Tech Data Imaging Business Paying Off In Washington

The distributor has seen government-related sales from its imaging specialized business unit increase nearly fivefold since it dedicated an imaging field rep in Washington, said Wendy Rausch, director of peripherals product marketing at Tech Data.

"We realize now that files are more critical than ever. Can you afford to lose paper in a disaster?" Rausch said. "After Sept. 11, the imaging business went up a notch because people want to retain and secure data."

A sales rep inside the Beltway was one of the best additions Tech Data made this year, Rausch said.

That rep, Mike McNeil, was formerly an inside sales manager for the government market and now focuses solely on document imaging solutions, Rausch said.

"It's a simple formula," she said. "[McNeil looked at government [accounts he had inside that had never looked at imaging per se. One of our biggest challenges was to get customers to understand we have this specialized focus."

To help in that regard, Tech Data has scheduled a road show and customer appreciation event for this week to educate Washington-area solution providers about document imaging technology.

"Many of these resellers are customers that bought other products from us but didn't leverage us for imaging products," she said.

Government agencies are also expressing more interest in document imaging solutions, said Dwayne Jones, account executive at GovConnection, Merrimack, N.H.

"For the last 10 years, the [federal government has been talking about the paperless office," said Jones. "Some [agencies are starting to do that. They're starting to apply [digital imaging technology."

The solution provider is also working with several court systems on imaging solutions, Jones said.

"They're starting to scan documents for their archives," he said. "We've negotiated with Fujitsu for special pricing for courts, and we're facilitating that through Tech Data, which has been instrumental in making that happen."

Tech Data's key vendors in the document imaging space are Bell and Howell, Canon, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Kofax, Panasonic, Plasmon and Ricoh, Rausch said. Several of the vendors offer government pricing discounts.

A typical solution includes a scanner, software and storage, she said.

"Whether it's a centralized or decentralized location, the government has a ton of paper, and documentation needs to be archived and filed for efficiency," Rausch said. "It's called document management because it manages whatever solution a government agency needs, whether expense-related, budget-related or security-related."

Document imaging solutions help customers search through enormous stacks of papers much more efficiently, Jones said. "There's no way to keep up with the amount of paper that these agencies generate. They can't manage it in terms of searches," he said. "If you've ever thumbed through a stack of papers, [you know how difficult [it is to find something you're looking for. If you can scan a paper into a database and catalog it, the search is much easier and quicker."

One GovConnection customer receives 5,000 bids for one program, and they all need to be time-stamped. Previously, the bids came in via fax or e-mail and had to be manually sorted. Now someone can grab the bids and scan them, said Jones. It takes one-tenth the amount of time it took to manage these bids by hand. "They can use their manpower elsewhere," he said.

Maturation of scanning technology has been instrumental in selling document imaging, Jones said.

"The scanners are now faster, and the [optical character recognition is so much better. The overall quality of the scan is better," he said. "Costwise, it's like anything else: The better the technology, the cheaper the product over time. A few years ago, what we were quoting for $15,000 we can do now for $5,000 or $7,000 or less, depending on the level of quality needed."

While document imaging is a maturing technology, Tech Data's specialized business unit also includes imaging products such as security cameras, which are becoming a hot item for solution providers and integrators, Rausch said.

"That's something the government folks have been asking us for," she said.