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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