SCANNERS
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IT
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According to the findings of T
he
Future of Scanning
study conducted
by InfoTrends, scanning has
transformed from a means to archive
and store specific documents to a
method for all knowledge workers to
create digital files to interact, share,
communicate and manage.
“Scanning is a pervasive task across
all businesses,” said Anne Valaitis, Director
of InfoTrends’ Image Scanning Trends and
Professional & Managed Print Services.
“Knowledge and process workers have
ramped up activity in the last few years,
often driven by a need to be more efficient,
streamlined and modernised. Software
solutions that support scanning have
developed into sophisticated middleware
that provides connections to a host of
back office and process platforms. Single
function distributed and centralised
scanners were once the purveyors of
specific application and process work, but
it is evident that there is a shift to devices
such as MFDs as well as smartphones and
tablets.”
As more processes are automated and
paper processes are transformed into a
more digitised state, InfoTrends suggests
that the future of paper and scanning is
changing. Simultaneously, mobility and
mobile technology advancements are
generating added opportunities to improve
how content and paper are consumed and
managed.
Opportunity
Tim Brosnihan, Product Manager at Canon
Document Scanning Solutions, says that
businesses today need to process customer
information quickly and securely on a daily
basis. “Recently, we have witnessed the
growing trend of organisations moving
document capture processes from the back
office to customer-facing environments
for reasons of speed, data accuracy and
customer trust,” he said.
“High street banks, for example,
need to validate their customers’ identity
for approving loans, mortgages or new
accounts. Previously, the service agent had
to take the customer’s ID to the back office
to capture it, which made many customers
feel uncomfortable as they handed over
confidential documents to staff, even for
just a few minutes to make photocopies.
Now, the same process is taking place at
the service desk in front of the customer.
This not only builds trust as no personal
documents leave the eyes of the customer,
but also enables staff to work with the
customer to complete the data input and
provide real-time feedback.”
Epson continues to see considerable
growth in the scanner market, particularly
for compact document scanners that fit
easily onto desktops, as businesses look to
capture documents at the point of receipt.
PFU highlights the 20-30 pages per
minute segment as one where there is a
great deal of opportunity as companies
look to increase their productivity. It has
just launched the SP Series to address this
segment. “The SP Series helps to support
a dedicated, single business function, such
as scanning to an archive or in a small
mailroom, backed by image processing
capabilities typically found in enterprise
solutions,” explained Sabine Holocher,
Manager PR & Social Media, PFU
(EMEA).
Salim Hasan, Product Manager for
Brother UK, agrees that there is a
huge opportunity for resellers
to capitalise on the scanner
market, which, according to
Should scanners be on the print channel’s radar?
Opportunities
in scanning
Infosource, is growing by 15% year-on-
year. “The rise in digitisation and agile
working in particular are driving growth
in the category. As more people choose
to work from multiple locations, outside
traditional nine to five office hours,
employees need to work as productively on
the road as they do in the office,” he said.
The role of the reseller
“As businesses attempt to become more
efficient they soon realise their current
technology and working processes are
holding them back,” said Steve King,
Development Manager of Business
Scanners, Epson UK. “It’s resellers that give
their customers the confidence to change
that are reaping the rewards of these
opportunities.”
He added: “Document scanning is an
area that can provide broader insight into
how a customer operates within their daily
operations. It gives an opportunity for
dealers to offer opinion, insight and advice
on improving everyday efficiencies that
can, collectively, make a real difference to
productivity. Reception desks and branch
offices in organisations with traditionally
high print volumes, like legal, finance,
insurance and government, can be fertile
ground for resellers looking to develop
long-term, margin-rich partnerships with
their customers.”
Holocher highlights document-heavy
sectors like accountancy, pharmacies and
law practices as areas of great opportunity
for channel partners. “Our partners are
making great strides in unlocking these
opportunities and, by the close of last year,
worldwide sales of our professional Fujitsu
fi-Series scanners exceeded the four million
unit mark, making the fi-Series product
line the bestselling professional document
continued...
Tim Brosnihan,
Product Manager,
Canon Document
Scanning Solutions
Salim Hasan,
Product Manager,
Brother UK
