[sims] Scanning to Sims

[smb007]

Hi

 

We are looking at getting scanning to Sims option added to our photocopiers and was wondering if anyone has it installed and is actually using it. If so do you have any feedback on it. I would really like to see it in action in a school environment before we purchase it as its not cheap.

 

cheers

[creese]

We have many schools using it with no problems. It does what it says on the tin.

[localzuk]

We use Callisto Managed Scan here - we don't use the copier version though, as we didn't really want to add any more load to our copiers. We instead have network scanners, and use the desktop version.

 

Works great, and gets used a lot! We pay about £500 a year for it, from Portrayal and are happy with their service.

[vikpaw]

I'm interested. Is it massively quicker than attaching docs manually? Can you choose naming convention / add description?

When i first looked at this ages ago, it seemed slow and long winded, you had to basically log in and search for each student. I would imagine / hope now that you can just browse to a year group. Scan to the 1st student. Hit next, then scan to the next... and so on ... ?

[creese]

When i first looked at this ages ago, it seemed slow and long winded, you had to basically log in and search for each student. I would imagine / hope now that you can just browse to a year group. Scan to the 1st student. Hit next, then scan to the next... and so on ... ?

 

How would that work? Do you mean scan the same document to each student, surely that is a massive waste of space. Or do you mean put the scanned documents in order then scan different ones to each student, again a waste of time.

 

The scanners are intended for occasional scanning of documents to pupils. The screen, as far as I remember lets you filter to an area to scan to, SEN etc. then you can start typing the name and it will list the possibles. They do the job well, we have never had anyone regret getting them, Primary or Secondary. No one has ever complained it was a slow process.

[vikpaw]

I meant the latter, i.e. order a list of documents, and then scan them in sequentially, but it wouldn't be for all students, that was just a hypothetical case.

 

A more realistic one is certain letters that the head of year sends out, going to a selection of students, but it would be easier to look down the list of Y11s and next through. The letters aren't easily done out of 'late letters' or other methods because they are dependent on a first warning letter or other such going out first, so there is no rule applicable.

 

The other option that we looked at was that software that tied in to Office, and let you just save a doc straight to SIMS, which is probably more along the lines of what we need. I can see us using it for SEN and medical docs though.

 

It's just something on the periphery we're interested in, so i'll be looking out for any other feedback in thie thread.

[localzuk]

We've never had any complaints about it being slow. The process for us is:

 

Person goes to network scanner, scans documents in one big batch

Person goes back to their computer and fires up Callisto

They log in, choose the area that their scans are applicable to (Pupils, Staff, etc...)

They work through the list of documents they scanned in, giving descriptions, choosing the pupils etc...

 

Done.

 

I don't see how you can make it any faster?

[Iain.Faulkner]

We have the canon version of this facility installed onto our photocopiers.

 

Unfortunately we've had 6 months of wrangling to get it working and the end result is that our staff don't trust it and as such it sits unused. It is a shame though, as having done some testing myself it does work and works well now Canon have ironed out the issues we'd been experiencing, it does what it says on the tin.

[creese]

Works great, and gets used a lot! We pay about £500 a year for it, from Portrayal and are happy with their service.

 

I would have no problem recommending them either.

 

Recently had their engineer call us from a school, initially it was confusing. Eventually I realised it was a problem scanning to a shared drive and not SIMS. Apparentley the problem had been there for a year. The secretary was too vain to put her glasses on and read the error message so was merrily scanning into the ether.

Edited February 16, 2011 by creese

[localzuk]

We have the canon version of this facility installed onto our photocopiers.

 

Unfortunately we've had 6 months of wrangling to get it working and the end result is that our staff don't trust it and as such it sits unused. It is a shame though, as having done some testing myself it does work and works well now Canon have ironed out the issues we'd been experiencing, it does what it says on the tin.

 

The version of what? There is more than one software package that does this now.

[matt40k]

Umm... OCR? Picks up student name from the letter? Suppose you would need a template.

