Document Imaging Blog

Two Key Points on Document Imaging from Xerox Global Services

Xerox Global Services Vice President and GM Ashby Lowry (shown here) presented the keynote today at the Photizo Managed Print Services (MPS) conference in San Antonio. Photizo is the analyst group that was quoted in the Feb. 24 Wall Street Journal article on MPS.

In his presentation, Lowry made two key points about MFP document scanning:

1. It is the role of MPS providers to "signal" their clients to let them know when they should be scanning and not printing documents. He mentioned XGS client Microsoft as one implementation where scan to e-mail played a role in reducing the amount of material that the software company sent to landfills by 20 million tons.

2. Lowry also mentions that MPS providers must manage multi-vendor MFP implementations. If you take this point to the next logical conclusion, MPS vendors must also manage MFP scanning in multi-vendor implementations, and it would be important that the MFP scanning software work across brands. Otherwise the users will continually have to change the way they scan as they move from device to device.

The Photizo conference is very well attended given the current economic climate. There are approximately 130 people from office equipment dealers, software vendors, VADs and MPS providers attending the event, which is billed as the first ever MPS conference.

Misconceptions of MFP Scanning (Part Two)

Organizations find MFP scanning increasingly attractive because they can combine scanning, copying and printing all on one device. Doing so allows companies to buy faster, more powerful (page per minute) devices because they don’t need pay for separate devices to do each task.

But with the growth of MFP scanning, companies have questions about how it can best fit into document workflows. My last post addressed comon misconceptions in this area. Today’s post continues to look at common misconceptions of MFP scanning:

• MFPs are restricted to small-size documents. Not correct. While the MFP document feeder may restrict you to 50 or so pages, just hit the “scan more” button and you can continue scanning for any number of pages.
• Scanned images from MFPs will be much larger file sizes than images from scanners. Not true. MFP scanning software includes image compression so even color pages can be reduced to as little as 200 KB per pages while retaining sharp text and good image quality.
• You can’t create searchable PDFs with MFP scanning. Yes you can. MFP scanning software allows you to create and save PDFs that are available for text searches within documents and network folders.

Please add your comments on additional MFP scanning misconceptions you have heard.

Misconceptions of MFP Scanning

Today there are millions of MFPs populating the workplace. The ease of MFP scanning makes it attractive to everyday office professionals to add hardcopy documents to their electronic workflows.

But MFP scanning is still new to many organizations, leading to questions about whether it is possible to use MFPs the way you would standalone scanners. Here’s a look at four common misconceptions of MFP scanning:

• Scanning will create a line at the MFP. People will queue up. Not true. It takes 30 seconds to two minutes to scan almost all documents if the scanning software is properly designed, and you can scan while someone else is printing.
• You won’t be able to preview a scanned image at the MFP. Yes you can. Previewing will allow you to check the image to be sure it scanned correctly before returning to your desk.
• You can’t use barcode recognition to automate routine document scanning tasks. Not correct. For example, using barcodes during a batch process can eliminate bottlenecks with automated splitting of document batches and naming of files.
• You can't do image cleanup or drop colors out of images automatically. Yes, you can create clear, legible images from less than perfect originals on the fly with MFPs, eliminating scanning errors and saving time.
  
  Today, eCopy introduced Business Automation Services that address barcode recognition and image enhancement. You can read the news release here.
  
  Please share with us other MFP scanning misconceptions you have experienced.

LinkedIn Document Imaging Group Reaches 2,000 Members

The Document Imaging Group on LinkedIn recently reached a major milestone, surpassing the 2,000 member mark. The Group is the companion social networking group to this Blog.

eCopy created the Group to help people involved in the document imaging market to expand professional relationships for business and employment opportunities. You can join the Group by clicking here.

Whitepaper: Distributed Capture Platforms

EMC has sponsored a whitepaper that looks at how to improve business processes in decentralized work environments through the use of distributed document capture. Jarad Carleton from the industry analyst firm Frost & Sullivan wrote the whitepaper, which outlines the steps organizations should take to capture documents from remote sites using MFPs.

The whitepaper covers automated document classification, extraction and validation of data, as well as delivering documents and data to central content repositories and business applications. It also reviews how EMC Captiva and eCopy work together to address distributed capture requirements at remote offices. You can read the whitepaper here.