Von Crispin Coulson, Senior-Berater bei PROJECT CONSULT International, London, ( Crispin.Coulson@PROJECT-CONSULT.com ). Der Beitrag über die Info Ireland Veranstaltung in Dublin gewährt einen Blick über den Gartenzaun, wie im europäischen Ausland Informationen zur DRT-Branche vermittelt werden. Das Konzept von INFO Ireland wie auch das von INFO@ (siehe Ankündigung im Newsletter 20010903Newsletter 20010903) unterscheidet sich grund-sätzlich von Messen mit begleitenden Vortrags- und Diskussionsveranstaltungen wie die DMS-EXPO (siehe Beitrag in diesem Newsletter). Dublin, London - The third Info Ireland exhibition and conference took place at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin on 12th and 13th September 2001. Although somewhat over-shadowed by the tragic events in the USA the previous day, the show remained comparatively well attended. In fact according to the organisers pre-registration and attendance was up by some 30% over previous years. There were some 25 exhibitors in the main exhibition area comprising vendors and integrators like BancTec, Canon, Cardiff, Ceyoniq, EASY , Documentum, Fujitsu, Hummingbird, Itesoft, Kofax, Meridio, Neurascript, Staffware, Tower Software among others. In keeping with the aims of the show, around 80% of these exhibitors were Irish solution providers based in the Dublin and Belfast areas. Some of the exhibiting product vendor companies invited their local partners to join the exhibition floor. Phoenix Technology and EVatar Limited were exhibiting as independents while others like B.I.C and Teamworks were supported by major suppliers Hummingbird and Tower Software respectively.
Seminars and Presentations
An extensive seminar programme supported the event covering such topics as: Legal admissibility of electronic documents, freedom of Information, avoiding the pitfalls of scanning, how to manage records to enhance customer confidence and content publishing. Although of a consistently high quality, the seminar sessions I attended were not particularly well attended. However some of this may be attributed to the traffic congestion endemic in Dublin! Price Waterhouse hosted an advice centre for attendees with resource materials including guidance papers, white papers, publications and relevant magazines while Strategy Partners from London concentrated on individual advice services for exhibitors and visitors.
On the Show Floor
As with previous years a familiar pattern emerged in terms of activity. The exhibition hall was virtually deserted at 9 am with exception of a few attendees undertaking a pre-seminar session walk round. Throughout the day and in between seminar sessions there was a regular trickle of attendees. Judging by my observations visitors to the show were primarily from Local Government and regional utility companies. Despite having partners and business in the region, exhibitors like Tower Software and Objective Corporation who specialise in Records Management/Record Keeping observed that many of the users were looking at Document Management rather than Records Management. It would appear that the latter technology is less mature and defined as the UK market.
Phoenix Technology Group used the show as a platform to officially launch its e² lite, business process management solution for the SME market. Although other organisations like BancTec had new solutions to demonstrate such as the eFirst case Case management solution built round round its Plexus FloWare, there were no major announcements. BancTec’s attempts to present itself with a new image in terms of the presentation of its new products, was met with mixed results. Ceyoniq and Easy Software were the two German suppliers attending the show for the second time both appeared to be pleased with the event, having received a number of promising leads on the first day. The position of Easy’s exhibition stand may have been a contributory factor in this, in that it was positioned adjacent to the seminar room. By contrast Staffware situated on the opposite side of the exhibiton hall appeared to be not so positive as the first day proceeded. There appears to have been something of an „all change“ at Staffware with the different personnel being responsible. It has to be said that a great number of the Irish independent vendors and providers exhibiting seemed to be offering fairly low-end me-too products that they were marketing to their local marketplace given that many can benefit from EU and Irish Government funding for this purpose. One company that seemed interesting was Dublin based EVatar have developed EQUAL, an integrated mangement software solution that incorporates modules for managing Documentation, Audit, Quality and Environmental and Health and Safety. Developed over the past three years the EQUAL product suite has a clean and easy (looking) interface which has been designed for all levels of workers. According to Evatar, EQUAL will be marketed locally for some 6 months with an option to launch in the UK via an as yet undefined strategy.
Cambridge based Neurascript presented a powerful suite of automatic data capture solutions. Although a young company in every respect they are partners with Kofax and have already gained some interest within the industry with an impressive array of clients including, British Airways, Inland Revenue, DVLA, Nationwide Building Society and the DSS. Belfast based Meridio Limited was presenting its content and document management products, which have already been implemented at Cheltenham and Gloucester, First Active and Scottish and Southern Energy. Hummingbird was in attendance to support its local integrator B.I.C. Systems, who continues to promote its Portal product and the DOCS Open platform for document management. Hummingbird’s recent acquisition of Peoplesoft has provided them with their own redlining capability for the legal market which may have adversely affected suppliers like Workshare Technology whose DeltaView redlineer was sold on the back of any DOCS Open sale. This potential setback is countered slightly by Hummingbird’s continued interest in Workshare’s collaborative software offering. (CC)
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Generally speaking many of the exhibitors were not expecting to generate any meaningful business opportunities, more along the lines of supporting partners or maintaining a profile for their industry peers and the Irish market as a whole. The show enjoyed a regular flow of attendees mainly from the government and utility sectors. This flow rather petered out by mid afternoon and was particularly evident in the seminar sessions in the afternoon. Although there could be some potential future business prospects with a few of the exhibiting companies at the Irish show. Many of the companies were addressing solely the Irish market. Although a very interesting market especially with regards to Government solutions, it would be quite difficult for a mainland European company to break into. We believe that the “ Info 2001” in London on November 20th and 21st November may provide better business opportunities for both UK and other European vendors. (MHH)
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