Despite Dot-Com Chill, Web Imaging Remains Hot

Amidst the carnage of the dot-come stock crash, the rate of adoption for image-based document imaging systems has continued to soar. "The lull in the dot-com revolution is transitory," says Peter Weinrobe, VP of sales and marketing for AccuSoft Corporation (Northborough, MA). "You may see fewer players, but the use of the Internet for B2B communication will continue to become more prevalent."

AccuSoft is a developer of document imaging tools. Its product offerings include Web-based tools. "Despite the promise of the paperless office and an electronic world, paper continues to play an important part in business processes," adds Weinrobe. "Businesses are counting on imaging to provide them with the means to integrate their paper and electronic processes."

Server-Based System Reduces Installation Headaches
Simon Wieczner, CEO of toolkit vendor Snowbound Software (Newton, MA), says that Web imaging is a hot market for his company, too. "As well as we are doing with Web-based sales now, we expect them to be far larger in the very near future," he says. "It seems the obvious direction that people will want to go."

According to Wieczner, the key driver for Web-based imaging adoption is the ease with which images can be distributed to a large number of users through a browser-based retrieval system. "We are currently in discussions with a large automobile manufacturer that has 35,000 workstations that need access to document images," he says. "The cost of installing thick-client software on all those stations is prohibitive. The simplicity of being able to run a Java-based imaging system on an Internet server is very attractive to them."

Mobile Access A Growing Requirement
Weinrobe adds that tools to make Internet images available on mobile computers can also be very useful, especially for applications like CRM. "We are working with one customer whose field reps need access to customer contracts that are kept at corporate headquarters," he says. "The contracts are often 20 to 30 pages long, but the rep might only need one or two of those. We have tools that enable the reps to preview the whole document before downloading only the pages that they need. Trying to download a 20- to 30-page document on a PDA (personal digital assistant) can be troublesome."

Explore All Possibilities Before Choosing A Vendor
Wieczner and Weinrobe agree that not all Web imaging tools are created equal. "Most Java-based imaging systems only work with 72-dpi JPEG images," says Wieczner. "This is fine if you are not doing much printing. But, if you are working on a check imaging application, for example, users will want to print their images for careful examination. There are techniques you can apply to Java applications to create high-resolution images for print, but many people are not aware of them. Don't believe the first so-called Java expert that you talk with. Shop around and find out the full realm of Web imaging possibilities."

Weinrobe adds that when testing a Web-based imaging system, VARs should use the most complex images they can find. "Everyone can handle simple, 200 K to 300 K JPEGs fairly well," he says. "But, if your application also involves an occasional 7 megabyte file, find out how that size image affects speed and performance."

Thick Clients Still Have Mileage Left
Weinrobe concludes that Web-based imaging is not for everybody. "Some people still like the robustness or stability of thick clients," he says. "If the person using the system is a partner or an employee who is accessing images fairly often, a thick client might be a wise investment. The ideal situation for a VAR is to work with a vendor that has one set of tools that offers both Web and thick-client functionality."/p> Questions about this article? E-mail the author at editor@corrypub.com.