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BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
36
Cloud solutions
Copier resellers are not the only ones to
struggle to deliver solutions. Evans is also
critical of some of the IT resellers Invu has
dealt with in the past.
“We did to some extent dismantle a
reseller channel that didn’t have the skills
to implement the solution properly. I still
think it requires some understanding of
a business to put in a system that’s more
than just a Windows file share. We have
a core set of VARS who are still reselling
our product and implementing it who do
have those skill sets and those consultancy
talents. For example, Your DMS, also known
as YDMS, based in Swindon. They continue
to deliver our solutions on premises and
in the cloud and provide the consulting
around that. We have some other partners
doing the same thing.”
While Evans is interested in developing
Invu’s IT reseller network, he says the best
offering for the channel is probably not
the company’s existing mature Windows
product, but a new generation of cloud
solutions that it has in the pipeline.
“Moving forwards there is an appetite
for cloud that’s going to grow. Within
the next 12 months, we will be releasing
products that do not depend on having
an on-premise component. Document
management has changed and we will
be looking to bring something new and
slightly different to the cloud offering.
It won’t just be our product, which we
have had now for 10 years, in the cloud.
It will be a new capability, quite like the
electric car vs the diesel car, that will bring
different benefits even though it’s going on
the same road,” he said.
“We have a very mature and effective
document management system for
delivering to mid-market right now that
can be taken on. But if VARs are looking to
adopt technology now, a lot will be looking
for something that is more cloud-natured.
The future for growing a VAR or reseller
channel will be through a cloud offering.”
In the meantime, Evans says he
welcomes approaches from VARs
interested in INVU's existing solution set,
which revolves around an on-premise
deployed document management system
that also has pre-integrated cloud
components, such as portals for interacting
with buyers and customers. “That fits very
well with our target market today, because
most of them are still deploying software,”
he said.
Changing needs
Invu currently has around 1,200-1,300
customers, though many of these are
accountancy practices and smaller
organisations from historical sales of
filing and retrieval systems. Invu’s newer
customers tend to be larger, mid-market
businesses facing ever more complex
document management needs.
“We are seeing businesses’ heads
being turned by GDPR, data privacy and
information security requirements, because
those ISOs are moving down the chain
from big to little and affecting the way
people look at documents,” Evans said.
“Another area in which we are
seeing a rise in interest is digital signing
of documents and electronic signing of
documents to formalise transactions that
involve contracts. And, we’ve still got plenty
going on with businesses trying to remove
paper from processes – stopping processes
being bound to paper. Again, that’s a cost
reduction driver. Those are the three drivers
that are really affecting the market.”
Evans points out that over the years
customers’ needs and expectations have
changed in important ways, even for mid-
market companies that might not have the
strict compliance requirements of larger
organisations.
“The basic need to store documents
and find out where they are hasn’t really
changed, but the value of that to customers
has changed a lot – they expect that to be
built-in and are now looking for additional
value on top. This tends to be around
information security-type features, the
ability to mine for data within the document
base, maybe around GDPR,“ he said.
“A lot of mid-market businesses don’t
have the backbone internally to know that
they are doing the right thing – the IT
infrastructure and resources to spend time
on these things. They look to their vendors
for guidance and some support in the
application so that they can be seen to be
doing something about it – to be seen to
be responsible, without necessarily having
all of the Is dotted and Ts crossed as you
might in an enterprise.”
Evans says that over the last five years,
Invu has spent a lot of time and effort
enhancing its professional services skills to
ensure that it continues to meet customers’
changing needs.
“Just installing a document
management system for someone to
scan into can be considered an off-
the-shelf product. A solution that deals
with a business process is a very, very
different animal indeed, and the customer
absolutely needs the supplier vendor to
understand business processes, understand
how to talk to business people, understand
how to challenge their customer during the
process to arrive at a good result,” he said.
“It’s a very painful journey to get good
at that, but that’s something the customer
sees in Invu; they recognise that we as
a company see our solutions projects
through to success. Customers sometimes
don’t end up with what they ask for, but
always get what they need.”
The basic
need to store
documents
and find
out where
they are
hasn’t really
changed, but
the value
of that to
customers
has changed
a lot
...continued
Stuart Evans,
CTO
, Invu
