IRIS eyes UK
Document and content management specialist IRIS has revealed plans to increase its presence in the UK.
The Belgium-based company, which specialises in intelligent document recognition and capture, is established in much of mainland Europe, and firm now wants to spread out to incorporate the UK. Although it currently has a presence in the UK via distributors Computers Unlimited and Avnet, and Gem serving the retail space, it aims to increase its presence by building a network of resellers to take its products to market.
“Expanding in key for us in 2010 and 2011,” Bernard De Fabribeckers, IRIS’ sales director told Channel Pro.
Portfolio
IRIS has a portfolio of solutions that help customers convert paper documents in electronic formats and store, manage and share them. It has vendor relationships with Adobe, HP and most significantly, Canon, which last year acquired 17 percent of IRIS for an investment of €22m. The firm is working on developing a “complete sales channel for Canon” and has produced Canon-specific solutions that are compatible with the print manufacturer’s Multi Function Printers (MFPs).
It most recently added to this portfolio of scanners and software a new A4 portable scanner, the IRIScan Anywhere 2, which enables users to capture information from all kinds of documents when away from their computer. The scanned image is then saved either in the built-in memory, on the in 1GB SD card included or on a standard USB key.
It has also launched IRISPowerscan 9 for both Microsoft SharePoint and Therefore document management software. The user can scan and index documents and the images are then converted into hyper-compressed, fully searchable PDF, PDF/A-1b or XPS files. Then, those files are exported with their indexes into the appropriate SharePoint or Therefore document library.
Market growth
The UK is currently five percent of the firm’s worldwide market, and it plans to grow this figure by 20 percent in the next two years. De Fabribeckers says the firm can make its mark particularly in the office supplies space and through retail channels.
De Fabribeckers also says the firm is on the hunt for Oracle Peoplesoft and SAP integrators, as well as Microsoft resellers, imaging VARs and resellers in key verticals such as the legal sector, where legislation is driving demand for archiving solutions.
Meanwhile, the firm is also planning to bring its reseller programme to the UK next month, which will incorporate a three tier structure, but “won’t be too strict,” according to De Fabribeckers, and will “stay open to all.”
