By Lisa Reider, Senior Product Editor, Scanners and Environmental

In a lively meeting, representatives from leading scanning vendors—Canon, HP, Kodak, Panasonic and Visioneer—volleyed topics from market trends to improving the value of BLI scanner testing. The forum marked BLI’s first Scanner Testing Advisory Committee (TAC). 

Established in 2006 for BLI’s MFP testing, TAC meetings let vendors comment on BLI’s test methods, identify the peers they compete against and talk about how different market segments use products in unique ways. TAC meetings, both here and in Europe, touch every aspect of BLI’s work, while giving vendors a chance to interact. BLI’s inaugural scanner TAC was no exception.

An Energetic Beginning

From the start, participants eagerly shared ideas on revamping BLI’s scanner coverage. While many of BLI’s current test methods remain unchanged, the majority of test talk focused on simply adding more—more productivity tests with “typical” features enabled, testing additional types of media, more real-world OCR and file size testing, and new evaluations capturing the total user experience. “Helping BLI refine evaluation procedures benefits not only HP and the rest of the industry, but more importantly, the end customer,” said Craig Korfanta, HP’s competitive intelligence and technology analyst. “The surprisingly diverse perspectives of the various manufacturers really broadened my understanding of the overall scanner market.”

“Thanks to our knowledgeable participants, we were able to come away with a whole new understanding of the scanner market and what scanner consumers look for,” said BLI Managing Editor Daria Hoffman. “And we’re confident the result of this TAC will be reports that customers and resellers can’t live without.”

Original News : Canon