A couple of articles back I wrote about Capture Data Interchange or CDI (in short like CDI is like EDI but a lot closer to point of inception of a business process). To the best that I can search the web, the term CDI is not used anywhere else at this time (8/31/2008) and there are some limited references to Data Interchange within Data Capture literature in the direct sense such as EDI.
Well what is CDI and what are the potential impacts of CDI on our echo-system? These are two questions that needs to be answered.
First what is CDI conceptually?
Imagine if we could bring the business devices (scanners, digital cameras, cell phones, MFP, etc.) closer to business applications and connect them using one single but intelligent button. What do I mean by that? Best is to use an example: imagine a car dealership gets a car and can walk up to the car take a digital picture from the car, index it right there on the camera, take a picture of forms related to that car (title, insurance card, etc.) and have the GPS location, the digital pictures, the forms and all other information about the car up to the auction database for the car to be auctioned DIRECTLY FROM CAMERA. That's just one example, how taking the business application closer to business devices (or by definition, CDI) can make a difference.
Now imagine this, your customer provides you with a number (e.g., ABCD-NNN-XYZ) and says if you send them anything related to your products use this number. Where this number appears in is irrelevant. Now, customer is in control since they can filter through anything that comes to them and look for that number and start categorizing and processing the information more intelligently and have your full records cataloged properly and processed. CDI and ways to apply CDI has a lot to do with capturing the initial piece of information intelligently and start cutting out manual handling at very early cycles of the process. Once the data is better organized, categorized and automated research elements are performed then people can get involved. This will allow companies to not only reduce the one-to-one interaction madness that we are experiencing but also start putting sense around the data that comes in and goes out of the enterprise with full chain of custody as to how and what happened when!!!
The main impact of CDI is really Green Business Process Automation (GBPA). GBPA is the business processes made greener and more echo friendly. Why CDI has huge impacts on implementation of better and more echo-friendly GBPA? because it simply eliminates the most inefficient piece of the business processes, the initial process start period by automating and getting the business processes closer to the business process inception point.
Take the same car dealer ship without such integration. He or she would fill out a form (say electronically, even though all of them are more than likely are paper) take a digital camera pictures of the car. Electronically cut and paste the pictures into the form or attach them and print a copy for files, fax a copy to auction house or send using email. This is a broken process and what starts wrong becomes even worst, since from now on both sides of the process depend on multiple pieces of information (form, camera pictures, etc.) and are going to need to resort back to paper document as soon as there is a problem.
My message is CDI has great impact, far beyond the business process automation, efficiency and savings... it's Green and it can help the environment... thoughts and comments are welcomed.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Let's Talk eCopy
Ok... I am taking the gloves off for this one... sorry but it's got to be done this way....
First, who is eCopy? For those of you that may not be familiar with them, eCopy is known for creating eCopy ShareScan product line. Originally started as a hardware PC sitting next to copiers, they created a brand name in copier market around PC based scanning for copiers.
Second, Canon carried their products almost exclusively up to three years ago and then they tried to branch out to other manufacturers with a lot of hit and miss. Well the only ones that really carry their product is Ricoh and then volumes really falls off with HP, Sharp, Toshiba... none of these latter set of manufacturers really carry any large eCopy volume.
About three years ago they really tried to branch out of the Hardware model to a software only model with two product lines:
1. The eCopy Desktop - a desktop application for PDF manipulation
2. The eCopy ShareScan OP - a software only version of ShareScan that runs on the panel of MFD devices.
They have 25 desktop licenses included on every license of ShareScan OP and that's how they got their license counts to grow (their claim is some ridiculously high number of desktop licenses.) and they have not had any successes on the ShareScan OP embedded side... don't believe me ask from manufacturers (not eCopy) for references of deployment of the software only version that is larger than 100 Devices. Only a few exists.