[dhicks]

We are looking at getting scanning to Sims option added to our photocopiers

 

Couldn't you just make your own scan-to-SIMS workstation? Set up a PC with a cheap USB-powered scanner and additional USB touch monitor, then have an application on that extra monitor that asks the user for their username and password and which pupil they wish to attach the scanned document to. For document scanning and adding stuff to SIMS simply write an AutoIT script or two.

[localzuk]

Umm... OCR? Picks up student name from the letter? Suppose you would need a template.

 

How would that work, as we scan massive numbers of letters sent to us about children - all of them formatted differently?

[Iain.Faulkner]

The version of what? There is more than one software package that does this now.

 

Apologies, the product is called Ecopy. and to be fair it is a good product, it's just unfortunate there's a lack of trust from our staff.

[creese]

Couldn't you just make your own scan-to-SIMS workstation? Set up a PC with a cheap USB-powered scanner and additional USB touch monitor, then have an application on that extra monitor that asks the user for their username and password and which pupil they wish to attach the scanned document to. For document scanning and adding stuff to SIMS simply write an AutoIT script or two.

 

We have 2 scanner/printers from 2 once rival companies, for 'test purposes' The original was a PC attached, the more recent a board installed directly into the scanner/printer.

[vikpaw]

@localzuk - that is fast. What i saw once was a system where you created a document / scanned it, but then had to log into sims and search for the student. Next document, reauthenticate, search again. It seemed designed for very infrequent use, not a bulk process.

[vikpaw]

@dhicks - that's what these companies are doing to make money. Without the hassle of AutoIT setup, and the fact that they use the api to access sims and push files/data in. It's a pretty good product.

[localzuk]

@localzuk - that is fast. What i saw once was a system where you created a document / scanned it, but then had to log into sims and search for the student. Next document, reauthenticate, search again. It seemed designed for very infrequent use, not a bulk process.

 

Indeed, I think the difference is the client you use. eCopy has a desktop version as well as the embedded version. The embedded version is designed for one shot scanning like you say. The desktop version is more suited to bulk stuff. Callisto has both too.

[dhicks]

We have 2 scanner/printers from 2 once rival companies, for 'test purposes' The original was a PC attached, the more recent a board installed directly into the scanner/printer.

 

Are the scanners branded, with drivers available, or would it be easier to simply buy a £30 Canon LiDE and plug it in to a spare PC? USB touch screens can be had off Amazon for around £100. The advantage of having the second screen is that all the scanning software popping up and down stuff would happen on the (unseen to the user) standard VGA output, they would only see whatever you put on the second screen.

[dhicks]

that's what these companies are doing to make money

 

How much are they charging for a typical scan-to-SIMS workstation, then? Is attaching a document to a pupil's record a built-in feature of SIMS, something you have to buy as an extra from Capita, or something that comes as an extra from a third party?

[creese]

Are the scanners branded, with drivers available, or would it be easier to simply buy a £30 Canon LiDE and plug it in to a spare PC? USB touch screens can be had off Amazon for around £100. The advantage of having the second screen is that all the scanning software popping up and down stuff would happen on the (unseen to the user) standard VGA output, they would only see whatever you put on the second screen.

 

One is a Tosh, I believe. The other a Konica. Not sure as they are a few miles from where I am at the moment. Maybe if someone in a primary had the time... and of course more important, the ability... great. Otherwise the schools seem happy enough with the add on cost to the existing lease of a printer/copier.

[localzuk]

How much are they charging for a typical scan-to-SIMS workstation, then? Is attaching a document to a pupil's record a built-in feature of SIMS, something you have to buy as an extra from Capita, or something that comes as an extra from a third party?

 

We pay £500 a year for unlimited desktop users. We can use USB scanners, network scanners or simply put files in the folder to deal with. We don't pay for any embedded clients.

[vikpaw]

How much are they charging for a typical scan-to-SIMS workstation, then? Is attaching a document to a pupil's record a built-in feature of SIMS, something you have to buy as an extra from Capita, or something that comes as an extra from a third party?

 

It's a built-in feature, no extra money. What is being paid for is basically the solution you suggested, the ability to interface more easily. Either built into a scanner/copier or on the desktop but geared towards bulk usage in most instances. Much like a lot of the products around at the moment, they just make SIMS more user friendly.