Scanning platform puts documents directly into electronic workflows

The manufacturing process generates plenty of paper—especially the engineering change order (ECO), which must be tracked and archived throughout product development and manufacturing cycles. Copying and distributing these documents quickly becomes inconvenient and costly.

That's where multifunction printer (MFP) document imaging software from eCopy can help. The scanning platform securely integrates paper documents into existing business applications.

“eCopy staked its claim when all of the hard-copy vendors that were developing MFPs with scanning capabilities wanted to take the image from the platform and redirect it to some end point,” explains Michael Orasin, a research manager with Framingham, Mass.-based IDC.

If these hard-copy vendors had been required to develop connectors from their platforms to systems from Documentum or FileNet—or any other key player in the document management arena—this would have been a significant investment for them, claims Orasin. “eCopy did this for them,” he says.

Now, with partnerships with every major MFP, eCopy has nearly 80-percent coverage in the marketplace relative to MFP scanning.

“We expect to see software capabilities that eCopy brings to the table making the MFP device or distributed scanner more of a participant in the overall document process,” says Orasin. “For example, instead of scanning just to a repository like Documentum, eCopy is moving into the scanning ecosystem and generating an intelligent routing capability.”

eCopy's integration with one North American steel manufacturer's Open Text document management system and Microsoft SharePoint enables online access to documents related to production, delivery, and payments. Since 2005, the manufacturer estimates it has captured more than three million pages, yielding significant cost savings due to decreased physical storage requirements.