Now, here is the way I see it, Customers are getting the ShareScan product through their trusted office channels ( the copier salesman) at $5K to $6K a pop. The office channel has no incentive to really provide a lower cost / higher featured solution to the customer (hello customer wake up!!!) since they will be getting less dollars per device license sold if they provide any alternatives to high cost eCopy... So what do customers get: "Don't ask, don't tell". That's right, keep the customer blind folded and push the expensive eCopy devices into the deals. Now, what happens as soon as a customer gets information about competing products and asks the dealer... first reaction: "Muddy the water..." and present other solutions as "Second line of products... you want the elite then pay for eCopy..." which is completely false... there are products at $600 per device (that's right your eyes are reading this right... $600 as compared to $5000!!!) that do the same or better for the customer... but without direct research and closer review by customer, dealers pull the wool over the customers eyes and hide these under the covers until they asked for them by name.
So be aware and ask for eCopy competitors and if you are told there are none, ask a competing office automation dealer to bring you the competing solutions... Ask Xerox (they don't carry eCopy)... Ask Sharp (they carry eCopy as secondary line)... Ask HP (they will show you their internal home grown solution, then show you other third party solutions partners)... then go back and ask your original office automation and do tell them this time "don't muddy the water... you know there are lower cost better applications out there... maybe they will listen to you this time :)"...
If you are told that the other solutions are "Second Line"... Ask them to demo and do your own research by going to the manufacturer of the "second line" solution and get the real story. There are many competitors to eCopy, like EFI (http://www.efi.com/), NSI (http://www.nsius.com/), and many more.
If you want more info... just post your comments here...
First, who is eCopy? For those of you that may not be familiar with them, eCopy is known for creating eCopy ShareScan product line. Originally started as a hardware PC sitting next to copiers, they created a brand name in copier market around PC based scanning for copiers.
Second, Canon carried their products almost exclusively up to three years ago and then they tried to branch out to other manufacturers with a lot of hit and miss. Well the only ones that really carry their product is Ricoh and then volumes really falls off with HP, Sharp, Toshiba... none of these latter set of manufacturers really carry any large eCopy volume.
About three years ago they really tried to branch out of the Hardware model to a software only model with two product lines:
1. The eCopy Desktop - a desktop application for PDF manipulation
2. The eCopy ShareScan OP - a software only version of ShareScan that runs on the panel of MFD devices.
They have 25 desktop licenses included on every license of ShareScan OP and that's how they got their license counts to grow (their claim is some ridiculously high number of desktop licenses.) and they have not had any successes on the ShareScan OP embedded side... don't believe me ask from manufacturers (not eCopy) for references of deployment of the software only version that is larger than 100 Devices. Only a few exists.
Now, here is the way I see it, Customers are getting the ShareScan product through their trusted office channels ( the copier salesman) at $5K to $6K a pop. The office channel has no incentive to really provide a lower cost / higher featured solution to the customer (hello customer wake up!!!) since they will be getting less dollars per device license sold if they provide any alternatives to high cost eCopy... So what do customers get: "Don't ask, don't tell". That's right, keep the customer blind folded and push the expensive eCopy devices into the deals. Now, what happens as soon as a customer gets information about competing products and asks the dealer... first reaction: "Muddy the water..." and present other solutions as "Second line of products... you want the elite then pay for eCopy..." which is completely false... there are products at $600 per device (that's right your eyes are reading this right... $600 as compared to $5000!!!) that do the same or better for the customer... but without direct research and closer review by customer, dealers pull the wool over the customers eyes and hide these under the covers until they asked for them by name.
So be aware and ask for eCopy competitors and if you are told there are none, ask a competing office automation dealer to bring you the competing solutions... Ask Xerox (they don't carry eCopy)... Ask Sharp (they carry eCopy as secondary line)... Ask HP (they will show you their internal home grown solution, then show you other third party solutions partners)... then go back and ask your original office automation and do tell them this time "don't muddy the water... you know there are lower cost better applications out there... maybe they will listen to you this time :)"...
If you are told that the other solutions are "Second Line"... Ask them to demo and do your own research by going to the manufacturer of the "second line" solution and get the real story. There are many competitors to eCopy, like EFI (http://www.efi.com/), NSI (http://www.nsius.com/), and many more.
If you want more info... just post your comments here...
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Connecting Back-Office to Front-Office
Yes, we all have heard this before... and yes we all know how it has been doing, NOT!!! The main issue is that the back-office is designed to do batches and batches are big huge boxes in the basement with a lot of business rules around them with customer willing to pay per batch to process them .... and front-office is designed to do transactions that are short, quick, easy to do and most importantly be done with!!! Two different animals... making them work together is kind of like pushing square peg into a round hole.
