Production Scanning Is Not Dead

April 20, 2007

Despite analyst reports of limited growth in the production capture market segment, this VAR expects to grow 20% this year focusing on high-volume document scanner sales.

Document scanner sales are booming. According to research by InfoTrends, scanner shipments were up more than 50% in 2006, and the market should surpass the billion-dollar mark for the first time ever this year. What's more is this growth shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, InfoTrends predicts that scanner shipments will exceed 1 million units by 2010. The one cloud in this otherwise sunny forecast is the growth is primarily occurring in only low-volume scanning market segments. InfoTrends research shows that nearly 80% of the growth in the scanning market can be attributed to increased sales of desktop, workgroup, and departmental scanners — units that are largely becoming commodity products. As for the mid- and high-volume scanners that many imaging VARs built their businesses around, research shows sales of these units to be flat, and analysts predict a gradual decline in high-volume scanner sales as desktop applications continue to gain momentum.

This data has scared many VARs into shifting their focus from delivering centralized, production scanning solutions to addressing the distributed capture needs of their clients — but not Advanced Imaging Systems (AIS). This Pineville, NC-based VAR is happy to remain entrenched in its production scanning niche, and you really can't blame the company. After all, AIS enjoyed revenue growth of 29% last year and anticipates another 20% gain this year by focusing on high-volume document scanner sales.

http://www.ecmconnection.com/article.mvc/Production-Scanning-Is-Not-Dead-0001