New and Portable Technology

Director, Information Technology

Real estate is a device-heavy industry. Nearly everyone has some combination of a cell phone, pager, PDA, laptop, portable printer, etc. The goal is to lighten your load and carry as few things as possible, yet continue to be productive. A company called scanR has just made that a little bit easier.

What scanR has done is to create a method of scanning any document, whiteboard or note using their service and your camera-ready cell phone or digital camera. The service allows you to scan, copy and fax with your camera phone or digital camera. The method is amazingly simple. Just hold your camera over the document or whiteboard, take the picture, then e-mail it to a special scanR e-mail address. The picture is then either sent to your e-mail as a PDF (in about one minute) or to any fax machine you choose in about five minutes.

The company uses advanced image processing technology to overcome digital imaging challenges such as low lighting, shadows, blurring, and skewed orientation, in order to provide consistently high-quality results in a wide range of conditions. This allows you to get an exact digital copy of the information you need, quickly and easily, using a device you already own.

For a REALTOR®, this technology is extremely useful. This process gives you the ability to create and send PDFs of contracts, property drawings and meeting notes, without any of the extra baggage of hauling a scanner around. You can make information available to your clients while you are still on the road.

According to Chris Dury, vice president of marketing at scanR, “Our goal is to unlock information stuck in paper formats and use them in digital files. The scan/copy/fax market is a $35 billion global market, and the reality is you’re overwhelmed with paper, and paper is hard to deal with. It’s a lot easier to store your information when it’s digital.”

Dury notes that a group of testers for this new product who found the technology most helpful were in fact REALTORS®. The service enabled them to submit paperwork, as least in digital format, faster than driving it back and forth.

scanR works with most one megapixel or better camera phones and digitial cameras. The process is currently available as a free unlimited trial. The company plans to introduce premium paid services in the future. To see if this software is right for you, go to www.scanr.com.