you get lots of calls about your rubbish/garbage collection services what do you do? - No, you don’t immediately put all the calls through your new call centre; you find out what the problem is, get it fixed and, hence, reduce the number of calls!

This, in fact, was one of the effects of the changes. Not only did Arun get their space savings, they: increased their Council Tax collection from a very creditable 97.4°/o to 97.9°/o, reduced the time to process benefit claims from 72 days to 41 days and, because there were fewer errors, they reduced visits to the office to resolve problems by 20°/o!

Paul’s one comment was that, living with continual change in legislation combined with the business process changes, it was veiy difficult to keep a steady hand on the business. Next year it will be necessary to replace the ageing legacy system with a new open system from SX3. The DocFinity suite will then be interfaced with that system and a higher level of support can be provided. Arun have also cut their development time and costs by working alongside two other councils - North Tyneside and Wealden.

So, in terms of Revenues and Benefits, Arun have certainly provided Stage 1 e-government as explained above. With the introduction of their new Revenues and Benefits system, they should be in a position to provide Stage 2 and some elements of Stage 3 in that the public should not have to enter information which is already on the system!

Paul’s main concern is that there will still be a need for alternative strategies to the web for submission of Benefit claims, because of the complexity of the forms and the fact that these are some of the most disadvantaged members of the public.

In conclusion, and despite complaints about the government’s expenditure on non-core services in the UK, there has to be this seed change, both from central government and at the sharp end, in order to bring about this revolution in how we go about our daily lives. Countries that don’t take up this challenge will simply be left behind.

Contact: David Aspinall, Datum Solutions Limited, Datum House, 4 Priory Close, Fleet, Hampshire, GU51 4ED, Tel: 01252 612805, E-mail: daspinall@datum-solutions.co.uk

TRANSM E DTA LTD

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Developments at Cave Tab pic

Major equipment investment

Following major investment in ‘state of the art’ hardware and software, Northampton based document management specialist Cave Tab pic can now offer a superior document scanning and storage service. The service will bring significant benefits to Cave Tab clients - minimising, or totally eliminating, their paper filing requirement, whilst facilitating easy access and reference to archived documents.

The enhanced scanning service offered by Cave Tab is the result of the commissioning of new Kodak i820 high speed, high capacity scanning equipment which can process black and white or colour documents, up to A3 in size, at a rate of 120 pages per minute.

Cave Tab offers a complete service to clients including the collection of documents, scanning and indexing to agreed parameters and their subsequent return on CD or DVD. A CD will hold the equivalent of about 15,000 A4 images and a DVD about 120,000 - typically the contents of 12 filing cabinets.

If required, the scanned documents can be supplied to the client electronically or hosted on secure web space accessible only by the user.

Speaking of the new investment, Mr lan Keers, managing director of Cave Tab said “This significant investment in our scanning capability will enable us to offer very fast turnaround times and to cope with the largest of back file conversion projects. Our latest scanning equipment is capable of working around the clock when necessary, to enable us to

Speaking on his appointment, Emrys Williams said “In recent years our industry has developed from being a peripheral service provider to becoming more closely integrated with our clients’ strategic aims.

“I am delighted to be joining Cave Tab following the company’s recent investment in high capacity scanning equipment which will enable us to give an enhanced service to our customers. We can now offer the full spectrum of services ranging from short term scanning requirements to on-going project managed document handling and tracking systems.”

Using the state-of-the-art hardware and software, Cave Tab has the capacity to scan thousands of pages per day into most EDM system formats. Once scanned, the information can be supplied to the user using any storage medium.

Contact: Emrys Williams, Cave Tab pic, 1 Sovereign Court, Round Spinney, Northampton NN3 8RH Tel: 01604 798 540 Fax: 01604 798 524 www.cavetab.co.uk and www.scanningfiles.co.uk

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offer our customers a premium service”.

In addition to scanning conventional business documents, Cave Tab can also handle large format documents such as AO size engineering drawings, as well as the digital conversion of documents stored on microfilm.

New Business Development Manager appointed Cave Tab has announced the appointment of a Business Development Manager to promote its digital scanning bureau services.

Appointed to this new position is Mr. Emrys Williams who has over ten years experience in the industry and has previously worked for Xerox UK and Mitek Systems Ltd. Prior to this he was involved in systems and software design for the transportation/distribution industry.

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IF YOU THOUGHT CD-RS WERE THE SAFEST WAY TO ARCHIVE PRECIOUS FAMILY PHOTOS, THINK AGAIN. New test results reveal that CD-R discs can become unreadable in under two years, with some manufacturers using cheaper materials to cut costs.

Researchers burned hundreds of discs from 31 manufacturers (16 each) in November 2001 and re-tested them 20 months later. They were stored in a closed cabinet and used only »once.

“Three brands had severe ageing problems,” said lead tester Jeroen Horlings, of Dutch PC Active. “Two were still readable - but for how long? And one was only partially readable.”

The discs were tested with a CD Associates CDA3000, a high end analyser used in the CD manufacturing industry.

Horlings said the three bad brands, all Dutch generics, have an exceptionally high error rate corresponding with the location of logos and other graphic elements printed on the disc.

The research report stated the most reliable brands are Memorex, Parrot, TDK, Sony, Fuji, Verbatim, HP, Acer, Octron and Maxell.

Verbatim Australia managing director Merv Tabe said cheap generic CD-Rs often have porous lacquer layers on the top that allow salt to penetrate through to the silver reflective layer, causing oxidisation. It’s possible that, in the Dutch case, the label stamping had damaged the lacquer layer, making it easier for oxidisation to occur.

Although Verbatim continues to make healthy profits because of its ownership of all stages of the CD-R manufacturing process, the industry is generally troubled by consumer expectations of cheaper media costs, Tabe said.

Where CD-Rs were once made with a true gold metal layer (which doesn’t oxidise), manufacturers can no longer afford to use it due to consumer pressure for cheap discs.

“Unfortunately the reflective layer issue has become clouded.

Some brands call their product gold, but the reflective layer isn’t gold - its gold printing on the top layer and not actually the metal gold,” said Tabe.

PAGE /

CD-Rs unreadable after two years

“There are many reasons why poorly manufactured CD-Rs can fail,” he said “including the fact that most manufacturers are using low-cost pthalo-cyanine ink from a single chemical manufacturer.” As manufacturers responded to the everincreasing speed of CD writers, they had to cut ink thickness, making the recording layer more vulnerable to the tiniest amounts of degradation. “Media dye deteriorates by UV light - after all, it is a light-sensitive dye. We have even found that just by reading the disc, the laser causes the dye to deteriorate.

“Recordable DVDs are even more susceptible to deterioration because of their significantly higher track density,” he said.

Some manufacturers are using dye without paying royalty fees, and leaving the dye manufacturer ID off the disc’s innertracks. As a result, CD writers use the wrong laser power for writing to that particular type of dye.

“It’s tough for the consumer to find who is truly an original manufacturer. Some of the top brands out there are just that: branded” said Tabe.

Factory-made CDs have pits pressed into a layer of aluminium, based on a molded master. CD-R discs use an organic dye layer in front of a reflective layer to simulate the pits found in a pressed CD. Heat from CD writer lasers can break down chemicals, causing a slight change in reflective quality.

The process doesn’t “burn" the dye, rather the chemical change is only very slight. In many cases users won’t notice that a disc is failing or damaged, due to the CD format’s extensive error correction data, according to Tabe. About 30% of the data on a CD is Cross-Interleaved Reed-Solomon Code (ECC) data. Various attempts have been made to reduce it, and in 2002 Sanyo announced a format that packs 1.4GB onto a standard-sized CD by reducing the ECC component 10% of the disc.

However, as the Dutch PC Active’s disc durability findings show, error correction data is tremendously important, especially on CD-Rs. Dan Wame - First published in PC Active magazine, Holland.

RELOCATION & Document

By Eddie Nelson, NORD-PLAN Ltd

Eddie Nelson is Sales and Marketing Manager at NORD-PLAN. He has a wealth of experience in document management and storage issues, having been in the industry for 15 years, the last 5 of which have been at NORD-PLAN. NORD-PLAN systems are used in offices, libraries, hospitals, pharmacies, surgeries and specialist archives.

