With regards to the scanning issue, you could scan to FTP; new Brother workgroup MFC printers can even scan to SFTP and I'm sure other manufacturers are the same. (Note that smaller, cheaper $150 Brother lasers cannot scan to FTP/SFTP; that feature seems to be reserved for printers in the $400+ range.)
For example, you can scan multi-page documents in B&W or color (even double-sided) to individual JPEG's PDF's right from within the printer's sheet feeder itself, and have them uploaded via SAMBA or SFTP. I'm sure the very large enterprise printers/copiers/etc can probably do this with for multiple accounts as well, so that each user on an entire floor could scan directly into their own incoming directory.
For example, you can scan multi-page documents in B&W or color (even double-sided) to individual JPEG's PDF's right from within the printer's sheet feeder itself, and have them uploaded via SAMBA or SFTP. I'm sure the very large enterprise printers/copiers/etc can probably do this with for multiple accounts as well, so that each user on an entire floor could scan directly into their own incoming directory.