VAR InformationWelcome to our VAR Resource Center. Here we will be positng articles and links that we hope will prove useful to the Value-added reseller community.
Consultant Group Launched to help Develop ECM Channels
Former Daybreak ICS, Visioneer, and Fujitsu sales executive Rusty James has helped launch Immediate Channel Group. From the press release: "Specializing in channel development consulting services for technology providers in the Document Management and Enterprise Content Management space, Immediate Channel Group’s mission is to help vendors, VARs, and ISVs build and manage productive partner channels that drive incremental revenue and sales success."
For more info: http://www.immediatecg.com/
E-Discovery: From Incident-Driven To Strategic Installation (Posted on 11/16/07)
E-Discovery is one of the latest buzzwords in the document management industry. According to Dr. Johannes Scholtes, president and CEO of ZyLab, it’s really just a new name for a type of implementation his company has been doing for several years. What Scholtes is seeing is an evolution of e-discovery from an incident-driven market to one more tightly integrated with knowledge management.
“What’s known today as e-discovery used to be called investigation,” said Scholtes. “We’ve been doing it for years. In fact, O.J. Simpson’s defense team used our technology back in the mid-1990s; so did the FBI for the Enron case. The FBI was actually one of our first customers; going back to 1983. The FBI helped fund development of our search tools when PCs were being introduced.
“Historically, we’ve always had two major customer sets—law enforcement and law firms. Now, we’re starting to see commercial organizations do their own investigations. This has been great for expanding our market, because there are only a limited number of law enforcement agencies." (Click here, for more on this rapidly developing market.)
A Deeper Look At Procure-To-Pay (posted 10/18/07)
Last month, we covered some of most important attributes that make up a quality invoice processing product. On the capture front these include ease-of-set-up and the ability to capture line items. There is one other element that needs to be added, however, if you want to turn a simple invoice processing product into complete procure-to-pay (P2P) solution. That is integration with some sort of workflow. For more on this rapidly growing market, click here.
What Makes A Good Invoice Processing Product?
Just a few years back, I remember struggling to round-up a sufficient number of end users to fill out a story on invoice processing in Transform magazine. Installations were so scarce that every time I would talk to vendors like AnyDoc, who was one of the North American pioneers in invoice processing, I’d ask how many installations they had.
Well, those days are gone. Even if you take vendor-supplied numbers with a grain of salt, I’d estimated there are now more than 500 invoice capture installations on U.S. soil. I’ll also estimate this is 10 times the amount there were just three years ago. That gives us a compound annual growth rate well over 100% for 2005-2007. Invoices are clearly the hottest growing segment of the document capture market. (For more on succeeding in this red hot growth segment, click here.)
The Changing (Inter)Face of Distributed Capture
At Harvey Spencer’s upcoming capture conference (http://www.harveyspencer.com) on Long Island, I will be moderating a panel discussing the increasing options for embedding document capture applications within hardware devices. This is an important trend for a couple reasons. The first is that it is further evidence of the document imaging industry’s move toward solutions. The second is that it is indicative of the industry’s move into the mainstream office environment.
Actually, these two trends are connected, as by reducing the number of moving parts in an imaging application by connecting it more directly to line-of-business applications, you are making imaging more accessible, which leads to wider adoption. So, what does all this mean to resellers? Well, it means that the game continues to change, and to continue to increase your sales, you’ve got to change with it. [For the rest of the story, click here.]
E-Forms, IDR Pace Capture Market Growth (posted July 2007)
A few years back, we attended a conference where research firm Strategy Partners gave the keynote and labeled e-forms and IDR (intelligent document recognition) as the two rising stars in the data capture industry. Since, then, Harvey Spencer, who was then heading up Strategy Partners’ U.S. research, has started his own firm and eliminated e-forms from his coverage area. His recent numbers, however, support that contention that IDR is fastest growing segment of the document capture space. (For more insights on the two most rapidly growing data capture segments, click here.)
News You Can Use
Since the core of our business is newsletter publishing, we’d thought we’d give you a quick update on some recent news in the document imaging industry that could affect your business. News has been very fertile in this industry over the past two-three months with the coming and going of the AIIM show, as well as vendors’ annual spring conferences. Here are 10 of the top stories we’ve observed:
Five Truths about the Document Imaging Market (May 2007)
As the editor of the semi-monthly Document Imaging Report newsletter, I have the opportunity to travel the globe discussing and covering the document imaging market. Every week, I read dozens of e-mails and have several conversations (both on and off the record) on this market. The following five opinions have been formed based on these experiences. I hope they provide you with some valuable and actionable information in your efforts to succeed in the document imaging space.
