Document Scanning on the Rise
Document Scanning on the Rise
September 22, 2008: In a new study on scanning in the United States, IDC has revealed that the rate of scanning has continued to accelerate in document-intensive industries, creating opportunities in the market.
The analyst firm says that survey data from over 1,800 end user, IT, and facilities/operations/purchasing respondents in eight key industries, shows that scanning levels have only increased with 52 percent of all respondents reporting a jump over the past two years.
A further 57 percent expecting scanning usage to further increase over the coming two years, which IDC says represents a solid opportunity for hardcopy device manufacturers, as well as for those in the software and services end of the scanning business.
“IDC's research shows that scanning is helping to fuel the paper-to-digital transition taking place in many business processes,” said Keith Kmetz, program vice president for IDC's Hardcopy Solutions and Services programs.
“Not only are there several opportunities across all industries for scanning solutions, but our research also indicates specific business potential within eight key document-intensive industries. We believe vendors capitalising on these industry-specific opportunities should find greater market success by tailoring solutions to these markets.”
Designed to uncover specific scanning opportunities within key document-intensive industries, the research covered areas such as banking, insurance, manufacturing, healthcare, legal, education and government.
Some of its key findings showed that while all industries have experienced and project increased scanning activity, legal, manufacturing, insurance, banks and government stand out in particular, and that making information more accessible is the most often mentioned scanning benefit across all industries.
Furthermore, IDC claims that three business processes stand out as being in greatest need of automation, including purchasing/billing/invoicing, HR documentation, and documents created and/or managed by knowledge workers.
Accounting/finance/payroll and administration/executives were also identified as departments doing the most scanning.
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