Comments on: A Good Deal for Captaris and Open Text—but Impact on Seattle-Area Innovation Is Less Clear http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2008/09/05/a-good-deal-for-captaris-and-open-text-but-impact-on-seattle-area-innovation-is-less-clear/ Business + Technology in the Exponential Economy Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:30:41 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Alani Kuye http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2008/09/05/a-good-deal-for-captaris-and-open-text-but-impact-on-seattle-area-innovation-is-less-clear/comment-page-1/#comment-41294 Alani Kuye Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:38:45 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/?p=4716#comment-41294 Not only did they acquire Captaris, they cleaned out operations and pretty much adopted the CA model which is to screw the channel while acting as it’s friend. I make a bold statement by saying this is not the end, that industry is in a sharp nose dive. Innovator? Not a rats chance! Every Tom, Dick and Harry is now making document / content management software. We we move into a more collaboratively competitive environment instead of a purely competitive one, we’ll be seeing more shakeups like these. Alani Kuye Phantom Data Systems Inc. http://www.phantomdatasystems.com Online Document imaging Solutions Data Storage and Recovery Norwalk CT. Not only did they acquire Captaris, they cleaned out operations and pretty much adopted the CA model which is to screw the channel while acting as it’s friend.
I make a bold statement by saying this is not the end, that industry is in a sharp nose dive.
Innovator? Not a rats chance!
Every Tom, Dick and Harry is now making document / content management software. We we move into a more collaboratively competitive environment instead of a purely competitive one, we’ll be seeing more shakeups like these.

Alani Kuye
Phantom Data Systems Inc.
http://www.phantomdatasystems.com
Online Document imaging Solutions
Data Storage and Recovery
Norwalk CT.

]]> By: Dan Aronson http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2008/09/05/a-good-deal-for-captaris-and-open-text-but-impact-on-seattle-area-innovation-is-less-clear/comment-page-1/#comment-28107 Dan Aronson Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:36:21 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/?p=4716#comment-28107 As a 20 year veteran of the fax server industry, I can say without hesitation that this was an OK deal at best for Open Text. Certainly there can be no question that gaining the Captaris distribution network is a plus. However, as far as innovation is concerned, there hasn't been any real inovation at Captaris in a very long time. All "new products" that they have introduced have been gained through acquisition -- not innovation. And while they were busy trying to integrate these acquisitions into their overall corporate culture, they allowed the only product that was truley of their own making and thus their only real chance at innovation to suffer. Of course, I am speaking about RightFax. Mr. Pasatiempo quoted Captaris marketing rhetoric about placement in the Fortune 100, a claim they have been making for nearly a decade. But when you look at real meaning of this claim, it is not as impresive as it might sound. Most of the Fortune 100 have many fax servers, none of which handle 100% of thier fax traffic. So all one needs is to have a single, four port solution back-ending some legacy purchasing system to make the claim that they are "in" that company. Meanwhile, companies like Boeing have implemented much larger fax servers that handle the lions share of their fax nees that are not RightFax. So again, this is not that impresive a claim. Mr. Pasatiempo also fails to mention that sales have continually declined over the past two quarters due to, by their own admission (just listen to the quarterly conference calls to verify) the poor performance of what they call their "legacy North America dealers". These resellers have always accounted for a large portion of RightFax sales, and most of them do not actively market the other Captaris solutions. The fact is that RightFax is a stale product that has missed every upward trend in the fax industry. There are only two expanding market segments in the fax industr; T.38 Fax-over-IP and Fax Services (i.e. eFax). Captaris runs a distant second in the T.38 Fax-over-IP market. And they do so because they are not fax innovators at all. Like nearly everyone else in the fax server industry, they relied on Dialogic (formerly Cantata, who was formerly Brooktrout) to provide the T.38 fax signaling piece. Since Dialogic/Cantata/Brooktrout was late in coming to the market with thier T.38 solution, Captaris was locked out of that space as well. And as for the Fax Services space, the RightFax End-User License Agreement strictly prohibits the use of RightFax in a fax services environment, so they have zero presenc there. So as you can see, to call Captaris an innovator is really a stretch. Anyone can acquire technology by buying it. IT Managers do it every day. But that does not make every IT Manager an innovator. As a 20 year veteran of the fax server industry, I can say without hesitation that this was an OK deal at best for Open Text. Certainly there can be no question that gaining the Captaris distribution network is a plus. However, as far as innovation is concerned, there hasn’t been any real inovation at Captaris in a very long time. All “new products” that they have introduced have been gained through acquisition — not innovation.

And while they were busy trying to integrate these acquisitions into their overall corporate culture, they allowed the only product that was truley of their own making and thus their only real chance at innovation to suffer. Of course, I am speaking about RightFax.

Mr. Pasatiempo quoted Captaris marketing rhetoric about placement in the Fortune 100, a claim they have been making for nearly a decade. But when you look at real meaning of this claim, it is not as impresive as it might sound. Most of the Fortune 100 have many fax servers, none of which handle 100% of thier fax traffic. So all one needs is to have a single, four port solution back-ending some legacy purchasing system to make the claim that they are “in” that company. Meanwhile, companies like Boeing have implemented much larger fax servers that handle the lions share of their fax nees that are not RightFax. So again, this is not that impresive a claim.

Mr. Pasatiempo also fails to mention that sales have continually declined over the past two quarters due to, by their own admission (just listen to the quarterly conference calls to verify) the poor performance of what they call their “legacy North America dealers”. These resellers have always accounted for a large portion of RightFax sales, and most of them do not actively market the other Captaris solutions.

The fact is that RightFax is a stale product that has missed every upward trend in the fax industry. There are only two expanding market segments in the fax industr; T.38 Fax-over-IP and Fax Services (i.e. eFax). Captaris runs a distant second in the T.38 Fax-over-IP market. And they do so because they are not fax innovators at all. Like nearly everyone else in the fax server industry, they relied on Dialogic (formerly Cantata, who was formerly Brooktrout) to provide the T.38 fax signaling piece. Since Dialogic/Cantata/Brooktrout was late in coming to the market with thier T.38 solution, Captaris was locked out of that space as well. And as for the Fax Services space, the RightFax End-User License Agreement strictly prohibits the use of RightFax in a fax services environment, so they have zero presenc there.

So as you can see, to call Captaris an innovator is really a stretch. Anyone can acquire technology by buying it. IT Managers do it every day. But that does not make every IT Manager an innovator.

]]>