Machines that combine copying, printing, scanning, fax and telecommunications into a single
device save space and money when compared to the separate devices they replace. Do they belong
in your office?
For a multifunction device to be a practical purchase for a business, it should receive balanced
use. If you have an office where scanning is far more important than printing or copying, better
to buy a high-quality scanner and an inexpensive printer and copier. If your primary need is for
printing, then a simple scanner alongside a high-end printer is the way to go.
While multifunction devices may not be the proper tools for scanning centers or printing departments,
they do offer a distributed solution for offices that need a wide variety of document input, output
and handling requirements. For a work group or isolated office that needs all these functions, a
multifunction device brings all document handling activities together in one place. Employees learn
to use one machine and service is provided by one company.
As copiers have gone digital, printing has been a natural extension of their capabilities. In fact,
copiers are usually more advanced than laser printers, offering finishing options such as binding,
collating and duplex printing. Users on a network can take advantage of these features directly
from the desktop, instead of having to print their documents and then walk over to the copier to
assemble finished books.
To Copy or Mopy
Most multifunction devices are built around the office copier. However, office copiers have
traditionally sacrificed print quality for speed. Hewlett Packard
(www.mopier.hp.com) has adopted a different
tack on the multifunction debate. Why not build a multifunction device around the laser printer
instead?
This is the reasoning behind the Hewlett Packard Mopier 240 and 320. These machines are 24- and
32-page-per-minute laser printers to which they have added a simple scanner with document feeder.
They are based on the premise that modern offices spend most of their time printing documents and
less time copying. Even when an office has both a copier and a printer, you don’t need to make
copies when your printer can be fitted out with the same document finishing options, such as a sorter
and stapler. So, the logic goes, why buy an expensive copier when what you really need is a
laser printer?
The downside of these devices is that the copier portion can’t be put online as a network
scanner. Nor can they send out via email or fax (though HP has a device called an HP Sender that
can do this). This rules out the Mopiers as communication centers, but they do serve as high-end
printers with an added ability for light- to medium-duty copying.
The transition from separate copiers and printers to combined devices has been a relatively smooth
one, primarily because network printing has long been an accepted practice. Adoption rates for
network printing on multifunction platforms are high. More than 50% of multifunction machines ship
with network printing. Some companies claim adoption rates as high as 60% (Xerox) and 70% (Canon).
“Printing and copying are a natural fit,” says Doug Tallinger, worldwide product marketing
manager for Xerox. “A copier has everything you need to print documents and more.”
Installing a multifunction machine is just like connecting a network printer. For system
administrators, a copier/printer is easier to maintain since preventative maintenance and repair
is handled through a service contract.
Scanning has been less popular as a multifunction machine feature. Xerox reports that (20% of their
Document Centres are sold with the scanning module. Yet they have hopes that that percentage will
grow as more MIS managers become responsible for the purchase of multifunction machines —
they’re more likely to see the administrative benefits of scanning documents on the office
copier/printer.
One application for multifunction devices is telecommunications. Typically, the user places the
document to be emailed or faxed on the device, specifies and fax number or email address and
presses a “send” button.
Another application for multifunction machines, document management, is less easy to employ. Unlike
conventional scanner setups, there is a paucity of software designed to push scans from these
devices into a document imaging system.
Multifunction devices that have SCSI ports for the scanner can be connected directly to a computer
and then used with regular document management software. According to Dennis Amorosano, assistant
director of Canon’s copier and network office systems division, “Users prefer computer
hosted scanners.” The alternative, network attached devices, “are not as user friendly
[as SCSI based scanners] and provide no feedback,” he says.
Yet Canon will have a fully network-attached multifunction machine with scanning within two years.
“Network attached devices are easier to connect to a network and administer. We expect the
software to mature in the next couple of years.” When a user scans, the device can send the
images to a desktop computer, a server or an application such as a mail or fax server that will route
the image to a remote destination. Until APIs are written that makers of imaging software can use
to make their applications work with network scanners, network-attached multifunction machines will
stand apart from the document imaging mainstream.