Relocation, whether for an entire organisation or a single office, is an ideal time to review document storage and the management of paper-based information. But many managers miss this, sometimes once in a lifetime, chance to improve space utilisation and working practices. By treating filing cabinets as furniture to be moved from one location to another, they can easily lock inefficiencies and outmoded systems into place for years to come.

Take a strategic approach But through taking a strategic look at an organisation’s document management requirements in the early stages of a move, relocation can be used as an opportunity to consolidate storage space, introduce operational improvements and enhance space utilisation. Planning for the necessary physical infrastructure, resources and equipment to support effective document management should be an essential part of the manager’s remit. It can impact on the total demand for floor space, with the potential to significantly reduce downstream accommodation requirements and costs.

Relocation is also a chance to audit existing filing and document management practices. Don’t just transfer ineffective or inefficient arrangements from one place to another. It is surprising how often organisations move entire swathes of filing cabinets en bloc into new premises without any thought about whether the underlying systems or physical storage arrangements could be improved or tailored to the new environment.

So what improvements can managers expect to gain from taking a strategic look at document storage arrangements as part of a relocation project? ★ Improved use of space The importance of effective storage systems is well documented, particularly in the office environment where space is often at a premium and every square metre must be efficiently used.

With the potential to drastically reduce the floor space needed to hold records and files, there can often be significant benefits in terms of space savings that flow from a review of storage needs. And reducing the overall document storage footprint will often open up opportunities to locate files and records much closer to the staff that use them. ★ Cost savings For many organisations, document storage is a major call on floor space. It is estimated that, even in today’s digital workplaces, companies double their filing every five years. Reducing this demand on floor space offers tangible cost savings. There are also savings - often more difficult to quantify but no less important - that flow from improvements in operational efficiency, flexibility and safety.

★ Improved operational efficiency The potential for improvements in efficiency and service levels are often as important as the immediate space and cost savings. Faster and easier document retrieval; a better service to colleagues; a more pleasant and stylish work environment; a tidier and more efficient office are just some of the operational improvements often cited by businesses after implementing new systems. ★ Future-proofing In the current working environment, organisational flexibility is essential. Re-organisations, mergers, consolidation, chum and changing work patterns have an impact on facilities and infrastructure. Filing and storage is no exception. Any strategic review should look to ensure that systems are future proof and provide the flexibility needed to allow for changing requirements and circumstances. ★ Improved safety Employers are required to undertake regular workplace risk assessments and office filing systems should form an integral part of this exercise. Take the standard four-draw filing cabinet: health and safety experts see this as a major offender when it comes to workplace injuries. It may be one of the most widely used storage methods, but it has one of the worst safety records. It is no coincidence that the flush fitting finishes and clear walkway access associated with high-density mobile systems improves health and safety records. The potential for accidents is significantly reduced. ★ Improved working environment Most people take the opportunity offered by an office move to create a tidy and uncluttered work environment.

But the real test is whether this state can be maintained once a normal working routine is restored; if the top of filing cabinets were used as open storage for files before a move, the chances are that they will be used in that way afterwards. Compare this situation with mobile systems, which do not have the open surfaces that almost inevitably result in the build up of clutter. ★ Better security Reviewing storage is not just looking at what, why and how documents are used. Access to files, particularly in open plan or public environments, can be an important consideration. Take the opportunity of a move to investigate systems that combine ease of use for authorised staff during work hours with security features that help prevent unauthorised or out-of-hours access to confidential items.

The NCFE Example A good example of how to make the most of a relocation is NCFE, one of the UK’s largest further education awarding bodies. NCFE used a move to new premises in Newcastle as an opportunity to take a fresh look at its document storage and

filing arrangements. A key outcome of the review was the installation of a high-density NORD-PLAN mobile storage system to replace the numerous filing cabinets used at the previous offices. This has saved space for NCFE, provided better access to information and been a catalyst for improved working practices.

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At NCFE’s previous offices, the filing and document storage was based around 70 four drawer filing cabinets and, as they put it, “a veiy full and disorganised store room.” By contrast, the new high-density system forms a core filing and storage area that is used by all of NCFE’s staff. A small breakout area has been installed next to the units to encourage staff to view the area as an integral part of the working environment. The philosophy here, as with the rest of the office design, was to keep the workplace open and visible. This strategic review of document management has resulted in significant improvements in the way in which NCFE uses and stores paper-based information - the outcome they were looking for.

A moving story The management of paper-based information is a critical aspect of most business operations. Inefficient storage systems inevitably impact on workplace productivity. In this context, high-density mobile storage systems can often form a key component of an organisation’s document management strategy. They offer a cost effective and efficient option that can deliver significant space and cost savings as part of the filing and storage mix. Add to this the considerable advantages in terms of flexibility, productivity, safety and security and you have a powerful economic and operational case for high-density mobile solutions in almost any office environment.

So make the most of any relocation by taking a strategic look at future storage requirements, addressing any longstanding storage problems and making a major impact on the way documents are managed and used. It could be a moving story!

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PAGE 9

Storage

Nationwide field service provider and supplier of Document Management Solutions

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ROUND (V A B 0 U T ITESOFT Appoints Richard Brown as Sales and Marketing Executive 1TESOFT has appointed Richard Brown to the post of sales and marketing executive, to continue to spearhead a push for UK data capture market share. Richard will play a key role in the marketing of ITESOFT’s new document and data capture software, ITESOFT.FreeMind.

Richard joins ITESOFT UK from New York-based finance and investment conference leader, Information Management Network, where he worked to establish close working links with internationally located firms including Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Since graduating from the University of Surrey, Richard worked as a regional and national news journalist before his transition into the sales and marketing arena. Commenting on his appointment he said: ’’One of my primary objectives will be to drive ITESOFT’s determined plans to hold seminars and conferences across the UK to develop increased product knowledge and understanding of ITESOFT’s document and data capture solutions.”

The new appointment follows a successful year in which ITESOFT launched their new software suite, ITESOFT.FreeMind, for the automatic capture, processing and management of unstructured documents enabling companies to achieve significant business benefits with high volume data capture of all documents with assured security. Productivity returns come through accelerated document retrieval, faster filing, and reduced staffing requirements.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Archiving Kodak Commercial Imaging is offering UK businesses a chance to comprehensively evaluate their storage systems and find out how much they would gain from investment in an effective archiving solution. The service involves a visit from a Kodak Commercial Imaging specialist, who carries out analysis on the level of investment, the ongoing cost of existing systems and the resulting benefits of implementing a Kodak Reference Archive. This enables businesses to calculate the true costs of document retention over an entire lifetime, allowing managers to make the right choices when it comes to selecting a storage solution. ’Kodak has a rich history of helping a wide range of industry sectors manage risk by providing equipment, software and services to improve the efficiency and reliability of archiving documents,” said Robert Young, UK Manager for Capture and Imagelink at Kodak Commercial Imaging. ’’This service will genuinely help a lot of UK companies become more cost effective.”

Reference Archiving offers a digital-to-analogue-to-digital solution that combines short-term reference capabilities with long-term archiving. Kodak’s Reference Archiving solutions, incorporating digital-to-film writers and filmto-digital scanners, convert digital documents and data onto Reference Archive Media. This not only secures these documents for the long-term, but the images can also be converted from film to digital files as and when required for sharing and distribution.

Contact: Jon Tripp, Kodak Commercial Imaging Tel: 01442 844 986 Email: jonathan.tripp@kodak.com jh ill n ! / OITUK hosted Annual User Club meeting OITUK hosted the Seventh Annual User Club meeting at Chateau Impney, near H / Droitwich, on October 23rd and 24th.

H / This year saw the first two-day event, with a “social agenda” during the evening. This year also saw the launch of the OITUK Health Sector Forum, on Thursday 23rd October, with representatives from several NHS Trusts around"the f^ R olli-ilm Scanning UK, and, notably, Lorraine Nicholson of IHRIM, and Ronnie Monaghan from the 16mm - .015 35mm - .04 per image Office of e-Envoy. Following a most entertaining “Murder Mystery” evening in Droitwich, the full User Club session took place on Friday 24th October, with a Aperture Cards number of presentations including a case study presented by Steve Emrick of ost .15 each includes testing to define im age quality standards, reading Hollerith data, BMI, Nashville, USA, and DocFinity updates from Scott Buchart, President of transmission or writing to CD. Customized OIT Inc., USA. A separate Newsletter will be sent out in due course. cropping and redacting also available.

