'MEAP' me up Scotty – magazine feature

Have you heard of the Multi-function Embedded Application Platform? Known as MEAP? This is a Canon software product that allows their current range of black-and-white and colour printers to do clever things. And I mean really clever things. So far as I know there is nothing else like it. But it is a bit difficult to describe.

When Canon had a day for the print trade press earlier this year, they demonstrated a MEAP application that they had been commissioned write for a major bank.

This bank gets about a million applications for credit cards every year. Traditionally they printed the application forms centrally and distributed them to branches. The mug punter, you or me, would front up, get a form, retire to the counter along the side wall, find a pen that worked, fill it in and hand it in. The teller would then check it visually and stick it in the mailbag to head office, which bundled them up and sent them off to the processing branch in Bangladesh or wherever. The processing branch would manually key the data on the form and if you were lucky you got yet another credit card, eventually.

The new way with forms

That was the old way. For about $200,000 what the bank got was a new system. Now, mug punter fronts counter and asks for credit card application form. Teller walks over to Canon printer and hits a button. Canon printer prints an application form. If the form was updated by head office one second ago, they get the updated form. Mug punter fills in form and hands it in. Teller presses another button. Form is scanned. Any missing fields are flagged, and mug punter immediately informed. All being OK, the form is electronically transmitted to Bangladesh or wherever, and is immediately sitting in someone's input queue - one second after it left Bexley North. Then it gets really sexy. Operator in Bangladesh pulls up the transmitted image of the form, and it comes up in two vertical panels. On the left is the image of the handwritten form, and on the right is the computer generated text from the handwriting decoder. The decoded text is colour coded according to how sure the program is about the decoding. In seconds the operator has checked and corrected the punters lousy handwriting.

I was amazed at the brilliance of this application. So simple, so efficient, and once you see it, so bloody obvious.

Other applications of MEAP

So how does this apply to you? That is what I asked Steve Brown and Andy Mackay from Canon. The answer to me at least, is not simple, not at this stage. MEAP was launched in Australia earlier this year. Almost all current Canon boxes are MEAP-enabled, but you still need someone to write the application. So again, what could you use it for? Consider the bank application above. Imagine how much that saves them in both time and money. It must reduce their processing costs to maybe a tenth of the old way, and reduce the processing time to a fraction as well.

Steve and Andy suggested a number of uses for MEAP including data encryption, security printing, print routing, retailing applications, an agency for selling almost anything, a self-service outlet for scanning, selecting and printing of digital photos. Not to mention data capture and retrieval for large corporates. All of these things could be programmed in MEAP. Am I getting to you yet?

The more you think about it, the greater the scope of applications becomes. You can be absolutely certain that within five years, all box sellers will provide a similar product. But as far as I know Canon has this market to itself at the moment.

Beyond the paper

The early adopters of this technology will be people who can see how to use it to get closer to customers needs. People who can see past the printing of the sheet to the purpose of the document and beyond that again.

In my view MEAP technology will lead to very significant savings in time and money in the way information is passed and processed - worldwide. It will rival the impact of the internet as a time and cost saver.

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Ian Maclean produces the CostMaster MIS for print shops and also consults to the trade. You are always welcome to contact Ian on 0411 426 215 or ian@costmaster.com.au