magazine
42
Scanning
with a one-click approach I am enabling
everybody to actually start scanning in
a pre-defined way. I am not leaving it to
an individual to decide on the quality in
which to capture the information. I’m
shown previews of what has been scanned
as a thumbnail; I can verify image quality;
I could mark an individual page; and
when I am done I can either release it to
a pre-defined destination or application,
or I can suspend it and pick up on the
batch scanning application later on for
reviewing and releasing to a pre-defined
destination.”
Fujitsu fi-7000
Fujitsu’s third announcement is the
introduction of its new fi-7000 series,
supplied with Paperstream IP and
Paperstream Capture as standard.
With scan speeds of 80 pages and 160
images per minute, this scanner is capable
of processing thousands of documents a
day, but is typically used to scan 50-100
and is usually attached to a single PC. The
scanner can be shared via a USB hub or
network, but for workflow reasons Schulz
says this does not happen often, except
in environments where two people are
sitting next to each other or face-to-face.
The fi series is designed for use
in document management, archiving
and workflow scenarios for scanning
information that needs to be shared
by an organisation.When the scanner
is not being used for such purposes, it
can double as a personal scanner thanks
to new ScanSnap Manager for fi series
software.
“A lot of fi series scanners are used
for individual support [as well for feeding
information into repositories], which is
why we are introducing what we call
ScanSnap Manager for fi series,” Schultz
explained. “When I jump out of a capture
application, because ScanSnap Manager
for fi series interacts with Paperstream
IP, automatically every user has a high
speed, high performance ScanSnap device.
If I now put a page in and press the scan
button, it works exactly like a ScanSnap.
With the quick selection menu, I could
feed a complete batch into a folder or
Word, Excel or Powerpoint and perform
some simple editing functionality or send
it by email.”
From a hardware perspective, the
new products boast useful productivity
improvements including:
n
double feed detection that monitors
the sound of paper going through the
feeder and detects mis-feeds from
changes in sound;
n
the ability to re-scan a mis-feed
without having to open the ADF and
take out following pages – possible
because the ADF can push back the
paper stack;
n
mechanical straightening of pages that
have been fed in askew;
n
a USB 3.0 interface and hardware-
based image enhancement for the
transmission of documents almost in
real-time;
n
a larger 80-sheet ADF and extendible
output tray; and
n
LCD display showing scan data and
Paperstream capture profiles.
There are four models in the fi 7000
series – the fi-7180/fi-7280 and fi-7160/
fi-7260. Prices (ex VAT) start at £900
for the fi 7160 and go up to £2,230 for
the7280, which comes with a detachable
A4 flatbed scanner and expanded barcode
capability.
The EMEA desktop scanner market has
enjoyed a healthy growth rate of 12-14%
each year for the last 5 or 6 years. According
to figures from Infosource and Fujitsu, this
is set to continue at a compound annual
growth rate of 37% from 2012 to 2016.
At the same time, the volume of
pages scanned on MFPs and captured on
smartphones has also been increasing. It would
be understandable to view these alternative
scanning solutions as a threat to Fujitsu. But
Klaus Schulz, manager of product marketing for
EMEA at PFU Imaging Solutions, doesn’t see
it like that. In fact, he says they might even be
good for business.
“We see a lot of competition from mobile
phone companies providing applications to
scan documents using a smartphone camera.
At the end of the day, that type of scanning
comes down to taking photographs and trying
to improve the image quality of photographs
one-by-one: it is not a batch scanning solution.
If you have an infrequent requirement to take
a picture of a document it might be OK, but
if you have a regular requirement, then you
should look for a solution that allows you to
replicate the image quality to a level that you
can rely on and feed it – regardless of who is
taking the scan and what kind of settings there
are – into a common repository,” he said.
As for MFDs, Schulz argues that they provide
an opportunity to increase sales of network
scanners.
“If it is possible to deploy a network scanner
side-by-side with an MFD, then you have
a dedicated output device right next to an
input device that anybody can walk up to and
use. The administrator could standardise the
capturing routines through the touchscreen
display of the network scanner and everybody,
from the person doing the scanning to the
staff member responsible for processing the
document, would see the benefits of providing
documents through a dedicated device. Nobody
would accept walking up to an MFD and waiting
for a print queue to finish off before starting a
scan, and many wouldn’t accept having to fiddle
around with the MFP display or change the way
it works as an input device,” he said.
Schulz added: “MFD scanning capabilities
are getting better but, then again, if I initiate
a scanning process from a remote device
that I have to walk up to and cannot finish
off the process of capturing the information
completely on that device, but have to walk
back to my regular workstation and pick up
on the document from email or from a file
folder, that’s annoying and time-consuming. If
I walk up to a centralised scanning device like
a network scanner, I will be able to finish off
the job there and then. From that perspective,
we believe MFDs are currently more of an
opportunity as they make businesses more
aware that they have a requirement for
scanning documents.”
It’s possible, says Shulz, that they could even
increase demand for desktop scanners.
“In the desktop arena, every member of
staff needs to judge how frequently they
need to scan documents. If you have a regular
requirement to scan even just one document a
week it might be beneficial to have a dedicated
device sitting on your table instead of having
to walk up to a centrally deployed device. If
devices are used regularly but infrequently
they must be so simple to use that the
individual does not have to start building an
understanding of what they need to do to
activate the scanning routine. That’s what we
are trying to do with the 7000 series of
desktop scanners,” he said.
The MFP: friend or foe?
...continued.
... it can
double as
a personal
scanner
thanks to new
ScanSnap
Manager
for fi series
software.
