DM2405

DOCUMENT 

M A N A G E R 

Dm 

www.document-manager.com 

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT 

IMAGING & CAPTURE 

WORKFLOW/BPM 

CONTENT MANAGEMENT 

The future of capture: 

PFU's partner conference in full 

Product review: 

MDI Cloud 

Data management: 

Tooling up for AI 

Strategy: 

Intelligent Document Processing 

OPINIONS • REVIEWS • CASE STUDIES • INTERVIEWS 

ISSN 1351-3222 Vol 32 No 3 May/June 2024

MDI Cloud is built on a simple premise: 

our expert developers do the heavy 

lifting, so you don't have to. All the 

technical complexities are handled 

behind the scenes, allowing you to 

simply log in and get started. 

Simplicity at its core 

Collaboration made easy 

Compliance without 

complication 

Tailored access 

controls 

AI assisted insights 

Request a demo 

More Information 

storetec.net/mdi-cloud 

From hours to minutes... 

A job that would probably 

take 3 or 4 hours to dig out 

all the records now takes 2 

minutes.

Dm 

COMMENT 

Editor: 

Dave Tyler 

david.tyler@btc.co.uk 

Sub Editor: 

Mark Lyward 

mark.lyward@btc.co.uk 

The May/June issue of Document Manager has 

Publishing Director: 

John Jageurs 

an even greater than usual focus on capture 

john.jageurs@btc.co.uk 

Sales Manager: 

and scanning, coming as it does after the PFU 

Abby Penn 

(EMEA) Information Capture Conference which 

abby.penn@btc.co.uk 

Lead Designer 

took place in Dubai in mid-May. I'm delighted to 

Ian Collis 

say I was in attendance for the full event, and as 

ian.collis@btc.co.uk 

Circulation/Subscriptions: 

always (this was their 9th such event) I came away 

Christina Willis 

hugely impressed with not just the technologies on 

christina.willis@btc.co.uk 

Managing Director: 

display but the sense of a company that really 

John Jageurs 

understands how important its channel partners are to its success. 

john.jageurs@btc.co.uk 

Despite being the biggest selling scanner company in the world by some 

Published by: Barrow & 

distance, PFU (now owned by Ricoh, of course) remains very focused on its 

Thompkins Connexion Ltd 

35 Station Square, 

users' issues and requirements, and this attitude is visible right down the line 

Petts Wood 

from the CEO (interviewed in these pages) to the distributors, resellers and 

Kent BR5 1LZ 

Tel: 01689 616000 

ISVs who deploy the company's solutions worldwide. 

Fax: 01689 826622 

As regular readers might expect, much of the focus in many of the 

Subscriptions: 

presentations and breakout sessions at the conference was on AI and ML - 

UK: £35/year, £60/two years, 

£80/three years 

indeed there were barely any sessions that didn't touch on these 

Europe: £48/year, £85 two 

technologies in one way or another. It is fair to say that there was no sense 

years, £127 three years. 

ROW:£62/year, £115/two 

of paying lip-service to 'this year's buzzword' in any of the presentations: the 

years, £168/three years 

industry is clearly taking AI very seriously and there are some significant 

Published 6 times a year. 

Single copies can be bought 

steps being taken not only by PFU themselves but also by many of their 

for £8.50 (includes postage & 

partners in assimilating these emerging technologies into their future 

packaging). No part of this 

magazine may be reproduced 

roadmaps - and indeed their current product offerings in many cases. 

without prior consent, in writing, 

from the publisher. 

You will find a number of reports and updates from the conference 

©Copyright 2024 Barrow & 

throughout this issue, alongside our usual smorgasbord of DM/ECM-related 

Thompkins 

content. Jan Van Hoecke of iManage, for instance, describes how important 

Connexion Ltd 

it is to have good data in the first place before you go off with the idea of 

Articles published reflect the 

using multiple different AI tools. 

opinions of the authors and are 

not necessarily those of the 

The key, says Jan, is to make sure that the productivity platform AI tools 

publisher or his employees. While 

every reasonable effort is made 

can also tap into the data within your existing DM system. There are a 

to ensure that the contents of 

couple of concerns here, however, notably: how do you provide that access 

articles, editorial and advertising 

are accurate no responsibility can 

while still respecting all the layers of security and governance - security 

be accepted by the publisher for 

errors, misrepresentations or any 

policies, ethical walls, and other requirements - that are associated with that 

resulting effects 

content? He makes an interesting analogy: "At your typical place setting, 

there's a fork, a knife, and a spoon. Each one serves a different purpose for 

the diner and provides its own unique bit of utility. The diner doesn't have to 

pick just one of them to work with. We should start viewing AI in a similar 

manner. The various tools are complementary, not mutually exclusive - but 

good data is the foundation." 

Dave Tyler 

Editor 

david.tyler@btc.co.uk 


May/June 2024 

@DMMagAndAwards 

3

Dm CONTENTS 

C O N T E N T S 

MAY/JUNE 

8 

10 

14 

24 

26 

..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 

EVENT REVIEW: PFU ICC9………….............................................................……….6 

PFU (EMEA) held its 9th International Capture Conference in Dubai in mid-May, and DM 

Magazine editor Dave Tyler was on the scene throughout to report back from the event 

PRODUCT REVIEW: MDI CLOUD………........................................................………8 

CASE STUDY: FLUGHAFEN MÜNCHEN…………........................................………10 

The company that operates Munich Airport uses an ECM solution from ELO Digital Office 

to manage more than 20 million documents 

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: INTELLIGENT DOCUMENT PROCESSING……............…….12 

The PFU Information Capture Conference heard from Hagen Wustlich, founder and CEO of 

Planet GmbH, who shared some extraordinary advances in intelligent document processing 

CASE STUDY: HM LAND REGISTRY………..................................................………14 

Nigel Dews, Managing Director, Restore Records Management, describes how HM Land 

Registry has reduced its files and its own physical estate size as it embarked on its digital 

journey 

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: AI……........................................................................……16 

Neil Murphy, Chief Revenue Officer at ABBYY, explains how his company is increasingly 

competing against the likes of Microsoft and Amazon rather than the capture businesses 

they lined up against in the past 

PFU ICC9: HARDWARE & SOFTWARE VISIONS…………..............................……..18 

A panel discussion at the PFU ICC event - featuring Simon Edwards, Tony Lillico and KJ 

Sugimasa - explored the company's future vision for the combined potential of software 

and hardware 

COMPANY UPDATE: DOCUWARE…….......................................................………20 

DM Magazine speaks to David Malan, Sales Director, UK & Ireland at DocuWare, who 

believes that document management has established itself as an exciting, must-have, hightech 

solution for every modern business 

STRATEGY: PFU & AI………….......................................................................…….22 

There is no doubt that AI was one of the hottest topics under discussion at the Information 

Capture Conference, and PFU's Christophe Laurence explained how the combination of 

scanning and AI could lead to a revolution in document management 

MANAGEMENT: TRENDS…………..................................................................…..24 

Brian Fortune, General Manager Sales at PFU (EMEA), shared his 'big six' predictions for the 

future of the industry at the company's ICC9 event in Dubai 

STRATEGY: AI………........................................................................................…..26 

Using multiple AI tools is easy - if you start with good data, argues Jan Van Hoecke, VP of 

AI Services, iManage 

PFU ICC9: PANEL DISCUSSION………............................................................……28 

The 9th PFU Information Capture Conference closed with a panel discussion that covered 

the impact of innovation and collaboration, as well as some go-to strategies for partners 

looking to maximise the potential of emerging technologies 

STRATEGY: SCANNING…….........................................................................……..30 

PFU (EMEA) Customer Engagement Manager Steve Chad spoke to the ICC9 audience 

about how recent research findings are helping to inform the company's marketing and 

channel strategies with regard to their ScanSnap and Ricoh scanner ranges 

INTERVIEW: PFU…..….................................................................................……..32 

DM magazine editor David Tyler sat down with Hiroaki Kashiwagi, President & CEO, PFU 

(EMEA) at the company's ICC event to discuss how the world has changed since their last 

partner conference, and how capture and other technologies are helping organisations 

adapt to those changes 

PFU ICC9: AWARD WINNERS…….................................................................…….34 

The PFU (EMEA) ICC event ended with a grand gala dinner where the company presented a 

number of partner awards 

4 @DMMagAndAwards May/June 2024 www.document-manager.com

PROMO 

PRIC£S 

Available to selected resellers* 

Talk to our award-winning team on 020 8296 7010 for details. 

RICOH fi-8040 

• 40ppm / 80ipm 

• PC-less scanning 

• Intuitive touchscreen 

PLUS 1600 REWARDS POINTS 

£Call 

ORDER: FUSC8040 

RICOH fi-8150 

• 50ppm / 100ipm 

• Clear Image Capture 

• 100 sheet ADF 

£Call 


RICOH fi-8170 

• 70ppm / 140ipm 

• 10,000 sheets daily vol. 


£Call 


RICOH fi-7300NX 

• 60ppm / 120ipm 

• PC-less scanning 

• PaperStream NX Manager 

£Call 

ORDER: FUSC7300NX 

RICOH fi-7460 

• 60ppm / 120ipm 

• 18,000 sheets daily volume 

• A8 to A3 handling 

£Call 


PLUS...800 Bonus Rewards Points 

available with RICOH Service Plans 

NEW PRODUCTION SCANNERS AVAILABLE NOW: 

RICOH fi-8820 

• 120ppm / 240ipm 



RICOH fi-8930 

• 130ppm / 260ipm 



RICOH fi-8950 

• 150ppm / 300ipm 



*Promotional pricing available to selected resellers only, terms and conditions apply. 

Talk to the experts 

020 8296 7010 

northamber.com/ricoh 

©Northamber PLC 2024 E and O.E. June ‘24.

Dm EVENT REVIEW: PFU ICC9 

Looking to the future 

PFU (EMEA) held its 9th 

International Capture 

Conference in Dubai in 

mid-May, and DM 

Magazine editor Dave 

Tyler was on the scene 

throughout to report 

back from the event 

For two days in May the Conrad 

Hotel in Dubai was home to 

almost 300 PFU delegates, 

partners, sponsors and staff (as well as 

one DM editor) as the company held its 

9th ICC event - the first since 2020's 

Berlin conference, which took place just 

weeks before the world was caught in 

the grip of the pandemic. 

Much has changed since then, of 

course, not least in the many ways that 

the post-Covid world has adapted to 

different ways of working - as PFU's 

Matthew Beavis said in his opening 

presentation: "Employees and 

businesses accepted that work is 

something we do, not somewhere we 

go." 

Another notable change since the last 

ICC event is of course the acquisition of 

the PFU business itself by Ricoh from 

Fujitsu. Simon Edwards described how 

almost 95% of channel partners 

surveyed are now aware of the 

transition. Encouragingly, 82% stated 

they would very likely or likely 

recommend the Ricoh brand to others. 

This overall positivity was reflected in 

the theme of the conference, "An 

exciting future ahead". 

This was the recurring theme over the 

two days of the conference, whether in 

PFU's own product presentations, end 

user success stories, or expert panel 

discussions. Presentations from 

partners, analysts and PFU staff were 

scattered over two very full days, 

including keynotes and breakout 

sessions and product demonstrations, 

as well as a large and well-attended 

partner exhibition area. 

Event sponsors included ABBYY, ELO, 

DocuWare, Planet and OpenBee, and 

there were also exhibitors in the form 

of Cube Innovators, ScanOptics, 

Modus, FileStream and NVSSoft. 