Call for fiche scanning prices OITUK are also pleased to announce two major recent contract awards: Southern Housing Group - a large Housing Association based in the South of S p e n n y im a g in g .c o m England, and May Gurney Ltd., a major construction company with several around the UK. S (631)244-1489 u.s.A bases Contact: Vijay Magon on vijay.magon@oituk.com

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ROUND ( V A B O D T Virtual Vault for Document Images Preview has launched its new on line image storage service called eView+. Sometimes known as a ‘Virtual Vault’ or ‘Web Repository’, eView+ is a state-of-the-art service for storing images of all kinds.

All companies have significant volumes of documents that need archiving. In many cases the hard copies all reside in cabinets in offices and take up considerable space. They are vulnerable to all kinds of threats and often take time to find and access. Even the electronic versions take up large amounts of server space and bandwidth.

The new eView+ service changes all this.

Clients’ documents are first scanned or electronically copied and then instantly uploaded to the secure website and made available immediately to an authorised person with a standard web browser. This gives massive benefits to clients who need instant access or who have limited space on their own networks. eView+ offers a range of access packages from on line to near line to offline, with different price bands for each level. This makes it extremely economical and flexible, particularly as the service can provide detailed reports on the number of accesses made in a given period .

Nick Outteridge of Preview believes that the new service has universal appeal. “eView+ now allows us to offer a complete service without the need to use the client’s own network to store the images. This is particularly helpful for those clients who have a large number of pages or who have network limitations” Many of Preview’s clients have started to investigate the new service and so far more than 1,000,000 images are due to be committed to eView+ in the next month alone.

Contact: Chris Wilde, Preview, 1 Mount Road, Hanworth, Middlesex TW13 6AR. Tel: +44 (0)20 8755 5 700 Fax: +44 (0)20 8755 5715 Email: chris.wilde@previewservices.com Regus announces plan to exit Chapter 11 Regus pic (Regus), the world’s largest provider of serviced offices, today announced a Plan of Reorganisation which will result in the company exiting Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code of the United States at an earlier date than expected.

This follows the successful restructuring of Regus’ US operations.

Subject to the necessary court, creditor and shareholder approvals being achieved, Chapter 11 has enabled the Regus Group to restructure a US business which was losing US$4 million per month. As a result of this and other actions, the Group as a whole has now moved to cash break-even at the operating level on a global basis.

Details of the Group’s interim financial performance have been released in a separate announcement today. This sets out half-year results for the period ended 30 June 2003.

Regus Chairman John Matthews commented: “We are delighted with today’s news. Exiting Chapter 11 within 12 months is a very positive result. With major reorganisation now behind us, Regus is well placed to benefit from any sustained upturn in its key markets around the globe.”

Contact: Stephen Jolly, Regus pic on +44 (0)1932 895 135 Document Mamagement capability for HP LaserJet MFPs The JetCAP Scan2Folder from solutions provider s.a.x. Ltd increases the already considerable scope of HP LaserJet multi­ function printers, by adding significant document management and archiving capability.

Scan2Folder is a softwarebased solution that makes it easy to integrate an HP LaserJet MFP with the user’s document workflow.

Documents scanned on the LaserJet can either be sent to an e-mail address or saved into a pre-determined folder.

No extra software is needed, nor even a PC. Using HP Chai technology on a standard browser, the user sets up the FTP server address, user name, password and domain name details. Once the destination address has been created, it is automatically added to the e-mail address book of the printer. The user can then opt to save the document to a folder or send it to however many e-mail addresses are required.

Perfectly integrated into the office environment, the Sca2Folder can be installed on the hard drive of an HP LaserJet 4100 MFP or a LaserJet 9000 MFP. For further information contact: Mark Hope s.a.x. Ltd. Tel: 01293 535444 Fax: 01293 539444 Email: info@sax.ltd.uk or visit www.sax.ltd.uk

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ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston

This Year ARMA had a "normal" conference and exposition Attendance was up but visitors saw little truly "new" in the exhibit hall.

In 2002 there were hurricanes preceding and immediately following ARMA International’s annual conference and exposition in New Orleans. The year prior the event, set in Montreal, was held two weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York and Washington. This year there were no such disasters breaking at the time of the 48th annual conference and exposition, held in Boston, Oct. 19-22, and the conference and show drew a happier and larger crowd.

According to ARMA, this year’s conference attracted 1,780 paid attendees, who were part of the total attendance of 2,999 for the concurrent exposition. Adding in 1,356 exhibitor personnel there were 4,355 people at the conference and exposition.

They were able to roam through 111,000 square feet of show space, comprising 190 booths with exhibits from roughly 200 companies; in several instances companies shared booths.

There was relatively little new in any product category.

Perhaps the most interesting development seen at the exposition was a growing emphasis on software solutions directed toward managing e-mail records.

Trends: e-mail management There were at least a half-dozen vendors offering products for “e-mail life cycle management”. While not presently tied in with microfdm, the development suggests a possible long-term potential. E-mail would be captured and indexed, then digitally recorded. To comply with government record keeping requirements there could then be a long-term role for microfdm as the archival medium for key and vital records, none of which had created a “paper trail”.

The attention to e-mail records management tied in with corporate - and therefore ARMA user member - interest in the ramifications of the US Sarbanes-Oxley law that forces companies to document that they are retaining all records

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pertaining to their operations, so as to make it all but impossible for rogue executives to defraud shareholders, the government, employees or the general public. It was enacted in the wake of the Enron, WorldCom, MCI, Arthur Andersen and other corporate scandals, and has refocused attention on the importance of records management and document retention.

A survey commissioned by ARMA of top executives at American publicly-held companies showed an even split on whether Sarbanes Oxley will prove effective in reducing financial reporting problems. At the same time, less than onethird of executives (30%) said their company today would be well prepared to face the challenge of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into their information control practices. Some 95% of executives said their companies will have to make some changes to their records management procedures in order to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley, but 55% admitted their companies had made only “some” or “a little” progress toward compliance.

Micrographics/Imaging Products at ARMA Once again, from a micrographics/imaging exhibitor viewpoint, the success of the show for exhibitors depended on what the vendors were looking for. Obviously, if it was large numbers of visitors, ARMA is not a prime venue. But if it was an opportunity to see dedicated users, as well as many dealers and distributors, in one spot, it continues to be a useful show.

And, as usual, it’s a good chance to catch up on what’s current in the fdm-based and hybrid imaging world, particularly if the visitor/vendor did not attend the AIIM International exposition earlier in the year.

Approximately 20 exhibits featured micrographics-related products or services in a significant way; approximately another dozen had some tangential relation to micrographics, for example storage organisations that host security microfilms for clients. Overall, there were slightly fewer micrographicsrelated exhibitors than last year.

Truly “new” products were the exception at the exposition. These included a new model of eImageData’s ScanPro desktop microfilm scanners, the ScanPro 35, an aperture card/35mm roll film scanner; and Mekel Technology’s new M625 roll film production microfilm scanner. Both introductions are described below.

While some micrographics products shown were new to ARMA, they had been debuted earlier in the year at either the AIIM or CeBIT shows. These included the nextScan production microfilm scanners, the Omniscan 1000 microfilm scanner from Zeutschel shown by Crowley Micrographics, Eastman Kodak’s i7300 replacement for the Intelligent Microimage Scanner (IMS) and the 9600 series Archive Writers, Canon’s on-

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ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston Connecticut Micrographics (CMI) displayed its varied line of fiche and roll film duplicators for which it is virtually the only manufacturer in the United States. CMI produces ammonia and non-ammonia diazo units and also vesicular process units. In addition CMI manufactures and distributes the FlexWAND camera film numbering device, the AEC/P automatic exposure system and the MRS microfilm retrieval system. A CMI division, the Fiche Factory, custom cuts fiche in various sizes and colour stripes.

