Kofax, QAI, SPAs - Did They Help Fix Healthcare.gov?

This summer Kofax announced a $7M deal with a government agency that was among the biggest in company's history. It included more than $4M in software license revenue and $3.5M for four years of prepaid software maintenance. The deal was to a government agency and was sold through federally-focused Fulton, MD-based systems integrator and conversion services provider Quality Associates, Inc. (QAI).

At Kofax's recent Transform Conference, QAI was recognized by Kofax with its Award for Partner Deal of the Year. A few more details surrounding the customer came out. "The overall contract will help a government healthcare agency manage efforts related to enrolling uninsured citizens in state insurance exchanges, as mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – millions of paper and electronic applications and other documentation are received, reviewed and verified for completeness and eligibility, and processed in an environment that protects applicants’ personal information."

QAI is presenting this as a First Mile implementation leveraging Kofax's Smart Process Application technology. Of course, this is exactly what I was calling for as I was going through my personal experience trying to sign up for a new healthcare plan at US Government Web site. At least it appears we are all on the same page now, which may have something to do with the sharp decrease in complaints we've heard recently about the onboarding process.

Who is TIS' latest Census Win?

Top Image Systems (TIS) has been a leader in the census capture market for a long time. Recently it was recognized "as an approved vendor for the UNPFA (United Nations Population Fund Agency), the organization responsible for the execution of censuses worldwide." TIS has followed that up with the announcement of a census win that will bring it more than $1M in revenue. This includes implementing a capture and document management system.

The project is for a country in EMEA with a population of more than 15 million. So, who could this be? According to the Web site NationsOnline, there are five EMEA countries that fall between the population figure of 15-20 million (there are five more between 20 and 22 million). Those five countries are:

(We'll guess the Netherlands, but that is just a guess:)

Cameroon

Central Africa

19,406,000

Romania

Eastern Europe

19,043,000

Netherlands

Western Europe

16,733,000

Niger

Western Africa

16,275,000

Burkina Faso

Western Africa

15,731,000

Kofax Transform 2014 Kicks-Off - A Brief Look at Kapow

I am out there in San Diego Kofax's annual user and partner conference. Things kicked off last night with a reception/partner product showcase. One of the goals of my trip out here was to get a better understanding of Kapow - the data integration software company that Kofax acquired last year. I had a fairly long discussion with a Kapow salesperson last night as well as a demo. Basically, he described the "technology as the glue that binds." In other words - here's the way I understand it at least - it has the ability, without API programming, to go into any application and extract requested data. This can include both internal and external sites. And it's a two-way integration, so, if the collected data comes back in a way that indicates some sort of action should be taken, the Kapow software can also execute that action by submitting new data. And the software is designed so that these integrations can be set up by business analysts, with help from IT staff only for certain customizations.

Here's a case study of how Audi used Kapow to create an internal portal. How it fits into the Kofax platform is that it should enable Kofax's capture and Altosoft data integration sofware to be integrated with an unlimited number of third-party applications - which should push forward Kofax's First Mile strategy. The First Mile of course was the big marketing strategy pushed forward last year under then CMO Martyn Christian at Transform. All indiciations are that Kofax plans to continue down that strategic line. I'm interested to see how today's presenatations and interviews play out.

Strong SaaS and Mobile Revenue Highlights TIS 'Q4/Year-End Financials

Some highlights from Top Image Systems 4th quarter/year-end 2013 financials that were announced today:

• Fourth quarter revenue of $8M, up from 7.35M for Q4 '12.
• Year-end revenue of $29M for '13, down from $31.3M in 2012
• In 2013, mobile technology revenue accounted for10% of total and exceeded forecasts in this area by 100%
• SaaS revenue for Q4 was $360,000

Michael Schrader, COO, from the press release, “In 2013 we have reinforced our transition strategy, investing significantly in cloud and mobility and expanding our hybrid business model to gradually grow our SaaS subscription-based operations while maintaining our existing on-premise business....Current investments in our cloud-based solutions will further promote SaaS sales. In 2013 we reinforced our mobile and cloud-directed product development strategy with powerful channel and technology partnerships, product launches, patent filings and key organizational changes to drive US market growth.  We are confident that our business model transition and clear focus on our cloud, SaaS and mobile solution strategies in 2013 will drive us to maximum revenue growth.”