Scan-Optics News Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Annmarie Gordon (860) 645-7878/email: agordon@scanoptics.com
Scan-Optics, Inc. is pleased to announce the introduction of Knowledge Application Services as part of it's new and expanding Business Outsourcing Services
Manchester, CT - June 9, 2003 - Scan-Optics, Inc., (OTC BB: SOCR), a leader in information capture and customer service solutions for government, insurance, order fulfillment, proxy, health claims, test scoring and other paper-intensive businesses, today announced that the company has their first contract to deliver Knowledge Application Services to the National Mediation Board (NMB), the Federal agency that performs a central role in facilitating harmonious labor-management relations within the railroad and airline industries.
The initial application purchased by NMB is the Corporate Memory Application designed to manage the information created by the organization that is of value for re-use. Scan-Optics will provide certified records management, working with the agency to identify its work processes and the information products created by these processes as well as the tools necessary to move NMB to an integrated digital environment in which the information staff need to do their work is immediately accessible to them.
“The Scan Optics contract will enable us to get records and document management expertise, plus the software and infrastructure to manage and archive our information, at much less than it would have cost us to purchase and install document and records management software alone,” said NMB Deputy Chief of Staff for Development and Technology Daniel Rainey. “We looked at a lot of software, and we thought about all of the technical expertise we needed, and Scan Optics proposal addressed all of our concerns and needs. We are very excited and optimistic about how our relationship is going to work out.”
The new service is also been welcomed by Dan Funkhouser, the Director of Office of Administration and Chief Information Officer, of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
“This new service is welcomed by the mediation community. It will enable us to achieve a level of expertise and service, which, as a small agency, we simply cannot afford on our own. Outsourcing business processes goes beyond simply replacing staff in an agency. It is a whole new relationship between the private sector and our government agency,” said Funkhouser. “For the last couple of years we have used a part-time outside professional to meet our records management needs. Scan-Optics' Knowledge Application Service has proposed a new solution to meet our corporate memory needs as well as our records management requirements.”
“One of the principles behind the new Knowledge Applications Services is that knowledge resides in communities of practice,” said Dr. Kenneth A. Megill, who is assisting Scan-Optics to develop this new line of business. “We believe that the mediation community demonstrates a need to manage knowledge created by an organization so that it is available as information to others who need it.”
Knowledge Application Services applies the methodologies developed in the document management profession to the problems of knowledge management within organizations and businesses.
It enables an organization or a business to outsource not just its staff, but sets of business processes (applications) that can be better done by a company, such as Scan-Optics that specializes in providing these services.
The new services are being developed in cooperation with Dr. Kenneth A. Megill, an internationally known author and innovator. Dr. Megill is the author of five books on organizations and how they use their information. His latest book, Thinking for A Living. The Transformation of Work in the Knowledge Age is scheduled for publication this fall by K.G. Saur, Munich, Germany (a subsidiary of Gale Press and Thomson).
Dr. Megill recently completed a three year project for the United States Air Force where he coordinated its Integrated Digital Environment project which aimed at transforming the work culture of the air force to make more appropriate use of digital information.
“We are pleased that Dr. Megill has accepted our invitation to work with Scan-Optics to launch Knowledge Applications Services,” said Joseph Crouch, Vice President of Scan-Optics. Dr. Megill brings us a breadth of knowledge and practical experience that will help us combine the corporate expertise of Scan-Optics with new and exciting developments in the field of knowledge management. He thinks about the problem of how to organize and manage the knowledge of an organization in a whole new way.”
The Knowledge Services Applications will be powered by STAR software, built by Cuadra Associates, a twenty-five year old company, that supplies some of the most sophisticated software designed to manage unruly text.
“Cuadra Associates is clearly the leader in specialized library, records management and museum and archive management software,” Megill said. “We will combine the power of sophisticated text-based search and retrieval tools with methodologies developed by Scan-Optics to deliver business process services to the government and private sector organizations.”
Scan-Optics, Inc., with headquarters in Manchester, Connecticut, is recognized internationally as an innovator and solution provider in the information management and imaging business. It designs, manufactures and services products and systems for character recognition, image processing and display, data capture, data entry, and storage and retrieval. Scan-Optics systems and software are marketed worldwide to commercial and government customers directly and through distributors. Through its Manufacturing Services Division, Scan-Optics also provides business process outsourcing services to customers. Scan-Optics has sales and service offices located throughout the United States and abroad. Additional information is available at www.scanoptics.com.
Statements about Scan-Optics' future expectations, including future revenues and earnings, and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are “forward-looking statements” made under safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could materially affect future results. Among these risk factors are changes in general economic and business conditions in the United States and foreign markets, which impact capital investments by customers, the cyclical nature of funding within federal and state government agencies, further adverse changes in Scan-Optics' banking, lending and financing relationship, insufficient cash resources, increased competition from similar products, the implementation of other technologies which may provide alternative solutions, ability to complete projects in a timely manner, and other risk factors and cautionary statements listed from time to time in Scan-Optics' periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the Scan-Optics' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2002.
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