Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C: Upgrade to Workgroup Productivity
Fujitsu has defined a new niche in the market for workgroup scanners. With the
introduction of the ScanPartner 15C at $995, Fujitsu brings the speed and convenience
that business users demand to the broad market ready to upgrade from their first scanner.
Workgroups can enjoy the benefits of 15 page-per-minute scanning speeds through the
Automatic Document Feeder, while retaining all the high-resolution color and grayscale
capabilities of a color flatbed scanner.
As images are becoming a standard element of business documents, the use of scanners is
dramatically increasing. The majority of scanners currently installed are flatbed models
which were fine when scanning was only occasionally necessary. As the need for scanning
capability increases, busy users demand more efficient solutions. It was acceptable to
scan at the rate of a one or two pages per minute when only a few pages were scanned per
week. When you need to scan ten or a hundred pages per day, you need a faster scanner.
The Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C is aimed squarely at the business user, and it comes
equipped for easy implementation in the today's office environment. The scanner package
includes a SCSI interface that is very easy to install in any PC running under Windows 95
or Windows NT 4.0. Software is also included to smoothly blend scanning and imaging
functionality directly into all Windows applications. Eastman's Imaging for Windows
Professional Edition software is included, allowing for instant implementation of scanning
into mainstream applications. This imaging package also includes Xerox TextBridge OCR
software for top-rated character recognition capability.
Now that imaging is becoming widely accepted as a natural component of all business
applications, the Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C represents a great value for workgroups who
have been suffering the limitations of first generation desktop scanners. The value of
imaging has been widely accepted, just as copying and faxing have become integral parts
of the business process. Paralleling the trend of earlier office automation devices which
improved in speed, convenience and productivity, the Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C is
designed to be the ideal upgrade for workgroup scanning solutions.
Introduction: Flatbeds Slow Imaging Efficiency
According to InfoTrends, flatbed scanners account for 19% of the corporate market for
scanners, and 79% of these scanners are being used for general purpose document imaging
applications. These scanners are relatively slow, and are the source of inefficiency in
workgroup employment of document imaging techniques. The largest cost of any imaging
application is the time and labor involved in the application, therefore slow, flatbed
scanners have the ultimate effect of greatly increasing these labor costs.
Compared to every other piece of automation equipment in the modern office, the flatbed
scanner is by far the slowest and most time-consuming device. For comparison, the last
time Xerox offered a copier with similar performance, where you laid a page on the glass
and a light flashed under it to make a few copies per minute, was the Xerox 914, which
was introduced almost 40 years ago.
Every other device in the office is faster and more efficient than a flatbed scanner. Even
inexpensive fax machines can handle stacks of pages, and the latest copiers and printers
routinely provide high speed throughput. The flatbed scanner in the modern office is a
throwback to earlier generations of automation, an outdated piece of equipment that
demands too much time and labor to operate.
Workgroup Scanners: The Productivity Upgrade from Flatbed Scanners
The Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C includes a built-in Automatic Document Feeder which
delivers speedy throughput of fifteen pages per minute. This is four to five times faster
than typical flatbed scanners equipped with an ADF. Compared to scanning multi-page
documents on a flatbed with no ADF and flipping pages by hand, the ScanPartner 15C is
ten to fifteen times more efficient on multi-page documents.
In business applications, the average 15 second-per-page scanning speed of flatbed
desktop scanners is a costly waste of labor time. In actual use, people can only scan one
or two pages per minute because of the effort involved in manual paper handling. In
contrast, the Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C offers a high capacity automatic document feeder
that can rapidly scan stacks of pages, leading to improved efficiency and dramatic labor
savings.
Measuring Productivity
The classic way to analyze the benefit of any new office automation technology is to
compare the labor savings of the new method over the old. In this case, we are comparing
the productivity of flatbed scanners to the enhanced productivity of the ScanPartner 15C
with a 15 ppm Automatic Document Feeder. The chart below compares a number of jobs
in terms of time and labor costs.
For purposes of this analysis, we assume an hourly rate of $15.00 which corresponds to
the fully loaded cost of $30,000 per year, equivalent to a $24,000 administrative salary.
To make an accurate comparison of labor savings, readers should plug in the proper salary
in their own businesses. In many workgroups where scanning is in heavy demand, labor
costs could be significantly higher, thereby increasing the savings.
Weekly Flatbed SP 15C Time Labor Annual
Volume (at 2 ppm) (at 15 ppm) Saved Saved Savings
25 pages 12.5 mins 1.7 mins 10.8 mins $ 2.70 $140.40
50 pages 25 mins 3.3 mins 21.7 mins $ 5.43 $282.36
100 pages 50 mins 6.7 mins 43.3 mins $10.83 $563.16
200 pages 100 mins 13.4 mins 86.6 mins $21.65 $1,125.80*
* Less than One Year Return on Investment of $995 for SP15C.
