Nuance Communications has ranked number one in the worldwide document capture software market in a new study from the market research firm Harvey Spencer Associates (HSA) – placing Nuance as the global top scanning and capture software vendor for the second consecutive year.

The report found Nuance products captured 16% percent of the overall global document capture market in 2010 – leading Kofax, EMC, ReadSoft, IRIS and others. The HSA report also calls out that Nuance posted a 48.9 percent market share in the Ad Hoc Image segment, which includes scanning solutions for multifunction printers (MFPs). This is nearly 10 times larger than its nearest competitor and increases its market share lead over NSi, Omtool and other MFP capture vendors in this segment.

“Nuance once again led the global document capture software market, and has extended its already large lead in the Ad-Hoc image segment,” said Harvey Spencer, president of HSA, the leading analysis company specializing in document capture.

“Document capture is an area of significant opportunity as MFP manufacturers seek to differentiate and add value through their products. Nuance is continuing to demonstrate market leadership through its understanding of user experience requirements, expanded R&D investment, growth in its partner ecosystem and relevant acquisitions.”

Nuance’s document imaging portfolio includes Nuance eCopy ShareScan scanning and workflow solutions, and Nuance OmniPage, PaperPort, PDF Converter Professional and eCopy PDF Pro Office desktop applications. 

Nuance has global channel partnerships with nearly every MFP and scanning vendor, including Brother, Canon/Océ, Fuji Xerox, HP, Kodak, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Ricoh/IKON, Visioneer and Xerox – each of which currently sells or bundles Nuance.