1. Digital copiers will continue to encroach on the document imaging space—Unlike sales of workgroup scanners, which seem to have slowed from their hyper-growth of the past few years, the use of digital copiers for scanning is continuing to gain momentum.(For the rest of the article, click here.)
The Microsoft Threat Diffused (April 2007)
After hovering over the industry’s annual AIIM expo like a specter last year, SharePoint 2007 made its much anticipated debut at the recent AIIM 2007 show held at the Boston Convention Center. Microsoft had a big presence at the show and even gave one of the keynote speeches. However, Microsoft’s message was far from the one of ECM world domination that many people had feared they would deliver. Instead, Microsoft was careful to position itself as a potential partner to traditional ECM vendors. (For more click here.)
Distributed Capture Opportunities Growing
Document imaging resellers looking to hit a home run are overlooking the lucrative Web-based capture market, according to Ken Peterka, CEO of capture software specialist Captovation. Captovation, one of the pioneers in the area of Web-based capture, is currently working on a deal that could be deployed over thousands of seats in the next two years. “The number of distributed capture deals we are landing isn’t necessarily increasing exponentially, but their size certainly is,” said Peterka. (For more click here.)
Channel Conflict: Dealers Vs. VARs
Digital copier dealers are changing their direction, and it’s going to lead them straight into the path of traditional document imaging resellers. No, this isn’t breaking news. In fact, it’s something that has been brewing for four or five years now. However, armed with improving hardware, software, and marketing support, it seems that dealers are reaching a new level when it comes to document imaging sales.
One of the most telltale signs for me occurred at the recent Sharp National Dealer’s meeting in Las Vegas. Not only was Sharp’s OSA (open systems architecture) embedded systems platform one of the stars of the show—yes, software was one of the stars of a digital copier event—but, on top of that, there was no golf. Yes, a market often known for the extravagance of its dealer events is getting serious. Over dinner, a Sharp executive told us, “We received feedback that the dealers wanted more educational opportunities and less entertainment. They said they wanted a second day to visit the booths at our partner trade show. We told them that would mean cutting out golf, and they were in favor of that.”
For more click here...
The Facts Are That Fax Is Far From Dead
Emerging FoIP technology will drive future sales of software for large install base ofnpotential distributed capture devices.
Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed an explosion in sales of workgroup (sub-$2,000) scanners. We’ve also seen rapidly increasing adoption of scanning on digital copiers. However, even when you put these two types of devices together in a market called “distributed capture hardware,” the install base pales in comparison to that of fax machines—estimated to be over 50 million worldwide.
“The need for distributed scanning solutions is on the rise, and fax remains the easiest, most cost effective, and most ubiquitous technology for scanning a document and sending it to someone else,” attests Dan Lucarini, senior director of marketing for fax server software vendor Captaris. “Everyone has access to a fax machine or multifunction all-in-one device, and everyone knows how to use a keypad and press ‘send.’” (For more click here.)
Document Imaging Trends in 2007
‘Tis the season. Yes, we realize it’s the Holiday season, and we wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and all that, and hope you and your families are well. It’s also the season for all the talking heads and pundits to make their predictions for 2007. Why should we be any different? Seriously, we realize we are in the unique position of being able to study that market form a 10,000-foot view, while many of you are busy day-to-day trying to make numbers and install and manage systems.
So, without further adieu, here are the Document Imaging Report’s top five trends to watch for in 2007 (click here to read more):
2007: The Year of Document Imaging
For years, we’ve waited for document imaging technology to trickle down to the mainstream market. Well, it appears those days have finally arrived, and it’s time to make some hay, while the sun is shining, if you will. DIR editor Ralph Gammon recently discussed two prevailing trends with three document imaging vendors targeting the SMB space. These are the importance of application integration and the increasing use of digital copiers as scanners. For VARs to fully take advantage of emerging market opportunities in the upcoming year, Gammon strongly recommends that they consider embracing both these trends in their business strategies. To read more click here.
Removing The Mystery From Forms Processing
Making automatic recognition technology work correctly is often referred to as a “black art.” Brad Paxton, CEO of Advanced Document Imaging (ADI), knows better. While OCR/ICR may look like magic to some, a mathematics professor like Paxton sees through any smoke and mirrors. Paxton, in fact, has come up with a formula for determining optimum settings in forms processing applications utilizing OCR/ICR.
Paxton, a former professor at R.I.T., developed this formula while working as a consultant for the U.S. Census Bureau. For more click here.
