ProData Hooks Up with InterForm for Doc Management

November 9, 2010 Alex Woodie

ProData Computer Services will be adding the IBM i-based document management products from the Danish companyInterForm A/S to its menu of solutions as the result of a new partnership the two companies announced last week. The deal will also expand the sales channel for ProData’s offerings in the EMEA market.

InterForm develops a range of utilities that improve the printing and electronic distribution capabilities of IBM i servers. The company’s software used to be distributed by the Danish company Intermate A/S, until Kodak acquired Intermate in 2008.

However, Kodak was mainly interested in the IPDS and AFPDS transformation capabilities of Intermate’s products, which are offered under the Print On-Demand Solutions group of Eastman Kodak’s Graphics Communication Group. So in early 2009, Kodak sold the document management products back to the group in Denmark.

At the core of InferForm’s suite is InterForm400, which includes a graphical forms design tool and spool file merge capabilities. InterForm400 directs and transforms output from IBM i spool files to PCL laser printers, as well as barcode printers that use the ZPL print protocol. The software supports advanced features like splitting and sorting of spool files, as well as conditional mapping.

Surrounding the core InterForm400 component are modules for outputting IBM i spool file content to Word-, Excel-, and PDF-based archives. The fax module supports outbound as well as inbound communications, while a security module implements content encryption of PDF documents, and uses passwords and digital certificates to prevent unauthorized opening of documents.

Owing to InterForm’s primarily European customer base, the company has been looking to expand its distribution capabilities, which brings us to the partnership unveiled with ProData last week. As part of the partnership, ProData will now offer the complete line of InterForm products to customers in North America.

Peter Sørensen, COO of marketing and sales at InterForm, says he is looking forward to working with the “loyal customer base” and “experienced marketing team” that ProData possesses. “Our partnership will provide us the means to expand our ArtForm400 product line in the United States and together with ProData we will deliver added value to U.S. customers,” he says in a press release.

Likewise, the deal gives ProData better access to the large Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) market for its products, including the popular and powerful DBU database utility for DB2/400, RDB Connect for other databases, Retrieve Deleted Record (RDR), and SQL/Pro. (Curiously, RPG Server Pages, or RSP, no longer appears on the company’s website.)

The partnership will significantly expand the distribution capabilities for the Omaha, Nebraska-based ProData. “InterForm has ventured into areas in the global market where our products need to be,” ProData owner and CEO Allen Hartley says in a press release. “This alliance will allow us to expand into those areas and demonstrates our commitment to continue to grow our markets to meet the needs of all System i customers world-wide.”