Posted a number of press releases today.
The most interesting of which is probably Sony's and Intradyn's e-mail archiving system that starts at just over 10 grand. This is the type of thing we've been calling for for the SMB market. I hope to catch up with them later in the week and discuss the details. Like, how do you determine what to archive and what not to with as little disruption to the work process as possible.
Another interesting release invovles Top Image Systems', which had a huge fourth quarter.. Things seem to have turned around for TiS, once they started focusing on the invoice market. And make not mistake about it, automated invoice procesisng it hot right now. Take a look at recent wins by Captiva and Anydoc that are evidence of this. ReadSoft also finished 2005 strong both in North America and worldwide and most of that was driven by Invoices sales. More on that in our next issue.
Finally, eCopy officially announced its VAR program. We plan on having more on eCopy's growing channels when we visit their partner confernece in April.
Tuesday's always a busy day for news.
Cheers.
RG
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Friday, March 11, 2005
Final analysis on Verity/Dataintro
I had to cut this excerpt out of this week's newsletter to make room for the late breaking Scan-Optics news. Seemed like a shame to waste it, so here is my final analysis on why the Verity/Data intro deal was such a good fit:
Adobe, which competes with Verity in the e-forms market, introduced its own PDF417 technology for PDF forms last year at AIIM/On Demand. The Dataintro/Verity deal comes two months after Adobe announced that Kofax, which competes with Verity in the document and data capture market, would begin marketing LiveCycle Barcoded Forms, through its reseller channel. As 2D bar coded forms are often described as a transition technology between paper and electronic forms, both the Adobe and Verity camps now offer a complete spectrum of technology for capturing data from forms.
Thanks.
RG
Adobe, which competes with Verity in the e-forms market, introduced its own PDF417 technology for PDF forms last year at AIIM/On Demand. The Dataintro/Verity deal comes two months after Adobe announced that Kofax, which competes with Verity in the document and data capture market, would begin marketing LiveCycle Barcoded Forms, through its reseller channel. As 2D bar coded forms are often described as a transition technology between paper and electronic forms, both the Adobe and Verity camps now offer a complete spectrum of technology for capturing data from forms.
Thanks.
RG
Mavel resigns from Scan-Optics
Don't read too much into Jim Mavel's surprise resignation from Scan-Optics yesterday The official reason being given is "personal reasons," which is usually not a good sign. Throw on top of that the fact that the resignation came in only a couple weeks before the comapny's scheduled earnings release and it ocurred on a Thursday night after business hours, and we smelled trouble.
Scan-Optics execs however, did a good job at damage control and Mavel close friend and long-time co-worker, Scan-Optics, VP of Sales Dick Goyette called us to assure us things are going well as the long-time scanner vendor. Goyette, in fact, told us the company had just completed one of the most successful quarters in the company's history, including landing a $2.7 million deal with the South Carolina Department of Revenue and signing up UK distributor Headway and Beltway-based Promark to distribute its SO Series of scanners.
Fourth quarter numbers are due out March 31, which may or may not shed some light on the reasons behind Mavel's resignation. We will say we always enjoyed working with Jim over the years and found him an interesting interview with an engaging personality. We will miss having him at Scan-Optics.
He is being replaced on a temporary basis by a long-time board member andt he company has also hired a new COO to replace Michael Villano who died last year.
RG
Scan-Optics execs however, did a good job at damage control and Mavel close friend and long-time co-worker, Scan-Optics, VP of Sales Dick Goyette called us to assure us things are going well as the long-time scanner vendor. Goyette, in fact, told us the company had just completed one of the most successful quarters in the company's history, including landing a $2.7 million deal with the South Carolina Department of Revenue and signing up UK distributor Headway and Beltway-based Promark to distribute its SO Series of scanners.
Fourth quarter numbers are due out March 31, which may or may not shed some light on the reasons behind Mavel's resignation. We will say we always enjoyed working with Jim over the years and found him an interesting interview with an engaging personality. We will miss having him at Scan-Optics.
He is being replaced on a temporary basis by a long-time board member andt he company has also hired a new COO to replace Michael Villano who died last year.
