Kodak Document Imaging to be spun off

Since Modern Image utilizes a lot of Kodak document imaging equipment and software, the Scan Man has been carefully following the bankruptcy process for Kodak.  It has been announced that Kodak document imaging will be spun off to the Kodak UK pension plan for $650 million in cash/non cash considerations, but more importantly to Kodak, it settles $2.8 billion in debt.  Kodak document imaging emerges from the Kodak empire in a great position, and the remaining Kodak will emerge from bankruptcy this year.  Read more from the New York Times:

Kodak Spinoffs Clear the Path for Emergence From Bankruptcy

Antonio Perez, Kodak chief, said its imaging units would be spun off to a pension plan.

BY MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED  Kodak said on Monday that it would spin off its document and personal imaging units to its British pension plan for $650 million in cash and noncash considerations, a move that paves the way for Kodak’s exit from bankruptcy protection.

Kodak had been seeking to sell off the two imaging operations. Two weeks ago, Eastman Kodak announced a plan to sell its document imaging business to Brother of Japan for $210 million, with the provision that it could revisit the deal if it could sell both units together.

Now the bankrupt film pioneer has struck an even more advantageous deal after a protracted sales process.

More important, the pension plan will settle its bankruptcy claim of $2.8 billion, paving the way for the company to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States. On Tuesday, Kodak plans to file a draft plan to emerge from bankruptcy.

“In one comprehensive transaction, Kodak will realize its previously announced intention to divest its personalized imaging and document imaging businesses and settle its largest legacy liability,” Antonio M. Perez, Kodak’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

The company had filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2012 and has been selling off various assets since then. In December, Kodak reached an agreement to sell 1,100 digital imaging patents to a consortium of technology companies for $525 million, far less than expected. But as part of that sale, Kodak retained a license to use the digital imaging portfolio patents in its future businesses, and for those businesses that it is selling.

Kodak is being advised by Lazard and the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. The pension plan was counseled by Hogan Lovells.

A version of this article appeared in print on 04/30/2013, on page B3 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Kodak Spinoffs Clear Path For Exit From Bankruptcy.

KODAK SCANMATE i920 Scanner Review – Little scanner with powerful punch

The Scan Man believes this scanner will be a big winner for Kodak.  The Kodak i920 is a compact desktop scanner that preserves your precious desk space with a small footprint.  It will make you more efficient as you are able to automate repetitive tasks.  The scanner also includes Presto Bizcard software to scan your business cards into a database or your contact management system.

With Kodak’s Smart Touch functionality, the KODAK SCANMATE i920 gets important business documents into your information network in an instant. That’s because Smart Touch automates multiple-step scanning operations by capturing, processing, and sending information for you. At the touch of a button, Smart Touch helps you make e-mail attachments, picture files, searchable PDFs, and more. Plus it files documents or sends them to “the cloud.” For example, if a business configured its ID card scanning process as Option 2, an employee could simply select “2” on the scanner display. The ID card would be scanned, processed, and sent to its proper destination — automatically.

Eight great things you can do with the KODAK SCANMATE i920 Scanner to get ahead

• Save space – compact, highly portable design takes up less desk space.
• Save time – SmartTouch performs multiple-step scanning and organizing operations automatically
• Make great images- Kodak ‘Perfect Page document imaging is built in – just presss the button and get great images with bright colors and crisp text.
• Scan it all – reliably handles a wide range of document with the 20 sheet automatic document feeder, including extra-long documents, business cards, ID cards, and embossed hard cards.
• Stay in contact – Bundled software helps you easily edit and synchronize business card info with your contact applications.
• Integrate easily – TWAIN and ISIS drivers allow quick compatibility with most scanning software.
• Get peace of mind. – Kodak’s three year limited warranty supports Kodak’s commitment to superior workmanship.
• Upgrade your Capture Desktop to Kodak Capture Pro edition for even more scanning application features like indexing, bar code recognition, and database verification.

More information about Kodak DI unit from Kodak

Kodak released a letter to there clients regarding the Document Imaging division and the company restructuring.  Download the PDF.

How Stuff Works – How Scanners Work

Scanning technology is pretty cool stuff.  For a year-end treat, here’s how scanners work.  From the pages of HowStuffWorks.com:

Scanners have become an important part of the home office over the last few years. Scanner technology is everywhere and used in many ways:

• Flatbed scanners, also called desktop scanners, are the most versatile and commonly used scanners. In fact, this article will focus on the technology as it relates to flatbed scanners.
• Sheet-fed scanners are similar to flatbed scanners except the document is moved and the scan head is immobile. A sheet-fed scanner looks a lot like a small portable printer.
• Handheld scanners use the same basic technology as a flatbed scanner, but rely on the user to move them instead of a motorized belt. This type of scanner typically does not provide good image quality. However, it can be useful for quickly capturing text.
• Drum scanners are used by the publishing industry to capture incredibly detailed images. They use a technology called a photomultiplier tube (PMT). In PMT, the document to be scanned is mounted on a glass cylinder. At the center of the cylinder is a sensor that splits light bounced from the document into three beams. Each beam is sent through a color filter into a photomultiplier tube where the light is changed into an electrical signal.

