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Pierre De Muelenaere receives its Engineering degree in Microelectronics from the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL)
Pierre obtains a grant from IRSIA to prepare a PhD thesis and starts the development of a new full-custom Integrated Circuit dedicated to Image Recognition and new algorithm for Omnifont text recognition. The research is performed at the UCL Microelectronics Lab directed by Professor Paul Jespers
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Pierre De Muelenaere's PH.D. thesis
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The original OCR market is consolidated. The 3 major players for Office products are DEST (USA, Silicon Valley), CompuScan (USA), Totec (Japan)
A dozen of other companies are developing specialized high-volume and banking systems (Recognition Equiment, IBMI, Banctec, etc..)
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HP introduces the LaserJet which allows to print business letters in different fonts size and including pictures.
Ancient OCR technology dedicated to single font, fixed size, fixed pitch recognition become obsolete
50 companies initiate the development of Omnifont OCR technology. Many years will be necessary to develop an Omnifont technology with acceptable performance, the scientific challenge being much more difficult than single-font OCR
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HP introduces the LaserJet
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The research work of Pierre De Muelenaere is impacted by the new concept of Omnifont OCR which requires highly sophisticated Artificial Intelligence algorithms and access to massive computing power.
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During their research, Pierre De Muelenaere and his fellow PhD Student Jean-Didier Legat, have the opportunity to meet with Ackermans & van Haaren a Belgian financial hodling, discuss the new OCR concepts, demonstrate first prototypes and elaborate on new market opportunities
Ackermans & van Haaren decides to finance a market research tour in the USA to investigate the potential. Pierre De Muelenaere, Christian Boon-Falleur and Alain Dierijck from Ackermans & van haaren visit a dozen of key players and potential buyers during a two weeks round trip all-over the USA.
The trip is a success and a first business plan is being worked on.
Pierre De Muelenaere leaves for a 10 months military service at the ERM (Ecole Royale Militaire) in September 1985
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After returning from the military service, the PhD thesis is being finalized and the final plans to set-up a company are worked on.
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In February 1987, Pierre De Muelenaere and Jean-Didier Legat present their PhD and demonstrates a prototype of a new OCR machine based on a full-custom programmable IC dedicated to image recognition.
In April of the same year, foundation of I.R.I.S. by Pierre De Muelenaere and Jean-Didier Legat, a fellow PhD student
The Belgian financial holding Ackermans & van Haaren invests €1.85 millions and becomes the main investor in I.R.I.S. Other shareholders are the two founders and the UCL
From the small, original, I.R.I.S. team, most of the key people are still with the company in 2007. Amongst the pioneers are:
- Pierre De Muelenaere
- Jean-Pierre Ksenicz
- Patrick Verleysen
- Michel Dauw
- René Barbier
- Marie-Luce Marchal
- ChristianPinon
The first CEO of I.R.I.S. is Christian Boon-Falleur from Ackermans and van Haaren
Pierre De Muelenaere and Jean-Didier Legat are Vice President R&D.
I.R.I.S. Finalizes a commercial version of its imaging chip, which is manufactured in the Austrian subsidiary of AMD
Texiris 1.0, the first commercial product of the company is born. It is composed of a dedicated image processor that can be inserted in an IBM PC and a downloadable software. The user interface of the product runs on MS-DOS. The product recognizes a few western European languages
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The pioneers
Slide show
Programmable full-custom imaging IC
Slide show
The I.R.I.S. team designing Integrated Circuits and
Software on Unix Sun Workstations
Slide show
Texiris 1.0
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The company is booking a first revenue of €0,38 million
I.R.I.S. introduces Texiris 2
I.R.I.S. Introduces Formiris 1.0, the first Form Reading Software of the company
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I.R.I.S. receives the “Grand Prix de l’innovation en Wallonie 1989”, special prize for Young teams, for the development of an original technology of Optical Document Reading
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Minister Lienard is giving the innovation prize to I.R.I.S. founders
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Jean-Didier Legat leaves I.R.I.S. to become assistant professor at the UCL
Ackermans & van Haaren announces its decision to terminate all its new technology investments in the coming years
Luc Bertrand President of Ackermans & van Haaren is asking to Pierre De Muelenaere to takeover the responsibility of General Manager of I.R.I.S.
I.R.I.S. is launching Readiris™ Pro 1.0, the first software only product of the company, at Comdex Fall, Las Vegas. It is developed for Windows 2.0 for the IBM PC
USA competitors such as Caere (Omnipage) and Calera (Wordscan) and later Xerox Imaging Systems (Textbridge), launch their products in Europe. In two years time most European players, including market leader Innovatic (Readstar) from France will disappear
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Readiris 1.0
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Readiris 1.0 at Comdex Fall 1990
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In June of 1991, Pierre De Muelenaere negotiates the acquisition of the shares of Ackermans & van Haaren by the Belgian company Prodata
The Business Development division of Prodata managed by Pierre Rion is transferred to I.R.I.S. to create synergies. Pierre Rion joins I.R.I.S.
