ReadSoft has unveiled a new pricing strategy for its leading suite of capture and OCR software, which from January 1 2010 will be sold on a subscription basis in Australia and New Zealand instead of an upfront license fee.

To celebrate the new subscription initiative, ReadSoft has included pricing cuts up to 30% to provide local organisations with an accessible entry point to sophisticated document automation.

Subscription packages that also include a Kodak document scanner and consulting are available from ReadSoft Australia, with financing provided by Commonwealth Bank subsidiary, equigroup. The financing agreements cover a 39 month period, i.e three years (36 months) with an extra 3 months thrown in as a bonus.

Companies will be able to acquire a solution to process up to 20,000 invoices annually for a flat fee of less than $A500 per month. The new subscription model, bonus period and price reductions are intended to help customers generate a positive ROI for Document Automation projects within a few months.

The new regime will apply to ReadSoft’s INVOICES, FORMS and Enterprise Capture products used to automate capture, OCR and document management. The traditional pricing model will still apply to ReadSoft’s accounts payable (AP) automation solutions dedicated to the SAP and Oracle ERP environments.

Frank Volckmar, managing director of ReadSoft Oceania, said the new subscription pricing model has been implemented over the past four years at ReadSoft’s home in Sweden along with other Nordic countries. Following positive feedback from customers and partners alike, subscription pricing is now being rolled out globally.

It is being introduced in Australia as the company anticipates a surge in demand for capture solutions as the Asia-Pacific market emerges from the effects of the global financial crisis (GFC).

"Analyst firm Harvey Spencer is predicting annual growth of 9.5% in revenues for the global capture market," said Volckmar. "Locally CFOs are unceasingly looking for ways to reduce costs, and many in government are excited by the potential for shared service centres to provide increased efficiencies."

At its biannual Platinum Partner Forum event in Sydney in November, Volckmar announced the company had made remarkable progress in its drive to move from a direct sales model.

"Two years ago when we headed down this path we had less than 10% of Australia/New Zealand sales through partners," said Volckmar." This is now up to 60% of licenses being sold through our partners in 2009."

"We have had some great results locally from several partners including Plaut, Red Rock, ECI, Basware and Courtland," he said. One Australian shared services government agency has just selected a Readsoft solution worth over $US800,000 to handle processing of more than 300,000 invoices annually.

The organization is a shared services provider offering a wide range of corporate services including, HR, payroll, procurement and accounts payable, to other government agencies.

The ReadSoft solution will streamline efficiencies by automating the processing of invoices from arrival to payment - including invoice capture, matching and automated workflow routing and approval processes. The new solution also incorporates advanced reporting functions, giving immediate visibility into the accounts payable processes.

"Many organisations run 'Shared Services Centers' to optimize their organizational functions such as invoice processing and other document driven processes," says Jan Andersson, CEO at ReadSoft.

"Our solutions are of paramount importance in such an organisation, and we are very pleased that a growing number of public sector organizations are now recognizing the values of streamlining their document management through shared services."