Document Imaging: Recession-Proof?

In honor of the recent financial calamities and in progress recession, let's talk for a second about how this turbulence may or may not affect the nascent document imaging industry. Corporations are tightening belts all across America and the world.

What can the document imaging industry do to keep growing?

1. Emphasize Cost Savings
-- Just because we're in a recession doesn't mean that companies don't want to grow. But they want to grow smart. They want to grow cheap. For document scanning and imaging, this can mean that they may want lower cost machines or service providers.

But it can also mean that they want to consolidate or centralize document management functions. For example, if a company has multiple offices, it may be willing to spend some money on a document scanning solution that enables sharing -- if other costs can thereby be eliminated, such as unnecessary faxing, copying, and filing.

The point is to address the need.

2. Emphasize Productivity Increases
-- The productivity of the American worker is the pride of this nation and the only reason our economy is not in worse shape than it is. Document scanning and imaging has become a fairly major contributor to this productivity.

This contribution must not only continue but increase. A document scanning sales pitch that convinces the business decision-maker that her staff is going to be able to concentrate on their jobs instead of tedious file-finding is convincing in this environment.

Talk about recession concerns and be ready to calculate ROI!

Challenge = Opportunity?

This recession challenge can most definitely be viewed as an opportunity for this industry. Document scanning and imaging can be a big part of cost-cutting and improving efficiency at companies struggling to maintain earnings power amid slowing sales.

If the document imaging industry does not prove, however, that it can help trim expenses while increasing productivity, the industry itself may fall victim to the cost-cutting trend.