As well as senior executives from 

across PFU itself, the conference 

6 May/June 2024 www.document-manager.com 

@DMMagAndAwards

EVENT REVIEW: PFU ICC9 Dm 

"IT WAS QUITE NOTABLE THAT, FOR A COMPANY THAT HAS FOR MANY YEARS BEEN THE WORLD'S MOST 

SUCCESSFUL SCANNER SALES BUSINESS, MUCH OF THE FOCUS OF THE EVENT AND THE PRESENTATIONS WAS 

ACTUALLY NOT VERY SCANNING-FOCUSED AT ALL! OF COURSE SCANNER HARDWARE AND CAPTURE/IMAGE 

PROCESSING SOFTWARE WERE COVERED, BUT THERE WAS FAR MORE EMPHASIS FROM MANY OF THE SPEAKERS 

AND IN DEMOS AROUND THE EVENT ON A BROADER DOCUMENT AUTOMATION APPROACH. PFU'S BRIAN 

FORTUNE DESCRIBED IT AS 'AUGMENTED INTELLIGENCE THAT WILL LEAD TO BETTER DATA DRIVEN DECISIONS'." 

featured a number of thoughtprovoking 

external speakers, including 

David Rowan of Wired UK who offered 

a rich perspective on 'navigating 

technology-led disruption'. His keynote 

talk was one of the highlights of the 

first day, touching on topics as varied 

as autonomous vehicles and the 

Natural History Museum as he 

described the inevitable convergence of 

technologies as AI and robotics 

increasingly offer us new ways to 

access and manage data. 

David's presentation was followed by 

what has become a regular fixture at 

the PFU ICC event, as EMEA General 

Sales Manager Brian Fortune broke 

down what he saw as the 'big six' 

trends that are likely to affect the 

sector, and how the changing 

opportunities being presented are 

opportunities nonetheless. AI was a 

factor, of course, as were edge-enabled 

devices, a growing need for document 

security and compliance, and what 

Brian called 'the big conversion' - a 

growth in demand for very large 

backfile conversion projects in sectors 

such as healthcare, for instance. See 

page 24 for a more detailed 

breakdown of Brian's predictions. 

Hagen Wustlich, CEO of PFU partner 

Planet, used his presentation to 

highlight the power of his company's 

Intelligent Document Analysis 

solutions, which offer automated 

document processing workflows with 

remarkably high accuracy on 

recognition tasks - way beyond what 

most of us are used to seeing in the 

industry. We've covered Hagen's 

presentation in more detail later in this 

issue, but it's worth mentioning here 

one particular health client of theirs 

whose processing went from taking 

240 days with a 53% accuracy rating 

with Kofax, to just one day, with 89% 

accuracy using Planet's technology. 

Impressive stuff! 

As regular readers might expect, 

much of the focus in many of the 

presentations and breakout sessions 

was on AI and ML - indeed there were 

barely any sessions that didn't touch on 

these technologies in one way or 

another. It is fair to say that there was 

no sense of paying lip-service to 'this 

year's buzzword' in any of the 

presentations: the industry is clearly 

taking AI very seriously and there are 

some significant steps being taken not 

only by PFU themselves but also by 

many of their partners in assimilating 

these emerging technologies into their 

future roadmaps - and indeed their 

current product offerings in many 

cases. 

In fact it was quite notable that, for a 

company that has for many years been 

the world's most successful scanner 

sales business, much of the focus of 

the event and the presentations was 

actually not very scanning-focused at 

all! Of course scanner hardware and 

capture/image processing software 

were covered, but there was far more 

emphasis from many of the speakers 

and in demos around the event on a 

broader document automation 

approach. PFU's Brian Fortune 

described it as 'augmented intelligence 

that will lead to better data driven 

decisions'. 

One of the best attended sessions 

was described as 'a discussion around 

hardware and software visions', 

featuring KJ Sugimasa, Simon Edwards 

and Tony Lillico, all of PFU. There was 

some interesting detail on the scanner 

manufacturing and testing process, 

giving a glimpse 'behind the curtain' of 

PFU's scanner business, and showing 

the time and effort that goes into the 

design and creation of the world's 

most successful scanner brand. 

Tony explained the shift from CCD to 

CIS technology and the reasoning 

behind it, and gave us a look into how 

functions such as automatic separation 

control, paper ejection control, stapled 

document detection and automatic 

skew correction on the fi-8000 devices 

add up to more productive scan 

processing. 

On the software side we heard about 

the new ScanSnap Home interface, and 

how all the previous apps have been 

consolidated into one with ScanSnap 

Home Mobile. At the production level 

the panel described how software 

enhancements including to 

PaperStream IP and Scanner Central 

Admin were part of the company's 

efforts to create a 'bridge' between 

emerging technologies and user 

requirements. The key takeaway from 

the software teams was the aim of 

'making powerful software easy to use'. 

After a packed two days of 

presentations, breakouts and 

demonstrations, the event wound up 

in style with a gala dinner at the 

world's tallest structure, the Burj 

Khalifa, ending with the presentation 

of awards to a selection of PFU 

partners from all across the region (see 

elsewhere for a full breakdown of the 

winners). 

More info: www.pfu-emea.ricoh.com 


May/June 2024 


7

Dm PRODUCT REVIEW: MDI CLOUD 

Review: MDI Cloud 

Storetec first moved into the 

software realm 20 years ago in 

2004 with its first release of 

FreeDocs, just one year after the 

company's inception. Since then of 

course the document and content 

management sector has moved on 

enormously, as both user requirements 

and technological capabilities have 

changed almost beyond recognition. 

So it is that Storetec's core product is 

now known by a totally new name, MDI 

Cloud, and DM Magazine decided to 

take a closer look at what makes the 

new product such a step up from the 

well-established and popular FreeDocs. 

First of all, what's in a name? The MDI 

in MDI Cloud stands for Managed 

Document Intelligence, which is a logical 

re-brand on two levels: one, 'Managed' 

implies the cloud/content services 

approach now almost obligatory for any 

organisation looking for effective digital 

transformation offerings; while 

'Document Intelligence' reflects the 

industry's re-focus onto Intelligent 

Document Processing and AI 

integrations. 

MDI Cloud is built, says Storetec on a 

simple premise: the company's own 

expert developers do the heavy lifting, so 

the users don't have to. All the technical 

complexities are handled behind the 

scenes, allowing users to simply log in 

and get started. Developed off the back 

of twenty years of client feedback, the 

idea is to offer document management 

at its most straightforward: 'login and 

go', leaving clients free to focus on core 

business activities without distraction. 

Simplicity then - of implementation, 

deployment and use - is central to MDI 

Cloud: "Our goal with MDI Cloud is to 

strip away the technical complexity that 

so often bogs down digital transitions," 

commented Damien Baker, Chief 

Operating Officer at Storetec. "We've 

built a tool that requires minimal input 

from the user, so they can maximise 

output in their business operations." 

This is evident from the main 

dashboard, which gives a sleek and 


PRODUCT REVIEW: MDI CLOUD Dm 

modern tiled view that includes a snapshot 

view of the number of documents stored, 

versions held, and actions performed, as 

well as access to messages. The main 

section of the customisable dashboard 

shows the many functions available to the 

user, including workflows, redaction, 

signatures, and many more including 

several impressive looking AI integrations. 

Storetec summarises the key 'simplicity' 

aspects of MDI Cloud as: 

Tailored access controls: Keep 

documents safe with customisable 

access settings that fit your 

organisation's needs. 

Efficient document handling: From 

drag-and-drop uploads to full-text 

searches, manage your documents and 

information with ease using our 

intuitive tools. We were impressed to 

see that the search function supports 

'*' and '?' wild card use to make it both 

flexible and powerful. 

 

 

Compliance without complication: 

Automated retention and 

straightforward version controls 

make compliance a breeze. 

Collaboration made easy: Share, 

edit, and manage documents 

collaboratively across teams in a 

secure manner. 

We'd add to this list the ease of 

document redaction and signature 

management - MDI Cloud is in fact a 

hugely sophisticated and feature-rich 

solution that offers all the elements you 

could ask for from a document/content 

management offering, in a surprisingly 

user-friendly and intuitive dashboard 

interface that will require almost zero 

training for new users. 

Combined with the overall simplicity 

of the user experience itself, it is 

important to point out that MDI Cloud 

nonetheless offers a number of 

advanced features that keep it at the 

leading edge in terms of Intelligent 

Document Processing. These include 

workflow automation and electronic 

forms tools that allow users to rapidly 

automate routine tasks and digitise 

forms to save time and reduce errors. 

There are also, of course, AI offerings 

baked into the product. If a user needs 

help sorting through data or 

summarising documents, MDI Cloud's 

AI Assistant performs document 

analysis in seconds. An AI redaction 

tool can intelligently identify and 

redact sensitive information, 

maintaining compliance without 

manual input. And when you need 

deeper insights, the Advanced AI 

Workbench offers powerful tools for 

data analysis and decision-making 

support. 

MDI Cloud, then, is a worthy 

successor to FreeDocs, a product that 

we've long championed at DM 

Magazine in its own right in the past. 

The new product does away with many 

of the complexities usually faced by 

organisations transitioning from paper 

to digital processes (or when moving 

between digital platforms) and offers a 

clear path to enhancing content and 

document management processes. 

Crucially, it's very clearly been 

designed with the user in mind, 

ensuring that staff spend less time on 

setup and more time doing what they 

do best - and what is of most value to 

the organisation. 

More info: 

www.storetec.net/mdi-cloud/ 

VERDICT 

Storetec's FreeDocs offering has been around for 20 years and we've seen it get better and better over that time, to 

the point of winning several trophies at the DM Awards. MDI Cloud as the company's new flagship product 

genuinely represents some significant steps forward from an already impressive position, offering a combination of 

simplicity of approach and some highly advanced features. 


May/June 2024 


9

Dm CASE STUDY: FLUGHAFEN MÜNCHEN 

Photo: Flughafen München GmbH 

A precision landing for digitalisation 

The company that operates Munich Airport uses an ECM 

solution from ELO Digital Office to manage more than 20 

million documents 

The central software platform ELO ECM 

Suite is being used by the airport 

operator to bring together all the 

important business documents and 

information - all optimally integrated with 

third party systems. 

Munich Airport has been one of the most 

highly frequented airports in Europe since it 

opened in 1992 and therefore an important 

hub with a renowned international 

standing. With around 9,000 employees, 

Flughafen München GmbH (FMG) is a fullservice 

operator for everything relating to 

airport management. The company stands 

by its policy on social and environmental 

responsibility and works towards 

decarbonisation in air travel. Therefore, 

digitalising its workflows is an important 

step towards a future-proof approach to 

sustainable business practices. 

As the previous DMS system had reached 

the limits of its capabilities, FMG was on the 

lookout for a modern software system. It 

was essential to seamlessly connect the new 

solution with third-party systems, such as 

ERP and CAD and also with Microsoft 

Office. It needed to be scalable and able to 

be enhanced with modules, work on the 

basis of workflows and store information in 

a regulatory-compliant manner. 

FMG decided on ELO ECM Suite from ELO 

Digital Office because of its intuitive user 

navigation, modular development potential 

and automation options. Today, it manages 

over 20 million documents in the ECM 

solution from ELO Digital Office, for 

example, documentation for buildings and 

technical facilities, as well as around 10,000 

manuals. 

In addition to the solidity of the ECM 

manufacturer and its owner structure, the 

intuitive user navigation, modular 

development potential, and scalability were 

also reasons for making the decision. The 

easy integration with third-party systems 

and its excellent value for money also spoke 

in favour of ELO ECM Suite. The group 

trusted an experienced ELO Business Partner 

for SMEs with realising the project. 

The digitalisation experts began by 

successively implementing the basic 

software in different departments and 

migrating the data from the old system. In 

the next step, it was time to integrate with 

the ERP and CAD systems and set up a 

digital contract management solution in the 

group's Procurement division. Mobile 

working with the ELO app was on the cards 

for the Real Estate department from 2023, 

to manage the facilities off the airport 

premises. 

Around 2,800 employees across the 

company currently work with ELO ECM 

Suite. They really value the automated - and 

therefore time-saving - processes. All 

authorised employees can access 

documents and information centrally: they 

can retrieve and collaborate on documents 

at any time and from any location. Sensitive 

information is also protected against 

unauthorised access and stored according 

to regulatory requirements. 

"ELO ECM Suite impressed us with its easy 

handling," commented Stefan Setzensack, IT 

Solution Manager ELO, Flughafen München 

GmbH. "The wide range of functions 

opened up a lot of potential for our 

digitalisation strategy." 

