EMC Partner Launches New Mobile Apps for EMC ApplicationXtender

EMC World 2011 may have come to an end yesterday, but there was so much news going on that I did not have time write about all of it before the show ended.  One of the cool announcements came from an EMC partner, Business Imaging Systems (BIS), who announced three new mobile apps that connect into EMC ApplicationXtender. BIS is calling it MAX and it is described as “content management unplugged”. The new offerings will connect users from Apple iPhone and Android devices, tablets, and network KIOSK devices, with the content management environment of ApplicationXtender. You can read more about MAX here.

At EMC World, I had the opportunity to get a quick demo of the various products they are launching.

There are essentially three apps:

MAX Mobile App –  This application brings the capabilities and convenience of ApplicationXtender to your iOS or Android-powered mobile device. It will allow you to securely search, retrieve, view, capture, and upload content through MAX. I saw a demo of this using an iPad, and it is very slick and easy to use.  Take for example an accounts payable manager who wants to pull up a past due invoice. They simply login into ApplicationXtender, select accounts payable, and enter the search criteria to retrieve the image.

MAX Kiosk – The MAX Kiosk is an all-in-one, touch-screen document capture appliance that scans directly to any preset location without being connected to a computer. All you do is drop a document into the device , and with a single touch, it’s transmitted to a folder, a software application (like EMC Captiva or ApplicationXtender) or to the Business Imaging Systems cloud offering, NebuSTORE. The scanning device of the MAX Kiosk is the Fujitsu fi-6010N duplex color scanner. The device’s large 8.4″ color LCD touch screen provides one-touch scanning functions as well as the ability to preview images for instant verification and quality control. The device also has a built-in keyboard which provides for quick data entry of index fields at the time of scanning. The device scans up to 25 pages per minute – in monochrome or color so batch scanning is feasible.

MAX – Form Tablet – This application uses the same revolutionary anti-glare e-ink technology found in several of the leading e-book readers on the market today. The device is a wirelessly connected tablet and uses a stylus for filling out a form on-screen. It then allows direct uploading of completed forms to your repository or the Business Imaging Systems cloud offering, NebuSTORE. This device reminds of something I worked on many years ago during my Cardiff Software days.  But the tablet itself is much different from what we were working with – it is lightweight, thin (not bulky), and the anti-glare e-ink technology makes it appealing. In terms of use, the filled forms may go directly into ApplicationXtender, or sent to another application like EMC Captiva where they could be processed and then delivered into ApplicationXtender.

Content Management in the Cloud

The other offering that BIS has is their EMC ApplicationXtender in the cloud offering called NebuSTORE. BIS launched this cloud offering about a year or so ago, and has customers running in the cloud today.  The underlying software being run in the cloud is EMC ApplicationXtender. The truth is customers need deployment options and by offering this up, BIS is giving customers a flexible, affordable, and reliable approach to capturing and managing information.

So as you can see, EMC and its partners have been busy announcing many new and exciting product offerings.  The strategy is clear and the execution is in full-drive which is going to make for an exiting 2H 2011.