Visioneer Celebrates 20 Years as Scanner Leader

By Zoe Francis, Hacienda Network Staff Writer

Visioneer is all about making life easier and more organized with the help of scanners.

The document scanning pioneer makes a wide range of scanners to fit every need.

"We sell a wide range of products, from a mobile scanner all the way up to a production scanner that can scan 100 pages per minute or 200 images," Greg Elder, CFO and vice president of finance, said. "Depending on the type of business you're in, we most likely have a scanner to fit your need and more importantly, affordability and ease of use."

Visioneer, Inc., has long been on the cutting edge of scanner technology. The company was founded in Palo Alto in 1992 with their first scanners hitting the market two years later.

"Our first scanners were not color," Elder said. "They were black and white and bridged the gap between paper-based and computer-based information by streamlining the conversion of paper into digital form."

"The average office worker didn't know what a scanner was at that time," he added. "Twenty years ago, the majority of scanners were high-end imaging systems used for desktop publishing and required trained users to operate. Visioneer created a new category of document scanners that were easy to use by anyone."

While Visioneer was always a leader in the industry, the company rocketed to the forefront in 1998 when it released its innovative OneTouch technology. True to its name, the new technology allowed start-to-finish scanning with the touch of just one button.

"Our OneTouch encapsulated 13 steps that it took to scan a document with a competing scanner," he said. "It really revolutionized at the time how a document was scanned and processed."

The company, which moved to Hacienda in 2000, has a trademark licensing agreement with Xerox to develop, market, sell and support a full line of Xerox-branded document scanners in more than 100 countries.

"We are an enduring brand and the only company dedicated solely to developing easy-to-use and cost-effective scanning solutions," Elder said. "Being small means we're nimble. It gives us that edge."

This year's 20th anniversary of the company brought the release of three new document scanning and organizing solutions to help avoid paper clutter - the Visioneer Mobile Organizer, Xerox Digital Desktop Organizer and Xerox Digital Personal Organizer.

"As far as optimizing and organizing, they are great tools," he said. "From an organizational standpoint, it's a huge time saver. A filing system is only effective if you can find everything you need, when you need it."

A Reno-based healthcare firm that owns multiple hospitals, for example, recently purchased several personal scanners to convert all existing paper documents into electronic files. The scanners work all day as countless patient records are efficiently transformed for ease of storage and efficient retrieval.

"They bought dozens of scanners from us that they're running all the time to get everything digitized and securely saved in the cloud," he said.

Government and healthcare agencies, in particular, are increasingly using scanners in an attempt to achieve paperless offices and meet government reform mandates.

"Scanners provide a digital on-ramp to the cloud so you have a copy you can automate, manipulate, save, mail or organize," Elder said.

Learn more about Visioneer at visioneer.com. Hacienda business leaders are invited to visit Visioneer for a free demonstration of all Visioneer products. Please contact Danielle Cook at danielle_cook@visioneer.com to set up a free demo.

Photo: Visioneer employees outside, of their, Hacienda Headquarters. (Photo provided by Visioneer)

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