ImageSource Q&A with CEO Terry Sutherland
By ImageSource Team on September 14, 2021
What was great about the early days of ImageSource?
Participating in a market in its infancy was great. Everything was new for everyone. We were pushing the limits of hardware and software for everyone; manufacturers and end-users. It was very collaborative with companies like Kofax, OTG, Bell+Howell, and Fujitsu. We all rolled up our sleeves in the early days to solve customer business problems and automate business processes. As fast as we found limitations, we could solve them. Our company culture was fun, can-do, solve any business problem, no matter what. We hired great, core people, that are and have been sought-after leaders in the industry. It was a ton of fun.
When it was time to start building ILINX
We had begun building hooks and bridges to other products under the ILINX name. We knew it was time for a complete software platform strategy when software licensing changed from unlimited to page count licensing. Our customers pushed back on pricing changes and potential solution limitations. In addition, consolidation in the market started to occur with mergers and acquisitions of technology providers, and we saw the writing on the wall. Consolidation affected customers, we couldn’t get the response time our customers needed on technical support issues, and the creative problem solving with vendors began to disappear. I knew we had to figure out how to control our destiny; we had to do more for our customers. Specifically, when Oracle bought Stellent, we had no choice but to accelerate the components we built into a platform strategy.
What excites you about ImageSource and the ILINX platform now?
Our ability to rapidly adapt to things like COVID-19, provide solutions for customers like Experian, and build solutions and contracts that work for sovereign nations like the Quinault Indian Nation. Knowing we give better service than IBM and other providers. When customers come to us with problems, we move quickly, whether with our services or to solve business problems.
Vision engineering with customers is exciting today. We can fill gaps and organically build solutions on our platform that rapidly become realities for our customer partners. We have true partnerships with all kinds of agencies and big companies. We solve real problems every day.
Is there a customer partner story that you are especially proud of?
Most recently building ILINX Data Loss Prevention with Experian. From vision to the approved project was a 3-week cycle. We played a part in Experian changing their company in a way that differentiated them from their competitors. Securing information anywhere, when working from home, or distributing your workforce is a necessity was make or break, and the time requirements were critical to their business continuity. I am proud of our work with VITAS; in less than one month, we stood up a cloud-based solution to enable home health providers to work more effectively in the field.
Most recently working with The Quinault Indian Nation. We’ve built a relationship with them based on our core competencies with business process automation. There is so much creativity in the deployment and working one on one with them. Our service offering took down so many barriers in execution and has gotten them closer to closing the digital divide.
What excites me about the company today is the people we have on board. Our employees, who have made it through all of our transformations and are with us today, continue to have fun and build relationships with our customer partners and each other. Family and team might sound cliché, but it’s what gets me in the office early and keeps me excited 27+ years later every day.
Have questions for Terry? You can email him. You can view his profile on LinkedIn.