6th April 2009 — Formscan, a document solutions provider led by Chris Haden, one of the document management industry's best-known entrepreneurs, has acquired the UK business of Anacomp for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition brings key assets to Formscan, in the form of expert staff, secure offsite archiving facilities, and outsource document process management capabilities. These complement Formscan’s existing software solutions and document management services, positioning the company as an all-round document services leader as it follows its strategic growth plans.
Formscan has been at the forefront of the document management marketplace for over thirty years, developing and deploying document and data capture solutions for business and government. With the acquisition of the UK Anacomp business, the company now embraces a comprehensive range of services that enables it to offer true “end-to-end” document scanning, conversion, migration, hosting, management, processing and archiving solutions, addressing today’s critical challenges of business efficiency, security, disaster recovery, customer service standards and regulatory compliance. Formscan solutions also bridge the gap between microfiche storage and digital retrieval, helping organisations to archive documents in a form that will last for decades or even centuries, but remains rapidly accessible when required.
Formscan’s tailored document solutions are based on a combination of selected third-party and wholly owned technologies and proprietary integration expertise and technical support services. The company is a leading European integrator for AnyDoc, Kodak and docHarbor.
Hundreds of private and public sector organisations have entrusted their business documents to Formscan, across blue-chip corporations, central and local government organisations and mail management and scanning bureaux. Current customers include Dell, RBS, Eon, M&S, Axa, Steria, Harvest Housing, HMRC, Notts County Council, Cheshire County Council, South Wales Police, Wilts Police, South West Ambulance NHS Trust, and many others. Formscan currently employs 50 staff and are headquartered in Maidenhead, Berks.
The Investor Group led by Chris Haden plans to develop Formscan further as a platform upon which to build a significant Document Solutions business throughout Europe. Formscan’s newly enhanced range of services is already delivering outsourced hosted solutions, archive and retrieval services, supply-chain document solutions along with compliance, and disaster recovery solutions, all based on the skills base of the extended team.
Commenting on the acquisition, Chris Haden remarks, "The current situation in the US, UK and Europe regarding issues such as security, disaster recovery, customer service standards and regulatory compliance, have all thrown document storage and management processes firmly under the spotlight.
“Few firms in this space are offering the kind of flexibility, client service and attention to detail that we know to be essential in this much more rigorous and scrutinised marketplace. The new team at Formscan - itself a widely respected document management brand - have all the experience that the market could now wish for in finding an outsource partner to whom critical document archives can be safely entrusted.
“This latest acquisition brings on board a raft of loyal clients. It also brings the account and technical management who have earned that loyalty over many years of imaginative hard work. We are all very excited to be in the marketplace at such a vibrant time of demand and opportunity.”
