Interview

From Document Manager Magazine Vol 20 No 06 - November/December

DM Editor David Tyler caught up with Robert Young, head of channel development for EMEA at PFU Fujitsu, at the company's recent Imaging Channel Conference in Barcelona

David Tyler: PFU Fujitsu seems to have weathered the storms of the recent economic difficulties remarkably well, even by the relatively recession-proof standards of the DM/ECM industry. Is the company continuing to rise above the downturn?

Robert Young: The UK scanner market has actually been remarkably buoyant: if we compare the first six months of 2012 with the same period in 2011, unit sales overall have grown by 21%, which is substantial growth. If we compare it with the 2010 figures, Fujitsu alone actually sold over 40% more scanners in the first half of 2012. And we've seen a similar picture across EMEA.

There are some clear reasons for that growth. When times are tough, buyers tend to go down one of two routes. Either they decide to go for the cheapest option, or they opt for something they know and trust, that they know will give them solid ROI. We've been around for long enough to fall into that second category every time, so we're seeing a lot of organisations more than willing to invest in our product because they don't see any risk associated with that spend.

In addition, we see significant growth at the lower end of the market, i.e. in desktop and workgroup scanners -from the ScanSnap range right up to say the fi-6130 model. Growth there again is around the 22% mark. We've even seen some growth in low volume production sales, which has been unusual - that has been a declining market in recent years so it's been good to see an upturn.

DT: Is there a particular reason for the growth at the lower end of the market?

RY: It's partly down to the fact that much of the advanced technology and functionality that used to be the preserve of the high-end scanner, is filtering down to become available on much more affordable devices. Our scanner central administration, sophisticated feed mechanisms, ultrasonic multi-feed detection: all these things used to only be available at the high end, but they've migrated right down to the desktop. Because of that, reliability and confidence are higher, and that in turn has led to much more de-centralised scanning.

The other aspect of growth at the low end is an increasing number of smaller organisations who are coming to the technology for the first time. Lots of SMBs that would traditionally have been almost entirely paper-based, are starting to go digital. Many of these are buying ScanSnaps as you'd expect, but we do have some small customers who are buying a 6130 and using the software that comes in the box - ScandAll Pro - as their basic scanning package.

DT: Is there still - even after all these years - a requirement for scanner manufacturers to be educating potential users as to the benefits of document management as a concept? How is PFU Fujitsu bringing new users on board?

RY: As manufacturers it is our responsibility to educate those emerging markets and new users; at Fujitsu we spend a lot of time and resource on targeting those particular vertical markets where we see growing potential demand. For these kinds of user, it is a case of 'seeing is believing', so we attend a lot of shows and conferences, increasing the exposure and understanding of our technologies.

Odd as it may seem to DM readers, most people's perception of a business scanner is still of a flatbed or MFP that they bought for home use from a High Street electrical retailer. They simply don't appreciate what a dedicated document scanner can offer. But once they see our devices in use on documents like theirs, it's like a 'Eureka!' moment for many of them. They realise how easy the new scanners actually are to use; they don't need to get a qualification in Document Management to use these solutions.

DT: Does this mean that you are targeting end users rather than channel partners with your marketing messages? If so, are there specific verticals that you have identified as potentially 'untapped markets'?

RY: We do a lot of activities with the channel, obviously, and our partners are absolutely vital to us. At the same time we recognise that it's our job as vendors to help to create the market demand for the channel to exploit. So we do a lot of advertising, web promotion, and other targeted messaging aimed at end users for exactly that reason.

Transportation is a good example of a relatively untapped vertical market - they have such a huge need for paper, and we need to help them see how to capture that paper at the earliest point in the information cycle. We're working with lots of companies now to see how to solve their specific problems in that sector, and there are some very innovative ideas coming through that you may see in product form in the future.

At the same time of course we have our 'traditional' markets such as Accounts Payable: everyone has an accounts department, there are thousands of systems out there already, and yet there are probably hundreds of thousands of Accounts Payable departments that don't have any kind of system in place. A few years ago they might have thought they'd have to invest in a massive scanner and supporting software and services, and train dedicated staff to manage it - now scanning has become part of the role of the Knowledge Worker. By making that part of the process as simple and intuitive as possible, and as non-disruptive as possible to the line-of-business function, then we are actually enabling those Knowledge Workers.

That's why ScanSnap is all about the onetouch scanning capability. That's why, indeed, we added the ScanSnap Mode function into the Z-Generation fi-Series scanners. Those workers will be saying to their management "That was easy", and then the manager is more likely to go back to the board and say "That was easy - let's look at rolling the technology out somewhere else where we can see a benefit!" Word of mouth within an organisation is crucial for us; we often say inside Fujitsu that every ScanSnap sale helps to create five more, simply because satisfied users so frequently go on to tell their friends and colleagues about how good the solution is.

This brings us back to the importance of the channel: the ability of our partners to go in and identify potential additional sales where there is already a solution in place, is absolutely key for our growth. There are so many opportunities out there - no big company especially, has only one document management requirement, they're far more likely to have dozens or even hundreds.

More info: www.fujitsu.com/emea/products/

Interview