Document Imaging Blog

eReaders, e.g., Kindle, Moving to Business Use

eReaders, like Amazon Kindle, are expected to be hot items this holiday shopping season.

 

Forrester Research recently increased its eReader sales projections to 3 million for 2009, with 30% of 2009 sales occurring in the holiday season of November and December.

 

This boom in eReader usage will create a demand by users to sync content across eReaders, Windows PCs/laptops and iPhones.

 

For example, Amazon recently introduced a Kindle reader application that works on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 machines so users can sync downloaded books and other content.

 

And business professionals can be expected to want to add more to their eReaders - work documents - converging personal and business activities on mobile devices.

 

A good reflection of this is yesterday’s news of Amazon adding PDF capabilities, a format popular among businesses, to match Sony and Barnes & Noble.

 

Nuance OmniPage software enables users to scan a document, automatically convert into a readable format and send it to an eReader, such as Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader, in one easy step. OmniPage automatically reformats documents for easy reading and navigating using an eReader form-factor. The software supports various eReader and PDF formats. You can see how it works in this video.

 

Software features like scan to eReaders unite mobility and document accessibility. It will be interesting to watch the evolution of devices like Kindle as they transform into paperless office business tools.

Construction Firm Solves Paper Problem with SharePoint

Marc Filanc, CEO of the 300 person construction firm that bears his name, envisioned his consultants would have instant access to key documents wherever and whenever they needed.

This was easy enough for non-paper documents. The J.R. Filanc Construction company solved this problem by creating a Microsoft SharePoint portal where they could upload and download Word, Excel, PDF and other "electronic" documents anywhere there was an Internet connection.

But what about documents on paper? How did Filanc create a paperless office so the consultants could be more productive? Read the story here.

If You Buy an MFP, Why Not Use It for Scanning

 
In a recent presentation, MFP Report editor Brian Bissett referenced an amazing statistic from the market research firm Power Decisions Group. He noted that, in 2008, only 33% of US organizations say they are using MFPs for distributed scanning.

Yet his own research shows that 85% of office MFPs sold in the US have some level of network scanning functionality. So the obvious question is, if you are paying for an MFP equipped with network scanning, why wouldn't you use it?

I believe many people don't understand how powerful MFP scanning can be. See my posts on the misconceptions of MFP scanning.

What do you think? Why aren't you using your MFP for document imaging? I'd love to hear from you.