Document scanners helping the public sector in difficult times

Document scanners helping the public sector in difficult times

Delivering high standards of public services, during times of unprecedented budgetary cuts is not an easy task and recent economic forecasts further compound this challenge. Jarek Solinski, Product Marketing Manager for Canon imageFORMULA document scanners, shares his views on how investment in scanners can help tackling both – spend control without compromising the level of service.

Whether your organisation is a large government office or a local council, the way in which you work has changed. The digitisation agenda has accelerated and there are no doubts about its value and importance in the Public Sector. That agenda can only be delivered through the right digital infrastructure.

However, at the time of budget and expenditure constraints, the need to be extra diligent in keepings costs under control and providing the right level of benefits for any investment is key.

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“A lot of Public Sector organisations invested in their infrastructure in the pre-Covid era. It was designed for offices full of employees that have easy access to paper-based documentation stored in departmental archives. But with the arrival of hybrid working this requirement has evolved” suggests Jarek.

A study into office document trends, prepared by Keypoint Intelligence, found out that 80% of office workers in Western Europe now use scanning as part of their day-to-day job. The vast majority of these workers still use multifunctional devices as a primary scanning tool. With declining printing volumes and an increased importance on scan, any Public Sector organisation needs to consider introducing dedicated document scanners.

Typically, a dedicated scanner will be cheaper than a multifunction device and will deliver immediate procurement savings. “To help even more, Canon UK as a responsible supplier to the Public Sector, have increased their scanner prices throughout 2022 despite significantly increased costs and inflation. This is our way of supporting our customers in delivering critical services to the communities across the country” explains Jarek.

Reduce inefficiencies and associated costs

Another important benefit deploying scanners is significant improvement in document and data management across the organisation. Modern Canon Scanners can be easily integrated with existing document workflows and can be distributed efficiently, reducing time, and increasing the auditability.

As a result, critical decisions across the organisations are made without unnecessary delays and with all the relevant information available immediately. This means that time and money is saved during the process.

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Digitise documents and keep costs at minimum

Jarek states that ‘Document retrieval in an easily overlooked cost within organisations. Some of our public sector partners were surprised to realise how much time is wasted in trying to find the correct document in the archives. When they are stored in external location, you can add the cost of retrieval to that”. By deploying scanners and digitising your documents, these costs can be kept to the minimum. You only need to find a paper copy when it is necessary, whilst in most instances an easily available digital record can be utilised.

Can a scanner generate revenue?

There is another interesting aspect that needs to be considered. Whilst a scanner device may be considered an investment it may also become a revenue source for your organisation. “One of our local council customers, decided to invest in Canon scanners and offer scanning services to neighbouring councils” explains Jarek” This is a win-win as they are now generating additional revenue whilst their neighbours do not need to invest in their own devices and can optimise their budgets”.

More Information:

To find out more about how Canon imageFORMULA scanner can help your organisation please contact us on scanners@cuk.canon.co.uk or visit
www.canon.co.uk/scanners

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Public Sector Focus