Datacap and Canon Publish Results of User Survey on Distributed Capture

June 10, 2009, Tarrytown, NY – Datacap Inc. and Canon U.S.A. Inc., a leader in digital imaging and office solutions, announced the publishing of an industry-wide data-driven survey exclusively focused on distributed capture benefits, success factors and barriers. Titled “Distributed Capture 2009,” the report is the result of more than 300 responses by a cross-section of organizations involved in document processing. It presents a picture of a vibrant and growing capture application.

Distributed capture is the practice of linking multiple imaging and capture devices – usually via the Internet – for organizations with dispersed documents to accelerate input, reduce shipping costs and increase accuracy.  The survey sought to identify the benefits and key expectations for those with deployed distributed capture systems, as well as the barriers to entry for those not distributing capture.

Survey results were analyzed and interpreted by Power Decisions Group, a marketing research firm, based in San Francisco. The survey report has been researched and written by Kevin Craine of Craine Communications Group of Portland, Oregon. 

Among the key findings:

• MFP use in distributed capture applications has grown from 24% in 2005 to 33% in 2008
• The use of fax servers dropped from 35% to 19%
• Manual data indexing in distributed environments has dwindled by 20% over the past three years
• Vendor selection time has grown overall
• Most purchasing decision makers are middle management
• Automated forms processing, using OCR, has doubled over the past two years

“Datacap and Canon recognize the importance of end-user research in one of the fastest growing segments of the capture market,” said Scott Blau, CEO of Datacap. “This survey has confirmed some of our assumptions, and shed new light on the value of distributed capture to widely dispersed organizations. We are proud to partner with Canon on this important research.”

“Distributed Capture 2009” is available as a free download on the Datacap website. To request a copy, visit http://www.datacap.com/downloads/distcapsur09/.