Would you like to know more about the 

digitalisation opportunities with ELO Digital 

Office? 

Watch the FMG reference video here. 

More info: www.elo.com 


Dm TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: INTELLIGENT DOCUMENT PROCESSING 

Intelligence tests 

The PFU Information Capture Conference heard from 

Hagen Wustlich, founder and CEO of Planet GmbH, 

who shared some extraordinary advances in intelligent 

document processing 

For a company founded way back in 

1992, PFU partner Planet boasts 

some very impressive credentials 

when it comes to up-to-the-minute 

innovations. Founder and CEO delivered 

a brief 

roundup of his technology's capabilities 

at the PFU ICC event, and it is fair to 

say that everyone present went away 

hugely impressed at some of the 

examples and demonstrations. 

Wustlich describes the core of what 

they offer as 'understanding images 

and text using cognitive systems', which 

might sound like a fancy way of saying 

OCR/ICR, and to an extent it is - but we 

learned that there is far more going on 

'under the bonnet' of Planet's offering. 

The Planet solution, IDA (Intelligent 

Document Analysis) can be offered as 

an on-premise or cloud system, but 

Wustlich explained that most clients at 

the moment prefer to opt for on-prem 

due to what they see as the better 

security and control. IDA is a software 

suite for data capture from documents 

with, claims Wustlich, "the highest 

quality, extraction and content 

understanding". 

NO LIMITS 

As he went on to demonstrate, IDA can 

help users to automate their document 

processing workflow with remarkable 

accuracy and speed - with practically 

no limits on the use cases to which it 

could be applied. 

IDA offers greater than 95% accuracy 

for hand-written text, and greater than 

99% for machine text, with the ability 

to process in excess of 70,000 pages 

per hour. On top of this, the average 

training time for the system is less than 

half a day. 

At the heart of IDA, explained 

Wustlich, is the company's own 

patented Perception Matrix technology 

which can work with text, speech, or 

images to deliver what he described as 


@DMMagAndAwards

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: INTELLIGENT DOCUMENT PROCESSING Dm 

'content representation without 

information loss'. The examples shown 

during his presentation illustrated the 

sheer power of IDA, a completely 

language-independent solution (the 

latest version of which works with 

Arabic character sets) that is claimed 

to include the world's most powerful 

keyword search. 

Wustlich went on to describe how in 

one 'Tech Olympics' challenge, Planet's 

offerings won 16 out of 18 contests 

entered. He shared a slide comparing 

the relative performance (OCR 

accuracy) of Planet against three 

leading competitors: on invoices, 

Planet achieved 93.9% accuracy, 

compared to 66.9% for Nuance, 

44.5% for Recostar, and 52.5% for 

Tesseract. For an insurance form filled 

out by hand, Planet scored 97.2% 

against 16.2% for Nuance, 63.5% 

Recostar and 79.0% Tesseract. 

Perhaps most impressive was the 

handwritten letter test, where Planet 

achieved 90.5%, Nuance 11.9%, 

Recostar zero, and Tesseract 30.2%. 

The fact that Planet out-performed the 

others by such a large amount in every 

single test made quite an impact on 

the ICC9 audience. 

Planet offers two OEM integration 

options: 

IDA Recognition Server is a clientserver 

application with connectors 

to Jave, Python, PHP, C++ and C# 

IDA Recognition SDK is a Java SDK 

with an optional C# wrapper 

(DLL), with separate versions for 

CPU only and full CPU/GPU support 

YES BOT, NO BOT 

Some of the most impressive aspects 

of Planet's presentation came with the 

introduction of the AI Assistant 

Classification tool, which essentially 

uses a ChatBot approach to 'learn' all 

the information that the system needs 

to know in order to process 

documents. Wustlich described this as 

an 'active self-learning' approach. 

In another comparative example that 

had many in the audience reaching for 

their phones, he explained how Planet 

IDA compared with a rules-based 

approach (in this case Ephesoft): while 

Ephesoft required 240 days of effort 

and delivered a 53% automation rate, 

Planet took just 3 days and delivered 

91% automation. 

Wustlich ended his very impressive 

presentation with a summary of the 

company's strategy as far as 

partnerships - obviously a key aspect 

for many of those in attendance. He 

described it as 'a sustainable strategy: 

always one step ahead together'. 

Firstly, Planet offers immediate ROI: 

the simplicity of integration means 

immediate benefits. Secondly, it is a 

platform for opening up new 

opportunities and overcoming existing 

boundaries for potential partner 

businesses. Thirdly, he emphasised 

that Planet wishes to be seen as a 

long-term technology partner, 

allowing participation in its groundbreaking 

innovations. 

More info: www.planet.de 


May/June 2024 


13

Dm CASE STUDY: HM LAND REGISTRY 

Record savings 

Nigel Dews, Managing 

Director, Restore Records 

Management, describes 

how HM Land Registry 

has reduced its files and 

its own physical estate 

size as it embarked on its 

digital journey 

For over 160 years HM Land Registry 

has served as the critical institution 

protecting the right to property and 

enabling the market to operate. By 

keeping the definitive and guaranteed 

record of property ownership in England 

and Wales, HM Land Registry allows 

property to be transacted securely and 

with confidence. There are more than 26 

million land and property titles, covering 

around 88% of the land area of England 

and Wales. 

HM Land Registry's purpose is to protect 

landownership and provide services and 

data that underpin an efficient and 

informed property market. This aim 

resulted in a project to implement a new 

long-term strategy for records 

management - which is where Restore 

Records Management stepped in. 

We have been working with HM Land 

Registry since 2011 when we were 

involved with consolidating 88 million 

files from 10 different sites to one 

Restore Records Management facility. 

Subsequently, we were involved in an 

exciting pilot to digitise historic files that 

include a property lease, one of the most 

requested documents - helping to drive 

improved efficiencies in HM Land 

14 


May/June 2024 

www.document-manager.com

CASE STUDY: HM LAND REGISTRY Dm 

Registry's service to the public in the 

process. 

The success of the pilot enabled 

Restore Records Management to quickly 

change the method of file delivery from 

physical to digital during the pandemic, 

when staff had to work from home and 

needed to access files - ultimately 

leading to improvement efficiencies for 

both HM Land Registry and property 

owners. This is the story of the entire 

project and how it was delivered. 

THE CHALLENGE 

The size of the job is best told in 

statistics: HM Land Registry had more 

than 88 million files stored at 10 

regional sites across the UK but held an 

ambition to become more efficient and 

reduce their costs by storing them at 

just one location. 

In order to achieve this, they 

implemented a long-term records 

management strategy which aimed to: 

Reduce the number of physical files. 

This began in 2008, when HM Land 

Registry stopped creating hard copy 

files and in 2020 with the 

introduction of scanning requested 

files. 

Targeted approach to digitise files 

with the most requested documents. 

Provide the public and property 

market with easy access to data. 

Provide an excellent service which 

was quick and efficient. 

Store all remaining physical files at 

one Restore Records Management 

secure location. 

THE SOLUTION PART ONE: UPLIFT 

We began by consolidating 10 regional 

file stores into one central location 

managed by Restore Records 

Management staff, enabling HM Land 

Registry to reduce the size of its estate 

by disposing of their unwanted 

buildings. In order to maintain 

customer service levels, careful 

sequencing of the uplift and overnight 

transfer of the files took place. 

Designated HM Land Registry 

document champions were appointed 

to train the Restore Records 

Management team and ensure the 

effective two-way transfer of 

knowledge, expertise and insight. 

HM Land Registry's file ordering 

system was retained and integrated 

with our records management 

software. A fixed cost structure was 

replaced with a variable pricing model 

so that HM Land Registry now only pays 

for activity levels required to meet its 

customers' needs. 

As well as off-site storage, HM Land 

Registry also required a retrieval service 

that could support: 

1,200 daily requests for official 

copies of specific documents in a file 

400 daily file requests 

THE SOLUTION PART TWO: 

SCANNING 

In 2020 we then advised and led a pilot 

to begin digitising files that contain the 

most requested documents, for 

example lease documents. 

When the pandemic hit, meaning the 

majority of HM Land Registry 

caseworkers had to work from home, 

we quickly adapted the processes we 

had used during the pilot to enable us 

to deliver the files digitally that were 

requested daily. 

Since then, we have continued to 

work with HM Land Registry to digitise 

a second tranche of files containing a 

lease document. It underlines our 

strategic partnership with HM Land 

Registry - and we are delighted to be 

able to help. 

The value of scanning these records is 

clear. It enables same-day retrieval of 

documents, creating a simpler, 

paperless process for buying and selling 

property which benefits homeowners 

across the country. 

THE RESULTS 

HM Land Registry has maintained 

service levels and improved efficiency 

while significantly reducing its estates 

portfolio and overall running costs, as 

follows: 

The rationalisation of HM Land 

Registry's estates delivered major 

savings, helping to contribute to 

 

 

 

overall government's reduction of 

£278 million p/a in its estates 

running costs. 

40% of costs have been converted to 

variable costs which means HM Land 

Registry does not incur extra cost if 

activity levels reduce. 

HM Land Registry is now able to 

access more innovative document 

management processes including 

scan-on-demand that, in turn, has 

improved the quality of its customer 

service. The huge document uplift 

(the largest in the UK) was seamlessly 

delivered two months ahead of 

schedule with no disruption to 

business activity or customer service. 

Environmentally responsible business 

practices have been implemented to 

create a sustainable operation. 

IN ADDITION: 

An initial 20,000 files containing 

lease documents were scanned 

within the first project and a further 

140,000 files (including 1.1 million 

documents) were delivered in a 

second tranche. 

Caseworkers were able to access 

scanned property files, which 

enabled them to work remotely - 

reducing impact on the property 

market by ensure documents were 

still available. 

By the end of 2020 HM Land 

Registry saw a reduction in lease 

document requests (and the 

associated costs) because more of 

them were available digitally. 

HM Land Registry is now less reliant 

on paper files, with key property 

information more widely available 

and accessible to the public. 

"Restore Records Management helped 

us to identify the records which are 

most frequently requested," commented 

Eve Foster, Central Operations Manager, 

HM Land Registry. "This helped us drive 

efficiencies in our service, provide longterm 

cost savings but most importantly 

to support our vision to deliver a more 

efficient, fully digital property market." 

More info: www.restore.co.uk/records 


May/June 2024 


15

Dm TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: AI 

IDP: a gateway to AI 

Neil Murphy, Chief Revenue Officer at ABBYY, told the PFU ICC audience in Dubai why his 

company is increasingly competing against the likes of Microsoft and Amazon rather 

than the capture businesses they lined up against in the past 

Most DM readers will of course 

be very familiar with ABBYY 

as a well established leader in 

the capture/recognition space, with 

OCR and PDF tools that have 

dominated the market for a long time. 

The company's focus has shifted in 

recent years as they recognised the 

opportunities that AI and similar 

emerging technologies could offer in 

the document processing space. 

ABBYY CRO Neil Murphy's 

presentation to the packed auditorium 

at PFU's Dubai conference was called 

'IDP accelerating the journey to an AI 

automated business', and he began by 

explaining the opportunities that Ai 

could offer to our market over and 

above the traditional sales model of 

firms like ABBYY: "OCR is a key part of 

what we do," he explained, "but we 

offer a lot more value to the market". 

A NEW MARKET FOR AI 

In fact ABBYY has found itself pitching 

to a whole new audience these days - 

people who often were completely 

unaware of the traditional capture 

industry, and ABBYY's reputation 

within it. These, Murphy explained, 

were the new market for AI-assisted 

intelligent document processing 

solutions. 

He went on to break down some of 

the top use cases for AI at the 

moment: 

Writing code (48% of users) 

Extracting data and automating 

workflows (39%) 

Knowledge base/Q&A type 

applications (36%) 

16 


May/June 2024 


TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: AI Dm 

"THIS VISION BREAKS DOWN INTO SEVERAL AREAS: FIRST, SAID MURPHY, 'SIMPLICITY WITH SCALABILITY'. 

