What is the biggest obstacle in selling Document Capture as part of an MFP Sale?

[nmfaxman]

A $100.00 to $200.00 basic computer class will solve the document management problem.

It is just substituting paper for an image.

If you set up your file system right, you don't need management software.
Training the basics solves the problem and saves money.

Take your sales pitch somewhere else you can BS your memory hungry, expensive and useless software.

A lot of us are IT trained too, and have probably forgotten more about workstations and networks than you know now.

[Rayelias]

I'm mainly in sales and there is no demand for a Scanning software. Haven't sold one in 5 years and no one has asked me for one. The only thing we are asked, if ever, is department ID management. Also, none of my competitors charge for scanning and doing so will price us out. Not to mention, apart from the ADF [which rarely needs attention] the client isn't really using anything else.

[Milk]

Personally I would be interested in an easy to operate (and set up ofcourse) scanning software.

What is mainly needed? Putting a document on the ADF, hitting one or two buttons on the MFP, finding a SEARCHABLE scan on the workstation preferably in a folder specified by the user.

It's as simple as that. "Kat in't Bakkie"

Hans

That would be a dream

What's interesting is that everyone wants to be a copier that scans. But no one wants to buy document management software.

And with cloud services like dropbox and box.net I think integration with the MFP or IT mapping it as a network drive, document management software will look even more archaic.

The customer's needs and wants are creating a gap document management software may not be able to fill. This is probably why they don't want it.

[wseyller]

We have had good success with selling and supporting DocRecord from Prism. It does things that you just can't do compared to storing documents in a windows file/folder structure. The power with DocRecord is when the automation server option is added. We have sold this to many customers that have a mountain of boxes of documents sitting on shelves that need to convert these to digital documents but need to be able to search upon them in many different ways. It's great for documents that are similiar types and you can use templates to ocr information in the document and index that information and automatically route the documents to the correct location. The ability to just stick in a random stack of documents in the adf and the automation server detects what kind of document it is from triggers on the documents and then apply the indexing template has saved our customers on unimaginable amounts of labor. That is one way we sell it. Then we charge hourly rates on future service calls when the customer has issues or the need new templates or processes create for new projects. It has done very well for us anyway. We have also done ecopy and other stuff like that in the past but that hasn't really caught on for us. I am just a tech. I was sent off to certify on DocRecord in a week long class.

[blackcat4866]

I've had only a very brief acquaintance with Kyocera's Hypas and Kyocapture. But based on that very brief acquaintance I have a couple of opinions. Based on the literature I recommended a specific dedicated server, which turned out to be underpowered in the extreme. Our office people wanted to scan in let's say 100 pages, OCR them, and store them to specific locations. We soon discovered that 100 pages could take a week of processing before they were ready for the manual selection of destination. And the OCR was not that terribly accurate. So we can use barcodes to designate destination, yes? Well, if it actually reads the barcode, that is.

From a technician's point of view, here I am, an above average mechanic with some IT skills, completely thrown under the bus with the software. If this was something that happened a couple times a month then I might actually become proficient. But once every three years ...? And the software will have changed 10 times, and be completely unrecognizable by the time I see it again.

I guess it's not just something to dabble in. Sell it or don't. =^..^=

[MFPTech]

I've had only a very brief acquaintance with Kyocera's Hypas and Kyocapture. But based on that very brief acquaintance I have a couple of opinions. Based on the literature I recommended a specific dedicated server, which turned out to be underpowered in the extreme. Our office people wanted to scan in let's say 100 pages, OCR them, and store them to specific locations. We soon discovered that 100 pages could take a week of processing before they were ready for the manual selection of destination. And the OCR was not that terribly accurate. So we can use barcodes to designate destination, yes? Well, if it actually reads the barcode, that is.

From a technician's point of view, here I am, an above average mechanic with some IT skills, completely thrown under the bus with the software. If this was something that happened a couple times a month then I might actually become proficient. But once every three years ...? And the software will have changed 10 times, and be completely unrecognizable by the time I see it again.

I guess it's not just something to dabble in. Sell it or don't. =^..^=

You are Absolutely right. There has to be a dedicated Software Engineer dealing with software solutions, and not a tech on the clock doing everything. I did that job for a couple of years and had the luxury of testing the solutions in the demo room before going onsite and had access to Tier III resources, and contact with Software Developers and support from Japanese Engineers. Every customer/environment is unique so screw marketing and sales people with their expectations.

