Rethink Your Scanning Services
Scanning services are one new way to win back revenue nixed by the Web. Find how how other managers are making scanning work for them.
A natural disaster showed Newell Fogelberg just how important scanning can be to his customers.
Three years ago, Fogelberg, director of Imaging Services for the University of Colorado at Boulder, received a call from the library at nearby Colorado State University. There had been a flood and many of the library's books had been ruined.
"They asked for our help," he says. "So we scanned the damaged pages, cleaned them up, cut out the bad pages, and glued in the good ones."
With the library happily reunited with its repaired volumes, Fogelberg began to see the myriad possible applications for scanning technology.
The Demand For Scans
As the Internet increasingly gobbles up more print work, many in-plant managers have found themselves scrambling to find new ways to close those widening revenue gaps. Some managers, like Fogelberg, have hit upon scanning—and they're already claiming that it may very well change the face of the in-plant print shop in the coming years.
Over in Minneapolis, John Barron, director of Graphics Services at St. Thomas University, wants to introduce a system that allows students and faculty to scan in hard copy at a copy center and send it out to an e-mail list. He also wants to roll out a service where customers can drop off documents to be scanned and saved, or distributed to lists.
"I think that we will get hard copy from professors in big piles, and they will want them scanned to a folder or desktop somewhere," he says, "or they may want everything on a CD."
Barron is reacting to the university's recent purchase of Blackboard, a Web-based interface software system that allows professors and students to upload and download files between one another. If a professor has a large number of documents available only on hard copy, Blackboard is useless—unless that professor can convert them into electronic documents. That's where Barron sees his opportunity.
Gearing Up For Success
Succeeding in this new business requires getting the right equipment. Barron confesses some uncertainty in this area.
"It's hard for me to know what equipment to choose," he says. "I'm going to meet with Lanier and Ikon." Barron is trying to learn which networkable copiers would work best with the campus's different systems. But potential stumbling blocks don't often come up in sales pitches.
"You have to ask things like 'Does their scan to e-mail system use our directory?' In other words, can they interface with Outlook? Because the University's population changes so much, it's not practical to keep entering all the new e-mails," he says.
In Boulder, Fogelberg has a small arsenal of scanning equipment, which includes four Xerox 620s, a Minolta Planetary Microfilm camera, and a variety of smaller color scanners. Taking it one step at a time, he's gearing up for an even bigger undertaking—all of the university's records.
"The administration is interested in storing their warehouse of paper records electronically," he says. "It's going to take two years to scan everything, and we're going to need to hire student help."
Fogelberg wants to use this project to make scanning services a long-term fixture in his operation. But he's not quite there yet, he says. Much more research and insight into the expectations of his customers remains.
The possibilities for scanning technology seem endless: scan to e-mail systems, scan to file, data management, networked scanning—they may all enjoy a high demand. Even the most enthusiastic proponents of comprehensive scanning services admit there are formidable obstacles to overcome, though.
"Our next initiative will be to do a survey to check interest so that we can put in a budget request," Fogelberg says.
He describes the introduction of scanning services as a careful and important move to meet an increasing demand for data management. He uses the administration's records as an example.
"They want us converting paper data into electronic data and managing that data," says Fogelberg. He explains that customers want the information now only available on hard copy to be at their fingertips—on the university server.
Despite the marketing this effort will require, he remains very optimistic, noting that both the alumni association and the admissions department have a need for scanning and data management.
Still, the question remains, how long will the need for scanning services continue? After all, what if, exceeding all expectations, there is a rush of demand for this new service? Will there be anything left to scan the following year?
Barron believes that while there may be some drop in system usage over the years, it will not be dramatic enough to cancel the installation of the system.
"In the same way that we haven't become a paperless society, we are not going to become an entirely digitized society," he says, adding that scan to e-mail will not eliminate the need for copiers either.
"Knowing what I know about professors," says Barron, "some will be really technically savvy and some won't. I'm thinking that there's people on campus who will use these services."
The question remains: Does it make good business sense to implement this service?
"Well, first of all, we need the copiers anyway," says John Barron. "And the option to do the scanning won't cost that much more. And there's no click charge for scanning."
Barron says that, ideally, the scan to e-mail technology, as well as his broader scanning service, will be absorbed by the students and become an expected part of his copying services.
"It will be one more service that I provide that will make it harder for them to shut me down," he says.
Kicking It Up A Notch
Wayne Riggall, director of the Information and Technology Services Division at the University of Waikato, in New Zealand, has loftier notions of his new technology. He doesn't feel his shop is reacting to the Internet to ensure its survival, but rather, that it is raising the bar.
In addition to running networked scanners and copiers, Riggall is participating in a trial run of EFI's Print ME. This software allows users to access and print networked files from almost anywhere using a variety of mobile communication devices like laptops and cell phones.
"Ultimately, I see scan to e-mail as another feature of the information environment that we are developing," he says. "Our focus has moved away from just print to knowledge delivery, a concept that embraces capture, storage, archival, retrieval and channel independent delivery."
For each manager, the key to successfully introducing a comprehensive scanning service is to take it easy.
"I'm going to start with one or two departments that have employees who are sharp, willing and able to do some projects," says St. Thomas' Barron. "I will offer the services either free or at a discount until we get them perfected."
Riggall says he is going to introduce the new copiers with scan to e-mail capabilities over a period of time so students and faculty can get used to the idea.
"I've learned to start with a willing partner and iron out any bugs with them first," he says.
