Addmin: Democratizing Digital Document Management for everyone

For the sixth episode, the CEO of Parashift, Alain Veuve, has welcomed one of his partners at Parashift’s office, Stéphane Journot, CEO of Addmin.

They exchanged views on the current vision of their company and the future of IDP and digital transformation.

What about Addmin?

Document management platforms and other tools that use the power of artificial intelligence are often reserved for large companies. With its intuitive, powerful and accessible application, Addmin has made this service available to small businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals.

This all-in-one application simplifies the digital management of all documents and allows to scan, import pdf’s, set reminders etc.

Addmin Website: https://de.addmin.com/

What about Parashift?

Parashift is a machine learning company that has taken on the topic of document capture. Its product, the Parashift Platform, is a cloud-based document extraction solution that uses IDP technology to read relevant data from any document. By using its proprietary Document Swarm Learning technology, companies can gradually automate all their document processes.

In the process, employees team up with the Parashift Platform to integrate document data into processes and systems super quickly and cost-effectively. The platform learns from all interactions and thus comes closer to complete autonomy step by step. So everything at Parashift is focused on making this technological milestone a reality. The team is not pursuing other topics. Alain Veuve says, “We’re not an end-to-end solution, so we’re working with a lot of companies that can do vertical integrations.”

Transcript

Welcome to the Intelligent Document Pocessing
podcast.

My name is Alain Veuve.

I'm the founder and CEO of Parashift.

And I have with me today, Stéphane Journot.

Our names basically would resemble that

we could do this in French, but unfortunately,

it's going to be in English.

I tried to work on that!

Stéphane, thank you for coming here.

Really cool to have you here.

And spending some time at the Parashift office.

Maybe introduce yourself, who are you?

Why are you here basically?

Yeah, sure. My name is Stéphane.

I live in Lausanne.

I'm here today, because we're heavily using
your solution

as part of our startup, called Addmin.

And what we do is essentially in a few words,

it's a document management system.

And in short, we're fairly young.

It's a two years company almost.

And the idea is we're sort of democratizing
access

to those new technologies for entrepreneurs,

small companies, but also individuals

in the ideas, you know, helping people living
better paperless.

Yeah, when we actually first spoke

I was thinking through this whole idea of

solving that mess with documents,

even I have at home with private documents.

And you were saying, that was our starting
point.

What is the vision behind that?

Where are you going with Addmin?

That's a good point.

And those documents itching, right?

That's where the idea originated.

So my partner and I, we really wanted to sort
of bring those

new technologies to individuals,

and at first saying that, you know, we could
find what OCR,

what multi tagging, and advanced sort of document
organization

could bring to the ones that I was part of
using, you know, Google Drive,

Dropbox and the likes.

And in addition to this, there's

some strong privacy concerns

that, you know, touch people,

and it's sometimes quite hard.

But it's really something that we sort of
embedded in our vision to say,

Okay, we bring that to SMEs, entrepreneurs
and individuals,

but at the same time, we make sure that,

you know, we ensure privacy!

Was that one of the main concern from those
early users and customer

so they're saying, we're sort of afraid that...

it's just that it shouldn't be a USB anymore
from my perspective,

it should be something that base by design,

this is really something that we wanted to
ensure.

And obviously, you have people that really,
you know, don't really give

much care about how their data is used, etc.

But the problem is, or the challenges you
always find people

are extremely sensitive, and the upside is
for everyone.

So why not do it, you know, by design, so
to say.

Yeah, I think it's the right thing to do.

I was always intrigued by having an app that
you can just

take a photo and then in like, the first step,

you actually, you just scan them forget.

So this gets like stored somewhere.

And you can just like, have a timeline of
your document contacts.

So that is very getting very easy to search.

And as I was thinking more and more into that
topic,

I realized it's something that from an outside
perspective looks

super easy to do.

And the more you get into that, you realize,
okay, this is a

hell of a task actually.

I was very, how should I say that? I was very
convinced or are excited about the

energy you put into that topic and now you're
going away from b2c,

if I understood? Or not going away, but you
added the b2b sector.

More likely, yeah, we more added the b2b thanks
to the maturity of

our project, but obviously, the b2c remains
sort of, you know,

the origin of the project and our polar star,

I would say, because this is a huge market.

