NRG Gestetner giveaway drives document management cultural revolution

Gestetner SA, a leader in printing, copying and document management systems for the business market, is bundling a free copy of MicroFile Pro document management and electronic archiving software with Gestetner scanners or scanning multifunctional printers. This initiative is intended to help customers understand and appreciate the massive improvements that can be made to business processes, both in terms of increasing efficiency in the office and in ensuring records management meet legal and operational needs.

"We are working exclusively with Micropal Africa, the local distributors of MicroFile, in this offering," explains Richard Pinker, MD of Gestetner SA. "Offices in SA are still drowning in paperwork, unable to find documents when they need them, or wasting huge amounts of time and effort in manual filing systems. What few operations managers appreciate is how easy managing paperwork can be.

We`ve been talking about it for a long time, but decided to put our money where our mouth is and pay for the software ourselves, to help our customers unlock the power that modern document scanners and multifunctionals offer when combined with an enterprise documents management system."

Customers that purchase a Gestetner scanner or scanning multifunction device (MFP) will receive a free single licence copy of MicroFile Pro, a powerful document management program for the small to medium-sized business. MicroFile Pro is the entry point in Micropal Africa`s product range, and users have the option to purchase additional MicroFile Pro licences or upgrade to a larger solution. MicroFile manages images as well as popular digital file formats (Word, PDF, Excel, audio, video, etc). It allows scanned images or files to be retrieved and manipulated by authorised personnel at the push of a button using the powerful search engine that intelligently works with categories assigned to documents when they are stored.

"Gestetner SA is the most proactive hardware vendor locally in their understanding of the huge value-add that software brings to the machines; one needs the other to be able to perform properly. Most office managers, financial controllers and administration staff know the importance of storing documents properly, but seldom make full use of the technology they already have. While modern document scanners or enterprise multifunctional printers come with basic software, it is often not powerful enough to be used as a true enterprise document management system. Together, we hope that this initiative will break down the barriers of apathy and lack of knowledge about how much time and trouble technology can save, as well as ensuring companies comply with legislation such as FICA," commented Patrick Schoeman, sales and marketing manager of Micropal Africa.

Key features of MicroFile Pro include the ability to browse documents in quick reference tables, with intuitive and powerful data manipulation tools. It has powerful search features, and the user can then print, fax or e-mail documents directly from within MicroFile. It supports batch scanning through the scanner`s automatic document feeder, and can handle imports and attachments of a host of digital file and media types. It has advanced compression of scanned documents and integrates well with OCR software.