The basic principle of a scanner is to analyze an image and process it in some way. Image and text capture (optical character recognition or OCR) allow you to save information to a file on your computer. You can then alter or enhance the image, print it out or use it on your Web page.

In this article, we’ll be focusing on flatbed scanners, but the basic principles apply to most other scanner technologies. You will learn about the different types of scanners, how the scanning mechanism works and what TWAIN means. You will also learn about resolution, interpolation and bit depth.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

The Final ‘Kodak Moment’: 5 Reasons Why Bankruptcy Would Be Tragic

The Scan Man is worried about Kodak!  We are authorized to sell many brands, but we have been standardized on Kodak in our scanning operations center for 5 years, and we love our Kodak scanners and software.  From the pages of the International Business Times:

Kodak HQ

Long-suffering investors may wonder what to do with their Kodak shares now that they’ve fallen to the unbelievable low of only 78 cents, a huge change compared to the days when Eastman Kodak was one of the bluest of the blue chips. In 2003, Kodak was valued at $40 per share.

The name alone conjured images and photography. Consumers from Utah to Uruguay bought Kodak cameras and film and took it to camera shops for development. Doctors’ offices took x-rays with diagnostic cameras and printed them out on Kodak paper. Names like Kodachrome were household words.

Yet on Friday, shares plunged as much as 60 percent after reports the company was on the verge of pulling the plug. When the NYSE closed, Kodak’s market capitalization had shriveled to only $186 million. Its enterprise value, which accounts for other assets, is a slightly better $948.7 million.

Meanwhile, because of its 131-year history and prestige in imaging innovation, Kodak has been trying to haul in cash via an auction of its valuable patents. Technology investment bankers involved with the deal have told IBTimes the patents could be worth somewhere between $2 billion and $3 billion — more than the entire company!

After the close on Friday, Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak issued a statement that it was not planning to file for bankruptcy but had hired the prestigious law firm Jones Day for advice. You can bet senior management led by CEO Antonio Perez and lawyers at Jones Day are trying to determine the next step.

The decision is clear: either try to keep going or file for bankruptcy, which is no shame for an ordinary company, but quite a tragedy for the corporation that for years had huge success with its “Kodak moment” ad campaign.

Here are five reasons why pulling the plug would be an American tragedy:

It would show that a ninetheenth century pioneer couldn’t make it in the twenty-first century. There are plenty of other old industrial companies founded by people like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford that are doing fine, that managed to adapt to changes in the marketplace and alter its strategy. Yet Kodak foundered for years with foolish acquisitions (it bought Sterling Drug, which included Bayer aspirin in 1988 before getting out in 1994) and divestitures like spinning off Eastman Chemicals (now with a market capitalization of $4.8 billion).

Now that everyone has a mobile phone, and tablets like the iPad and and the Kindle Fire are going to revolutionize photography and imaging, Kodak ought to be the life of the party. That could be one reason why the likes of Apple, Amazon and Google are said to be looking at the patents.

Kodak’s demise would be Japan’s gain. Today, Japanese rivals — like Fuji (film); Canon, Nikon and Olympus (cameras); and Panasonic and Sony (consumer electronics) — are ubiquitous in all kinds of imaging. To be sure, they have great technologies and sales abilities, but those are all things they learned from Kodak.

If Kodak does seek bankruptcy and then asks Lazard for help in selling off units, these companies would be first in line to pick up the valuable pieces.

It would prove that even a perception of value was wrong. Several years ago, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the private equity giant that may be best known for masterminding the RJRNabisco buyout, bought into Kodak and won two seats on the board. Obviously, KKR wouldn’t have risked its cash for no reason. But it also bought into Sun Microsystems late in its history, too. Sun Microsystems has now been absorbed into Oracle.

Bankruptcy would place Kodak in the same league as GM, Chrysler, United Airlines and others. All those great companies emerged slimmer and better-placed to win after bankruptcy. Conceivably, Kodak could emerge as solely an intellectual property vendor and get rid of all its consumer and professional products lines.

Printers could go to Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark or Canon. Kodak Gallery could go to Amazon or eBay. The camera lines could go to a Japanese company. The retail distribution system might be sold to specialists or the likes of FedEx or UPS.

Or maybe a judge could demand a complete shake-up and tell CEO Antonio Perez that he has a year to act. That would be tricky in what still looks like a weak global economy.