WHAT THIS COMES DOWN TO IS FIRSTLY AN INTUITIVE INTERFACE, WHICH ALLOWS THE PROCESSING OF AD- 

HOC DOCUMENTS, SCALING TO HIGH VOLUME, USING PRE-BUILT SKILLS. ALSO KEY TO ABBYY'S VISION IS THE 

IDEA OF 'IDP FOR EVERYONE': A NO-CODE APPROACH FOR GENERAL USERS, WHILE STILL BEING WELCOMING 

FOR ADVANCED USERS. IT IS ALSO FOCUSED ON DELIVERING OUTCOMES: WITH USE CASE SPECIFIC SKILLS 

AND MODELS, ALONGSIDE THE HIGH LEVELS OF ACCURACY THAT ALL HAVE COME TO EXPECT AS STANDARD 

FROM ABBYY." 

The second item on that list was of 

course the one of most interest to the 

ICC attendees, as this was where their 

potential new market growth lay. 

Murphy went on to explain that in 

these new markets, ABBYY themselves 

are no longer coming up against 

traditional DM/OCR suppliers: "Our 

competitors now are Microsoft and 

Amazon, not the usual capture 

players." 

He made the case that we - and 

potential prospects - should be 

looking at intelligent document 

processing (IDP) as a 'gateway' for 

wider AI use - precisely because IDP is 

already a proven technology 

approach, and users know that it 

works and delivers real world 

benefits. 

One interesting slide defined IDP as 

ABBYY see it: with unstructured 

documents at one end of the process, 

IDP in the middle, and structured data 

as the resulting output. In this 

context, Murphy explained, IDP 

constitutes a suite of technologies, 

including: 

OCR 

Machine learning 

AI 

Natural Language Processing 

GENAI HAS ITS ISSUES 

He went on to discuss some of the 

limitations of GenAI, which despite its 

extraordinarily rapid takeup in 

business and elsewhere, remains a 

technology that needs to be carefully 

managed. One that caught the 

audience's imagination was the 

danger of what he called 

'hallucinations'; when GenAI tries to 

bridge a gap in its 'knowledge' by 

simply making up something and 

presenting it as a fact - something 

we've all seen news stories about in 

recent months, and which we're sure 

to see more of as high profile 

business and individuals get caught 

out in embarassing 'Where did you 

get that information from?' moments. 

Some of the other potential pitfalls 

of GenAI were perhaps more obvious, 

including the transparency of the data 

that the system is being trained on, 

the question of whether that data has 

been adequately anonymised 

(especially important with healthcare 

of financial data, of course), broader 

security considerations of GenAI in 

general, and the potential impact of 

using limited data sets on the 

resulting output. 

In addition to these concerns, 

Murphy also explained that the fact 

that most GenAI projects are still at a 

very early stage is in itself a potential 

problem as far as reliability of 

predicted results. This, combined with 

the pressure that many businesses are 

under to start showing real 

measurable outcomes by their board 

(who want to see returns on their 

investment, predictably) are all 

creating issues with how GenAI 

progress is being made. 

THE ABBYY VISION 

On a more positive note Murphy went 

on to introduce ABBYY's own NeoML 

product, an Open Source tool that, he 

said, can place cutting edge AI at 

each stage of a document process. He 

went on to explain ABBYY's vision for 

AI going forward. 

This vision breaks down into several 

areas: first, said Murphy, 'simplicity 

with scalability'. What this comes 

down to is firstly an intuitive 

interface, which allows the processing 

of ad-hoc documents, scaling to high 

volume, using pre-built skills. 

Also key to ABBYY's vision is the idea 

of 'IDP for everyone': a no-code 

approach for general users, while still 

being welcoming for advanced users. 

It is also focused on delivering 

outcomes: with use case specific skills 

and models, alongside the high levels 

of accuracy that all have come to 

expect as standard from ABBYY. 

Lastly, Murphy broke down what he 

described as ABBYY's 'AI ecosystem' - 

intended to become the de facto IDP 

platform for key vendors to integrate 

their capabilities. 

And this isn't just blue-sky 

'vapourware', as Murphy went on to 

explain: they already have customers 

using these technologies including 

the likes of PWC, Nvidia, IBM Watson, 

and Credit Agricole. He described one 

user organisation already creating 

measureable value from the use of AIpowered 

IDP, regularly achieving 95% 

straight through processing. 

Murphy closed his presentation by 

reinforcing the idea that AI for IDP 

needs to be purpose-built for the 

task, incorporating what he called 

'the cutting edge of neuro-symbolic 

and generative AI in a product 

purpose-built for enterprises and 

developers'. 

More info: www.abbyy.com 


May/June 2024 


17

Dm PFU ICC9: HARDWARE & SOFTWARE VISIONS 

A winning combination 

A panel discussion at the 

PFU ICC event - featuring 

Simon Edwards, Tony 

Lillico and KJ Sugimasa - 

explored the company's 

future vision for the 

combined potential of 

software and hardware 

PFU's Simon Edwards hosted a lively 

conversation with Tony Lillico and KJ 

Sugimasa in Dubai that covered 

technical innovation, entrepreneurship, 

image processing and paper handling, 

among many other topics. There was 

even a video demonstration of the 

extraordinary lengths to which PFU goes 

to ensure its devices are robust enough 

for real world use: in a one minute clip 

we saw a scanner exposed to five years 

worth of dust, cleaned up and working 

straight away. 

KJ, having worked at PFU Japan before 

coming to PFU EMEA, was asked what he 

thought made the company able to keep 

innovating in the market: "PFU provides 

an environment for each overseas sales 

company to give feedback to the 

products from the business perspective of 

each region. PFUE has the opportunity to 

share what is happening in the business 

frontline frequently. Even a small request 

from the customer, partners, it doesn't 

matter: we can share what we learn from 

the market and discuss with PFU. I 

believe that brings very unique and 

strong products to our portfolio and I 

think that's why PFU is different from 

other scanner manufacturers. As a result, 

we are keeping number one market share 

in huge markets such as EMEA, the US 

and Japan." 

He went on to describe the PFU Product 

Design Service Centre, staffed by leading 

experts in a wide range of technologies 

including mechanical engineers, 

electronics and chip design specialists, 

and software development and image 

processing specialists. Their years of 

accumulated experience, and close work 

with market specialists on the ground in 

EMEA and around the world, has 

ensured PFU's position as runaway 


@DMMagAndAwards

PFU ICC9: HARDWARE & SOFTWARE VISIONS Dm 

"WE HAVE CONTINUED TO ADD FEATURES THAT MAKE OUR PRODUCT MORE RELIABLE AND EASIER TO USE. WE 

HAVE A WORLD BEATING TEAM OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS IN JAPAN THAT DREAM ABOUT PAPER PATHS, 

ROLLERS, PROTECTION MECHANISMS, MULTI-FEEDS AND THE LIKE." 

leaders in document scanning 

worldwide. 

THE RIGHT TIME FOR CIS 

Simon then asked Tony to zoom in on 

what has made the most recent 

hardware launches stand out. He 

replied: "For me the arrival of Clear 

Image Capture is probably the most 

important change, based on the 

benefits of reduced power 

consumption, reduced weight and 

reduced size that come from CIS. We 

had always avoided CIS technology on 

our high end scanners because the 

image quality and depth of field were 

so much poorer than with CCD. But 

using state of the art image processing 

technology we are able to take the scan 

from a CIS sensor and process it to 

deliver the same image quality as from 

a CCD sensor, if not better." 

Feedback from the market would seem 

to support this, as PFU partners and 

customers have been very positive 

about the decision to stick with CCD 

until recently and then to transition to 

CIS only when they could do so without 

an adverse impact on image quality. 

Tony went on to break down some of 

the innovations delivered on the fi-8000 

series scanners. PFU is known in the 

industry because their scanners scan 

reliably for years, whether it is thin 

paper, thick paper, specialist paper, A4 

or custom sizes, he explained. "We have 

continued to add features that make 

our product more reliable and easier to 

use. We have a world beating team of 

mechanical engineers in Japan that 

dream about paper paths, rollers, 

protection mechanisms, multi-feeds and 

the like. For the fi-8000 series 

Automatic Separation Control has 

topped this off." 

KEEPING PAPER MOVING 

Automatic Separation Control is all 

about sensing a number of different 

factors and then managing the feeder 

torque to ensure smooth and consistent 

feeding from a paper stack, whether it is 

the 1st sheet or the 750th sheet, and 

irrespective of whether the rollers are 

brand new or approaching the end of 

their life. 

"It cements PFU firmly in the market 

leadership position, but it is 

supplemented by other improvements to 

our paper feeding technology," said Tony. 

"These include automatic skew 

correction, paper ejection control and 

stapled document detection." 

Innovations like automatic skew 

correction are of course all about saving 

scanning time to reduce labour costs. 

From the fi Series, the discussion moved 

onto the ScanSnap range. KJ explained: 

"ScanSnap is a solution, so the software 

is just as important as the hardware. 

Other vendors sell a scanner and drop a 

whole load of free software in the box 

and you are on your own. We have 

chosen a different approach, we listened 

to customers that used personal scanners 

and designed our own software, 

ScanSnap Home, that is part of a 

seamless personal scanning solution. 

ScanSnap Home is our dedicated 

software for personal scanning. An 

important part of this is simple and 

intuitive UX. With ScanSnap Home, you 

can easily create profiles based on 

frequently used preferences like save 

destinations, linked cloud applications, 

colour modes, etc. Scanned data can be 

saved as PDF, searchable PDF, and JPEG. 

Scanning and OCR processing runs for 

fast Searchable PDF creation. 

“Software is not only for PC. The big 

recent change is the consolidation of our 

mobile apps into a single, versatile 

mobile app - ScanSnap Home Mobile." 

As the conversation moved onto 

software, Simon suggested that many 

people do not understand the power of 

some of the software PFU provides with 

its scanners. Tony picked up this theme: 

"More and more customers want to scan 

documents and then digitise them. That 

could be for indexing or data referencing 

purposes. That means optical character 

recognition rates are critical to scanning 

performance. The image processing 

features of our PaperStream IP driver can 

clean up an image to such an extent that 

OCR accuracy rates as high as 97% can 

be achieved." 

Tony also mentioned Scanner Central 

Admin, PFU's server-based software that 

uses an agent on a local PC or directly 

connects to a network scanner and 

carefully monitors the scanner. This saves 

time and effort in checking for error 

conditions or remaining consumable life 

- with no need for an engineer call-out. 

BUILDING BRIDGES 

As for the future, it is clear that PFU 

intends to focus on looking at the needs 

of customers and then matching with 

their technology expertise to continue to 

deliver world-beating products. Tony 

summed it up: "With regard to customer 

needs we spend a lot of time talking to 

customers and listening to their 

feedback. But we also like to build close 

bridges between the challenges our 

customers face and emerging 

technologies. Innovation comes not just 

from listening to customers tell us what 

they want but from getting our world 

leading technology experts listening to 

the challenges our customers face. " 

More info: 

partner.imaging-channel-program.com 


May/June 2024 


19

Dm COMPANY UPDATE: DOCUWARE 

Partners all the way 

DM Magazine speaks to David Malan, Sales Director, UK & Ireland at DocuWare, 

who believes that document management has established itself as an exciting, 

must-have, high-tech solution for every modern business 

for each dealership and their customer 

base, training for dealers and behind-thescenes 

tech support. The dealer training 

program also includes work on lead 

generation and customer events to help fill 

the funnel. It involves coaching on solution 

selling, learning how to demonstrate, 

consult and communicate on highly 

valuable solutions so that customers can 

quickly realise the benefits. 

There are other reasons that DocuWare's 

wide network of authorised partners are so 

well equipped to meet the growing 

demand: 

According to David Malan, over the 

last few years, businesses have 

needed to quickly digitise, index and 

access information to maintain core 

business processes. Any dealer currently 

offering document management (or ECM) 

solutions would agree that the growing 

remote and hybrid workforces present an 

enormous opportunity in today's business 

climate and have driven the need for a 

digital transformation to a higher level 

than ever. 