Well let's talk about front office operations first. It's all about the user and it's all about ease of use. Single touch, single click, keep my indexing to a minimum, don't make me and my users think. No wonder that MFP and Copiers are at the forefront of front-office distributed capture. As far back as I remember (and that is a very long time btw), the copier machines were the masters of getting a complicated system of copying down to a single green button that all of us use and understand everyday. WOW!!!... can front-office capture be as simple? Imagine that!! Single click and you have your documents go into applications in the way you want to have them... or even better, single click and have your documents read, processed, secured, delivered across the world into your customers, suppliers and vendors applications. Now, I think I have your attentions don't I ?
That's what exactly is going on in front-office capture applications or as I would call it front-office Electronic Capture Interchange or ECI. Yes, just like EDI, now ECI can leap us forward into the next generation of automated processes. ECI, is really far deeper than the current Capture Applications, it refocuses energy on "interchange" after "capture" is done. This idea take a totally different view of the capture world. In the ECI point of view Capture has to be open, it has to be available to all devices, desktops, applications, and other forms of input devices. There has to be an "Interchange" platform that allows on-boarded bits to be processed and inter exchanged between applications. Now combine that platform with an open SDK and you got something that can handle front-office transactions. Combining multiple data streams (another name for on-boarded bits) and creating a true transactional process that can end into business applications across the enterprise.
Huge idea with enormous reach and depth, ECI is the key to next generation of capture technologies and there are only a few companies and have realized this and harvesting it.
If you see the same thing, post your comments here. More on this on later posts.
Well let's talk about front office operations first. It's all about the user and it's all about ease of use. Single touch, single click, keep my indexing to a minimum, don't make me and my users think. No wonder that MFP and Copiers are at the forefront of front-office distributed capture. As far back as I remember (and that is a very long time btw), the copier machines were the masters of getting a complicated system of copying down to a single green button that all of us use and understand everyday. WOW!!!... can front-office capture be as simple? Imagine that!! Single click and you have your documents go into applications in the way you want to have them... or even better, single click and have your documents read, processed, secured, delivered across the world into your customers, suppliers and vendors applications. Now, I think I have your attentions don't I ?
That's what exactly is going on in front-office capture applications or as I would call it front-office Electronic Capture Interchange or ECI. Yes, just like EDI, now ECI can leap us forward into the next generation of automated processes. ECI, is really far deeper than the current Capture Applications, it refocuses energy on "interchange" after "capture" is done. This idea take a totally different view of the capture world. In the ECI point of view Capture has to be open, it has to be available to all devices, desktops, applications, and other forms of input devices. There has to be an "Interchange" platform that allows on-boarded bits to be processed and inter exchanged between applications. Now combine that platform with an open SDK and you got something that can handle front-office transactions. Combining multiple data streams (another name for on-boarded bits) and creating a true transactional process that can end into business applications across the enterprise.
Huge idea with enormous reach and depth, ECI is the key to next generation of capture technologies and there are only a few companies and have realized this and harvesting it.
If you see the same thing, post your comments here. More on this on later posts.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Document Exchange Server (DES) pricing.
I have not been writing for a while... but felt like I should put more effort into this... I hope you find the information below helpful.
In short DES has four pricing components:
1. Per Server - this is broken down to three basic model:
i) CPU Model - allows you to size your system based on CPU or per Site. There is also a departmental server (small business type of setup).
ii) Site Model - There are also unlimited site.
iii) Departmental Model - limited functionality and connectivity.
2. Per INPUT - each input would pay a set licensing price. Note that some of their CPU server models comes with preset INPUT licenses.
3. Per DESTINATION - that's where you pay for your destination connectors (DMS, etc.)
4. per User - That's the user stations
Most other competitors do not have as complicated pricing as DES. In most cases you generally find Per Device + Per Server. The Connector to Ascent Capture is also available and can be used to send documents to Ascent Capture (see my note on the Ascent Capture - CLICK!). There are various packages on Maintenance and Support as well. The pricing depends on number of maintenance years and type of support.