I.R.I.S. is winning a major contract for the installation of a large Document Management system at the Belgian National Police
I.R.I.S. introduces I.R.I.S. DocCenter™ a high-end Document Management Software
I.R.I.S. is posting record revenues and is booking its first Profit from Operations. Since 1991, I.R.I.S. Profit from Operations has remained positive every year.
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In June 1992, Pierre De Muelenaere and Pierre Rion negotiate successfully the Management Buy Out of I.R.I.S.
The company will be jointly owned and jointly managed by Pierre Rion and Pierre De Muelenaere as co-CEO of I.R.I.S.
Future Profit will be needed to finance the MBO
I.R.I.S. introduces Formiris™ Pro 2.0 a high-end product for Form Reading targeted to very Large Accounts
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Formiris™ Pro 2.0
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The fall of the berlin wall at the end of 1989 is opening new business opportunities in eastern countries. I.R.I.S. releases new OCR technologies able to recognize Eastern European languages
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Eastern European languages recognition
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I.R.I.S. introduces the IRISPen™ a revolutionary reading pen, developed in joint venture with Primax Taiwan, founded by Raymond Liang This new and unique product allows I.R.I.S. to develop significantly its activity in the USA. The IRISPen was the first product of its kind on the market
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IRISPen 1.0
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Pierre De Muelenaere meets with Yshitsugu komiya, president of CATENA a major distribution company in Japan at COMDEX FALL 1994 and brainstorm on the concept of the translator pen
I.R.I.S. develops in cooperation with Catena a first version of the IRISPen Translator™ for the Japanese market. Penglish will be the first packaged product of I.R.I.S. sold in Computer shops.
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I.R.I.S. Corporate video (EN)
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IRISPen review (EN)
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Catena Building in Tokyo
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IRISPen Translator™ for the Japanese market
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The MBO financing period is terminated
I.R.I.S. together with KBC operates a Private Placement and increases the capital of the company by €3 millions. The new capital is subscribed by Belgian Business Angels and Kredietbank
I.R.I.S. introduces I.R.I.S. ScanNews™ a scanning and document management product designed for Electronic Press Clipping (learn more)
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I.R.I.S. ScanNews™
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I.R.I.S. Celebrates its 10th anniversary
I.R.I.S. Staff is 52
Foundation of I.R.I.S. Inc, a USA subsidiary of I.R.I.S. Group
In 1997, I.R.I.S. receives a Belgian export Oscar from the Belgian Foreign Trade Office for the successful introduction of its products in Japan
There are less than 10 players Left on the OCR market
I.R.I.S. introduces Readiris™ Pro 3.95 with the recognition of 32 different languages
I.R.I.S. signs a first OCR licensing contract with the HP Personal Laserjet Division
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View slide show
Celebratition of I.R.I.S. 10th Anniversary
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I.R.I.S. signs a world-wide OCR licensing contract with HP for all ScanJet, Inkjet and LaserJet devices
I.R.I.S. wins a major contract at the Italian Post Office for the I.R.I.S. Banking Reader™, a pen reading device for banking applications
The I.R.I.S. team reaches 66 people
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world-wide OCR licensing contract with HP
Slide Show
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In May 1999, I.R.I.S. is successfully introduced on the Brussels Stock Exchange (now, Euronext) in cooperation with ABN-Amro and Petercam
I.R.I.S. receives the “1999 Best Belgian IPO award” from Euronext
I.R.I.S. raises €15 million of new capital
The business plan is targeting a critical mass for international leadership, with international coverage, increased Intellectual Property ownership and increased profitability.
The growth is expected to come from a combination of internal and external growth (acquisitions)
Acquisition of IT Vision, a small company specialized in Data Storage
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"Les Pierres d'IRIS" (FR)
La Libre entreprise - Septembre 2000
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Slide show
Introduction of IRIS on the Brussels stock Exchange
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Best Belgium IPO award
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Acquisition in January 2000 of Seasoft, a belgian company specialized in internet document sharing and management
Acquisition in February 2000 of Sepsi, a French company, located in Paris, specializing in Automatic Form Reading
Pierre Rion is leaving the operations and is replaced in his position by Etienne Van de Kerckhove
A new management team (Executive Committee) is formed, composed of :
- Pierre De Muelenaere, President
- Etienne Van de Kerckhove
- Colette Darconat
- Serge Dahan
This management team will be responsible for the success of the post-IPO business plan
I.R.I.S. introduces a new logo and its company statement “Document to Knowlegde” which covers the transformation of paper document into intelligent electronic documents, and solutions to manage the lifecycle of electronic documents and them to the next level of usefulness.
