Scanning from Multifunction Machines (PDF)
It's still an all-too-common experience in the "modern" office: the purchase or lease of office equipment is given little more thought than the selection of filing cabinets or office chairs. Yet for every stand-alone printer, fax machine and copier out there, organizations could spend less and save space by using multifunction machines — known variously as digital copiers, all-in-ones (AIOs) or multifunction printers (MFPs).
These devices offer collating and document finishing options often lacking on network printers, and many machines now have built-in scan-to-e-mail functions and powerful document workflow, messaging and management system integrations. Yet in many offices, local office managers and harried IT administrators assume vaguely delineated responsibilities for purchasing office equipment. When organizations wake up and take a more strategic, enterprisewide look at the use of "copiers," they quickly recognize opportunities for device consolidation and electronic document distribution.
The argument for consolidation is obvious. Add up the costs of equipment, service contracts and consumables for stand-alone copiers, printers and fax machines, and you'll quickly see the savings in moving to multifunction devices.
The typical $250 million enterprise spends $250,000 to $500,000 a year on direct hardcopy output costs, including hardware, supplies, maintenance and IT support costs, according to an IDC study commissioned by HP. By consolidating aging equipment, four large (1,000-plus employee) organizations that took part in the study cut expenditures by an average of 23 percent. Multifunction machines paid for themselves on a hard-cost basis in six to 18 months, and even higher "soft cost" benefits were reported from electronic (versus print) document distribution.
Image vs. Original: A Matter of Trust
The speed advantages of scan-to-e-mail document distribution are obvious, yet the cost of the alternative is often obscured. Fax volumes, and thus related phone and consumables charges, have declined as e-mail volumes have increased, yet the per-line and per-call costs still show up every month and can be easily tracked. What's more difficult is accounting for the costs of shipping and handling physical documents. If a document weren't faxed, for whatever reason, would a high-quality image, sent via a copier-based scan-to-e-mail feature, be acceptable in place of an original?
Organizations make different (and sometimes inconsistent) decisions about accepting images in place of originals. At engineering firm Michael Baker, for example, expense reports and invoices are sent as images from remote offices to headquarters through copier-based scan-to-file workflows, yet certain legal documents, including contracts and memoranda, are still physically shipped to and maintained at headquarters because, the company reasons, some state courts still don't accept images as legal records (see "Engineers Build a Better Workflow," page 32).
Statistics suggest that organizations are sharing more documents via scan-to e-mail features. Of the 730,000 (21-page-per-minute and faster) digital copiers sold in 2003, between 25 and 35 percent were scan-enabled, a percentage that has grown and a trend expected to continue, says IDC.
"Document distribution — or fax alternative — is the dominant reason that scanning is becoming more significant in the MFP market," says IDC analyst Keith Kmetz. "The benefits are clear: you can eliminate fax costs; maintain the quality of the document — through color and high-resolution scanning — and the document can become part of the workflow. A fax is [typically] a stand-alone document and not part of the workflow."
Bumps on the Road to Scanning to E-Mail
Copier-based scan-to-e-mail features have been around for years; so why is it taking so long to displace the fax? One factor is that there are a lot of legacy fax machines out there. By some estimates there are 100 million fax machines in use, and the devices continue to sell. Changing practices and entrenched business processes is akin to turning a huge ship or stopping a freight train — it's just not going to happen quickly.
Another factor is that multifunction-capable devices are still often deployed as conventional stand-alone copiers, off the network with no- or low-cost scanning features unused or not purchased. More than 25 percent of those who have scan-capable multifunction devices in their offices say the feature is underutilized, according to an August survey by InfoTrends/Cap Ventures. And among 105 respondents (out of 429) who said the feature was used "a few times a month" or "rarely or never," 27 percent said users had not been trained on scanning features, while another 15 percent said the scan function wasn't set up.
Finally, many AIO-based scanning features have been hard to use. Copier-based scanning has involved cumbersome user interfaces, proprietary administrative schemes and awkward copier-to-desktop-to-destination routing approaches. Transform's latest survey of copier-based scanning reveals that built-in functions and add-on options are maturing, moving to standards-based integration and networking approaches and an easier experience for end users.
