tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75722772024-03-17T11:42:15.933-04:00Document Imaging TalkThis site is designed to be a forum for news on in the document imaging, information capture, and enterprise content management industries. It's edited by Ralph Gammon, publisher of the Document Imaging Report, and an analyst of these markets. After almost 20 years, the document imaging market is finally reaching maturity and being subsumed into the world of more general IT applications. This makes it a very exciting time to be involved with the industry.DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.comBlogger828125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-30719422405581936322020-02-12T05:00:00.001-05:002020-02-12T05:49:23.996-05:00Why not Bundle Textract with a Network Scanner?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was doing an interview recently with a scanner vendor which was planning on introducing a new SOHO model, for which they expected Amazon to serve as the primary marketplace. Amazon sells a lot of document scanners. This got me thinking, why not bundle some AWS Textract services with scanners being sold through Amazon?<br />
<br />
Introduced in 2018 and released for general availability last year, Amazon describes Textract as a "service that automatically extracts text and data from scanned documents." What more could you ask for with a document scanner? There are different flavors of Textract, from full-page OCR and layout recognition, to forms extraction, to table extraction. <a href="https://www.documentimagingreport.com/?p=3768" target="_blank">Here is a link </a>to an article I did on Textract in 2019, and here's<a href="https://aws.amazon.com/textract/" target="_blank"> a link to Amazon's Textract site.</a> Did I mention <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/textract/pricing/" target="_blank">Textract is</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" target="_blank"> cheap</a>?<br />
<br />
One drawback to Textract, which we have discussed, is that unless a user specifically requests that their images are deleted, Amazon basically reserves the right to utilize them going forward to improve Textract, as well as "other Amazon
machine-learning/artificial-intelligence technologies." That can be a non-starter for some, but adoption of the bundled service would be optional or a vendor could limit the bundling of AWS OCR services to single SKU.<br />
<br />
So, if I am a scanner vendor, why wouldn't I look at including a year's worth of Textract services with the purchase of the scanner from the Amazon marketplace? Maybe the issue is that Textract is more of an AWS/B2B play than a B2C play like you get more commonly with the Amazon marketplace. But, for a vendor selling their scanners to the SOHO market, maybe there's a fit. And I'm not sure if Amazon works like this, but could you think of a better way to get good positioning with the world's largest e-tailer than supporting one of their up and coming AWS services initiatives, w<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazons-amzn-aws-momentum-drive-141002709.html" target="_blank">hich are a major growth area for Amazon?</a><br />
<br />
So, my proposition is for a scanner vendor to create a SKU, probably for some type of scanner with a network connection, that offers a free year of Textract Services. Amazon already offers a three-month free tier of Textract, so introducing some sort of trial with a scanner would not be that much of a stretch for them. If anyone does take advantage of this idea, if you'd just give me credit, I'd appreciate it.<br />
<br /></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-36205524834479827212019-10-22T16:42:00.002-04:002019-10-22T16:46:44.904-04:00Age of Intelligent Robots Approaching<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A couple weeks ago, I noticed that when my 13-year old son and his friends were insulting each other, they used the term "bots." I thought this was interesting, because in our industry, we have typically considered bots to be a good thing -as in you can deploy "a bot" to automate a process. In fact, the rapidly growing billion-dollar RPA industry has been built on bots.<br />
<br />
I asked, "Why do you call each other bots as a put down?"<br />
<br />
"Because in video games when you play against the computer, even the
highest level is dumber than playing against the worst real person," my son answered . "You're playing against a bunch of 'bots.'" <br />
<br />
That made perfect sense to me. In fact, a few months back, I realized that despite many people thinking that robots are intelligent, the way they have been deployed in RPA doesn't really manifest that. Sure, RPA 'bots' can copy repetitive human tasks, but when it comes to anything outside of that, well that just hasn't been happening. And it seemed to me that the promise of RPA (especially as it has risen in parallel with AI) is that is should be more intelligent.<br />
<br />
Well, this seems to be on the minds of RPA vendors as well. In a <a href="https://www.documentimagingreport.com/?p=6596" target="_blank">recent interview I did with Chad Gailey,</a> VP, channels and ISV partners, Americas, for RPA market leader Blue Prism, he said, "RPA is today, but it’s really simple processing. The future is leveraging machine learning and computer algorithms to mimic and behave in a human manner. We want to infuse vision from AI and cognitive learning platforms into our RPA software to move to our next generation."<br />
<br />
Then, a couple weeks later, we found ourselves interviewing Kashif Mahbub, VP, product marketing and global head, RPA for another market leader, Automation Anywhere. He was <a href="https://www.documentimagingreport.com/?p=6584" target="_blank">briefing us on Automation Anywhere Enterprise A2019,</a> the ISV's next-generation RPA platform. It includes, "infused AI skills and capabilities throughout the platform."<br />
<br />
So, RPA is getting more intelligent. Interestingly, document capture has already embraced AI. As their ability to capture data from structured documents became commoditized, document capture vendors introduced AI to help them deal with capture from a wider variety for forms. For some RPA vendors, capture has actually been their first step towards "cognitive automation." Automation Anywhere, for example, markets a product called "IQ Bot" that was presented to me at AIIM as a document capture platform.<br />
<br />
So, it seems that as RPA moves toward intelligent automation, there are even more synergies with capture that can be realized. In addition, workflow vendors like Hyland are also looking to leverage AI to automate more processes within their platform, which should definitely create some more crossover and possible synergies with RPA.<br />
<br />
We know one thing: that RPA leaders like Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, and UiPath certainly have a lot of funding to invest in AI technology if they choose to, and it sounds like they are choosing to. There seems to be a bit of an intelligent automation arms race beginning - as part of the larger Digital Transformation market as whole. And as AI more deeply enters into this fray, maybe the idea of "dumb bots" will become archaic. In fact, there is already<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-computer-beat-the-go-master/" target="_blank"> a well known story about an AI program that beat a champion of the Chinese board game "go."</a> Wait 'til Madden gets ahold of that technology. Thirteen-year-olds will have to most certainly adjust their lexicons and come up with a new insult for dumb. Perhaps something like "paper user," will be in vogue next.<br />
<br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="false"
DefSemiHidden="false" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="377">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footer"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of figures"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope return"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="line number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="page number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Mention"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Smart Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hashtag"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Unresolved Mention"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Smart Link"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Smart Link Error"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0in;
mso-para-margin-right:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0in;
line-height:107%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<br />
<br /></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-54448452456136111522019-02-11T15:48:00.002-05:002019-02-11T15:48:31.323-05:00Kofax Being Opportunistic with Capture Acquisitions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Is Kofax doing a capture roll-up? It may look that way, but I would describe it more as an opportunistic short-term play in order to fund a more strategic plan around intelligent automation.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">"Kofax is in a unique position in that we are trying to protect our base while also funding the future growth portion of our business," explained Chris Huff, Kofax's Chief Strategy Officer, during a recent call to discuss the ISV's <a href="https://www.topimagesystems.com/news/top-image-systems-enters-into-a-definitive-agreement-to-be-acquired-by-kofax-stockholders-to-receive-0-86-in-cash-per-share/#.XFhGSBc-rhQ.twitter" target="_blank">acquisition of Top Image Systems (TIS)</a>. "The consolidation play (including recent acquisitions of both TIS and <a href="http://documentimagingreport.com/acquisition-of-nuance-widens-kofaxs-capture-footprint/" target="_blank">Nuance Document Imaging</a>) protect our base in the capture market where we now command (a greater than 25%) share. Our position there provides us with cash flow to fund the future."</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
A<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">fter the recent acquisitions, Kofax is now a $600 million a year entity, with the good majority of that coming from capture, although RPA is acknowledged as the fastest growing part of the business. In addition, Kofax has technology in areas like digital signatures, customer communications and business process management. These <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">originally were</span> assembled to be part of Kofax's "First-Mile" of customer interaction strategy for connecting systems of engagement with systems of record. It doesn't necessarily seem like this strategy has changed, as the intelligent automation platform offers similar functionality and addresses similar problems.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
As<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> far as building the capture business, i</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">n Nuance, Kofax picked up an operation with $200 million in annual revenue and historically high margins (37% in its fiscal 2017 and 32% in 2018) for less than two times its annual revenue. With TIS, it picked up a $25-$30 million per year business for well less than one-time revenue (by our calculations at least, as the official purchase price was only announced on a per share basis). And both businesses have technology and customer bases that fall into Kofax's market-leading capture wheelhouse. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">So, while we didn't necessarily expect Kofax to acquire capture companies when CEO Reynolds Bish told us in early 2018 that, with the backing of Thoma Bravo, Kofax was getting back in the acquisition game, we can see certainly see the strategy here.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> Per our conversation with Huff, we expect Kofax to continue to be aggressive in M&A, but not necessarily with more capture vendors. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Nuance and TIS were fairly unique situations. Nuance had gone through a change at the top and the new CEO didn't have the same connection to document imaging as long-time CEO Paul Ricci did. Nuance's main focus is speech technology and quite frankly, we had been predicting for some time that they were going to spin off DI in some manner. It seems like a really good buy for Kofax.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">And TIS also seems like a good buy. TIS has a relatively blue chip customer base, between its capture and hosted remittance processing businesses. But, the company has historically had a tough time turning a profit, has consistently been losing money and was down to like a million and a quarter in cash as of mid-year 2018. Sure, there was financing in place to keep it in business, but TIS has done plenty of financing deals over the years, Also, the company had recently revamped the cloud capture strategy is had invested a lot of R&D in, so it didn't sound like us they would be turning things around anytime too soon. Bish has a fairly good track record of turning profits, so rolling TIS' into Kofax's infrastructure should be a positive in that sense. In addition, perhaps some of the extensive cloud work that TIS has done (in addition to the SaaS infrastructure it picked up when it acquired eGistics's payment processing operation) can help Kofax as it develops a more cloud services oriented architecture for its intelligent automation platform.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
The bottom line here is that we think Kofax's recent capture acquisitions were opportunistic, as well as strategic, but might not be part of some greater capture roll-up plan. They do represent the type of strategic play you can make when you have are backed by a strong financial partner like Thoma Bravo. We next expect Kofax to flex that muscle in some sort of AI-related buy, not another capture acquisition.</div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br /></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-46456218908098636962018-10-26T14:14:00.002-04:002018-10-26T14:55:15.253-04:00The Importance of Mobile on the Future of Scanning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It seems we have somewhat forgotten about the potential impact of mobile document scanning and capture. Back in 2011, when only 35% of Americans identified themselves as owning a smart phone, Harvey Spencer Associates projected that by 2015, there would be $1.5 billion worth of software sold related to mobile capture, up from $200 million in 2011.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb9sR8YcX-cHDrxy3175LpwudA5ox8E5gHWgcHcpnfRslTE-7sAENG590NsBrZDvbIqNM3eglmr3YD0_pNZdV_-lKrO0bvawa-7vKE3eiG3rd_jIW59esOv1A2NS6waEZTFDRp/s1600/Smartphone+adoption+grpahic.png" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="600" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb9sR8YcX-cHDrxy3175LpwudA5ox8E5gHWgcHcpnfRslTE-7sAENG590NsBrZDvbIqNM3eglmr3YD0_pNZdV_-lKrO0bvawa-7vKE3eiG3rd_jIW59esOv1A2NS6waEZTFDRp/s400/Smartphone+adoption+grpahic.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Since then, while smart phone usage has more than doubled, HSA's projected revenue growth for mobile capture software has not been realized. The study identified several potential use cases including field service, transportation, scan-to-the-cloud, home healthcare, assessment/survey/audit, onboarding and mobile check deposit. Of these, while we've seen some traction in markets like transportation and onboarding, the real killer app has been check scanning, which Mitek has made a $60 million-a-year business out of. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
There have certainly been a lot of efforts at developing document scanning apps for mobile devices. A quick search in the Google Play store reveals hundreds--most of them offering some basic functionality, like PDF creation, for free. The challenge has been monetizing this technology.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
At the recent <a href="https://abbyytechnologysummit.com/" target="_blank"><span id="goog_2035931654"></span>ABBYY Tech Summit<span style="color: black;">,</span></a> VP of Marketing Bruce Orcutt acknowledged that it's very hard to make money off mobile capture as a standalone app, but stressed that mobile is vital to the future of the company, as complementary technology to its capture platform. "Mobile is the preferred channel of end users," he said, meaning that people want to use their smartphones to capture documents. As phones' cameras and processing power continues to improve, this preference will only become more prevalent. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Mobile is even more vital in less developed markets outside the U.S. During the recent <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Harvey Spencer Associates Capture I</span> had dinner with Claudio Chaves, Jr., the CTO of <a href="http://icapt.io/" target="_blank">IcAPT</a>, an ISV jointly based in Brazil and Orlando, that has developed a cloud-based capture service. Chaves also has extensive experience working with service bureaus in Brazil. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
He explained that in Brazil, legal requirements call for mortgage documents to be printed on paper, which creates a good business for capturing them. However, he noted that one of challenges is that the images are often poor quality because people use their phones to capture them</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">According to my infoSource data, there were approximately
26,500 document scanners sold in Brazil last year compared to 875,000 sold in
the U.S. That's 33 times as many scanners being sold in the U.S. than Brazil,
which has a population of 209 million, which is more than 60% of the U.S.