E-mail: peter@micrographics.com Crowley Micrographics is the US distributor for Zeutschel microfilm scanners and cameras as well as book scanners, overhead and planetary scanners. Crowley also owns the rights to, and is the distributor of, the newly-redesigned line of Mekel microfilm and microfiche scanners as well as Houston Fearless processors and Extek Microsystems microfilm product lines.

The Omniscan 1000 is Zeutschel’s 2003-introduced roll film scanner for libraries and archives. Nicknamed “the cappuccino maker” by some because of its eye-catching design, it comes in three versions. The OS 1000HS is a production model with 256 gray scale mode. The OS 1000SP is an on-demand scan-to-print and scan-to-file model with 256 gray scale. The OS 1000 Color unit is a production-level colour model with 36-bit colour scan mode. Scan speeds are up to 160 fpm for 16mm at 200 dpi, and 60 fpm at 300 dpi.

Maximum scan resolution is 400 dpi. Image output is to all standard image formats.

E-mail: info@ crowleymicrographics.com Eastman Kodak, through its Commercial Imaging Group, offers a variety of capture equipment, media and services for imaging and document management. Featured micrographics related components were the i7300 scanner and i9600 Archive Writer. Using application software the i7300 retrieves information from 16mm microfilm, displays it digitally for identification and for distribution within a company. The i9600 Archive Writer outputs to microfilm from digital images.

Kodak promoted the concept of fully integrated high- and mid-volume systems for capturing documents to film. An electronic microimaging platform includes a scanner, which captures the source documents and creates images and special software to edit, enhance, group and index images before committing them to ISO/ANSI standard 16mm archival media. The i9600 Archive Writer is the output side of the platform and can accept digital document images from any source. A corresponding ASCII-based Preservation Index is matched to the film to enable manual or computer-driven retrievals.

Kodak also introduced the new i80 scanner, a departmental level paper scanner that joins the i800 Series of scanners for mid volume production, the i200 Series for low volume production and the previously introduced i50 and i60 scanners. Visit www.kodak.com/do/docimaging Eye Com discussed its complete line of micrographics and document management equipment and solutions. It emphasised the DRS 3000 workstation for viewing filmbased media converted to digital images. An improved version now can also capture A-E size drawings with a new low magnification 6.5- 10X lens. At 10-15X it can capture a full size frame. Based on ImageMouse technology (which is

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demand M300 microfilm scanner-reader, and S-T Imaging’s updated Scan Write library scanner software.

The few that were new The new e-Image Data ScanPro 35 is claimed to be the only low cost unit available that takes engineering size aperture cards and 35mm roll film. It includes a combination aperture card/fiche carrier (for which an optional roll film carrier can be substituted), a 12X lens, auto ImageAssembler software, document management software, scanner-to-PC cable and manuals. The technology involved is the same as for earlier ScanPro models. The company is now taking orders for shipment. E-mail to:info@e-imagedata.com i Mekel introduced its new M625 and M625HS roll film scanners, fifth generation units from the company which marketed its first high speed scanner in 1987. The M625 builds on the features of the earlier M525 but adds improvements in scan speed and image quality. The M625 scans at a rated speed of 150 images per minute for 200 dpi at 24X from 16mm film; the M625HS can scan at up to 200 images per minute. Both models produce in both gray scale and bi-tonal formats simultaneously. To achieve best scan speeds, all image enhancement takes place at the board level and not in software. Thus, deskew, autocrop, autorotate and image compression can be done during scan time without slowing down the scanner. Mekel refers to its capability as “No Rescan Scanning”. The M625s will start shipping in November and the company is also offering an upgrade package to current users of the M525.

In addition, Mekel announced enhancements for the Model M565-200 fiche/jacket scanner. All new units have new optics, lamp circuitry, camera and firmware that are said to allow users to produce high quality images from poor quality microfilm. Visit www.mekel.com Tried but True Agfa-SourceCorp Microfilm Distribution Services (MDS) featured the Agfa microfilm products for which it is the national distributor in the United States. MDS is a division of SourceCorp, a major multi-branch business outsourcing firm, which includes microfilm services among its offerings.

Visit fyiglover@earthlink.net ALOS Micrographics demonstrated its line of equipment. These include reader-printers such as the ALOS Z43, desktop film scanners like the ALOS Z-Scan 45, a planetary camera and a variety of rollfilm and universal carriers that can be used with most manufacturers’ reader-printers. ALOS, which has been manufacturing micrographic equipment for more than half a century, now does OEM production and distribution for other companies as well as its own products.

E-mail: micrographics@alosusa.com Canon USA once again devoted most of its exhibit to document scanners and copiers, for which it holds major market share in the United States. However, it did also show its MS300 digital scanner-reader which can be used as a printer by connecting it to a PC and using an existing printer. The unit uses the same carriers and lenses as the MS400 and MS500. It also has 8-bit gray scale scanning and a scan-to-e-mail facility that works with existing e-mail software. Resolution is 600 x 600 dpi compared to 400 x 400 dpi on the MS400 and MS500. Canon also offers the DR 5060F, a digital scanner with a built-in microfilm backup system.

Visit www.usa.canon.com,www.canon.co.uk or www.canon-europe.com

ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston available separately in different standalone systems for ondemand scanning and conversion needs), the DRS includes an image capture unit, choice of 24-48X or 10-30X magnification, and a customised Intel Pentium-based computer system. Resolution of the captured images is 3.2 megapixels and the capture speed is under one second. The standard system comes with a microfiche carrier. Optional manual and motorised roll film configurations are available.

Eye Com also promoted Scan ft View Plus, a complete paper and film scanning and retrieval system as a low-to-mid volume imaging package. It uses paper scanners to capture and file images to an electronic database; software to index, file and retrieve the images; and an ImageMouse Plus film scanning system.

The company also discussed its line of readers, readerprinters and accessories as well as other related products for which it is a distributor. E-mail: olgam@eyecom.com Indus International showed and/or discussed the complete line of microfilm, microfiche and opaque card readers and printers it manufactures as well as its large format microfilm camera. Highlighted was the 4608 Digital Print Station that combines an Indus reader with the ScreenScan Model 100 film digitiser. This enables the user to print images from the reader screen to a high resolution laser printer. The 4608 accepts 16mm and 35mm microfilm from open reels or ANSI cartridges as well as microfiche and aperture cards when the proper carrier is installed. With an 11X lens, an entire 35mm frame can be viewed on the screen. The Print Station also can be equipped with an optical image rotation prism for lenses other than 11X. Indus’ subsidiary Indus MIS Inc. offers turnkey electronic document management solutions (EDMS) as well as hardware such as book scanners.

E-mail: info@indususa.com nextScan showed its Eclipse production level 16/35mm rollfilm scanner and the Phoenix rollfilm scanner, a unit designed to upgrade older and slower SunRise 16/35mm microfilm scanners. The Eclipse can scan up to 300 24X pages per minute at 200 dpi. It creates gray scale and bitonal images simultaneously. The unit is designed to run 24 hours per day and boasts 20 second high speed rewind, auto focus and straight line film loading. It works with nextScan’s Fusion software that is said to minimise operator set up time.

Fusion analyses image data and provides a base setup for the operator. The Phoenix, which is designed to fit within the housing of older, unsupported SunRise scanners, uses new camera technology to provide sharper images with better edge definition. It also uses fibre optics for its light source, eliminating hot spots and uneven lighting, ft is also designed to use Fusion software and is capable of scanning up to 220 24X pages per minute at 200 dpi.

The company also announced that Ilmage Retrieval UK Ltd. has been added as its exclusive reseller for the UK, Scotland and Ireland. Ilmage Retrieval UK also will have non­ exclusive rights to sell and support customers in the rest of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Previously, Ilmage had been named official US reseller and support organization for nextScan. Once the largest reseller of SunRise scanners in the US, Ilmage has discontinued sales of SunRise products. In Canada, Ristech is the official reseller for nextScan’s microfilm scanners. Visit www.nextscan.com

S-T Imaging, a division of Digital Check, introduced its ScanWrite library scanner software and showed its previouslydebuted Flip-Top Library Film Scanner Update Kit. Scan-Write works with any TWAIN compatible microfilm scanner. The software allows users to scan directly to a CD as well as view, edit, print and e-mail. Users only need to know what they want to do, not how to do it. Mouse clicks eliminate most keyboard input requirements. Scan-Write also works with Touch Screen monitors.