At the most basic level, scan-to-e-mail functionality has been offered directly from multifunction machines for more than five years, but the big challenge on older machines was navigating the user interface. Hardware designers were forced to strike a balance between too many buttons — many of them analog — and too many drill-down levels and menus on early touch-screen interfaces. It was hard enough finding the QWERTY keypad on the too-small touch panel, but heaven help you if you wanted to type even a short note and the e-mail address. On some machines you even had to shift to the capital letter keypad to find the "@" sign.
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The next question was just who was sending the e-mail? Early on you could e-mail from your desktop, attaching images from a device-administered inbox. Next came e-mailing directly from the device with the device IP address or equipment name listed as the sender. Most devices still offer this approach for casual, ad hoc use, but users complain that recipients ignore e-mail from these unknown addresses and can't "reply" directly to the real human sender. Furthermore, cost- and security-conscious organizations increasingly want to know exactly who sent what, where.
The options for authentication and routing used to be limited to device-administered inboxes and predefined destinations, with security administered separately from network IDs and passwords. If this approach was adopted at all, IT struggled to keep up with personnel changes, forgotten passwords and the day-to-day changes that keep staff busy with the real network. No wonder so few early multifunction machines were scan-enabled.
Moving to Standards to Ease the IT Burden
Hardware and software advances have done much to overcome the shortcomings of early multifunction machines. Touch panels are bigger and backlit (and sometimes display in color) for improved visibility and better usability for not-so-nimble fingers. Navigation has been simplified, with the needed granular control hidden from novice users with default and stored settings and discreet submenus and option buttons. Onboard processors have matured into true servers for centralized, Web-based administration. Faster processing and capacious memory has improved copy, print and scanning speeds.
Imaging features have improved, with front- and back-side cameras supporting single-pass duplexing, more than doubling the speed of the two-pass, feeder-based approach. Some models can scan in color even if copy and print functions are limited to black-and-white, and color scan, print and copy devices are more numerous and much more affordable than they were just a few years ago.
At the insistence of IT departments, device manufacturers have embraced network standards (see our Product Guide). LDAP browsing is now commonplace, so users need only type in the first few letters of any address on the corporate directory to see it appear in a drop-down menu or even auto populate on the "To:" line. IT administrators, meanwhile, won't have to constantly update and redundantly administer device- and network-based directories. Predefined inboxes, destinations and device-level passwords are still out there, but the newest machines also support industry-standard network and e-mail server authentication so users can sign in with their accustomed network IDs and user passwords.
With authentication, users can scan to e-mail from their own e-mail addresses without having to go back to the desktop. Users also can access (or be prevented from seeing) drives, folders and subfolders based on the same user and group access privileges established for the network. Scanning directly to e-mail or network destinations eliminates the need for a two-step approach from the desktop, yet on occasion, users still want to edit images, add attachments and type in long e-mail messages on real keyboards. In these cases, it makes sense for them to work at their desktops, so manufacturers including Xerox and Lexmark have added buttons that let them quickly e-mail documents to themselves after authentication.
Save a Profile of Everyday Documents
Once you've implemented scan-to-e-mail and scan-to-shared-file features, the next step up in sophistication introduces stored document profiles, indexing and back-end integration options. The most basic of these features let you store scan settings (such as file type and resolution) and routing destinations for documents that show up every day, such as resumes, customer letters, patient records or account applications. It's always possible to apply indexing data to images at the desktop, but the more advanced systems listed in our product guide let you automatically apply metadata such as time, date and, with authentication, user IDs. Other values can be associated with the document type, the destination or entered at the device control panel (as long as they're short and few in number).
Stored document-type settings or templates created for or on one machine can usually be exported to or replicated on other devices to ensure consistency, but as the number of machines and users and the complexity of workflows grows, it makes more sense to move up to server-based scanning platform. Systems such as Xerox CentreWare Scanning Services, Lexmark Document Distributor and HP Digital Sending Services offer centralized, Web-based administration of stored document settings, indexing schemes and workflows that can be exposed through multiple devices.
