Chartered accountants, Gowers, selects Kodak's i1220 Plus scanner technology to support business growth and enhance organisational efficiency

- £25k per annum saved on storage and stationary through scanning

- Simple and quick deployment, with no staff training required

London July 21, 2010 – Kodak (NYSE:EK) today announced that Gowers Limited, a Hertfordshire-based firm of chartered accountants, has selected a Kodak i1220 Plus scanner solution to improve organisational efficiency by removing the ever-growing mounds of paper associated with an accountancy business growing steadily year on year. It expects to save £25k per annum on space and stationary as a result. 

Based in Kings Langley, Gowers provides clients a range of services from accounting, tax and auditing, as well business development and strategic financial planning.  With a staff of twelve, it represents individuals, owner-managed businesses, right up to international companies and subsidiaries, and businesses with revenues over £20 million. 

David Green, Gowers’ managing director, says, “We added about 70 new clients last year. Having reviewed our office space requirements, we could see that moving forward, we’d need an unfeasibly large storage space for current and archived records.  We just couldn’t justify the fixed costs associated with storage any longer, so there was a very clear business case to digitise documents.” 

The solution was sold in June 2010 by Kodak reseller, Great Benefit Limited, who provides IT systems and support to Gowers and has long championed that it install a scanning solution.

Green explains, “Frankly, we had resisted going paperless even though various companies have cold called us to suggest a variety of systems.  It just appeared too scary. We like to be in control and using some solutions - I knew - would be costly, require a steep learning curve and, most importantly a major reworking of how we do things and run the office. A complete non-starter.”

In the end, Great Benefit provided a test unit so Gowers could see how simple a workgroup scanner solution is to use and how it could be implemented without any overhead to staff or the business.   

The duplex Kodak i1220 Plus scanner solution deployed can cope with 45 pages per minute or up to 3,000 pages per day - 50% faster than previous models. Ideal for office environments where space is at a premium, its ergonomic design offers a unique tilt-and-scan design which allows operators to choose the best physical position based on their scanning needs.

Reliability was a key requirement.  Green says, “If you’ve got one battleship and it sinks, you’ve got a problem.  If you’ve got lots of destroyers – different bits of hardware and software integrated together using Windows - if one fails, your whole practice doesn’t.  That’s been our approach.”

The aluminium paper pass, however, means reliability of the new scanner solution is second to none - perfect given the range of documents which are scanned.  From business and ID cards to documents 863mm (34 inches) long, practically anything can be digitised by the i1220 Plus.

Gowers has set up a file structure per client with a variety of sub folders which staff now scan documents to automatically at a touch of a button.  This includes all incoming post, letters, personal and corporate tax returns, minutes of meetings and permanent notes. 

And staff don’t need to worry about which way documents are put in as Kodak’s Perfect Page imaging technology automatically rotates them into a readable position saving time and effort pre-sorting paper, with optical resolutions up to 600 dpi for crystal clear images.

The return on investment benefits have been swift. Green says, “While there was some lost billing time as an experienced member of staff set up the new file structure, for a small firm, the future cost savings will be significant.  We’re getting rid of one whole floor in our building while also freeing up space for staff as we expand rather than having to add more filing cabinets.”

Gowers estimates that it will reduce the number of cabinets it has from 30 to 6 in the next few months so instead of increasing office space by 50-75% to accommodate future growth, it will only have to rise by 20%.  Coupled with a reduction in stationary cost, it is expected that £25k will therefore be saved annually. 

Additionally, staff will now be able to access all client documents if they are working offsite which they couldn’t have done before without having to transport loads of paper files around. Furthermore, disaster recovery and business continuity has been improved as all current files are now stored electronically and regularly backed up. 

Green says, “Our experience of using Kodak has been very positive. Having preconfigured the Smart Touch feature, we can do everything we need by just pressing one button.  It really has been that easy and we’ve all be very surprised not only how quickly we’ve got used to it, but actually how fed up we are dealing with traditional paper.” 

Neil Murphy, Kodak’s UK sales manager for document imaging, says, “For the past 25 years, Gowers’ strategy has been to use off-the-shelf IT solutions rather than far more expensive bespoke systems which require extensive and costly support. Gowers has more than kept up and ensured that its high quality service has been maintained without it ever being held to ransom by over-complex IT systems or support.  This project is example of the wisdom of its strategy.  Our scanners have been quickly installed and are delivering tangible benefit from day one. ”