The Flip-Top Upgrade, compatible with a variety of library readers, allows projected images from these readers to be scanned directly to a PC with output in TIFF, JPEG and PNG file formats. Scan modes are 48-bit color and 16-bit gray scale.

Visit www.stimaging.com Service Offerings ACS outlined the document management services it offers, calling them its core business. In the microfilm area, the multi­ billion dollar company has 30 service centres where each month it processes/duplicates 65 million feet of film (more than 7 billion images) and captures/converts more than 30 million documents. In addition it stores 12 million rolls of microfilm, encompassing more than 1.3 billion images. Microfilm services include film processing, duplication, image conversion (film and digital), inspection, quality control, reporting, film storage and image retrieval. The company is rightfully proud of its 10,000 public and private sector clients and its 30,000 employees.

Visit www.acs-inc.com Anacomp announced Image Express, a one-stop solution for creating indexed document images and storing them on microfiche or 16mm roll film for archival purposes. It consists of an integrated networked scanner, image capture software, Anacomp’s automated indexing software (Image Direct) running on a workstation and Anacomp's XFP2000 or IDP 1600 COM platforms. The company also announced a series of outsource packages to help companies meet their corporate accountability obligations under the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The new packages supplement on-line web document archive and retrieval services with self-contained CD or microfiche backup solutions. They also provide for the outsourcing of document archives to an offsite location to help ensure business continuity in the case of a natural or man-made disaster.

Anacomp also said that it is teaming-up in North America with ACS to provide document capture and presentment services.

Anacomp will combine its outsourced Application Service Provider (ASP) solution with ACS scanned source documents to leverage both companies’ expertise in document management outsourcing. It brings ACS into Anacomp’s customer base with ACS as a subcontractor and will end up either with an “Anacomp” solution or a co-branded solution. The partnership enables the two companies to avoid duplicating infrastructures.

In addition to pushing its docHarbor web hosting and e-mail archiving approaches, this year Anacomp is promoting capture services and its data centres. Microfilm-related services are still a major business for Anacomp which has roughly 80 US “service points”. These are about 40 data centres and an equal number of on-site locations.

Bill Shute, Anacomp SVP-marketing, told The Green Sheet that there has been a resurgence in the US of putting bit-mapped images on film, as well as in refreshing older images. This compensates, in part, for a general decline in film business. By contrast, in Europe Anacomp finds conversion to fiche for

ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston Data Trev, Carolina Conversions, Nova Solutions, and COM Parts Plus. The services VIT offers include data conversion and micrographic services, document and film conversion services, data preservation and retrieval services and information services. Total solutions created for customers provide, as needed, COM, microfilm, CD, document and film scanning, image conversions, optical system conversion, internet delivery of images, and data preservation and access.

Visit www.vimagetech.com Microfilm Services ISG Meets in abbreviated session Other than the pre-conference/exposition meeting held by the ARMA Microfilm Services Group, there were no strictly micrographics-oriented sessions at the conference. The 151member microfilm services ISG (of whom perhaps 15°/o attended the meeting) has an interesting composition. Some 59°/o are vendors (commercial service bureaux), 17°/o are non­ government end-users, and 24% are government employees of internal service bureaux providing imaging and micrographics.

Even the Group’s meeting, organised by its head, John Glover, Microfilm Distribution Services div. SourceCorp, was shorter than those of previous years. This reflected a change in emphasis by ARMA International. Instead of stressing individual ISG (industry specific group) meetings and giving them several hours in a meeting room, ARMA now lumps interest groups together. Microfilm Services was placed under the “contractor” segment which included four types of services for which individual users might contract. The four shared one room and were given an hour apiece.

In The Green Sheet’s opinion this may be good from ARMA’s organisational viewpoint but it short changes the individual ISGs. In this case, there was little time left for questions, give and take and networking after the session’s hour was up. In

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legacy purposes is still doing well with much more modest decline than in the US and 16mm business is actually growing.

While no longer manufacturing the XFP2000 (of which there are more than 800 installed worldwide) and IDP 1600 COM recorders, Anacomp said it is “re-manufacturing” units to “as new” condition and selling them in the US and Europe. It also sells DragonCOMs (Japanese language units) in Japan.

Visit www.anacomp.com Cohasset Associates, a national consulting organisation, offered www.MERresource.com, a subscription-based service devoted exclusively to the management of electronic records. Among the resources it offers are the laws from all 50 states relating to storing records on magnetic media, optical disk and microfilm in an easily browsed and fully searchable format. This creates a database of the laws that impact managing electronic and microfilm records.

With subscriptions to www.MERresource.com, users also gain access to an on-line library of selected articles and white papers, access to discussion forums, and receive the Digital Discovery and eEvidence Newsletter.

E-mail: information@MERresource.com Visit www.cohasset.com ImageMax, a nationwide provider of document management solutions using both digital and microfilm tools, reviewed the services it offers at its 20+ service centre locations and on-site at client locations. It provides all standard microfilm and micrographic conversion services and has a specialisation in engineering and large format services that exceeds that which is offered by most other service firms. Another specialty is litigation support services. Besides digital imaging and data entry services, ImageMax also distributes Minolta and other microfilm equipment, and offers a web-based service, ImageMaxOnlineSM. Visit www.imagemax.com PTFS introduced the latest version of its digital archiving software, ArchivalWare, that provides a flexible browse hierarchy. PTFS solutions include digital archiving systems, digitisation and content conversion services, library systems integration and integration with business process systems. The company has provided systems for more than 250 government, commercial, academic, and not-for-profit clients. It cited case studies that showed some of the 16/3 5mm microfilm and microfiche content conversion services as well as access to digitised information via web portals. E-mail: jyokely@ptfs.com Scanning America provided literature on its document imaging services. These include scanning paper files, creating microfilm and microfiche, indexing and CD-ROM creation. E-mail: Sales@scanamerica.com SourceCorp, another large nationwide provider of outsourced business services, used some of its Boston-area firms, such as MicroMedia, to tout the services it offers. These include conversion ‘services (paper-to-image, microfilm-to-image, fiche-to-image, bar coding and indexing) document storage, image repository services, systems integration and workflow analysis and implementation. The company, which is the US distributor for Agfa microfilms, also offers CD and digital services as well as complete solutions. It specialises in providing services for information-intensive industries.

Visit www.srcp.com Virtual Image Technology (VIT), a major regional service firm whose goal is to become a nationwide leader in information management, discussed its five lines of business: Micro View,

ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston ARMA2003 boston

PAGE 16

addition, because this was a late change initiated only weeks before the conference, there was little time to get notice out to ISG members and nothing was sent to non-ISG members who might have been interested in the programme.

Key feature of the meeting was a preview developed by Bob Zagami, ImageMax, of film-based imaging products and services to be seen at the exposition. He suggested 24 booths worth visiting but humorously noted that some of the vendors did not even realise they had micrographics-related services, having failed to respond to an inquiry about their offerings.

In the short discussion that followed Zagami's presentation there was talk about the need for a low cost desktop 16mm COM unit that could be a peripheral to create film at the PC level. However, even with about 1,400 service bureaux in the US, few thought there was a commercial market for such a unit. One audience member commented that service bureau COM output on large volume jobs is now as low as 1-1/2 cents per page.

Paul Negus, The Microfilm Shop, UK, noted the return of small companies to the microfilm market, at least in Europe.

The audience were happy with this trend but felt the opposite was true in the US. ARMA exhibitors still happy They find the exposition a useful place to show wares, meet users.

Micrographics-related exhibitors still liked this year’s ARMA exposition, but not quite as much as last year. Responding to a Green Sheet survey, 88% rated the exposition as “good” and 12% said it was “fair”. No one thought it a “poor” show nor did any consider it an “excellent” one. In 2002, some 20% thought ARMA was excellent and 50% that it was good.

Going into statistical detail, among responding exhibitors, an overwhelming 86% said the exposition was the same as in previous years and 14% felt it was better. None thought it wasn’t as good. This was in sharp contrast to a year ago when 44% of exhibitors felt the 2002 effort was as good as in prior years and none thought it was better.

