Shareen Harvey
You may already know that Fujitsu Computer Products of America is the market share leader in document imaging scanners, with a market share of more than 50 percent across all segments of hardware. Then again, maybe like me, you didn’t. Now, Fujitsu’s scanners are receiving a document capture boost.
In June the company introduced a high quality and scalable document capture software portfolio in addition to its fi Series document imaging scanners. According to a Fujitsu press release the new software is expected to help increase business efficiency, minimize resources, and reduce costs within document capture processes. In addition, Fujitsu has enhanced its scanning software offering to include Advanced Capture powered by Ephesoft to provide users with a more robust and powerful document capture experience.
Last week I spoke with Shareen Harvey, director, product marketing, at Fujitsu Computer Products of America Inc., about the company’s new document capture solutions, what sets them apart from other solutions on the market, and the importance of this growing segment to Fujitsu’s document imaging business.
Fujitsu has been selling scanners for more than 25 years, so making a move into the document capture space is by no means a stretch.
“There’s a lot of scanners out there. Although many of our scanners are used in highly productive environments through integrations with our partners, there are also a significant amount of units that are being used to just capture image files with no enhanced features. We have an opportunity to provide those customers with a capture software solution that will give them a lot more productivity, business intelligence, and cost savings.” explains Harvey. “[Our customers] are very loyal to our hardware, all the way from the pro-sumer offering to the production level. We want to leverage that brand loyalty with our new software offerings. And we want to make sure our bottom line stays healthy so we can continue to innovate our hardware and software offerings. This will allow us to generate net new software business and engage clients with a stronger value proposition.”
What is it that makes Fujitsu’s new document capture solutions special?
“[The new document capture solutions] offer enhanced image processing with optimized image quality as well as eliminates the need for rescans which saves a customer time throughout the entire capture process. Although there are competitive technologies that offer similar functionality, our solution combined with the best scanner camera technology offers the highest performance in the industry.”
She adds, “With the introduction of PaperStream Capture Pro, announced on June 2, and the integration of PaperStream IP, not only at scan time but also during import and after scanning, we’re leveraging our own technology to deliver optimized document scanning experiences. PaperStream IP is a differentiator with our software.”
Harvey also touts Fujitsu’s 25-year legacy as a document imaging hardware vendor along with its significant aforementioned market share.
“That combined with the fact that we already have a long time commitment and dedication to customers, now with the enhanced software options we have now broadened our offerings to ensure our customers and partners can select the highest quality hardware and software from one vendor,” she says. “Again, those are differentiators for the client and reseller.”
If you’re getting into document capture you need a marketing strategy and Fujitsu certainly has one for specific products in its line.
“We can definitely help and so can our resellers and integrators go in and access the [client’s] document capture needs,” says Harvey. “Typically, for small to medium size businesses, below $500 million, their needs fall more into the PaperStream Capture from a software perspective or PaperStream Capture Pro and that would probably match up to the fi-7160 which is the product we offer with a bundle with the Capture Pro.”
As users get into more advanced scanning, Fujitsu offers Advanced Capture powered by Ephesoft, a Fujitsu partner.
Fujitsu also has a professional services and a direct sales team dedicated to higher end implementations, which are typically highly customizable specific needs where the client is looking for more fine tuned extraction of metadata as well as automation and classification.
“If you have that then you would most likely look to our departmental production scanners that would best match that particular requirement,” says Harvey.
It’s still too early to gauge overall market acceptance for the new document capture solutions, but by and large Harvey says initial reactions have been positive.
“We’ve received some good feedback although it hasn’t been long enough to assess,” she says. The bundles have been selling in part because it’s a solution bundled with a trusted scanner and it’s based off our PaperStream Capture product that was already in the box with the scanners.”
What’s next for Fujitsu now that it’s taken the plunge into document capture?
“We will constantly be evaluating our customer’s hardware and software needs from a document capture standpoint and evolving our products to address those [needs],” concludes Harvey.