population of 325 million. Obviously, Brazil is underserved when it comes to
document scanner sales. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">But not when it comes to mobile phones. In 2017, it was
estimated that there were almost 200 million smartphones in use in Brazil, giving it a
penetration rate of close to 100%, considerably higher than the U.S. smartphone
penetration rate of 77% (at the beginning of 2018). Like many countries with
emerging economies, Brazil seems to be somewhat skipping the desktop era (at
least for scanners) and moving right to the mobile era.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I don't think Brazil is unique in this transition. The
question is how do we best address it? I think the continued development of
better mobile capture technology is the primary way. ABBYY, for example, has shown
us some very cool video streaming technology that enables users to capture
multiple images of a document and utilize ABBYY's algorithms to determine the
best one. I recently saw<a href="https://www.ispot.tv/ad/dFaa/google-pixel-3-top-shot-song-by-frank-sinatra" target="_blank"> a commercial for Google's new Pixel 3 phone</a> that
offers similar functionality for photographs.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Sure, I know that everyone in the hardware market likes to
say that scanning one or two pages might be fine with a mobile device, but I
think the market is moving beyond that. I think the market would like to do
batch scanning with mobile devices. There is of course the option of using
mobile devices to drive scanners, but it doesn't seem
like there has been much uptake in that area yet. No, the preference seems to be utilize
the smartphone camera. And with memory increasing and the cameras improving, we
think this demand will only increase in the future.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">What does this mean for the future of scanners? Well, we
have already started to see a decline in sales of personal (<$400) scanners in the Americas, according to our infoSource data, while sales of higher end workgroup, departmental, and low-volume production scanners grow or at least remain steady.</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfQ0rPASWWdtXTjrOFbLnPI0chQzHKVlIeMyum_b-9oC14oEMuEr8La6WReZ7dbGtiIDUFejLdUCW5liMYEJTNstWB8Zh9u48XCnrxlY7ARWePJKitXzrGUPnffcB2Iey355PQ/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="1600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfQ0rPASWWdtXTjrOFbLnPI0chQzHKVlIeMyum_b-9oC14oEMuEr8La6WReZ7dbGtiIDUFejLdUCW5liMYEJTNstWB8Zh9u48XCnrxlY7ARWePJKitXzrGUPnffcB2Iey355PQ/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<u><span style="color: #000120;"></span></u><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: 0px 0px; border-image: none; border: 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
</span>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Of course, this could be attributed somewhat to former personal leader Neat exiting the market for scanners to focus on software, but part of the reason Neat stopped selling scanners is that they launched a mobile app that they expect people to utilize as on on-ramp. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
</span>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
It will be interesting to watch how this plays out over the next few years. Will better scanning apps enable users to better capture multi-page documents with their phone? Will the evolution of TWAIN direct and similar "driverless" scanning technologies enable users to take full advantage of document scanners and MFPs for scanning with smartphones? How will the introduction of more AI, NLP, and machine learning into capture and BPM apps affect the market for scanning?</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
All of this is on the table. Let's just remember that mobile will have a major impact on the scanning and capture markets going forward.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 1340px;"><colgroup><col style="width: 270.66px;" width="405"></col><col style="width: 256px;" width="385"></col><col style="width: 208px;" width="313"></col><col style="width: 157.33px;" width="237"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr height="62" style="height: 41.17px;"><td class="oa1" height="62" style="height: 0px; width: 271.07px;" width="405"><br /></td><td class="oa2" style="width: 256.38px;" width="385"><br /></td><td class="oa2" style="width: 208.31px;" width="313"><br /></td><td class="oa3" style="width: 157.57px;" width="237"><br /></td></tr>
<tr height="58" style="height: 38.66px;"><td class="oa4" height="58" style="height: 0px; width: 271.07px;" width="405"><br /></td><td class="oa5" style="width: 256.38px;" width="385"><br /></td><td class="oa5" style="width: 208.31px;" width="313"><br /></td><td class="oa6" style="width: 157.57px;" width="237"><br /></td></tr>
<tr height="55" style="height: 36.68px;"><td class="oa7" height="55" style="height: 0px; width: 271.07px;" width="405"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</span></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-27964944633843819182018-09-12T18:45:00.003-04:002018-09-12T18:45:45.867-04:00Capture and RPA: Who's the Horse and Who's the Cart?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Is document capture a subset of Robotics Process Automation (RPA) or vice-versa? This question came up at the recent <a href="https://www.hsassocs.com/capture/" target="_blank">Harvey Spencer Associates Capture Conference</a> - an annual meeting of top executives in the document capture software industry. HSA's Mike Spang presented RPA as a $200 million-plus branch of the $4.1 billion capture industry. That said, by our calculations, just three of the market leading RPA companies, UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism, have a combined market capitalization of $4.4 billion, or more than the whole capture market is producing annually in revenue.<br />
<br />
And most accounts we hear have RPA implementations pulling through capture sales when the processes being roboticized run into documents, which seems to be a considerable amount of the time. Earlier this year, Boris Krumrey, the Chief Robotics Officer for UiPath, estimated that about 70% of the RPA vendor's 700 customers were likely candidates for capture. <a href="https://www.uipath.com/video/uipath-abbyy" target="_blank">UiPath has a partnership with ABBYY</a> to provide these services and was looking to partner with other capture ISVs as well.<br />
<br />
It's also been conjectured by no less than Reynolds Bish, CEO of Kofax (which offers both capture and RPA technology) that there is opportunity for BPA/workflow/case management integration with RPA for better managing processes where human intervention is required. So, there seems to be quite a bit of synergy between the RPA and ECM markets. Going one step further, recently ECM vendors <a href="https://www.digitechsystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DIR-7-13-18-Digitech-University.pdf" target="_blank">Digitech</a> and <a href="https://www.onbase.com/en/explore/robotic-process-automation" target="_blank">Hyland</a> have each announced RPA initiatives that seem to primarily built around automating the entry of information from their applications into third-party applications. So, in these cases ECM is pulling through RPA!<br />
<br />
This whole situation kind of reminds me of the Web Content Management vs. ECM division we dealt with around the turn of the century. At that time, I remember there was talk of WCM leader Vignette merging with ECM leader FileNet. There was a similar disparity between market caps and revenue (FileNet with the higher revenues but much lower multiple) to what you are currently seeing with RPA and capture. FileNet (and CEO Lee Roberts) could not come to grips with this disparity and thus never consummated the merger. Not too much later, in 2001, the Web technology bubble burst and Vignette was eventually sold to OpenText in 2009.<br />
<br />
I'm not saying the RPA technology bubble is going to burst, but Digitech CEO H.K. Bain recently told me that he felt the development of RPA was a step back from the advanced technology his company was working on related to information management. So, what's it going to be? Are capture ISVs going to be acquired by/merge with RPA companies while their valuation is high? Or, are the ECM companies going to wait it out and see if they can catch the RPA vendors on their way down?<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-51352213761762317922018-06-12T14:35:00.003-04:002018-06-12T14:35:59.927-04:00Insights into Current ECM Market from DocuWare's President<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Today, <a href="https://start.docuware.com/" target="_blank">DocuWare</a> <a href="http://documentimagingreport.com/docuware-announces-cloud-based-preconfigured-docuware-kinetic-solutions/" target="_blank">announced the first two applications </a>in its Kinetic Solutions program. <a href="https://start.docuware.com/kinetic?utm_source=docuware&utm_medium=CTA&utm_campaign=KS&utm_content=en-button-cta&hsCtaTracking=5eb81d2e-a4c9-4a14-8b74-707ffc71670f%7C1a3f2a81-a973-4a3d-a0ca-0674542633d3" target="_blank">Kinetic Solutions</a> are pre-configured to manage specific business processes and sit in the DocuWare cloud. The first two iterations are for accounts payable and human resources.<br />
<br />
These are not surprising places to start - as they are two of the most popular areas for businesses to begin their ECM implementations. DocuWare is a Germany-based ECM vendor that has been successful in the U.S. through a strategy of first buying one of its early U.S.-based solution providers (ALOS) and then focusing on recruiting MFP dealers to form the bulwark of its reseller channel.<br />
<br />
DocuWare was also one of the first traditional ECM vendors to recognize the significance of the cloud. In 2010, the company earmarked one million Euros for Web-based and SaaS initiatives, which eventually led to the launch of the DocuWare Cloud in 2012. Cloud adoption ramped up gradually but by the end of 2017, the ISV was projecting the over half its new customers would be choosing the Cloud - a high rate compared to most legacy ECM vendors. <br />
<br />
So, to us it seems that DocuWare's leadership has proven to have some keen insights when it comes to ECM adoption trends. And, in its latest press release announcing the first two Kinetic Solutions, President Juergen Biffar offered his views on three current trends he is seeing. “We are seeing three signals in the market,” he said. "First, because of its attractive economics and
simplified IT impact, there is escalating demand for cloud services versus
traditional on-premises software. Second, functional utility is not enough –
clear, intuitive usability is now expected. Third, companies are more inclined
to deploy a narrow, departmental solution versus trying to configure
complicated, legacy software. Enterprise-focused software that requires lengthy
and complicated professional services is witnessing softer demand."</div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
There has been a lot of talk in the ECM market about the emergence of "content services" and breaking down monolithic ECM solutions into "microservices" that can be consumed in smaller bits and used to assemble process-specific applications. With its Kinetic Solutions, DocuWare has kind of taken this approach, but instead assembled the microservices on its own into "micro-solutions" designed to be more manageable than a traditional ECM platform. This makes perfect sense for the mid-market businesses that they target who probably want something more "out-of-the-box" than a series of configurable ECM services.<br />
<br />
This seems to be a good approach on DocuWare's part and should help the ISV continue to increase its percentage of cloud sales, which should also lead to continued success into the foreseeable future.<br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />
<b><br /></b>
</div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-35476856996143802782018-02-02T15:06:00.004-05:002018-02-02T15:09:41.385-05:00Adding Substance to the Style in the Age of Digital Transformation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Digital Transformation sounds sexy. It’s about taking all
your manual and paper processes and making them faster and electronic. The
impetus behind this transformation is that everybody is connected today, though
wi-fi, satellite networks, mobile devices, and even laptops and PCs. A lot of
work has been spent on enabling the UIs on these devices to help users to have
a top notch digital experience. However, it seems that back-end systems, where
information coming in from these UIs is processed, are still not up to speed.
