eCopy

eCopy was a pioneering company in document imaging solutions, founded in 1992 by Ed Schmid, who also served as its CEO. The firm established itself by creating a standardized platform to bridge the gap between paper-based information and digital business applications. Headquartered in Nashua, New Hampshire, eCopy's core business involved providing software that could be embedded into multi-function peripherals (MFPs) and scanners, transforming them into networked devices for enterprise-wide document workflows. This allowed users to scan paper documents and route them directly into various business systems, such as email, content management, and other enterprise applications, right from the MFP's interface. The business model focused on partnerships with major MFP manufacturers like Canon, Ricoh, HP, and Xerox, who would integrate eCopy's software into their hardware, as well as direct sales of its software suites.

The company's flagship product, eCopy ShareScan, was a server-based solution that enabled organizations to capture, process, and connect paper documents securely into automated workflows. It offered powerful optical character recognition (OCR) to convert scans into searchable and editable formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PDF. The platform was designed to integrate with a wide array of enterprise applications, including Microsoft SharePoint, Oracle, and SAP, adding significant value to a company's existing IT infrastructure. A key achievement for eCopy was creating a hardware-agnostic platform, which provided a consistent user interface and programming interface regardless of the underlying MFP, a significant step towards a de facto industry standard. By 2007, the company reported annual revenues of $63 million and had a substantial customer base that included over 100 Fortune 500 companies.

In a significant milestone, Nuance Communications acquired eCopy on October 5, 2009, for approximately $54 million in stock. The acquisition was a strategic move for Nuance, combining its desktop MFP solutions with eCopy's server-based offerings to create a comprehensive network scanning and document imaging portfolio. Following the acquisition, eCopy's products, such as ShareScan and eCopy PDF Pro Office, were integrated into the Nuance product family and later into Tungsten Automation (formerly Kofax), continuing to provide advanced document capture and workflow automation.

Keywords: eCopy, document imaging, document capture, Nuance Communications, Ed Schmid, eCopy ShareScan, MFP scanning, OCR software, workflow automation, paperless office, document management integration, network scanning, PDF conversion, enterprise content management, digital transformation, document security, business process automation, Tungsten Automation, Kofax, Ricoh, Canon