While most larger enterprise customers 

have already implemented a document 

management solution, many SMEs are still 

in the research and consideration stage 

and that's where the acceleration is 

evident, and the timing is perfect for 

dealers/resellers to jump into this relatively 

new space. 

Malan explained that DocuWare serves 

two groups of partners with its software 

solutions: first, providers that were 

primarily hardware-oriented but have 

begun to make the shift from hardware to 

software, and second, the IT dealers who 

were always solution-oriented and want to 

continue to expand their business in this 

direction. 

Both dealer types are important to 

DocuWare and both have huge potential 

not only to grow their customer base, but 

also to generate recurring revenues 

through expanding the use of the solution 

for existing customers. 

"Our ideal partners are the ones who 

already have a customer base of at least 50 

to 100 customers and want to expand 

their portfolio by integrating a DMS and 

provide their customers with an all-in-one 

solution. We are looking to partner with 

dealers who want to grow their business 

with us and those can be found in both of 

the above groups," stated Malan. 

Once on board as a partner, DocuWare's 

comprehensive partner program kicks off 

and this includes the creation of 

customised marketing and growth plans 

The speed with which its cloud-based 

solutions can be implemented allows 

dealers to take on more customers than 

before and earn additional and 

recurring revenues; 

DocuWare solutions are configurable to 

the needs of the market; 

The additional in-house AI expertise 

gained through the acquisition of 

natif.ai will benefit all partners. 

New selling tools such as 

Showme.DocuWare - which was 

unveiled at the DocuWorld conferences 

this year - allows partners to sell more 

and sell faster. 

David Malan concludes: "We provide 

guidance and support to our partners both 

out in the field and behind the scenes." 

DocuWare's sales and Professional Services 

teams walk with partners every step of the 

way until they are self-sufficient. Even then, 

their sales team is available to help as 

needed. DocuWare works alongside its 

partners all the way because partner 

success is key. 

To grow your business, visit the 'Become a 

DocuWare Partner' page. 

More info: www.docuware.com 


HOSTED ON ISO 27001 CERTIFIED DATACENTER 

OPEN BEE THE DEDICATED ECM PLATFORM FOR STREAMLINING YOUR DOCUMENTS 

AND AUTOMATING YOUR PROCESSES 

An all-in-one solution for every business need : HR, Finance, Legal, Sales, IT, Administration 

Collaboration 

Intelligent Capture 

Content Security 

eVault 

Document Management 

SAFELY DIGITALISE YOUR DATA ! 

NF Software Digital safe 

component solution 

General Data Protection 

Regulation (GDPR) 

ISO/IEC 27001:2013

Dm STRATEGY: PFU & AI 

Taking advantage of AI 

There is no doubt that AI was one of the hottest topics under discussion at the recent 

PFU Information Capture Conference in Dubai, and PFU's own Christophe Laurence 

explained how the combination of scanning and AI could lead to a revolution in 

document management 

Christophe Laurence, EMEA Business 

Development Director at PFU, hosted 

one of the most well-attended 

presentation sessions at the company's 

Dubai conference, offering a raft of 

insights into how AI will work together 

with PFU's own offerings to enhance 

information and document management 

across all kinds of sectors. 

"In the next 2 years, AI will play a major 

role in helping businesses analyse content 

and sentiment from documents for 

automatic processing through workflows," 

said Christophe. He went on to suggest 

that 70% of IT decision-makers believe that 

AI-based document processing solutions 

will be critical to their business over the 

next five years. 

There are numerous obstacles hindering 

efficiency and adaptability in modern 

document management at the 

moment: manual sorting and filing 

processes are time-consuming; it can 

be difficult to retrieve and/or search 

for specific documents; there is a risk 

of human error in data entry and 

indexing; limited scalability to handle 

large volumes of documents; and a lack 

of integration with other systems 

leading to 'silos' of information. 

Christophe began by 

breaking down the 

stages by which the 'AI 

revolution' are likely to 

take place. The first 

stage is the use of AI 

to perform 

document 

categorisation by 

type. Then, data 

extraction and 

validation. 

Third will be 

document 

classification - automatically putting a 

digitised document in the right place, with a 

meaningful file name. Next comes semantic 

understanding - which will help systems to 

route documents to the appropriate 

workflow or individual. The last stage is in 

data analytics, where AI is used behind the 

scenes to drive a comprehensive 'dashboard' 

of activity for a knowledge worker: the 

number of invoices handled, or average 

processing time, for example. 

REAL WORLD APPLICATIONS 

One advantage of AI-driven document 

processing is its rapid categorisation of 

documents based on content. For instance, 

an AI system can learn to recognise financial 

documents like PO or invoices, routing them 

automatically to relevant departments. This 

streamlines workflows and mitigates human 

errors linked to manual categorisation tasks. 

The presentation moved on to 'real world' 

use cases including claims processing, an 

application that reflects the obstacles 

mentioned above neatly. Manual processing 

is slow, leading to delays in claim 

settlements. It can be error-prone: manual 

entry increases the likelihood of mistakes 

and inaccuracies. 

There is a lack of scalability: handling large 

volumes of claims manually can be 

overwhelming and inefficient. In addition, 

said Christophe, there are considerable 

compliance risks: manual processes may 

struggle to ensure adherence to regulatory 

requirements. There can also be high 

operational costs: manual processing 

requires significant manpower, driving up 

expenses. Visibility can be limited: tracking 

and monitoring claims progress is 

challenging without automated systems. 

Lastly, lengthy processing times and errors 

can lead to dissatisfaction among claimants. 

With next generation AI, explained 

Christophe, NLP technologies can be used to 

automate much of the claims process and 

22 


May/June 2024 


STRATEGY: PFU & AI Dm 

add value - including sentiment analysis, 

determining the level of importance, 

categorisation and tagging (see slide 

image), automated document routing, 

automated responses and assistance with 

issue resolution. 

GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH 

The next use case Christophe focussed on 

was healthcare, and specifically predictive 

analytics. This is a growth area, wherein 

healthcare practitioners attempt to 

evaluate historical and real-time patient 

data in order to make predictions about 

the future. This could mean identifying 

at-risk patients, improving patient care, 

population health management, 

preventing human error, improved fraud 

detection, and reducing overall 

healthcare costs. 

Predictive analytics in healthcare can 

predict which patients are at a higher risk 

and start early innervations so deeper 

problems can be avoided. For example, it 

can identify patients with cardiovascular 

disease with the highest probability of 

hospitalisation based on age-coexisting 

chronic illnesses and medication 

adherence. Predictions on the likelihood of 

disease and chronic illness can help doctors 

and healthcare organisations proactively 

provide care rather than waiting for at-risk 

patients to come in for a regular checkup. 

The digitalisation of health services 

completely transforms the way that 

patients and health professionals 

interact with each other. Nowadays, 

said Christophe, we can attach devices 

to our bodies and track our health and 

body performance at any given time 

from our mobile phones. For example, 

diabetics can monitor the rise in blood 

sugar at any moment without the need 

for finger pricks. 

SUPPORTING PARTNERS 

Christophe's presentation came to its 

logical conclusion as he encouraged the 

partners present to think about how they 

could expand their own offerings to 

customers with cutting-edge solutions, 

drive revenue growth by meeting 

evolving customer needs, and strengthen 

customer relationships through enhanced 

service provision. 

What this means in real terms is 

expanding their offerings to include 

digitising and organising paper-based 

archives for efficient data extraction, 

extracting actionable insights from 

converted archives, and automatic 

document classification, integration and 

analytics. PFU and its ISV partners can 

assist with not just scanning, but Intelligent 

Document Processing capture technologies 

and analytics. 

Christophe offered some useful steps to 

consider: 

1. Choose a solution tailored to your needs 

Conduct a thorough needs analysis by 

considering volume and type of 

documents, workflows, scalability, and 

data security for optimal implementation 

2. Test before committing fully 

Engage stakeholders, prioritise 

integration, usability, scalability, and data 

accuracy before committing, ideally 

through free trials. 

3. Ensure data quality 

High-quality data input crucial for AI 

accuracy. Make sure to prepare PDFs with 

clear text/images, consistent format, and 

preprocessing techniques for optimisation. 

4. Stay updated with AI advances in 

document management 

AI tech evolves fast. Document 

management solutions must adapt. Stay 

updated for competitive advantage, 

optimising strategies to outperform. 

He concluded by saying: "IDP will become 

a more integrated part of the enterprise 

document management process, with AIpowered 

IDP solutions becoming more 

widely adopted across various industries." 



May/June 2024 


23

Dm MANAGEMENT: TRENDS 

Hit for six 

Brian Fortune, General 

Manager Sales at PFU 

(EMEA), shared his 'big 

six' predictions for the 

future of the industry at 

the company's ICC9 event 

in Dubai 

It has become something of a tradition 

at PFU's ICC events that Brian Fortune 

takes the stage to share his ideas - 

some perhaps predictable, some rather 

more off-the-wall - about where the 

industry is likely to be heading over the 

next few years. With it being 4 years 

since the last event, much had already 

changed since Brian's last foray into 

crystal ball reading. What would be his 

focus this time? 

He began by giving a brief summary of 

where PFU - and the wider DM/ECM 

sector - is now. The market is strong and 

despite continued after-shocks, business 

opportunity is returning to pre-pandemic 

levels - 'Ready for us!', as Brian put it. 

Rapid technological advancement is 

presenting profound opportunities for 

document capture, ushering in what 

Brian called 'a new era of efficiency', 

where digitalisation is widely being 

enhanced with automation. With this in 

mind, he went on to describe the 

changing business opportunities for the 

sector. 

Traditional 'knowledge worker' 

applications across finance, HR, 

compliance, or customer service are 

increasingly being affected by a shift 

toward digital workflows - but this in 

itself doesn't mean there will be fewer 

opportunities. 

He also touched on the ways in which 

consumer behaviour is changing - buying 

behaviours have evolved as we become 

what Brian described as 'subscribers by 

default'. And as our expectations change, 


@DMMagAndAwards

MANAGEMENT: TRENDS Dm 

"THE COST OF STORING LARGE PHYSICAL ARCHIVES IS GROWING EXPONENTIALLY EVERY YEAR. RETENTION POLICES 

ARE HARD TO MANAGE IN PHYSICAL ARCHIVES, AND THE PROBLEM IS ONLY GETTING WORSE. FOR MANY, 

BACKFILE CONVERSION PROJECTS ARE A FIRST STEP TOWARDS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.ORGANISATIONS NOW 

REALISE THAT CONVERTING THIS LEGACY LIABILITY INTO A DIGITAL ASSET NOT ONLY REDUCES COST BUT IT 

ENHANCES COMPLIANCE AND ENABLES AUTOMATION." 

so too do the ways that organisations 

and governments interact with us. 

A key change identified is that the 

opportunity for capture is moving to the 

edges of organisations - whether that 

be the physical or digital edge. At the 

physical edge a fast an efficient process 

for onboarding customers is essential 

for a good customer experience (ID 

checks, signatures, proof of address or 

earnings, etc.). The digital edge, Brian 

went on, is enabled by technologies 

such as Machine Learning, Artificial 

Intelligence, Large Language Models - 

and all of these depend on good 

relevant digital assets to make informed 

decisions. 

From here Brian moved on to the 

predictions themselves, which we have 

handily summarised below: 

1. The Big Conversion - mega backfile 

projects 

The cost of storing large physical 

archives is growing exponentially every 

year. Retention polices are hard to 

manage in physical archives, and the 

problem is only getting worse. For 

many, backfile conversion projects are a 

first step towards digital transformation. 

Organisations now realise that 

converting this legacy liability into a 

digital asset not only reduces cost but it 

enhances compliance and enables 

automation. 

2. Edge enabled devices will be 

deployed to accelerate customer 

experience 

As consumer behaviour changes 

towards a subscription society the need 

to onboard at the physical edge 

increases. The need to capture ID and 

extract data such as MRZ from 

passports will become more important 

as part of the onboarding process. 

AI algorithms enhance the efficiency 

and accuracy of data analysis, enabling 

quick insights and actionable 

intelligence at the edge. Brian said this 

will herald a new era of 'Device as a 

Process'. 