Two acronyms you should know:
In the Document Imaging Report, we often cover emerging trends that could affect your business—by creating more opportunities, or cause you to be shut out of future opportunities if you’re not onboard. Recently, we did a couple stories on emerging new elements of document imaging and management solutions.
The first is intelligent word recognition, or IWR. IWR is designed to do forms processing in environments where traditional OCR/ICR applications fall down. This could include forms where letter boxes are not used for hand-printed fields. Click here to read more about French recognition specialist A2iA’s work with IWR.
We also recently featured a pair of ECM vendors, EMC and Stellent, which are making strides in the digital, (or information) rights management world. DRM (or IRM) provides users with control over their documents once they are downloaded from a document management repository.
“IRM is the next step in a progression for ECM customers,” said Todd Price, VP of product management and marketing for Stellent. “By installing ECM, customers have taken the first step of putting all their content in a secure system and assigning rights as to who can access it. However, when that content is downloaded or e-mailed to someone, our customers lose control over it—and keeping control was the reason they put in their ECM systems in the first place. Customers are now asking for a security model that extends outside their ECM repositories.”
Click here to read more about IRM.
Is Scan-to-PDF/A Coming to America?
While the overall market for PDF/A may still be in its nascent stages, it seems that one niche, directly related to document imaging, has already hit its stride. That’s the market for capturing document images and saving them as PDF/A files, especially in Europe. According to Carsten Heiermann, managing director of German-based image compression specialist LuraTech, his company has at least 30 large clients taking advantage of the PDF/A functionality introduced into the LuraDocument product line this spring. Click here to read more.
Wondering if the invoice processing market is for you? The results of a recent study by the Aberdeen group indicate it is. Here's an article detailing why we think invoice processing is a such a hot market, especially in the SMB space, along with some advice for selling into the accounts payable space.
Microsoft and SharePoint Server 2007 were the talk of AIIM On Demand 2006. Click here for some insights into how Micrsoft's ECM strategy is going to affect the market.
Improving Distributed Capture
The term “distributed capture” has almost become a mantra in our industry over the past few years. Two of the hottest trends in the market are sales of workgroup scanners and the adoption of scanning on digital copiers. Both represent direct avenues to distributed capture.
I’ve seen plenty of successful distributed capture installations in vertical markets like transportation, financial services, healthcare, and retail. However, it’s our opinion that what we’ve seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg. There are still obstacles preventing document scanning from becoming prevalent on every desktop, similar to the way printing is.
Click here for more on overcoming obstables to successful distributed capture installations.
ABBYY USA has announced a training program targeting resellers of scanners from Fujitsu Computer Products of America. The program will focus on helping resellers increase their revenue through sales and installation of PDF technology.
Looking for a simple and inexpensive way to integrate digital copiers into your distributed capture applications. You might want to give network TWAIN a try.
Some new document imaging trends are emerging as our technology moves downstream and its use becomes more widespread in the small-to-medium-sized business (SMB) community. This article addresses some of the challenges and opportunities associated with selling to the SMB.
Vertical market focus is going to be the wave of the future for document imaging resellers. There is just too much going on in the way of standardization and application integration for horizontal document imaging to continue to be as important as it has been in the past. DIR recently caught up with a reseller who has already successfully leveraged the vertical model. Click here to read our story on Computing System Innovations (CSI) out of Orlando, FL.
I was recently asked to deliver a keynote address at Visioneer's inaugral PartnerVision '06 conference. There were about 100 attendees there - a mix of Visioneer employees, ISV and distributor partners, and resellers. The focus of my talk was exploring new trends that are creating opportunities in the workgroup/distributed scanning market. Here's a link to my PowerPoint from that talk.
The ASP model is not dead - in fact, driven by the success of Salesforce.com, it is getting a second look in the document imaging market. ASP has been renamed SaaS (Software as a Service), and you might want to consider adding it to your bag of tricks.
Looking for a document mangement-lite solution? Check out this article on adding imaging to a couple of popular collaboration solutions.
Are you having trouble leveraging the color capabilities now available so readily in document scanners? Here's an article that can give you some insight into advanced compression formats that make color document imaging more efficient.
Having your trouble getting your arms around the ECM industry? You are certainly not alone. Check out a couple editorial pieces that might help you better understand the current ECM market landscape.
Here's an article that appeared in our July 1, 2005 issue that talks about the rise of network scanning and how it could be affecting your installations: "Network Scanning: From Kludgy To Cool"
Regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA have been driving an increased user interest in document archiving. But how do you satisfy your customers needs for long-term storage. Check out this piece on some of the developments surrounding the adoption of the PDF/Archiving (PDF/A) standard for long-term electronic document and image storage: What's Next for PDF/A?
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