The Green Sheet 015

ISSN 1476-3842

F u l l c o v e r a g e of t h e D o c u m e n t M a n a g e m e n t i n d u s t r y , in all its f o r m s .

MARCH2003

Issue NO. 15 ►►

special feature on

. document. scanning T h e fin a l p a rt of ‘T h e C hanging Role in R ecords I V I C l I l U H W

I I I W

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-P a g e 12

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C e B IT m icro film p ro d u cts re p o rt - P age 14 ^ §*

A IIM plans 2003 - 2004 - P age 3

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Visit The Green Sheet Web Site at www.green-sheet.net

THE GREEN SHEET

FO R S U B S C R IP T IO N D E T A IL S P L E A S E C O N T A C T :-

M IC R O G R A P H IC S M AR K ETIN G LTD. 65 W in c h e ste r D rive , B u rb ag e, L e ice ste rsh ire LE10 2B A , U n ited K in gd om Tel: +44 ( 0 ) 24 7 6 38 2328 Fax: +44 ( 0 ) 24 7638 2319 M obile: 0 7 97 0 2 4 8146 U.K. E -m a il - g sin fo @ g re e n -sh e e t.n e t U .S. E -m a il - M N g re en sh ee t@ a o l.co m V is it o u r W eb S ite a t w w w .g re e n -sh e e t.n e t

Editor

AGFA ^

Tim Nixon

Administration Carole Nixon

Graphic Design P a u lE n s o r

For all AGFA Microfilm Products in the

ADVERTISERS' INDEX

IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

United States contact

A d va n ce G r o u p ....................................................... 10 C a n o n ....................................................................... 7

John Glover

Film S c a n T e ch n o lo g ie s............................................11 G B Pro d u cts............................................................ 21 G G B a k e r ............................................................... 2 0

Microfilm Distribution Services, a division of SOURCECORP 8 0 0 -9 6 9 -2 5 5 6 , ext 3 6 7

Global M a rke tp la ce ..................................................2 3 G raphic D a ta ........................................................... 1 7 H F I n c .....................................................................1 5 K o d a k .....................................................................24 LM B M icrodata......................................................... 2 2 M B S ........................................................................ 19 M icroVue P ro d u cts.....................................................4 n e x t S c a n ................................................................ 2 3 R e sp o n se Technical S e r v ic e s .................................... 16 S o la r Microfilm E q u ip m e n t....................................... 22 S o u rc e c o r p ............................................................... 2 The Microfilm S h o p ...............................................9,18 Trans Media T e ch n o lo g y ............................................ 3 Virtual Im a g e T e ch n o lo g y .......................................... 2

ADVERTISERS RATES 2003 Advertising Data (U K & Europe)

Type Area (mm)

V ir t u a l I m a g e T e c h n o lo g y ,

Disaster Recovery, Redundancy, Security All The Ingredients For Preserving And Handling Your Clients’ Vital Information”

Cost

2 7 5 x 400 2 7 5 x 190 275 x 190 138 x 190 or 275 x 93 1 3 8 x 9 3 or 69 x 190 120x93 69x93

Double page spread Outside back cover Full page Half page Quarter page Front page solus Eighth page

£1200.00 £ 800.00 £ 650.00 £ 400.00 £ 250.00 £ 325.00 £ 150.00

‘

Advertising Data (U S

&

Canada)

Type Area (inches) Double page spread Outside back cover Full page Half page Quarter page Front page solus Eighth page

Cost

10 1/4 x 13 v‘ 1 0 ‘ ‘ x 7 !/l 10 3/4 x 7 ■'* 5 v’ x 7 * or 10 v‘ x 3 ,/* 5 v- x 3 or 2 '- x 7 w 4 1/4x 3 3,4 2 3/4 x 3 1/4

Colour rates: A ll above rates are for full colour advertising.

US$2016.00 US$1120.00 U S $ 910.00 U S $ 560.00 U S $ 350.00 U S $ 455.00 U S $ 210.00

"

Artwork should be supplied as 3 0 0 dpi images on C D or Z ip Disk as TIFF, EPS, J P E G , PDF, Quark Xpress, Photoshop or Illustrator files.

