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Advanced Imaging Magazine
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Roundtable
Roundtable
Cost-Justifying
Imaging:
The Experience
Across the Sectors
June 2001
One of the issues that all sophisticated imaging sectors have to deal with is cost-justification of purchasing and implementation of systems—especially of upgrading beyond the initial acceptance stage. That goes for marketers in industrial vision, in enterprise document imaging systems, scientific systems, and more... and the experiences in those varied arenas should be of interest to marketers, integrators and potential adopters in all vertical markets. We've called on pros from those markets to fill us in on the cost-justification process as they are experiencing it now. But this is one topic that's perennial since it's always important!
WHAT ARE CUSTOMERS DEMANDING?
Larry Taitelbaum has been involved in sales and marketing of imaging and image processing products for more than 25 years. He is Director of Business Development at vision and image analysis supplier Datacube, Inc. Danvers, MA. 
Dr. David Martyr is Director of Business Area Imaging Solutions at Leica Microsystems Ltd., Wetzler, Germany(Deerfield, IL in the U.S.).
Scott Blau is Chief Executive Officer at Datacap, Inc.,
Tarrytown. NY .
Advanced Imaging: Inevitably, the most intriguing question about cost-justifying imaging implementation is what customers are demanding in that regard--right now! Could you characterize for us how important you're finding this question out there in a tough marketplace? Is it the bottom line price question or bang for that buck that's the key interest? If there are notable differences between types of customers by sector or size or level of imaging sophistication, that would be interesting to know, too!
Larry Taitelbaum, Datacube (Machine Vision): Regardless of the economy, customers still have requirements to improve quality, efficiency, and reliability. The cost of doing these things is weighed against potential financial return to create a "cost-justified" solution. In slower markets, vision customers usually consider two different scenarios--short- and long-term. The short-term picture requires lower cost solutions which generate immediate improvements in such areas as increased throughput, reduced labor content and production efficiency. The bottom line is improved.