RG
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Pitney Bowes CEO Discusses Mail
Here's an interesting article where Pitney Bowes' CEO seems to be saying that the increasing use of e-mail is actually going to increase the use of traditional mail. That's great news for document imaging vendors if it's true. For some reason, I have a hard reason believing this, as I think once people really figure out how to best use digital documents, there will be no turning back. For example, I have probably written one or two checks in the past year and have no intention of going back to paper payments. But heck, Pitney-Bowes needs mail so let them believe their going to have it.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Verity-Dataintro
Check out the latest news from Verity, regarding its partnership with Spanish developer Dataintro. We featured Dataintro in DIR last year. They developed 2-D bar code technology for forms, similar to the stuff Adobe is offering. I'm not sure what the patent issues are regarding all this stuff, but bascially both products enable users to fill out forms on-line and then have the data they have entered encoded in a 2-D bar code that appears on the form. This way, users can print the forms and the 2-D bar code can be scanned to capture the information - elmimating the need to submit the forms electronically, or apply OCR/ICR. It's reportedly very accurate. It has primarily caught on in tax applications so far, where for a variety of reasons users don't/can't submit their information electronically. The IRS, in fact has a big project going with Adobe.
What is intriguing about the Verity/Dataintro deal is the bedfellows. Dataintro has had some success so far primarily marketing the stuff on its own in North America, but Verity will definitely provide it with increased presence. It's an interesting fit for Verity because Verity seems to be marketing the product as complementary to its e-forms offering, which is exactly how Adobe is marketing it. Of coruse, Verity could also choose to market it with its traditional paper forms processing software. So, in essance, Verity has kind of a triple threat here. They can process your paper forms, they can process these hybrid 2D-bar code forms - which most people consider a step on the ladder toward e-forms, and they can market the e-forms solution. It's an interesting value proposition. We'll see how it develops.
It's also interesting because Adobe is actually a former investor in Cardiff, the forms processing/e-forms company that Verity bought and for a long time, it was rumored Adobe was going to buy Cardiff. Now, Verity has become the first vendor to take on Adobe head-to-head in this emerging 2-D bar code space. Probably not a big deal, but interesting none-the-less. We've also heard a rumor that Scantron, one of Verity's biggest forms processing resellers has dropped the Teleform product line, so this deal with Dataintro is probably part of slight rebound strategy. Oh yes, and somewhere in here fits the fact that Kofax is reselling Adobe's 2-D bar code products and Kofax parent Dicom is another former Cardiff investor...
Look for more news on this emerging 2-D bar code technology. It's one of Harvey Spencer's favorite topics. It will be interesting to see what other types of end users start to adopt it.
Cheers.
RG
What is intriguing about the Verity/Dataintro deal is the bedfellows. Dataintro has had some success so far primarily marketing the stuff on its own in North America, but Verity will definitely provide it with increased presence. It's an interesting fit for Verity because Verity seems to be marketing the product as complementary to its e-forms offering, which is exactly how Adobe is marketing it. Of coruse, Verity could also choose to market it with its traditional paper forms processing software. So, in essance, Verity has kind of a triple threat here. They can process your paper forms, they can process these hybrid 2D-bar code forms - which most people consider a step on the ladder toward e-forms, and they can market the e-forms solution. It's an interesting value proposition. We'll see how it develops.
It's also interesting because Adobe is actually a former investor in Cardiff, the forms processing/e-forms company that Verity bought and for a long time, it was rumored Adobe was going to buy Cardiff. Now, Verity has become the first vendor to take on Adobe head-to-head in this emerging 2-D bar code space. Probably not a big deal, but interesting none-the-less. We've also heard a rumor that Scantron, one of Verity's biggest forms processing resellers has dropped the Teleform product line, so this deal with Dataintro is probably part of slight rebound strategy. Oh yes, and somewhere in here fits the fact that Kofax is reselling Adobe's 2-D bar code products and Kofax parent Dicom is another former Cardiff investor...
Look for more news on this emerging 2-D bar code technology. It's one of Harvey Spencer's favorite topics. It will be interesting to see what other types of end users start to adopt it.
Cheers.
RG
Monday, March 07, 2005
Google/ScanSoft
Check out my quote in the lastest press release from ScanSoft regarding its relationship with Google. Pretty interesting announcement considering ScanSoft's long relationship with Microsoft. I was under the impression that Microsoft and Google were fairly big rivals and that Microsoft is also competing in the desktop search game. Is there another shoe to drop in relation to this story?
