When we started ScanDigital more than two years ago, part of our fundamental purpose was to not only provide an easy, user-friendly way to have analog materials converted to digital, but also to provide tools to enhance our customers memory keeping experiences and abilities.  We have worked hard to create a wonderful customer experience and I am pleased to extend that even further today with the release of our Canvas Print Console.
 
When we decided to offer canvas prints, I knew that the only way to do this would be to place our brand and name alongside someone who is known for a comparable level of detail and quality.  I spoke with a number of potential canvas print partners before ultimately settling with Harvest Productions.  After looking at numerous sample canvases from a spectrum of sources, I can honestly say that Harvest is the hands down leader in the canvas print industry.

Check out the video below that gives insight into the Harvest process: 

Harvest Productions has traditionally serviced the fine art market by working with world-renowned artists and publishers to reproduce their art in a way that sets them apart from their competitors. As Harvest has begun to branch out into the Commercial and Décor printing markets they have found that these markets share many of the same requirements as the fine art market. And now, due to developments precipitated by the incredible demands of fine art market, ScanDigital is in a unique position to bring Harvest’s technology and quality to the consumer market.
 
Now, I know what you’re thinking…  I admit I was skeptical too and thought to myself: “This sounds great, but it must cost a fortune!”  But that is not the case.  Through a 50,000 square foot facility, Harvest has optimized its workflow, leveraging expertise, capacity, material sourcing, and volume discounts to offer a superior product at a competitive price.  Amazing, really. (For more insights into how they do this, please see the video below)
 
How can this extra quality be free?  Using Iris, Roland, Mimaki, flatbed UV and Vutek technologies, Harvest delivers the highest quality on demand printing available anywhere. The unparalleled quality of the products produced by Harvest Productions is achieved by strict adherence to the their quality standards throughout the digital reproduction process. From image capture to artistic enhancements, no detail is overlooked nor flaw accepted.
 

Creating the ability for our customers to take a photo from its newly digitized form into a physical product and then have that product in their hands in a matter of days, not weeks was also important.  With that in mind we’ve built an incredibly easy system. Simply log into your account, select a photo or series of photos and check out within a couple of minutes. About a week later, an incredible canvas print will arrive at your door.
 
I am truly excited about this product offering and I hope you’ll take advantage of the opportunity to create something new for your home or office from something old.  We continue to be proud of the service and products we offer and this latest integration with Harvest Productions is yet another extension of our core philosophies.
 
Please check out our new console.  As always, our friendly customer service representatives are standing by to help should you need any help.

We know where your memories are from the second your package leaves the doorstep. And we never lose sight of your order until it arrives safely back home to you. It’s our responsibility to monitor and care for your material and we take our job we take our job VERY seriously. That’s why we’ve decided to let you take a closer peek into another aspect of our process: Tracking.

Check out the video below of Anderson describing our tracking process. If you’d like to reach him personally, whether to ask a question or beg for the bloopers, you can find Anderson on Twitter at @AndersonSD.

Our tracking process begins right when you place your order online. Our site automatically generates a UPS shipping label, which can easily be printed and secured on your package. This label has a tracking code that is copied into our system, so we are able to fully track your material from the second it leaves your doorstep.

In route to our facility, UPS scans and records the barcode throughout all stops which ensures we know exactly where your package is at all times. Once your package arrives at our facility, we then check-in and inventory your material. If you missed our first installment of Take a Peek into Our Process, you can catch up and watch the video here: How We Check-In Orders.

When your order is checked-in, it is logged into our EssentialTracker, which is our internal tracking system. This system was built to monitor your order within our facility and to give our customers insight into which exact stage of our process their order is in. As your order moves throughout each stage of our 12-step EssentialTracker system, it is automatically updated in the status bar in your account. Updates are made in real-time, meaning you can log into your account at anytime to see the current status of your order.

So that’s our tracking process in a nutshell. Hope you’ve enjoyed it!

If you have any questions about tracking process or our service in general, feel free to contact our team at 888.333.2808 or find us on twitter at @ScanDigital.  We’d be thrilled to hear from you!

Want to know how we do what we do? Stay tuned for the next installment of ‘Take a Peek into Our Process.’

During the last week of April, Anderson Schoenrock and I attended the National Association of Professional Organizers Expo in Orlando, Florida.  It’s always a nice change of pace to get out of the office every once in a while and the convention proved to be a very rewarding trip.

