Dollars and Sense: Distributed, Web-Based Document Capture to the Rescue

Dollars and Sense:
Distributed, Web-Based Document Capture to the Rescue

Shhh! The Secret Costs of Centralized Capture

Here is a secret nobody wants to talk about, but we’ll break the silence. The major Document Capture vendors (and ECM vendors who might offer a bundled Capture product) purposefully did not want the market to shift towards Distributed Capture because its blows their license revenue pricing models right out the door. Yep, we said it. (This one will certainly generate the hate mail). Here’s the proof:

Per Click Counts, Seat Licenses, & Server Licenses - Oh My!
The fact is that legacy vendors really like (actually, cherish is a more suitable word) getting the per-click charges for each page scanned through those monstrous IBML and Kodak scanners, vs. a compact, $400.00 workgroup scanner. Think about it...

How about this one for kicks? The vendors haven’t quite figured out how to account for web browser-based users (if there is no software to install, they can’t count the per seat user). What's their solution?

Did you know that the bigger the scanner you attach to a software application, the more money it is going to cost you? That’s right. It’s kind of similar to the recently proposed Carbon Emissions Tax....

Let’s talk about the server licenses. If you haven’t priced them, watch out, and be prepared for sticker shock! Remember, from the vendor perspective, they want you to pump as much volume through their server as possible, so they can drive that monthly or annual license volume through the roof …

And yet more costs: Here are some other soothing thoughts to consider that surely will increase your costs: Test/Development licenses, ICR/OCR, Advanced Forms, Export modules, Remote Scanning...

Analyze that software maintenance agreement language carefully. It is not widely known that some vendors have introduced a concept of automatic “CPI” increases that usually range...

More on this subject in my upcoming book, "The Case for Distributed, Web-based Document Capture"