Canon ImageRunner
ImageRunner networked office systems from Canon are among the few devices that connect directly to a
host computer via a SCSI port. ImageRunners can be incorporated into imaging systems with no changes
to software or user retraining. But you will need a computer sitting alongside your
copier/printer/scanner, and there will be multiple connections to the machine.
No software is bundled with the ImageRunners, but Rorke Data
(www.rorke.com) Easyfile ($2,000 to
$16,000) and Simplify
(www.simplifyinc.com) Mailroom ($100 to $200 per user) are
available as
add-ons. Easyfile is a document management system while Mailroom is a communications package that
supports email and fax.
Ricoh Aficio
The four models in the Aficio product line from Ricoh
(www.ricoh-usa.com) let you choose a SCSI
connection or an optional Axis 700 server (see sidebar, page 50) to put scanner functionality
directly on your network. With the Axis 700 server, the Aficio devices become network scanners with
scan-to-email and scan-to-fax capability. With a minimum of additional hardware, the server lets
users scan images directly from the copier to the network. The process is not quite the same as
scanning from a computer, but the user can be anywhere on the network.
If you choose a SCSI connection, Ricoh also offers the light version of PDF.Capture software from
Doculex (www.doculex.com). This software gives you
scan-to-the-Web capability by letting you convert
images to PDF image only or PDF image + text files. Portable Document Format files can be easily
viewed online through the widely distributed Adobe Acrobat viewer. The software is bundled with
the Aficio 350 and 450 digital copiers.
Sharp Imager
Like Ricoh’s Aficio line, the Imager series of copier/printer/scanners from Sharp
(www.sharp-usa.com) uses the Axis 700 scan server to enable
network scanning. Unlike the Aficio,
the Imager’s SCSI port is not intended for use with a computer.
Thus the Imager devices can only be used as network scanners. Unless your software can integrate
the Axis 700 scan server into your imaging application, the only way to take advantage of scanning
is to program the Axis 700 to place files at a pre-arranged location on your network. Alternatively,
you could interface the scan server with fax and email software and use fax and email to move images
around your network.
Xerox Document Centre
Xerox has incorporated some advanced features into their Document Centre multifunction devices. For
one thing, where other machines have separate interfaces for each of their functions, Xerox has made
all the functions on their machines use a single shared ethernet port. For system administrators,
this is a big convenience. They only have to install one network port and reserve one IP address for
the machine.
Another unique feature of Xerox’s Document Centres is the Scan Services API. This API enables
developers to integrate Xerox’s multifunction devices into their document imaging software.
Although the Document Centres can be used in the same ad hoc fashion as other multifunction devices,
the API lets you use Xerox’s machines in a manner similar to the way you use high-speed document
scanners.
The Axis 700 Brings Scanning to the Network
Two of the multifunction devices examined here use the Axis 700 server to bring their scanning
capabilities to corporate networks. According to McKinley Hacket, strategic alliance manager at
Axis Communications (www.axis.com),
the Axis 700 was originally designed to place any document scanner on a network. But because it
is a complete and self-contained thin server, the Axis 700 has been adopted by makers of digital
copiers in order to add scanning to their suite of functions. Ricoh, Océ, Sharp, Savin and
Lanier all make use of the product, says Hacket.
The Axis 700 acts as a SCSI-to-ethernet bridge. The device allows users to scan their documents
to a pre-programmed location on their network. However, the most common way it is used with
multifunction devices is connection to email software. The Axis 700 can also be accessed by a
Web browser, and users can download scanned images via HTTP and FTP protocols.
Possibly the greatest strength of the Axis 700 is the file formats it supports. Scans can be
compressed into Group 3 or Group 4 TIFFs or JPEGs. The software can also embed these images within
Adobe PDF documents.
Although Axis maintains no formal alliances with any software developers, it is compatible with
Doculex (www.doculex.com) capture software and Simplify
(www.simplifyinc.com) Mailroom software.
Xerox has a number of active partnerships with document management vendors to integrate the Document
Centres into imaging environments. In addition to Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes/Domino and Adobe
Acrobat Capture compatibility, you can also integrate with Documentum document management systems.