3. Use of AI increasing in capture 

related projects 

Increasingly capture will place more 

emphasis on AI techniques to reduce 

errors and speed up the processing of 

information. There will be a requirement 

for AI based document recognition, 

automated extraction and validation, 

Intelligent Document Classification and 

AI based handwriting recognition. 

Sentiment Analysis will become 

essential for businesses to understand 

customer perception accurately. 

Negative sentiment detection in emails, 

correspondences will trigger automated 

customer service prioritisation and 

resolution. PII can be redacted at 

capture and retention policies 

established at the time documents are 

scanned. 

4. Document and Information Security 

will become increasingly relevant 

With the rise of data breaches and 

natural disasters business will continue 

to prioritise securing critical data. eVault 

technology will be deployed to 

safeguard sensitive paper-based 

information against unauthorised 

access, breaches and hazards. 

In the next decade regulatory 

compliance around Data Security will 

become even more stringent. The most 

efficient way to understand if paper has 

sensitive information is to digitise and 

use advanced NLP. 

5. Predictive Analytics will emerge as a 

valuable asset 

AI techniques such as deep learning and 

neural networks uncover hidden patterns 

and relationships in data, leading to 

more accurate business decisions. 

Physical archives cannot uncover these 

patterns and relationships cannot be 

accessed without digitalisation. 

Predictive analytics will provide for 

better outcomes - not only for business 

and government but also consumers and 

citizens. Businesses will be able to 

forecast trends and make informed 

decisions, enhancing efficiency and 

competitiveness. 

6. Interconnectivity and Hyper 

Collaboration 

Interconnectivity between solutions will 

become more and more crucial; 

integration with ERP, Accounting 

software, HR, and data analytics apps 

will dominate business strategies. 

Businesses will increasingly demand 

their own "bespoke solution" driving the 

requirement for Low code/No code 

integrations. Such businesses will expect 

solutions that integrate people with 

processes, workspaces and meeting 

rooms - what Brian called 'a hyper 

collaborative working experience'. 

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS 

Overall it was clear to the ICC audience 

that Brian's view of the future was a very 

positive one, in which the capture and 

DM/ECM communities have a wealth of 

new opportunities in their reach - so 

long as they understand what is coming 

and are preparing in the right way for 

the shift from digitalisation toward 

hyper-automation. 

More info: 



May/June 2024 


25

Dm STRATEGY: AI 

Tooling up for AI 

Using multiple AI tools is easy - if you start with good data, argues Jan Van Hoecke, VP 

of AI Services, iManage 

Most organisations are sitting on a 

goldmine of valuable content 

within their document 

management system (DMS). Meanwhile, 

new forms of AI - such as generative AI - 

can query that content and serve up 

powerful answers to end users. But what's 

the best way for organisations to tap into 

their DMS with generative AI: which tool 

should they use? 

Should they rely on the AI services built 

into their DMS, or would it be better to rely 

on AI offerings that are now being 

incorporated within the productivity suites 

from companies like Microsoft or Google? 

Maybe the best approach is to use 

homegrown 

proprietary large language models (LLMs)? 

In truth, asking which AI tools 

organisations should use to leverage the 

content in their DMS is asking the wrong 

question. Organisations should have 

multiple AI tools in their toolbelt that they 

can turn to - and as long as they have a 

solid foundation of good data to draw 

upon, it will be easy for them to use a 

variety of different generative AI interfaces 

to leverage that information. 

AI IS EVERYWHERE 

More and more DMS vendors are folding AI 

services into their platforms, including 

generative AI-style "chat" interfaces that 

allow users to ask questions about the 

documents within the system. The AI can 

perform all sorts of useful tasks on this 

content, such as "Read this handful of 

hundred-page 

legal 

agreements and summarise them for me, 

please" or "Find me any lease agreements 

within a certain geographic region that 

have a renewal date coming up within the 

next 3 months." 

The AI within a DMS can also help serve 

up valuable organisational know-how and 

best practices - for example, the best 

example of a structured loan agreement in 

EMEA or the best template to use as a 

starting point for a North American M&A 

contract. 

Of course, today's knowledge workers 

don't "live" exclusively in their DMS. They 

spend a great deal of their day within their 

productivity applications: Microsoft Word 

and Google Docs, Outlook and Gmail, and 

so on. 

These productivity applications have 

developed AI-powered tools of their own 

(Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini, for 

instance) that are integrated into a variety of 

applications within the Microsoft 365 and 

Google Workplace suites. 

IT'S DOWN TO THE DATA 

Alongside their core 

26 


May/June 2024 


STRATEGY: AI Dm 

"ALONGSIDE THEIR CORE FUNCTIONALITY THAT HELPS USERS DRAFT BETTER EMAILS, DOCUMENTS, AND SO ON, THE AI 

SERVICES IN THE PRODUCTIVITY PLATFORMS HAVE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AT THEIR DISPOSAL THAT HELPS THEM 

DELIVER VALUE… HOWEVER, WHAT IF A KNOWLEDGE WORKER IS IN THEIR INBOX COMPOSING AN EMAIL OR IN THEIR 

WORD PROCESSING APPLICATION DRAFTING UP A DELIVERABLE, AND THEN THEY NEED SOME IN-DEPTH KNOWLEDGE 

OR ADVICE AT THAT MOMENT - SOME TYPE OF INSIGHTS INTO HOW TO DRAFT A STRUCTURED LOAN AGREEMENT, OR 

A GUIDE AS TO WHICH KEY CLAUSES TO INCLUDE IN A TRANSACTIONAL CONTRACT?" 

functionality that helps users draft better 

emails, documents, and so on, the AI 

services in the productivity platforms have 

additional information at their disposal that 

helps them deliver value: the emails and 

calendar invitations they manage, the 

various documents and spreadsheets saved 

in their online drives, and more. 

However, what if a knowledge worker is in 

their inbox composing an email or in their 

word processing application drafting up a 

deliverable, and then they need some indepth 

knowledge or advice at that moment 

- some type of insights into how to draft a 

structured loan agreement, or a guide as to 

which key clauses to include in a 

transactional contract? 

The emails, calendar invitations, and other 

content the productivity AI tool has access 

to won't be able to answer that question - 

but the knowledge in the DMS will. 

However, as an end user, you don't want 

to jump out of your inbox and into the 

DMS just to use the different AI tool 

because there's a well-known 

productivity drag 

associated with context switching. 

The key, then, is to make sure that the 

productivity platform AI tools can also tap 

into the data within the DMS. There are a 

couple of concerns here, however, notably: 

how do you provide that access while still 

respecting all the layers of security and 

governance - security policies, ethical walls, 

and other requirements - that are 

associated with that content? 

FROM ONE AI TO ANOTHER 

The solution here involves the different AI 

tools being able to "talk" to one another 

and interact with one another. That way, 

the productivity platform's AI agent can 

tap into the data within the DMS and 

access that content while respecting the 

security and the policies that have been 

put in place. 

Through this "handoff" between AI agents, 

end users can be within the productivity 

platform and use the productivity 

platform's AI tool to directly ask questions 

about content stored in the DMS. For 

example, an in-house lawyer might be in 

the middle of drafting 

up an email to a 

customer, 

and 

they need to consult the NDA with that 

customer. Beyond just finding the 

document, the lawyer can use generative AI 

to ask specific questions about the NDA 

(e.g., is it still valid?) and get an answer 

with specific evidence of why the question 

was answered the way that it was. 

With this approach, multiple AI tools can 

be deployed to tap into the same set of 

valuable organisational knowledge. End 

users can even use proprietary LLMs in a 

situation where the company has a created 

an in-house chatbot. Regardless of the 

interface, tapping into strong underlying 

data will drive the best results. 

FORK, KNIFE, AND SPOON - NOT ONE 

OR THE OTHER 

Silverware provides a useful - if unexpected 

- analogy for this "multiple AI tools" 

approach. At your typical place setting, 

there's a fork, a knife, and a spoon. Each 

one serves a different purpose for the diner 

and provides its own unique bit of utility. 

The diner doesn't have to pick just one of 

them to work with. 

We should start viewing AI in a similar 

manner. The various tools are 

complementary, not mutually exclusive - 

but good data is the foundation. 

The old adage "garbage in, 

garbage out" reminds us that 

outcomes with AI will only be as 

good as the data used with 

these products. When the data 

is in good shape, organisations 

will be well-positioned to 

leverage multiple AI tools of 

their choosing, positioning 

themselves for successful 

results and better business 

outcomes. 

More info: www.imanage.com 


May/June 2024 


27

Dm PFU ICC9: PANEL DISCUSSION 

Talking heads 

The 9th PFU Information Capture Conference closed with a panel discussion that 

covered the impact of innovation and collaboration, as well as some go-to strategies 

for partners looking to maximise the potential of emerging technologies 

The last presentation session at 

PFU's Dubai conference was a 

fascinating group discussion, 

chaired by PFU's Brian Fortune. Onstage 

alongside him were his colleague 

Christophe Laurence, Neil Murphy of 

ABBYY, Pierre Himmelmann of ELO 

Digital Office, and Lisa Topliss of Ricoh 

Europe. 

The conversation began around how 

technological advances are re-shaping 

traditional business processes. Lisa 

commented on the idea of hyperconnectivity: 

"Everyone has 

smartphones, and we're used to getting 

real-time responses and results, and we 

expect the same from businesses. That's 

driving a lot of automation activity, 

whether in AI, or RPA previously." 

Neil Murphy picked up on this point: 

"Whether it's AI, or RPA, or whatever, 

there will always be another technology 

along in a couple of years. Sometimes 

we need to step back from the 

technology and make sure we 

understand what it is that we're trying 

to achieve. Partners here can have a 

much more valuable conversation with 

customers if they're not just 'pinned' to 

one technology. There were lots of RPAfocused 

startups who are now 

struggling to re-invent themselves with 

a more general focus on automation. In 

fact a lot of the smaller RPA vendors 

have fallen away." 

Christophe moved the 'technological 

advances' conversation along to discuss 

predictive analytics: "Imagine being able 


@DMMagAndAwards

PFU ICC9: PANEL DISCUSSION Dm 

"WHETHER IT'S AI, OR RPA, OR WHATEVER, THERE WILL ALWAYS BE ANOTHER TECHNOLOGY ALONG IN A COUPLE 

OF YEARS. SOMETIMES WE NEED TO STEP BACK FROM THE TECHNOLOGY AND MAKE SURE WE UNDERSTAND 

WHAT IT IS THAT WE'RE TRYING TO ACHIEVE. PARTNERS HERE CAN HAVE A MUCH MORE VALUABLE 

CONVERSATION WITH CUSTOMERS IF THEY'RE NOT JUST 'PINNED' TO ONE TECHNOLOGY." 

to analyse all the data held in paper 

form for healthcare, say, or for banks. It 

will allow us to be more productive in 

front of our customer - delivering on 

the need to bring paper-based archived 

data into the system. Of course, this 

opens up more opportunity for 

scanners and BPO-type services." 

Brian asked the panel whether it is a 

complex process for partners to start 

getting involved in selling these more 

advanced solutions, and Lisa was quick 

to answer: "Use your partner ecosystem 

- if you are not confident in a 

particular area, that's exactly what we 

are here to support you with. You can 

start by educating yourselves of course, 

but it can be difficult to keep abreast 

of everything that's happening and 

know what's going to be relevant. Your 

partners can advise you on what is 

most important for your market. If your 

customers don't want a cloud solution 

because of security concerns, there are 

on-premise options, or if they don't 

want to work with a particular 

operating system, again, take that on 

board and talk to us about the 

options." 

How, the panel was then asked, 

would AI and IDP influence document 

management processes? There is no 

single answer, said Neil: "If you're 

focussed just on selling hardware, I'd 

point out that there are other revenue 

and margin opportunities that come 

off the back of that - you don't have to 

be a full solution provider to extend 

some of those sales into IDP. This is one 

of the reasons that ABBYY Vantage 

includes pre-built 'skills' such as 

invoices, to enable exactly this. Then if 

you're a BPO or bureau type business, 

there are still lots of organisations 

looking to outsource document 

processing in finance or healthcare, for 

instance, and again if you build specific 

additional skills they become a 

repeatable sale that you can present to 

other clients with similar needs." 

