Upland Software has announced the acquisition of output management ISV Objectif Lune, which develops software for managing print and electronic output. Combined with Upland’s Capture technology, this creates a document-centric, input-to-output offering that Upland can now present to MFP vendors and users. You can read the announcement here.
Upland views Objectif Lune as enabling it to “support even more of the document lifecycle for our customers,” which is certainly a trend we are seeing as Capture is being integrated more often as a part of larger solutions. This started with integration with ECM/records management and workflow. More recently we’ve seen Capture being integrated with leading RPA and BPM offerings.
The idea of combining Capture and output management is not new. Austria-based ISIS Papyrus was a pioneer in this area, expanding from print management with a 1999 acquisition of a Capture vendor. Kofax is also a major player in this integrated area through its acquisition of Nuance, which it added to with last year’s acquisition of Printix. Nuance had acquired multiple print management and MFP-focused Capture ISVs before being sold to Kofax, which rolled up these products into its ControlSuite offering. OpenText also has print management technology to pair with Capture.
Capture software can be deployed in a lot of places – the need to understand unstructured information and onboard it reaches across multiple business processes. Hardware vendors like HP are certainly looking more closely at the document input to output lifecycle. Historically, their businesses have been driven by printing, but as volumes decline, and many of their devices now include scanning capabilities, Capture represents a natural direction for expansion. It helps the print vendors embrace the trend toward digital documents.
Infosource itself has a heritage covering the print market and a couple years ago bought HSA, Inc., which brought us into covering Capture Software. So, the Objectif Lune acquisition caught our attention.
Based in Canada, Objectif Lune develops software for electronic and print output as well as mobile forms. Upland is a roll up of multiple companies in the enterprise software space, primarily delivering its solutions through a SaaS model.
Objectif Lune will be rolled into Upland’s Workflow Automation business line, which is based on the FileBound Capture, workflow, and document management suite that Upland acquired in 2013. Upland fleshed out its business this area with the acquisition of Omtool in 2017. Omtool specialized in integrating its software with MFP hardware to create secure fax server and document Capture applications, with AccuRoute being its flagship product. In addition to AccuRoute, Upland recently launched Intelligent Capture, a cloud-based, AI-driven service, which is now being resold by HP.
Like the FileBound and AccuRoute products, Objectif Lune’s software will continue to be available from Upland as a hybrid offering, either on-prem, in the cloud, or through a mix. Upland will continue to bring the software to market through Objectif Lune’s channel, which includes many of the large MFP vendors. Only now, Upland will be able to offer a complete scan, workflow, and print solution from a single vendor.
Capture to process is the name of the game these days, with print/output emerging as another yet avenue of integration for creating end-to-end solutions. We expect to see more activity along these lines going forward.
Ralph Gammon ([email protected]) is a Senior Analyst, Software, at Infosource. He has covered the content-services market for more than 20 years, and formerly worked as the editor and publisher of the Document Imaging Report.
