Kofax Kapow Acquisition Adds Big Data Analytics

Business process application provider Kofax made a move to the big data cloud analytics market on 31 July, revealing that it has acquired privately held data integration and analytics software maker Kapow Technologies for $47.5 million (£31m) in cash.

Palo Alto, California-based Kapow produces, among other products, the Katalyst self-service analytics tool into which line-of-business people can tap whenever they need it. The key to accessibility is its subscription model — there is nothing to install and test — and its intuitive user interface.

E-content transformation

Kapow’s integration software will aid and simplify Kofax’s ability to integrate smart-process applications with third-party software for content import and export purposes as well as data validation during a business process, Kofax said.

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Kofax also believes it can strengthen Kapow’s ability to penetrate the emerging e-content transformation segment of the multichannel capture market. Kapow’s software also is complementary to the business intelligence and analytics products that came in Kofax’s acquisition of Altosoft earlier this year.

Thus Kofax, based in Irvine, California, is combining all its newly acquired software IP to provide the basis for a significant big-data software package that will enable large organisations to access data — particularly the hard-to-get data that sits behind apps with no APIs (application programming interfaces) — faster and more cost-effectively.

“By more quickly creating essential links between an organisation’s smart process applications, systems of engagement and systems of record we can speed our time to market with new solutions and customers’ ROIs,” Reynolds C. Bish, Chief Executive Officer of Kofax, said in a statement.

“Kapow has successfully transitioned the majority of its software revenue from perpetual to term licences while growing its total revenues during its last four fiscal years. We’ll be investing to grow its sales organisation and further accelerate its software revenue growth while leveraging its software to accelerate growth in our smart process applications software and solutions business.”

Real-time integration

Kapow Katalyst provides near real-time application integration and process automation, offering traditional API level integration capabilities as well as what it terms a “synthetic API” approach, which provides business users with a point-and-click interface, the company said.

The resulting data integration modules can then be deployed via Kapow Kapplets, which are lightweight apps instantly made accessible on a self-serviced basis.

Kapow customers include Astra Zeneca, Audi, Commerzbank, Deutsche Telekom, Fiserv, Thomson Reuters and Zurich Insurance Group.

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Originally published on eWeek.