Pierre commented on how channel 

partners can capitalise on the demand 

for DM solutions: "The first key thing is 

to get a system live and achieve user 

acceptance. Without this, every project 

dies. It doesn't matter how good your 

ideas are, how good your technology is 

- if you can't get user acceptance, it will 

simply fail. A lot depends on the ease 

of implementation and learning how to 

use the solution. At the same time 

from the customer perspective 

expectations are growing, demand is 

higher - we all need to do more with 

less. And the simple answer to that is 

that you simply need more technology 

solutions." 

Brian moved on to how channel 

partners could effectively promote new 

AI and IDP solutions to existing 

customers. Lisa suggested that one 

approach was to build AI as a problemsolving 

component within your existing 

software offerings: "Look at where your 

customers have problems, where 

they're not being adequately serviced 

by what they already have in their 

portfolio, and build that into your own 

value propositions. This will give you 

additional opportunities to differentiate 

yourselves, and to be 'sticky' with your 

customers." 

Christophe took a moment to break 

down the revenue opportunity: 

"Normally when you sell one dollar of 

hardware or software, you can sell 

between three and five dollars on 

services. So it's really key to see AI as a 

global opportunity. It's key because 

services is not just consulting, but also 

training - not just training when the 

software is first installed, but as an 

ongoing service, after one month, 3 

months, 5 months. In addition there is 

support you can offer for integrations, 

for migration, for updates." 

Having enthused the audience that 

this was a good approach to take, Brian 

was keen to find out how the panel felt 

that partners should go forward to 

become what he called 'trusted advisers' 

in these new solution areas. Marketing 

is key, argued Christophe: "You must 

invest in marketing in order to nurture 

your customer base and prospects, to 

show them that there is a technology 

available that answers their specific 

needs. We need to first be educating 

the market about what AI is, what its 

benefits can be, how it can solve their 

business problem." 

Lisa agreed with this point: "Customers 

want to work with someone who they 

can see can help solve their issues. It's 

no longer just a matter of presenting 

them with details of a technology and 

its components, it's about finding a way 

to work with your customer to solve 

their issues." 

This idea was expanded on by Neil, 

who said: "A mistake we have seen with 

new partners is that they try to be 

everything to everyone. We always say 

'Build a specialism, have a particular 

focus area and build your expertise 

around that'. Our advice to partners 

who want to become that trusted 

adviser is to focus on what you're good 

at - build confidence in the technology 

and how it applies to what the 

customer actually needs. Otherwise 

you'll just end up trying to compete 

with everyone!" 

More info: 



May/June 2024 


29

Dm STRATEGY: SCANNING 

Capture, harness, transform 

PFU (EMEA) Customer 

Engagement Manager 

Steve Chad spoke to the 

ICC9 audience about 

how recent research 

findings are helping to 

inform the company's 

marketing and channel 

strategies with regard to 

their ScanSnap and 

Ricoh scanner ranges 

Steve Chad's presentation in Dubai 

focused on how PFU plans to 

communicate its scanner brands in 

2024 and beyond, with much made of 

improving productivity as a key part of 

the messaging. He began by reminding 

us of the last ICC event in Berlin in 2020, 

when the marketing message with 

regards to the ScanSnap line had been 

'Making paper work' for you and your 

business. 

This time around his content covered 

the Ricoh range as well as ScanSnap, and 

he explained how considerable market 

research had gone into the development 

of the marketing plans for each sector, 

focused on 'the smarter way to work', i.e. 

personal productivity (ScanSnap) and 

'delivering organisational intelligence' i.e. 

organisational productivity (Ricoh). 

KEEPING IT PERSONAL 

ScanSnap, said Steve, is all about 

improving personal productivity especially 

for individuals and small businesses: "You 

don't need to be an IT expert, you just 

need to push a button". The ScanSnap 

proposition remains more or less what it 

has been since the range was introduced: 

save time and money, organise your 

documents, share - and secure - your 

information. 

The ScanSnap team undertook an online 

research exercise that covered around 

10,000 respondents about their 

relationship with paper - how they use it, 

keep it and manage it, as well as how 

they feel about it emotionally - and the 

challenges those things bring. 

Among the key findings were what 

Steve described as 'the burden of 

ownership': 83% of respondents stated 

that it was important to keep documents, 

63% were worried about losing them, 

and 57% were anxious about what they 

should keep and what to retain. Steve 

also described the 'clutter contradiction': 

over 65% find clutter stressful and want 

to get rid of it, but 76% said they 

nonetheless keep documents 'just in case'. 

On the brighter side, the research also 

showed a clear desire to digitise more: 

69% of respondents agreed that scanning 

helps avoid clutter - and younger 

respondents were especially keen to be 

working smarter. Steve explained that the 

plan for ScanSnap media and other 

marketing activity will directly address 

these issues, positioning PFU as offering 

the solution and aligning with these 

growing values of what he called 'smarter 

paper consumption'. ScanSnap's ease of 

deployment and use makes it a simple 

step change for potential users. The 

message that we will be seeing in the 

coming months will focus on 'freeing 

people from the paper weight'. 

THE NEXT STAGE OF 

ORGANISATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 

Moving onto the Ricoh scanner sector, 

Steve's comments began by again 

reminding us of the last ICC in Berlin, 

where PFU had introduced the concept of 

Organisational Intelligence (OI). OI, he 

explained, is an approach that allows 

organisations to view themselves as a 

network of data pathways, which, when 

optimised, help them drive maximum 

value from the data they have access to, 

by ensuring the right data gets to the 

right people and systems at the right 

time. OI had helped to position capture 

as an entry point for digital 

transformation four years ago; not just 

because it's the entry point for a lot of 

data into the digital world, but because it 

is a relatively fast, cost-effective solution 

to deploy, and one which can deliver fast, 

demonstrable results, which could give 

momentum to further stages of digital 

transformation programmes. 

The original OI proposition was based 

on a research report PFU conducted into 

how organisations were approaching 

digital transformation, what drives them 


STRATEGY: SCANNING Dm 

to take it on, the challenges they face 

and how they overcome them. 

Steve explained: "The content was 

aimed at end-user project leads and 

decision-makers. The findings and 

insights allowed us to position our 

expertise, and gain both awareness and 

favourability with this audience so that 

when they were ready to think about 

digital transformation projects, we were 

in their minds as people they should talk 

to. It also meant that we could be 

involved earlier in the sales process. We 

could talk to them at the point when 

business value conversations happen, 

rather than at the end of the process 

when the technology has already been 

decided upon and price is the only 

comparison." 

He went on to share some real world 

examples of how PFU has worked with 

users on OI projects including a lottery 

business in Greece and a leading French 

bank. 

INTEGRATION IS KEY 

Bringing us up to date, Steve introduced 

some more research, this time done via 

Quocirca, into post-pandemic trends in 

digital transformation. The results 

showed that the end user now has 

much more of a focus on measurable 

value as a driver of digital 

transformation - and that more 

organisations were actively involved in 

implementing it. In addition, alongside 

the usual requirements for speed and 

quality, these organisations also stated a 

new imperative for choosing their 

capture solution: the ability to integrate 

capture with other downstream systems. 

"This was very interesting to us due to 

two well-known, well-established 

principles," explained Steve. "The basic 

systems theory principle that the more 

you integrate systems, the more reliant 

the whole system is on the performance 

of each individual element; and the ageold 

principle that the quality of what you 

put into a system has a powerful impact 

on the quality of what you get out." 

This new research indicated that while 

almost half of end users still saw capture 

as the foundation of their digital 

transformation (see slide above), 

because more of them wanted to use 

integration to maximise value from their 

systems, this also meant that capture - 

and crucially, the quality of data being 

input - was becoming an ever more 

critical part of digital transformation 

projects. 

"This was great news for us as we have 

solutions that deliver strongly on each of 

these needs," Steve went on. "Back in 

2022, we brought Clear Image Capture 

technology to market, delivering clarity 

that achieved industry-leading OCR 

accuracy rates. We have our Co-creation 

Services, that together with our Imaging 

Alliance Program, supports developers 

building integrations with the right 

code, tools and advice to make their 

work smoother, faster and more robust. 

Then in 2023, we launched the fi-8040 

which makes connecting our fi series to 

networks easier than ever - and some of 

the coming technological developments 

that we have planned will take 

connectivity and integration to a new 

level of simplicity and sophistication." 

So, what does all this mean in terms of 

PFU's marketing campaigns, and their 

partner network? Steve concluded his 

presentation thus: "Our next phase of 

content will be shifting to focusing more 

on the practical side of how OI delivers 

productivity. It will take a much more 

operational perspective. And we'll be 

doing it like this: simply by showing how 

the world's leading scanning solutions 

from Ricoh help end users to capture 

and classify their data, so that they can 

harness its insights, allowing them to 

transform their productivity." 

To ensure you are receiving PFU's 

communications and to gain exclusive 

early access to this content and a range 

of enablement tools make sure you are 

signed up to PFU's Partner Portal at 




May/June 2024 


31

Dm INTERVIEW: PFU 

Powering a new age of digital interaction 

DM magazine editor David Tyler sat down with Hiroaki Kashiwagi, President & CEO, PFU 

(EMEA) Limited at the company's recent ICC event to discuss how the world has changed 

since their last partner conference, and how capture and other technologies are helping 

organisations adapt to those changes 

David Tyler: It's been a full four 

years since the last Information 

Capture Conference and clearly a 

lot has changed in that time, both in 

terms of PFU itself but also of course in 

the wider world with Covid in particular. 

How would you summarise those 

changes from your perspective and that 

of your channel partners and users? 

Hiroaki Kashiwagi: Yes - this has been an 

unprecedented past few years! This 

Covid-19 crisis reshaped every aspect of 

our lives, challenging us to adapt and 

innovate in ways we never imagined. We 

have witnessed a surge in the adoption 

and integration of new technologies, 

reshaping industries and redefining the 

boundaries of what is possible. 

This shift has marked the dawn of a 

new era; where information and data is 

paramount, fuelling the digital 

transformation journey of organisations 

worldwide. 

Speaking of technology, its growth and 

adaptation has been nothing short of 

astonishing. From machine learning 

revolutionising industries to the rise of 

useful artificial intelligence, the pace of 

innovation has been breathtaking. But 

perhaps the most intriguing 

development lies in the realm of working 

styles. Hybrid working, remote working 

and other forms of day-to-day 

engagements have transcended novelty 

to become everyday events and have 

ushered in a new era of digital 

interaction and connectivity. 

PFU has also undergone a 

transformation, as we've now joined the 

Ricoh family. We're looking forward to 

this new collaboration, and hope to build 

on our recent monumental achievement 

of selling 15 million scanners worldwide. 

DT: What has the Ricoh acquisition 

meant for PFU and its partners so far, 

and how will it continue to affect them 

going forward? 

HK: The acquisition of PFU by Ricoh 

brings a new era of collaboration and 

innovation. We're combining PFU's 

expertise in scanning technology with 

Ricoh's global reach and resources, and 

this helps paves the way for 

groundbreaking advancements in digital 

transformation and workflow 

optimisation. 

We aim to generate three major 

synergies. The first one is the expansion 

of our product portfolio. We have 

already launched portable monitors, laser 

projectors and we are excited to 

announce the 360 Meeting Hub at this 

conference. This new product is designed 

as an ideal device for remote meetings in 

hybrid work environments, between 

office and remote work by combining a 

camera, microphone, and speaker, 

making it perfect for office use during 

virtual meetings. 

The second synergy is in product 

innovation: we will combine Ricoh's 

existing technology with PFU's expertise 

to create products for the new era. And 

the third is cost reduction. Since PFU 

joined Ricoh a year and a half ago, we've 

already achieved cost reduction effects of 

several million dollars by collaborating on 

various parts procurement projects. We 

plan to invest this saving into additional 

product development and sales 

promotions. 