To translate the savings chart to average volumes, if a workgroup scans about 200 pages
per week, the Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C will deliver Return on Investment* after only one
year. In other words, the direct labor savings will pay for the machine within the first
year, and the direct savings will continue every year thereafter. In more personal terms,
users will enjoy their own increased productivity and the removal of the drudgery of
flatbed scanning. In the strategic view, the entire workgroup will have increased capacity
to respond to peak scanning demands, such as scanning 100 pages in less than seven
minutes rather than almost the hour it would take to do the job on a flatbed. Enhanced
productivity leads to wider use and reliance on imaging, improving the entire business
process.
Enhancing Productivity with Image Flow
The Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C offers automated image processing with Image Flow,
integrated in Eastman's Imaging for Windows Professional Edition. Image Flow turns
multi-step tasks into one-step operations, such as Scan and File, Scan and Print, Scan
and Print to Color, Scan and Send. These features allow the ScanPartner 15C to perform
as a high-powered multi-function device.
The intuitively easy to use Flow Wizard lets users tailor the various features of Capture,
Process and Output to automate everyday imaging applications. For example, a typical
flow might include the following steps:
1. Capture: Scan all pages in feeder at 300 dpi, binary;
2. Process: Perform OCR and retain all formatting;
3. Output: Create an MS Word file in RTF format.
The Image Flow example above will automatically scan any number of pages through the
ADF, use Xerox TextBridge to perform OCR with the user's chosen options, and output
a file according to the user's specifications. Similar automation can be applied to all
repetitive business tasks, vastly reducing manual labor and improving overall efficiency.
Workgroups: From Small Businesses to Departments in the Enterprise
Workgroups may be defined as groups of users in small business offices, or small-tomedium departments within global corporate enterprises. The first generation of scanners
deployed in these offices have typically been the general purpose flatbed scanners that
are available in computer stores and mainstream outlets. These scanners are slow and
labor-intensive, causing users to spend far more time than necessary to digitize
documents.
Since 79% of these scanners are being used for document imaging applications, many of
the specialized features such as photo scanning for desktop publication are never used.
On the other hand, these business users are losing time with less productive scanners. For
a small increase in investment these offices can vastly improve their productivity, thereby
reducing their greatest cost component, namely labor costs.
It is easy to visualize the time savings that a fast, automatic scanner offers over a typical
flatbed scanner. With a modern workgroup scanner like the Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C, a
user can put a stack of up to 50 pages into the feeder, and they will be rapidly scanned,
digitized and stored in final form. This is the kind of performance that office workers
demand of their copiers and printers, so it is to be expected that scanners should upgrade
to such efficiency. Rather than standing over a slow glass-top flatbed and manually
flipping and straightening each page, the workgroup user of a Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C
gets the scanning job done quickly and easily.
The robust paper-handling capability of the Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C 50-page Automatic
Document Feeder gives every workgroup the power to rapidly digitize every document
from one or two page faxes to multi-hundred page manuals. Included software provides
for sophisticated image enhancement features, batch scanning, and excellent OCR
software.
Xerox TextBridge intelligent recognition software is integrated in Eastman's Imaging for
Windows Professional Edition, bundled with the Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C. This
combination of Eastman Imaging and Xerox TextBridge makes synergistic use of
mainstream software features in Windows to merge paper with digital documents. All
features and functions are Windows-familiar, and most users can intuitively understand
them. Eastman's core-level integration with Windows 95/NT software ensures easy
adaptation to every popular application. And Xerox' TextBridge OCR is outstandingly
accurate in both content and format capture, providing high-fidelity conversion to
common document formats like Word and Excel.
Scanner Service and Support
One of the major drawbacks of desktop scanners is their traditional installation as singleuser or power-user devices, and therefore the responsibility of one or two people.
Desktop scanners are by design "personal" devices, hooked up to one PC and historically
the property of one user. The major problem with this model in business is that a
typically very busy person is suddenly saddled with new work. In most offices, the
technology leader or volunteer pioneer is the one who has the scanner on their desk. It is
particularly wasteful to burden this kind of worker with tedious jobs like scanning on a
flatbed.
The Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C frees group leaders by giving everyone in the workgroup all
the robust scanning capability they need, with hands-off batch operation. Finally,
scanners function just like other office equipment that people use everyday. Rather than
copying a stack of pages and physically distributing the duplicates, a stack of pages can
be digitized directly onto the network for enterprise-wide distribution. With no more
thought or effort than copying, scanners will become commonplace in modern business
operations.
