CASE STUDY FACTS:

DIGITECH SYSTEMS RESELLER: Imagetek, Inc.

PROBLEM: expand offerings and keep business moving toward the future of document management

SOLUTION: ImageSilo^® and PaperFlow™

RECOGNIZED BENEFIT:
“Since becoming a Digitech Systems reseller, we have increased our customer base by 69 percent. We have structured the pricing and product offering to reach the audience we want.”

-Dane Meuler, Vice President of Business Development

When founded in 1995, Imagetek, Inc. operated as a regional document management solutions provider primarily for county government organizations. To grow their business, Imagetek needed to make a strategic change that would keep their business moving toward the future of document management and attract more small and medium size businesses outside the government marketplace.

As a Digitech Systems Value Added Reseller, Imagetek shortened sales cycles by 12 months, increased their customer base by 69% and created a predictable revenue cycle. Ultimately, Digitech Systems software has enabled Imagetek to further their methodology to help customers Automate. Integrate. Accelerate.TM business processes.  
“We believe ImageSilo is the best value proposition for document management; therefore, it’s the key feature in our offerings. Not only is it more affordable for customers, it is a strategic decision for business owners. ImageSilo is a perfect fit for us,” said Dane Meuler, Vice President of Business Development.

Business Goal

Imagetek is a full-service provider and national leader in Enterprise Content Management (ECM). Today, Imagetek markets to 17 states and customizes software solutions for companies of all sizes in the government, banking and healthcare industries. With more than 400 customers and approximately 50 ImageSilo clients, including the American Red Cross and Praxair, Inc., Imagetek manages nearly 10 million documents on ImageSilo.

Although selling other document management products proved profitable in the government sector, Imagetek had longer sales cycles with government agencies. They knew it was important to keep a close eye on risk management and felt it was time to diversify their offerings. Imagetek’s goals were to find a product that could serve a variety of needs and industries at an attractive price. At the same time, Imagetek needed a product that would compliment existing systems so they could maintain current customers and build business from established relationships. They also needed a product that was easy for new sales people to sell without having years of experience or extended IT knowledge.

Digitech Systems Solution

Imagetek became a reseller in 2001 and sells all Digitech Systems products. Imagetek uses PaperFlow to convert their customers’ paper documents into electronic images. ImageSilo allows Imagetek to provide their customers access to any information, anywhere, anytime, via the internet. As an alternative, Imagetek also offers PaperVision Enterprise to customers who prefer to store information on premise.

“The value of Digitech Systems’ products as a complete offering was attractive to me from the business development side,” said Meuler. “The scalability of the software opens the door to other markets, and the product flexibility means we don’t have to walk away from opportunities.”
Meuler said, “We love the model of having both hosted and desktop options with the same interface. It’s an easy product to explain, and it’s an easy story to tell. All these products work well together, providing a flexible migration strategy for our clients.”

The possibility of re-branding and customizing ImageSilo was also attractive. Imagetek re-brands ImageSilo under the name RADIX. This flexibility allows Imagetek to build credibility for their company and become a bigger resource for customers by customizing systems for specific industries. With a business plan that focuses on becoming document management experts in targeted verticals, Imagetek chose ImageSilo because they can personalize their client’s application and experience.  

Business Value to Imagetek

With software offering bidirectional scalability, Digitech Systems has provided Imagetek with products and services that are marketable to any size business in their targeted industries. As a result, Imagetek has expanded into the banking, education and healthcare markets and increased their customer base. “Since becoming a Digitech Systems reseller, we have increased our customer base by 69 percent,” said Meuler, “We have structured the pricing and product offering to reach the audience we want.”
Today, Imagetek’s revenue stream is more stable and “has more tentacles to it.” As a service bureau using PaperFlow, Imagetek generates scanning revenue. As a solutions provider, Imagetek derives revenue from PaperVision Enterprise sales and collects ongoing revenue as monthly ImageSilo storage fees, creating a predictable revenue cycle.

Imagetek has shortened sales cycles from 18 months to approximately three months because there are no servers or databases for customers to maintain, no software licenses to purchase and no limit on users and usage. Imagetek advertises ImageSilo with a three-month (or less) return on investment. “We are closing deals faster,” said Meuler, “Some new customer sales close in one call, 30 percent are closed with less than five touches and most are closed within three to six months.”

As a new sales person with no previous experience in the ECM industry, Steve Ogden, now the National Sales Manager, closed 25 sales in his first two years and describes ImageSilo as easy to sell. “It’s easy, because clients are too busy and have insufficient IT resources to maintain an on-premise solution. With ImageSilo, we solve problems with a low cost of entry and without burdening IT resources. There’s no capital expenditure and no risk for the customer,” said Ogden.

Because Digitech Systems manages and maintains the ImageSilo system, Imagetek has more time to serve customers and build personalized solutions. With an outsourced system, Imagetek has cut implementation times in half and describes the installation process as “in and out in no time.” Meuler calls the speed of sales, implementation and training “key to the genius” of Imagetek. “We can only do this with Digitech Systems products,” he said.

Selling ImageSilo under the RADIX name builds credibility and value for Imagetek because of the perception that it is an Imagetek product. When Imagetek customers access ImageSilo for their information, they go to Imagetek’s website and see a RADIX logo and Imagetek company colors on the login page.

Conclusion

ImageSilo allows Imagetek to build a profitable business and deliver increased value to customers as they move through the Integrate and Accelerate phases of Imagetek’s three-step methodology.

In choosing a name for their ImageSilo product, Imagetek chose the name RADIX because it means “base of the mountain” in Latin. “You have to start somewhere,” said Ogden, “and ImageSilo is a great place to start.”

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