Collaboration Takes Center Stage as Market Embraces SharePoint
July 29 2008 - 7:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Captaris Points to Document Capture and Automation as Key Drivers
for Collaboration and Business Process Management BELLVUE, Wash.,
July 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- There is movement afoot -- a
groundswell of office workers are now sharing, collaborating and
streamlining everyday business interactions. Their platform of
choice is Microsoft SharePoint, which today has logged in over
17,000 user companies and exceeded $1 billion in sales. Put another
way, more than 100 million users are tapping the benefits of a
collaborative work environment. In an age of social networking
where the keyboard and the mouse are the gateway to information,
sharing and connecting, it is no wonder that SharePoint has been
embraced with such fervor. Work can be organized and processed
efficiently and co-workers, managers and other stakeholders have
access to what they need when they need it. The only thing missing
from this virtual world of optimum productivity comes from the
brick and mortar world: paper. Paper documents remain a mainstay
from department to department in businesses around the globe.
Captaris, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAPA), an innovative software company
focused on document automation, believes SharePoint is the ideal
platform for collaboration and views it as a springboard to
widespread adoption of document capture solutions. According to
Paul Yantus, executive vice president of marketing and product
development for Captaris, "Now that we have this incredible
platform in SharePoint, all we need to do is automate paper to be
part of this interactive world. That's where Captaris comes in. We
specialize in capturing paper documents and converting them into
electronic data that can be searched, sorted, shared and accessed.
In fact, nearly every company in the Fortune 2000 uses our Right
Suite products, our ubiquitous software that captures and delivers
paper documents in a shared electronic environment." Historically,
document automation has either been the domain of large, complex
enterprise applications or simply a replacement to the file cabinet
where documents are captured electronically and stored. Captaris
envisions documents as a central component to collaboration and
sees the SharePoint platform in the same light as Microsoft, who
calls it a business productivity server. With SharePoint, Microsoft
is providing the infrastructure and Captaris is providing the
document capture, routing, distribution, retrieval and process
management. The synergy between Microsoft and Captaris sets the
stage for a new level of collaboration. According to Yantus,
"Collaboration is the foundation for process management, which we
believe is the ultimate goal. When workgroups can gain operational
efficiencies by streamlining business processes, then huge gains
can result in both productivity and quality." Business Process
Management is all about aligning an organization to meet objectives
by improving processes so that the business is effective and
efficient. It is often said that behind every piece of paper is a
process. Captaris' solutions enable paper documents to be part of
the process by automating them within SharePoint to become shared,
accessed and processed. The trend for document capture is shifting
from centralized to decentralized capture where departments are
driving the application. This is an area where SharePoint has
gained traction as it offers IT managers the ability to standardize
technology, yet deploy it one department at a time. While
SharePoint is an open environment and many third-party software
developers are designing connectors that bridge the gap between
SharePoint and other systems -- the biggest benefit comes when all
applications are operating within the SharePoint platform for
seamless information management. This is an approach that Captaris
supports as it is the only way to truly achieve an environment of
collaboration. Yantus commented that together Captaris and
Microsoft foster and enable process management through
collaboration -- and that often process management evolves
naturally once users are on the system and can see how easy (and
beneficial) it is to automate business processes. "You might say it
is an organic process where workgroups adapt to the tools they have
and begin to optimize their tasks." About Captaris Captaris, Inc.
is a leading provider of software products that automate
document-centric business processes. Captaris specializes in
document capture, recognition, routing, workflow and delivery.
Captaris integrated solutions provide interoperability with leading
line of business applications and technology platforms. Captaris
products include RightFax, Captaris Workflow, Alchemy, FaxPress,
DOKuStar, RecoStar, Single Click Entry and IDStar which are
distributed through a global network of leading technology
partners. Captaris customers include the entire Fortune 100 and the
majority of Global 2000 companies. Headquartered in Bellevue,
Washington, Captaris was founded in 1982 and is publicly traded on
the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol CAPA.
http://www.captaris.com/. (C)2008 All rights reserved. No part of
this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed,
stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in
any form by any means without the written permission of Captaris.
The following are registered trademarks and trademarks of Captaris,
Inc. and its subsidiaries: Captaris, the Captaris logo, Alchemy(R),
Captaris Workflow(TM), RightDocs(TM), RightFax(R), RightFlow(TM)
and RightStar(TM) in the US and/or other jurisdictions.
FaxPress(TM) is a registered trademark of Castelle. RecoStar,
DOKuStar, DOKuStar Capture Suite, Single Click Entry, and Invoice
CENTER are registered trademarks and trademarks of Captaris
Document Technologies GmbH. All other brand names and trademarks
are the property of their respective owners. DATASOURCE: Captaris,
Inc. CONTACT: Bob Menzies of Lages & Associates Inc.,
+1-949-453-8080, , for Captaris, Inc. Web site:
http://www.captaris.com/
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