As imaging is ever more widely adopted as a native application in Windows and on the
Web, the Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C is the industry leading solution for workgroup imaging
capability. As more and more important business applications are automated through
scanners, a critical business requirement arises for reliable hardware and software support.
Fujitsu Computer Products of America offers a unique No Excuses limited warranty,
where in the unlikely event of equipment failure, the product will be replaced quickly,
minimizing disruption of scanning-enhanced business activity.
Color Capability for Document Imaging
Virtually all production scanners, defined as those used in daily, mainstream imaging
applications, are simple binary, black and white scanners. For purposes of retrieval,
viewing and printing, 200 or 300 dpi TIFF images are perfectly suitable for traditional
document image management applications. However, as more and more applications are
being done over the Web, and as the users become accustomed to the full-color
environment of the Web, there is a growing need for color capability in business
applications. The Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C delivers sophisticated color and grayscale
scanning along with improved productivity for workgroups.
The Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C matches the Color and Grayscale capabilities of the leading
desktop scanners, offering workgroup users the best of all scanning features. Most jobs
consisting of many pages can be scanned rapidly, and unusual or fragile documents can be
scanned precisely on the glass platen.
Comparison with Leading Desktop Scanner
The Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C brings power scanning to workgroups, at the price range of
desktop scanners. Aiming for this same market of corporate users, the Hewlett Packard
ScanJet 6100C represents the top of the line for HP desktop scanners.
The ScanPartner 15C offers significant advantages in business applications. For $300 less
than the price of a comparably equipped ScanJet 6100C, the ScanPartner 15C delivers
five times the speed on the most common multi-page scanning jobs found in workgroup
applications. For color and grayscale scanning, the ScanPartner 15C is virtually identical
in imaging performance to the ScanJet 6100C. (See chart below.)
Specifications Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C HP ScanJet 6100C
Price: $995 $1,298*
ADF, 50 page: Included Optional ADF @ $499
Speed: 15 ppm 3 ppm (approx.)
Resolution: 300 x 600 dpi 600 dpi (2400 enhanced)
Color: 30 bit single-pass color 24 bit external, 30 bit internal
Grayscale: 256 levels 256 external, 1024 internal
* including ADF
The Fujitsu ScanPartner15C offers superior value for corporate workgroup users, with an
overwhelming advantage in speed and productivity.
Business users considering upgrades to their scanning and imaging capabilities should
consider the trends in this industry. Fujitsu scanners have been the dominant product
family throughout the history of the imaging industry, accounting for far more than half of
the installed base of departmental and production scanners worldwide. For example, the
Fujitsu 3099 GX has a MTBF of 10,000 hours, which is five years of continuous 9-to-5
operation. Such durable specifications have been verified through performance of Fujitsu
scanners in most of the world's largest scanning operations to date.
The Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C is the latest in this line of well-designed, application-proven
scanners. This scanner brings industrial productivity features to workgroups at very low
prices. At $995, the Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C has broken price barriers to scanning
productivity.
Conclusion
The Fujitsu ScanPartner family is the logical upgrade path for all of those workgroups and
small businesses who initially invested in flatbed scanners. These scanning pioneer users
will enjoy an immediate boost in productivity through enhanced ease of use and much
faster scanning speeds. Flat-top scanner users will save time and labor from the first day
of implementation.
In addition to time and labor savings on everyday business document imaging, the
ScanPartner 15C also offers color and grayscale scanning capability to capture all forms of
digital content for today's rich online applications. This means that I could walk up to one
scanner with a 10-page manual to scan in black and white, and a dozen color photos from
the company picnic. This scanner handles all these jobs, with speed and ease.
The nationwide support for the Fujitsu ScanPartnter 15C is another undeniable benefit.
Once scanners are adopted in everyday business operations, just like fax, copiers, email
and voicemail have been adopted, peak performance at all times will be the norm. Fujitsu
support strategy promises reliable and dependable performance.
For every office and work group currently pursuing the benefits of document imaging, the
Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C offers a tremendous value in multi-purpose functionality. For
the vast majority of dispersed applications, the Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C will easily
handle all the peaks and special scanning demands. In most offices, there will be additional
capacity for new projects with imaging applications, whether they require scanning
hundreds of pages per hour or capturing high quality color photos.
For less than $1,000, workgroups can cover all the bases with one scanner. By combining
15 ppm document scanning speeds with full color capability, the Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C
has broken the barriers between Departmental business scanners and top-end desktop
scanners. The Fujitsu ScanPartner 15C establishes a new value point for scanning and
imaging in everyday business applications.
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