Document Imaging Blog

Interesting Points from Tom Codd's Presentation at Lyra Symposium

 
Here are just a few of the interesting points that HP Senior Director of Marketing Tom Coddmade during his presentation at the Lyra Symposium. Lyra is an industry analyst firm focused on the printing and MFP industry.

-- Digital content will grow 10 times by 2012
-- Analog to digital conversion is adding 200 billion pages annually to digital content
-- The average office worker spends:
   -- 150 hours annually seeking filed documents  

   -- 40% of their time looking for info
-- 66 percent of HP managed print services (MPS) customers want one vendor

Edward Schmid presenting the keynote at the Lyra Symposium. There was a great deal of discussion at the conference on the need for a cross platform standard for MFPs. You can view Ed's PowerPoint here. 

Automating Document Processes Presentation at Lyra Symposium

Ed Schmid, Nuance vice president and founder of eCopy, will be presenting the keynote at the 2010 Lyra Imaging Symposium on January 26. Ed will be discussing the topic of bringing advanced document imaging technologies typically found in production capture systems to the average office worker through MFPs.

I thought I'd give Document Imaging Blog readers an advanced look at his presentation. It is embedded below. If you would like a copy of this presentation in PowerPoint format with the notes section so that you can read what Ed will say, e-mail me at bill dot brikiatis at nuance dot com. Just put "send preso" in the subject line and I'll bounce it right back to you.

Lyra Symposium Ed Schmid Keynote

 

MFP Software Environments -- Two Alternatives

Only the really educated MFP document scanning buyers understand that there are two types of MFP software operating environments. Even fewer people know what are the advantages and disadvantages.

The first development environment to hit the market was embedded Java, which is what Canon, Ricoh and Lexmark MFPs use today to support document scanning and other MFP software applications. The other is Web services, which is used by all the other major MFP manufacturers, including Konica Minolta, HP, Xerox, Sharp, Toshiba and Fuji Xerox.

Why is this important? Both environments have significant advantages and disadvantages that you will want to understand before you make an important investment, especially if your implementation involves custom software development.

Embedded Java is a widely used and powerful programming language. One or more MFP software applications can reside within the device, although the application may also require a server.

The Web Services approach leverages international Web standards, like XML, HTML and AJAX to create applications and link them together. It is typically less demanding and complex than developing in Java. Earlier this week, Nuance announced its first version of eCopy ShareScan available for the Konica Minolta bEST platform, a Web services environment. Read the press release here.

If you are considering developing custom applications or integrations for MFP scanning, you should look more deeply into these two different approaches. I hope this post will get you started.

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.

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.

WSJ: Xerox Tries to Go Beyond Copiers

In Bill Bulkeley's Feb. 24 Wall Street Journal article on Xerox and managed print services, the most telling point made in the article was "more than half of the 1.5M devices the company (Xerox) currently manages are from other vendors."

This leads me to believe that a critical consideration in the selection of MFP document scanning software is that it must operate with all the leading MFP brands. The vast majority of large organizations don't want to be locked into their MFP brands so that they can multi-source or change brands. This is one reason why Xerox and HP have been so successful with managed print services. MPS allows you to go with Xerox and still keep your non-Xerox brands. You should insist on the same flexibility when it comes to your MFP document imaging software.

MFPs and Network/Data Security

I wanted to pass along a link to a great article on MFPs and security in Computer Technology Review, written by Sharp's Vince Jannelli.  It is a very succint and well-written summary of security concerns around  MFPs and I agree with nearly everything in it.

However, I want to address the following statment that Vince made in relation to platform virus security:

"A proprietary platform is idea, since it won't be susceptible to viruses designed to attack more popular oprating systems available on personal computers."

I don't dispute the statement. But, it is important to weigh the trade offs between a proprietary platform and an open platform. While the risk of viral attack is lower because it is unlikely hackers will develop malicious code aimed at proprietary MFP platforms, the costs of managing those proprietary platforms are significant -- particularly for those companies that have mixed fleets (brands) of MFPs.

This problem is becoming more apparant as MFPs increasingly fall into the realm of IT and become increasingly integrated into business and IT infrastuctures. Some costs of proprietary platforms include:

• IT Training and Staffing costs
• Limited options fo 3rd party integrations (ISVs resist developing on proprietary  platforms unless that platform has a significant majority of marketshare)
• Integration code isn't portable to other platforms (what happens if you switch brands, or acquire a brand through M&A, etc.)

Furthermore, there are open platform solutions on the market today for MFPs that are secure and meet the criteria that Vince laid out for solutions: data security, access control, audit trails, network security, fax security and platform virus security. To read more about how these and other security concerns are addressed in an open platform, check out the white paper, Addressing Document Imaging Security Issues.