Burlington, Mass. - Managed Print Services (MPS) is fast becoming the premier business model for the imaging and printing industry. To date, most of the MPS focus has been on the proactive management and ongoing optimization of the printing and imaging environment at end-user organizations.

As benefits from those initiatives are realized, MPS providers will strive to achieve continuous cost reductions and productivity improvements - and expand their approach to MPS. They will broaden MPS strategies to also include document capture, expanding from just hardcopy infrastructure to business-critical document workflows – involving both paper and digital documents.

"MPS strategies will evolve from just device consolidation and print optimization to also include business process optimization," said Bill DeStefanis, Senior Manager, MFP Product Management, Nuance Document Imaging. "As they do this, organizations will find the value proposition delivered by document capture is very similar to print management - providing great reductions in document processing costs. Including document capture customized to fit within a customer's workflows and environment will enable even better business outcomes."

Here's a look at five areas where the print management and document capture value propositions converge in Managed Print Services:

Authentication
- For Print Management Users: Authentication means security at device or "Who are you?" It can involve a variety of methods from PINs to smartcards to biometrics.
- For Document Capture Users: Authentication involves a single sign-on in Microsoft Office-based workflows that feeds credentials to downstream business applications such as content management systems.

Authorization
- For Print Management Users: Authorization provides access to features and addresses: "What are you allowed to do?" It can restrict or allow print, copy and fax options.
- For Document Capture Users: Authorization helps to deliver a personalized or role-based workflow experience by allowing only the applications the user needs to be presented.

Accounting
- For Print Management Users: Accounting enables charge-back to internal billing systems or the ability to bill back externally for print and copy functions to recover the costs of fixed assets and supplies.
- For Document Capture Users: Accounting provides the means to charge-back internally or bill back externally for value added document services or processes.

Audit Trail
- For Print Management Users: Audit trails provide a rolling history of print and copy activity – helping an organization maintain a log of what has been done internally.
- For Document Capture Users: Audit trails produce a compliance-oriented history of document behavior - allowing an enterprise to always know: "who has scanned what, to whom, and how?"

Cloud Computing- and Server-based Tickets or Tokens
- For Print Management Users: These capabilities provide pull-printing or "follow me" printing for secure release and waste reduction. Users can print to the cloud or server, and release at the device.
- For Document Capture Users: These capabilities deliver bi-directional interplay with content management systems or forms. It can also provide an application-based scan trigger with delayed scanning integrated with a ticket or token.

According to the Photizo Group, the MPS market has grown from $9.5 billion globally in 2006 to $20.3 billion in 2009. By 2013, the market researcher estimates the market will be $59.7 billion in revenues, accounting for over 50 percent of the total distributed imaging business market.

Nuance eCopy ShareScan is the world's best-selling MFP (multifunction peripheral) scanning system that enables organizations to replace manual paper processes with digital document workflows. eCopy ShareScan delivers the highest levels of automation and ease-of-use, providing organizations with an intuitive touch-screen application that increases productivity in the office and saves money. The software runs works with MFPs from all of the world's leading vendors - including Canon, HP, Konica Minolta, Océ, Ricoh, Toshiba and Xerox.