I.R.I.S. acquires the Belgian company Paperless on November 2000
Introduction of the IRISPen™ II, the first grey scale/USB pen scanner on the market
Introduction of the I.R.I.S. Business Card Reader™ I, intended for business executive. This new product will become an important product for the SOHO product line of I.R.I.S. (OCR, Pen scanners, Business Card Reader)
Introduction of I.R.I.S. Docshare™, a new Document management and sharing product based on the technology of Seasoft
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Zoom
Executive Committee
new logo
IRISPen™ II
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Acquisition in April 2001 of the activities of Euriged
I.R.I.S. signs a world-wide licensing contract with Kodak for different imaging technologies
Acquisition in October 2001 of AMOS Monétique, a French company specialized in Banking documents and check reading
The king of Belgium and the king of Sweden visit I.R.I.S.
I.R.I.S. automates the Census in the Czech republic based on Formiris Pro
I.R.I.S. automates the Belgian census with Formiris™ Pro
I.R.I.S. France Provides its Form Reading Solution to the "Caisses Primaires d'Assurance Maladie" for the Scanning of Health Report Forms:
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Slide show
The king of Belgium and the king of Sweden visit I.R.I.S.
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Photo of the I.R.I.S. team in 2001
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Pierre De Muelenaere is elected “Manager of the Year 2001” by
the magazine Trends-Tendance, etc.. (Learn more - Press release)
I.R.I.S. installs at the SPF-Finance in Belgium a system able to process automatically the companies VAT forms (Press release - FR)
The Federal Police chooses I.R.I.S. for the implementation of a software (Press release)
solution enabling the automatic identification of a person on the basis of physical characteristics English
SEB Private Bank selects I.R.I.S. Luxembourg to install an archiving system to store all its electronic data (Press release - FR)
I.R.I.S. introduce a new Asian OCR technology for Japanese, Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Korean (Learn more - Press release)
The I.R.I.S. team is now 220 people
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"Pierre De Muelenaere: Manager
de l'Année"
Trends tendances magazine
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Pierre De Muelenaere is elected “Manager of the Year 2001” by the magazine Trends-Tendance,
View slide show
Asian OCR technology |
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I.R.I.S. is elected “Enterprise of the Year 2002” by Ernst&Young, etc.. (Press release - FR-)
The SCANFIN system installed by I.R.I.S. at the SPF-Finance in Belgium, based on Formiris™ Pro receives the BelAIIM award for “Most effective use of Imaging Technology” and the ICT Award 2003 (Press release)
I.R.I.S. France installs at Lille, the first check reading system for the French Ministry of Finance for the collection of personal income taxes, with a capacity of 400.000 documents per day and based on I.R.I.S. Scanchecks™.
I.R.I.S. introduces Readiris™ Pro Corporate Edition (Learn more)and IRISPdf™ Server (Learn more), the first packaged products intended for international sales to Corporate users. (Learn more)
I.R.I.S. initiates partners with Apple in Europe and in the USA which start selling I.R.I.S. products on the AppleStore (Press release)
The profit from Operations increases by 32% at €2.7 millions
I.R.I.S. distributes the first dividend since the IPO (€0.25/share)
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Slide show
I.R.I.S. initiates partners with Apple
IRISPdf™ Server
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For the Third year in a row, I.R.I.S. is listed in the Deloitte&Touche Fast 500 index for Europe (Press release)
In January 2004, I.R.I.S. acquires Omnis, specialized in Document Management (Learn more - Press release)
I.R.I.S. France staff reaches 70 people and moves to a new location in Orly
I.R.I.S. realized for Dexia Banque the consolidation of several environments towards two high-end servers IBM Regata pSeries (Learn more)
Five important French associations choose the I.R.I.S. DocShare™ Web platform (Learn more - Press release)
Microsoft selects the I.R.I.S. Business Card Reader™ for a promotional bundle deal with Office 2003 and its new Business Contact Manager
The profit from Operations increases by 23% at €3.33 millions
I.R.I.S. distributes a second dividend since the IPO (€0.35/share)
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Deloitte Fast 500
New I.R.I.S. Building at Orly (Paris)
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I.R.I.S. installs at the SPF-Finance in Belgium a system able to process automatically personal Tax forms (Learn more)
I.R.I.S. acquires Jeeves, specialized in complex IT infrastructures
Acquisition of a new building in Louvain-La-Neuve. I.R.I.S. opens its new Production Center in Louvain-La-Neuve with increased capacity. In 2005 more than 100.000 products will be packaged on that site on a yearly base..