Exhibitor satisfaction rests on more than show numbers. One exhibitor told The Green Sheet, “While the numbers may not be large, it’s a good show for us. ARMA attendees continue to recognise the need for and benefits of microfilm.”

Another volunteered, “I thought the ARMA show was well attended for an ARMA show, and the big difference versus AIIM is that everyone who walks down the aisles is an end user prospect and not just another dealer, VAR or systems integrator.”

About the Visitors Once again we asked exhibitors to define the type and quality of visitors to their booths. The largest grouping was end users - both current and potential ones - followed closely by service bureau executives. Consultants came in third.

Happily for the exhibitors, visitor interest topic number one was the products and services exhibitors offered. After such ideal visitors, the second largest group were existing customers who stopped by to say hello. Trailing were I_____ literature collectors and people who dropped in by mistake.

While this year a solid majority (62°/o) of exhibitors felt they were able to spend sufficient time with visitors, the feeling wasn’t unanimous. The remaining 38% wished they had more time to spend.

Because ARMA and AIIM are the two major venues for micrographics exhibitors in the United States, we asked the participants to rate the shows against each other and also against other exhibition opportunities. Two thirds of the respondents thought ARMA was better for them than A11M. About 16% felt the shows were the same or that ARMA was poorer than AIIM. Asked about other shows, responses were all over the place.

What little consensus there appeared to be was that smaller, industry-specific shows (for example library shows) were more productive than AIIM or ARMA. There were individual votes for many such shows. AIIM and ARMA each also received one vote for being the most productive. However, one exhibitor’s comment seemed to mirror that of several others, “No shows have really been very productive in the last two years.”

On the question of the benefit of having conference sessions devoted to micrographics and/or hybrid imaging systems, a majority felt that not having such sessions (ARMA’s current position) has no effect. Slightly more than one quarter thought it had a negative effect. The rest were unsure. In amplifying comments, the majority said people don’t come to the conference for one or two sessions but they will come to an exposition to see many exhibitors in their areas of interest.

We asked exhibitors if they were aware of the ARMA microfilm services ISG (Industry Specific Group) meeting that was held on the morning of the expo and conference’s opening day. A majority didn’t, reflecting once again poor advance promotion

by ARMA, which only promotes to the ISG’s existing members, not to exhibitors or to general conference attendees. Of the exhibitors who knew about the sessions - largely because they are microfilm services ISG members - one half attended.

Looking to 2004 The last question we always ask is whether or not the respondents also plan to exhibit at next year’s exposition (which will be held in Long Beach, California in September).

The Green Sheet considers a decision to return a good indicator of a show’s value. Almost unanimously, the respondents expect to exhibit in 2004. All but one said they will return. Even that one exception said his company had already signed up, but will determine later whether or not to fulfill the commitment.

Another exhibitor explained, “Sure we’ll be there. We have to ‘show the flag’ and the cost is fairly reasonable compared to a show like AIIM. Besides which, these days there are no great shows and ARMA is as good as any of them.” It’s a qualified response but one that ARMA should like - as well as the other more enthusiastic ones - because it helps provide a good exhibitor base with which to begin.

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FbLA decides less can be more At a meeting held in conjunction with the ARMA conference and exposition, key members of the Filmbased Imaging Association (FblA) came to the conclusion the group’s strictly volunteer structure is inadequate to fulfilling its charter. Though dedicated members of the association, FblA volunteer workers, all with more than full time jobs, just don’t have the time to devote to the details and routine of education about and advocacy for the film-based segment of the information management field.

Group consensus was that the need is real, not only for education about film’s role to professionals in the information management and business worlds, but also within the film-based industry itself. Participating FblA members agreed that at many dealer/service firms offering digital imaging, and also microfilm systems applications, young salespeople who have come out of DP backgrounds do not promote film applications even when they are the most appropriate solution. In many cases this is based on little experience - and hence no interest - in microfilm systems. In others it is due to service bureau managements offering higher commissions for digital systems placements than for microfilm systems.

And in still other cases it results from salespeople’s perception that customers - who have been bombarded with anti-film propaganda from EDP suppliers - will be turned off by any mention of microfilm. Thus, there is a clear case for ongoing educational and promotional campaigns for film-based imaging. These needs are largely being ignored by individual vendors, leaving FblA’s voice that of virtually a solo performer.

Looking at the situation, the organisation - with the concurrence of AIIM International, with whom FblA is associated - decided to hire a paid manager who knows the industry and who can devote the time necessary to coordinate what has to be done. Among the tasks to be coordinated and supervised on an on-going basis are: Soliciting memberships and organising membership drives Flandling invoices and other office work Coordinating communications among FblA members as well as day-to-day activities Handling liaison with AIIM and other organisations Organizing FblA participation in relevant trade shows and association meetings Developing case histories to create material that can be put on the FblA web site Distributing FblA literature At press time, a compensation level was being set and a search launched for the best qualified candidates.

Also at the ARMA meeting of FblA some members proposed exploring a stronger alignment of FblA with the AIIM Service Company Executive Forum since the two groups have much in common. This may be pursued at the November annual SCEF conference which will be attended by many FblA members.

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Records Management is alive andwell downunder.

Whilst Mitch Badler was visiting the ARMA show in Boston USA, Laurie Varendorff ARMA, our man in Australia was representing The Green Sheet in Melbourne, Australia

Based on the turnout at the recent Records Management Association of Australia “RMAA” Conference 14th -17th September 2003 “Journey into New Dimensions” held at the Melbourne Crown Entertainment Complex..

I, Laurie Varendorff, have been attending RMAA Conferences since the Hobart Conference in 1993 and it is my personal opinion that this latest event was the largest and most professional of any event to date.

700 registrants spent three and a bit days listening to a wide range of presenters, ranging from the keynote speaker on day one, on the subject of “Pursuing the Global Corporate Records ft Information Management”, all the way through to the last speaker on the Wednesday afternoon by Dr Phillip A Macallister of the Library of Congress USA, who in fact was a ring in and a local impersonator suitably primed and researched on the subject (an excellent presentation which had everyone caught hook, line and sinker that the subject matter was fact rather than fiction) and the closing ceremony.

The programme is too wide and varied to address in detail but I will give my synopsis of the event.

First and foremost I met up with many old and new acquaintances over the four days and exchanged views on, and memories of, RM issues old and new, current and future, controversial and mundane.

MANAGING BRITAIN’S MICROFILM LEGACY AMI The Advance Group Tel: 01902 459907 E-mail: docman@ami.co.uk www.ami.co.uk

The score for the venue; 9.5 out of 10, due to the fact that I lost money at the Casino which is in the complex, but otherwise near perfect for the event.

The overall management for the event was excellent and if anything did go wrong (and I am sure they did) we the registrants were oblivious to their existence or complexity.

Presenters were of a particularly high caliber, but due to concurrent sessions, unfortunately I did not get to all events.

I will attempt to identify the presentation but some of the papers are available online to all those interested at the following address:http://www.rmaa.com.au/natconf2003/.

There were two International keynote speakers:1. Ms Cheiyl L Pederson of Cargill Inc. who gave an in-depth presentation of a case study on “Pursuing the Global Corporate Records Et Information Management” solution in her organisation which was an excellent presentation.

2. Mr Kenneth Ledbetter of NASA who introduced us to the issues and volumes of data related to “Data Management Challenges of Space Exploration” and whose presentation was interesting, stimulating and thought provoking as were the majority of the speakers over the three days.

A listing of the exhibitors is available at http://www.rmaa.com.au/natconf2003/about/trade.html and it was good to see microfilm equipment displayed on several stands, with the Canon and Kodak Micrographic equipment being displayed along with the promotion of Microfilm/Scanning bureau services from Australian Microfilm Services “AMS”, even though they did not make the exhibitors www page listing.

