LaserFiche To Ship Image Capture Applications

The entry-level Quick Fields application extracts information from forms for indexing and importing into the LaserFiche document management system.

The second application, called Forms Processing, is a beefed-up version of Quick Fields that is capable of recognizing and classifying multiple types of forms, such as invoices and purchase orders, and processing them in the same batch, said Jereb Cheatham, senior technologist for LaserFiche, Long Beach.

Both applications include image cleanup tools and work with plug-in modules for bar-code recognition, database lookup and other functions.

LaserFiche plans to ship Forms Processing this month with a price of $7,995 per workstation. Quick Fields, which began shipping in October, is priced at $500 per workstation.

One solution provider who tested a beta version of Quick Fields had a positive reaction. "Overall, it looks pretty nice and we'll use it with our customers when applicable," said Bruce Williams, president of BlueLake Software, a LaserFiche solution provider in Redondo Beach, Calif.

Williams said BlueLake generally uses Kofax Ascent Capture, which he called a de facto industry standard, as its capture front end for LaserFiche. But he said Quick Fields could be more cost-effective than the Kofax solution in lower-volume and less complex applications.

Cheatham said the advantage of LaserFiche's solutions over third-party products is that they are more tightly integrated with the company's document management system.

"The whole point is to automate the capture and cleanup, indexing and organizing of the documents going into LaserFiche," Cheatham said, adding that customers are "looking for turnkey solutions where all the components are made by a single vendor."

Meanwhile, LaserFiche also planned to step up its partner recruitment efforts at Comdex, offering solution providers who sign up for training at the show a $1,000 discount off the normal price of $5,995, said Chris Wacker, senior vice president of sales and marketing.

The company currently has about 300 active VARs that are focused on its products and another 200 to 300 partners that occasionally sell its products. He said the company was hoping to recruit as many as 300 more partners in the coming year, both in international markets and in established verticals such as health care and financial services.

LaserFiche, which is particularly strong in municipal and county government markets, increased revenue about 30 percent this year over last, according to Wacker. He also said the company has nearly 800 installations since the introduction its of LaserFiche United document management software in March.

"United puts them in a whole different class," said Rich Crabtree, president of The Crabtree Companies, a LaserFiche partner in Eagan, Minn. "LaserFiche has a reputation of being a lower-end solution, but it's not. It's very powerful enterprisewide."