After an uncomfortable flight back east (try squeezing a 6’4” frame into a middle seat for 5 hours) we headed to the convention to set up our booth.  Having a collapsible frame booth was great, the set up only took about 20 minutes!  That saved enough time for Anderson and me to get some work done back at the hotel and head to the ESPN Zone to catch some playoff basketball.

As an exhibitor we were able to speak with almost all of the professional organizers in attendance over the 2 full exhibition days.  It was a great opportunity to meet with new and current affiliates and hear about customer experiences first-hand from many of our affiliates whom have sent their clients’ materials to us.

We signed up a great number of new affiliates and answered thousands of questions (professional organizers are very thorough!) regarding our services.  Speaking to people about ScanDigital is something that I am very passionate about.  We feel that we are not only running a business but that we are providing a truly valuable service that allows families and friends to preserve and share their histories and memories forever.

We unfortunately did not win any exhibitor awards and only later did we find out that the winners all had to lobby for their prizes.  It’s a good thing that we decided to take up digital media conversion as opposed to politics!

My best news of the trip came when on the flight back home I was upgraded to first-class, making even the terrible in-flight movie somewhat enjoyable.  All in all it was yet another successful convention for ScanDigital, we look forward to returning next year.

Hi, I’m Kiley. One of the many hats I wear at work is that of the inventory/check-in person. I’m actually the first person to see your cherished memories when they arrive here. Thousands of ScanDigital orders arrive at our facility in El Segundo, California each year and it’s my job to make sure everything in these boxes are inventoried and accounted for. See below for a detailed peek into our check-in process.

First, check out the video of me checking in an order here:

Step 1- UPS delivers your order to our facility.

Before we get to the actual inventory process, let me explain our shipping process. It starts with our ScanDigital website, which is fully integrated with UPS. When you place your order, a UPS shipping label is generated. You can then print out and use the label when you’re ready to ship. This provides you with a tracking number for the package, which is also cataloged in our system to fully track your package while on route to our facility.

Step 2- Open each package and put in separate sealed containers.

Similarly, the first thing I do when packages arrive is to grab plenty of plastic containers. When I open a package, I instantly empty the contents into a separate container, which ensures each order is properly inventoried separately.

The packages we receive at ScanDigital come in different shapes and sizes. Whether it is a large box, a round tube, or a padded envelope, I always make sure to open it very carefully. I’ve seen photos get stuck in the corner of large manila envelopes and slides jammed under the box flap, so it’s very important to take great care in ensuring the materials remain unharmed and nothing is left behind. Also, if a customer has arranged their photos in a certain way, I am careful to keep that organization when lifting the entire package into the container.

Step 3- Put a name tag on the container for easy tracking.

Then, I put a name tag on the container, allowing for easier tracking within our facility. The name tag includes all the order information including the customer name, the order ID, the date received and the date due.

Once checked in, is trackable on our site. To view the current status of an order, customers can login to their ScanDigital account at anytime. Our EssentialTracker System allows you to see exactly what stage your order is in through all of our 13 steps including check-in, scanning, editing, finalizing, and shipping stages.

Step 4- Inventory the material in each package and enter information into our system.

Once I complete double-checking the box the materials arrived in, I begin the process of entering the order’s details in our system. First, I search by the customer’s last name on the box, or by the order ID provided in the order confirmation sheet included inside the package. Then I fill out the form with the exact count and format of the materials, as well as enter any additional instructions written by the customer. An accurate form is most important, as everyone from the scanners to the editors will use it as a reference while they work.

While customers don’t have to include notes or a set of instructions, they are welcome to in order to make sure we process the order exactly how the customer intended. While checking in each order, I also copy any specific instructions in our system to assure every request is noted.

Step 5- Print order details to include within the container.

The very last step of the process is to print out a hard copy of the form. This will be included in the container with the materials for the scanners to fill out and refer to. As soon as the container is properly inventoried and tagged, all that’s left is to deposit the container into the backroom, ready for the scanners to start work.

If you have any questions, you can contact me personally at 310.773.3970 or find me on Twitter at @KileySD. Hope you hear from you soon!