At least this is what we were told when putting together stories for our last
[Jan. 26] issue. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
“A lot of companies have mobile apps and digital interfaces,
and they are very fast at pre-approving a loan,” Alan Swahn, VP of marketing at
ISV and systems integrator <a href="http://aifoundry.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1;">AI
Foundry</span></a>, told us. “But, to actually issue that loan, they are still dealing
with a lot of paper and armies of people keying in data. So, while the UI may
have gone through a digital transformation, everything else is old school.”</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
Added, Ralf Göbel, COO of data capture software and
crowdsourcing specialist <a href="http://www.scalehub.com/home/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1;">ScaleHub</span></a>,
“The problem is that the back-end systems used to process this input are not
fast enough. The apps and Web sites might be flexible and fast enough to
provide a great experience on the front-end, but the back ends at many big
companies have not kept up, and they are too slow.”</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
This is not a new problem. It was back in 2010 that AIIM,
with the help of noted technology author and consultant Geoffrey Moore, <a href="http://info.aiim.org/digital-landfill/newaiimo/2010/10/20/systems-of-record-and-systems-of-engagement" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1;">first started talking about </span></a>connecting Systems of
Engagement (the front end) with Systems of Record (the back-end). Since then it
seems the disconnect has only widened, as investments have tilted toward
improving mobile apps and UIs, and, as usual, back-end improvements in areas
like ECM, have been often pushed (no pun intended) to the back burner.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
Obviously, this would seem to create opportunity for savvy
capture and ECM vendors and integrators who know how to package their software
and services as part of a total Digital Transformation solution. That said,
their systems need to be architected correctly to integrate with multi-channel
front-end input avenues, as well as other back-end systems that are driving
business decisions.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
RPA is an interesting avenue for achieving some of this
integration. As we also went over in last week's issue, when Kofax first
purchased Kapow, it was presented as application integration software. This
capability (as well as the ability to learn by example) seems to be one of the
core tenets of products in the emerging RPA space. And indeed, while Kofax has
yet to see much crossover between capture and RPA, there are RPA vendors like
UiPath, which, <a href="https://www.abbyy.com/en-eu/news/abbyy-and-uipath-at-the-future-of-finance-summit/#sthash.ei3SFedJ.QFg8RekU.dpbs" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1;">through a partnership with ABBYY</span></a>, have added document
processing to their RPA portfolios. </div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
Kofax has seen a parallel between the capture and RPA
markets in the desire by users to introduce workflow automation to data being
gathered to RPA and data being captured from documents. This makes absolute
sense within the landscape of the Digital Transformation, where the desire is
to get things done faster and in a more automated way. So, if you look at it
from a process management standpoint, UI, capture, and RPA all should be
connected, along with automated workflows and back-end systems. That seems to
be the Holy Grail of Digital Transformation.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
I'll leave you with one more analogy. Let's go back to my
first statement about the Digital Transformation being sexy. Unfortunately,
more often than not, however, today it seems to be like the beautiful person
you meet at the bar whose conversation might only go as deep as reality TV.
Introducing capture, RPA, and workflow could be akin to sending this person to
college (and even grad school), where they learn to discuss business, politics,
philosophy and all sorts of other interesting topics. Of course, the question
is, do you have the budget for that? It's my hunch that if you look at the ROIs
for college, and you look at the ROIs for completing the Digital
Transformation, they might be similar. At least I'm hoping their both positive,
with two teenagers in school and a business heavily invested in the capture and
ECM markets.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: left;">
</div>
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: left;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<br /></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-63976477466559832772018-01-24T09:46:00.000-05:002018-01-24T09:48:49.834-05:00The Future of the Scanning Hardware Market<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As the editor and publisher of <i>DIR</i>, and more recently, Americas regional manager for<a href="http://www.infosource.ch/" target="_blank"> infoSource,</a> I've spent a lot of time covering the document-related hardware market. When I started back in the late 1990s, high-volume scanners were the primary market drivers with vendors like Kodak and Bell + Howell leading the industry. In the 2000s, we saw the rise of "distributed scanning" and explosive growth in the workgroup ($500-$2,000) segment of the market. More recently, we've seen the emergence of the personal segment (sub-$500) of document scanners, as well as more scanning on MFPs, as the act of document scanning truly becomes democratized. Of course, being able to take a picture of a document with a mobile phone, potentially puts a document scanner in everyone's pocket.<br />
<br />
So, where is this all going? It's our opinion that the market is too fragmented and document scanning technology needs to become more standardized for it to take the jump to the next level and truly be considered mainstream technology. Basically, we need more consistent images and image onboarding/management processes to truly cross the chasm. So, how do we get there?<br />
<br />
The new <a href="http://www.twaindirect.org/" target="_blank">TWAIN Direct initiative</a> is a step in the right direction. TWAIN Direct is designed to remove traditional drivers from the scanning process and enable scanners to be found on a network, similar to other peripheral devices like printers. The scanners would have to be running some bit of code in their internal memories that would enable them to connect with TWAIN Direct scanning applications, but it should be lightweight and not require a PC to act as an intermediary like document scanner drivers do today.<br />
<br />
This is exciting because MFPs and apps on mobile devices could conceivably run similar code that would enable them to talk to those same applications. This could reduce the variety of connections that scanning software vendors have to create and upkeep and also serve to somewhat standardize the scanning process. Once we get that far, the scanning application vendors can invest their resources in what they are going to do with the scans once they get them.<br />
<br />
I am not saying TWAIN Direct is the only way to accomplish this, but I would like to see some sort of standardized way to capture images across document scanners, MFPs and phones. They all have their place in the scanning hardware hierarchy, but for the industry to truly thrive, it is better if it's a connected, graduated hierarchy, vs. a lot of individual scanning platforms.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-40424799943756011202017-03-29T06:27:00.002-04:002017-03-29T06:32:45.450-04:00Is the Digital Mailroom is Making a Comeback?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Yesterday, I was stuck in the Buffalo airport awaiting transportation to a Xerox event in New York City being held today. A lot of new announcements are reportedly on tap and I got to wondering what some of these might be. Xerox, of course, recently separated its "Document Technologies" group from its "Services" group in a major split. Document Technologies, which is basically the old Xerox, carries on the Xerox brand, while Xerox Services, primarily the old ACS, <a href="http://documentimagingreport.blogspot.com/2009/09/xerox-buys-acs.html" target="_blank">which Xerox acquired in 2009</a>, has been renamed Conduent.<br />
<br />
The conference I am heading to is a Document Technologies conference, but, that doesn't mean services won't be represented. Xerox had a pretty healthy document outsourcing business before acquiring ACS and, from I understand, a lot of that has stayed with Xerox. This includes mailroom outsourcing - which led me to wonder if they would be announcing anything on the digital mailroom front.<br />
<br />
In <i>DIR</i>, we recently<a href="http://documentimagingreport.com/ricoh-ids-more-than-a-digital-mailroom/" target="_blank"> ran a story</a> on a new initiative by Ricoh called the Intelligent Delivery Services (IDS), which we billed as "More than a Digital Mailroom." The gist of IDS is that it combines scanning, analytics and consulting services to help optimize the processing of incoming mail. "“IDS is really focused on improving how people work,” said Nicole Blohm, senior product<br />
manager-product marketing (managed services) for Ricoh USA, as quoted in the story. “It’s not just about opening mail and scanning it. We are trying to optimize mail delivery, reduce processing time, and drive better business decisions."<br />
<br />
The first time we heard the term "digital mailroom" was back 2003 when Captiva introduced a prototype of the application at the AIIM Conference and Expo that year. We're not sure Captiva ever sold any of those systems, but they were certainly onto something as far as the concept was concerned. The term "digital mailroom" has been tossed about in our market even since.<br />
<br />
While we saw some success in the U.S. market, particularly in federal government mailrooms in the wake of <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/02/15/93170200/timeline-how-the-anthrax-terror-unfolded" target="_blank">the Anthrax scares of the early 2000s</a>, more digital mailroom implementations seemed to take place in Europe, where ISVs like Top Image Systems advertised their success in the segment. One theory was that the U.S. postal service already did quite a bit of pre-sorting for its customers, which led to more specialized mail delivery and cut down on the need for the auto-classification technology key to the digital mailroom concept.<br />
<br />
Whatever the reason, the idea never really caught on rapidly in the U.S, market, but there are some signs that is changing. Mark Smith, director of strategic alliances at document scanner manufacturer <a href="https://www.opex.com/document-scanning" target="_blank">OPEX</a>, told us he is seeing a renewed interest in the concept. "Related to this, we are seeing a lot of interest in using scanning and capture to cut down the amount of returned mail," he told <i>DIR</i>. "We are working with a capture software specialist, <a href="http://www.cptinfo.com/" target="_blank">CPT Intelligent Technologies</a>, that is focused on this specific area."<br />
<br />
Estimates for the total cost of creating and processing a piece of returned mail are as high as $25. <a href="https://ribbs.usps.gov/index.cfm?page=uaamail" target="_blank">According to the USPS</a>, there were about 1.4 billion pieces of first-class and standard mail returned in 2015. That adds up to a fairly large addressable market.<br />
<br />
"One of the things we see with returned mail is that it's fairly uniform," said Smith. "In other words, you should be able to tell what it is depending on the thickness of the envelope. For example, if you sent out a bunch of similar credit card offers, the ones coming back should all be the same thickness. So, you can tell what they are without opening them."<br />
<br />
Once the type of returned document is recognized, automated capture can be used to extract the addressee data from the envelope. This can then be fed to an analytics and/or another type of application, which can be used to correct the problem, such as updating the address or eliminating the addressee from the database - potentially saving large amounts of money down the road by preventing future returned mail.<br />
<br />
This is the type of ROI that the digital mailroom always needed. "We are starting feel like
digital mailroom as a concept is having a resurgence," said Smith. "It has come up in the past, but I don't think it was ready for prime time. People had concerns like they didn't want want the CEO's mail opened in the mailoom. (Modern solutions like IDS have an answer for that.) We are starting to see companies now asking for digital mailroom solutions and will have a marketing message around that at the upcoming <a href="https://www.npf.org/" target="_blank">National Postal Forum</a>, along with a demo of the concept."<br />
<br />
Not sure if Xerox is going to announce anything like that at today's event, but it will be interesting to see how widespread the digital mailroom concept is growing.</div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-15707813147954560902016-10-28T12:00:00.001-04:002016-10-28T12:30:10.199-04:00A Look at Lexmark's Q3 Results<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Lexmark reported<a href="http://newsroom.lexmark.com/2016-10-28-Lexmark-reports-third-quarter-results" target="_blank"> its Q3 2016 results</a> this morning. The focus in the news was that overall the company increased profits by 40% YOY, to $49M from $35M last year. Our main focus in DIR is the Lexmark Enterprise Software (ES) division, which over the past few years rolled up several companies covered by us, including, Kofax, Perceptive, Brainware, and ReadSoft.<br />
<br />
