EDM, which offers document scanning, archive services and online hosting from five sites across the UK, will take on all of Business Designs staff and a client list that includes BT, Channel 4 and Hallmark.

Business Designs will form the Business Process Management (BPM) practice within the EDM Group, in an attempt to automate customers' manual document handling processes, such as loan or mortgage applications.

EDM Group chief executive Sam Ferguson described the buy as a "step-change" for the company.

He added that it brings the firm a year forward "in our plan to become the only document management company in the UK market" to scan large volumes and integrate documents into our "customers' key workflows and business processes".

Spencer Wyer, founder of Business Designs and now EDM's business development director, said the acquisition would take the company in a "unique direction" for large-volume document scanning.