Xerox Making MFPs Smarter with New Enhancements

Yesterday, March 10^th, Xerox announced advancements to its Xerox ConnectKey technology to expand what multifunction printers (MFPs) can do in the workplace. The Xerox ConnectKey-enabled i-Series MFPs are equipped with ready-to-use apps, speed up paper-dependent business processes and make it easier for users to collaborate and work more effectively. The technology also gives Xerox and its partners opportunities to better understand customer business needs and uncover new recurring revenue streams. Read more »

Kodak Alaris Partners with Google to Build an IoT Strategy

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the millions of smart devices that are connecting with each other, and we see it impacting and infiltrating the document solutions industry.  Last year, Google launched Brillo and Weave, the key parts of their new IoT platform, to enable easier device setup, phone-to-device-to-cloud communication, and user interaction from mobile devices and the web. Google is presenting Weave as “a solution for everyone:” OEMs, app developers, and end-users. With Weave, OEMs can build interoperable communications into their devices, build on Brillo, or add the Weave capability library to their existing OS.  App developers can use Weave to extend the reach of their iOS and Android apps by building one app to control multiple devices at home or work, and leveraging Google services such as voice actions. Read more »

Kofax Transform 2012

The 2012 Kofax Transform event was held in San Diego earlier this week.  This Kofax event is a mix of partners, vendors, customers and analysts with a total attendance estimated at over 600.  They had a robust lineup of educational sessions targeted at the diverse set of attendees that would span 2 days (there were pre-conference product certification classes as well).

Kofax has undergone dramatic changes in the last few years; optimizing their own historic business, reorganizing their channel (down from 1200 at a high), managing through a tired economy (both in the US and EMEA), and acquisitions meant to expand and bolster their capabilities and portfolio.  Kofax remains a leader in enterprise scan and content capture with the lion’s share of licenses in this space.  In order to remain on trend, and looking to be agile with its business, Kofax made two significant acquisitions in the last 8 months, Atalasoft and Singularity.  Atalasoft is a development company that works with its DotImage SDK to image enable apps and portals.  Singularity, by contrast, allows Kofax to extend their reach into the business beyond capture and into the BPM market.

At the event, the main message was “capture enabled business process management”, and what that will mean for its customers, and resellers.  Executives such as CEO Reynolds Bish and CMO Martyn Christian spent time outlining the current business and then began to connect the dots for the future.  The future, according to Kofax, will be heavily influenced by mobile development and technologies.  They went so far as to provide a “preview” of a mobile app along with a strategy to integrate mobile into the capture continuum.

In terms of tone, I felt the event was well received from their partners and resellers.  The dust seems to have settled and generally the resellers feel positive regarding the path that Kofax is taking.  Customers I spoke with were happy with their implementations of Kofax, some being clients for years now.  It remains to be seen how Capture, DM and ECM vendors will weather the storm of acquisition and compression in the industry, last week’s announcement of Lexmark acquiring Brainware demonstrates the value of content capture in a total solution.

A look back at AIIM 2009

When I first walked into the Philadelphia convention center show this year, I have to admit I was a little taken back. In years past the joint AIIM/OnDemand expo was certainly much larger and decidedly louder. Gone are the book printers and roll fed devices demonstrating their might and churning out samples. Booths themselves were scaled back, and large product left behind in their place, brochures and posters. Staff was minimized as well, obviously a sign of the economic turmoil we find ourselves living in. Some vendors opted to go off the show floor and make use of meeting room space (Fujitsu), some opted out of the show altogether (Kodak). As a past attendee and exhibitor, I do remember foot traffic being heavier, however I also recall many demonstrations to clearly uninterested people who really just wanted the very cool pen, flashing ball, t-shirt, clock, calculator, sticky pad, USB stick or squishy thing we happened to be giving away. The vast majority of attendees of the past were casual lookers, somewhat buys, technofiles, and friends there to visit whatever cool city we were in. Attendees this year may have thought long and hard whether to attend, made a comittment to travel when many are not or cannot. Attendees this year were looking for solutions to either help them drive cost out of operations or understand ways these solutions can help them develop new business and grow existing. Attendees this year were more serious…maybe even more qualified than years past, the cool pen was an after thought. Read more »