Similar to other top research institutions around the world, Academia Sinica generated a huge amount of files every day and as the number of research projects grew, switching to PDF became an imperative for the organization because it’s a superior format for archival and management. Once converted to PDF, the format does not only ensure the documents will be displayed correctly on any devices and operating systems, but also save considerable storage space thanks to smaller file size. However, the IT personnel soon realized they needed a more efficient way to create PDFs. “We started from saving HTML as PDF and then combining the files into one PDF document,” says Allen Su, an IT specialist at the academy’s computing center. “At that time the formats involved were relatively few, but after a while we realized the same process couldn’t handle the increasing workload anymore. That’s when we began to survey various solutions and we found Gaaiho.”

Academia Sinica needed a solution that would enable them to:

• 1. Convert a large quantity of files to ISO-compliant PDF on a daily basis.
• 2. Create PDFs in an automatic, unattended fashion.
• 3. Generate PDFs that are smaller in size and conserve storage space.
• 4. Lower software maintenance and management costs.

Gaaiho PDF Server is ZEON’s advanced conversion tool designed to convert a large quantity of files to ISO-compliant PDF. Beyond extensive conversion settings, the administrator can also manage connections and creation jobs. There are three characteristics of Server that make it easy to use:

These applications are designed to make file conversion simple and straightforward. Once connected to the server, the client works just like a regular Driver.

It is a powerful tool that performs unattended conversion. All files in the watch folder are automatically converted to PDF and you can monitor the results with 4 “status folders” which they are moved into.

Server is the only solution that is supportive of integration. Once built into the workflow, it can help creating a massive amount of standard-compliant PDFs with exceptional speed.

With over 1000 researchers, administrative staff and educators in need to create PDF, the traditional way—buying separate Driver license for each user wasn’t a sustainable option because the sheer number would lead to a high upfront cost and long-term maintenance difficulties. Also, some users might only need to create PDF during a particular period, making it difficult to get reasonable returns on the investment. As a result, they wanted to deploy the solution on a server and centrally convert and combine all submittals to PDF on demand. “Gaaiho PDF Server is used as a service component to convert various formats to PDF,” says Su. “Besides, we can also merge those files into one PDF document.”From that point forward, any user can transfer any number of documents to the conversion hub and pick up the PDFs they need within a short time; on the other hand, the IT personnel are only required to maintain the solution installed on 2 servers instead of over 1,000 seats of software scattered in the many sectors of the academy, simplifying management and saving considerable time for both sides.

Every month, up to 1,000 files flow into the computing center from users across the institution. Taking the amount and resource allocation into account, the team expected the solution to work with very little human involvement. Meanwhile, those files, according to the center’s analysts, are mostly project files and documents that contain personal information, and they usually come with numerous images due to the prevalence of diagrams, charts and figures in scholarly research. It is therefore important to control the size as well as make it a hands-free, automated process.

By using Gaaiho PDF Server, image compression is scalable, meaning users can decide the output file size before the conversion takes place. For system administrators, Server’s ability to handle volumes of documents on its own makes their life easier because they are now able to focus on other tasks and come back only once in a while to check for potential errors. What’s more, Server provides better conversion accuracy that also reduces the time spent on proofreading. “Gaaiho boosts conversion accuracy and saves us a lot of time correcting texts,” Su points out.

Gaaiho PDF Server is now fully operational on the academy’s designated servers. It creates standard-compliant PDFs every day with speed and precision, helping the research facility to share, store and maintain a large sum of electronic documents that are vital to the country’s top-tier research programs and higher education. Notably, Academia Sinica is specifically satisfied with the Server’s ease of deployment and competitive pricing.“Server's central deployment has not only made it easy to maintain and manage software for IT, we also appreciate the significant reduction on our overall procurement costs,”