Adobe CEO Unveils Alliance With Ricoh, Outlines Document Management Vision
Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen announced the partnership Tuesday in a keynote speech at the AIIM/On Demand Expo in Philadelphia. The deal underscored Chizen's message that technology integration in the document space is boosting efficiency in the market and the enterprise.
"To stay competitive, our organizations and government agencies have to truly engage people and create experiences that really reach them--in print, on screen and on the devices of their choice any time of day, anyplace," Chizen said. "Not only must these experiences engage, they must do so reliably and securely."
Plans call for Adobe and Ricoh to integrate Adobe Livecycle Policy Server and print and scan software with Ricoh multifunction products and printers. The solutions will allow the printing and scanning of documents into a searchable PDF format, providing greater efficiency for knowledge workers as well as a more secure digital workflow, the companies said. In a demonstration during Chizen's keynote, the integrated technology was used to scan a paper document into a Web- and database-searchable electronic document.
Document hardware companies like Ricoh, Xerox, Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark have been sharpening their focus on non-output solutions for workflow and document management.
"More relevant engagement is going to be important to your organization," Chizen said. "It's going to streamline your data management process, it's going to improve employee performance, and it's going to drive down costs to give you a real competitive advantage."
The AIIM/On Demand conference is expected to draw several thousand document-management solution providers and experts this week to the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Several companies new to the event, including Microsoft and Google, are slated to demonstrate their technology in document management and workflow solutions.
In another keynote demo, Chizen gave the audience a glimpse of a mortgage application solution that featured a Web-based mortgage calculator on a bank's portal site. During an online application process, users can click to get access to live customer-service representative via a Web cam, get their questions answered and then return to the application. At the end, the application can be printed from a PDF document with a 2D barcode, which could contain secure information from applicants and their accounts.
"The printed document will always be part of the business world and part of our lives," Chizen said. "But we believe there are so many traditional documents that can evolve beyond the ordinary to connect the right person at the right time with the relevant, and most importantly, engaging experiences."