Posts Tagged ‘Joe’

Getting “lean and mean” in 2010 – Part 1 – Scanning Equipment

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

2009 was a tough year for most businesses in the document capture and management industry.  Most of us tried to survive managing the business from the cost side as new opportunities seemed to be to few and far between.   For those of us fortunate enough to have survived 2009 we look forward to 2010 with cautious optimism that the recovery we’ve been hearing about will actually come to fruition.  

At Imaging 411 and Scanner Traders we typically use these last few weeks of the year to take inventory of our business and identify the key areas we need to address for the coming year.  For those of you in the services industry it’s a good time to evaluate your business and ensure you’re ready to compete for that new business in 2010. 

Most service businesses and end users avoided capital equipment purchases because of the economy in 2009.   Their scanners scheduled for technology refresh last year are now a year older and likely have a few million more scans on them.  Now may be the time to replace them, here’s a few reasons why; 

Technology Refresh and Scanner End of Life
Scanners like cars have a life expectancy, measured in scan counts.  Even scanners with unlimited duty cycles kept under a maintenance contract will eventually need to be replaced.  It’s obviously beneficial to replace them on your terms versus having them fail during a critical job.  Most operator manuals will tell you how to check the scan count.  If you’re not sure how to check the scan count, or what your scanners life expectancy is, give us a call and our sales or service staff will be happy to assist you.

Reducing Labor and Return on Investment (ROI)
Scanners have gotten faster over the years, and while a 50 page per minute scanner was considered production five years ago, most production scanners today scan at rates of 150 – 300 pages per minute.  A new or pre-owned production scanner can be expensive, they usually have a very short ROI if your existing scanners are older and / or slower.  Newer scanners will not only produce more images, they will also typically have better paper handling, and image quality which means higher overall productivity for your business.  A new 150 page per minute scanner will cost around $30,000, while a pre-owned would be less than half that cost. 

The actual ROI of purchasing a new scanner for your business will be impacted by a number of variables though it’s likely that just factoring in labor savings the ROI will be less than 1 year and for a pre-owned less than six months.  The ROI can be shorten further by factoring in other variables such as leasing versus purchase, reduction of rescans, and the lower cost of maintenance contracts.  

If you’re looking for an edge on your competition, the scanning equipment you utilize can definitely have an impact.  Most manufacturers and resellers are currently offering year end discounts making it the ideal time to purchase a new scanner and get ready for 2010. 

Happy New Year!

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Posted in Pre-owned Equipment | 2 Comments »

It’s Not All About The Hardware

Monday, September 21st, 2009

When purchasing a preowned scanner, make sure to check that at a minimum, a basic scanning application is included.  While most brokers focus on the hardware only; not having a scanning application can create havoc and delay implementation, thus resulting in project timelines pushed back, increased costs, etc.  When deciding on a scanner, be sure to first check and see if basic scanning software is included, then determine if the software is robust and feature rich enough to meet all your scanning requirements.  Secondly, make sure that your IT staff is knowledgeable enough for implementation, if not; ask the company you purchased the scanner from if they provide installation and training services.  Scanner Traders sells packages that enable the end user to quickly set up the scanner and start scanning without any headaches.
Scanner Traders and Imaging 411 offer products that will allow you to maximize your scanners capabilities;

SimpleIndex:  http://www.imaging411.com/simplesoftware.html
Digitech PaperFlow:  http://www.imaging411.com/paperflow.html
Kodak CapturePro:   http://www.imaging411.com/capturepro.html

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Posted in Pre-owned Equipment | 1 Comment »

Broker Inventories – Don’t Believe The Hype

Monday, September 29th, 2008

I just received an e-mail from an equipment broker listing their “Current Inventory”.  The list included manufacturer, model, quantity and condition, but no price.  Upon further inspection I noticed this list included a lot of the inventory we actually own and have listed on our Scanner Traders website with even the same quantity levels, clearly not by coincidence. 

That’s what equipment brokers do, they list every pre-owned scanner they find offered on our site or hear about from their customers.  Sometimes they just list items they know are in high demand and wait for an inquiry before even trying to locate one.   It’s frustrating to a business like ours, because they use these lists to make their customers believe they actually own these scanners or are at least in possession of them when in reality they at best only know where to find them. 

I noticed on this particular list there were no prices, which wasn’t surprising since they don’t actually own the equipment, or even see it before it arrives at your office.  They only know what the seller tells them in terms of the scanners condition, and maybe some pictures.  Brokers have no idea what their final cost will be, so they typically avoid specifying prices as they add their markup and “handling” fee to their costs, which is usually up to 35%.  Not a bad deal for making a few calls, collecting a check and arranging some shipping. 

A brokers’ success, is much like a magicians, it’s dependent upon an illusion that they create, illusions like these “inventory lists” that they e-mail out weekly or monthly.  Next time you work with a broker, ask to visit their warehouse or for the serial numbers of the scanners you are interested in, and scan counts while speaking with them.  If they own their equipment they will have that on an internal list, if they have to call you back, most likely they are calling us or someone else to get that information. 

Brokers do typically deliver equipment as requested, but it’s the customer that takes all the risk while paying a premium for a scanner they could have purchased directly from a company that actually owns it.    Next time you are interested in a pre-owned scanner, cut out the middle man, and deal with a company that actually owns the equipment they are selling.

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Posted in Pre-owned Equipment | 1 Comment »