Technology Reseller - v19 2019

technolog y reseller.co.uk SCANNERS 33 garments. Those types of systems are becoming more common and need service partners,” explained Lofstrom. More long-term, Lofstrom is exploring the possibility of taking some of the company’s historical competencies in image science and mechanical systems and applying them to entirely new markets, such as manufacturing quality control systems where a high degree of precision is required. “It could even be applied in things like 3D printing, where you may be able to do feedback at point of creation. Today, with many 3D printing applications, you go through the production process and don’t know you have issues until it is done. That can result in a lot of time and material waste. If we can provide a feedback loop of whether it is conforming or not, there could be big benefits.” In the meantime, Alaris is continuing to quality, file format, size etc. because they are driving downstream processes and need the OCR engine to work effectively. ‘If I can get high percentages in that, I am truly in the world of automation. I don’t need to invest a lot of human capital to do quality control checks and things like that which become necessary if you don’t get good success rates’.” New growth areas In addition to developments in scanning, Alaris is exploring other growth opportunities, in existing and completely new areas. The former includes Managed Content Services, which gives customers greater visibility and control over their entire capture infrastructure and business- critical processes. In many organisations, these are still unmanaged and fragmented, which adds costs to a business and embeds inefficiency and waste. By helping a channel partner audit and optimise the centralised and distributed scanning equipment and processes at the UK operations of an international bank, Alaris experts were able to reduce the number of workflows in its central processing unit by over 90% and half the time needed to complete the daily scanning workload from 16 hours to just eight. Lofstrom adds that Alaris is also planning to make more use of its multi- vendor, global service capability. “As we go more into solutions and professional services, we are looking at opportunities to leverage that competency in complementary areas. In Europe, for example, the team has been looking at body image scanning systems and the service around that. It’s a wholly different form of imaging technology but something that is becoming more and more popular for people whether they are in weight loss programmes or are looking for customised invest in its channel partners as it seeks to penetrate the scanner and workflow markets more deeply and gain share, particularly in distributed capture. “We are very much a partner-centric company,” said Lofstrom. “We already have the broadest product range in the industry and with the assistance of our partners we can provide more value in terms of vertical solutions, for solving customer problems in ways that are relevant to them. We provide some of the ingredients with our hardware, software and services and look to our partners to provide the totality of the solution.” In next month’s issue we include more details on Alaris’s partner strategy, including an interview with Gerry Kelliher, Alaris Sales Director EMEA. ...continued Since 2013, Kodak Alaris has been owned by the Kodak Pension Plan, which has recently expressed its intention to sell the constituent parts of the business, including Alaris. It is likely that any unsold parts of the company will end up under the control and management of the UK’s Pension Protection Fund (PPF). Technology Reseller asked Don Lofstrom what Kodak Alaris’s unusual ownership means for Alaris and whether it causes problems for the company. This is what he had to say: “The pension trust has asked management to explore options to monetise the business and, if the right value is received, there is a possibility that this business could be sold. If, when we test the market, we don’t get a sufficient offer, the other opportunity is that we stay in the portfolio. “Even if the pension fund moves under the PPF, we’ve been told that they will accept the businesses as operating concerns. Today, we operate under a board structure and the PPF have said they would expect that type of governance structure to remain intact. “My focus and mission is to manage Alaris for the long-run and to create long-term value. That’s good for us and for our owners, whether we are owned in our current structure, whether we are under the PPF and have a different form of trust owner, or whether we are to be owned by an alternative strategic or financial buyer.” Alaris ownership