PFU (EMEA) recently held an event at the Vatican to launch new scanners and outline the next phase of its PaperStream story, as the company completes its transition to being a capture-first company.
The Vatican may be the seat of the Roman Catholic church, but it is also a country – indeed, it is the smallest independent country in the world. This means that, as well as being a religious centre, it is an administrative centre too – with all the documentation requirements that come with that.
Like other administrative centres, The Vatican moves with the times and is increasingly digitising its documents. This is something that PFU (EMEA) has been helping officials with for many years, supplying devices and expertise to aid The Vatican’s digitalisation journey.
Brian Fortune, general manager sales EMEA, adds that the Vatican also has a huge number of historical documents that go back hundreds of years, and PFU is involved in the project to digitalise those. “It’s wonderful to be involved in projects that are bringing that information to life for people,” he says. “First to secure the information should something happen. And secondly to make sure the information is accessible for everybody around the world. It’s a really interesting, exciting project to be involved in.”
Transformation
Given PFU’s relationship with The Vatican, it was an appropriate place for the company to hold an event recently to launch new devices, as well as talk about how PFU is progressing from capture hardware into being a capture vendor.
As Brian explains, PFU is going through a transformation. The company was founded in the 1960s as a technology company and later was one of the first to make an 8-bit computer board. Then as technology progressed, PFU pivoted again towards scanning and document capture technology and is now one the biggest IP holders in that sector. “PFU was one of the first to get involved in capture, and as a hardware vendor manufacturing document scanners we have led the market,” says Brian.
“We are a premium brand, but we have always been a market leader. In 2013, we introduced PaperStream as a capture product, which we gave away with our scanners. That marked the starting point of our transition from being a hardware vendor to being a capture vendor, which is now complete and that’s who we are right now.”
Evolution of PaperStream
As Brian says, PFU has evolved to become a capture vendor, with PaperStream is at its heart, and this has evolved too. “Last year we announced that we were introducing a subscription model to PaperStream Capture, so we went from offering capture to introducing additional capabilities and features that were chargeable,” says Brian.
He adds that there are certain facets of the technology that sets it apart from rivals on the market. “Various companies have sold document capture solutions for years, but it can be quite expensive and lengthy to deploy, train and manage, and we wanted to deliver a solution that was much more accessible,” he says. “Accessibility for us isn’t just about price, it is about use. You can be the smallest company in the world and pay a lot of money for a software product, but if you can’t use it, it’s not accessible. Our licence model is an annual subscription, with no limits to the amount of capture you do or documents you scan.
“PFU offer state-of-the-art technology for extraction and redaction of confidential information within that all of which is easy to deploy. For instance, we have utilities within the product that help users to easily build profiles through a series of easy clicks and within a couple of minutes users can build a profile for a particular capture job. For example, if I wanted to build a profile for onboarding a customer or an employee that meant scanning their passport or ID card – sensitive documents – to extract some of the content within that, then you want to capture the image, but immediately redact the image file and take the metadata for the confidential information into your application, but within two to three minutes. A regular person could easily build that profile to do all of that and to push that information into a workflow and secure it.”
Brian adds that the information would be redacted but the content extracted directly into the application.
“But if you’re enhancing inaccurate or poor information, you’re just amplifying issues and mistakes,” he adds. “A lot of effort has gone into PaperStream Capture for it to deliver trusted information starting at capture to ensure that we are providing AI or whatever tools you’re using with the most reliable starting point to ensure that you’re not amplifying issues or mistakes. Most companies already have all the information they need, but they don’t have it in a way which is accessible for them. PaperStream Capture supports that.”
Brian adds that this is something PFU’s partner community can get involved with and take value from as well.
“You cannot separate these things. If you pigeonhole yourself as a hardware or a software vendor, you’re not doing justice to the whole end-to-end piece and that’s so important with capture,” he says. “In the past, PaperStream was for our scanners but when we moved to be a capture vendor, we realised that our software had to work with every scanner, so we crossed from making software products and technology for a proprietary hardware into making it for everybody. That was the stake in the ground where we became a capture vendor. Ultimately, when partners are talking to customers about fixing the issues they have, they don’t want to do that in the context of telling customers all their purchasing decisions of the past are out of the window because you can only use our hardware.”