And the ScanDigital ‘Employee Champion’ of the month goes to…Kiley! It’s not just about the awesome title, but the swanky gold wrestling belt she gets to display proudly at her desk. Take a look at the picture of Kiley wearing her ‘Employee Champion’ Belt seconds after she was chosen for the honorable award. Doesn’t she look proud?!

Kiley was chosen as ScanDigital’s Monthly Champion for many reasons, but primarily for holding down the fort when there were multiple people out of the office. Her determination (and lots of coffee, she notes) allowed her to fulfill the responsibilities of 4 people! She definitely earned the title and belt this month!

Even after all of her stressful days, she says, “It’s all about being a team player.”

Just another reason we love Kiley- she’s willing to step up to the plate and do what’s necessary for the greater good of the ScanDigital family! Keep up the great work, Kiley!

I’m thrilled to have received Kiley’s first exclusive interview after being awarded the Champion Belt. Here’s what she had to say:

Pamela: “What is the best part about being champion?”
Kiley: “To feel recognized for all of the work I’ve done.”

P: “Where do you plan to display your Champion Belt?”
K: “I wish I could take it home, but no, it’ll be placed on my desk where everyone can see.”

P: “Have you shown anyone yet?”
K: “When the FedEx guy came in, his eyes grew big and he said ‘Woah! I shouldn’t mess with you because you’re the big bad Employee of the Month.”

P: “Now that you’re champion, what are you going to do?”
K: “I’m going to show up to work every day and I’m going to keep up a champion’s attitude for the rest of the year.”

P: “What advice do you have for others that aspire to be employee champion?”
K: “You have to relax, it’s not the end of the world if it seems like there’s too much to do and you don’t know where to start. Relax, make a list, and you’ll find that’s it’s easier to deal with the craziness.”

P: “How has the Belt changed you?”
K: “Hopefully as a better team player. But don’t worry, I’m still the same Kiley.”

Hollywood hosts an array of award shows this season, and last Friday was no different with NAPO’s Organizing Awards. However, I was lucky enough to actually attend! ScanDigital is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), as we help to archive and organize photos and home movies, so Anderson and I decided that was reason enough to attend the Red Carpet Gala. Twist my arm, will you? I love my job!

When NAPO said ‘Red Carpet Gala,’ they meant it. Anderson and I arrived at the beautiful Luxe Hotel in Bel Air, California, walked down the red carpet, admired everyone’s fancy attire, and took tons of photos. Check out Anderson striking a pose!

Luckily, we were also able to get a shot with friend Jodie Watson, award recipient for ‘Best Organizing TV Show’ for her Organizational expertise on TLC’s hit show ‘Real Simple. Real Life.’

Once we arrived, we saw lots of our friends and familiar faces. Everyone at NAPO has always been so welcoming to us. Especially Chantale Bordonaro, NAPO-LA Director of Membership, and John Trosko, NAPO-LA President. Both were also award winners that evening- Congrats!

Luckily, we even got to and meet new people from chapters all over the country. Anderson and I actually sat at a table with people from NAPO’s San Francisco chapter. They were so warm and welcoming, even inviting us to their chapter meeting. Just may be taking them up on that offer soon!

Like any red carpet gala, there was no shortage on celebrities. Comedian Hal Sparks, former host of “Talk Soup” on E! Entertainment and star of the Showtime series ‘Queer As Folk,’ hosted the event. He was hysterical, especially when he brought humor to his experience working with his own professional organizer. Presenters included actor Christopher Knight, ‘The Brady Bunch,’ Sam Saboura, ‘Extreme Makeover,’ Gia Russo and Jodie Watson, ‘Real Simple. Real Life;’ Dorothy Breininger, “Dr. Phil,” Linda Koopersmith, “Clean House,” Monica Ricci, “MISSION: Organization,” among others.

One highlight included a live performance from a woman singing her original Organizing themed song. Listen to a clip that I recorded below. It was hilarious! “I fell in love with the man with a label maker…” Haven’t been able to get those words out of my head since! Click Here to View Video

I had such an amazing night. There’s only one more thing I could have wanted- for ScanDigital to have won the ‘Best Organizing Technology’ award. But hey, there’s always next year!

One of our customers, Gwen Arthur, recently wrote about her experience for the CNN iReport.