And we also saw, you know, early on in the
project

that the consumers themselves really were
not that educated.

And so when I hear you, you know, speaking
about scan, or, you know,

capturing forgets, this is really where we
have to go.

So and when it comes to capturing data, whether
it's your insurance policies

or your banking documents,

the b2c is more like, I want this to be done
for me.

Whereas in the b2b is more like I really do
have problematics flows

with my documents that I can solve super easily.

So that's why we sort of not pivoted, but
shifted and put more

sort of focus on the b2b.

I was thinking that it should work for my
mom who is in their 70s.

So like, somebody that who's totally not familiar

with digital tools...

And I showed her to showed sort of the idea
to her and she said,

Why should I do that?

I was completely sort of depressed about this,

because she said, I have everything in my
binders.

I said, Yes, I consider this to be a problem.

So how do you see the digital
transformation is that something

which comes with the youngers that we want
to have everything in

our smartphone?

And where do you see what's driving that?

Because it's obviously a big topic.

Yes, absolutely.

But I think problems are driving this, in
a sense that whether it's in

the consumer space, or in the business space,

the receptivity of such concepts of, you know,
digitized documents,

from my perspective, and observations come
from pain points.

So experiences, you know, that companies or
individuals had in the past,

and you know, there's this epiphany moment
where, oh, but I could have this

document like this!

I could capture with my mobile,

I could access this in the train,

I could do my paperwork there,

I could open an account in the train,

and this is generally the epiphany moment.

And it's also quite challenging for a company
like ours,

because we're specifically you know, targeting,

sort of again, consumers and smaller companies

who don't necessarily have this type of education.

So the first step for me is not to explain
my product, but better understand

their situation, and then come to the product.

Alright, that's sounds good,

and how it's going, how is it going in terms
of growth and in terms of

which stage are you in right now?

We're currently reaching that product market
fit with the b2b.

We also have a strong sort of open SAS and
API based vision,

we've building up since I would say the past
six, nine months.

And it's taking time. I'm not a developer
myself,

so I'm getting used to how IT development
works.

But it's good, and it's super fulfilling,
because the same way,

reaching b2c and answering these b2c needs
was insanely satisfying.

For me, going now and meeting with companies

that never had the chance to access those
types of technologies

and guide them and adapting them to those
new tools it is super exciting.

There is +99%* companies in Switzerland

having less than 50* employees so...

We have enough of work!

We are super varieted in terms of industries

And obviously, some types of companies or
industries

respond better than others

but you know, we're some sort of visionaries
on that stand

and I am a true believer in the fact that
we're

about A4 papers, pdf format and stuff like
this

Information is gonna be more and more digitized

and we just have to find the once today that

needs to move to that a bit earlier

I think this is stage 1 of the all mission

I consider stage 2

or I ask to myself that stage 2 would be

once you have the document you could say

the action is based on the information that
are in the document

so where do you take Addmin from there?

I think I very agree with what you're saying

step 1 is everything related to digital and
cloud

I'm trying to not take short cut here but

trying to make people understand that they
can

archive and organize online

and obviously I think you're super
right in the sense

that we have to move away from that static
image or that

static PDF, OCR and selectable text as you
sort of

the first step, we have to move away from
this, and make sure

that we can better understand or automatically
understand

the content and make decisions.

I think, you know, let's take an example:

We all know tax declaration, I should provide
my information

and the tax should be done.

Right. And there are quite a lot of systems
out there that are

working on this, and I think it's only

sort of the tip of the iceberg.

Yeah, absolutely.

Did you also already have like, questions?

Or did insurers and companies asked like

approach you already?

Because I was thinking,

Well, if you could actually aggregate a large
amount of data

in one sector, that sector would be highly
interesting for,

industries.

Let's say if I upload all my insurance policies
into addmin,

you're basically I mean, not you as a company,

but the data is there.

So basically, you could have a partnership
with a injury

insurance company that you're sort of selling
leads,

always with the if agreed by the client,

but that could be a service.

So like, I can just upload my policies, and
then I get,

like renewal offers from a

variety of insurance companies out there.

Is that something you're already

you already tried to tackle or you get questions?

I think it's the underlying power of what
we're building.

But in the sense that we again,

by design made sure that we have, essentially,
you know,

one database per user,

and that we don't access it, it's completely
separated

from our application or the application itself.

