LizardTech JPEG 2000

This is an interesting story regarding some patent claims that LizardTech seems to be making against the JPEG 2000 standard. On the patent front also, apparently ScanSoft still has an open case with Millennium. That's all for now. I'm going to see of LizardTech has anything to say about its JPEG 2000 claims.

Here's LizardTech's response.

FileNET Numbers

Did you see the latest numbers from FileNET?. On the surface,they look pretty impressive, but when you dig a little deeper, they actually show no software license growth. Wall Street of course caught on to this. Coupled with projections of less than 5% overall growth for next year,FileNET got slammed pretty good by the street.
So,what's up with FileNET? Why can't they grow in a red-hot ECM market? Take a look at our next issue, which features stories on companies like IBM and Hyland - who appear to be cruising in this space. Hyland Founder Packy Jr. once told me his goal was to be bigger than FileNET. I thought he was crazy at the time, but at the current growth rate of the two companies, that could happen in the next 10 years.

That is all not to say FileNET is not a well-run company. They do have oodles of cash and are run profitably as Lee Roberts likes to boast. But are they too conservative for their own good. They were burnt on acquistions in the mid-1990s and have been shy in that area ever since. They have a Global 2000 customer base, which is great. But something seems to be missing and that's the ability to sign up new customers. Years ago, FileNET made the transition from hardware and software very successfully. Some sort of similar new transition is going to have to happen, or if they lose a few of those blue chippers to the more aggressive competition, they could end up as the next Eastman Software. I wonder if eiStream, now known as 360 degrees or something, will buy them.

Cheers.

Ralph

Oce Digital Mailroom

Did you see that Oce announced its digital mailroom strategy? Is there anyone that is not going to be a player in the digital mailroom? Yes, I realize there are a lot of opponents, or should we say realists out there that still see document management as primarily a line of business applicaiton. That may be true, but line of buinsess applications don't get you in the C-level door as quickly as enterprise application. After all, look what ERP and Y2K combined to do to our industry five to 10 years ago. Well, it's time we struck back and the digital mailroom is the perfect route. Did you notice Captiva's recent $1 milllion and $2 million deals each included its Digital Mailroom application?

Cheers.

RG

Another government system failure

This story is kind of interesting. Apparently, it's about some FBI system designed by SAIC that was supposed to elminate document scanning. Apparently, it didn't work. Kind of reminded me of the Social Security Administation application I did a feature on for Transform earlier this year. We will give the government credit for spending a lot of money on technology and helping to drive innovation, but I must admit I feel kind of bad when my tax dollars get thrown down the drain!

RG

Cardiff, Verity, PDF

Here's an interesting link to an interview with Mark Seamans conducted on the PDFZone. Mark has risen to quite a position of prominance with Verity and we congratulate him on that. We've found him to be very straightforward in interviews and will have an article based on our conversation about Verity's Dralasoft's acquisition in our next issue. Interestingly, ScanSoft's Robert Weideman, another former Cardiff lieutenent is mentioned in this article. Speaking of Cardiff if you're looking for Dennis Clerke, here he is... .. seems to have landed a pretty nice position.

Patent article

Here's a link to a patent article sent to us by one of our readers. Pretty interesting stuff and some good suggested reforms. And this only begins to touch on the problems specific to software...

Cheers.

RG

Oracle

Well, congrats to Oracle on its impending acquisition of PeopleSoft. It seems overall that Ellison & Co. had a pretty good year in 2004. Of course, 2004 also marked the database giant's latest ECM maneuverings. No, the rumored FileNET or other player acquisition didn't come through. However, Oracle introduced its own product - which may carry the most ill-timed code name of all-time.

Carry on.

RG