Brother International announced its next generation of workgroup scanners, the ADS Desktop Scanner Series. The company also has expanded its Professional Document Scanner (PDS) Series to include a model with an integrated flatbed.
The ADS series features two-sided scanning; high-capacity automatic document feeders; flexible network and local connectivity options; mobile device compatibility, and computer-free scanning to various destinations, including cloud applications. It also can scan a wide assortment of media – from embossed plastic cards to documents more than 15 feet in length.
The ADS-2800W and ADS-3600W Scanners are equipped with the Brother Web Connect Interface to scan directly to various universally-accessible destinations, including business cloud services, such as Evernote Business, from the 3.7-inch color touchscreen display.
These models also enable developers to build customized scanning solutions through the Brother Solutions Interface (BSI), a Web application development platform that helps enhance office workflow.
“Many businesses are using a variety of types of scanners today to streamline business processes and workflows,” Scott Feldstein, director of marketing for SMB laser and scanner products at Brother, told eWEEK. “Two examples include the retail industry with logistics and distribution of shipments and invoices, and education with admissions and registration documentation along with financial aid and student records. Other industries that scan high volumes of documents include health care, legal, and insurance.”
The Brother Professional Document Scanner (PDS) Series Models (PDS-5000, PDS-5000F, and PDS-6000) include higher scan speeds and robust automatic document feeders.
Both the ADS and PDS Series Scanners also are compatible with Kofax VRS, an image processing software that examines scanned materials and automatically applies the appropriate image correction settings for optimal scan results.
In addition, each model is bundled with ABBYY FineReader and PDF Transformer+ software, designed for converting document scans into editable texts.
“One major security concern is unauthorized scanning of confidential documents outside of company firewalls,” Feldstein said. “The 2800w and 3600w models have both Active Directory support as well as Brother’s Secure Function Lock features to ensure only authorized users can scan outbound documents.”
He noted that additionally, the 3600W has an integrated near field communication (NFC) card reader feature for increased security authorization and automatic custom profile creation on the touch panel.
“I think we will continue to see greater workflow integration built directly into the touch panel display as well as larger touch panels,” Feldstein said, adding that he also expects to see faster scan speeds as well as faster network connectivity such as Gigabit and higher connectivity. Currently, Brother has Gigabit connectivity on all four of its new scanner models.