Thursday, March 03, 2005
PC Expo Veteran takes over for Randall
Christina Condos has been named Brian Randall's replacement as the organizer for the AIIM/OnDemand Trade Show. Condos most recent position was the executive director of CMP's Entertainment Technology Group.. Condos main qualifications for her current position, however, come from several years as show director for CMP's Technology Exhibition Week New York, or TECHXNY - better known probably as the show formerly known as PC Expo. Here's a brief profile of Condos. Advanstar Technology Group VP and GM Kerry Gumas seems pretty happy with Condos' hiring. He notes that she brings experience with On Demand to the table as well. He also noted that the rest of the AIIM/On Demand team remains in place and that the marketing efforts to sign up end user attendees are going well. He promised to share some preliminarty numbers with us in the upcoming weeks.
Oh yes, Gumas told us Condos has also been named Show Manager of the year by the International Association For Exhibition Management.
It sounds like Condos brings a good resume to the table, which she will need to manage the growing AIIM/OnDemand show, which also conincidiently is in some tranisition as it moves to a new city. Based on what we've read about Christina, we are confident she can get the job done and look forward to continuing to grow with the show.
Did we mention that we think the education tracts this year look great and what a great job AIIM has been doing with education programs in general since it sold the show.
Cheers.
RG
Oh yes, Gumas told us Condos has also been named Show Manager of the year by the International Association For Exhibition Management.
It sounds like Condos brings a good resume to the table, which she will need to manage the growing AIIM/OnDemand show, which also conincidiently is in some tranisition as it moves to a new city. Based on what we've read about Christina, we are confident she can get the job done and look forward to continuing to grow with the show.
Did we mention that we think the education tracts this year look great and what a great job AIIM has been doing with education programs in general since it sold the show.
Cheers.
RG
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
AIIM E-mail study
Did you see the new survey that came out today from AIIM. They surveyed like 1,000 businesses aboout their e-mail, IM, and Blackberry and other types of messaging habits. No secret that these types of communications are growing. What remains a secret is how to properly manage them. One of the interesting stats I saw was that 86% of these organizations tell users how they should use e-mail, only 39% say how they should be retained in a records management environment. Is there a good e-mail records management system out there for general business - I haven't seen it yet. This is where I think all our IDR/Forms processing technology is going to end up going.
There is a growing amount of potentially hazardous e-mail floating around out there and nobody has a good track on it. E-mail use is going to decline and we've got to find a better way to deal with it.
When I give my seminars here locally to mostly small-to-mid-sized buisnesses, in addition to being concerned about paper, the attendees are concerned about e-mail. These are the two great sources of unmanaged structeud information. That is the connection between imaging and e-mail management. And being able to manage both these streams is part of the attraction of the whole digital mailroom concept.
Cheers.
RG
There is a growing amount of potentially hazardous e-mail floating around out there and nobody has a good track on it. E-mail use is going to decline and we've got to find a better way to deal with it.
When I give my seminars here locally to mostly small-to-mid-sized buisnesses, in addition to being concerned about paper, the attendees are concerned about e-mail. These are the two great sources of unmanaged structeud information. That is the connection between imaging and e-mail management. And being able to manage both these streams is part of the attraction of the whole digital mailroom concept.
Cheers.
RG
Monday, February 28, 2005
Randall Leaves Advanstar
Does anyone else feel slightly burned about Brian Randall leaving Advanstar. Brian was always one of those guys people warned me not to fully trust. But I must admit, we always got along well, he returned all my messages and generally gave DIR some good interviews. While at this weekend's Kodak Breakaway Partner Conference I heard he had walked away from Advanstar less than three months before the AIIM/On Demand Show. What really burned me was the fact that I just ran a story talking about how excited he was about the show. I understand he got a great opportunity. Moving to Portland, ME to run an ethnic food tradeshow business does sound kind of nice... But there does seem to be some level or responsibility that Brian is shirking here.
