0870 903 9500
magazine
21
Advertorial
The solution was sold in June 2010
by Kodak reseller, Great Beneft Limited,
who provides IT systems and support to
Gowers and has long championed that it
install a scanning solution.
Green explains, “Frankly, we had
resisted going paperless even though
various companies have cold called us
to suggest a variety of systems. It just
appeared too scary.We like to be in
control and using some solutions – I
knew – would be costly, require a steep
learning curve and, most importantly a
major reworking of how we do things and
run the offce. A complete non-starter.”
In the end, Great Beneft provided
a test unit so Gowers could see how
simple a workgroup scanner solution is
to use and how it could be implemented
without any overhead to staff or the
business.
The duplex Kodak i1220 Plus scanner
solution deployed can cope with 45 pages
per minute or up to 3,000 pages per day
– 50% faster than previous models. Ideal
for offce environments where space is at
a premium, its ergonomic design offers a
unique tilt-and-scan design which allows
operators to choose the best physical
position based on their scanning needs.
Reliability was a key requirement.
Green says, “If you’ve got one battleship
and it sinks, you’ve got a problem. If
you’ve got lots of destroyers – different
bits of hardware and software integrated
together usingWindows – if one fails,
your whole practice doesn’t. That’s been
our approach.”
The aluminium paper pass, however,
means reliability of the new scanner
solution is second to none – perfect
given the range of documents which are
scanned. From business and ID cards to
documents 863mm (34 inches) long,
practically anything can be digitised by
the i1220 Plus.
Gowers has set up a fle structure
per client with a variety of sub folders
which staff now scan documents to
automatically at a touch of a button.
This includes all incoming post, letters,
personal and corporate tax returns,
minutes of meetings and permanent
notes.
And staff don’t need to worry about
which way documents are put in as
London July 21, 2010 – Kodak
(NYSE:EK) today announced that
Gowers Limited, a Hertfordshire-based
frm of chartered accountants, has
selected a Kodak i1220 Plus scanner
solution to improve organisational
effciency by removing the ever-
growing mounds of paper associated
with an accountancy business growing
steadily year on year. It expects to
save £25k per annum on space and
stationery as a result.
Based in Kings Langley, Gowers
provides clients a range of services from
accounting, tax and auditing, as well
business development and strategic
fnancial planning.With a staff of twelve,
it represents individuals, owner-managed
businesses, right up to international
companies and subsidiaries, and
businesses with revenues over £20 million.
David Green, Gowers’ managing
director, says, “We added about 70 new
clients last year. Having reviewed our
offce space requirements, we could
see that moving forward, we’d need an
unfeasibly large storage space for current
and archived records.We just couldn’t
justify the fxed costs associated with
storage any longer, so there was a very
clear business case to digitise documents.”
Chartered accountants, Gowers,
selects Kodak’s i1220 Plus scanner
technology to support business growth
and enhance organisational effciency
Kodak’s Perfect Page imaging technology
automatically rotates them into a
readable position saving time and effort
pre-sorting paper, with optical resolutions
up to 600 dpi for crystal clear images.
The return on investment benefts have
been swift. Green says, “While there was
some lost billing time as an experienced
member of staff set up the new fle
structure, for a small frm, the future cost
savings will be signifcant.We’re getting
rid of one whole foor in our building
while also freeing up space for staff as we
expand rather than having to add more
fling cabinets.”
Gowers estimates that it will reduce
the number of cabinets it has from 30
to 6 in the next few months so instead
of increasing offce space by 50-75%
to accommodate future growth, it will
only have to rise by 20%. Coupled with a
reduction in stationery cost, it is expected
that £25k will therefore be saved annually.
Additionally, staff will now be able to
access all client documents if they are
working offsite which they couldn’t have
done before without having to transport
loads of paper fles around. Furthermore,
disaster recovery and business continuity
has been improved as all current fles are
now stored electronically and regularly
backed up.
Green says, “Our experience of using
Kodak has been very positive. Having
preconfgured the Smart Touch feature,
we can do everything we need by just
pressing one button. It really has been
that easy and we’ve all be very surprised
not only how quickly we’ve got used to
it, but actually how fed up we are dealing
with traditional paper.”
Neil Murphy, Kodak’s UK sales manager
for document imaging, says, “For the past
25 years, Gowers’ strategy has been to
use off-the-shelf IT solutions rather than
far more expensive bespoke systems
which require extensive and costly
support. Gowers has more than kept up
and ensured that its high quality service
has been maintained without it ever
being held to ransom by over-complex
IT systems or support. This project is
example of the wisdom of its strategy.
Our scanners have been quickly installed
and are delivering tangible beneft from
day one. ”
To learn more, visit
www.kodak.com
l
£25k per annum saved on
storage and stationery
through scanning
l
Simple and quick
deployment, with no staff
training required
...75%
of small
businesses
lose two
hours
a week
because of
IT problems