eCopy Launches All-New PaperWorks Desktop Document
Imaging Application
By Jamie Bsales, Associate Editor, July 24, 2009
eCopy, Inc. is continuing its quest to help close the
workflow divide in the workplace—where digital documents follow one path and
paper documents follow another, often much slower, route—with its latest
software solution. eCopy PaperWorks is a desktop document imaging solution that
helps users scan paper documents, merge them with other digital files, modify the
documents and connect them to back-end repositories and line-of-business
applications.
PaperWorks replaces the company’s eCopy Desktop
offering. It augments the eCopy
ShareScan Suite and ShareScan
Essentials network scan-capture and routing solutions, which integrate
with many leading MFPs and enable users to easily scan paper documents and
integrate them into more than 100 leading business applications, such as
enterprise content management (ECM) software, document management repositories,
fax software, collaboration platforms and more. While PaperWorks can be used as
an adjunct to ShareScan (and is included in both ShareScan bundles), ShareScan
is not required to take advantage of the desktop software’s features.
“ShareScan handles distributed front-office capture
and connects to business and enterprise applications,” explained Tim Durant, vice
president, Business Development Worldwide for eCopy. “PaperWorks handles the
document processing piece of the puzzle: working with documents to scan, merge,
modify and connect.”
PaperWorks is a desktop document imaging application
that falls on the software continuum between simple scan-capture solutions
(such as Sharp’s Sharpdesk) and full-blown document management applications
(such as Xerox DocuShare Express). Rather than just scanning a file and dumping
it to a folder, where it then has to be opened with another application,
PaperWorks allows users to work extensively with digital applications. They can
use the PaperWorks interface to capture paper documents from any desktop
scanner or network MFP; combine already-existing electronic files (such as
Microsoft Office files and e-mail) with scanned documents, faxes and more;
view, edit, mark up and manipulate files; and create secure, searchable PDFs of
the new documents. And thanks to eCopy’s expertise in connecting to back-end
applications such as Microsoft SharePoint, users can deliver and retrieve files
via PaperWorks to workflow, document management, communication and other business
applications.
Features new to PaperWorks that were not found in
eCopy Desktop include the ability to deliver documents to, and retrieve
documents from, business applications such as Microsoft SharePoint, EMC
Documentum, iManage WorkSite and others without having to leave PaperWorks; the
ability to use Windows Terminal Services and Citrix support to view, edit, and
save documents from any client; and the ability to merge documents directly
from an MFP or desktop scanner and a variety of storage locations (such as a
local drive, SharePoint site and network drive).
When a user opens a document in PaperWorks, the OCR
(optical character recognition) engine can convert the file into editable text.
Users can assemble various files from various sources into a single document,
view pages as thumbnail images and rearrange pages via simple drag-and-drop actions.
Documents can be saved in a range of file formats, including password-protected
PDF, searchable PDF, TIFF and JPG.
“PaperWorks is ideal for insurance claims and legal
and medical documents, where multiple different types of files need to become
one document,” said Durant. In addition, newly created documents can then be
saved back into the document repository of a company’s back-end applications.
“PaperWorks offers true integration with those applications,” he stressed. “It
is not just dumping them to a folder.”
Another competitive advantage PaperWorks offers is the
SDK (software development kit) eCopy offers to third-party software developers
and system integrators. As with ShareScan, developers will be able to leverage
the PaperWorks platform to add customized functionality not found in the main
product.
PaperWorks will be available from eCopy’s channel partners,
which in North America includes most of the major MFP manufacturers including
Canon, Konica Minolta, Océ, Ricoh, Sharp, Toshiba and Xerox. The solution is
also sold by value-added resellers such as Cranel in North America and Avnet in
Europe. As with ShareScan, channel partners are trained on the solution and
certified by eCopy. A bundle of five PaperWorks licenses carries a list price
of $1,224; 10 licenses are $2,449; and 20 licenses are $4,897 (volume discounts
are available). Those prices include three years of product maintenance and
support. A fully functional trial version of the software can be downloaded
from http://www.ecopy.com/eval/.