To Advanstar's credit, Kerry Gumas, Brian's boss has nothing but nice things to say about Brian. He pretty much credits him for setting up a good base for this year's show - which through Brian's maneuverings - is being held in Philly for the first time in my memory. And according to our last conversation with Brian, the show has the potential to be really big. Let's just hope that all is has been told and Brian isn't deserting a sinking ship. I'm still looking forward to AIIM/On Demand and I really hope Advanstar can still deliver the end user numbers Brian was boasting about.
Well, good luck to Brian and good luck to everyone who is banking on AIIM/On Demand -hopefully this turns out to be the proverbial win/win for both sides.
Cheers.
RG
To Advanstar's credit, Kerry Gumas, Brian's boss has nothing but nice things to say about Brian. He pretty much credits him for setting up a good base for this year's show - which through Brian's maneuverings - is being held in Philly for the first time in my memory. And according to our last conversation with Brian, the show has the potential to be really big. Let's just hope that all is has been told and Brian isn't deserting a sinking ship. I'm still looking forward to AIIM/On Demand and I really hope Advanstar can still deliver the end user numbers Brian was boasting about.
Well, good luck to Brian and good luck to everyone who is banking on AIIM/On Demand -hopefully this turns out to be the proverbial win/win for both sides.
Cheers.
RG
Friday, February 04, 2005
More on FBI Case file system
So, this sounds like loads of fun. It seems the FBI is still struggling to implement a case management system and is biting the bullet on the work they've done so far with SAIC - hoping actually to recover some money from them. It seems they are now looking into COTS technology which could be a boon for some ECM players... Let's see, the FBI, which in charge of investigating criminal activity just got used by SAIC - presumably because they didn't investigate the ECM market thoroughly enough... I feel safe, how 'bout you?
RG
RG
Monday, January 31, 2005
LizardTech JPEG 2000
This is an interesting story regarding some patent claims that LizardTech seems to be making against the JPEG 2000 standard. On the patent front also, apparently ScanSoft still has an open case with Millennium. That's all for now. I'm going to see of LizardTech has anything to say about its JPEG 2000 claims.
Here's LizardTech's response.
Here's LizardTech's response.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
FileNET Numbers
Did you see the latest numbers from FileNET?. On the surface,they look pretty impressive, but when you dig a little deeper, they actually show no software license growth. Wall Street of course caught on to this. Coupled with projections of less than 5% overall growth for next year,FileNET got slammed pretty good by the street.
So,what's up with FileNET? Why can't they grow in a red-hot ECM market? Take a look at our next issue, which features stories on companies like IBM and Hyland - who appear to be cruising in this space. Hyland Founder Packy Jr. once told me his goal was to be bigger than FileNET. I thought he was crazy at the time, but at the current growth rate of the two companies, that could happen in the next 10 years.
That is all not to say FileNET is not a well-run company. They do have oodles of cash and are run profitably as Lee Roberts likes to boast. But are they too conservative for their own good. They were burnt on acquistions in the mid-1990s and have been shy in that area ever since. They have a Global 2000 customer base, which is great. But something seems to be missing and that's the ability to sign up new customers. Years ago, FileNET made the transition from hardware and software very successfully. Some sort of similar new transition is going to have to happen, or if they lose a few of those blue chippers to the more aggressive competition, they could end up as the next Eastman Software. I wonder if eiStream, now known as 360 degrees or something, will buy them.
Cheers.
Ralph
So,what's up with FileNET? Why can't they grow in a red-hot ECM market? Take a look at our next issue, which features stories on companies like IBM and Hyland - who appear to be cruising in this space. Hyland Founder Packy Jr. once told me his goal was to be bigger than FileNET. I thought he was crazy at the time, but at the current growth rate of the two companies, that could happen in the next 10 years.
That is all not to say FileNET is not a well-run company. They do have oodles of cash and are run profitably as Lee Roberts likes to boast. But are they too conservative for their own good. They were burnt on acquistions in the mid-1990s and have been shy in that area ever since. They have a Global 2000 customer base, which is great. But something seems to be missing and that's the ability to sign up new customers. Years ago, FileNET made the transition from hardware and software very successfully. Some sort of similar new transition is going to have to happen, or if they lose a few of those blue chippers to the more aggressive competition, they could end up as the next Eastman Software. I wonder if eiStream, now known as 360 degrees or something, will buy them.
Cheers.
