The Changing (Inter)Face of Distributed Capture

At Harvey Spencer’s upcoming capture conference (http://www.harveyspencer.com/documentcapture/index.html) on Long Island, I will be moderating a panel discussing the increasing options for embedding document capture applications within hardware devices. This is an important trend for a couple reasons. The first is that it is further evidence of the document imaging industry’s move toward solutions. The second is that it is indicative of the industry’s move into the mainstream office environment.

Actually, these two trends are connected, as by reducing the number of moving parts in an imaging application by connecting it more directly to line-of-business applications, you are making imaging more accessible, which leads to wider adoption. So, what does all this mean to resellers? Well, it means that the game continues to change, and to continue to increase your sales, you’ve got to change with it.

Interestingly, the digital copier vendors like Ricoh, Canon, Sharp and even Xerox were the pioneers in embedded capture applications. Canon’s MEAP (multi-functional embedded application platform) was the first “open” application development platform, and it was introduced four to five years ago. Unfortunately, despite it’s reportedly “open” Java platform, capture vendors have found it difficult to get on board the MEAP program and its adoption by vendors other than Canon uber-partner eCopy has been limited. Ricoh, which also has a Java-based platform, has been more successful signing up developers at least, while Sharp, which has an HTML, Web services-based platform, has signed up the most capture partners of any MFP vendor, with about a dozen exhibiting at its dealer event this year. That was just one year after Sharp’s OSA (Open Systems Architecture) platform made its debut at AIIM 2006. Xerox is modeling its EIP (Extensible Interface Platform) after OSA, without being quite as open as Sharp.

Despite all this activity on the open systems front, we will say that aside from eCopy, which counts about half its new installations on Canon machines as being embedded, we haven’t seen too much significant adoption of embedded capture applications in MFP devices. However, there is no reason to think the embedded wave is not coming. The market conditions are certainly there to create it.

There are more people adopting document management technology than ever before, and people love the one-button simplicity of making copies on MFPs. If you can replicate one-button intuitiveness to capture a legal document into to your Documentum system, why wouldn’t end users buy into it? Digital copier vendors realize this, and they also realize they need to offer solutions if they want to maintain their margins and their dealer channels (who also like margins). So, the copier vendors are throwing money into their embedded platforms as well as their ISV programs. And, compared to scanner vendors, digital copier vendors have always had a lot more money to throw around. The result will be improving products and partnerships for creating embedded capture solutions. Sharp’s OSA, for example, has a very limited interface in its first incarnation. However, the preview we saw of the second version, which included features like animation, was very impressive.

Of course, after years of dragging their feet and ignoring the potential of network scanning, traditional document scanner vendors are also starting to dip their toes in the embedded applications water. Visioneer has actually stuck a bit more in—immersing itself up to its neck by acquiring development organization JFL Peripheral Solutions in 2005 and basing its go-forward strategy on integrating imaging applications with its OneTouch, single-button scanning feature. Last quarter, this integration led to a couple large distributed capture sales for Visioneer, which reported a record quarter.

Kodak also has a single-touch scanning feature on its new machines, while having recently introduced a network device that has the potential to carry embedded applications. At AIIM 2007, FCPA (Fujitsu Computer Products of America) and Canon introduced their own network devices, and while neither was offering an embedded platform at the time, both agreed it was a good strategy. We are also seeing capture software vendors like New Hampshire-based Daybreak crop up that are focused on creating embedded scanning applications.

Okay, we’ve interchanged quite a few terms here like network, embedded, and single-button, and apologize of it has become a bit confusing. But, the bottom line is that distributed capture is potentially becoming simpler for end users, both in the interface and in the administration. (We should probably give nods to Kofax and Captovation for their work in creating simpler distributed capture applications as well.) As this occurs, there are going to be more distributed capture opportunities for you to sell.

And, believe it or not, distributed capture opens up a whole new ballgame for you— instead of selling two or three capture seats for a single back-office application, distributed applications enable you to deploy hundreds, or even thousands of seats, within an organization. And, the more people that are using capture, the more documents they are going to find to capture, which also potentially increases or BPM and repository sales revenue.

The hardest part about distributed capture for a reseller is recognizing the opportunities. It takes some vision and some imagination. You have to realize that almost any device, even a fax machine (look to Captaris for help here) can be used for capture; it’s just a matter of matching the right software with the right hardware, and voila, you’ve gone from capturing thousands of invoices at a centralized location to capturing hundreds at several distributed sites. And you’ve sold 100 capture seats instead of two or three, which the end user was happy to pay for because of the money they are saving in FedEx costs and lost documents.

That said, the second hardest part of assembling a distributed capture solutions might currently be matching the right hardware and software. For example, what if you have a customer that wants to do capture with Canon MFPs and you are a Kofax reseller? That’s where, in many cases, you’re really going to need your systems integration skills to succeed. There are ways to work around a lack of direct integration by using middleware from vendors like eCopy and NSi, as well as scanning to watched folders. We’ve heard success stories using these methods and plenty more.

Remember, distributed capture is still an emerging market and like any emerging market, it is full of opportunities. However, success is also going to take some imagination and some versatility. But, once you score one distributed capture win, we expect many more will follow as both the market and your sales and technical team pick up momentum. And the momentum will only accelerate as better distributed and embedded capture products hit the market over the next few years.

Cheers.

Ralph (published on 8/20/07)