‘Challenge of Unstructured Data is An Opportunity for Efficient Information Management’

By Faiz Askari

Information management has become a strategic activity for most of the enterprises. This has become an important aspect for large as well as small sized businesses.

As a spin off from the Eastman Kodak Company-- Kodak Alaris is a global technology company formed in 2013. The Information Management division of the company works with small organizations to global enterprises to drive complexity out of information capture and unlock the power of digital transformation; The (IM) division performed well in a fast-paced, emerging Indian market and achieved revenue growth of over 13% in the last fiscal.

In an exclusive interaction with Faiz Askari of SMEStreet, Vivek Naidu, Vice President - Information Managemet (India Cluster) - ‎Kodak Alaris India Pvt. Ltd. explained an overall trend in the information management domain specially with the Indian enterprise context.

Edited Excerpts:

Faiz Askari: What are the key areas of operational focus for Kodak Alaris in India?

Vivek Naidu: Earlier this year, Kodak Alaris transformed the way business is conducted across verticals by providing intelligent solutions to extract valuable information from unstructured data, thereby creating a unique value proposition for businesses. Its initial endeavour was to demonstrate how organizations can “Turn Data Chaos into Business Opportunity” by taking the complexity out of information capture.  With the introduction of these solutions, the company has been able to tap the pulse of Digital transformation that starts with harnessing critical data and turning it into information that can drive better and efficient business outcomes.

Faiz Askari: What are the key measures that Kodak Alaris is taking to address the issue of Unstructured Data?

Vivek Naidu: As an ongoing effort to harness the potential of this unstructured data, Kodak Alaris set the stage for the launch of a more comprehensive information capture approach. The launch of the Alaris IN2 Ecosystem, in April 2017, introduced new integrated scanners, software and services delivered by a network of trusted “IN2 Ecosystem Partners” dedicated to building and delivering the best information capture solutions for businesses. This framework is grounded in proven imaging science and award-winning scanners and software that deliver the most accurate, efficient, document capture in the industry.

Furthermore, the company kicked-off the 2017 edition of its Information Management Partnership Yatra, across Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai in August 2017. The aim of this initiative was to empower the partner base to meet the evolving demands of digital transformation for businesses and governments in the region, and boost their go-to-market capabilities.

Faiz Askari: Please highlight some initiatives in this direction?

Vivek Naidu: In a bid to grow, evolve and strengthen this framework further, the next wave of Alaris IN2 ecosystem called for the launch of S2000 series of scanners in September 2017- a new family of network/wireless and USB-connected desktop scanners.

The new &feature=youtu.be" xlink="href">Alaris S2000 Series increases productivity by automating much of the work traditionally done by people and host computers.

• The Embedded Image Processing feature within the scanner delivers crisp, clear images without requiring a high-powered (or expensive) host PC.
• The breakthrough Active Feed Technology aligns the leading edge of paper to avoid multi-feeds and misfeeds, and Controlled Output Stacking, places paper neatly in the output tray. Users benefit from spending less time preparing documents for scanning and dealing with messy output stacks.

The S2000 Series includes two USB-connected models (Alaris S2050 and S2070) and two network/wireless models (Alaris S2060w and S2080w) which deliver rated speeds between 50 and 80 pages per minute (ppm).

RIDING ON THE DIGITAL INDIA WAVE

Faiz Askari: On the policy front, What prospects do you experience specially with regards to Government’s initiatives such as Digital India?

Vivek Naidu: Kodak Alaris participated in the Digital India mission by collaborating with the Government on 30-mission mode projects. The company has been working closely with the government in crucial sectors such as eCourts, registration and stamps, and e-districts at the State and Central level. Kodak Alaris led a mega digitization project for India’s largest public sector bank, and for the majority of the new payment banks set up last year. Opportunities such as these have immensely helped the company to explore newer areas and build a credible reputation in the country. Some of the landmark projects executed for the Government were, the CENSUS project in 2000 and 2010 and the AADHAR project in 2007-09.

The company also maintains a solid market share in the BFSI sector, and works in tandem with the Indian Government to digitize land records across various states.

Kodak Alaris: an Opportunity for Channel Partners

Faiz Askari: Please highlight your origination’s Channel Partnership strategy for India?

Vivek Naidu: The channel partners play a vital role for Kodak Alaris and in the IN2 Ecosystem through their ability to connect, configure and create new solutions that meet customer needs. The newly launched Alaris Partner Program is designed to enable channel partners to grow their businesses by offering best-in-class technology and sophisticated solutions and services. It includes a new partner portal, sales tools, incentives and technical resources designed to help partners win in the marketplace. We also conduct frequent technical training workshops for partners in the country through webinars. With a current strength of 400+ partners across India, Kodak Alaris has adopted a tiered channel structure that covers close to 60 cities:

• Two national distributors (local stockists in India-Redington in Chennai and Centillion in Bangalore)
• They have warehouses in close to 60 cities in India-partners source the products through them
• Both the distributors have been associated with KAIM for more than 12 years

The company is working continuously in order to evolve partner categories and ensure that the right products and solutions reach the end consumer.

Faiz Askari: Which are the key industry verticals that Kodak Alaris is focusing?

Vivek Naidu: Kodak Alaris operates with a diverse customer base across domains like BFSI, Government, Healthcare, Education, Healthcare, Logistics and Manufacturing.

From a healthcare sector perspective, Kodak Alaris forged several partnerships with leading hospitals to ensure proper management of healthcare and patient records. The firm collaborated with renowned diagnostic firms to augment the process of digitization and provided digitization support for leading and trusted pharmaceutical companies in the country.

In the education vertical, Qwizpad, a Chandigarh based Independent Software Vendor (ISV), has embedded Kodak Alaris’ high speed state-of-the-art scanning solutions to optimize its offerings for the education sector.

Additionally, Kodak Alaris led a mega digitization project for India’s largest public sector bank, and for the majority of the new payment banks set up last year. Apart from this, a large manufacturing company utilizes Kodak Alaris hardware and software solutions, to improve the performance of their Shared Services Centre.

The company sees retail and logistics sectors as potential growth verticals.

Faiz Askari: Please highlight a glimpse of your future roadmap?

Vivek Naidu: In the future, the company will continue to work towards efficiently adding value to the IT roadmap of large, medium and small enterprises, and truly redefine the way information is captured, stored and managed.