Mitek Signs Deal with NCR

A little over a year ago, we ran an article discussing Mitek's release of technology for capturing and processing check images through mobile phones. Well, today Mitek announced a deal with NCR, which will offer Mitek's ImageNet Mobile Deposit to complement its APTRA Commercial Passport-- remote deposit capture software that allows deposits using check scanners from their businesses directly to the financial institution or via online banking web site.

This definitely seems like a step in the right direction, which might be a bit ahead of its time with this type of software- but as a toolkit vendor, also needs to anticipate the needs of its customers. NCR's offering both scanner and phone-capture based solution is indicative of where the market for mobile capture currently stands. It's a great idea, and probably will pick up momentum as phone cameras and processors continue to improve, but for now, the superior image quality of a scanner still offers many advantegous - if not the convenience and ubiquity of mobile phones.

Kofax Appointments - Book Scanner from Trash

There is no question Kofax has made a lot of changes over the past year, as CEO Reynolds Bish has really put his stamp on the company. One of Bush's main prerogatives has been to increase Kofax's average deal size by creating a strong direct sales force. Of course, this has created concerns about Kofax's dedication to the value-added reseller channel, which has historically served as its primary sales force. That's why it was refreshing to see today's announcement about the Irvine, CA-based software vendor hiring two industry veterens with substantial channel experience.

Dan Lucarini, who has been named senior director of business development, was for years a big advocate and marketing director for the Alchemy reseller channel. He left Captaris after its acquisition by Open Text. And Barbara Lanci, who has been named senior director of partner strategy and development, was a director of channel development for Kofax in the late 1990s. Both will report to Jim Vickers.

Also, a friend of ours sent us this cool link/video from a guy who basically built a DIY-type book scanners from some new cameras and 100% recycled materials. Check it out.

Ralph

CMS Watch Offers Valuable Advice

This is actually really funny. Good to see some humor related to ECM..

Article on Scan settings for OCR

This is a pretty insightful piece by OCR/data capture consultant Chris Riley of Living Analytics. One additional comment I'll make is that the scanning hardware vendors continue to introduce more versatile machines that address some of the demands that Chris mentions in his article. For example, Kodak has come out with a whole new series of scanners that capture in 300 dpi at the same speed as 200 dpi, and color speeds have almost caught up bi-tonal speeds.

We've also had many interesting conversations with vendors that specialize in the separation technology that Chris mentions and claim it can introduce OCR results on certain types of documents. As we've said before, we are entering a brave new world for recognition technologies.

Fujitsu Computer Products of America's Kevin Neal contributed these two helpful links on the same topic:

Increase ECM Automation Processes With Higher Resolution Scanning

Trends Towards Higher Resolution Scanning

Ralph