Xerox also offers home-grown software for document management and capture. DocuShare is Xerox’s
Web-server-based “knowledge sharing” system, which lets you publish, manage and share
documents and images without HTML coding.
Xerox has also introduced FlowPort, application server software that gives you capture,
communications, distribution and access to the Internet via the Document Centres. FlowPort lets you
post images to Lotus Notes, MS Exchange or DocuShare. The software lets you email, fax or remote
print, and you can combine operations and distribute to multiple locations with the help of
“PaperWare,” a cover sheet/separator with mark sense and dataglyph routing/indexing
capabilities.
Buying Advice
Even the experts on multifunction devices agree that they are not ideal imaging systems for
production work.
Bringing images into a document system with a non-SCSI scanner on a multifunction device is a
multistep process. Image processing and OCR operations have to be performed by separate applications.
If you are looking for a distributed scanning solution for your document imaging applications, your
best bet will be a product that already has integration tools like the Xerox Document Centre or a
multifunction device whose scanner can be hosted by a PC through a SCSI interface.
On the other hand, in an office new to imaging, multifunction machines can be useful. Brian Bissett,
Publisher and Editor of the MFP Report, says that one of the most important features of a
multifunction device is to get paper into a company’s e-mail system. “The main value of the
multifunction scanner is to bring scanning into the mainstream office environment. With these
machines in place, scans will be made of documents that would otherwise languish on desks and in
filing cabinets.”
Even without being fully integrated in a document imaging environment, multifunction scanners can
play a part. Les Anderson, Director of System Sales Market Development for Ricoh, says, “most
people prefer to act as filters to scanned documents.” In other words, they scan images to their
own desktops or a server before entering them in a corporate document management system. If
documents are to be manually checked and processed, the lack of software integration is less
significant.
If you just need to get users to scan their documents or if you have high fax and emailing
requirements, then multifunction devices are good tools. They are familiar fixtures in the office
and are less intimidating to users, particularly non-technical workers. They are as easy to use as
a copier or fax machine and make electronic communications a one-button process.
Product Information
ImageRunner 330/400
Lake Success, NY
516-328-4888
Copy/copy Speed:
33 ppm (330), 40 ppm (400)
Printer:
Interface: 10/100 Base T Ethernet
Printer languages: PCL5e, PS 3
Network protocols: TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, Appletalk
Memory: 64 MB (upgradable to 96MB)
Scanner:
Interface: SCSI
Resolution: 600 dpi
Options:
33.6 kbs fax board; sorters and paper cassettes; finishing options including staplers and sorters.
Paper Capacity:
1,050 to 5,500 sheets
Duty Cycle:
120,000 impressions per month (330)/150,000 impressions per month (400)
Interface: 10/100 Base T, 10 Base 2, 10 bast 5, Parallel, Token Ring
Printer languages: PCL 5e, PS2
Network protocols: TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, Microsoft networking, Appletalk, Banyan Vines
Memory: 64 MB
Scanner:
Interface: Same as printer
Resolution: 400 dpi
Network protocols: Same as printer
Paper tray capacity:
4,000 sheets
Options:
All functions other than telephone fax functions share a single ethernet port. Scan services API lets software developers integrate the Document Center with their software.
Interface: 10/100 Base T Ethernet
Printer languages: PCL 6, PS 3
Network protocols: TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, Appletalk
Memory: 8 MB (upgradable to 72 MB)
Scanner:
Scanning speed: 21 ppm
Interface: SCSI (10 Base T and 10 Base 2 Ethernet optional with Axis 700)
Resolution: 400 dpi
Network protocols for Axis 700: TCP/IP
Options:
Fax board with 33.6 kbs or ISDN adapter; hard drive for printer; duplex printing, extra-large paper cassettes, and sorters.
Paper tray capacity:
Dual 500 sheet trays
Duty cycle:
80,000 impressions per month (350)/100,000 impressions per month (450)/120,000 impressions per month (550)/140,000 impressions per month (650)
