Distributed Scan Management is a new Windows 7 feature that will make it easier and more efficient for corporations to use scanners to create and route documents in their business networks. In the past, corporate IT departments often found it difficult to include paper-based scanned documents into their electronic communications. Distributed Scan Management is an innovative new technique that makes it possible to easily use scanners to integrate paper information into corporate computer-based networks more effectively than ever before.

For example, this could be used when a corporate employee has to submit paper receipts for business expenses. With Distributed Scan Management, an employee could use a scanner to submit them electronically. They would first put the receipt into the scanner and the scan management system would be able to authenticate the employee's status and then offer them a set of choices on where to deliver the receipt information, such as an email address, a SharePoint server, or a file server.

For Windows 7, the WDK documentation will provide programming information that scanner manufacturers will need in order to develop code for this new distributed scanning system. For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=144358

  -- Seth McEvoy [MSFT], WDK Senior Programmer Writer