Micrographics even rated a presentation by Mr Trevor Garret of Kodak Australasia on “Reference Archiving, Capturing Moments in Time” in which Trevor advised that the Singaporean Government requires all emails to be captured on archival microfilm. I have yet to verify this as fact, or its degree of application, but is in line with my thinking that all information that is required to be retained for the long term, e.g. LE-5 or longer, should be identified in the Records and Information Management System for automatic or semi­ automatic digital transfer to Archival Microfilm, on either 16 or 35mm format microfilm depending on the documents in question, either in-house (should the volumes be justified) or via an external services provider.

May the interaction between Records Management and the only long term “LE” storage media, Microfilm, be long and productive!

Laurie may be contacted at LVarendorff@bigpond.com

Step into the unknown... ....with Kathy Bruce of Preview Services

A few weeks ago I had a disk failure on my laptop... What a disaster! I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t backed up my data for a few weeks and realised how stupid I had been. Rebuilding my diary and contacts data cost me several hours and led me to have to postpone an important client presentation. But it could have been much worse, and at least I was able to recover most of the information from my office PC. This close encounter with disaster reminded me of the time I visited a local firm to assess a possible electronic archive project. When I arrived I was told that we would need to drive about five miles to see the documents. At the end of the journey we drove into a car park in a dubious area of town and the partner manager showed me to a lock up shed at the back of a row of shops.

Inside were over a million pages of files. There was no fire or burglar protection, the structure was 30°/o wood and, of course, full of paper. Worse still, the partner manager revealed that there were no copies of most of the files. In some cases the records dated back 40 years and in the event of a fire, flood or burglary the whole lot was at risk!

Now, you might think this was many years ago, before the invention of electronic records. In fact it was earlier this year.

A disaster waiting to happen!

You may also think that I was able to persuade my would-be client of the risks and that he immediately decided to archive their documents electronically and back them up in several forms. Sadly no.... the managing director had other spending

priorities at the time and the project was shelved.

A couple of months after my visit I heard that vandals had broken into one of the vacant shops and torched the place. The fire brigade put the fire out, but not before the lock-up had suffered severe smoke and water damage. Luckily nobody was hurt but the consequences for that firm were catastrophic, and it was also a major problem for many of their clients who depended on the firm to keep records for them.

Sadly, this is the way many companies treat their physical records. Some may be less vital than others, but has anyone actually assessed the risk?

After the events of 9/11 it has become fashionable to talk about disaster recovery and business continuity, but many companies do not have a plan and still fewer have tested it, according a recent IDC survey.

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Outstanding 1Q results for ACS ACS, the massive business outsourcing services company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, but with global operations, announced its fiscal year 2004 financial results for the first quarter ended September 30, 2003. Revenues were $US 1.037 billion, an increase of 17°/o from the corresponding quarter a year earlier. Earnings per share were $US 0.60, a 20°/o gain from a year earlier. Jeff Rich, ACS CEO, was pleased with the results noting that revenues exceeded estimates, internal revenue growth accelerated and profit margins were in line with expectations. He said total FY 2004 revenues are expected to be in a range of $US 4.15 billion to $US 4.3 billion with earnings per share to be from $US 2.58 to $US 2 . 66 .

Anacomp names board slate, new business partnerships Anacomp announced a slate of directors for election to its board of directors at the 2004 annual meeting of shareholders, which will be held in February at a date to be announced.

They include Jeffrey Cramer, CEO, E.P. Smoot, Chairman, and holdover directors Gary Fernandes, Fred Jager and Michael Tennenbaum. New board nominees are Mark Holdsworth and James McGovern. They would replace current directors Ralph Bunje and David Orr who will not be candidates for reelection. The new nominees are associated with financial companies. Anacomp’s board rejected the candidacies of Lloyd Miller III and two other nominees associated with him.

Miller is a former director of Anacomp and the holder of approximately 16°/o of its shares. Anacomp’s board said it hoped Miller would “reconsider his decision so the company can avoid the unnecessary distraction and cost of a contested election at a crucial time in its progress.”

Separately Anacomp announced several developments in its digital businesses. It joined the Kofax Technology Alliance Partner programme and released two software programmes, Ascent to docHarbor and Ascent to Archive. These programmes integrate Kofax Ascent capture software with Anacomp’s docHarbor outsource service and its Image Express film solution for creating indexed document images stored on film for archival purposes. The company also said it has partnered with Datawatch to offer advanced report mining capabilities to users of the Anacomp docHarbor on­ line document repository. In addition, it joined with IMlogic, a provider of software solutions for the Instant Messaging market, to combine the latter’s software solutions with Anacomp’s outsourced archiving services.

Good and bad for Kodak Eastman Kodak had good and bad news for its shareholders when it announced its third quarter financial results (Sept. 30, 2003). The good news was that the company turned its first profit in digital cameras and overall sales in China. This important growth market rebounded as fears about the SARS virus abated. In the United States, sales of photographic paper and digital printing services increased. The bad news was that 3Q earnings plunged 63°/o from the same quarter in 2002.

Kodak earned $US 122 million, or 42 cents per share, compared with $US 334 million, or $1.15, a year earlier. The 2003 earnings include revamping charges of 46 cents per share, so the decline was not as precipitous as it looked.

Shareholders, however, were not happy, particularly with a 72°/o cut in the dividend payment rate and with some recent acquisitions. Some dissident shareholders met to see if they could force Kodak to show why other alternatives - such as

spinning off digital businesses which have yet to show profits - would not be better than trying to earn profits from them.

Kodak CEO Daniel Carp told analysts the acquisitions -which included investments in dental radiology and inkjet printing, as well as digital businesses - are enabling Kodak to go “from a one-trick pony to a company that leverages all its capabilities.”

Iron Mountain reports 3Q gains Iron Mountain, the international storage giant, reported higher revenues and operating income for the third quarter ended September 3, 2003. Revenues were up 15°/o to $US 382 million.

Operating income grew 17°/o to $US 77 million. Net income for the quarter was $US 15 million, a slight drop from the same period in 2002. The differential largely results from the fact that Iron Mountain’s operating income is before depreciation and amortization. Both storage and service revenues grew. It was the 59th consecutive quarter in which the company reported increased storage revenues.

For the first nine months 2003, revenues were $US 1.09 billion, a 12°/o increase, with storage revenues growing at 13°/o.

Operating income was $US 218 million and nine-month net income was $US 56 million.

Minolta and Konica merge US operation Konica Minolta Holdings of Japan, the new holding company that combines Konica and Minolta, announced the creation of Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA. The new company merges Minolta’s Business Products Group and Konica Business Technologies. Yasuo Matsumoto, president and chairman of Konica Business Technologies USA, will lead the new company that will be heaquartered in Ramsey, New Jersey. Henry Okamura, former president of Minolta Corporation USA, will become president of Konica Minolta Photo Imaging USA. Also, the Canadian business solutions groups of Konica and Minolta will be merged to form Konica Minolta Business Solutions (Canada) Ltd. It will be a subsidiary of the new US operation.

The new company expects that by combining Konica’s and Minolta’s strengths it will be positioned for “growth in the imaging marketplace”. It said the two companies’ existing product lines, including Minolta’s microfilm equipment and Konica’s films, complement each other as do their copier, printer and scanner lines. Konica Minolta also said it now plans to reorganise its operations worldwide “to ensure a strong and solid position within the imaging industry.”

ImageMax posts 2Q and 6-month losses ImageMax announced second quarter and six month financial losses for the period ended June 30 and the hiring of an investment banking firm as its financial advisor.

For the quarter ImageMax reported revenues, operating loss and net loss of $US 9.9 million, $0.2 million and $0.5 million, respectively, compared to $US 11.0 million in revenues, operating income of $0.4 million, and net income of $. 1 million in the second quarter of 2002.

For the six months revenues, operating loss and net loss amounted to $US 21.0 million, $0.3 million, and $0.9 million, respectively, compared to revenues of $US 21.4 million, operating income of $0.8 million, and a net loss of $14.9 million for the first six months of 2002. That period included a non-cash charge which reduced the carrying value of

ImageMax’s goodwill by about $US 5.1 million. Before that ScanStations and the FS200 microfiche ScanStation. A selling point being stressed is that LASON’s field technicians are accounting charge, income actually was $US 0.2 million. located in its 35+ offices across North America.

Conversion services represented 61°/o and 57°/o, respectively, of In an e-mailing to prospects in the U.S. and Canada, Matt revenues in the six months of 2002, and 2003.