Stepping up in sophistication, systems such as eCopy ShareScan, NSI (or HP) AutoStore and Ricoh Globalscan offer authenticated connections to document and content management systems from vendors such as Microsoft, EMC/Documentum, FileNet, OpenText and Interwoven/iManage. This approach lets users check scanned documents directly into the folders they would see as authenticated users of the management system. These systems also offer APIs and the ability to export images to a wide range of applications using connections akin to the release scripts used by document capture systems.
At press time, Xerox was was preparing to announce a new scanning option called SmartSend that will combine the features of its Centreware and FlowPort systems. Xerox says SmartSend will debut this fall and will offer connectivity to SharePoint and, in future, additional management system integrations. The system will also offer personal and group document workflows and open, .Net integration possibilities with third-party software. A Professional edition will incorporate FlowPort's "Paperware" scanning coversheet system, which supports document workflows with automated indexing.
Third-Party Vendors Take Scanning Head On
eCopy and NSI stand apart from copier manufacturers in that both companies are dedicated exclusively to developing and selling copier-based scanning solutions, and as such they have been leaders in implementing multiple-device and multiple-location scanning deployments with sophisticated workflows and back-end integrations.
eCopy is partly owned by Canon, and its ShareScan system is offered only with Canon ImageRunners and two Oce models based on Canon-manufactured multifunction machines. eCopy this year introduced ShareScan OP, a new version of the company's scanning platform that relies on the server processing power built into Canon's newer MEAP-platform copiers. Eliminating the dedicated servers formerly required at each ImageRunner, this new approach has reduced costs by $1,000 while gaining more powerful Web-based administration.
NSI originally developed AutoStore for HP, but the exclusivity of this arrangement expired last year. NSI has since added a partnership with Kyocera Mita, which will soon offer its own version of AutoStore, and created integrations for Xerox, Ricoh, Sharp and Toshiba copiers among others in the works. This gives AutoStore the unique distinction of being the only scanning system that can expose one set of stored document settings and workflows through at least six different brands of devices. The only other systems that offers multiproduct support are DocSend, a ShareScan-like offering from copier reseller and integrator Ikon, and Kofax Ascent, which includes an optional Ricochet module that supports copier-to-desktop-to-ECM system connectivity from many different brands of MFPs.
Third-party integrations are also flourishing in the increasingly important areas of accounting and security. Law firms and consulting companies have led the call to count scans on multifunction machines, as well as copies and printouts, so they can charge the wear and tear on these machines off to their clients. Most manufacturers have enabled scan counting through their own accounting software packages, but not all have created integrations for popular third-party tools such as Equitrac. The advantage of third-party products is that they can manage the multiple brands of products that often show up in a single office or enterprise. eCopy, NSI, Lexmark and Sharp are among those that offer third-party accounting system integrations.
Given medical and privacy concerns, health care and financial institutions are calling for better document security for electronic document distribution. Authentication is now used to force users to securely log in before they scan-to-e-mail or output a printed or faxed document that would otherwise end up in the output tray for everyone to see. Sharp has introduced a data security option that overwrites latent images on the device hard drive up to seven times, and it has also partnered with rights management vendor AirZip to apply permissions to PDF files sent via e-mail.
Don't Forget the Human Factors
Employees, department managers, IT, facilities/operations and even senior management should be involved in the early stages of a move toward multifunction machines and new workflows. As for selection and ongoing support issues, establish clear responsibilities. IT should assess and set device type and network requirements, while facilities/operations can handle purchase and lease agreements and ongoing maintenance and supply issues.
The biggest productivity gains are made when scan-to functions are effectively integrated with business process workflows and software, IDC's study found, yet many organizations are resistant to such change.
"Multifunction machine-based enterprise solutions and document management solutions are in their infancy, but the appeal is there," says Keith Kmetz. "Some of the hesitancy stems from the need to make widescale changes to the current infrastructure. Some companies are making this change, but many are still holding off because of the investment required and the uncertainty of the ROI."
Even if you find just the right hardware and software combination for what are now document bottlenecks, don't expect users to quickly adapt and overnight delivery charges to evaporate. The more complex the workflow the more essential it is to involve users from the start, rigorously train and ensure adequate support and follow-up on problems and sticking points. Much as they've improved, device interfaces and software offerings still aren't as simple and easy to use as the old fax machine.