A system for the entire planet – and what it took to build it

A document scanned in Osaka. Three seconds later, in Berlin and San Francisco: indexed, searchable, with the right permissions in place – in a fully-fledged document management system. What sounds like a technical given was brought to market readiness in just one year and has been developed further across three continents ever since. The kind of collaboration this required has changed everyone involved.

"KCIM is a planet-wide system," says Dr. Nikola Milanovic, CTO at OPTIMAL SYSTEMS. "Software that spans the entire planet and is usable from any continent within seconds." But to understand what makes this system special, you need to look beyond the technology. You need to look at the journey that led there.

The goal: software that can be sold with hardware

The traditional printer market has been shrinking for years. Kyocera was looking for a way to enhance their hardware through software – and open up a new line of business in the process. The idea: a platform that could be sold directly through the existing sales channel, together with scanners, printers, and multifunction devices.

The goal was ambitious: a solution that could be deployed in minutes rather than weeks. One that scales with every new tenant without anyone having to touch a server. And one robust enough to work worldwide – around the clock, on every continent.

The choice fell on yuuvis® Momentum as the technological foundation. Cloud-native, multi-tenant, globally scalable. What was missing: someone to build this system. And someone to stay.

The beginning: two developers and six months

"This is my baby," says Peter Krajnik, today Principal Software Engineer at KYOCERA Document Solutions Development America (KDDA). He was one of two developers who started the project at OPTIMAL SYSTEMS in Berlin. The framework already existed – thirty years of document management experience bundled into reusable components. "Like a puzzle where everything just clicked together."

The first MVP was ready after six months. Then came the first customers. Then came the requests. And then it became clear: this project wouldn't be able to stay in Berlin.

Collaboration across continents

OPTIMAL SYSTEMS in Berlin developed the technological foundation on yuuvis® Momentum. KDDA, Kyocera's subsidiary in San Francisco, was to further develop and operate the product long-term. And KYOCERA Document Solutions in Minato Mirai (Tokyo area) took over product management, testing, and releases.

For two years, Krajnik supported the system from Berlin, often as the sole point of contact for the team in San Francisco. Then he flew over to train the team there – not to hand off the project, but to continue it together. "I showed them how to use it, how to extend it, how to work with it."

A year later, Krajnik himself moved to San Francisco and took over the project again. Six years after launch, he's still on it. "I never really left the project. I've always been part of it somehow."

Three time zones, one hour a day

Teams in Berlin, San Francisco, and Osaka worked together on the system. There was exactly one hour a day when everyone was available at the same time.

Someone is always sitting in a meeting at 3 AM – but that's exactly what makes this project special.
– Dr. Nikola Milanovic

"Someone is always sitting in a meeting at 3 AM," recalls Milanovic. "But that's exactly what makes this project special."

Cultural differences shaped the way of working. In Germany, efficiency counted: quick decisions, quick results. In San Francisco, productivity: work through tickets, keep moving. In Japan, perfection: every function tested, every detail documented before a release was possible.

"They test every edge case," says Krajnik. "Super edge cases. Everything has to be perfect." That slowed things down. But it also ensured a quality level that meets global enterprise standards.

"These projects make us grow as an organization," says Milanovic. "Professionally and personally."

What flows both ways

As customer requirements grew, so did complexity. Nested folder structures, ten levels deep. Permissions for individual folders that override each other. Files up to one gigabyte that need to be searchable within seconds.

What we develop, we can give back to other projects. That's what makes the collaboration so valuable.
– Peter Krajnik

"Technically, we could always build anything," says Krajnik. "The question was just how much effort it would take."

Folder permissions – the ability to assign access rights at folder level – was one such requirement. Six months of development time, in close coordination with OPTIMAL SYSTEMS. Today, this feature is part of yuuvis® Momentum and available to all customers.

"What we develop, we can give back to other projects," explains Krajnik. "That's what makes the collaboration so valuable."

It's not a one-way street. Components flow in both directions – from project to platform, from platform to project. PDF viewer, redaction features, backend optimizations. Every improvement strengthens the whole.

The magic behind the button press

Today, KCIM runs in three Google data centers – Japan, Europe, North America. The instances are automatically synchronized. Tens of thousands of tenants on one platform. New customers are onboarded in minutes. Updates reach everyone at once.

It's a global network of devices and data flows.
– Dr. Nikola Milanovic

"When you press the button, that's where the magic happens," says Milanovic. "You scan a document and within seconds it's in the cloud, searchable and ready for processing." For him, KCIM is more than a software solution: "It's a global network of devices and data flows."

This architecture also enables business models that were previously unthinkable. With the integration of Zuora Subscription Management, Kyocera was able to offer a freemium model for the first time: customers test the software for free and seamlessly switch to a paid subscription when needed. "This model wouldn't have been possible without yuuvis® Momentum," says Milanovic. "The customer says: I'd like a trial version – click, and while we're still talking, the system is already set up."

What remains

What remains when you've accompanied a system for six years – from the first MVP to a global platform? For Krajnik, it's a simple question: What's all this good for? "Our goal is to create software that users can understand immediately, appreciate quickly, and rely on daily. From the moment they begin using it, they should experience meaningful efficiency gains that free up time for more important work and priorities."

For Milanovic, something else remains: proof that ambitious technology doesn't emerge in isolation. It emerges when teams are willing to collaborate across boundaries – across time zones, across cultures, and over many years.