This is something that our system is meant
to do.

But obviously, not only are we not

doing it right now, but obviously we have
to, this is a sensitive

topic, we have to make sure that not only
is the client

educated, but understanding what's going on.

Meaning that, you know, let's take a real
estate owner,

for example, a lot of paperwork,

a lot of stuff to follow a lot of stuff to
organize.

Obviously, there's ways thanks to companies

like yours that you know, extract and understand
that data,

there are a lot of decisions that

are not super high level that could be
automated.

And when it comes to, as you say,

renewing contracts, or based on existing contracts,

what are the new contracts that you know,

wouldn't make sense for me, because maybe
in the meantime,

I had a kid or I, you know, moved away.

And these are all data that can be aggregated.

And that should be used to

make not only better decisions, but faster
decisions and

you know, less painful.

I always say I always use the sort of peace
of mind

type of concept.

Exactly.

It's just the moment going back to your grandmother,

the moment you centralize the information

and let a system works at least as good as
a human could,

then you're taking away a lot of processes
and a lot of

sort of anxiety or pain points that comes
from

it.

There are a lot of fear that missing out as
well

Documents and binders I realized.

Fear of missing sort of deadline or a renewal
point in time

and these kinds of things

Absolutely

Could be awesome, just to have like a digital
body that

gets your back.

So yeah, all these things.

And it goes for everything really!

you buy, you know, the new Dyson for 1000
bucks,

it's super expensive, you get the warranty,

most of the time people lose that warranty
and

and generally it breaks you know, within,
you know, 16 months

out of an 18 month warranty.

So obviously if you don't have the warranty,
there are

situations like this, you're obviously missing.

So again, it's about centralizing the information,

the data and make sure you

have access to it all the time.

In the b2c sector, I always got the impression

that it's sort of hard to get it sold because

I don't know why to be frank because I think

you should make I don't know about the exact
numbers but

I had the impression that you should have
like 10 or 20 bucks

a month in order to make it a really rocketing
business model.

And I got the impression that's hard.

So what is your idea actually...

What's the business model around that for
the future?

Yeah, and your question is on points for the
future because

what we realized super early on the project,

so essentially the first three six months,
so we've been live

for the b2c since beginning of the year.

Part of the reason why we shifted to b2b is

link to the paint point

As an individual, there is a buyers between
the age in adoption

facility because obviously

young people don't go to buy binders, it
is just

something that they really dont want to do

but at the same time we don't really have
problem

with their paperwork

whereas it is not completly correlated but

the order you get the most complex generally
your paperwork

becomes, and today, the market from

our understanding is not yet ready to pay

the store so we have to find added value.

The added value comes from the automation
that we

can bring

to documents.

today our clients heavely use
our solution to valuering this

sort of instant

Approach to the document, the mobility as
well,

you mentionned the mobile.

Even more than B2B, the mobile

is sort of super expected

and going forheard for the future

obviously it is link to the additional services
that we can provide

I think, you know, minding the gap with insurances,

banking and finance products and tax declarations

In the way that it will be free? A direct
free service?

Yes exactly! I think we really have in terms
of vision

This is my vision and we will see how it involves
but

we really have to separate our platform

and the tools and how it can be use

it is sort of the binders that you have at
home

compare to the access and services that can
be linked to it

so there is always gonna be some sort of pay
version

of the platform itself

because we can bring value with this already

but I think the sort of the headen part of
the iceberg is

definitely link to services and things that
we can provide.

Very cool!

Yes, that could be the missing piece to actually
solve it!

absolutly in the B2C space

in the B2B is a lot more direct!

In the B2B it is actually...well maybe I'm
wrong but

it is the exact way round

so people are actually happy to buy or pay?

yes, we're too cheap actually, to say,

no, because you know, you were young, and
we're still reaching product market fit.

But we're slowly coming to a point where solutions,
you know, for a few 100 bucks

a year is worth, what competitors do for,
you know, 1000s!

So we know there's a gap there, we're also
trying to stay sort of humble with our own

platform

and trying to onboard and better understand
our market.

But in the b2b space, it's a lot

more direct, because you have volumes of documents,

you spend much more time than in, in your
private life to actually interact with documents

independently from the position really.

And there is still that's the opportunity,
there's still

a lot of paper based processes in Switzerland.

