Fujitsu recently announced a new scanner rental service called RentScan by Fujitsu designed to cater to any business looking for short-term capture functionality. The company offers monthly rental agreements for its 60-ppm (120 ipm) fi-6140Z/fi-6240Z series, 90-ppm (180 ipm) fi-6670/fi-6770 series and 130-ppm (260 ipm) fi-6800. However, additional Fujitsu scanners may become available for the service at a later date. According to Marni Carmichael, senior director of Fujitsu’s Enterprise Communications Management, the ScanSnap SV600 may be the next scanner available for rent. The SV600, which retails for $795, is an overhead scanning solution designed to capture images without contact.
According to Carmichael, Fujitsu’s scanner rental rates are fixed monthly fees based on the customer’s anticipated scan volumes. Carmichael said a typical 30-day rental agreement for the fi-6670 will cost $799, which includes maintenance and remote installation. On-site installation can be performed for an additional fee. For organizations looking to digitize large volumes of documents in a short amount of time, $799 is probably a lot more attractive than purchasing the fi-6670 outright, which has a suggested retail price of $5,995.
Scanner rentals are not a new concept. BLI covered this market extensively in the November 2008 edition of The Business Consumer’s Advisor. At that time, the market represented about 10 percent of scanner reseller’s overall business and the customer base was dominated by small- to medium-size businesses, such as CPA offices, insurance agencies and law firms. Thanks to the Obama administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, medical offices and healthcare facilities have been urged to digitize patient records for a more efficient and accurate means of healthcare communication among doctors and offices, which has increased the need for affordable capture solutions across the industry. Carmichael says Fujitsu anticipates that the need to process higher volumes in shorter time frames will be a problem faced by many companies as they determine how to address the conversion of paper to digital contents. “We’re seeing healthcare and finance as the two specific verticals that will be affected the most by this trend,” said Carmichael. And when BLI spoke with one of the scanner resellers quoted in the original 2008 article, the company spokesperson echoed the same sentiment by noting his company’s significant increase in scanner rental revenue since 2008.
Although initial sign-up stats aren’t available, Carmichael says they’ve received positive feedback for the new program from Fujitsu’s customer base. Indeed, a monthly cost that’s about seven times less than retail is an enticing offer for any business looking to digitize in the short term.
