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Buyers could be forgiven for thinking that some manufacturers are rushing out new devices almost to draw attention: 'don't look at their new scanner, look at ours!'

Kodak Alaris, thankfully, has rather more integrity than that. Their new entrant into this overcrowded market comes on the back of some actual innovations that make the new release more than worthwhile. The ScanMate i1150 is designed to fit perfectly into customer-facing business situations such as banks and clinics where there is a need to rapidly and efficiently capture information from a customer/patient who is present and waiting throughout the process.

It is small and cleverly designed to give a minimal footprint, resting at a user-friendly 'raised-up' angle on its base. Perhaps more importantly - and unusually - the i1150 is almost very quiet indeed when scanning, a deliberate design decision we can't help thinking, aimed again at front-office customer facing environments. The design even incorporates a discreet 'ledge' on the scanner front panel where cards can be placed before and after scanning so as to stay in view of the customer - another small but thoughtful touch.

The design elements aimed at improving customer transaction processing do not end there. Recognising that the majority of customer transactions involve scanning 10 or less documents, the ScanMate i1150 features a special 'Transaction Mode' which boosts the scanner's performance by 60% for the first 10 pages - equating to 40 pages per minute - before resuming its normal processing mode of 25 ppm. This avoids the scanner becoming a bottleneck in the office and ensures an organisation can increase the number of customers processed.

As Kodak Alaris themselves say in their marketing for the new scanner: "Transaction capture is the fastest growing segment in the document imaging industry, growing 27% last year - driven by organisations seeking to operate profitably in multi-regulatory competitive environments where customer service is key. Keeping focused on the customer is a challenge." The idea of the ScanMate i1150 is to allow knowledge workers to scan ID, forms and other documents quickly and simply, without taking their focus off the customer at their counter.

Despite being so compact and lightweight, the i1150 has a recommended daily volume of 3,000 pages. It features an intuitive LCD display that can be easily customised to facilitate simple and direct routing of scanned images to the right destination in the business. The one button SmartTouch facility lets users send images directly to specific applications without having to access a PC at all. The device is also bundled with the Limited Edition version of Kodak's Capture Pro for image management and batch scanning. Capture Pro Limited Edition also includes barcode reading, drag and drop OCR for improved indexing, full text OCR to create searchable PDFs, PDF/A support, batch separation, and direct connectivity into Microsoft SharePoint 2013.
More info: www.kodakalaris.com/go/scanmatei1150News