So when you can capture and digitize at the
source of it, then obviously,

you're sort of solving very concrete pain
points that are not necessarily linked to

the data that

you can extract from documents, but really,
like, I need to digitize, organize, distribute,

and then you know, create my workflows of
validation or whatever!

Really interesting.

Where are you heading with the b2b?

It's so product. So what are the differences
between b2b and b2c?

There is none. And that's the beauty of it.
And that's the beauty of it. Because, you

know,

since the beginning, so our vision was

really to bring these DMS technologies to
individuals

and it wouldn't make sense for
us to change so the idea is really

the advanced Pro users on our

platform today there are
individuals they're running their

you know, individual lives like

companies really I know
a lot of companies that are actually

that's interesting but from a user

user application and user organization all
what does that mean that everybody

has his own account?

Absolutely.

So if we were actually start a company together,
I would

have an admin account you would

have one and then we would build a cert entity
or we will

build an entity called X Y company and we
will just be part of that

we would be delegated
to that account.

All right.

Yes, that's the idea

And the same way, wife and husband can work
on the

same account family account with the kids
with different

rights because you know you maybe they want
their kids to digitize the mail because it's

a fun thing to do then they give the right
to scan but not do anything else really.

And that's the same that you organize the
access rights within a company!

All right.

So you're just building the company as like
with the b2b account.

And then there's like, or how does that work?

It works exactly the same way, the only difference

is really where when it comes to the folder
creation,

because what we did, you know, fairly

early in the project was to make sure that
we provide the guide

for the folder structure.

Because not only individuals, but now we're
also seeing companies not necessarily understanding

how to, you know, tag and label their documents.

So we provide a guide, and obviously, you
know, some type of documents or not

super relevant in,

you know, sort of consumer space
and vice versa.

He also provides compliance information about

document types. So such as this document,
it needs to be kept

in archives for 10 years...

And no, we know the information. And that's
a

good question that we do not necessarily provide
it.

At this stage, we're trying to

also better understand the legal framework,
because we have

the chance in Switzerland to have some sort
of

not gray zone, but it's a very fast and evolving
legal framework.

Whereas in other countries, it's very specific,
for example, in France, it's quite specific.

And on that front, we make sure that we provide
a compliant tool.

But when it comes to, you know, telling our
clients what to do with their

documents, it's it's something that

we advise, but we do not guarantee, so to
say!

Very interesting!

You talked a lot about Switzerland, what are
your plans for the future?

I'm sure you're not do not want to stick to
Switzerland.

We want to stick to Switzerland, but we want
to expand that was from day one, really the

vision.

And that's actually what we did super early
in the project is to do some sort of

a b testing on acquisition

and the simple idea of having a powerful digital
binder,

you know, Goddess downloads in 80 plus countries.

So this is really sort of a global need.

And this is something that will follow and
there

are obviously countries where it makes more
sense, because

of the process because of those still very
much living papers.

But yes, now we're focusing more Switzerland
and France to sort of better understand how

to

scale but the solution

itself is made to scale where 100% cloud company,
and even architecture has been lately revised

to make sure that we can, we can get a lot
of volumes.

So if you already have a lot of customers
from France?

It depends which customers.

In terms of b2c, it's the biggest market we
have.

I don't know if it's linked to the fact that
you know, French people have,

it's quite intense the paperwork and administration.

And in France, we also have this huge opportunity

when it comes to our positioning, also, in
terms of pricing

with the compliance that we can add to the
service, because essentially, you have

to have a digital document

archived and be able to literally get rid
of the paper of the original,

you have to follow some certain rules and
protocol,

to ensure integrity of the document, etc.

And so the most of the systems out there are
not providing these.

And it's, you know, for the smaller companies,
it's a big opportunity we have!

Very cool!

Thank you very much for showing us that

Thank you!

What really convinces me is to sort of drive
you have company and this vision and

I saw some of your early numbers, and I was
deeply impressed and how fast actually

you were able to accumulate users on the account.

We'll see how it goes!

There is a lot of stuff we're working on.

A lot is linked to what we're doing with you.

Yeah, we're really happy about it.

For the couple hours that we spent together
today with your team.

It's very much looking forward to what is
going!

Because it's bringing more advanced intelligence
to document processing is needed.

Same here.

Absolutely. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.