The Kofax acquisition, which practically doubled the size of Lexmark ES, was completed in Q2 2015, so Q3 2015 represented Lexmark ES' first full quarter including Kofax results. Lexmark ES Q3 2015 revenue was reported at $165M with operating margins increasing to 19% - a positive trend. Of course, these results were released just three days after Lexmark had announced that is was "exploring strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value." So, a lot has happened between then and now, including, in April, <a href="http://newsroom.lexmark.com/2016-04-19-Lexmark-agrees-to-be-acquired-by-Apex-Technology-and-PAG-Asia-Capital" target="_blank">Lexmark agreeing to be acquired</a> by a consortium of Chinese investors led by Apex Technology and PAG Asia Capital.<br />
<br />
As Apex's primary business is the manufacture of ink cartridge chips, there have been questions about its use for Lexmark ES, and rumors have been flying that Lexmark ES would be sold in its entirety or piecemeal prior to the Apex acquisition closing, which is supposed to happen before the end of this year. In the meantime, Lexmark ES struggled through <a href="http://www.documentimagingreport.com/index.php/item/1967-lexmark-s-disturbing-q1-numbers-and-the-direction-of-the-market.html" target="_blank">a rough first quarter</a> before <a href="http://www.documentimagingreport.com/index.php/item/2000-lexmark-es-rebounds-in-q2.html" target="_blank">rebounding somewhat in Q2.</a> For Q3 Lexmark has reported revenue of $157M or about a 5% YOY decrease. Not great numbers, but considering all the FUD in the market surrounding who is going to own Lexmark ES going forward, not terrible. We didn't get any other numbers, like profitability related to Lexmark ES, as Lexmark corporate is keeping reporting to a minimum, and <span style="color: #1d1d25; font-family: "tphero" , "proximanovaregular" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">"</span></span>will not conduct quarterly conference calls while the [acquisition] is pending."<br />
<br />
To us the Q3 numbers indicated that Lexmark ES is still a very viable business, albeit with a run rate closer to $600M than the $700M that was originally projected when Kofax was acquired. ES has a large install base, along with plenty of maintenance revenue, as well as a stack of technology that it continues to invest in. So, what's it worth? Probably not the $1.89B <a href="http://www.documentimagingreport.com/index.php/item/2016-based-on-ecd-deal-what-is-lexmark-es-worth.html" target="_blank">we were speculating on</a> in the wake of Open Text's acquisition of EMC's Enterprise Content Division (ECD). That was based on the projected $700M run rate.<br />
<br />
Let's scale back that run rate to a more realistic $640M. Applying the same multiple of 2.7x revenue that Open Text paid for ECD, that puts a price for Lexmark ES closer to $1.73B, which still wouldn't be a bad price, considering Apex and PAG are paying $3.6B for the entirety of Lexmark, which is about equal to the revenue that the entirety of Lexmark reported for 2015. So, if they were to get even $1.5B for Lexmark ES, they would still be getting an approximately $3B hardware entity for close to $2B, which seems like a great deal. That said, Apex and PAG may be willing to go even lower on Lexmark ES, depending on what they value that hardware business at.<br />
<br />
The bottom line is that Lexmark ES, even with its recent growth struggles, could be had at a relative bargain it seems. The question is, of course, who would buy it? Open Text is presumably out of the picture after the ECD acquisition, but you never know. Hyland owner Thoma Bravo has been rumored to be in play, but at their recent conference Hyland executives gave us no indication that was under consideration. Xerox wanted to buy Kofax before Lexmark did, and Xerox has stated they are on the ECM acquisition trail, but if the $1B price that Lexmark paid topped their original bid, would they be inclined to pay more for something larger, or would Apex and PAG be willing to break off Kofax separately for Xerox and sell it to them at their original bid? Or could Lexmark ES execs like Reynolds Bish and Carl Mergele cobble together enough financial backing for a private equity bid?<br />
<br />
We still expect something to happen with Lexmark ES before the Apex/PAG acquisition closes. That would give us a little over two months. Stay tuned!<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-70605167775023132222016-10-25T17:28:00.006-04:002016-10-26T14:08:30.308-04:00Today's Financial Services Market Demands Innovative, Stable Capture Solutions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<i>Dell EMC’s Enterprise Content
Division (ECD) has been a long-time leader in the document capture software
market. It is probably best known for high-volume, back-office implementations,
but like everyone else trying to stay competitive in the market, ECD has done a
lot to address more modern capture initiatives. This includes the introduction
of Web services, cloud, and mobile technology. </i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<i>Following is a piece I developed with input from ECD, discussing how its software addresses the evolving
requirements of today’s financial services organizations:</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
I recently had the opportunity to
attend to a presentation by <a href="http://surdak.com/jerk/">Chris Surdak</a>,
the author of a book titled “Jerk” with the subtitle, “Twelve Steps to Rule the
World.” It’s about how to thrive in the emerging era of digital transformation.
One of his main premises is that “information is the new wealth,” which he
attempted to demonstrate through a slide showing that the three most highly
valued public companies in the world today—Apple, Google, and Microsoft—are in
the information management business.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
Financial services companies, of
course, are involved in managing traditional wealth, but that doesn’t mean information
management is not important to them. The current movement of big banks toward <a href="https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/28752/banks-must-think-big-to-beat-off-fintech-competitors---capgemini">partnering
with Fintech start-ups</a> or <a href="http://www.cutoday.info/THE-news/Wall-Street-Banks-Backing-Their-Own-Fintech-Start-ups">launching
their own Fintech spin-offs</a>, is an example of this. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
Document capture is another area
where financial services organizations must stay current if they want to keep
pace. Banks and other organizations specializing in wealth management have been
long-time users of document capture technologies. But, as the technology continues
to evolve, and innovations like agile deployment and mobile capture are
introduced, many financial services providers have not fully embraced these
advancements. Rather, they continue to operate their capture operations like
monolithic, hard-coded silos. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
In his presentation, Surdak noted
that three pillars for success in this era of information management include
immediacy, quality, and intimacy. A modern document capture platform can help a
financial services organization build all three. It can help them more quickly
turn around customer submissions with more accurate and targeted responses,
which will in turn increase their levels of intimacy. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
Let’s take a look at some of the
characteristics financial services organizations should be looking for in their
capture platform:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b>Openness<br />
</b>It was an <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/herodotus">ancient
Greek philosopher</a> who first came up with the idea that “the only constant
is change.” In today’s world of constant information flow, change comes even
faster. And customers don’t care if back-end systems can keep up with this
change, they just want results. (This attitude was defined by Surdak as
“disengagement,” which is another user characteristic in the information
economy.)<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
If a financial services
organization needs to make a change, such as adding a capability or workflow to
their capture process, they better be able to do it fast. Unfortunately,
according to a 2015 World Retail Banking Report by Capgemini, less than 15% of
banking executives rate their back-office digital capabilities as “advanced.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
One characteristic of an advanced
back-office system would be openness. In other words, how easy is it to integrate
a new capability like an OCR engine to handle a different language or to
integrate to a different repository to quickly onboard an ECM system that might
have been part of an acquisition?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
One example of an open capture
platform is ECD's Captiva. From its early days, the software has been designed to
accommodate third-party services, and over the years the APIs have matured and
become even more accessible. Captiva offers its own set of services that can be
inserted where needed and its platform can also leverage third-party software
to add capabilities like handwriting recognition, foreign language OCR,
specialized PDF processing, advanced forms recognition, and more. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b>Cloud<br />
</b>To complement its on-premises Captiva application, earlier this year Dell
EMC’s Enterprise Content Division (ECD) announced Snap as part of its new LEAP
cloud ECM platform [<a href="https://youtu.be/jtahWuub6Fw?list=PLLJnjS8aqGmtxxVMHBHKw5RZh4ViKtvGy">a
brief video presentation on Snap</a>]. Optimized for lower volume distributed
capture applications, like account opening at a branch office, Snap doesn’t
offer Captiva’s complete breadth of capabilities. But it’s designed to be very
easy to deploy—with a target time of five minutes to configure a new document
type. To assist with set-up, ECD is offering an option of outsourced document
capture design available through the Snap interface.<b> </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
The simple and fast set-up of
Snap has two big advantages in today’s information age. If everything works
well, an organization will have improved both accuracy and the turnaround time
compared to manual capture operations. If it does not work out, which we all
know is the case all too often with capture, the user finds out quickly and can
try again. The concept of reducing time to failure is gaining traction in this
age where there is so much pressure to reduce turnaround times in all areas. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
The bottom line is that Snap offers
a relatively inexpensive and quick way to launch multiple document capture
workflows. This enables a financial services organization to keep up with
business models that also need to be able to change rapidly based on
intelligence being gained from an ever-increasing influx of information. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b>Mobile<br />
</b>As the volume of transactions completed over mobile devices continues to
gain momentum, mobile document capture can’t be far behind. After all, the primary
reason people implement document capture is typically related to some sort of
business transaction. For a financial services organization this might be new
account opening, a money transfer, or applying for a loan. Well, guess what? As
more users embrace mobile banking (According to the <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/consumers-and-mobile-financial-services-report-201603.pdf">Federal
Reserve’s 2016 Consumers and Mobile Financial Services Report</a>, 43% of
adults that have both mobile phones and bank accounts reported using mobile
banking—up from 39% a year earlier ), more financial services transactions are
also going to move to mobile. <b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
Users have already proven they
are comfortable depositing checks into their accounts utilizing their
smartphones. According to the <a href="http://www.bankingexchange.com/news-feed/item/6471-who-s-winning-mobile-remote-capture-race?Itemid=639">2016
Mobile Deposit Benchmark Report</a>, about 41% of banking customers have used a
mobile deposit service. Because of their small size and relatively simple and
consistent layout, checks were a natural place to start with mobile capture. Technology
has now advanced to the point where automating capture of data from larger and
more complex documents is also possible.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
What if a customer is applying
for a loan through their smartphone, for example, and the bank requires copies
of W-2s and recent pay check stubs? Or what if an insurance company is asking
for proof-of-loss documentation to settle a property damage claim? There is
technology, like Captiva Mobile Capture, that can enable users to easily and
successfully capture high quality images of these types of documents. Captiva
Mobile Capture can be integrated with Captiva’s RESTful services or with an
automated data extraction application on a server to complete the transaction
processing. This type of integrated system can be configured to provide an end
user with immediate feedback on if their document was received, if it included
the appropriate information, and whether or not their submission can be moved
along to the next step. This is the type of turnaround that people are seeking
in today’s world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b>ECD Capture – innovative yet mature <br />
</b>A lot of what we are talking about is cutting edge and modern technology. As
a long-time capture market leader, ECD might not be the first vendor you think
of as developing next-generation technology. ECD’s duplicity, however, is one
of the advantages to working with them. They not only can address and
understand high-volume traditional back-office capture applications, they can
also help organizations move forward with their cloud and mobile initiatives.