After Gwen’s mom took out the old shoeboxes of photos again this Thanksgiving, she realized how tragic it was to see her family’s deteriorating memories. So this holiday season, she decided to give her mom a sentimental gift by converting all of their old memories into digital format with ScanDigital. Gwen Arthur wrote about her experience using our service in ‘How to Avoid Mom’s Brussels Sprouts This Christmas’ on iReport.com.

Read her review below: How to Avoid Mom’s Brussels Sprouts This Christmas – by Gwen Arthur

Over Thanksgiving, like every year, mom busted out with the old shoeboxes of family photos collected through the years. Lots were dog-eared and faded, showing their age as much as the hairdos and clothes we were wearing in the pictures. It was tragic to think our special memories were fading away! I immediately thought there has to be something we can do to properly preserve our precious memories before they fade as badly as grandma’s recollections.

That’s when I did some digging and came across a fantastic new company called ScanDigital, www.scandigital.com. According to their site, ScanDigital professionally scans, crops and color-corrects slides, photos, videotapes, reel-to-reel films, scrapbooks and photo albums then uploads them onto a password-protected online gallery for sharing, organizing and long-term preservation. Originals are returned along with a CD or DVD.

With the holidays quickly approaching during such uncertain times, I’d thought long and hard about meaningful, easy and cost-effective gift ideas for my family and close friends. I was looking for the perfect sentimental gift, especially for mom, so I gave ScanDigital a shot and things went as smoothly as advertised.

They did all of the work for me and the turn-around time was great! The website automatically generated a UPS label for shipping to their LA headquarters. All I had to do was print out the label and ship the photos and tapes. I could even track the process of my order with their online tracking system. Compared to the sneaking around to get photos and videos from my mom’s house, ScanDigital was a snap.

While I was waiting to get my digital images back, I spread the word about ScanDigital to my friends in ‘tornado alley’ as well as to my LA-based friend Karen, who, with the most recent fires, had a bit of a wake up call about the importance of preserving photos and documents in a potential disaster zone. The bonus for her is that ScanDigital even offers a pick-up and delivery services for those in the LA area.

This Christmas day, I am looking forward to the look on my mom’s face as I break out the old home videos and pictures of Christmas’ past. This time we’ll be watching on the TV from the DVDs from ScanDigital. When we’re done and I show her how to log on to my ScanDigital account and show her the photos in the online gallery, I’ll probably spend the rest of the day in the kitchen. Usually mom cooks but I bet my surprisingly tech-savvy mom spends the rest of her day in front of the computer. Wait – this is good! She won’t be able to make her Brussels sprouts, another one of her less-appealing traditions.

Hmmm … I wonder if I can send ScanDigital her box of recipes, minus a few.

Merry Christmas!

Some of you may be familiar with Twitter, in fact, some of you may be addicted to Twitter.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the service, Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service, that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.  For companies, it is a great way to exchange information with their customer bases and distribute updates or other interesting pieces of news.

Here is a short video which explains the service and how it works:

Following us is easy.  Simply set up an account at Twitter or log into an existing account.  You can find some of our key team members at:

Anderson Schoenrock, CEO & Co-Founder
Twitter: www.twitter.com/AndersonSD

Pamela Weiss, Director of PR / Marketing
Twitter: www.twitter.com/PamelaSD

So come follow us and we’ll follow you back.  We always love to hear from our customers!

I’ve been meaning to write this post for some time, but I wanted to share with everyone our experience from NYC at the end of October.  I spent a week in New York with Pamela Weiss our head of marketing/PR and Matt Stone our VP, Operations.  The original impetus for the trip was the PhotoPlus Expo trade show and then we extended the trip a bit to accomplish other meetings as well.

It was an exciting and fast paced trip, but we returned with new ideas, new customers and new connections.  We also had a ton of fun and enjoyed being in the city along the way.  Just an all around successful week.

We decided to take a red-eye in order to not lose a day with the West to East coast.  We had enjoyed a comfortable flight on the new VirginAmerica airline (I’d recommend giving them a try) and arrived in NYC’s JFK airport at 5:30 AM, grabbed our bags and headed off to our hotel.  After dropping off our bags, we went to the Javits Center to set up our booth for the show.  We completed set up by 8:30 AM and had about 3 hours to kill before we could access our hotel rooms.

