FileNet IBM View

I think I expressed my opinions on the FileNet/IBM deal fairly clearly in the latest edition of DIR. This guy does a nice job summing up some of the stuff that was expressed in the conference call. He basically says, it's about the workflow and processes that FileNet specializes in, which IBM is adding to its core competency. That, of course, and the customer base.

Ralph

More Election problems

I came across this story while vacationing in Ohio last week. (Yes, I'm from Western PA, so sometimes we vacation in Ohio.) But anyways, it has always struck me as odd that we have all this great forms processing, data capture technology out there, but we still can't get our electoral processes right.

Ralph

Why'd IBM Do It?

We explore this question at length in this week's issue of DIR, coming soon. We will tell you that the deal, to us in the ECM know at least (wink, wink, nod, nod) is more complex than Big Blue just wanting to increase its software business, as many pundits, such as this one, are suggesting. After all, only something like 40% of FileNet's revenue is from software. The rest is from services. Then again, IBM knows a little about services as well. So, why'd they really do it? Well, you're going to have to get DIR to find out. (Unless, of course, you think you know, than please share.) Comments below.

IKON-Adobe e-forms

Thought is was kind of interesting that copier mega-dealer IKON has signed up Adobe as a premier partner for its e-forms solution. E-forms, of course, elminate paper, which has historically been the lifeblood of IKON's business. Kudos for IKON for having the vision to realize that it's about the processes, not the paper, and fully embracing electronic doucment management technologies.

Census Technology

Intereting article on the improved data collection methods being used for the 2010 U.S. Census.

More on XPS

Don Fluckinger of the PDFZone does good work. Here's his latest on XPS and the effect it will have on the PDF market.

North Carolina Unhappy with ACS

Bad news for ACS - the State of North Carolina is unhapply with its efforts at setting up a system for processing Medicaid claims. At least I think it's a claims processing system - they call it a "billing system."

Ralph

Aurde, Inc.

Last month, we ran a brief in DIR discussing some of the ties that document conversion specialist Audre, Inc. had with convicted former California Congressman Duke Cunningham. This Vanity Fair article gets into it in more detail. Wow, it seems Duke's road to ruin began with quesionable conversion deals with Audre and later a company called ADCS. Check it out for yourself.

Ralph

Hummingbird-Open Text

I guess we should have seen this coming after Symphony's relatively modest offer to acquire Hummingbird a few weeks back. But Open Text appears to be after their Canadian counterpart again. If you remember, back in the day, the late-1990s, Open Text tried a hostile takeover of PC Docs, whose management ran away from them like its hair was on fire. PC Docs instead accepted from Hummingbird, which was not a direct competitor, like Open Text was. I seem to remember that maybe PC Docs executives felt they'd have a better chance of staying on board if they took Hummingbird's offer over Open Text's. Open Text, of course, then upped their offer and made one last gasp at acquiring PC Docs. Things got kind of nasty before PC Docs finally went to Hummingbird - and PC Docs management team ended up mostly being shown the door anyhow. Well, seven years later, guess what, Open Text is trying another guerilla takeover of PC Docs - this time bidding on the entire Hummingbird entity. Symphony is just a holidng company, so the Open Text acquisition probebly makes more sense. However, Open Text has offered Hummingbird shareholders a dollar more per share, or a 4% premium over the Symphony price, so it might not be worth it for Hummingbird to change suiters at this juncture. If Open Text gets offers somewhere in the 10% range, look for this deal to be a slam dunk.

Ralph

LizardTech Re-org

This is an odd story about LizardTech that recently came across the wire. It seems Carlos Domingo, who had been pretty much running the show in the U.S. has stepped upstairs to the position of chairman and is moving back to his home country of Spain. Didn't see LizardTech at AIIM this past year, after visiting with them the past couple years at the event. It seemed like things might have been going better after they won the New Yorker archive project. As a market for their mixed raster content DjVu format seemed finally to be developing. Hopefully this will continue under the new management. Of course improvements in PDF have someone marginlized the company's fringe file format.

