As organizations look for ways to boost worker productivity, MFP-resident apps can be invaluable tools for streamlining workflows, saving time, and freeing teams up to focus on the work that matters most. Like apps on a smartphone, these lightweight utilities reside on the device and add functionality beyond what comes preloaded from the factory. Apps have come of age in the document imaging realm because today’s connected MFPs feature larger touchscreens with intuitive “app-driven” (sometimes Android-based) user interfaces that are a natural fit for such add-ons, while the underlying hardware and operating systems are powerful enough to run them.
| Toshiba’s new Workplace Productivity Bundle simplifies document workflow tasks at the MFP. |
Apps are a large part of Toshiba’s solution strategy, and the company’s app portfolio includes a wide range of connectors to popular cloud services; apps for tasks such as translating documents (Toshiba eCONNECT Translate) and tracking paper use/the resulting CO2 footprint (Toshiba e-BRIDGE for Green Information), and apps linked to software from strategic third-party software vendors (e.g., Kofax, StratoQ, Drivve, XMedius, PaperCut, PrinterLogic, Y Soft).
Joining that lineup is the Toshiba Workplace Productivity Bundle. The three apps in the collection help customers digitize large volumes of paper documents, capture relevant business metadata, and deliver searchable files when scanned using compatible Toshiba e-STUDIO machines. The company reports that the bundle will simplify digital workflows for finance, human resources, and legal departments, as well as other departmental applications—any process where paper-based information needs to be digitized and processed.
Users can invoke the apps installed on the MFP to convert paper documents into searchable electronic documents that can then be searched and retrieved. The bundle lets users set up templates to automate the digitizing, indexing, and storing of document types an organization encounters frequently. Users can also validate captured data (or correct invalid data) on the MFP control panel before routing the information to the specified destination.
There is no need for any external hardware or software beyond the MFP and apps themselves, which makes Toshiba’s bundle an ideal solution for SMBs and departments within lager organizations that might not have the IT wherewithal for a large-scale document capture and workflow platform. And the affordable $299 price makes it that much more attractive to those audiences.
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