Note that above pricing model provides a lot of flexibility and allows users to select from variety of options. At the same time these little numbers could easily add up and make this already feature-challenged software to be pricey. The key is to know what is included and what's not included in each package.
Pricing level - Small deployment can use the Departmental Server but they will be limited to Ascent Capture and MS SPS as destination. if you know you are not going to grow, Departmental server maybe for you but know that with Departmental server Ascent Capture (CLICK!) is your expansion strategy. If you are looking for flexibility, start with the 1-2 CPU server but be ready for sticker shock.
On the down side, scalability is an issue and make sure to discuss your "processing and indexing" requirements clearly (Devil is in the details!)... you may find out that you have to purchase Ascent Capture additional licenses to really do anything with DES.
One last thing, ask for DES references within your own industry, and the size of the actual connected devices. What you may find is that due to limitations currently facing the product, there are not that many successful deployments. The product has ways to go before it's ready for scalable use.
In short DES has four pricing components:
1. Per Server - this is broken down to three basic model:
i) CPU Model - allows you to size your system based on CPU or per Site. There is also a departmental server (small business type of setup).
ii) Site Model - There are also unlimited site.
iii) Departmental Model - limited functionality and connectivity.
2. Per INPUT - each input would pay a set licensing price. Note that some of their CPU server models comes with preset INPUT licenses.
3. Per DESTINATION - that's where you pay for your destination connectors (DMS, etc.)
4. per User - That's the user stations
Most other competitors do not have as complicated pricing as DES. In most cases you generally find Per Device + Per Server. The Connector to Ascent Capture is also available and can be used to send documents to Ascent Capture (see my note on the Ascent Capture - CLICK!). There are various packages on Maintenance and Support as well. The pricing depends on number of maintenance years and type of support.
Note that above pricing model provides a lot of flexibility and allows users to select from variety of options. At the same time these little numbers could easily add up and make this already feature-challenged software to be pricey. The key is to know what is included and what's not included in each package.
Pricing level - Small deployment can use the Departmental Server but they will be limited to Ascent Capture and MS SPS as destination. if you know you are not going to grow, Departmental server maybe for you but know that with Departmental server Ascent Capture (CLICK!) is your expansion strategy. If you are looking for flexibility, start with the 1-2 CPU server but be ready for sticker shock.
On the down side, scalability is an issue and make sure to discuss your "processing and indexing" requirements clearly (Devil is in the details!)... you may find out that you have to purchase Ascent Capture additional licenses to really do anything with DES.
One last thing, ask for DES references within your own industry, and the size of the actual connected devices. What you may find is that due to limitations currently facing the product, there are not that many successful deployments. The product has ways to go before it's ready for scalable use.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Document Exchange Server by Kofax
Well here is a short article about Document Exchange Server or DES by Kofax. Some of you may remember Kofax Ricochet, basically a coversheet that held indexing information. DES is a glorified Ricochet with web viewing added into it. What are the flaws of DES?
1. Completely disjointed - What I mean by that it does not control how many users can scan into it, DES does not control scanning parameters (you can get color images when you expect B/W or low res when you need high res. etc.) and it leaves the routing completely to the user this simply means the user can file things into wrong destinations, with wrong names... etc. etc.
2. While scanning devices get smarter and smarter (and you pay for smarter devices), DES makes little to no use of the available techniques that allows users to rec. the benefits of smarter devices. Next time you are evaluating use of DES, ask the question: "Can users get to see list of destination folders?" or "Can users interact with back end Document management application while in front of the MFP devices or scanners controlled by DES?"... and if the sales man says yes, request a DEMO :)
3. No proven install base - that's right... ask for enterprise deployment of DES and also Document Scanning Server... neither case have been a success... as a matter of a fact both products have been a flop.
4. Pricing - these days you can get 10 times better capabilities in 1/10 of the price... don't leave the competitive pricing to your "friendly Resellers" since they are in on charging you more :)... ask for competitive pricing for products that work with MFP/Scanners and see the difference for yourself.