Scanners
Also at the event, PFU launched two new scanners, the SP2230N and the 2240N – see issue 38 of Print in the Channel for more information on those. “These products have state-of-the-art hardware technology packaged and available at an entry-level price with entry-level scanning speeds,” says Brian. “But the technology used is the same technology that you would receive if you were buying high-end products.
“These devices are aimed at SMBs and companies with hybrid workers. We are giving users a simplified experience as well; we have a one-touch direct scan to application, as long as you’re plugged into your network. You can use it as a USB device and have full functionality and control of the device, or just simply set it up with predefined buttons to push the information that you’re capturing directly into your cloud-based application or to a network folder location. We’re offering high level of technology with a simplified user experience and an affordable price.
“It does everything you want to do in terms of image enhancement and capturing information. Users can upgrade to PaperStream Capture Pro if they want extra levels of extraction and redaction capability.
“It’s a great entry-level scanner. If a user is moving from understanding their scanning needs are greater than their printing needs, and in the past they’ve used an MFP for scanning on an ad hoc basis, and you’re thinking you need a dedicated device, these are perfect transition devices for that.”
Stable market
PFU has launched these scanners into a market that is growing, according to Brian. “Demand for scanners in the range where these new products are positioned is growing and that signifies that more people are requiring the need to capture,” he says. “There’s a lot more digitally native processes these days, which is great because it speeds up everything that we do. But there are a lot of processes that are still paper-heavy.
“Most companies, when they have a digitally native process for onboarding or for customer engagement, will also have paper-based process because they recognise that they can’t do everything digitally. Therefore the demand for scanning hardware itself is still there, and in this area, it’s growing. At the same time, the demand for printing is probably slightly decreasing in this area. At some point people are looking at whether they need an MFP or do they need a scanner for capture and a printer for printing.
“That’s what we see happening in the market: everything is being broken down into components now. MFPs are great for ad hoc scanning, but the minute you have a process that is dependent on capture, a dedicated scanner is ideal for that. A scanner is ideally paired with PaperStream Capture Pro and Pro Premium, which are accessible because it’s a really low-cost subscription model with no limits.
“These are technologies that historically have attracted very high ticket prices, but it’s affordable now with PaperStream Capture Pro. Once you’ve extracted the information, you can redact the image file again, which talks to the whole idea that capture is the first layer of security. Most people, when they’re thinking about security, start thinking about their archive or their document management solution. By that time, the information is already in the organisation and you might have missed your opportunity to secure the information at that point. These are things that PaperStream Capture Pro and Pro Premium can address.”
Future
Brian is looking forward with optimism for PFU. With the company redefining itself as a capture vendor, they can offer full end-to-end seamless capture solutions. He adds that PFU has launched PaperStream Solutions Partner Program, a programme for partners to get involved in that journey.
“We have hundreds of resellers that sell our hardware and software, but for those looking at becoming capture specialists and delivering solutions around capture, we have the PaperStream Solutions Partner Program, where we have created exclusive technology solutions around PaperStream, including integrating integrating third-party elements,” he says. “We’ve built connectors for different types of software products, so you’ve got seamless integration between scan, capture and then the onward technology so the information never leaves the workflow. It’s pushed automatically into the application. “
Brian adds that this means partners that want to get involved in capture can benefit from exclusive commercial arrangements, technology support and technology. “This includes exclusive access to connectors and exclusive access to technology solutions such as ScantoPaperStream eSignature,” he says. “Where we’ve done the end-to-end capture of the document and extracted all the forms, we can push the document to a tablet where it can be securely signed using an EIDAS v2 signature, which makes it legally admissible. That’s available to our partners as well.”
PFU is looking at other ways the company can add other document-related security features for partners. “It’ll help people who are already specialists in the area or who want to become specialists in the area to have a different type of conversation with their customers,” says Brian.
As PFU completes its transition to a capture-first company, continuing to move with the times, it – along with its partners in the channel – is ready to meet the next challenges in the market.
