In Our Lives To Scan or Not to Scan—ls There a Question? (NAPSA)—With the proliferation of the PC back in the late ’70s, businesses first started to talk about the advent of the “paperless office.” This nirvana office environment promised a computer at every desk and the virtual elimina- tion of all that messy paperwork. Suffice to say, the “paperless office” hasn’t exactly come to pass as predicted, even though the PC has indeed become ubiquitous. Inboxes filled with paperstill exist, but the invention of the scanner has madeit possible to turn paper documents into digital files. Indeed, the scanner might prove to be the most indispensable tool in the arsenal of a business look- ing to reduce the “paper drag” on its productivity. Today’s scanners are being called to do some pretty heavy lifting in business. Many industries, such as banking, health care and government, rely on massive amounts of paper documents every day. But while all these forms, medical records or contracts start with a hard copy, the question con- tinuing to evolve is what to do with all those papers. To begin with, today’s scanners are being loaded with amazingsoftware that makes them able to scan just about anything, no matter what condition the original is in. VirtualReScan (VRS) is software developed by Kofax that has becomethe de facto standard in the majority of the scanners available today. VRS allows users to capture the absolutely best image available every time they click “scan,” regardless of what the documentis or how it is placed into the scanner. Specifically, VRS technology actually straightens and cleans up the original images automatically. It does this by inspecting each doc- ument as it passes through the scanner to look for inconsistencies. It also has the smarts to detect if the page is blank, in which case it will automatically delete the page from the digitalfile. The next generation of VRS (VRS Professional 4.1) adds the ability to process documents that were once considered impossible to scan, such as documents on recycled paper or even heavily damaged images. VRSalso offers intel- ligent color detection and color saturation features, tapping into the widely underutilized color capabilities of nearly all scanners. So while we may never fully abandon ourlove affair with paper or completely realize the fantasy world of the “paperless office,” we can at least take comfort in know- ing one workhorse is keeping the dream alive. All hail the mighty scanner! You can learn more online at www.kofax.com.
