SnowBlog | An Imaging Technology Blog

Why It’s Important to Have Wi-Fi Access at the Pool

swieczner — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:45:32 +0000

Recently I vacationed in Cozumel, Mexico. It was not a bad way to spend a week away – okay, it was a really nice way! Instead of a hotel, I rented a condo via VRBO, where I could check out a description, photos and reviews of the unit and the location before I committed. One day during that week when we were by the pool, we got talking to the person from the neighboring unit. It was a very pleasant conversation, but one question he asked truly floored me. He was an active member of the condominium association and they were wondering if guests thought it would be a good idea to have Wi-Fi at the pool. Apparently several owners were considering it, as well as doubling the internet bandwidth of the entire complex (yes, there was a cell phone tower just 1000 feet away, but data rates are high and the service is not overly reliable.) Usually when people ask me something I get the drift pretty quickly, but this truly took me by surprise. Here I am lying in the sun on the pool deck, reading my murder mystery book and overlooking the beach – why would I need the internet? But my wife in this case was more “gadgety” than I was – she was reading her Kindle. That should have been a clue to me. So when Mike proposed the internet question, work certainly didn’t come to mind. But that’s what he was talking about. As a semi-retired guy from Colorado who spends months at a time in Cozumel, he continues to do enough work while on vacation that internet access is an issue. And he’s not the only one. Multiple people at this condo combine work and pleasure… and they want to do it from the pool. Mike said sometimes he doesn’t get down to the pool until after 2PM because he’s got so much online work to do. I know what you’re thinking: what a crime! Taking into account that 40% of US adults now have tablets, it’s kind of obvious where this story is going. Between the expected shortfalls of Social Security and IRA savings, the aging of the baby boomers, and the presence of amazing tablet technology, there’s a definite need and trend for people to continue working while semi-retired or on vacation. And many of them will be very far from their IT support personnel so their devices will have to be pretty reliable and foolproof. So, to our corporate customers: YES! Snowbound will help you get the banking, credit card, insurance, shipping, municipality and health record data to your users via trouble-free tablets. If they have a browser, we can also help you get them their statements and bills. Whether you’re at work, at home, in bed or at the pool. Writing this to you from the pool (I wish), Simon

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Running the Document Viewing Marathon

swieczner — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:00:28 +0000

For Bostonians, there is a palpable buzz of electricity in the air this morning. Today marks the 117th Boston Marathon. In a city rich with history and long-standing traditions the marathon, which takes place on the third Monday in April every year, may be its most iconic. Many Massachusetts residents will spend the day lining Comm. Ave and the rest of the course to cheer on the thousands of runners. Even for those of us in the office at work, it is tough not to get caught up in some of the excitement. Snowbound hasn’t been around for 100+ years like the Boston Marathon, but we approach our software development and support with a similar long distance outlook. In 1996, Snowbound was founded during the snowiest winter in Boston history and five years later we released the first version of our web-based document viewer, which was then known as Snapplet. At the time, this initial version of our viewer was only available as a Java-based applet and lacked sophisticated functionality. Over the years, Snowbound has devoted much of our time and energy into building and enhancing this web viewer. Along the way, we’ve passed many important mile markers, continually adding functionality and greater performance to our suite of products. Today, the web viewer is known as VirtualViewer—a HTML5, Zero Footprint document viewer that does not require a download or client installation. Over the past few years, we’ve added a myriad of features to provide our customers with the best possible viewing and conversion technology. We’ve incorporated tablet and mobile support, add-on compatibility for ECM systems like Documentum, FileNet and SharePoint, and powerful annotation and redaction capabilities—just to name a few. This isn’t to say we haven’t encountered our share of Heartbreak Hills along the way. There have been uphill battles: stretching the limits of Java and web viewing technology, challenges by multiple competitors, and needing to go the extra mile for our valued customers. However, we’ve continued to press onward and upward. In fact, in 2012 Snowbound recorded our best year in 17 years while satisfying some of the largest corporations and government agencies on the planet. The analogy between the marathon and Snowbound isn’t quite perfect, though. There is no Boylston Street finish line on the horizon for Snowbound. Every year we plan to continue to enhance our products and grow in new, exciting directions. But like all of the runners out there today, we certainly understand the difference between a sprint and a marathon. We expect to be here for you for a long time to come.

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AFP Viewing and Conversion: Top 4 Reasons a Print Driver Won’t Satisfy Business Needs

jpalo — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:00:54 +0000

AFP documents are complex document types first generated by IBM’s ImagePlus document management systems in the mid-1980s to drive and support the firm’s form printing via laser printers. They belong to IBM’s MO:DCA document family, which also includes sub components like IOCA, the image portion, PTOCA, the text portion and GOCA, the graphics portion. This document format was created to greatly enhance document formatting and printing for a variety of industries—including financial services, government, and insurance— looking to archive standard forms and other records. Today, numerous organizations find themselves with large numbers of AFP files on hand and no easy way to view the content. The first instinct for many in this situation is to find a way to convert all of these files to a more common format like PDF or TIFF. A quick search on Google will turn up hundreds of options for AFP print drivers (a piece of software that converts the data to be printed to the form specific to a printer), but there are multiple reasons why a print driver can’t satisfy your business needs and requirements. Reason 1: Although they may be very affordable, these print drivers are typically quite slow and can therefore reduce an organization’s productivity and efficiency. Reason 2: Print drivers are not very flexible. As such, they are not a feasible option for large batch conversion jobs dealing with a variety of file types. Reason 3: Print drivers will not provide the enterprise with a viewing solution for AFP files. They only provide a conversion tool. Reason 4: Print drivers require the application that created the documents to be present on the system. Depending on your enterprise’s specific situation, there are powerful software options that offer both viewing and converting tools for AFP documents. Companies looking to create a secure and searchable PDF archive, for example, can use a flexible imaging and conversion SDK to easily batch convert AFP files to PDFs. This allows users to search for specific subject matter in stored documents and then retrieve only the pages that contain the necessary information. Another option is a sophisticated web-based HTML5+ document viewer that can display not only AFP and MO:DCA files, but also hundreds of other file types. A pure HTML document viewer enables organizations to forgo the process of conversion and instead immediately access and view AFP files from any computer, tablet, or mobile device with a web browser. Whether you are looking to convert a repository of AFP files to a different file format or employ an HTML5 document viewer to easily view AFP files on demand, software solutions exist to help you met these goals with ease. It’s time enterprises shy away from print drivers and find a more powerful and flexible solution for AFP viewing and conversion.