As so often happens during a period of transition, there will also be instances
where legacy applications and modern initiatives will need to be weaved
together. As one of the few vendors with interests on both sides, ECD can be
counted on not only to provide expertise across the board, but also to be
impartial with respect to the type of technology being deployed. <b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
So, if you are a financial
services organization looking to move your capture technology to the next generation,
don’t look at ECD as purely a legacy vendor. Yes, their history in the market
guarantees they are that, but their introduction of a modern architecture, as
well as cloud and mobile capabilities, demonstrates that proven technology
vendors can also drive innovation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
</div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-56866213238984337122016-10-25T17:28:00.004-04:002016-10-25T17:28:58.467-04:00Putting a Price Tag on Information<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Guest Column</h3>
<div>
<b>Intro</b>: It seems that recently we are running into more and more technology industry visionaries who are saying we now have entered the “Age of Information.” At the recent <a href="http://www.hsassocs.com/capture/" target="_blank">Harvey Spencer Associates Capture Conference</a>, for instance, author <a href="http://surdak.com/jerk/" target="_blank">Chris Surdak</a> showed a slide "Information is the New Wealth" that listed the top six companies in the world by market capitalization. Apple, Google, and Microsoft, which he said basically specialize in "information management" topped the slide, followed by more traditional companies like Exxon Mobile, Berkshire Hathaway and PetroChina. The problem is, as AIIM Chief Evangelist John Mancini points out in his
excellent piece, there is no standard in place for measuring information as a
tangible asset. </div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
Check it out: </div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<i>By <b>John Mancini</b></i>, <i>chief evangelist</i>, <a href="http://www.aiim.org/"><i><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">AIIM</span></i></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><i><span style="color: navy; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
No company in the digital age could run without
it and it is arguably the most important asset any organization has—but how do
you put a price on information?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
Intellectual property is listed as an
intangible asset in financial reports. But there is no line on the balance
sheet for information. No standard method or process for giving it a value, despite
the fact that we are churning out more and more information every day. To put
this into perspective it is estimated that Facebook users share around 2.5
million bits of content a minute. IBM estimates we create 2.5 quintillion bytes
of data every day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
Information is coming at us from
everywhere—from social media, purchase transactions, blogs, GPS data, sensors
etc. This list is endless. The consumerization of IT, cloud, mobile, and the
Internet of Things, have all contributed to a surge in big data that is
literally changing our world and the way we operate in it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
Information is now one of a company’s most
precious assets. When used correctly it can provide companies with a wealth of
insight about their customers and competitors that can give them a business
edge. Companies are investing heavily in protecting, securing, analyzing and
documenting this data. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
Business leaders increasingly talk about how
information is their most valuable asset. Yet information still does not appear
on the balance sheet. As Doug Laney, vice president at Gartner so concisely
puts it: “We are in the midst of the information age, yet information is still
considered a non-entity by antiquated standards”. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
In this age of digital transformation, it comes
as a surprise that there is no standard model for valuing information. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<b>Accounting
for information</b></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
As far as I can see, there is a growing gap
between the traditional ways we value organizations, in terms of the tangible
and intangible assets reported in financial statements, and the value the
market puts on organisations. The huge sums paid for some companies shows our
inability to measure and value the information assets of an organization.</div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
According to Laney, in 1975 on average the
tangible assets of a corporation represented 83% of its value. Today that
number is 20%. Therefore, more than 50% of merger and acquisition exchange
simply can’t be accounted for.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
Take for example Microsoft’s acquisition of
LinkedIn. Look at
the accounting value of LinkedIn—$3.2 billion in revenues—and compare it to the
price paid by Microsoft—$26 billion—and it doesn’t appear to make sense. We
immediately start asking the obvious questions: Are we on the verge of another
doc.com bubble? Why is the accounting
value of the company so different from its market value? Has Microsoft lost the
plot? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
The
answer, I believe, is quite straightforward. The disharmony comes from our
inability to measure and value information assets in an organization. This is
reflected in the growing division between what we actually report about
companies and what we actually inherently know about them. But it is also
linked to the way we continually undervalue the investments companies have made
in creating, analyzing, protecting and storing their data to create real customer
value. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
</div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<b>Finding a measure</b></h4>
The nearest<b> </b>thing we have to measuring information
right now is ‘Infonomics’. This is essentially a framework for organizations <span lang="EN">to measure, manage, and monetize
information as a real asset. </span>But
it has still to be taken on board fully by organizations.<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
Early
this year, in a bid to come up an answer to assigning a value to information,
AIIM brought together industry leaders in information management from the likes
of <b>Shel</b>l and Gartner, to discuss
this pressing issue. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
One
particular point soon became crystal clear—we need a standardized way to
measure the value of information, and we need it fast. Although most organizations now
understand how valuable their information is, they have no way of valuing it as
an asset. This is an important job for information professionals and
accountants to get to grips with over the coming months and years, and one that
AIIM will be devoting considerable energy to.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
As business becomes more and more information
driven, it is imperative that there is a standard in place that can measure the
usefulness and monetary value of information. How this is to be done has still
to be decided. But it is a problem that isn’t going to go away. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
For more information: <a href="http://www.aiim.org/"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">www.aiim.org</span></a> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent">
<br /></div>
</div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com81tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-43059794190065808942016-09-12T18:23:00.000-04:002016-09-12T18:23:41.621-04:00Based on ECD Deal, what is Lexmark ES Worth?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Big day today for M&A in the enterprise content management (ECM) space. No less than three significant announcements:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/opentext-signs-definitive-agreement-to-acquire-dell-emcs-enterprise-content-division-including-documentum-300326059.html" target="_blank">Open Text announces plans to buy EMC's Enterprise Content Division (ECD</a>) for $1.62B or 2.7x ECD's fiscal '15 revenue of $599M.</li>
<li>Apparently <a href="http://xamcor.com/pag-asia-led-group-look-sell-unit-lexmark-barely-months-buying-printer-firm/" target="_blank">Bloomberg News is reporting</a> that Apex Technology Co. and PAG Asia Capital, which in April <a href="http://newsroom.lexmark.com/2016-04-19-Lexmark-agrees-to-be-acquired-by-Apex-Technology-and-PAG-Asia-Capital" target="_blank">announced plans to acquire Lexmark</a>, "are in talks with a number of private equity firms about a sale of [Lexmark Enterprise Software (ES)]."</li>
<li>Finally, <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/09/12/hp-inc-to-buy-samsungs-printing-business-for-over-a-billion-dollars/" target="_blank">HP announced plans </a>to buy Samsung's printer business for $1.05B. </li>
</ol>
<div>
Not that this last item is insignificant, but, despite some recent efforts, Samsung had yet to emerge as a real factor in the ECM/document capture space. So, in this post, we'll focus on the significance of those first two announcements. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ECD had <a href="http://www.cmswire.com/information-management/emc-finally-is-selling-documentum/" target="_blank">been rumored to be for sale</a> since it was first announced that Dell was planning to acquire EMC. There were two reasons that were offered for the rumored sale: 1. Dell wanted to focus on storage and ECD did not fit with that strategy. 2. Dell reportedly needed to generate some cash to help with the financing of the deal. Well, there must have been some truth behind this talk, as less than a week after t<a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/vn/secure/2016-08-30-historic-dell-and-emc-transaction-set-to-close" target="_blank">he Dell/EMC deal closed</a>, the deal with Open Text for ECD was announced. The ECD sale to Open Text is expected to close within the next 3-4 months.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Open Text has done a lot of acquisitions over the years, and I'd have to say that the $1.62B price tag and 2.7x revenue multiple represents a pretty good premium for them to pay. So, Open Text obviously thinks they are getting something of value. ECD is, of course, a good fit, as Open Text and ECD are both serious ECM players with some overlapping, but also a lot of complementary, technology. The move pushes Open Text forward even further as a market leader. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It also likely removes Open Text from the bidding for Lexmark ES, which Open Text had been rumored to be looking at fairly recently. So, with rumors obviously still floating around that Lexmark ES is for sale, who is out there to buy them? The other name I have been hearing is Thoma Bravo, which owns Hyland. Coincidentally, I am going to be at Hyland's <a href="http://www.communitylive.onbase.com/events/communitylive-2016/custom-22-1acdb0ac8d8c4319855c9b3b7495d155.aspx" target="_blank">CommunityLive Conference this week. </a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the big story lines associated with the conference is that this is going to be former CTO Miguel Zubizarreta's final event with the company where he has worked practically since it was founded. Zubizarreta has always had a reputation of wanting to build rather than buy technology, so the fact the Lexmark ES is now on the market as he is retiring could be a fortuitous coincidence - if indeed it's a coincidence at all. I hope to get some insight into Hyland's direction over the next few days.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, how much would Thoma Bravo have to pay to pick up Lexmark ES, or even just the Kofax piece, which is rumored to be on the market separately as well? Well, first off, let me say that the Bloomberg article's statement that Lexmark ES "could fetch as much as $1 billion" seems to be way off. Remember, from 2010 to 2015, Lexmark invested approximately $2B in rolling up the components that make up ES, so to think they would turn around and sell it for less than what they paid just for Kofax last year ($1B), seems preposterous. (Of course, EMC paid $1.7B for Documentum alone in 2003, not to mention $275M for Captiva two years later, plus more for some other stuff included in ECD, but those acquisitions and valuations were a long time ago compared to the Lexmark ES acquisitions.) </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Okay, so what can Lexmark's investors expect to get for ES? Well, in my opinion, Lexmark ES lines up pretty closely with ECD. They both own market leading capture software (Kofax and Captiva, respectively) as well as large ECM practices - Perceptive and Documentum. Granted, Documentum is a higher end business than Perceptive traditionally has been, but Perceptive has traditionally been one of Hyland's most direct competitors, just as Documentum has been one of Open Text's. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, let's just say Lexmark's investors want to get a premium similar to what Open Text paid for ECD. To start, we'll value Lexmark ES as a $700M a year business, as that's <a href="http://www.documentimagingreport.com/index.php/item/1850-why-bish-make-sense-for-lexmark-sw.html" target="_blank">about the run rate that was being projected</a> when Lexmark bought Kofax last spring. Using that 2.7x revenue multiple that Open Text paid, that would value Lexmark ES at $1.89B, which is not a bad number, because it enables Lexmark to save some face on their $2B investment. (Kofax made up about half the ES run rate, so based on the ECD revenue metric, a Kofax sale would be about $950M). I guess it just depends if Thomas Bravo or whoever is going to make the purchase agrees that Lexmark ES is worth what ECD was worth. If they do, I bet a deal gets turned pretty quickly.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-892000889629785272016-08-01T16:44:00.000-04:002016-08-01T16:50:02.237-04:00Lexmark ES Rebounds in Q2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Lexmark's Q2 results for its Enterprise Software (ES) division do not appear to be terrible. On Friday, the Lexington, KY-based MFP vendor announced its Q2 2016 results, and while <a href="https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/226072/lexmark-lxk-misses-on-q2-earnings-revenues-down-yy" target="_blank">overall earnings were disappointing</a>, ES seemed to have rebounded from a very disappointing Q1. For Q2, Lexmark reported ES revenue of $167M, which represented an 11% YOY increase. But, before you get too excited, Q2 2015 only contained about a month and a half worth of Kofax revenue, as Lexmark's acquisition of the capture market software leader closed in mid-May last year. In the first complete quarter of Kofax revenue (Q3 2015), Lexmark reported ES revenue of $165M.<br />
<br />
Of course, immediately upon announcing its Q3 numbers last year, Lexmark announced it was looking at selling either the whole or parts of its company, which sent the ES business into a bit of a tailspin. Things bottomed out in Q1 of this year when Lexmark reported ES revenue of just $143M, a 14% decline from the combined revenue of Lexmark's Perceptive Software and Kofax (which were combined to create Lexmark ES) in Q1 2015.<br />
<br />
So, it's good to see that now Lexmark's ES business appears back on track in spite of April's announcement that the entirety of Lexmark was being acquired by a group of China-based investors led by Apex Technology Co., Ltd. and PAG Asia Capital. A week previous to the Q2 earnings announcement, it was announced that <a href="http://newsroom.lexmark.com/2016-07-22-Lexmark-shareholders-approve-merger-agreement" target="_blank">Lexmark shareholders had approved the "merger agreement."</a> There was a lot of speculation that being owned by a Chinese entity could adversely affect enterprise software sales due to concerns about security related to a lack of regulation in China. In my research and conversations, I could find nothing to substantiate these concerns and apparently they didn't negatively affect sales in Q2.<br />
<br />
I'm not exactly sure what led to the turnaround from Q1, except that perhaps once the deal for the acquisition was in place, the ES team was better able to focus on its business. ES President Reynolds Bish had told me in a conversation at Lexmark ES's Inspire event in early April, that the distractions related to a potential acquisition had taken a toll on his organization.<br />
<br />
Of course, rumors continue to swirl that Lexmark ES will still be spun off and a decent quarter like Q2 should help increase its potential value. Although it's still hard to see Lexmark recouping the approximately $2B in spent rolling up ES in the six-year period from 2010 through 2015.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-76901241694468442842016-05-03T15:25:00.002-04:002016-05-03T15:38:18.613-04:00Management Changes Continue at Kodak Alaris<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A week after announcing<a href="http://www.documentimagingreport.com/index.php/item/1960-management-changes-at-kodak-alaris-im.html" target="_blank"> a restructuring of the sales management team</a> at Kodak Alaris Information Management (IM), Kodak Alaris announced it is looking for a new CEO. In an announcement we received today, Kodak Alaris states, "To better position
ourselves to achieve our long term growth plans, the Kodak Alaris Holdings
Ltd. Board of Directors decided the time is right to initiate a search for a
new CEO."<br />
<br />
Effective May 1, Ralf Gerbershagen,
who was named CEO of Kodak Alaris in 2014, has stepped down. According to statement <i>DIR</i> received from Kodak Alaris: "Today’s
announcement is about looking forward. This was not a performance based
decision but more an assessment of the future leadership needs of Kodak Alaris.