Ralph
Oce Digital Mailroom
Did you see that Oce announced its digital mailroom strategy? Is there anyone that is not going to be a player in the digital mailroom? Yes, I realize there are a lot of opponents, or should we say realists out there that still see document management as primarily a line of business applicaiton. That may be true, but line of buinsess applications don't get you in the C-level door as quickly as enterprise application. After all, look what ERP and Y2K combined to do to our industry five to 10 years ago. Well, it's time we struck back and the digital mailroom is the perfect route. Did you notice Captiva's recent $1 milllion and $2 million deals each included its Digital Mailroom application?
Cheers.
RG
Cheers.
RG
Friday, January 14, 2005
Another government system failure
This story is kind of interesting. Apparently, it's about some FBI system designed by SAIC that was supposed to elminate document scanning. Apparently, it didn't work. Kind of reminded me of the Social Security Administation application I did a feature on for Transform earlier this year. We will give the government credit for spending a lot of money on technology and helping to drive innovation, but I must admit I feel kind of bad when my tax dollars get thrown down the drain!
RG
RG
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Cardiff, Verity, PDF
Here's an interesting link to an interview with Mark Seamans conducted on the PDFZone. Mark has risen to quite a position of prominance with Verity and we congratulate him on that. We've found him to be very straightforward in interviews and will have an article based on our conversation about Verity's Dralasoft's acquisition in our next issue. Interestingly, ScanSoft's Robert Weideman, another former Cardiff lieutenent is mentioned in this article. Speaking of Cardiff if you're looking for Dennis Clerke, here he is... .. seems to have landed a pretty nice position.
Patent article
Here's a link to a patent article sent to us by one of our readers. Pretty interesting stuff and some good suggested reforms. And this only begins to touch on the problems specific to software...
Cheers.
RG
Cheers.
RG
Monday, January 03, 2005
Oracle
Well, congrats to Oracle on its impending acquisition of PeopleSoft. It seems overall that Ellison & Co. had a pretty good year in 2004. Of course, 2004 also marked the database giant's latest ECM maneuverings. No, the rumored FileNET or other player acquisition didn't come through. However, Oracle introduced its own product - which may carry the most ill-timed code name of all-time.
Carry on.
RG
Carry on.
RG
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Google Book Scanning
It seems Google's intiative to put like 50 million books on-line is creating quite a stir the national press. Check out this
USA Today story that quotes both Dean Tang of ABBYY and Lotfi Belkhir of Kirtas, two of our favorite DIR sources.
We've got to pat ourselves on the back for our news sense, as this story comes on the heels of an article in DIR - that came out on Friday, about the potential of MRC (Mixed Raster Content)in similar types of applications. Aside from the article we offer the link to, however (which barely touches on it), the national press seems to have given little attention to the technical details of the Google project. This is soemthing we hope to tackle in our next issue, although Google is still being rather secretive.
What is especially exciting for the document imaging market is the potential that Google's competitors will have to unveil similar projects to keep up.
We can't wait!
Cheers. For now.
RG
USA Today story that quotes both Dean Tang of ABBYY and Lotfi Belkhir of Kirtas, two of our favorite DIR sources.
We've got to pat ourselves on the back for our news sense, as this story comes on the heels of an article in DIR - that came out on Friday, about the potential of MRC (Mixed Raster Content)in similar types of applications. Aside from the article we offer the link to, however (which barely touches on it), the national press seems to have given little attention to the technical details of the Google project. This is soemthing we hope to tackle in our next issue, although Google is still being rather secretive.
What is especially exciting for the document imaging market is the potential that Google's competitors will have to unveil similar projects to keep up.
We can't wait!
Cheers. For now.
RG
Friday, December 03, 2004
Tsunami on the way
Haven't been here for a while. I apologize for those of you that have been looking for new posts. Just getting caught up with everything and I think we're almost there... Anyhow I just recieved this e-mail from Interwoven talking about Oracle's new ECM system:
Hi Ralph,
As you know, Oracle is announcing the availability of Tsunami at OracleWorld next week, which Interwoven's CMO, John Bara, sees as no more than a "glorified database." Essentially it provides lightweight file management, which will require extensive systems integration and will provide only very basic, low-end capabilities.