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Snowbound Software Launches Comic Strip, ‘Worlds Apart’

Snowbound Software — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:14:36 +0000

Batman & Robin. Sonny & Cher. Peanut Butter & Jelly. And now Lenny & Poe. Snowbound Software is excited to launch our very own serialized comic strip, Worlds Apart. A new strip will be released each month on our Tumblr (www.snowboundsoftware.tumblr.com) and will follow the misadventures of a polar bear named Lenny and a penguin named Poe. While penguins and polar bears are traditionally never destined to meet due to living at opposite ends of the world, Lenny and Poe have inexplicably found themselves cohabitating in some sort of polar netherworld that is neither Antarctica nor the Arctic. Lenny is a big oaf–wide-eyed, blissfully unaware of life’s many disappointments, and generally slow on the uptake. Poe, on the other hand, is cynical, sarcastic and very irritable. But despite their very different personalities and temperaments, the two share a begrudging friendship as a means of survival. Lenny protects Poe from predators and does a lot of the heavy lifting during day-to-day life. Poe complements Lenny as the brains of the operation and makes self-preservation decisions for the both of them. Oh, one other weird thing about this polar netherworld they inhabit? They have been receiving airdrop packages of all the latest technology. Apparently the postal service confused their mysterious icescape as the location of a magazine that reviews technology. So now Lenny and Poe have more gadgets than they know what to do with: computers, smartphones, various computer software…you name it! Sometimes it makes their lives easier, but for the most part it just complicates things. Alas, we’ve already said too much! For the time being, you’ll just have to head on over to snowboundsoftware.tumblr.com to view the first strip and see where the story goes from there! We at Snowbound love Lenny and Poe equally, but we understand that they might be, um, polarizing, figures. Feel free to tell us if you are on #TeamLenny or #TeamPoe on Twitter (@SnowboundS). Also, be sure to follow us on Tumblr, like us on Facebook, or subscribe to the RSS, so you can be alerted when a new comic is released.

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HITECH’s Mandatory Adoption Date for EHRs Edges Closer

swieczner — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:00:47 +0000

In 2009, President Obama signed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act into law, as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). HITECH instituted a series of changes which required healthcare providers to begin to adopt and implement electronic health records (EHR). By 2015, the law is requiring universal adoption, meaning every health facility must possess not only working, but highly functional and interconnected EMR systems. Failure to adopt these requirements will result in significant penalties and fines by Medicare. The end goal of HITECH, and the reason for the stringent requirements and deadlines, is to create a nationwide health information network with integrated health records. These health records will contain every piece of data from every primary care doctor, specialist, or dentist that an individual has visited in their lifetime. These records can then be accessed instantly across a variety of channels, allowing for provider-to-provider or facility-to-facility interoperability. The completion of HITECH will reduce paperwork and administrative burdens, save the industry billions each year, and improve the quality of healthcare for the average American patient. Easier said than done, right? As we enter 2013, this universal compliance deadline is rapidly approaching for healthcare providers. According to data from the HIMSS’ Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model, currently less than two percent of hospitals in the United States are completely paperless and fully compliant. Needless to say, between now and 2015, there is a lot of work to be done. One of the major challenges faced by medical providers is the ability to easily locate patient information and quickly and securely share records with other authorized parties. Each medical department has its own information system that tends to be organized around function—not patients. And these systems are rarely integrated across the organization. When introducing third-party providers, sharing information securely and easily can be very difficult. One solution to overcome this hurdle is to implement a browser-based and easy-to-use document retrieval and viewing system. Snowbound’s VirtualViewer retrieves and renders virtually all patient records directly through a web browser. This solution is based on Snowbound Software’s powerful viewing and conversion technology, providing easy and cost-effective access to patient records for providers and patients. Whether the document types are text (messages for doctor orders, prescription information, faxes for diagnostic results, etc.) or image files (x-rays and MRIs), VirtualViewer can provide immediate and easy access. And because it is a browser-based viewer that can work on virtually any computer or tablet, there are no client installations, client-side dependencies, or digital certificates necessary—greatly widening the audience that can be served. Most importantly for integrating purposes, VirtualViewer enables easy bolt-on and add-on technology. This both extends the usability and investment of existing systems and also provides the framework for transferring to new systems as they come online. A document manipulation add-on, for instance, will work on any client with little to no installation or follow-up support, all while providing high security and the ability to interface with almost any document directory or repository. By integrating Snowbound’s VirtualViewer, healthcare providers are able to share information and work together, regardless of where the information is maintained. With ARRA awarding financial incentives to healthcare providers to help accelerate the adoption of electronic health records, physicians, healthcare facilities and their service providers should consider investing in Snowbound’s VirtualViewer solution to ensure HITECH/HIPAA compliance standards are met. The clock is ticking and Snowbound can help.

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