In particular, Nuance’s Derek Austin recommends resellers consider the following;

NEEDS

Help the customer select the right digital workflow solution for its size and needs.  Cost and scalability of solutions is a major consideration for SMEs while larger organisations should look for additional elements such as document storage within the system. For cost effectiveness a desktop solution will work well and can be easily incorporated into existing infrastructures based on PCs, Microsoft Server and SharePoint.

GET RID OF THE PAPER

When paper comes into an office it should be scanned and then filed or disposed of. The customer needs software that makes it easy to capture paper from the scanning device and determine the workflows required to efficiently capture documents and store them online. Get the balance right between centralised scanning and individual scanning. To streamline the process advise the customer to consider software which enables them to quickly turn image files and pager documents into digital files that can be easily managed, shared, searched and edited.  For example, Nuance’s OmniPage supports scanning to a searchable PDF format that can be indexed.

AUTOMATE

Customers will benefit from automating tasks that create bottlenecks in their workflow or which happen everyday. OmniPage can help automate workflows. For example, folders can be watched for documents arriving from a multifunction device for processing. Routine tasks, such as converting a document from PDF to Microsoft Word format and emailing the document to a staff member, can be triggered by a job sheet displaying the workflow’s barcode.REUSE, DON'T RETYPE

A quick way for customers to save time and money is to use software that converts paper documents and image documents requiring a response into editable formats. They can save hundreds of dollars a week if they are currently retyping documents. OmniPage provides a workbench for document repurposing with, it converts paper and PDF files into editable spreadsheet and word processing documents – complete with text, tables and graphics that look exactly the same as the original.

STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL

Retrieving files can be easily managed with the right solution. Advise customers to look for a search engine that can find all matching documents that may be required, from documents created in a wide variety of office applications and other digital document types, to scanned paper and business cards, as well as PDF files received on email or downloaded from the web. When evaluating software customers should check if the solution can search in full text, then view and open the found documents directly into the electronic document manager. This will give them the power of fast full text searching while avoiding the problem of loading large numbers of documents into the system without a profile.

PaperPort, which also features a built-in search indexer, can support searches of documents anywhere on the customer’s network whether they’re in a local, or a network folder. It also provides the ability to actually search the PDF’s metadata, giving customers an extra level of previously unavailable information.