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[GAtech]

I think an important question is, what is the average size of your clients? Are you talking to the right people in that organization?

I am involved with another company (not office equipment) and we process a fair amount of documents, contracts, lien releases etc. It would be nice to have a more automated solution when scanning.

With this company, what I realized is that nobody understands processes, and how automation can save time.

So it may be that nobody is asking, but it may be because they do not know there is a better solution.....

[KenB]

Document management solutions and MFP sales are all but totally unrelated.

While an MFP sale may generate a lead for a dealership who also sells doc management, there is no way it can be considered an add-on. Dealerships who do carry both do this under totally separate departments.

Designing, implementing, and maintaining true doc management requires a totally different skill set than does maintaining MFPs. Neither is "smarter" than the other; they're just different.

It's apples and oranges. Both may be fruits, but that's about where it ends.

BTW... Scanning massive numbers of pages on any doc feeder takes its toll. We had an eCopy customer about 2 years ago who buzzed through ADFs on a 50 PPM Ricoh machine because they were scanning so much, not to mention the machine was always tied up for scanning. They ultimately purchased a desktop scanner (I think a Fujitsu), and everyone was much happier.

[qbert69]

I've had only a very brief acquaintance with Kyocera's Hypas and Kyocapture. But based on that very brief acquaintance I have a couple of opinions. Based on the literature I recommended a specific dedicated server, which turned out to be underpowered in the extreme. Our office people wanted to scan in let's say 100 pages, OCR them, and store them to specific locations. We soon discovered that 100 pages could take a week of processing before they were ready for the manual selection of destination. And the OCR was not that terribly accurate. So we can use barcodes to designate destination, yes? Well, if it actually reads the barcode, that is.

From a technician's point of view, here I am, an above average mechanic with some IT skills, completely thrown under the bus with the software. If this was something that happened a couple times a month then I might actually become proficient. But once every three years ...? And the software will have changed 10 times, and be completely unrecognizable by the time I see it again.

I guess it's not just something to dabble in. Sell it or don't. =^..^=

I totally AGREE with blackcat!

I have experience with Kyocera, mostly DMS Link. It is good for what it does. The capability to bar code separate scanned files, make new folders based on the bar codes, convert to searchable PDF, etc. But it Absolutely DOES require a dedicated server for this process!

As an added note, sales is the big crapshoot regarding DMS...they don't know enough and don't know which questions to ask to qualify the customer for the correct product to fit their needs!

...and as blackcat stated, these systems don't get installed enough to remember how to do it!....Had a situation where I had to re-install and re-configure DMS Link on a server!.....I had to re-RTFM!!!...some Microsoft update probably borked the install! I had a situation where AVG anti-virus borked an install of HyPas PinPoint Scan!

So a final wise word...."Know What You Sell, Sell What You Know!"

Ask questions of the customer, customers like simplicity and ease of use....don't oversell, it will come back to bite you in the arse!



PS--Kyocera HyPas PinPoint scan should be an AUTOMATIC add-on sale!...simple to set-up, simple to use and configure!

[MFPTech]

I totally AGREE with blackcat!

I have experience with Kyocera, mostly DMS Link. It is good for what it does. The capability to bar code separate scanned files, make new folders based on the bar codes, convert to searchable PDF, etc. But it Absolutely DOES require a dedicated server for this process!

As an added note, sales is the big crapshoot regarding DMS...they don't know enough and don't know which questions to ask to qualify the customer for the correct product to fit their needs!

...and as blackcat stated, these systems don't get installed enough to remember how to do it!....Had a situation where I had to re-install and re-configure DMS Link on a server!.....I had to re-RTFM!!!...some Microsoft update probably borked the install! I had a situation where AVG anti-virus borked an install of HyPas PinPoint Scan!

So a final wise word...."Know What You Sell, Sell What You Know!"

Ask questions of the customer, customers like simplicity and ease of use....don't oversell, it will come back to bite you in the arse!



PS--Kyocera HyPas PinPoint scan should be an AUTOMATIC add-on sale!...simple to set-up, simple to use and configure!

Sorry to disagree with you but PinPoint Scan has many limitations in regards to scanning to email and applications and i find it useless, and waste of time and resources. Out of the box scanning is good enough, unless customer is looking for advanced solutions.

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