Oracle wants IT to believe that their offering fills the content management needs of business users and that IT wants the following:
* A lightweight file management solution that requires lots of customization (cost of an SI) and higher TCO and that handles filing of documents but neglects things like digital assets
* A vanilla infrastructure offering that requires purchasing the kitchen sink rather than solving an immediate and specific need
* To omit many of the tools business users need that allow them to easily develop, collaborate on, manage and distribute all types of digital content while protecting corporate brands and mitigating risk
While some may want this, many others are looking for a way to harness the power and reap the rewards of content management, and looking to bridge the communication gap between business and IT.
Questions we think you should ask Oracle:
How are they going to provide: Records Management? Digital Asset Management? Web Content Management? Content Distribution? Web Change Management? Without these things, they are not an ECM player, and they will not be able to provide ECM solutions.
They then go on with some stuff about why Interwoven's product is supieor.
Oracle has actually been in the file systems business for quite some time and this latest approach in very interesting. They were of course rumored to be big FileNET and Documetum suitors. Now it looks like they are going to settle for being competitive with SharePoint if they're lucky. All this to me is obviously a response to IBM's ECM success, which is tightly integrated with DB2, which, of course, is one of Oracle's main competitors.
Anyways, hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and hope to have a few more posts before the end of the year. Please feel free to respond any time.
Cheers.
Ralph
Hi Ralph,
As you know, Oracle is announcing the availability of Tsunami at OracleWorld next week, which Interwoven's CMO, John Bara, sees as no more than a "glorified database." Essentially it provides lightweight file management, which will require extensive systems integration and will provide only very basic, low-end capabilities.
Oracle wants IT to believe that their offering fills the content management needs of business users and that IT wants the following:
* A lightweight file management solution that requires lots of customization (cost of an SI) and higher TCO and that handles filing of documents but neglects things like digital assets
* A vanilla infrastructure offering that requires purchasing the kitchen sink rather than solving an immediate and specific need
* To omit many of the tools business users need that allow them to easily develop, collaborate on, manage and distribute all types of digital content while protecting corporate brands and mitigating risk
While some may want this, many others are looking for a way to harness the power and reap the rewards of content management, and looking to bridge the communication gap between business and IT.
Questions we think you should ask Oracle:
How are they going to provide: Records Management? Digital Asset Management? Web Content Management? Content Distribution? Web Change Management? Without these things, they are not an ECM player, and they will not be able to provide ECM solutions.
They then go on with some stuff about why Interwoven's product is supieor.
Oracle has actually been in the file systems business for quite some time and this latest approach in very interesting. They were of course rumored to be big FileNET and Documetum suitors. Now it looks like they are going to settle for being competitive with SharePoint if they're lucky. All this to me is obviously a response to IBM's ECM success, which is tightly integrated with DB2, which, of course, is one of Oracle's main competitors.
Anyways, hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and hope to have a few more posts before the end of the year. Please feel free to respond any time.
Cheers.
Ralph
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
E-mail management
Hey, check out this
Robert Cringely column. A great piece discussing Microsoft's underhanded e-mail mismanagement in its case with Burst. I was just putting together a piece for my next issue based on a converation I had with IBM's records management czar Bruce Miller. He made some comment about companies purposely going after defendents in cases where the cost of discovery will end up being less than a settlement. Sounds like blackmail. Sounds like Millennium... I guess in there own way Microsoft has figured out a way around this type of litigation without proper records mangement software. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, everyone is not Microsoft obviously, and can't get away with what they do. It would seem that records management is indeed one way to fight these ridiculous lawsuits that seem to be popping up everywhere.
Cheers.
RG
Robert Cringely column. A great piece discussing Microsoft's underhanded e-mail mismanagement in its case with Burst. I was just putting together a piece for my next issue based on a converation I had with IBM's records management czar Bruce Miller. He made some comment about companies purposely going after defendents in cases where the cost of discovery will end up being less than a settlement. Sounds like blackmail. Sounds like Millennium... I guess in there own way Microsoft has figured out a way around this type of litigation without proper records mangement software. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, everyone is not Microsoft obviously, and can't get away with what they do. It would seem that records management is indeed one way to fight these ridiculous lawsuits that seem to be popping up everywhere.
Cheers.
RG
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