Review: Nothin' But Scanners

Now that the current generation of multifunction printers does everything but make coffee, why would anyone want a standalone scanner? As it turns out, there's a strong niche of individuals who need one on their desktops. That's because more processes than ever are going digital, and a growing number of professionals need to be in arm's reach of a scanner.

Depending on the types of images being scanned, resolution and the ability to handle large volumes can be critical. Sectors such as health care, banking, legal, government and financial services are finding that digitizing paper-based processes is no longer an option, thanks to myriad regulations that require the retention of documents.

Demand for desktop scanners could grow anywhere from 50 percent to 60 percent this year, predicts IDC analyst Ron Glaz. While IDC hasn't recently released figures for the standalone scanner market, a mere 50,000 units shipped in 2003, the most recent year for which it has figures. That adds up to $60 million. Nevertheless, Glaz says, that number could grow manyfold during the next several years, potentially into the millions of units per year. "The market still needs to educate customers why one scanner is better than another," Glaz says.

Numerous scanners are available to VARs to suit a variety of application requirements and price points. We've picked a few recent entries, priced between $350 and $1,300, that are suited for a variety of business uses. While desktop and workgroup scanners might not bring super margins on their own, they can be an important component of a solution sale, especially if you are serving customers where archiving and sharing documents online is becoming critical. Consider the services opportunity to help customers of any size move from paper to electronic documents. All offerings come with a full suite of software.

Canon CanoScan 9950F

If your customer has diverse scanning needs, ranging from traditional documents to old photos or even transparencies, the CanoScan 9950F Color Image Scanner is worth your consideration. The scanner supports 48-bit color and a maximum resolution of 4,800-x-9,600 dpi. Very few scanners in its class that we have seen are capable of such high resolution, though for many users it could be overkill. With this scanner, Canon has introduced Film Automatic Retouching and Enhancement Level 3, which performs an infrared scan that examines the surface of an image for dust and scratches, removing them from the final output. The scanner has four buttons in front: e-mail, copy, scan and save-to-PDF. One caveat to keep in mind: If your customer is scanning large numbers of documents at a time, the CanoScan 9950F might not be the ideal scanner because it lacks an automatic document feeder (ADF). But for those who do occasional scanning that requires high-resolution images, the CanoScan 9950F is a good choice.

Price: $399 Contact: www.usa.canon.com