The paperless office comes one step closer to reality

SENIOR FIGURES from the OCR (optical character recognition), voice recognition and document management industries have spoken to PC Retail about their belief that the
utopian paperless office, in which all documents are viewed, stored and transferred electronically, is closer than ever to becoming reality.
Following the merger of Nuance and Scansoft, best known for its voice recognition software Dragon Naturally Speaking, a new company using the Nuance name has emerged.
Neil Grant, the UK sales director for Nuance, explained that the merger will allow the more consumer-facing (Scansoft) side of the business to concentrate more than ever on productivity solutions.
"With the emergence of cost effective and feature-rich alternatives to Adobe – such as Nuance’s PDF Converter 3 – an increasing number of organisations can now easily scan,
store and manage their electronic documents,” he said. “Indeed, it may be regulation that finally kick starts the move to the Paperless Office."
Meanwhile Belgian outfit IRIS, a specialist in OCR and scanning technology, believes speed and accuracy are key. EMEA channel sales director Bernard de Fabribeckers told PC Retail: “The scanning/OCR sector is booming because the technology is now making the paperless office much easier to achieve.”
As well as OCR software, IRIS also makes a range of handheld scanners. It is currently making a big push at the independent retailer channel and has recently signed agreements with Ingram Micro and Brigantia.