ReadSoft
 | |
| Company type | Public (OMX Stockholm[1]) |
|---|---|
| Founded | Helsingborg, SWE (1991) |
| Headquarters | Helsingborg, Sweden , SWE |
Key people | Göran E Larsson, Chairman Jan Bertilsson, CFO |
| Products | Applications for business process automation, on-premises, in the cloud, mobile, and hybrid |
| Revenue |  SEK 663 million (2011) |
| SEK 74.5 million (2011) | |
Number of employees | Over 600 (2014) |
| Website | www |
ReadSoft was a global provider of applications for automating business processes. ReadSoft was founded by two university students in Linköping, Sweden, in 1991, both of which were still actively involved in the management of the company until the point of sale to Lexmark. The company was headquartered in Helsingborg, Sweden and its share was traded on the NASDAQ OMX - Stockholm Small Cap list. ReadSoft had operations in 17 countries and a partner network in an additional 70 nations.[2]
Company operations
ReadSoft’s specialties included accounts payable automation, accounts receivable automation, sales order processing, and digital mailroom solutions. According to the company, ReadSoft’s on-premises and cloud solutions for document process automation enable some of the world’s largest corporations as well as small and medium businesses to compete and thrive in today’s environment by improving customer and supplier satisfaction, increasing operating efficiency, and providing greater visibility into business processes.
ReadSoft has been regarded as an "AP invoice specialist" - AP is a common abbreviation of Accounts Payable - by Gartner, an independent information technology research and advisory company. Specialist software is designed to integrate with the AP software from ERP systems, such as Oracle and SAP. For example, ERP integration may take advantage of single-sign-on processes, eliminating the need for employees to juggle multiple logons and systems.[3]
With more than 12,000 customers,[2] ReadSoft claimed to be the market leader of the Document Process Automation segment - a term first coined by ReadSoft itself to cover the technology that automates the processing of business documents. It involves data capture and extraction (optical character recognition) from paper and electronic documents, integration with company's existing ERP system and routing to company agents for approvals and problem resolution via workflow.
In 2006 ReadSoft merged with Ebydos AG from Frankfurt am Main, Germany a dedicated SAP Specialist Team that developed the Process Director, formerly known as Invoice Cockpit Suite.[4] ReadSoft maintained other than SAP also Oracle competency/development centers which provided integrated solutions for companies with SAP and Oracle systems. Market analyst firm Harvey Spencer Associates reports ReadSoft with a 13% market share.[5]
Lexmark acquires ReadSoft
In May 2014, US Company Lexmark International, Inc announced a bid to buy out all remaining shares in ReadSoft.[6] The deal was completed in late 2014 and ReadSoft now operates as part of Lexmark's Enterprise Software (formerly Perceptive Software) division. Lexmark Enterprise Software was rebranded to Kofax early 2017.
Acquisition by Thoma Bravo
Thoma Bravo, a private equity and growth capital firm, secured the July 2017 acquisition of Lexmark’s Enterprise Software business which consists of three entities: Kofax, ReadSoft, and Perceptive Software. Following this, Kofax and ReadSoft would combine into a single, newly independent Thoma Bravo portfolio company named Kofax.
References
- ^ "Even Better Invoice Processing. ReadSoft is now Lexmark. | Lexmark United States". Readsoft.com. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
- ^ a b "Even Better Invoice Processing. ReadSoft is now Lexmark. | Lexmark United States". Readsoft.com. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
- ^ "Accounts Payable Invoice Automation", John van Decker, Gartner, 2008.
- ^ https://www.computerwoche.de/a/sap-spezialist-ebydos-wird-verkauft,582142
- ^ "The Worldwide Market for Document Capture Software 2008–2012", Harvey Spencer Associates, 2008.
- ^ "Lexmark commences tender offer for all outstanding shares of ReadSoft - May 6, 2014". Newsroom.lexmark.com. Retrieved 2016-04-22.