All of this is great news for our partners 

and resellers aiming to expand their 

business, as our new products offer new 

opportunities for sales - and with PFU's 

partner program, they can also benefit 

from rebates and tools to effectively drive 

sales. The relationship with our partners 

is hugely important to us, and this will 

not change now we are a member of the 

Ricoh Group. 

DT: Does an event like your Information 

Capture Conference (ICC) serve the same 

purpose it always did, or has that also 

changed over time as new technologies 

emerge? 

HK: Events like ICC are a great way for us 

to link in with our partners and 

distributers. It is a great opportunity to 

listen to their feedback and take their 

input into the development of future 

generations of our products and services. 

It also enables us to launch and promote 

our new products, with personal 

demonstrations of new technologies and 

innovations. 


@DMMagAndAwards

INTERVIEW: PFU Dm 

"THE FUSION OF HUMAN EXPERTISE WITH AI-DRIVEN INSIGHTS WILL 

EMPOWER INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANISATIONS TO MAKE DATA-DRIVEN 

DECISIONS FASTER, AND WITH MORE ACCURACY. ONE KEY FACTOR THAT 

DISTINGUISHES PFU IS OUR CONTINUOUS FOCUS ON UNDERSTANDING 

AND ANTICIPATING THE EVOLVING NEEDS OF OUR CUSTOMERS. THROUGH 

CONTINUOUS MARKET RESEARCH AND FEEDBACK, WE AIM TO REMAIN AT 

THE FOREFRONT OF TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS AND PROMISE TO 

CONTINUOUSLY MEET SUCH CUSTOMER DEMANDS." 

DT: We all see AI and machine learning 

impacting more and more of our lives 

not just in business but even in our 

everyday personal interactions - how 

are these technologies driving PFU 

developments, from a user demand 

point of view as well as internally? 

HK: Artificial Intelligence is going to 

provide a once in a generation shift in 

how we work, enabling workers to take 

advantage of augmented intelligence to 

make decisions and inform research. 

Technologies like Machine Learning and 

Large Language Models are rapidly 

expanding, and through our advanced 

scanning technology, we can convert 

legacy paper documents to help supply 

this data, enabling our users to 

capitalise on these exciting new 

opportunities. The fusion of human 

expertise with AI-driven insights will 

empower individuals and organisations 

to make data-driven decisions faster, 

and with more accuracy. 

One key factor that distinguishes PFU 

is our continuous focus on 

understanding and anticipating the 

evolving needs of our customers. 

Through continuous market research 

and feedback, we aim to remain at the 

forefront of technological 

advancements and promise to 

continuously meet such customer 

demands. 

Whilst I can't comment directly on 

how these technologies are driving 

internal processes at PFU, you can rest 

assured that we are aiming to take full 

advantage of these new technologies to 

produce even better products for our 

customers in future. 

DT: What are the key opportunities for 

the future that PFU partners need to be 

aware of and focused on as a result of 

what they learn at an event like this? 

HK: Great question! I think you can see 

that we are committed to product 

innovation and development through 

the release of our smart meeting 

devices including portable monitors, 

laser projectors and the 360 Meeting 

Hub that were demonstrated at the ICC. 

With these new products, in addition to 

our established scanner range, our 

partners can enhance their offerings to 

customers who have already purchased 

scanners through adding solutions for 

meeting rooms. 

So, rather than waiting until the next 

scanner upgrade, you can continuously 

provide new solutions and build your 

customer relationships. Our conference 

provides us an opportunity to 

demonstrate and launch these new 

products and get feedback from our 

valued partners to help with future 

product improvements. 

DT: What is the future strategy for PFU 

in terms of product portfolio, go-tomarket 

planning, and possible new 

vertical/horizontal markets? What next 

for capture? 

HK: We are aiming to continue to build 

our product portfolio with exciting and 

refined business solutions. Our 

commitment to innovation continues to 

drive success for PFU and for our 

partners. 

We are proud to announce the launch 

of several groundbreaking products and 

services that have revolutionised the 

scanning landscape. From advanced 

features that enhance productivity to 

sleek designs that elevate user 

experience, our recent product launches 

illustrate PFU's continuous pursuit of 

excellence and our unwavering 

commitment to meeting the evolving 

needs of our customers. 

And this is not just hardware, our 

focus extends to creating value-added 

software, along with advancing 

technologies and services which 

accelerate recurring business models. 

It's this synergy of hardware, software, 

and services that truly amplifies our 

value proposition. 

We are looking to keep improving our 

scanners with even better scanning 

quality and speed, whilst taking 

advantage of machine learning to 

improve OCR results for increased 

accuracy of conversion. We can't wait to 

help build an exciting future for our 

partners and their customers. 



May/June 2024 


33

Dm PFU ICC9: AWARD WINNERS 

Reaching new heights 

The PFU (EMEA) ICC event ended with a grand gala dinner where the company 

presented a number of partner awards 

After two full days of presentations, 

demonstrations, break-out sessions 

and networking events, the ninth ICC 

event finished up at one of Dubai's best 

known landmarks, the Burj Khalifa. 

Renowned as the world's tallest building at 

828 metres high, Burj Khalifa is also an 

unprecedented example of international 

cooperation, a symbolic beacon of progress, 

and an emblem of a new, dynamic and 

prosperous Middle East. 

Burj Khalifa holds the record as not just the 

world's tallest free-standing structure, but 

also the most stories (160) and the elevator 

with the longest travel distance in the 

world! As such it was a fitting venue for 

PFU's gala dinner and awards ceremony, 

where the delegates and PFU staff (and 

members of the press!) were able to relax 

and unwind after a very busy conference 

schedule. 

Before the dinner started, attendees were 

treated to canapes and drinks outside by the 

famous fountains, which had been adorned 

with some far from incongruous ICC9 

branding to mark PFU's taking over the area. 

There was live music from a classical trio to 

accompany the obligatory pre-dinner 

champagne, after which the entire party 

was ushered into an ornate dining area for a 

feast that more than adequately marked the 

end of a highly impressive few days. 

With the repast over, the partner awards 

were presented by Brian Fortune, General 

Manager for Sales (EMEA) and Yoichi Kanai, 

Deputy President of PFU. The full list of 

winners is below. 

More info: 


EMEA PRESIDENT'S AWARD, PROJECT OF THE 

YEAR: ZIRAAT BANK 

EMEA CASE STUDY OF THE YEAR: NVS SOFT 

FOR KING FAHAD MEDICAL CITY 

EMEA RESELLER OF THE YEAR: 

SMART SYSTEMS 

EMEA DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR: 

SYSTEAM GROUP 

EMEA ISV PARTNER OF THE YEAR: SISTATEC 

EMEA NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR OVERALL: 

ARKTIS 

EMEA CO-CREATION PROJECT OF THE YEAR: 

POSIFLEX GROUP 

EMEA BPO OF THE YEAR: ARCHIDOC 


Your entire scanning and 

software solution for just 

£199pm 

We’re offering you an 

unbelievable deal this Summer! 

For you, or to resell to your customers. 

Get the Ricoh fi-8040 document scanner, 

partnered with our fully-featured 

document management solution; File Stream 5 

5 user system for just £199 per month. 

Ricoh fi-8040 

The RICOH fi-8040 is designed for organisations looking for 

a scanner that combines market-leading image quality, 

versatile connectivity and an intuitive user experience. 

Delivering industry-leading OCR accuracy rates, the 

scanner has multiple options for connecting via a network, 

or to an individual PC using USB. And its 10.9cm colour 

touchscreen and DirectScan application, enable PC-less 

scanning directly to workflows or email addresses, saving 

both time and effort. 

This scanner incorporates the unique Clear Image Capture, 

producing image quality that exceeds other available 

technologies. And you can batch scan with greater peaceof-mind 

thanks to the ultra-sonic sensor that immediately 

pauses and alerts whenever the fi-8040 detects a multifeed. 

File Stream 5 Document Management Solution 

To get the most out of this scanner, it’s important to 

partner it with a professional document management 

system to boost efficiency, automate processes and 

enhance security of scanned information. File Stream 5 is a 

fully featured enterprise-level document management 

solution. 

It helps businesses save time and money by streamlining 

their document management, making files easier to find 

and impossible to lose. Full encryption means your 

documents are entirely secure and GDPR compliant, and a 

range of workflow modules help make your business even 

more efficient. File Stream 5 enables users to automate 

workflows and improve business processes by routing 

documents to users with defined time limited tasks for 

action. 

Please visit filestreamscanners.co.uk/8040-file-stream-offer 

for further information or call us on +44 (0) 118 989 3771

RICOH 

Scanning 

Solutions 

S1100i 

iX100 – Ideal for 


community workers 


S1100i 

iX1300 – Premium 

personal desktop 

scanner 

S1300i 

iX1400 iX1500/iX1600 – Beautifully – Intuitive 

simple, effortlessly 

scanning at your 

efficient fingertips 

fi-65F 

fi-800R– Great for 

customer facing ID capture 

fi Series 

fi-8040 – Market-leading image 

quality, versatile connectivity 

and an intuitive user experience 

Network Scanner 

fi-65F – Great for 

customer facing 

ID capture 

N7100E – Information 

sharing made easy 

fi-7030 – Ideal 

for GP surgeries 

fi-800R 

fi-7160 – Best selling 

scanner in the NHS 

fi-8150 – Redefines 

Business Scanning 

fi-7300NX – Web based 

document capture and 

network scanning 

fi Series 

N7100 – Information 

sharing made easy 

N7100 – Information SP-1120N / SP-1125N/ 

SP-1120N/SP-1125N/ 

fi-7260 / fi-7280 

fi-7140 – Document 

SV600 – Perfect sharing made easy 

iX1600 – Intuitive SP-1130N 

management at it’s best fi-7460 / fi-7480scanning fi-7600 at your – A local 

SP-1130N 

fi-65F – Great for for the classroom 

government 

customer facing 

fingertips workhorse 

ID capture 

fi-7300NX – Web based document 

capture and network scanning 

SP Series 

fi-8170/fi-8190 – 

Reduced power consumption 

fi-7030 – Ideal 

for NEW GP surgeries 

fi-800R 

SP-1120N / SP-1125N/ 

SP-1130N 

S1100i 

fi-7800/ fi-7900 – Ideal 

for heavy duty scanning 

environments 



SP Series 

Day to day budget 

conscious scanning 

fi-8270/fi-8290 – 

Industry leading OCR 

accuracy rates 

fi-7160 – Best selling 

scanner in the NHS 

Fujitsu’s best-in-class scanner driver and document capturing software 

fi-8820/fi-8930/fi-8950 – 

Impressive performance, 

reliability and usability 

fi Series 

fi-7260 / fi-7280 

fi-7300NX – Web based document 

capture and network scanning 

fi-7800/fi-7900 – Ideal for 

heavy duty scanning 

environments 

SV600 – Perfect 

for the classroom 

fi-7700 fi-7140 – Document 

management at it’s best 

fi-7460/fi-7480 

fi-7800/ fi-7900 – Ideal 

for heavy duty scanning 

environments 

fi-7700 

For more information please email us at 

scannersales@uk.fujitsu.com or visit emea.fujitsu.com/scanners 

Fujitsu’s best-in-class scanner driver and document capturi 

Streamlining processes, delivering Organisational Intelligence 

• Automate capture routines; scan, extract and release all at the touch of a button 

• Streamline operations by integrating captured data into business workflows 

S1300i 

SP Seri 

Day to day bu 

conscious sca 

fi-7460 

For more information please email us at 

scannersales@uk.fujitsu.com or visit emea.fujitsu.com/ 

• Easily create searchable PDF‘s, or editable Word, Excel and PowerPoint files 

• Optimise scanning architecture - use any scanner from any PC 

www.pfu-emea.ricoh.com 

PaperStream IP 

A scanner driver that cleans and 

optimises image files for faster, 

lower-cost access and storage. 

PaperStream Capture 

Streamlines and automates capture 

into workflows. 

PaperStream ClickScan 

Ad-hoc scanning with a single touch 

PaperStream NX Manager 

For centralised, server-based capture.

DM2405

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?