Discounts Series discount - (4 or more insertions on one order)

Document Imaging, Data Conversion, Data Preservation, Web Image Archive

vimagetech.com 803-547-8888 Sales Office

1 0 % discount

Pre-payment discount - (payment must be made on or before cop y deadline but does not include classified) A g e n c y discount

15 %

discount

1 0 % discount

A b o ve discounts cannot be combined A ll above rates are subject to V .A .T . in the U K at the current rate.

T H IS M A G A Z IN E A N D TH E C O N T E N T S A R E C O P Y R IG H T O F TH E P U B LIS H E R S

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Lots more changes to come in the next 12 months. Two Unique Membership Guarantees.

A Europeanwide Network of Excellence.

A11M International has told its membership to expect 2003 to be a year of major changes.

First it now looks to it being another financial loss year but “of less than 10°/o of total reserves, including investment revenues.” Then 2004 is anticipated to be one of undefined profitabillity with “2004 profits reserved for strategic 2005 investments.”

Compared to prior years when the annual A11M Show was the overwhelming source of the association’s revenues, there is no single dominant source in 2003. The Information Management eXpo, hitting England and Scotland during Spring 2003, will account for 24°/o; two Content Management Solutions Shows, 21°/o; and advertising 15°/o. The big expense cateogries are personnel, 37°/o, services (mostly events), 27°/o; and printing, 10°/o. No other categories hit double digits.

Helping individual members/two guarantees John Mancini, A11M president, said 2003 will be a year in which the association will “dramatically improve the membership value equation for our professional members."

Among specific steps being taken: • e-doc magazine will transition over the next 12 months into a member-only publication, available only to professional members of A11M. • D0C.1, the association’s weekly e-mail newsletter, will also become a member-only publication and split into two publications, DOC. 1/Professional and DOC. 1/Trade, to be published in alternating weeks.

• Much of the content on the A11M web site will be reorganised into the ECM (Enterprise Content Management) Resource Centre, with access restricted to A11M members.

• An A11M Professional Development Centre and a new A11M Certificate Programme in the “Fundamentals of

ECM System Architecture” will be announced at the A11M Show in April.

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A I I M lays out plan for 2003-2004

In addition, Mancini said A11M is making two new commitments to its professional members: (1) Member Satisfaction Guarantee.

If at any point, a member is dissatisfied with his/her professional membership, the association will refund the unused portion of dues.

(2) Membership Continuity Guarantee.

To meet the needs of “challenging economic times”, if at any point a member finds it financially difficult to sustain membership due to a job loss, the association will extend the membership for free for as long as it takes the individual to find another position.

Trade Association Goals Eunctioning also as a trade association, A11M said it will continue its industry advocacy role. The goal is for A11M to act as the global voice of the ECM industry in key standards organisations, with the media, and with government decision makers. Actions will include: • Confirming AllM ’s international standards programme as the leading global authority on ECM standards.

• Developing and promoting standards, recommended practices, technical reports and industry specifications.

• Marketing and communicating the importance of standards.

• Participating in and supporting the establishment of a European wide DEM Network of Excellence on "Document Management Life Cycle Management” for users in and suppliers to the Ell public sector.

A llM ’s complete plan for 2003 may be seen online at http://www.aiim.org/documents/AHMyearahead2003

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C O N V E R S IO N S P E C IA L IS T S

"The Business Partners to work with' 020 8686 4222

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017 9258 1441

www.tmt.co.uk

Litigation helps provide lucrative business in the U.S. Litigation support services combine microfilming and then scanning InfoEdge Technology, based in Austin Texas, specialises in professional litigation support services. This includes custom coding, digitisation, and precisely organised document collections provided to attorneys who need quick and easy access to critical information. InfoEdge organises all the documents relating to each individual case for clients.

One of the key tools InfoEdge uses is Captiva’s InputAccel to capture both paper and microfilm images. The software allows InfoEdge to scale up and down easily to meet demand. It also accepts images from any source, paper and microfilm.

