|
contents | business | |||||||
| Albyn Housing Society Chooses Kodak’s i1420 Scanner Technology Eastman Kodak Company announces that Albyn Housing Society has installed a ScanLink electronic document management (EDM) system along with one of its new duplex i1420 tabletop scanners to manage all the documentation generated as part of providing affordable rented housing in the Scottish Highlands. The solution was sold by Inverness-based reseller, Solution X. Processing up to 60 pages per minute, the Kodak i1420 handles virtually all document sizes and shapes and features Kodak's Perfect Page imaging technology to ensure quality scanning first time by Albyn Housing Society's Allocation Team. Albyn Housing Society manages over 2,000 rental properties and in excess of 200 shared ownership houses in the Highlands of Scotland, an area the size of Wales and home to some 218,000 people. A registered social landlord funded by the Scottish Government, banks and building societies, it employs 70 staff and has its head office in Invergordon, 25 miles north of Inverness. In June this year, all providers of affordable housing in the Scottish Highlands - five independent housing associations, which includes Albyn, and the Highland Council - introduced a common housing application form and process to streamline and simplify the process of handling the numerous requests for accommodation. The Kodak scanner is used by the Allocation Team - the group responsible for assessing applications - which has made the whole process of administering the waiting list far faster. Mr Nairn says, "We've reduced the time it takes to allocate a property when it becomes vacant by 25%." When a person or family applies for affordable housing they are assessed using a points approach with those meeting a certain number given a home first, based on a number of criteria, for example, medical conditions, whether they are in secure accommodation or not or actually homeless. Albyn Housing Society is also using ScanLink document management software from DataImage Software Limited to handle all scanned paperwork associated with its property portfolio. Deployed in September 2007, ScanLink has a Microsoft Windows-based type GUI and is simple-to-use, with the allocations staff scanning documents and then saving them into virtual filing cabinets after indexing the information. The paper work generated by the Albyn's Housing and Property Maintenance Teams is considerable and includes: correspondence with tenants, application forms, maintenance and rent information, doctors' reports, and 'pointing' information about tenants. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Computing News :: home page |