The Board felt this represented the ideal time to begin the new search for a
CEO. [Gerbershagen] leaves the company better
positioned than when he arrived and with our best wishes for his future."<br />
<br />
Kodak Alaris was launched in September 2013, with the sale of Kodak Document Imaging (now IM) and Kodak Personal Imaging to the Kodak UK Pension Fund for a combination of $2.8 billion in debt relief and $650 million in cash and non-cash considerations. The sale was part of the bankruptcy proceedings for Eastman Kodak.<br />
<br />
Gerbershagen, who is based in the UK was brought in from Motorola Mobility in April, 2014. During his tenure, Kodak Alaris reportedly saw a strong rebound in its scanner sales, which were negatively affected by the uncertainty related to the bankruptcy proceedings. Kodak Alaris was less successful with a intelligent document recognition (IDR) venture. After signing a partnership with German ISV ITyX in 2012 and struggling to generate any sales momentum, in 2015 Kodak Alaris launched a subsidiary, <a href="http://www.aifoundry.com/" target="_blank">AI Foundry</a>, which is totally focused on IDR sales. However, shortly after the launch of AI Foundry, Kodak Alaris broke off its relationship with ITyX, which then filed suit.<br />
<br />
According to Alan Swahn, VP, marketing for AI Foundry, in an e-mail to <i>DIR</i> last month, “We are working with other suppliers that more closely align with new opportunities in the marketplace. We are working on exciting new solutions and you can expect announcements later this year.”<br />
<br />
Jeff Goodman has been appointed as Kodak Alaris' CEO on an interim basis. Goodman had been serving as COO. Kodak Alaris has not set a timetable for hiring a new CEO. Following is a statement form Kodak Alaris: "We are looking for an outstanding and
inspirational leader with a proven global track record of identifying and
driving long term profitable growth for large international companies.<br />
<br />
"As we
need to conduct a comprehensive search for our next CEO, we don’t have a
specific timetable. Jeff’s presence, combined with the company being in a solid
place, allows our board to conduct a thorough search for our next CEO. Jeff is
committed to filling this role until we find our new CEO and will support
his/her transition to the role."<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
We asked a Kodak Alaris representative if the organization's goals have changed since Gerbershagen was brought in two years ago. Here was the reply: "We continue
to transform the company and our current focus has shifted from restructuring
to growth. Our plans and our ongoing programs, developed by the Kodak Alaris
Executive Committee (of which Jeff was and is a part) and approved by our
Board, remain unchanged and have our absolute focus and commitment."<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-33982028190739830322016-04-29T18:51:00.002-04:002016-04-29T22:31:25.714-04:00Lexmark ES Q1 Numbers Disturbing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For those of you that haven't done the math for yourselves, Lexmark Enterprise Software (ES) saw about a 15% decline in revenue for Q1, YOY. Yes, we realize <a href="http://newsroom.lexmark.com/2016-04-27-Lexmark-reports-first-quarter-results" target="_blank">Lexmark reported 60% growth</a> for ES on revenue of $143 million, but last year's Q1 didn't include Kofax's numbers. In calendar Q1 last year (Kofax's fiscal Q3), the ISV<a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150422006478/en/Kofax-Reports-Financial-Results-Quarter-Months-Ended" target="_blank"> did $75 million in revenue</a>, and it<a href="http://www.kofax.com/~/media/Files/Kofax/Datasheets/faq-kofax-customer-communications-management.pdf" target="_blank"> also acquired a $9 million a year business in Aia Software</a> towards the end of the quarter. So, we'll put Kofax's Q1 2015 revenue at around $77 million.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, Perceptive Software, operating as a division of Lexmark, reported $90 million for the first quarter of 2015. If you put those two figures together,<b> it gives you a Q1 2015 revenue number of $167 million, $24 million more than the two combined businesses reported this year for Q1 as parts of Lexmark ES.</b> We don't have any insight into the breakdown of the Lexmark ES in numbers - in particular, how much was from generated in software sales, but we had heard rumors that Lexmark was struggling in that area in particular.<br />
<br />
The 15% erosion in revenue is disturbing, and we hope it is not indicative of the industry's direction. We realize Lexmark has been struggling with integration issues, as well as uncertainty related to the <a href="http://newsroom.lexmark.com/2016-04-19-Lexmark-agrees-to-be-acquired-by-Apex-Technology-and-PAG-Asia-Capital" target="_blank">recent sale of the company</a>, so maybe the first quarter was an anomaly and the organization will bounce back strongly. That said, Lexmark's competitors are certainly trying to keep the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) levels pumped up, as I heard a lot of talk at the recent AIIM Conference related to the potential challenges of being owned by a group of investors from China.<br />
<br />
In addition to Lexmark, <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/3969598-open-text-miss-viewed-investors-beat" target="_blank">Open Text failed to show organic growth in Q1</a> (its fiscal Q3), EMC's Enterprise Content Division (ECD) revenue continued to shrink, down to $134 million in Q1 2016 from $138 million in Q1 2015 (not to mention the fact that <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-06/dell-and-emc-said-talking-to-buyers-for-emc-s-documentum" target="_blank">EMC is reportedly trying to sell ECD</a> to help fund the Dell acquisition), and <a href="http://www.topimagesystems.com/news/top-image-systems-reports-fourth-quarter-full-year-results-2/" target="_blank">Top Image Systems (TIS) struggled in Q4</a> '15 with its Q1 2016 numbers still to come. It has not been all bleak news, as smaller companies like<a href="https://www.docuware.com/content/docuware-group-achieves-245-percent-growth-2015" target="_blank"> DocuWare </a>and M-Files reported strong growth for 2015, and <a href="https://www.onbase.com/en/about/media-room/press-releases/hyland-grows-revenue-24-percent-2015#.VyPaoDArLIU" target="_blank">Hyland Software had another strong year</a> as well.<br />
<br />
What is somewhat interesting is that DocuWare, M-Files, and to some extent Hyland, are focused on the SMB space (Hyland stressing the "M"), while EMC, Kofax, and to some extent ReadSoft (also part of Lexmark ES) and Open Text are more focused on the enterprise space. So, maybe the growth in the ECM market is in the traditionally underserved SMB space (as we've been predicting would happen for years). This would certainly bode well for TIS, which recently <a href="http://www.topimagesystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/DIR-4-8-2016-TIS-on-eFLOW-AP-Launch.pdf" target="_blank">put a stronger focus on shopping financial process automation to the mid-market. </a> Then again, the Perceptive Software's content management business is a major part of Lexmark ES and it focuses on the mid-market (we're really not sure how the individual components within the division made out).<br />
<br />
When you add these recent ECM software struggles to the steady erosion we've seen in margins in the document scanner hardware market (as well as some of the <a href="http://www.documentimagingreport.com/index.php/item/1960-management-changes-at-kodak-alaris-im.html" target="_blank">reogranization at the leaders </a>), it makes us doubt the future of our industry. That said, the attitude at this week's AIIM Conference in New Orleans was not wholly pessimistic. There were plenty of optimistic vendors, a bevy of end users looking for solutions, and the usual group of energetic and imaginative people that combine to make our industry so exciting at times. New solutions stressing, the cloud, mobile, and emerging technology like natural language processing - as well as a new vision embracing enterprise content as data and thus creating a bridge for mainstream IT crossover, certainly created plenty of positive buzz at the AIIM event (or was that just the alcohol on Bourbon Street?). We'll have more details on what we learned at AIIM in the next issue of <i>DIR</i>.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, let's hope for a stronger Q2 for everyone (well, except for your competitors in some cases, I guess.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-56691701705669466372016-04-14T15:34:00.000-04:002016-04-14T16:23:19.595-04:00Management Changes at Kodak Alaris IM<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Word came out yesterday that Kodak Alaris Information Management has changed its management structure. Cássio Vaquero, who had been serving as regional director of emerging markets (Asia-Pacific and Latin America) has apparently been appointed to a new head of global sales position. In conjunction with that, Martin Birch, Kodak Alaris' IM's regional manager for the US&C, and Erwin Schwarzl, regional manager for EAMER, have been let go. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here's a quote from Kodak Alaris on the shake up: "With the global integration of key business functions,
including sales, within IM, we are transitioning to a
new worldwide operational model. We thank Martin and Erwin for their
contributions and wish them well in the future as we continue to help our
customers grow their business using Kodak Alaris scanners, software and
services."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The move is a bit surprising as Birch and Schwarzl have only been in their current positions for about a year. Last April, Birch, who was serving as regional director for EAMER, moved to the U.S. to take over for Russell Hunt, who retired. Schwarzl had been serving in another capacity at Kodak Alaris. Both Birch and Schwarzl worked at Kodak (and then Kodak Alaris) for several years.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These moves are part of a tumultuous few months at Kodak Alaris IM, which has also included some changes within its<a href="http://www.aifoundry.com/" target="_blank"> AI Foundry</a> intelligent document recognition (IDR) software business. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br /></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-40623795039748131472016-01-13T21:38:00.002-05:002016-01-13T21:46:22.852-05:00Lasefiche EMPOWER Event Continues to Grow<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
LONG BEACH, CA – It was good to return to the <a href="https://www.laserfiche.com/conference" target="_blank">Laserfiche EMPOWER Conference</a> this year after a three-year hiatus. Last time I had the opportunity to attend was 2012. I had planned to go in 2013, but a snowstorm changed that. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since that 2012 event, I haven't really had a chance to connect with the Laserfiche executive team. And there have been big changes to that team over that time. In 2013, Tom Wayman, VP of marketing and product strategy, died. The next year, his mother and company founder and CEO Nien-Ling Wacker passed away. (Both had awards named after them that were presented at this year's conference.) Nien-Ling's husband Chris Wacker has taken over as CEO, with CTO Karl Chan having added president to his title. In 2014, Laserfiche named Thomas Phelps IV as its VP of corporate strategy and marketing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During the last few years, Laserfiche has continued to grow. For the 2012 conference, which was held at the Anaheim Marriott, I reported 1,600 people attended. For this year's event, which was moved to the Long Beach Convention Center (a much bigger venue), Laserfiche announced 2,700 attendees. Chris Wacker also told me the company enjoyed 10-12% revenue growth in 2015 over 2014, which was also a growth year.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Overall, 880 organizations were represented at EMPOWER. This included a mix of end users, resellers, and vendor partners. The big announcement was <a href="http://www.documentimagingreport.com/index.php/item/1916-laserfiche-10-enables-the-digital-workplace-of-the-future.html" target="_blank">the release of Laserfiche 10</a>, which features improvements in collaborative and mobile capabilities, as well as the introduction of a library of more than 100 pre-built workflows across several vertical markets and horizontal applications. New analytics tools for BPM were also introduced.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A few things that have not changed in the four years since I last attended EMPOWER:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Laserfiche remains very strong in state and local government market.</li>
<li>There is still a big push toward getting many of these government customers to expand their implementations enterprise wide. It seems to be working. For example, I attended a presentation by the City of Boca Raton, which has expanded its implementation from the clerk's office <a href="https://www.laserfiche.com/solutionexchange/how-the-city-of-boca-raton-created-a-paperless-accounts-payable-process/" target="_blank">to the A/P department</a> and now has 50 more projects either currently being implemented or that have been requested. Many of the attendees I spoke with were considering similar (if not quite as big) expansions.</li>
<li>Epson is still the event's premier sponsor, although Epson's scanner business has grown considerably since 2012. According to Mark Pickard, senior product manager, Document Scanners, Epson America (citing numbers from the NPD group) through the first 11 months of 2015, the company's revenue from commercial scanners grew 24% over 2014, which was twice as fast as Epson's nearest competitor. He credited Epson's relationship with Laserfiche and its channel as contributing to that growth.</li>
