The Tech Bench

Apple’s iDisk makes securely sending large files easy as email.

Included with the MobileMe service, iDisk is an Apple hosted storage service that allows you to backup, sync and share files using 20GBs of online space.

Here’s how it works:

1. Upload your file (any size up to your storage limit) to iDisk.

2. Log into MobileMe from any computer’s web browser.

3. Select the file and click the “share button.”

4. The pictured drop down will allow you to send a link to the file via email. You can password protect the file and have the link expire after a set number of days.

While there are other online services like GigaSize to transfer large files, the iDisk interface is fast and easy for the recipient to access. If you have MobileMe, this is a great way to securely share files.

[ MobileMe ] [ iDisk ]

Fujitsu SnapScan S510M - My Savior

Filing, storing and searching paper records is time consuming and incredibly inefficient. Utilizing a PDF scanner, some patience and a few tricks, I was able to make my document storage completely digital.

I started out with a Xerox DocuMate 152, which I ran connected to an old Dell laptop (no Mac software.) It came with its own Windows desktop application to scan your pages, sort them, and rearrange as you needed. I connected the laptop to our file server and started scanning PDF’s. The quality and the single page scan speed was great. The speed of saving multi-page documents to the server was not so great. Scanning a 40 page shipping statement took about 5 minutes.

I was on the lookout for a good Mac based solution ever since I bought the Xerox. Dealing with Windows on a daily basis for the one task of scanning was a little frustrating, and it was one more machine to deal with. I saw a PDF scanner on the market made by Fujitsu called the ScanSnap.

Mac native? Yes!

I picked up the ScanSnap S510M and tried it out. It did everything the Xerox did, except it worked on the Mac. I didn’t have to deal with a separate desktop application anymore, the Fujitsu scanned straight to a PDF file. It has some good presets for different quality settings, whether or not you want color, and OCR (Optical Character Recognition). OCR is great if you want the content of your scans to be searchable on your Mac, but it does increase the file size considerably.

What used to take 10 minutes to find an old invoice now takes 2 seconds. Everybody in the office has access to them via our local server. Using a VPN solution I have access to all these files from anywhere I have my laptop and an internet connection.

Here’s a few recommendations based on my experience:

1. Come up with a naming & organizational scheme ahead of time and document it. It will save you and your employees hours of headache.

2. Invest in an application like Hazel or create an Automator script to auto-sort your docs once you’ve scanned them. It took me 2 years to figure this one out. An hour spent configuring one of these solutions can save tens if not hundreds of hours vs. sorting everything manually.

3. Buy a great shredder. I spent about $200 on a mid-range model from Staples. We call him the Shred-bot, and he’s been with MyService for about 3 years. He’s had one trip to the doctor (Staples warranty repair) after a fever (overheating from working too hard), but other than that he’s been a wonderful addition to the team.

4. Invest in a local backup system (hard drive, CD/DVD) and/or an offsite solution (BackJack, Mozy). Don’t shred your scans until you’re sure you’ve backed up everything.

[ Fujitsu SnapScan ] [ Hazel ] [ BackJack ] [ Mozy ]