Print in the Channel - January 2023

SCANNING: A GATEWAY TO DIGITALISATION

Scanning the market The growth of hybrid working means that digitising documents so that they can be accessed by anyone anywhere has become more important – and demand for scanners is growing. It can also be an important step on the road to further digitalisation of a business.

The COVID pandemic had many effects on businesses, and some of these have been long- lasting, such as hybrid working and increasing the pace of digitalisation of many businesses. Indeed, the two often go together, as Jarek Solinski, product marketing manager at Canon, explains: “Digitisation was kind of forced upon companies,” he says. “Before COVID, businesses were set up to have large offices full of people and the equipment they had in those offices was designed to cope with a lot of people being physically there.” This included filing systems, where important documents would be physically stored and accessed by those in the office. “But now someone might not be in the office for two weeks, and they might need an important document. Are [admin staff] going to put on a stamp and send it in the mail? No, so you need to digitise it by scanning it.” Hybrid working such as this is also driving the rise of digital mail in some businesses too, Jarek adds. “This is where scanners play a massive role now,” he says. “It’s digitising a document at the point of entry into the company. There are workflows and the document management systems to put it into and they are directed to the right people in the right place. You don’t rely on someone physically having a piece of paper on the desk, because they might not be at their desk, but it pops up in the email or workflow system. “This is where the understanding needs to be that a dedicated scanner in such a business is important because it links to the system that allow you to immediately extract the data that is needed.” Recognising change But this change in office habits hasn’t been recognised by all resellers. Jarek says that resellers that have traditionally focused on selling large multi-function printers (MFPs) can miss a trick by not catering to customers’ changing needs where they may now require a scanner instead. He adds that the beauty of the scanner is that they come in a large range, including pocket-sized ones that can be taken anywhere and are popular with mobile workers and delivery drivers. “For instance, there may be sensitive documents that the customer wants to retain on the premises, but

Jarek Solinski product marketing manager, responsible for the imageFORMULA

document scanners Canon UK & Ireland

with these scanners, a digital copy can be taken and stored in a secure environment – it doesn’t even need to be sent in an email. “In general, there is a lot of education that needs to happen around scanners because they’re often misunderstood. And if the reseller cannot explain to their customers the end user needs a device like that, the end user will never buy it. It’s saying to them ‘here is a device that will bring you benefits’,” he says. Overcoming barriers There are also businesses that still perceive barriers to ‘less-paper’ strategies. Only 1% of businesses are truly paperless, with employee preference (25%) and customer need (29%) cited as two of the main reasons for keeping paper, according to a recent report from PFU (EMEA) and Quocirca, ‘ Scanning As An Enabler for Digital Transformation ’. “While businesses move towards digitalisation, along with all the advantages this provides, there are still barriers to adopting paper-less strategies, and a lack of clarity in where to start with this process,” says Andrew Cowling from PFU (EMEA). “Businesses may not have in-house expertise or knowledge of the capabilities of digital solutions and how they may be used to improve business processes, or how to implement them. Employees may be resistant to change and

Resellers that have traditionally focused on selling large multi-function printers (MFPs) can miss a trick by not catering to customers’ changing needs. “

canon.co.uk

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