Company Values

When I got into the document imaging business, I had just graduated from college and was brimming with environmental idealism. I wanted to find a way to use my degree in Computer Science that was good for both the Earth and the corporations that control it. Document imaging was the answer!

After just a short time in the industry I noticed a lot of hypocrisy. People who sold "paperless office" systems were rarely paperless themselves! Many of them also sold copiers and had a vested interest in making sure you printed even more paper than before. Why had an industry with so much promise not lived up to it?

A big part of the problem is that few of the players in the industry had any environmental motives in their decision to invest in document imaging. They are in it for the money. Now I don't get into the whole anti-capitalist aspect of the environmental movement, but I also don't see the point in completely ignoring the potential environmental benefits of scanning in a cultish devotion to profit maximization.

Most of the scanning systems available were designed for large corporations. In the pursuit of windfall profits, software that could easily be designed for and sold to small businesses was never released. Instead the same software was sold for the highest price an ROI document could justify. Because of this, most companies have been left behind by the paperless revolution.

In order for document imaging technology to lead to an ultimate reduction in the amount of paper our businesses use, it has to be made affordable enough for everyone to use. Small businesses must be able to send and receive documents electronically. Large companies must be able to allow all all employees access to document management systems. Licensing can't be so expensive that only key employees can have access. Only when imaging systems are affordable enough to be ubiquitous will the need for hardcopies be eliminated.

The process by which expensive document management systems become inexpensive enough for everyone is called "commoditization". The imaging industry has strongly resisted this process, fearing the loss of their easy profits. However, my new company had no legacy products built on the enterprise model and my convictions and business sense told me that this was the way of the future.

When I founded ScanStore, I sought out products that were easy and affordable enough for small businesses to implement. When I wrote SimpleIndex, I tried to create the scanning application that filled this gap in the market. SimpleIndex is designed to provide the powerful automation features you get with enterprise applications in a program that is easy to configure and priced so that anyone can afford it. SimpleIndex makes it possible for businesses to go paperless who can afford neither the price of an enterprise system or the labor required by desktop applications.

When you get your scanning system from ScanStore, you get a team that is dedicated to saving your company time, money and trees. In our operator training, we show you tips and encourage users to keep their documents on the screen and print only when necessary. Our products and services are accessible to all, priced for what they are worth and not what you are!