Rotkreuz, 9 June 2011 – The sale of Kofax plc´s distribution arm, established in 19 countries throughout Europe, the Middle East East and Africa, by its former owner to the German private equity firm Hannover Finanz and a team of long-time managers, which was announced in January is now finished. The biggest international vendor of products and services for document capture, whose 200 employees serve more than 3,000 distribution partners, is now further expanding its business on its own under the brand of DICOM International AG.
By adopting the name of DICOM, the Rotkreuz (CH)-based company is referring to its successful history. From the time it was founded in 1991 up to 2008, the distributor did business under the DICOM brand and grew from a local Swiss niche market player to the leading European value added distributor of document scanners for manufacturers such as Canon, Fujitsu, Kodak and Panasonic. The acquisition of U.S.-firm Kofax Image Products, undertaken in the course of this powerful expansion in 2000, led to confusion in global brand awareness which finally resulted in the name change to Kofax plc in 2008.
The function of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DICOM International AG is being filled by Joachim Froning, formerly Senior Vice President of Hardware Distribution at Kofax. Two other former Kofax executives, like Froning shareholders in the new company, will take on the positions of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO). With Stefan Gaiser, former CFO of Kofax plc, another top-class personality will chair the Supervisory Board of DICOM International AG.
Joachim Froning comments with optimism on the start of the now independent company: “All the parties involved in this process feel this to be a pioneering step. With a strong investor interested in a long-term business relationship, we ourselves are now able to concentrate fully on further expanding our position as market leader and our offering of products and services. The profit expectations of Hannover Finanz in turn will be met thanks to the excellent quality of our employees, thanks to our large customer base, and thanks to DICOM”s position as the most important distribution partner of production scanners. This will be supported by the recovery from the recession on the distribution market, which is again showing a stable uptrend. Furthermore, the strongly growing demand of big corporations for suitable infrastructure for document capture at the earliest possible point in time lets us look at the future with a healthy portion of optimism. Hence such projects as the one for the Italian Guardia di Finanza, valued at EUR 1.1 million, will not be exceptions to the rule in future, either.”
Enrico Bradamante, Regional Business Manager of Document Imaging at KODAK, one of the key manufacturers in DICOM”s extensive product portfolio, also expresses optimism: “The name of DICOM has an excellent reputation in our core markets. Under this brand we can look back with pride on our shared history of success. We are excitedly looking forward to being able to count fully on our most important international distribution partner to enhance our ambitious growth plans for our high performance scanners and we are very confident that the now independent DICOM, under the time-tested name and with the experienced team under Joachim Froning, will give fresh impetus to our business partners.”
Even after the sale, DICOM is still maintaining a close business relationship with Kofax. As the primary distribution partner for Kofax Express, an all in one solution for document capture, and Kofax VirtualReScan (VRS), the standard software for optimizing scanning results, DICOM is continuing to open up the growing markets of Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the Californian software company.
At the same time that it is gaining its independence, and to expand its extensive range of services, DICOM is also offering several new products in the area of hardware services to its distribution partners. The company is broadening its spectrum of established PlusPac service contracts by adding the new PlusPac BASE, another alternative for a hitherto underdeveloped customer segment. A brand-new development of its own promises a great deal of market potential: The monitor software DICOM Silent Support automatically monitors running capture solutions and reports any potential for optimization on its own or by pressing a button to the administrator or on request directly to a dedicated DICOM support specialist.
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