Increasingly, wide format scanners in Ontario play an important role in document management for a variety of organizations. Government agencies, production facilities, hospitals, property management firms and more need an efficient way to manage wide format documents. Take a look at this presentation from Kevin D'Arcy, VP of Sales and Marketing from MES Hybrid Document Systems or visit http://www.mesltd.ca

1. Wide Format Scanners in
Ontario
How to Evaluate Options and
Features

2. Increasingly, wide format scanners in Ontario
play an important role in document
management for a variety of organizations.
Government agencies, production facilities,
hospitals, property management firms and
more need an efficient way to manage wide
format documents. Examples include maps,
blueprints, schematics and other documents
typically 18 inches and larger.

3. These documents must be easy to handle during
normal work functions, especially if they’re used in
conjunction with smaller documents. And, they must
be incorporated into the organization’s document
management system.
The logical answer is to use a wide format scanner to
digitize your wide format documents and incorporate
them into your company’s document management
system. So, how do you evaluate wide format scanners
in Ontario to make sure you get the best solution?

4. The first step is to analyze how you will be using the
scanner. What document types do you expect to digitize?
Once you have a good idea of your application, you can
start your analysis of features, options, pricing and more.
Important Features for Wide Format Scanners in Ontario
As you can expect, a variety of wide format scanners exist.
Therefore, it’s important to take the time to evaluate what
exactly you’ll need and won’t need in your solution. Things
like image quality, speed and price are premier decision-
making points.

5. Image Quality. “Dots per inch,” or DPI, is used
to define image resolution and quality. The
higher the DPI, the more detailed the scanned
image will be. Wide format scanners in
Ontario typically have DPIs in the 400 to 1200
range, with 600 DPI being the most commonly
selected resolution. Experts believe a 600 dpi
optical resolution would be sufficient to
produce quality CAD, GIS and map documents.

6. DPI is an important consideration, especially if
you’re scanning detailed documents such as
CAD drawings. You need to determine the
types of documents you’ll be scanning, then
look at the level of detail in those documents.
Therefore, a basic guideline is the more detail
you have, the higher resolution you need in
wide format scanners in Ontario to get a
quality result.

7. Another consideration when considering resolution is
the file size produced. The higher the resolution, the
larger the digital file will be. So, it’s important not to
buy a higher resolution scanner than what you’ll
actually need.
For example, a CAD drawing scanned in color at 1200
dpi would produce a monstrous 6.2 gigabyte file.
Managing and storing these huge document files can
be inefficient and defeat the purpose of using wide
format scanners in Ontario. Also, you need to make
sure the computer the scanner is connected to is
powerful enough to manage those huge files.

8. Speed. If your application is an office environment,
you may be able to make a trade-off between another
feature, such as price. However, if you will be
operating a high volume scanning operation, like a
service bureau, speed will obviously be an important
consideration.
Whatever operation you have, you want the speed of
wide format scanners in Ontario to be enough so it
doesn’t catch production bottlenecks. Speed is
measured in inches per second with scanner widths
ranging from 24 to 54 inches.

9. And, if you have to scan lots of documents at one
time, you’ll want a batch scanning feature. You
don’t want to have to stop to scan each
document individually.
Price. Almost all purchasing decisions come
down to pricing. With a wide variety of options
and manufacturers marketing wide format
scanners in Ontario, it’s important to make a
consistent comparison.

10. Whenever you consider price, you also need to factor
into the total cost of ownership and value criteria.
When you include these things in your analysis, you’ll
find the lowest price isn’t always the best deal.
Total cost of ownership is a business term used to
define the total investment you’ll need to make in wide
format scanners. Your cost isn’t just the initial price,
but what it will cost to operate, maintain and repair
your scanner. In addition, if the reliability of your
scanner isn’t the greatest, you’ll have a cost associated
with the lack of productivity.

11. Value comes into play when you’re calculating the various
trade-offs associated with wide format scanners. A lower
priced scanner may be manufactured with lower quality
parts. In this case, your costs you less to buy the scanner.
But, you might end up paying more over time because of
repair and replacement of parts.
When you make your purchase decision for wide format
scanners in Ontario, it boils down to weighing several
factors that are important to you and your application.
When you determine what’s most important, you can then
begin evaluating different vendors and models to get the
right fit.

12. Kevin D'Arcy is VP of Sales and Marketing for
MES Hybrid Document Systems, Ontario's
leading document scanning and document
management supplier. For more information
about Wide Format Scanners in Ontario, visit
http://www.mesltd.ca/.