5. Click charges... that's right they are in there... you may not realize it but ask these questions and you will notice that the DES still includes click charges when you like to PROCESS your images... Question 1: "Can I do image processing?" answer: YES - YOU NEED ASCENT CAPTURE (CLICK!)... "Can I use VB or Other Scripting to connect these to my Business Applications?" Answer: YES - YOU NEED ASCENT CAPTURE (CLICK!)
Just a couple of words from your friendly Document Capture Workflow expert...
1. Completely disjointed - What I mean by that it does not control how many users can scan into it, DES does not control scanning parameters (you can get color images when you expect B/W or low res when you need high res. etc.) and it leaves the routing completely to the user this simply means the user can file things into wrong destinations, with wrong names... etc. etc.
2. While scanning devices get smarter and smarter (and you pay for smarter devices), DES makes little to no use of the available techniques that allows users to rec. the benefits of smarter devices. Next time you are evaluating use of DES, ask the question: "Can users get to see list of destination folders?" or "Can users interact with back end Document management application while in front of the MFP devices or scanners controlled by DES?"... and if the sales man says yes, request a DEMO :)
3. No proven install base - that's right... ask for enterprise deployment of DES and also Document Scanning Server... neither case have been a success... as a matter of a fact both products have been a flop.
4. Pricing - these days you can get 10 times better capabilities in 1/10 of the price... don't leave the competitive pricing to your "friendly Resellers" since they are in on charging you more :)... ask for competitive pricing for products that work with MFP/Scanners and see the difference for yourself.
5. Click charges... that's right they are in there... you may not realize it but ask these questions and you will notice that the DES still includes click charges when you like to PROCESS your images... Question 1: "Can I do image processing?" answer: YES - YOU NEED ASCENT CAPTURE (CLICK!)... "Can I use VB or Other Scripting to connect these to my Business Applications?" Answer: YES - YOU NEED ASCENT CAPTURE (CLICK!)
Just a couple of words from your friendly Document Capture Workflow expert...
Sunday, June 10, 2007
How can capture help?
The question of how can capture help increase productivity is one question that no one asks. The way I look at it, the capture middleware is creating highways with built in traffic lights, signs, flow control and all other nice tools you need to control the flow of content traffic on highways.
Let me explain a little deeper. Let's say you had, like most companies have today, teri-bytes of disk space. Now let's ask employees use a ECM application to index and store documents into this vast disk space. What do you get?
The answer is "a mess!!"... duplicate content... people using version control to keep multiple copies of the same file. Well the world would be different if we put a middleware between people and ECM. That's the Content workflow Middleware. What's the job of the Content workflow middleware?
The first task performed by content workflow middleware is to take away the burden of finding the right location for a file out of the user's hand. That's right, the user is, I am sorry but "busy", so the average user tends to store files where it makes sense to them. Somewhere really close, easy to find and easy to use FOR THEM.
The trouble is that not every user thinks the same way and not every user can find that same "easy" location. The Capture Workflow middleware applications take the job of finding, naming, indexing the files out of user's hand and use business rules to acutally do it right. Doing it right means, the Capture Workflow software is going to ask the user about the index information and further interogate the content or back end systems to properly categorize, index and store the files.
There I said it... in short that's to me the one and the most important role of Capture Workflow servers. The ability for users to use the Capture Workflow to save content rather than storing the content directly into the back-end system is the key to choosing a successfull Capture Workflow application that can impact your bottom-line productivity.
Let me explain a little deeper. Let's say you had, like most companies have today, teri-bytes of disk space. Now let's ask employees use a ECM application to index and store documents into this vast disk space. What do you get?
The answer is "a mess!!"... duplicate content... people using version control to keep multiple copies of the same file. Well the world would be different if we put a middleware between people and ECM. That's the Content workflow Middleware. What's the job of the Content workflow middleware?
The first task performed by content workflow middleware is to take away the burden of finding the right location for a file out of the user's hand. That's right, the user is, I am sorry but "busy", so the average user tends to store files where it makes sense to them. Somewhere really close, easy to find and easy to use FOR THEM.
The trouble is that not every user thinks the same way and not every user can find that same "easy" location. The Capture Workflow middleware applications take the job of finding, naming, indexing the files out of user's hand and use business rules to acutally do it right. Doing it right means, the Capture Workflow software is going to ask the user about the index information and further interogate the content or back end systems to properly categorize, index and store the files.
