From Paper to Digital…and Back

Easy, one-stop shopping, improved workflows, and key insights

-- all to help you succeed – and all from Canon at On Demand

By George Linkletter

The Canon exhibit at ON DEMAND this year – themed Let Your Business Run – amplified three key trends impacting businesses today. One is scale and the obvious advantage that comes from dealing with a large partner. Another centered on the continuing shift to digital data that is occurring throughout the enterprise. And the third, particularly useful in these challenging times, involves customers who increasingly turn to vendor/partners to help assure success.

One-Stop Shopping

First, judging from the large crowd at the Canon exhibit, it is safe to say a significant business advantage accrues to: a) large, multi-faceted vendors; b) who offer easy, one-stop shopping; c) emphasizing lower costs, improved efficiencies and superior quality; d) involving both hardware and software; e) across a variety of activities and applications. 

This is especially true when these broad and diverse capabilities are offered in a severe business downturn – such as the one we are experiencing right now – and when an industry is already in a consolidation phase. 

Businesses of all sizes today are short staffed. For managers, it just makes good sense to focus on the essential tasks and eliminate the extraneous, such as redundant sales pitches. One way to do that is to deal with a single vendor/partner who is knowledgeable across multiple disciplines. 

A second key trend involves the continuing conversion of data from paper to digital form. 

It might seem odd to see evidence of this trend cropping up at an exhibit from a company that is well known for its mastery of replicating images onto paper. But Canon understands how businesses share data today, in both paper and digital form, and especially how workflows impact productivity. 

Make no mistake. Canon is committed to making sure that images and data on paper look superb and that producing those images is as efficient as possible. That priority was clearly evident by the advanced hardware on display in Philadelphia, such as the imagePRESS 1135/1125/1110 black & white digital press, which won the Best of Show award for monochrome digital printing equipment.

And another feather in their cap arrived with the announcement that Canon had once again achieved the number one ranking in the overall page copier market, garnering 21 percent of the U.S. market last year, according to Gartner.

But Canon is clearly in the forefront when it comes to breaking down the barriers between digital and paper. So data can be used, accessed or protected – and switched back and forth whenever appropriate – to help lower costs and boost overall productivity across an enterprise.

The third key trend centers on vendors acting more like partners by providing much needed business-building guidance. At its heart, this means sharing knowledge and insight that a giant, $40 billion a year global firm like Canon has amassed – and that few of its customers could ever hope to accumulate. Fortunately for its customers, Canon is willing to share those insights.

Document Capture and Distribution

One example of how Canon is continuing to bridge the divide between paper and digital is the firm’s just-introduced document distribution solutions. Called the imageFORMULA ScanFront 220e and ScanFront 220eP Compact Network Scanners, these devices seamlessly incorporate new and existing technologies to provide a consistent scanning interface and platform – and full assurance that the complete range of Canon hardware is available to meet any distributed capture requirement.

Canon also featured a high-volume batch document capture solution. It is called the imageWARE Scan Manager Connector v1.0 for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.

Another versatile software solution highlighted in Philadelphia is called the uniFLOW Output Manager. First unveiled in October 2008, the uniFLOW Output Manager does pretty much what its name suggests – it manages output from a variety of devices within both general office enterprises and production print operations. 

The uniFLOW Output Manager excels at what just about any document output manager wants, i.e., the ability to tie production operations and office enterprises together and drive output to the ideal location – all while minimizing costs. 

Business-Building Guidance

Rarely does Canon do anything half-heartedly. Typical of its comprehensive approach was the three-pronged effort it displayed at On Demand, which was aimed at helping its customers succeed.

One prong involved a series of in-booth, mini-tutorials on an array of topics, including: assessing the environmental impact of various production technologies; integrating existing paper-based work flows into MS SharePoint; and simultaneously mastering the competing priorities of increasing productivity, lowering costs and bolstering document security.

The second effort centered on in-depth instruction via customer panels and expert presentations on topics such as: best practices in digital print; how to drive better campaigns utilizing variable content; how to increase customer ROI; and how to modify production process to drive variable content.

The third and most interesting initiative involved the launch of a new Let Your Business Run micro-site for both end-users and customers. This innovative web site contains an array of videos, bulleted snapshots, text, and information to help businesses gain a competitive edge. Among the ten topics highlighted on the site are: color; document management and distribution; and productivity and security. 

Comments? Contact georgelinkletter@charter.net.