Like most other ultra-high-end sheet-feed document scanners, the Xerox DocuMate 6710 ($6,500) is super-fast and extremely accurate. What sets this model apart, though, is Xerox's new "parallel scanning" feature, which offers the ability to connect up to 10 scanners to the same PC simultaneously, escalating workstation throughput by as much as tenfold. What that means in the real world is increasing a scanning station's payload from 200 images per minute to 2,000. At $6,500 a pop, that's an expensive proposition, but for enterprise-grade scenarios that require high-volume and high-speed scanning, it's pretty impressive.
Dazzling DocuMate
At 13.6 by 18.4 by 17.5 inches (HWD) and weighing 37.4 pounds, the DocuMate 6710 is about average in size and girth compared with similar machines. For example, it's several inches slighter in both width and depth and about 10 pounds leaner than the HP ScanJet Enterprise Flow N9120 mentioned in the previous paragraph, yet it's a few inches smaller in all dimensions and a couple pounds lighter than both the Kodak Alaris' i3330 Scanner (another Editors' Choice model) and the Kodak i3500 Scanner.
The DocuMate 6710's output tray can hold up to 300 pages. The largest paper size it can handle is 12.1 inches wide by 100 inches long. Its automatic document feeder (ADF) supports up to tabloid-size sheets, and it has a maximum daily duty cycle of a whopping 35,000 scans. That matches or beats all of the competition mentioned here in both capacity and maximum daily volume. The bottom line? While the DocuMate 6710 may list for a higher price than these other models, it's also built to work harder.
Similar Products
In addition to holding up to 300 sheets of paper, the DocuMate 6710 can store up to 90 workflow profiles, selectable from the device's simple OneTouch control panel (shown below). I'll discuss the OneTouch scanner interface more below.
One place where the DocuMate 6710 comes up short is its connectivity options: It solely supports USB 3.0. But that's not surprising, being that this scanner is meant to push thousands of scans as fast as possible every day.
Among its many other functions, the DocuMate 6710 supports a feature available only on Xerox (and Visioneer) products—a set of hardware-based scan correction and enhancement routines called Visioneer Acuity. This program offloads up to 15 image-processing functions, such as background removal, blank page removal, crop, de-speckle, de-skew, JPEG compression, multi-color dropout, and page rotation, that are typically performed on the PC that the scanner is connected to. The goal here is to relieve the PC from performing several time-consuming routines that could slow down other critical processes.
Also included is the Visioneer Acuity PC Optimization software, which streamlines processes traditionally handled solely by the PC.
Software to Get the Job Done
The DocuMate 6710 comes with only a few software programs, but between them, you get everything you need to initiate or join a sophisticated document-management and/or archiving architecture. As mentioned, in addition to Acuity, you get Visioneer OneTouch, an outstanding scanner interface and document-management app comprising a small, easy-to-use front end and a powerful, highly configurable back end.
To the end user, OneTouch appears as a set of simple icons in the system tray, as shown in the image above. You simply click one of the buttons, which in turn fires a predefined workflow.
Right-clicking an icon displays info on the profile, including target file format, resolution, and more…
Right-clicking also opens OneTouch Properties, where administrators with the right credentials can make extensive configuration changes to profiles, target document formats, and more. In the image above, notice the locks beside each of the workflow icons. These indicate that end users must contact a system administrator to make configuration changes to these profiles…
High-Volume Game Changer
With scanning speed ratings of 100 pages per minute (ppm) for one-sided pages and 200 images per minute (ipm) for two-sided pages, the DocuMate 6710 is considered a "mid-volume production" document scanner. The problem with building high-volume document scanners is that achieving speeds much beyond 140ppm is prohibitively expensive. For example, of the four high-capacity scanners discussed here so far, the fastest, Kodak's i3500, is rated at only 110ppm and 220ipm.
Where does this leave high-capacity service bureaus, large enterprises, and government agencies with huge back-file conversions from hard copy to digital, and others with massive document-scanning tasks? Well, until now they either set up additional (manned) imaging workstations comprising scanners capable of "mid-volume" capacities or paid for higher-speed scanners. Either solution is expensive. Should you choose the latter, as I wrote this, my search for document scanners capable of churning at the rate of 240ipm or higher turned up models that cost nearly three times the DocuMate 6710's list price, and machines rated at 300ipm sold for as much as $50,000.