It would give New York a black eye. Few industrial companies are so identified with their home states and cities as Kodak is with Rochester, N.Y. Xerox, which started there and had its own near-death experience, still has a big Rochester presence but shifted its headquarters to Stamford, Ct.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month jubilantly snatched up $4 billion in technology investment from New York’s own IBM as well as from Intel, GlobalFoundries, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing andSamsung Electronics. The money is largely for new chips and nanotechnology development, things that Kodak could benefit from.

The collapse of a technology icon would surely dampen investment attitude. It would also call into question the future of 18,800 employees, not all of whom are in New York.

Too many business cards, try Presto! BizCard 6

The scan man has set up this software twice in the last week, and I’m quite impressed!  Presto! BizCard 6 is a software-only business card reader (most business card readers come with scanning hardware).  I’ve been setting this up for clients who already have a scanner, and in both cases the scanner was a Kodak i1120 desktop unit.

The software OCR and “reads” the card to determine where the data goes.  For example, the software will extract the name, address, phone numbers, email, company name, web, and more.  On most cards, the extraction is very good.  On cards that have intricate designs, not so much.

From the website:

Presto! BizCard 6, the Global Business Card Management Solution

Presto! BizCard 6 is a complete contact management solution that lets you scan, edit and synchronize business card contacts to various contact management software applications. It is the ideal tool for helping you stay in touch and organized whether your contacts business cards are printed in English or different languages.

Presto! BizCard 6 captures and converts your business cards into a searchable and editable database. The information can be effortlessly exchanged between your laptop, PDAs and PIMs. You can also “one-click synchronize” your contacts with ACT!, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook, as well as exporting to vCard or CSV format.

Presto! BizCard 6 software supports all standard TWAIN compliant scanners, which automatically recognize multiple business cards from a single scan off your flatbed scanner. It also works with ADF (auto document feeder), which provides batch scanning in simplex or duplex mode.

Presto! BizCard 6 delivers a simple and intuitive workspace. You can sort contacts by company group, category, the first and last name or other fields. The multilingual character display lets you manage your global contacts in one screen. The Browse mode gives you a quick view to the front, back and notes of each card, and the Smart Search feature retrieves contacts instantly.

Presto! BizCard 6 introduces a new “scan to Outlook” feature. The BizCard add-in can be accessed from Microsoft Outlook and all the scanned business cards will be directly transferred to the designated contacts folder with its card image attached, as well as BizCard software.

In addition, you can scan your business cards without having BizCard or Outlook application opened. Simply scan your business cards by using the BizCard Tool from the System Tray. All the contacts with its card images will be seamlessly transferred to both BizCard and Outlook.

Presto! BizCard 6 includes a full-featured printing utility that allows you to print the contact data onto address labels, nametags, ID badges and more. – It supports various formats including Avery standard label stickers and also offers ready to use templates as well.

This software can be downloaded here.  Contact me if you need some help setting up and configuring for action.

App Review: Genius Scan for IPhone

I frequently am asked for advice on field scanning.  One business owner recently asked me about plugging in a Neat Receipts scanner into field laptops.  My gut reaction is that carrying another device with a laptop will not be very popular since it requires a flat surface and the time necessary to boot up the laptop and scanner.  The best solution for scanning short documents in the field is to utilize a mobile device such as a smartphone.  Since I carry an IPhone, I download and test all the mobile scanning apps.  This review is for Genius Scan by the Grizzly Labs, and available for FREE on ITunes.

Genius Scan is easy to use and capable.  Documents are scanned by holding the camera over the document and taking a photo.  The photo is then enhaned and converted to a PDF or JPG.  Final files can be stored locally on your phone, emailed, or uploaded to your favorite document management app like Evernote or Dropbox. 

On a scale of 1-5, this software gets a 4+.  I would like to see a mobile app that scans AND OCR’s.  This is almost there, and as a free app, it’s terrific!

KODAK Capture Pro Software v3.1 Product Review

Kodak just announced Capture Pro Software v3.1.  At Modern Image, we are a super-user of Kodak Capture Professional.  We have just completed installation and training on the newest version.  I am extremely pleased with the new version.  With it, there is a nice and easy interface, and enhanced useability.  There is deeper integration with SharePoint.  Overall, this is another great release of a great scanning software package.

From Kodak:

Kodak today released KODAK Capture Pro Software v3.1, the latest addition to Kodak’s expanding software portfolio. With this latest release, customers using the Network Edition of Capture Pro software now have access to the full range of capabilities of the 3.0 release, in addition to a number of new enhancements that address expanded language and scanner support, and features to help improve customer productivity.

Read more: http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2709&gpcid=0900688a80fc030a&ignoreLocale=true&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=45457