I.R.I.S. Inc. installs an Automatic Document Reading solution at Luz y Fuerza Centro - the electric company of Mexico City - to process the meter readings and payment receipts of 4 million users (Learn more - Press release)
I.R.I.S. successfully modifies its reporting to conform with the new IFRS standards
I.R.I.S. Post record revenue (€73.9 millions) and record Profit from Operations (€4.7 millions). Profit is up 229% since 1999 and by 934% since 1998.
I.R.I.S. Introduces IRISCapture™ for invoices, a new product intended for the scanning, indexing, archiving and encoding of paper and electronic invoices. It is the first product of I.R.I.S. for the ERP users. (Learn more - Press release)
I.R.I.S. Introduces Hebrew OCR technology (Learn more)
The profit from Operations increases by 41.8% at €4.693 millions
I.R.I.S. distributes a third dividend since the IPO (€0.45/share)
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IRISPen Translator
4 stars
Windows XP Magazine
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"IRIS traite vos impôts"
Athena (Be)
Read more (FR) |
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New Production Center in Louvain-La-Neuve
IRISCapture™ for invoices
Learn more
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I.R.I.S. Professional Solutions has installed large scale solutions in Intelligent Document Reading, Document management and complex IT infrastructures for more than 900 large accounts, mainly in Europe
I.R.I.S. Products and Technologies is selling its products for professional and SOHO users in more than 54 countries
I.R.I.S. signs a world-wide OCR licensing contract with Adobe (Press release)
I.R.I.S. Introduces Arabic OCR technology (Learn more - Press release)
I.R.I.S. Introduces a new generation or Pen Scanner, the size of a high-lighter (Learn more)
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Readiris Pro 11
5 stars
Computer Shopper
Read more |
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"Pour ne plus encoder vos factures"
PCWorld Belgium
Read more (FR) |
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"Interview Pierre De Muelenaere et Etienne Van De Kerckhove"
FORWARD (FEB/VBO)
Read more (FR) - Read more (NL) |
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Radiospot IRISCapture for invoices
Listen (FR) - Listen (NL) |
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The new IRISPen express
world-wide OCR licensing contract with Adobe
Read press release
Arabic OCR technology
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I.R.I.S. innovates with the launch of iHQC, a revolutionary technology for hyper-compression of colour images making it possible to create very small colour PDF archives that are indexed and highly legible. (Learn more)
In the Netherlands, I.R.I.S. buys Morningstar Systems, whose team of 25 specialists creates solutions for electronic document management and content management, and has successfully implemented several dozen solutions for major accounts. (Press Release)
In Germany, I.R.I.S. buys Docutec, which develops technologies for automatic document classification and automatic invoice recognition which it markets internationally. (Press Release)
I.R.I.S. wins the 2007 Technological Innovation Prize in Wallonia in the category «Innovative Company» for developing IRISCapture Pro for Invoices, its automatic invoice reading solution. (Press Release)
I.R.I.S. wins the CAP48 Socially Responsible Company prize in the category «Employment - Large Enterprises», thanks to ScanAble, a project conducted in association with Village No. 1. (Press Release)
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I.R.I.S. innovates with the launch of iHQC
I.R.I.S. buys Docutec and Morningstar Systems
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I.R.I.S. Releases the IRIScan 2 The portable answer to your scanning needs. (learn more)
I.R.I.S. launches IRISPowerscan™, an advanced scanning, OCR and indexing platform compatible with all highspeed scanners (learn more)
I.R.I.S. announces the launch of IRIS Virtual Desktop, an innovative virtual desktop solution. It is based on a thin client connected to a virtual infrastructure, and offers numerous operational advantages for managing large workstation populations (learn more)
Microsoft and I.R.I.S. demonstrate a complete Document Capture solution fully integrated with Microsoft® Sharepoint (learn more)
Pierre De Muelenaere elected as “ICT personality of the Year 2008” (learn more)
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I.R.I.S. launches IRISPowerscan™ |
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I.R.I.S. acquires Corismo (learn more)
I.R.I.S. Introduces Readiris™ 12, the Brand‐New Version of its Flagship Text Recognition Software (learn more)
I.R.I.S. ICT and Corismo elected Best Performing GTS IBM Business Partner 2008, Best Performing STG IBM Business Partner 2008 and IBM Business Partner of the year 2008 (learn more)
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I.R.I.S. launches
Readiris 12 |