</ol>
<div>
We'll have more detailed coverage of the event in our next newsletter, but that's a quick summary for you.</div>
</div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-15656970611234416322015-10-23T13:41:00.001-04:002015-10-23T13:41:26.170-04:00Lexmark Apparently for Sale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Today,<a href="http://newsroom.lexmark.com/2015-10-23-Lexmark-to-explore-strategic-alternatives" target="_blank"> Lexmark announced</a> that its Board of Directors has "authorized the exploration of strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value." After the announcement was made, Lexmark's stock rose more than 6% (as of this posting), lifting the company's market cap to $2.1B. This is not that great of a valuation for a company that bills itself as a "$3.7B global technology company that includes a $1.5B Higher Value Solutions business comprised of Enterprise Software (ES) and Managed Print Services (MPS)."<br />
<br />
That Enterprise Software business, of course, includes Perceptive, Kofax, ReadSoft, Brainware, and some other ECM-focused companies that have been rolled up since 2010. Most recently, <a href="http://www.documentimagingreport.com/index.php/item/1814-lexmark-goes-all-in-on-capture.html" target="_blank">Lexmark acquired Kofax</a> for $1B in a somewhat surprising deal. It followed up by <a href="http://www.documentimagingreport.com/index.php/item/1850-why-bish-make-sense-for-lexmark-sw.html" target="_blank">appointing Kofax CEO Reynolds Bish as president of Lexmark ES</a>, which has about a $700M annual run rate.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, investors were less than thrilled with the guidance Lexmark presented for its overall business in conjunction with its Q2 earnings report, which dropped the company's valuation by 20% on a single day in July. Although the stock has bounced back slightly over the past few weeks (including today), it is still trading at more than 25% below its July peak.<br />
<br />
Lexmark has made a concerted effort to shift its business from hardware-centric to a software and services focus, stressing its growing ES and MPS revenue. Unfortunately, it appears that investors are still valuing the company based on its declining hardware and supplies revenue. Stated <span class="xn-person">Jean-Paul Montupet</span>, lead director of the Lexmark Board of Directors, in relation to this, "We are extremely proud of what the Lexmark management team and
employees have accomplished in the transformation of Lexmark. While the Board is
encouraged by the company's future prospects, the Board does not believe
Lexmark's current share price fully reflects the intrinsic value
created by the company, and the Board has concluded it is appropriate to
explore strategic alternatives as the next step to unlock this value."<br />
<br />
What specifically those strategic alternatives are is not mentioned, but speculation is that the company could be sold either to a private equity company or another high-tech company. HP, which had long been discussed as a possible landing point for Kofax and has a partnership history with Lexmark, is one possible buyer. However, to me, a private equity buyout at this point would seem to make more sense. After all, less than six months ago, Lexmark paid $1B to pick up Kofax, so selling the whole company to someone else for anything close to its current market valuation would seem unlikely. After all, Kofax was a $300M-plus company and Lexmark is a $3B-plus company. The math just doesn't make good sense.<br />
<br />
What makes more sense is to take the company private, which would conceivably enable those who agree with Lexmark's management's transformative vision to stay on board as investors. The company would then be able to work on really affecting the changes it wants to without the worry of meeting quarterly numbers - which are going to be very hard to meet as the formerly hardware-driven company de-emphasizes hardware. When the transformation is complete, and Lexmark is operating as primarily a software and services business, it can then go public again, conceivably with a more favorable valuation.<br />
<br />
At least that's the way I see it shaking out.<br />
<br />
Your thoughts?</div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-15508346013367732702015-10-15T17:38:00.001-04:002015-10-16T07:31:07.069-04:00German Start-Up Developing Unit for Smartphone Scanning <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here's a preview of an article that scheduled to run in tomorrow's (Oct. 16) edition of DIR:<br />
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX93673850">
<h2 style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 6pt; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 7px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</h2>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX93673850">
<div class="Paragraph SCX93673850" paraeid="{a26b886b-4686-455e-ac17-b34f6a1a23b8}{161}" paraid="1325951604" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Sans-Serif; font-size: 6pt; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-indent: 7px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US">scanPAD</span><span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> is a German startup that</span><span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> has created a new apparatus designed to enable smartphones to act as document scanners, mini photo studios, an</span><span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX93673850">d even overhead projectors. According to a press sheet, the scanPAD leverages patent-pending nanotechnology to hold and stabilize smartphones, as well as documents. Shaped like a </span><span class="SpellingError SCX93673850">desklamp</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX93673850"> (see image), the scanPAD holds a smartphone in place above whatever the user is trying to capture.</span></span><span class="EOP SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX93673850">
<div class="Paragraph SCX93673850" paraeid="{a26b886b-4686-455e-ac17-b34f6a1a23b8}{163}" paraid="1397892298" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Sans-Serif; font-size: 6pt; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-indent: 7px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX93673850">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIg2QeGia6oaDn6tVbCCBHeM0iJIC88e8sdCqeZoI1E5bZiCafwSjHUP2FsLTREDIUUPvpiI30jJFYwbaIv_DdifF4axzV_-OR8OG01MMtBrZzBe_tJnxgRHMRI5AwrTJSYdtp/s1600/scanPAD_VI_25_l.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIg2QeGia6oaDn6tVbCCBHeM0iJIC88e8sdCqeZoI1E5bZiCafwSjHUP2FsLTREDIUUPvpiI30jJFYwbaIv_DdifF4axzV_-OR8OG01MMtBrZzBe_tJnxgRHMRI5AwrTJSYdtp/s320/scanPAD_VI_25_l.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCX93673850" paraeid="{a26b886b-4686-455e-ac17-b34f6a1a23b8}{166}" paraid="1539962935" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Sans-Serif; font-size: 6pt; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-indent: 7px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX93673850"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCX93673850" paraeid="{a26b886b-4686-455e-ac17-b34f6a1a23b8}{166}" paraid="1539962935" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Sans-Serif; font-size: 6pt; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-indent: 7px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX93673850">For documents, the base of the scanPAD has a </span><span class="SpellingError SCX93673850">microsuction</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX93673850"> surface designed to not only hold documents, but also smooth and flatten them. It is designed to work with whatever document capture app a user has installed on their phone. The reverse side of the </span><span class="SpellingError SCX93673850">microsuction</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX93673850"> pad features a </span><span class="SpellingError SCX93673850">bluescreen</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX93673850"> that enables users to take pictures with a transparent/replaceable background. The device can also be used to give video presentations utilizing printed pages or whiteboards. </span></span><span class="EOP SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX93673850">
<div class="Paragraph SCX93673850" paraeid="{a26b886b-4686-455e-ac17-b34f6a1a23b8}{168}" paraid="1604028301" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Sans-Serif; font-size: 6pt; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-indent: 7px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX93673850">
<div class="Paragraph SCX93673850" paraeid="{a26b886b-4686-455e-ac17-b34f6a1a23b8}{171}" paraid="750271725" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Sans-Serif; font-size: 6pt; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-indent: 7px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX93673850">The scanPAD carries a retail list price of 249 Euros, or about $</span><span class="SpellingError SCX93673850">283US</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX93673850">. There is <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/150550806/scanpad-the-coolest-scanner-ever" target="_blank">a Kickstarter campaign</a> underway, with a goal of raising $113,000 over the next two months. As of mid-day yesterday, 40 backers had pledged $6,500. Pledges of a certain amount get the pledger a discounted scanPAD in return. Manufacturing is scheduled to begin in Germany in January with units to begin shipping in February.</span></span><span class="EOP SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX93673850">
<div class="Paragraph SCX93673850" paraeid="{a26b886b-4686-455e-ac17-b34f6a1a23b8}{173}" paraid="1807829695" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Sans-Serif; font-size: 6pt; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-indent: 7px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX93673850">
<div class="Paragraph SCX93673850" paraeid="{a26b886b-4686-455e-ac17-b34f6a1a23b8}{186}" paraid="1812219709" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Sans-Serif; font-size: 6pt; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-indent: 7px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US">I believe this is the third device we have covered in </span><span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US">DIR</span><span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> designed to hold a smartphone to create higher quality scans. The last one was the <a href="http://www.scandock.com/" target="_blank">Scandock from </a></span><span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.scandock.com/" target="_blank">Atiz</a></span><span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US">, a company headed by former </span><span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Apprentice</span><span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> finalist Nick Warnock</span><span class="TextRun SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;" xml:lang="EN-US">. Atiz’s Scandock lists for slightly more than the scanPAD but also offers a lighting system and software designed to ensure high-quality color images are produced.</span><span class="EOP SCX93673850" style="font-family: "Cooper Lt BT",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"> </span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCX93673850" paraeid="{a26b886b-4686-455e-ac17-b34f6a1a23b8}{186}" paraid="1812219709" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Sans-Serif; font-size: 6pt; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-indent: 7px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCX93673850" paraeid="{a26b886b-4686-455e-ac17-b34f6a1a23b8}{186}" paraid="1812219709" style="color: windowtext; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-indent: 7px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Cooper Lt BT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 19px;"><b>Added for blog:</b> Would it make sense for someone to create an ADF version of this type of scanner? Along those lines how fast could you capture images, say, leveraging the video camera within a smartphone or tablet? Could you do it<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbcdpa07QiE" target="_blank"> ibml fast</a> if you had the right transport? Just some food for thought.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX93673850">
<div class="Paragraph SCX93673850" paraeid="{a26b886b-4686-455e-ac17-b34f6a1a23b8}{188}" paraid="1832849966" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Sans-Serif; font-size: 6pt; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-indent: 7px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX93673850">
<div class="Paragraph SCX93673850" paraeid="{a26b886b-4686-455e-ac17-b34f6a1a23b8}{193}" paraid="1985741051" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Sans-Serif; font-size: 6pt; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-indent: 7px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-55035436129050640502015-07-21T15:19:00.003-04:002015-07-21T15:42:06.193-04:00Aggressive Cost Cutting in Store for Lexmark Enterprise Software<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Lexmark reported its Q2 2015 earnings today. Overall, Lexmark reported $891M in non-GAAP revenue and $139M in earnings. Apparently, Wall Street traders were not impressed with these numbers along with lowered earnings forecasts, as<a href="http://www.thestreet.com/story/13225674/1/lexmark-international-lxk-stock-falls-on-mixed-second-quarter-results.html" target="_blank"> Lexmark shares were down more than 20% in early trading</a>. I don't pretend the understand the complete dynamics of Lexmark's business, but I do follow its Enterprise Software division fairly closely, and this was the first quarter it reported that includes any revenue and income from Lexmark's Kofax acquisition, which closed on May 21.<br />
