Canon Expands Holistic Business Solutions Portfolio with Therefore 2016

6/29/2016

MELVILLE, N.Y. – The more companies can measure and make informed decisions, the better they can manage their business. Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced the availability of Therefore™ 2016, the newest version of the information management and workflow solution to help organizations streamline business processes, identify bottlenecks and improve how information is handled and retained. With the enhancements made to the existing Web Forms feature, integrations with premier electronic signature providers and Microsoft® Power BI and PDF/A-3 advancements, Therefore™ 2016 helps companies work smarter by connecting people and processes to information in a simple, more secure and productive manner.

“Canon understands the importance of managing information – whether printed on paper, digitally stored, or even as metadata,” said Toyo Kuwamura, executive vice president and general manager, Business Imaging Solutions Group, Canon U.S.A., Inc. “Today’s organizations are concerned about the ways their users transmit, receive, maintain and protect their company information or their customers’ information. Not only do MFPs process paper information, but employees also transmit, receive, and maintain information digitally. Therefore™ 2016 can help manage this information, set retention policies, collaborate and control versioning, enable internal or external access to information based on user rights, and automate processes just by saving a document into a specific folder.”  

 “Companies today are struggling to manage their disjointed content strategies, resulting in a lack of assurance in the reliability of their content,” said Randy Dazo, group director of InfoTrends’ Office Document Technology Group. “By employing a strong information management and workflow solution, businesses can harness the power of their content, regain control and improve workflows, compliance, information security and customer satisfaction.”

Web Forms 
Allowing for more efficient, simple and mobile data entry, the newly enhanced Web Forms features allow for the input of validated data into Therefore™. When used in conjunction with workflow and analytics tools, Web Forms can automate the collection of data from external parties and provide for more efficient, simple and mobile data entry. Web Forms also allow administrators to design highly customizable forms directly in the Solution Designer, permitting authenticated users to submit forms from the Navigator or Viewer, and enabling external parties to submit forms hosted on a public website for applications, such as customer satisfaction surveys. Data collected from external sources is protected, traceable and centrally archived, allowing businesses to sustain a clear summary of the key performance indicators they are achieving and areas in need of improvement.   

E-Signatures 
With an increasing number of best-in-class companies including e-signatures into their business practices, electronic signatures are an increasing trend. Through integration with Digital Transaction Management providers, such as DocuSign®, Therefore™ 2016 extends the solution’s e-signing capabilities, allowing users to manage complete signing processes online. Whether a signature is required to seal a final document version, or to certify the legal signing process of a contract between parties, the newly added E-Signature feature has the power to assist businesses in improving customer satisfaction, employee productivity, as well as helping to save time and reduce costs. 

Microsoft® Power BI 
The new Microsoft® Power BI integration enhances the analytic capabilities of Therefore™ by providing a real-time, interactive dashboard of the company’s data that is simple to configure and use. Once a Power BI user account is created, a Therefore™ administrator can simply create a Power BI dataset by selecting a category and parameters which will be automatically uploaded to Power BI at regular intervals. Users can generate an analytic dashboard and intuitively fine-tune reports right at their fingertips with the help of robust, user-friendly design tools. Whether viewing on a desktop or mobile device, Microsoft® Power BI allows executives to view business performance data live, whether in the office or on-the-go. 

PDF/A-3
Capable of unlocking various possibilities in document processing and digital customer-vendor communication, PDF/A-3 with XML can help streamline accounting processes and reduce errors caused by manual data entry. Therefore™ 2016 will include support for the PDF/A-3 format, allowing users to extract index data from embedded file types as attachments within a PDF/A document, allowing for automatic document processing while retaining the user-friendly appearance of a PDF document. This new capability grants businesses the potential to increase productivity and operational effectiveness by improving key performance indicators such as ‘first time match rate’ and ‘percentage of invoices in query’.

Availability
Using Canon’s MEAP solution platform, Therefore™ can be integrated with Canon’s imageRUNNER ADVANCE series, imageRUNNER devices and imageFORMULA DR scanners. ThereforeTM 2016 is now available across the United States through Canon authorized dealers. Prices are set by individual dealers and may vary depending upon version purchased, number of licensed users, and implementation services provided.

 

Republished with permission from Buyers Laboratory LLC (www.buyerslab.com). ©2016 Buyers Laboratory LLC