Adobe and Ricoh will work together to develop and co-market document scanning, security and print solutions based on Adobe PDF.

Their agreement comes at a time when the American workforce generates 2.7 billion new sheets of paper daily, office workers waste 10 hours per week sifting through documents, and every misfiled document costs $120 to replace, according to analyst firm The Gartner Group.

By using Ricoh products integrated with Adobe paper-to-digital solutions, workers will be able to work faster and with fewer errors. Now, the scan of a printed page to a searchable, more secure, and compact Adobe PDF file can initiate a mission critical process. Knowledge workers can establish secure digital workflows for scanned documents, adding user permissions and policies, encryption, digital signatures, and time stamps certified by trusted authorities.

The integration of Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server software, and Print and Scan technologies with Ricoh Document Solutions, multifunction product (MFP) and laser printer (LP) devices will transform the way knowledge workers convert paper processes into more secure digital workflows. Adobe PDF Scan Library will enable Ricoh MFP and document solutions to generate searchable, more secure, and compact PDF files from scanned paper documents. Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server will enable organizations to apply policies to electronic documents for increased security and control through Ricoh printing and document solutions. To increase usability, Ricoh will adopt Adobe’s Macromedia Flash technology in a wide range of products.