From Copy to Print to Scan

Document scanning is a large part of the document production/management process and today shows a similar acceptance trend to that of network printing some years ago.

Traditionally MFD’s (multi function device) were used in corporate, education and library environments as devices that either photocopied or printed documents. Only a few years prior phototyping heavily outweighed network printing, then we saw network printing as the dominant document out put method, thanks largely due to the growth in use of electronic reference articles including emails, edocuments and websites.

Today we are seeing a significant shift towards document scanning. This is great for so many reasons including environmental but does come with challenges. Firstly it’s pretty easy to scan from a MFD. These devices have had scan capabilities built in for some time. The problem most commonly associated with the MFD devices is how do you manage the output location of the scan? MFD’s offer emailing, but users need to enter the recipients email address each time. Mailboxes can used but need to be configured across the fleet of MFD’s. What about security? What’s to stop me from walking up to a MFD with a confidential document and scanning it, accidentally or not, to the entire organisation? Maybe using someone else’s email address as the “from” address.

This is where a management solution such as CMSIP File Tracker offers the most benefit. Of course File Tracker will track documents leaving the MFD as a scan and provide a per page count for auditing, account or charging means. What is more beneficial to an organisation is that the users email address or home folder is taken from the users account information held within CMSIP (populated automatically by various user records within the organisation). This means the scan process is so quick and simple. Swipe your card, load documents, press scan. Simple. Once the documents are delivered the users can quickly manage the documents themselves.

Scanning is a great technology, with possibilities growing everyday. But it needs to be managed and whether this is required for corporate, education, library or retail clients File Tracker provides these services.

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