Ralph

Alfresco FileMark

Here's a story about a neat integration between FileMark and Alfresco. FileMark is a high-end archiving, imaging, COLD, and workflow vendor currently being run by former Tower Technology marketing wizard Bill Zastrow. Zastrow left Tower when it was acquied by Vignette a couple years go. Incidentally, Vignette seems to be doing well in the wake of the acquistion. Alfresco, of course, is the Open Source document/content management developer founded by former Documentum personnel. Kevin Cochrane, a former VP of Interwoven has also been brought on board. Alfresco seems to have pretty solid software, but of course, doesn't have an imaging component. So, I guess what FileMark is doing with them is probably similar to what everybody else is doing with SharePoint. Just thought it was worth mentioning.

Ralph

South African company Looking for Software partner

As far as I can tell, this is legit. I have corresponded with the author of this e-mail. He seems to the co-proprietor of South African paper storage company that is looking for a document imagnig software partner. They are unhappy with their current partner. Here's the text of the e-mail I received: (I have not corrected spelling or grammer.)


Hi Ralph

My name is Langa Mkhwanazi from South Africa, I am a partner and in charge of operations in newly formed Document storage and Scanning Company called Safefile. We sort of manage to develop a box storage system software for our Warehouse which cost us a lot of money. We however have been let down Marjory by people that promised to develop a scanning, indexing and viewing software for us, with major financial losses for our business.

Some of our problems are, we depend on these people for the livelihood of our business, in that they control the software with out us getting the source codes as to customize the systems to our clients needs. Some have offered mediocre systems that do not allow us to penetrate industries like the financial sector. Over under above that, we have to sell this viewing software to our customers on their behalf at ridiculous amounts and end up losing on the contract.

I am looking for help in developing our own scanning, indexing and viewing program. We are using Kodac scanners and so are able to scan our documents, but when it comes to indexing and providing solutions via our viewing system for our clients we are no where. We cannot even provide a software that allow our clients to manage their documents, email, fax, create workflows.

We have been bleed dry financial, but we need a Safefile owned software to perform our business, Ralph we don’t even have a workflow for our own scanning services.

We need help and any help will do or we will go down.

Regards,


Langa Mkhwanazi
Operations Director
Safefile (Pty) Ltd
l.mkhwanazi@safefile.co.za

Xerox CTO

Here's a somewhat intersting interview with the CTO of Xerox.

More on XPS

Here's an insightful article that discusses some of the features/functionality of XPS, the PDF alternative that Microsoft will release with its Vista OS sometime next year. Interestingly, the writer seems to position XPS the same way that Microsoft partner ScanSoft/Nuance has been positioning its PDF capabilities, as a lower overhead product when compared to Adobe Acrobat, aimed at office workers and their needs, leaving the graphics world to Adobe.

Ralph

Google

Last post for today. This article probably explains why Google will not surpass Microsoft, as much as I like their server-based computing model.

TiS wins smokin' deal

More evidence of successful invoice processing/ERP integration: TiS wins a contract with Altadis, Europe's leading manufacturer of tobacco products.

FileNet Document Encryption

FileNet has teamed up with storage security expert Decru to create a hardware/software solution for ecrypting document based on user-defined groups.

Microsoft PDF

It seems Microsoft and Adobe have had a falling out over their agreement to incorporate PDF in Office. We remember when this project was first announced - curiously, it was after Microsoft had launched its XPS "PDF-killer" format. Not surprisingly, Microsoft expects to get sued by Adobe. Microsoft is notorious for pretending to partner with company just so they can get a peek at their technology.

Hummingbird deal

It seems that some Hummingbird investors are up in arms about the $456 million being paid by a California firm to take Hummingbird private. One gentleman has even encouraging voting against it. The hope is that a strategic buyer, like a FileNet or Oracle will be found. I guess, based on $1.5 billion that Documentum got from ECM, Hummingbird shareholders might have a right to be disappointed.

JPEG Patents

There seems to be quite a bit of discussion in our industry about the recent USPTO ruling on the invalidity of major chunks of the JPEG patent that Forgent has leveraged so far to generate some $100 million in revenue. It looks like someone finally got one of these patent rulings right. Hurrah! Let's hope there is more of this to come.