There I said it... in short that's to me the one and the most important role of Capture Workflow servers. The ability for users to use the Capture Workflow to save content rather than storing the content directly into the back-end system is the key to choosing a successfull Capture Workflow application that can impact your bottom-line productivity.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Few notes on AIIM
Let's talk AIIM... I was there and here is my report on Capture workflow technologies.
AIIM last week was interesting... there were a lot of new product introduction some worthless and some very interesting ones.
In capture section we had few intro's:
1. Kofax - Capture Exchange server
2. Nuance - new Paper Port connectors for MFP
3. Adobe - PDF LifeCylce connector for MFP
4. NSi - Evolution (touch screen) and also the Kodak Scan Station Client
Some news that was not:
Who was missing? eCopy - not a sign - these guys have vanished from AIIM
Who was silent? Omtools - it's understandable... they got a lot of financial issues to worry about.
Back to new product introduction:
Kofax - the Capture Exchange Server:
Summary:
Essentially is a web based review station. That's the best way I can describe it... scan into this web based review station so you can review before you submit into your application.
Advantages/Added value:
1. Users get to review documents before they submit into backend applications
2. You can manipulate documents before you submit
3. Build document review logic before you submit
Disadvantages:
1. The alternative would be to review by staging the documents within the application
2. Most devices provide logic to connect scanned documents to applications why do you need another web based application to review everything
3. The imaging capabilities are limited
4. The traffic back and forth to display images between the browser and the web server is a killer... especially so in case of color images.
Nuance
Summary:
Users of paper port now can designate a folder to be the inbox for Xerox scanners. The users using Xerox machines now can login and see their own button that scans to them.
Advantages/Added Value:
1. Scan from Xerox MFP to the Paperport folders
2. Another method to distribute files to the users directly
3. Stores files into the workstation of users where users can see them
Disadvantages:
1. Complex to setup for user (by any stretch of imagination)
2. More ways for users to fill out their disk space
3. No central business rules that can control the document distribution
4. No auditing and central control for risk management
5. Opens the gates for users to take control over the document flows without proper rules around it.
Adobe Lifecycle:
Summary:
Great PRESENTATION of software that integrates into Ricoh front panel devices for capture, preview and display of images… note while the PRESENTATION was great they had no PRODUCT to show!!!
Advantages/Added value:
All they had was a presentation that looked great. I asked for an actual demo, they sent me to Ricoh booth and the demo was far less impressive than the presentation... There you have it ... I guess I have to research this one to get the full story.
NSi
Summary:
AutoStore Evolution - Touch screen station for MFP devices... scans, review and send to applications.
Advantages/Added Values:
1. Increase the usability of the MFP devices.
2. Rich GUI with image preview allows users to review before they submit.
3. Indexing and connectivity to applications (email, fax server, folders, FTP, applications including SAP, FileNet, DCTM, etc.)
4. Manage scan setting centrally and control business rules on how you want your documents centrally
Disadvantages:
1. Added cost of maintaining another device next to copiers
2. Footprint or room to keep these devices next to copiers
AutoStore Client for Kodak Scan Station - New Kodak Scan Stations with AutoStore clients on them that enables them to scan, index, lookup application data and send to application directly from front panel.
Advantages/Added Values:
1. Full functional out-of-the-box scan station that connects to your application
2. Review documents before you submit (not available anywhere else)
3. Index on the device with full application connectivity
4. Manage all capture rules centrally so you can audit and track activities
5. Control scan settings centrally (color vs. bw, tif vs. PDF, resolution)... this is handy since without control you can be running out of space with grandma's pictures taking up 24 Meg of space in 24bit full color :)
Disadvantages:
1. Small screen
2. Initialization of scanner takes about few seconds to warm up
OpenForm 360 - New form recognition technology that connects to AutoStore, extracts indexing data (form recognition), Categorizes documents, and applies business rules and send to business applications.