McCabe, product sales manager, emphasised, “Our nationwide CEO Mark Glassman said 2Q results reflected a steeper than presence will allow us to serve you immediately”. He is offering expected decline in electronic data discovery services, sluggish product information, pricing, free sample generation and/or sales activities of software and related services, and delayed demonstration buying decisions due to the prolonged effects of the national Contact: mmmccabe@lason.com pconomic downturn and the war in Iraq. Moving into the third quarter he said there had been “an increase in sales activities Indus has purchased the ScreenScan product line. and (we have) entered into our second strategic outsourcng agreement with a major services company to provide First introduced in the mid-1990s ScreenScan’s product line includes high quality microform digitisers that can be installed document scanning on a national basis”. on existing analogue readers and reader printers to convert The company is in technical default on certain financial them to on-demand or production digitisers of all microforms. agreements and is in discussion with its senior lenders and debt holders. It has retained the Philadelphia investment Indus International, Inc. had been marketing the ScreenScan banking firm of Janney Montgomery Scott to act as its products installed on its line of Readers for microforms and financial advisor in the exploration of strategic alternatives opaque cards. available to ImageMax. ScreenScan’s product line includes two direct print versions Profitable SOURCECORP shows quarterly decline from 2003, that convert a reader to a digital printer sending images directly to an attached laser printer. Indus will have these available for announces management change its own readers and for readers manufactured by others. Two SOURCECORP, the US’ most successful national provider of other versions of digitisers are PC based called the Model PC outsourcing solutions and services, reported 2Q revenues of and the Model A3. With scanning coverage of screens of A4 $US 101.8 million and net income of $US 5.7 million. These and A3 size respectively, the two products create industry were declines of 3.8°/o and 24.6°/o, respectively, from the same standard TIFF and JPEG images that can be stored and further period a year earlier. However, Ed Bowman, president and CEO, processed by the user. The A3 Model is also supplied as a foresaw improving results for the rest of the year and in 2004 turnkey system, the UDMS workstation, that includes a large saying “The company closed sales during the second quarter format reader for rollfilm, microfiche and aperture cards, to (that are) anticipated to produce total revenue of provide TIFF and JPEG images and printing of large format drawings, microfilm, microfiche and aperture cards. approximately $U.S. 35.4 million...in future years.”

SOURCECORP also said that Joe Rose, its chief operating Indus International, Inc. recently introduced its popular library officer, was leaving the company to pursue personal interests. reader, the Super Carrel with the ScreenScan digitiser installed Bowman will assume the additional duties of COO, a position in it, turning the Super Carrel into a high quality microfilm he previously held in 1995-1999 during SOURCECORP’s period reader printer.

Contact Ameen Ayoob or Mike Lanois at 1-800-843-9377, of great growth. or by e-mail: <aayoob@indususa.com>.

Headquartered in Dallas TX, the company has offices in 24 states and operates in 40 states, Washington DC, and Mexico and further offshore through alliances.

Lason Ties in to Wicks ft G et the superior perform ance you 've alw ays w an ted in a rollfilm scanner Wilson’s 30th Anniversary instead o f the techn ology y o u h ave b een forced to accept!

LASON, the major U.S. • Scan 300 pages per minute to get the ultimate in production level rollfilm scanner outsourcing services house, has tied actively into Wicks ft performance with Eclipse, our next generation scanner.

Wilson’s 30th anniversaiy in the • Scan 220 pages per minute with Phoenix - a product designed tofit within micrographics industry. LASON is the exclusive North American the housing o f older SunRisd * scanners. distributor and maintenance Create grayscale and bitonal images a t the sam e tim e provider of the WftW line of w ithout a reduction o f output speed w ith nextScan products. microfilm and microfiche ScanStations. It is boasting about WftW’s and LASON’s long experience in the micrographics The Next Generation in Film Scanning Technology industry but also about the 925-831-3141 . www.nextscan.com capabilities of the RS100, RS150 and RS200 microfilm

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POLICE ARREST OVERFLOWING FILING SYSTEM A stylish storage solution from Railex Systems Ltd, the filing and storage systems specialists, has helped free up extra space in the Northallerton offices of North Yorkshire Police Force.

Files were previously held in traditional filing cabinets but the sheer bulk of paper records held by the force meant that this method of storing information was occupying too much space in the office and proving inefficient.

Railex recommended a bespoke combination from its Doublestore range, a solution that can reduce storage space in offices by up to 60 per cent and halve retrieval times compared to some alternative systems.

Doublestore units rotate easily about a vertical axis, allowing a person to access both sides of a unit while standing in one position and freeing up valuable floor space taken by traditional four drawer filing cabinets.

For North Yorkshire Police, Railex specified a combination of one Doublestore cabinet plus four extension units, that together enabled wall-to-wall storage capacity.

A stylish light oak grain finish was selected to complement North Yorkshire Police’s existing selection of modern office furniture.

Doublestore units can also be locked, leaving a double skinned metal door that helps ensure vital security. This was

particularly important given the confidential nature of much of the information held in the office.

Jean Hutchinson, Office Manager of North Yorkshire Police’s Records Management Unit, comments: “We were stuck in a situation where we had rows and rows of files that took up far too much space in the office. Not only has the Railex solution freed up a great deal of this space, it has also helped give the whole office a more modern and professional appearance.

“Visitors to the office have commented on the new system we have in place and I know one neighbouring force is already considering investing in a similar solution.”

Railex has also secured a second major contract with the Northallerton offices of North Yorkshire Police Force to supply 10,000 A4 window files.

These new files will help simplify the force’s current processes, taking advantage of the files’ twin transparent windows to allow files to be organised properly.

One window is used to identify files in groups, while the other window identifies the contents. Colour-titles are easy to see when the file is in place, either stored in a cabinet or when laid flat on a desk.

Jean Hutchinson continues: “Our requirement was for items to be filed in both date order and by location. There are a number of possible ways to meet this need, but the Railex solution looks good and allows for easy identification and retrieval of files.

Railex offers an expert consultancy service with site surveys, recommendations and quotations, without obligation, and is the one-stop source for storage solutions.

STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR THANET COUNCIL Thanet Council’s Revenues ft Benefits Service has benefited from improved storage facilities thanks to Railex.

Having used the company before, Thanet Council approached Railex with a detailed plan of its specific requirements to improve storage facilities for its Revenues ft Benefits Service.

Railex Systems was asked to supply and install storage solutions that would allow efficient management of a diverse range of information, while maximising the space available in the council offices.

To meet the requirements of this busy council division, Railex supplied and installed over 100 static Essex Cabinets in the two offices. Plain shelving systems were selected in order to house the large quantify of paperwork, while lockable cupboards were installed to store more sensitive material.

Marlene Jones, the Railex sales representative for Thanet Council, comments: “Council offices are busy environments and often have to cope with vast quantities of paperwork.

Thanet Council Revenues ft Benefits Service is no exception and has to manage a diverse range of information which means that simple, efficient storage facilities are crucial.”

Contact: Bill Gilmour, Railex Systems Tel: 01704 226866 Fax: 01704 225814

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g lo b a l

READY FOR A NEW DIRECTION? The colour-duplex departmental scanner that adds value to centralised and decentralised document management systems— The brand new KODAK i80 Scanner.

Functionality Innovation Speed Reliability Excellence The KODAK i80 Scanner meets all your demands: Up to 35 pages per minute Up to 1,500 pages per day De-skew* and cropping* ADF and Flatbed Switchable document background Up to 600 dpi optical and up to 1,200 dpi output resolution Quiet operation ... and it’s fun to work with!

For details, contact your Authorised Reseller of KODAK Document Imaging products, visit www.kodak.com/go/docimaging,

e-mail us at gb-scanners@kodak.com, or call us at 01442-844791. available through the bundled KODAK Capture Software, Lite.

i7300 Scanner

i9600 Series Writers i800 Series Scanners Colour Scanners 3590C & 4500 Scanners 3500 & 3520

i50 & i60 Scanners

INNOVATION

YOU

i80 S c a n n e r

CAN

Scanner 1500

COUNT

ON™

Scanner 2500

i200 Series Scanners