SDB Solutions & Services

Ngenuity
From Copiscan to the Spectrum FX Series, BÖWE BELL + HOWELL scanners have long been a fixture at eDocuments Solutions (eDocs), a service bureau in Irvine, Calif. Tom Week, the company’s IT director and a 15-year veteran in the field of  high technology, calls BBH scanners “Russian tanks”, highlighting their solid manufacturing and unyielding durability. According to Jack McRoberts, chief technology officer for eDocs, “BBH products always work as advertised and help us meet lient deadlines without headaches.” Recently, eDocs completed a beta test of BÖWE BELL + HOWELL’s new Ngenuity scanner in their fast-paced, high-volume production environment. Impressed by the scanner’s sleek new look and the promise of a host of new capabilities, the eDocs team put Ngenuity to work right away. They came away amazed by the scanner’s many features and its ability to help them better handle challenging client projects.

Scan a Wider Range of Documents
One of the most arduous projects eDocs handles on a regular basis is scanning loan file orders of up to 2,500 documents. Scanning everything can be time-consuming, and keeping up with the influx of documents was often a three-scanner job. With a 700-document feeder tray capacity (40% larger than other scanners in its class – speeds up to 150 pages per minute (ppm) in bitonal., colour and grayscale, however, Ngenuity was able to scan an  entire loan file order the same day and in fewer batches.

Scan Fragile Photos, Pick Tickets and More
Ngenuity also helped the eDocs team easily scan an order of 2,700 colour photos, some of which were fragile and old, dating back to the 1800s. In addition to the rotary paper path, the scanner has an alternative straight pass through paper path that allowed the  operators to feed everything—from the most fragile photos in the batch to those pasted on thick cardstock —to exit through the back of the scanner without any damage.

Boost Performance and Simplify Maintenance
Equipped with USB 2.0 connectivity, Ngenuity is easy to connect to a PC and comes with everything users need to scan. “We unpacked Ngenuity, plugged it in, and it worked instantly,” Weed said. The scanner also offers smart front panel functionality. For example, since you can save and access user profiles via the software user interface, eDocs operators don’t have to spend time re-selecting scanner settings for standard client jobs. Ngenuity’s easy maintenance and durable parts, some of  which have been tested to last for 50 million scans, also impressed Weed. The scanner includes rollers that last up to 600,000 scans and glass-encased cameras that keep out dust and the occasional staple.

Increase Accuracy and Improve Workflow

The combination of best-in-class camera technology, white LED lighting and onboard VRS, helps Ngenuity produce high-quality digital images consistently. This is especially critical for a user like eDocs that needs to ensure high Optical Character Recognition (OCR) rates  on loan option documents. Weed also noted that Ngenuity picked up all colour-critical information on documents, including light blue ink signatures on loan appraisal documents, and scanned them in colour even when the pages were fed in mixed batches. Ngenuity is  also an “intuitive” and “easy to use” workflow scanner, according to Weed. For example, the scanner features Ultrasonic Multifeed Detection technology with three independent ultrasonic sensors. The ability to turn off the middle multifeed sensor allowed the eDocs team  to scan documents, such as those with sticky notes attached in the centre, without hassle. The improved “Multifeed Ignore”—a feature Weed called a “huge time-saver” —allows operators to accept multifeeds they wish to ignore such as taped photos with a simple press of  a button. This saves them the time of having to rescan the pages.

For more information, you can download the pdf here.