Quick thinking, I decided we’d all go to my favorite breakfast spot from my NYC days, the Crooked Tree Creperie on St. Marks between 1st Avenue and Avenue A.  We arrived to learn they were closed which became a theme of the trip – three attempts, three strikes.

So we grabbed breakfast and a diner close by and headed back to the hotel.  Then we waited…and waited…and waited some more for our rooms to open up.

We were all pretty worn out, Matt and I decided to hang out in the lobby and Pamela decided to fight the drowsiness with caffeine.  Which resulted in a highly caffeinated Pamela snapping photos of an exhausted Matt and I in the lobby.  Here is some of her finer work:

Finally we checked in and settled in.  A great businessman once told me success is all about shoe leather, meaning you just have to get out and work those leather soles for revenues.  Matt and I agree, but only wanted to work the bottom leather if the top leather was looking great.  So we hit Grand Central Station for a shine:

With newly shined shoes, during the first evening in NYC, I had the pleasure of attending the Inc. Magazine reception for their 30 under 30 list, due to our July feature in their Start Up issue.  It was great to meet the Inc. team in person and I met so many great young entrepreneurs.

The next day we began the PhotoPlus Expo show.  Our booth turned out great and we had an opportunity to speak with a meet many existing customers and reach so many potential customers.  We always gain so much be being on the tradeshow floor speaking directly with our customers.  Running an online business, it is so easy to be trapped behind the computer, but so important to be out greeting customers and talking about our business.  The show lasted three days and was well attended.

Here is a great shot of our booth:

After our first day at the show, I wanted Matt and Pamela to experience Duke’s – a terrific BBQ restaurant on the east side.  It was a staple of my diet for more than two years in NYC and I was thrilled to return.  Matt didn’t hold back ordering their Sampler Platter, which basically was five kinds of meat on one plate.  Sides were served on a second plate and everything is washed down with the house beer – Pabst Blue Ribbon (which is elegantly served in a bucket).  This photo says it all:

After three days on our feet, we celebrated another successful ScanDigital tradeshow at my favorite restaurant – Blue Water Grill:

Pamela and I stayed in NYC for two more days after the show to meet with members of the press and tell the ScanDigital story.  The highlight for me was the afternoon we spent at the Hearst Tower.  The Tower was completed in 2005 after I had moved to Los Angeles, so I had never seen the building.  I must say it is now in my top 5 buildings in the world.  I was amazed and Pamela quickly was tired of hearing me rave about the buildings outstanding architecture.  The building was designed by Sir Norman Foster, was the first Gold LEED certified skyscraper in NYC.  I’ll let you read about it here if you’re interested, but one quick fact – using an exoskeloton design they saved the use of over 2,000 tons of steel…Amazing!

Overall it was a fun, exciting and successful NYC trip for the ScanDigital team!

Check out a 30 second slideshow here:

There are a few new things that we are happy to introduce this month to our customers. We are always in the process of developing new ways to improve our service on all ends to offer the best digitization services on the market.

Large Flatbed Scans – ScanDigital is now offering scans up to 12.2”x17.2” in either 300dpi or 600dpi. By adding this service ScanDigital will be able to offer high quality full scans of large photos, newspaper clippings, artwork, album pages and scrapbooks. By capturing the entire image in one scan the quality is far superior to having to “stitch” different images together in an editing program. The pricing at 300dpi and 600dpi is $1.88 and $2.88 respectively and is relatively inexpensive when considering that elsewhere the price is upwards of $6.00 a scan. For those of you who scrapbook this option is a great way to protect and share your cherished hard work.

Capzles Partnership – ScanDigital is proud to announce that we have partnered with Capzles.com, an innovative new photo and video sharing site that lets users design their own timelines. Capzles’ amazing new flash technology allows for users to fully customize their timelines and seamlessly integrate photos, videos and blog entries. Check them out at www.capzles.com.

ScanDigital Growth – Over the past year ScanDigital has added more than 15 new employees to our skilled and dedicated team. Our experienced and highly trained team has been integral in helping ScanDigital become the industry leader in both quality and turnaround time. Each new member brings with them ideas and experience that have helped us improve all aspects of our business. By adding our great team members we are able to meet the ever increasing demand for our services while maintaining the quickest turnaround time. Also, you can rest assured that all their materials are being handled with the upmost care by trained professionals who are dedicated to providing you with the best possible images.