Enter Xerox's parallel scanning, which involves, essentially, connecting several DocuMate 6710s—as many as 10—to the same Windows workstation. Each scanner runs its own OneTouch session capable of scanning and processing as many as 100 one-sided pages per minute and/or 200 two-sided images per minute, or up to 1,000ppm or 2,000ipm.
Are you skeptical? So was I. Instead of shipping me more than one DocuMate 6710, Xerox gave me a live demonstration of parallel scanning in action. The demo consisted of running two scanners on the same computer, rather than 10, but that was more than adequate for verifying the viability of this new technology.
During the demo, when the second scanner kicked in, Windows automatically allocated CPU and other resources to running and processing the second scanning session, and, according to Xerox, it will continue to do so as each new machine comes online. Granted, you'll need a beefy computer to allocate enough resources to run 10 sessions optimally.
It's not realistic to keep 10 scanners fed and running simultaneously, but what's important is that for the cost of two DocuMate 6710s, you can increase throughput incrementally, as opposed to paying up to $50,000 for one machine that can handle the same amount of work, or maybe even less.
No Rest for the Weary
As mentioned, Xerox rates the DocuMate 6710 at 100ppm for one-sided pages and 200ipm for two-sided sheets, where each page side constitutes an image. I tested the DocuMate 6710 over USB 3.0 on our standard Intel Core i5-equipped testbed PC running Windows 10 Professional.
Before reporting the results, though, I should stop here to point out that our standard scanner benchmark routines aren't really intended for testing machines of this size. Our 25-sheet test document, for example, works well for testing sheet-fed scanners with ADFs that hold 100 sheets or less. One of the first things I noticed when starting my tests was that it took a few seconds for the 6710's feeder tray to rise in to place and the scanner itself to settle in to its stride. At 100ppm and 200ipm, 4 or 5 seconds is a long time.
Hence, using our standard testing routines didn't provide as accurate results as did loading the ADF with a stack of 200 to 300 originals and letting it rip. Using this method, the DocuMate easily turned in raw scanning speeds (speeds discounting the lag time required for converting the scanned pages to usable file formats) of about 100ppm and 200ipm. But since this isn't the method we usually use to test scanners, I can't use the numbers gleaned from this method for comparison in this review.
That said, without the lag time, the DocuMate 6710 ripped through our one-sided 25-page test document at an average rate of 76.9ppm and our 25-page two-sided (50 images) test document at 165.7ipm. With the lag time required to convert the scans to image PDF, the rates ticked downward to 71.4ppm and 142.9ipm. On the final test, the DocuMate 6710 scanned and converted our two-sided 25-page document to the more versatile searchable PDF in just 23 seconds.
Keep in mind that the DocuMate 6710 packs way too much power if your scan jobs consist of 25 pages or so. Even though these scores are not optimal for this particular scanner, they are among the fastest we've seen from any scanner we've tested. It's also important to note here that, while our testbed PC is, as everyday workstations go, about average, a beefier machine with a faster CPU and brawnier components all the way around would probably have produced faster results.
Excellent Accuracy
In document-management and archiving applications, the best possible accuracy is critical. The DocuMate 6710 scanned our Arial font test page without mistakes down to 5 points (which is quite small) and our Times New Roman test page down to 6 points. Not only are these the best scores we've seen from a scanner this size, including those mentioned here, but they are also among the best we've seen from any document scanner at any size.
As for the other three high-volume models discussed here, they managed about 6 points error-free on the Arial page and 8 points on the Times New Roman page without mistakes. That's acceptable for business scenarios and especially high-end document archiving.
Lightning-Fast Scanning for Enterprises
Obviously, the Xerox DocuMate 6710 isn't your everyday business scanner. It's designed for enterprises that need the fastest possible throughput, and it's the speediest and most expandable document scanner we've seen to date. Granted, it's expensive, but by attaching two of these scanners to your PC, you'll get speeds just as fast as machines that cost tens of thousands of dollars more. If your goal is pushing your daily scan rate to the max at the best possible price (with the option to increase production significantly later by adding more hardware), Xerox's DocuMate 6710 is a wise investment.
The Xerox DocuMate 6710 is a super-speedy, highly accurate high-end scanner designed for enterprises that require the fastest throughput possible.
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Sign up for other newslettersAbout William Harrel
Former Contributing Editor
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