Advantages/Added Values:
1. Flexible for all types of unstructured capture
2. Shipped with pre-made template to support both US based and EU based forms (some templates cover the invoices, etc.)
3. Made for large scale deployment with load distribution capabilities
4. Full featured product with validation, distribution, business rule, SDK, etc.
Disadvantages:
1. Keeps the count of volume of paper processed (use a little pay a little BUT use a lot and pay more)
AIIM last week was interesting... there were a lot of new product introduction some worthless and some very interesting ones.
In capture section we had few intro's:
1. Kofax - Capture Exchange server
2. Nuance - new Paper Port connectors for MFP
3. Adobe - PDF LifeCylce connector for MFP
4. NSi - Evolution (touch screen) and also the Kodak Scan Station Client
Some news that was not:
Who was missing? eCopy - not a sign - these guys have vanished from AIIM
Who was silent? Omtools - it's understandable... they got a lot of financial issues to worry about.
Back to new product introduction:
Kofax - the Capture Exchange Server:
Summary:
Essentially is a web based review station. That's the best way I can describe it... scan into this web based review station so you can review before you submit into your application.
Advantages/Added value:
1. Users get to review documents before they submit into backend applications
2. You can manipulate documents before you submit
3. Build document review logic before you submit
Disadvantages:
1. The alternative would be to review by staging the documents within the application
2. Most devices provide logic to connect scanned documents to applications why do you need another web based application to review everything
3. The imaging capabilities are limited
4. The traffic back and forth to display images between the browser and the web server is a killer... especially so in case of color images.
Nuance
Summary:
Users of paper port now can designate a folder to be the inbox for Xerox scanners. The users using Xerox machines now can login and see their own button that scans to them.
Advantages/Added Value:
1. Scan from Xerox MFP to the Paperport folders
2. Another method to distribute files to the users directly
3. Stores files into the workstation of users where users can see them
Disadvantages:
1. Complex to setup for user (by any stretch of imagination)
2. More ways for users to fill out their disk space
3. No central business rules that can control the document distribution
4. No auditing and central control for risk management
5. Opens the gates for users to take control over the document flows without proper rules around it.
Adobe Lifecycle:
Summary:
Great PRESENTATION of software that integrates into Ricoh front panel devices for capture, preview and display of images… note while the PRESENTATION was great they had no PRODUCT to show!!!
Advantages/Added value:
All they had was a presentation that looked great. I asked for an actual demo, they sent me to Ricoh booth and the demo was far less impressive than the presentation... There you have it ... I guess I have to research this one to get the full story.
NSi
Summary:
AutoStore Evolution - Touch screen station for MFP devices... scans, review and send to applications.
Advantages/Added Values:
1. Increase the usability of the MFP devices.
2. Rich GUI with image preview allows users to review before they submit.
3. Indexing and connectivity to applications (email, fax server, folders, FTP, applications including SAP, FileNet, DCTM, etc.)
4. Manage scan setting centrally and control business rules on how you want your documents centrally
Disadvantages:
1. Added cost of maintaining another device next to copiers
2. Footprint or room to keep these devices next to copiers
AutoStore Client for Kodak Scan Station - New Kodak Scan Stations with AutoStore clients on them that enables them to scan, index, lookup application data and send to application directly from front panel.
Advantages/Added Values:
1. Full functional out-of-the-box scan station that connects to your application
2. Review documents before you submit (not available anywhere else)
3. Index on the device with full application connectivity
4. Manage all capture rules centrally so you can audit and track activities
5. Control scan settings centrally (color vs. bw, tif vs. PDF, resolution)... this is handy since without control you can be running out of space with grandma's pictures taking up 24 Meg of space in 24bit full color :)
Disadvantages:
1. Small screen
2. Initialization of scanner takes about few seconds to warm up
OpenForm 360 - New form recognition technology that connects to AutoStore, extracts indexing data (form recognition), Categorizes documents, and applies business rules and send to business applications.
Advantages/Added Values:
1. Flexible for all types of unstructured capture
2. Shipped with pre-made template to support both US based and EU based forms (some templates cover the invoices, etc.)
3. Made for large scale deployment with load distribution capabilities
4. Full featured product with validation, distribution, business rule, SDK, etc.
Disadvantages:
1. Keeps the count of volume of paper processed (use a little pay a little BUT use a lot and pay more)
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