<br />
For Q2, Lexmark reported $150M in total Enterprise Software revenue, with margins of 20%. On the surface, this looks great, considering that Lexmark's Enterprise Software margins for 2014 were around 5%. But, if you look closely, the Kofax Q2 operating margins are listed at 42.6%, which has something to do with the timing of the acquisition. Apparently, some Kofax operating expenses in areas like IT, finance, HR, facilities, and legal and corporate staffing were charged to "All Other," instead of Enterprise Software.<br />
<br />
"The software segment benefited from the timing of the Kofax closing which coincided with the most profitable portion of what is traditionally Kofax’s strongest quarter," explained David Reeder, VP and CFO, of Lexmark in an analyst call. "Kofax added $48 million of revenue and $20 million of operating income to second quarter results." (Quotes are from the Seeking Alpha transcript of the analyst call.)<br />
<br />
When you take Kofax out, Enterprise Software reported operating margins of 9.8%, which is not great, but is an improvement over what we've seen historically from the Enterprise Software group. And, of course, we all know that Lexmark has set a goal of exiting 2016 with 25% operating margins for Enterprise Software. So, how does it get there?<br />
<br />
In conjunction with today's quarterly financials report, Lexmark announced plans to eliminate about 500 positions. "We are announcing a restructuring action today, the vast majority of which reflects the cost synergies targeted for the ReadSoft and Kofax integrations," announced Chairman and CEO Paul Rooke. "In total, we’re eliminating about 500 positions worldwide, primarily across the G&A, marketing, and development organizations with about one-third of the impacted positions being shifted to lower cost countries, and we expect to complete these actions by the end of 2016. Financially, these actions are expected to generate annualized savings of about $65 million in 2017, the vast majority of which will benefit the Enterprise Software segment."<br />
<br />
Basically, it sounds like Lexmark is expecting to save more than $33M in operating expenses annually in Enterprise Software - as well as grow the division due to "revenue synergies." When you do all the math, this should work out to 15% operating margins for 2015 and 25% by the time 2016 ends.<br />
<br />
Obviously, there are going to be some challenges growing Enterprise Software while simultaneously reducing headcount, but Lexmark at least has a vision to try and executive on. I feel badly that it sounds like many people in our industry are going to lose their jobs as part of this vision, but as document imaging and ECM gets subsumed into more general IT and larger organizations, this type of evolution is inevitable.<br />
<br />
Now, I'm not saying Lexmark is guaranteed to succeed at what it has set out to do, specifically in terms of margins and more broadly in terms of transforming from a hardware player to establishing itself as a leader in the ECM space. But, I will say it's definitely worth watching - and I'm sure most of its competitors are. Lexmark is clearly betting big here. We should know the results of those bets in another couple years at the latest.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-36648326225536703222015-05-21T15:59:00.002-04:002015-05-21T16:03:53.657-04:00Bish Appointed President of Lexmark Enterprise Software<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
You can't accuse Lexmark of being predictable and boring. Almost two months after <a href="http://www.documentimagingreport.com/index.php/component/k2/item/1813-lexmark-to-acquire-kofax" target="_blank">announcing its surprise $1B bid for document capture market leader Kofax</a>, today,<a href="http://www.documentimagingreport.com/index.php/component/k2/item/1849-lexmark-completes-acquisition-of-kofax-announces-enterprise-software-leadership-change" target="_blank"> Lexmark not only announced it had closed the deal</a>, but that Kofax CEO Reynolds Bish was taking over as president of Lexmark Enterprise Software. <br />
Most people in the industry had assumed that Bish, who has hired by Kofax in 2007 to drive up its valuation and sell the company, had successfully completed his mission and would move on.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgERTbBQhkH7BIWVq94p3W2ccV2gk6SaSgC5pU3ldMgJ6HbLs84NKxWIXZ6ukbagsbsr1BSPcWzgpmvh3pCIuQGq_GAOL8yYO2ShAxzVzX5yWKwJB2B6K5mshOFKBiGIZvqZWn8/s1600/reynolds_bish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgERTbBQhkH7BIWVq94p3W2ccV2gk6SaSgC5pU3ldMgJ6HbLs84NKxWIXZ6ukbagsbsr1BSPcWzgpmvh3pCIuQGq_GAOL8yYO2ShAxzVzX5yWKwJB2B6K5mshOFKBiGIZvqZWn8/s200/reynolds_bish.jpg" width="133" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUhJJjJJjKsUvlf0lL6t5CEPOpK_GhI3ToKT5Cs7ASjGuv13L3VIDllB8ifi-2SETqZLdvO8RIZkk8p6tv_yyKhEmmIaTNutu-Sdau4uacBFYieBPJ99uM9bIp2wbsh4A4nBni/s1600/Scott+Coons_HS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUhJJjJJjKsUvlf0lL6t5CEPOpK_GhI3ToKT5Cs7ASjGuv13L3VIDllB8ifi-2SETqZLdvO8RIZkk8p6tv_yyKhEmmIaTNutu-Sdau4uacBFYieBPJ99uM9bIp2wbsh4A4nBni/s200/Scott+Coons_HS.jpg" width="130" /></a>Instead, we have Bish taking over for Scott Coons, who was basically the founder of Perceptive Software - the rock on which Lexmark Enterprise Software was built. Lexmark acquired Perceptive in 2010 and followed that with several other software acquisitions all rolled up under the Perceptive flag. The result was a software business with run rate of approximately $350M, prior to the acquisition of Kofax, which now doubles the size of that business. The curveball, however, is that Coons, who is some 15 years Bish's junior, is taking his retirement while Bish takes the reins of Lexmark Enterprise software (which is what Perceptive was renamed earlier this year).<br />
<br />
The said, Bish's appointment really makes perfect sense. When you add together the revenue of Kofax, ReadSoft (<a href="http://newsroom.lexmark.com/2014-09-08-Lexmark-announces-results-of-ReadSoft-tender-offer" target="_blank">which Lexmark acquired last year</a>) and the former Brainware (now Perceptive Intelligent Capture), capture now makes up at least $450M of Lexmark Enterprise Software's projected annual run rate of $700M. And who better to run a $450M capture software business than Bish?<br />
<br />
In addition, for the past couple years at least, Bish's vision has been wider than capture. He executed a series of acquisitions while at Kofax to help transition the company into the emerging smart process application (SPA) space. In many ways, the portfolio that Kofax adds with Lexmark, will further beef up its SPA play. But the bottom line is that, as reflected in its name, Lexmark is striving to be an "enterprise software" company and that has also been Kofax's goal since Bish took over. Bish put a lot of infrastructure and strategies in place to execute on this goal and will now be able to carry them over into Perceptive.<br />
<br />
One other thing, as Lexmark Enterprise Software moves to reach its goal of a 25% operating income margin by 2016 (from approximately 10% at the end 2014 for the combined Kofax and Perceptive businesses), there are certainly some personnel cuts that are going to have to be made. Technically coming in from the outside may make this easier for Bish to do than Coons, who to date had been operating Perceptive on fairly low margins in part due to Lexmark's laissez-faire approach to software.<br />
<br />
Not that Coons was doing a bad job. In fact, when Lexmark first acquired Perceptive, it promised it would let Coons run the software business without interference and to date, Coons noted in a call with DIR, Lexmark has done a great job of keeping its promises. This hands-off approach really enabled Lexmark to establish itself as a major ECM player - which many doubted it could do.<br />
<br />
Coons told us he was flat out ready to retire after 20 years in a very competitive market and that he supported Bish as the man to succeed him. Bish is certainly no stranger to personnel turnover, as he was an agent of change when he took over Kofax in 2007 and helped mold it into a true enterprise software vendor. As a result, Bish is probably the best man for the job now that it is time to do some remolding at Lexmark Enterprise Software as well.<br />
<br />
Congratulations Reynolds on your new appointment and Scott, best wishes in your retirement!</div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-607669780787513772015-04-30T12:02:00.003-04:002015-04-30T18:42:01.362-04:00Xerox CFO Comments Seem to Rule Out Kofax Bid<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Xerox recently adjusted its outlook for 2015 in the wake of<a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150424005134/en/Xerox-Reports-First-Quarter-2015-Earnings#.VUJImPB2PSM" target="_blank"> fairly weak Q1 results</a>. But, the big news for our readers may be Xerox CFO <span id="articleText">Kathryn Mikells' comments on the company's acquisition goals. <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/24/us-xerox-results-idUSKBN0NF12Q20150424?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews" target="_blank">Mikells told Reuters</a>: "</span><span id="articleText">We're expecting to do up to $900 million in acquisitions this year and early next year." This would seem to rule out a bid for Kofax, for which <a href="http://www.documentimagingreport.com/index.php/item/1814-lexmark-goes-all-in-on-capture" target="_blank">Lexmark has already bid $1B</a>. </span></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-37140443710550038362015-04-27T19:13:00.000-04:002015-04-28T11:00:35.303-04:00Kruchten to Depart Kodak Alaris<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsvGwk1wCCvfJHm7646fcCp7omJUO3gJxZ4TznzOytfTXMo5y76W3vhD5saQu5zt5T0-DTkKHom1rq4dluNo3-IioN12vDbLteE6BgV1viQ-NrsQwuKFtapKRohvIHvhXjuv_E/s1600/Kruchten_Dolores_hiresNEW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsvGwk1wCCvfJHm7646fcCp7omJUO3gJxZ4TznzOytfTXMo5y76W3vhD5saQu5zt5T0-DTkKHom1rq4dluNo3-IioN12vDbLteE6BgV1viQ-NrsQwuKFtapKRohvIHvhXjuv_E/s1600/Kruchten_Dolores_hiresNEW.jpg" height="200" width="142" /></a></div>
Dolores Kructhen, who has served as president of Kodak Alaris Document Imaging - DI (recently renamed Information Management- IM), since it was launched in 2013, is leaving the company at the end of May. Here's the official statement from Kodak Alaris:<br />
<br />
"Dolores Kruchten, President of the Information Management division, has decided to leave Kodak Alaris at the end of May. All of us at Kodak Alaris thank Dolores for her contributions over the years and wish her all the very best for the future. We are actively recruiting – in the interim, Ralf Gerbershagen and Jeff Goodman will work closely with the existing Information Management Executive leadership team to ensure a smooth transition."<br />
<br />
Kruchten started with Kodak in 1981. She held numerous positions at Kodak Document Imaging, including running the hardware service business for Kodak Graphic Communications before taking over as GM of DI in 2007. Kruchten oversaw that transition of DI from a division of Eastman Kodak to one of the two principal divisions of Kodak Alaris - which were spun off as part of Eastman Kodak's bankruptcy proceedings.<br />
<br />
The DI business struggled with uncertainty in 2012 and most of 2013, before bouncing back with a strong year for scanner sales in 2014. Like many hardware vendors, it is attempting to move towards more of a solutions approach and has added more software to its portfolio. Last week, <i>DIR</i> ran <a href="http://www.documentimagingreport.com/index.php/component/k2/item/1833-new-sales-lead-for-kodak-alaris-in-us-c" target="_blank">a story</a> on Russell Hunt's retirement as Regional GM of the US&C for DI/IM. He is being replaced by Martin Birch, who had previously served as regional GM for EMEA at DI/IM.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572277.post-41294644445997995992015-04-07T11:10:00.000-04:002015-04-07T11:10:06.279-04:00Xerox Leaves Door Open for Kofax Bid<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here's the statement I received from Xerox after asking for a comment on Lexmark's $1B bid to acquire Kofax: "While we cannot comment on Lexmark’s decision to acquire
Kofax, we can say that today we are more confident than ever in our capability
to deliver outstanding Next Generation Managed Print Services, Document
Outsourcing and workflow to our customers and prospects. <b>If and when the
transaction is completed</b>, we will re-evaluate our strategic partnership with
Kofax. In the meantime, we will continue to maintain our partnership with them
to support existing customer engagements where Kofax has been adopted. We are
committed to open standards and when customers choose Xerox and another partner
or competitor, we will work diligently to ensure that their environment works
flawlessly."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sounds to me like their might be conversations brewing within Xerox to make a higher bid, as I don't know what else could prevent the transaction from being completed. The "if and when" certainly makes it sound like Xerox is not considering this a done deal. If the deal is completed, it also certainly sounds like Xerox will be moving on from Kofax.</div>
</div>
DIReditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17054516643855504357noreply@blogger.com7