Scan and Print Software Simplified

To make it easier for small and mid-sized businesses to scan and archive documents, including incorporate data from existing databases, Xerox Corporation has released SMARTdocument Travel Express, a less expensive version of its SMARTdocument Travel workflow software.

SMARTdocument Travel Express lets a company set up "buttons" on an office MFP (multi-function printer) allowing customers to easily scan and send a document to an e-mail address, network folder, or SharePoint document management system, or to index, route and store documents.

For example, a resume could be scanned, converted to a PDF, e-mailed to a hiring manager, and archived.

According to Roger Ellefson, manager of Solutions Marketing for Xerox Office Group, SMARTdocument Travel Express works with MFPs from Xerox and also from other vendors. Some features require Xerox devices that include Xerox's EIP (Extensible Interface Platform).

"For example, if there are certain questions for scanning in a new contract versus an existing one, at the Xerox user interface, if that information is in the database, it can be presented on the screen for the user to select from, rather than having to type it in," Ellefson said.

Xerox's EIP-enabled devices include its WorkCentre Pro 200, WorkCentre 7300, WorkCentre 7600 and WorkCentre 5600 Series families. Express' workflow and other basic features can be used with non-EIP Xerox devices, as well as with scanners from a number of vendors including Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Kyocera, Ricoh, and Sharp, and other TWAIN-based scanners, according to Ellefson.

SMARTdocument Travel Express costs $600 for each MFP to which a company wants to connect the SMARTdocument server software. A $3,700 upgrade includes advanced features such as processing and routing steps like forms recognition, watermarking, and Bates stamping.

Express workflow software contributes to productivity and accuracy, according to Ellefson. "It's hard to find a business that can't benefit from scanning. For starters, they can use it as better quality than fax, to replace overnight mail, and to store business-critical documents in a way that's more accessible and secure than in a paper file."

"In the space it's designed into, like the knowledge worker who wants to work on a piece of paper as part of their transaction set or other everyday work, it's a nice product," stated Harvey Spencer, president of market analysis firm HS Associates. "People need products like this to handle the growing amount of paper-based data, and that you haven't got time to convert paper, you've got to make sense of it at the time of entry.

"The integration opportunities encourages companies to move more to these Xerox products," added Spencer. "It gives Xerox some sales leverage."