Version One News & Articles

If you haven’t got your Christmas shopping done yet, there’s a pile of new document management software that’s worth a look. SAP and OpenText have upgraded NetWeaver, Microsoft and Nokia have new apps for Symbian, Version One goes to R2.2, KnowledgeTree releases ExplorerCP and SmartVault has a new service update.

Last week was a busy one for conferences, but it was also a busy week for document management. BlackBerry users will be able to have access to Office 365 documents in beta, Colligo offers document management for SharePoint, eFileCabinet heads to the cloud, LibreOffice celebrates its first birthday and Version One partners with Intuitive.

V1 document management landed in the US from Britain two years ago. Since then it has expanded in all directions, developing its re-seller channel and partners, including Oracle. This week, it has just announced that it is building on the Oracle connection and providing integrated document management to Oracle’s E-Business Suite.

Early in 2009, UK-based Version One announced that it was setting up in the US as V1 (news, site). At the end of that year, it announced that it had moved into the Canadian market with a partnership with CA-Plus. A few months later, it said it was looking to expand its reseller channel rapidly. This week, it has announced another partnership, again in Canada, this time with Toronto-based Bredet Services.

This week, Dell shows that it is serious about developing its SaaS offerings with new email security software. CommVault extends its Simpana software, while BMC has automated its GRC processes on its BSM platform.

This week competition between Google Apps and Microsoft BPOS heads to court, SharePoint gets new document management templates from HotDocs, while Gartner says the document outsourcing market is on the rebound.

It’s the middle of the holiday season, but still a lot of movement in the document capture space, including the release of document capture software for iPad and SharePoint 2010. Kofox and IKON also integrate for better capture and workflow.

A new partnership between UK-based Oracle consultancy Mokum and document management software vendor Version One (news, site) means that Oracle Financials clients will be able to access Version One directly from their Oracle (news, site) system.

Following a relatively quiet Christmas in terms of announcements and releases, Version One (news, site)  has popped up again. This time  -- with the news that it is going to dramatically expand its footprint in the African market.

This follows the announcement in December that the company was moving into the Canadian market and the opening of an office in Florida in the middle of last year. What appears to be going on now is that the UK company won’t be happy with less than full global domination of the document management software industry.

Version One has outlined some of its goals in Africa, but have fallen short of announcing that they will be opening an office there any time soon. The company says that its increased presence is the result of growing demand amongst African companies for paperless office products, including document management software and imaging systems that integrate into accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

As it stands, Version One’s products integrate into a range of accounting and ERP systems from companies like Softline, Oracle, Infor, COA Solutions and Microsoft.

Plans include growing its reseller channel, increased marketing of products and investing in software integrations like Sage ERP X3, Softline’s ERP system for SMBs.

Version One already has a number of partners in Africa including Softline and Times 3 Technologies,  which resell its products as ‘bolt-ons’ to accounting and ERP systems.

 The announcement by V1 Document Management (news, site) that they have just partnered with Toronto-based CA-Plus, a specialist in the implementation of Sage accounting and enterprise resource planning software(ERP) is no real surprise.

If you were following us two weeks ago you might remember that we were getting all touchy-feely -- at least as touchy-feely as a journalist can get -- about Version One (news, site) and their document management green meter.

Problem was that we didn’t know how it worked and we promised that as soon as we knew, you’d know.

Well, they’ve just announced the details. The meter is part of the company’s Clean and Green initiative and will calculate and report on carbon savings from the following transactions:

• Emailing documents
• Automatic electronic faxing
• Storage of outgoing documents
• Electronic authorization of documents

The green meter calculations are based on a range of formulae, including those obtained from the UK's  Carbon Trust and the UK Department of Environment tables. The information will be issued to users numerically after an action, and will also be displayed as a graphic.

This works by adding one leaf to a graphic of a tree for every one per cent of a tree's potential CO2 that is saved. When 100 leaves are added to the graphic, the tree is moved into a ‘Total Trees' data field -- representing the total number of trees saved. A new graphic appears and the process starts again. Awwww shucks!!!

If you want a better look and happen to be in London for the Green IT Expo on November 10/11 in the Barbican Center, Version One will be at Stand 4.
 

It has been six months since UK-based Version One (news, site) announced that it was moving into the American market and although they have said little to indicate how things are going from their base in Florida, the company has just announced that it is looking to grow its reseller channel -- and quickly.

According to Paul Compton, partner manager for V1 Document Management -- the US arm of Version One -- the company aims to fill in a gap in the American market for complete  document management software that can integrate into financial systems that are already in place in enterprises.

Version One's document management and document imaging software enables automatic document scanning, recognition, storage, archiving, retrieval and delivery of all business documents.It  also integrates with all major Accounting and ERP systems.

It may have been  just a slip of the tongue, or it may reflect a wider business strategy, but Compton also said the move to connect with new resellers was aimed at expanding its business in the Americas -- as opposed to America -- indicating, perhaps, longer term (and larger in georgraphy) interests for the company.

V1 is looking in particular to get it together with any companies with an interest in customer relationship management (CRM) systems or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

The terms of any deals with potential resellers are unsurprisingly vague, but the Version One stable of products has clocked up a number of notable awards in the UK and there is no reason to believe it will not do as well in the US.

Version One moved into the US last May after announcing pre-tax profits of UK£1.2 million to the end of March. Spearheading the expansion is Lynn Munns, formerly the general manager of Version One UK.

UK-based Version One (news, site)  is underling its green credentials with the announcement that it is to launch a carbon measurement tool later this year to measure how many trees and how much carbon is saved by companies who use Version One’s document management software.

Describing the initiative as an integral part of its “green agenda”, the new tool is part of a wider Clean and Green project that also includes the launch of the company’s Eco Gecko website, which provides information about the company’s green projects.

Maybe it is because Telerik (news, site) is finding Europe too small, or because there just isn’t enough business in Europe with all the purse-tightening that is going on. Whatever the reason, the Bulgaria-based company has announced it is expanding operations in  Massachusetts and opening a new office in Texas.

In addition to the new offices, the company has also announced that it is launching a new marketplace for add-ons for its Sitefinity ASP.NET Web CMS.

One company is going close off this year on a high note whether or not it wins any of the four categories it has been nominated at this year’s Document Manager Awards in the UK.

That company is Cheshire-based Version One (news, site)  and it has been nominated in four categories, including contender for best website at the awards, which take place on October 22nd.

The other three categories include Storage Product of the Year category for Diarchic, Green Product of the Year finalist for DbAuthorise and Email Product of the Year for DbMail.