Ephesoft would like to introduce our guest blogger John Moss, Business Development Manager, Strategic Partnerships and Alliances at Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. Fujitsu is an Ephesoft Platinum Partner and an established leader in the document imaging market, featuring state-of-the-art scanning solutions in the workgroup, departmental, and production-level scanner categories. John has created a resource for your organization to leverage if you are looking to buy or replace scanning devices.

Advanced document capture technology spans a six-step workflow: ingestion, image processing, classification, extraction, validation and export/delivery. If you are using or considering the Ephesoft platform, an important step is finding the right scanning hardware to serve as the data on-ramp – the digitization system that primes unstructured data for ingestion.

The below sections offer a series of questions to help any buyer make decisions about the right tools for their data ingestion point. The answers to these questions will help you determine the right throughput, type and number of devices best suited for your application, as well as other considerations.

Before You Start

At the beginning of any technology purchasing decision, consider your organization’s answers to the following questions:

  • What content-intensive or paper-intensive processes do you currently have?
  • How often do you scan? What is the monthly volume?
  • What type of documents are you scanning? Mixed batches, high volume, invoice only, receipts, delicate, etc.?
  • What do you like about your current workflow, what do you dislike about it?
  • What do you currently use for scanning? Dedicated scanner, MFP?
  • What will your future needs look like?
  • What are the challenges/benefits of your current device? Provide pros and cons to both.
  • What approvals do I need? Will I need a steering or project committee to help with the acquisition?

Questions about the Solution

Now that you know your internal requirements, it’s time determine which solution is best suited for your company.

  • What sort of automation does the solution offer?
  • Indexing and data extraction
  • Document separation
  • Image enhancement
  • File and folder naming
  • File conversion to PDF, Searchable PDF
  • Will my documents be easily searchable?
  • Is the image processing high quality?
  • Does the solution support a distributed license model? (Meaning, are you able to perform one task at one location and other tasks at another location to keep the process moving?)
  • Does it offer limitless scans without charging for more volume?
  • Will the solution scale with the growth of my business?
  • Does it integrate with my Line of Business or ECM application?
  • What does the user interface look like? Is it intuitive and easy to use?
  • Can I set up profiles that help automate processes?
  • Does the solution require extensive training to be effective?

Next Steps

It goes without saying that testing and demoing the product is a must. The other important factor for consideration is usually cost, and the question of buying versus leasing. We advise asking your Sales rep for help in preparing these costs for you – that’s what they are there for! And, finally, research your vendor thoroughly. Make sure they are well established, are using innovative technology, and think of you as a partner, not a quick sale. If you would like details on scanning hardware solutions, please visit our website here.

Download the Whitepaper: “Shifting Information Governance from the Back Office to the Boardroom”

For more information about digitization drivers, download our whitepaper on the importance of having information governance discussions at all levels of an organization.