NASHUA, NH --Aug 19, 2002 -- Brecher, Wyner, Simons & Bolan, LLP, has chosen the Canon and eCopy Suite of products to convert its paper into easily accessible, electronic information. As a successful real estate law practice located in Massachusetts, the firm was losing a great deal of time, money, and office space managing the hundreds of documents that accompany a real estate transaction. eCopy, Inc. is a leading provider of products that transform paper documents into digital information. Canon U.S.A., Inc. is a subsidiary of Canon Inc. and a leader in networked digital imaging solutions. "We had paralegals and others devoting almost all of their time to creating complete duplicates of client files," said Arthur Brecher, one of the firm's partners. "We'd have at least two complete versions to ensure that no important document would get lost. Of course, we'd also have to make copies of one or more of the documents to send to various parties involved in the transaction. It was a very inefficient and costly process." This reliance on paper was also creating a major storage and retrieval problem. Typically, the firm stored complete documentation for each transaction in house for two years. After that, the files were transferred to an off-site vendor, where they were kept for an additional eight years. Again, costs were high. And retrieving documents, especially from the off-site location, was problematic at best. Impressive arguments for the Canon/eCopy solution The firm began looking at a number of approaches to deal with the paper onslaught. Providing storage capabilities on a local server was one part of the solution. Upgrading to a faster copier was another. However, finding a way to get the paper documents into the electronic storage medium was the missing link, until Arthur Brecher saw the Canon/eCopy solution in action. The eCopy Suite of products coupled with the high speed scanning capabilities of the Canon imageRUNNER networked office system enable any user in an organization to transform paper documents into information that is easily integrated into all commonly used business applications. Using eCopy, companies can provide shared access to high-speed scanners that connect to the company's e-mail and other networked enterprise applications for low-cost, easy, instantaneous distribution and management of electronic copies of paper documents. The opportunity to test out the eCopy solution presented itself when the lease ran out on the firm's current copier. Arthur Brecher contacted the firm's Canon dealer and asked to see a demo of the latest network-attached digital copiers. Attorney Brecher was intrigued by the Canon imageRUNNER equipped with the eCopy Suite. After a quick demo, he was sold. "I instantly saw the answer to all of our document management problems," said Brecher. "Here was a solution that could not only copy at lightning speed, it could quickly scan documents so that we could store them electronically. On top of that, it was so easy to use that anyone in the firm could access all of its many capabilities." Two of the capabilities that quickly became very useful were scan-to-fax and scan-to-mail. That's because many of the law firms that Brecher, Wyner, Simons & Bolan deal with are still using fax to distribute their time critical documents. "With the Canon/eCopy solution, faxes can be accessed electronically," said Brecher. "We can use eCopy Desktop to make any needed changes or additions to the documents electronically and then fax or e-mail them back to the other attorneys. Theamount of time we save by doing this is amazing." Of course, by saving all documents electronically in one on-site location, attorneys can quickly and easily retrieve any file or document they need in minutes, no matter when the actual closing occurred. This has freed up the firm's paralegals to concentrate on more value-added activities in direct support of the firm's attorneys. The solution has also enhanced customer service by dramatically increasing efficiency and reducing the time needed to access stored documents. In terms of cost savings, the Canon/eCopy solution has reduced the costs associated with faxes and courier services. But the primary savings come in the gradual elimination of off-site storage as all documents are eventually incorporated into the firm's on-site electronic storage.