The third in a four-part series created to help people understand the best product, price level and suppliers of document scanners used for Enterprise Content Management (ECM) applications, whether for general office use or part of an organizational roll-out.
Evaluate Ease of Use
These days, all scanners are getting faster and are packed with features. People often create comparisons by collecting scanner specifications from websites and data sheets. This can be a big challenge because each vendor lists their scanner specs differently and all that really matters is how well a scanner performs with your documents, instead of a control set of documents in perfect condition that are all the same size, and with no advanced image enhancement processing applied. Thus, we recommend that you start by comparing scanner specifications and then...
Get a Scanner Demo!
All the top scanner manufacturers offer demo units through their regional sales managers and their value-added resellers (VARs). Any "high-speed" scanner that is unavailable for a demo is likely to fall short of the quality you need, because the real test of a document imaging system is to see how many documents can be scanned in the time you have to scan them, and how many of these images are acceptable for use. Scanner demos will also help you evaluate paper handling, which is critical if you are scanning anything other than standard office documents, especially invoices, receipts, waybills, cardstock, mixed batches of paper, documents longer or shorter than letter-size, and documents that have been tri-folded or stapled together.
Important Note: make sure that the people who will use these document scanners are part of evaluating the equipment, and the software, before the purchase. Why? Think about some of the reasons organizations resist change. With technology, it's often because those who will use the system have no say in the decision -- a problem that can be amplified if the technology is difficult to use, which is the case more often than not. Otherwise, you may find that your shiny new scanners start to mysteriously exhibit poor performance or even break down...
Document Capture Software
Because the scanner is an input device, albeit a very sophisticated and specialized input device, the document capture software is the main interface to the scanner, with the communication protocol via ISIS or TWAIN drivers. This is what people in the ECM industry call the front-end capture system: where you digitize information trapped on paper in order to feed your organization's workflow and archive systems.
Rather than just hitting a scan button on the scanner (with the exception being networked scanners), your main document capture settings are made within the document capture software interface. These settings include output type (color/bitonal), resolution, paper size, start/stop control, as well as a host of advanced scanning parameters.
Document capture software also indexes and routes your scanned documents so that you can find them later instead of having one gigantic file, or individual files named "797990001."
Bundled vs. Third-Party Capture Software
All low-end document scanners are bundled with their own document capture software, often from a third-party developer. These applications are enough to get users up and running but often lack the intuitive features that first-time scanning users require and more advanced features like OCR/ICR and barcode recognition. Mid-range and high-volume scanners are often bundled with proprietary document capture software and sometimes with low-end software from third parties. At this level, we strongly recommend that you at least evaluate third-party software provided by a VAR who can identify the best software fit for your needs in addition to what may accompany the scanner.
Some of the leading third-party, document capture applications:
Demo the Document Capture Software
It is essential that, when you demo the scanner, that you also demo the third-party software. This will help you separate the wheat from the chaff as many software vendors only give virtual demos and webinars. Document capture software evaluation will demonstrate the most important aspect of whether it will be successfully utilized or not: how easy it is to use. Most software today comes with an unbelievable number of features, but it is the applications that are easiest to use that are the most effective and widely used. In addition to ease of use, you will also be evaluating the vendor's level of customer service and ability to train your team.
The next article, Image Enhancement & Conclusions, will explore what image enhancement functionality you need and will wrap up our series.
Did we miss something? Are you a vendor that would like to be mentioned here? Send me an e-mail at sean.parnell@techinfocenter.com.