“In litigation support, we may need to handle 100,000 pages one day and none the next,” said Chris May, vice president. “We may have 30 to 80 workstations in production at one time to handle peak load and then none. The documents, themselves, are unpredictable. They can be anything and they are anything but clean.

“Our customers don’t care how the job is done; they just want it done and at the best price,” he added. As a result, InfoEdge may integrate the work of subcontractors when there are very large scanning requirements.

In addition, InfoEdge says it has found that microfilming of documents is often easier than scanning them. “We have the film digitised by SunRise Im aging ScanPro high speed scanners

and then enter the images into our system that way,” said Robert Griffice, director of InfoEdge’s Document Processing Centre.

The current demand for litigation support services, especially for the U.S. Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Congressional investigations assures an ongoing future for microfilming and scanning for literally millions of documents that have to be transferred, examined and analysed.

Capture it all for litigation support DocuLex, a recognised leader for litigation support document im aging software, has announced the creation of DocuLex CaptureStudio for capture and coding of paper and electronic document files. This is claimed to be the first all-in-one capture studio for litigation support.

DocuLex provides simple and complete paper and electronic document capture capability in one convenient studio, creating an image-enabled database for most litigation support information management systems.

Contact: DocuLex at (863) 2 9 7 -3 6 9 1 ext. 2 5 0 or email sales@ doculex.com . or visit www.doculex.com

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DOCUMENT SCANNING FEATURE

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DOCUMENT SCANNING FEATURE

DOCUMENT SCANNING FEATURE

Andrew Hyland, a business support manager at Stockholmbased Skandia, a multinational insurance company, was tasked with recommending improvements to the way the company captured information from paper documents used to conduct business with its independent financial advisors (lFAs) and direct customers. The requested changes were part of “Picture 2002,” a comprehensive, company-wide review of Skandia’s goals, strategy and organisational efficiency. One of the central objectives of the initiative was to define an operational structure that would deliver the maximum benefit to customers while simultaneously reducing costs by 25%.

At the onset of Picture 2002, Skandia ran two scanning operations employing 48 employees and 25 scanners. Yet the company as a whole viewed the operation purely as archival in nature; an operational issue with little bearing on the core business. “These scanned documents included alreadyprocessed policy applications and routine correspondence, but our employees still needed to retrieve them from time to time.

Only documents that had been scanned could be retrieved easily, anything else had to be dug out manually from a mountain of paper,” Hyland said at the project initiation.”What 1 found was a disorganised unit with backlogs of work piling up and no clearly defined process flow.”

PAGf 5

Skandia halves costs and multiplies productivity with InputAccel The Solution; InputAccel

Captiva Software Corporation (formerly ActionPoint), was one of several companies invited to bid on the information capture software element of the overall system. Captiva’s professional services group (PSG) and InputAccel, Captiva’s premier information capture software solution, were the only supplier and product combination able to meet Skandia’s stringent business requirement at the right price. “It was particularly important that capture could be easily integrated with our other systems,” continued Hyland. “Captiva was able to assure us that the InputAccel platform could support the functionality we would need in the future and that their PSG could facilitate the integration process.” Kodak scanners were also selected as part of the new capture solution.

The organisational plan dictated that new business should be added to the workflow stream before the end of the tax year in April of 2000. Meeting that deadline became critically important, as business volumes rose by 8 0 % that year and there were 12,000 applications for IS A ’s alone in a single day. To meet the government’s compliance rules for these products, all applications had to be processed by 11.00am on the day of application.

In a u t l U f f l l Results; 5x increase slashed in half

Skandia was also set to introduce an improved workflow, which was identified as a key enabler for overall change and thus had a major impact on the role of the scanning operation.

Newly-received documents such as applications, policy renewals and redemption forms would now also enter the workflow system via the scanning operation. M any documents would now need to be captured as a matter of urgency. Any document defined as “sensitive to funds,” such as those involving the movement of money, had to be captured before 9.00am and processed by 11.00am. If fund managers were forced to work without the latest financial information, there was the potential for significant financial exposure to Skandia.

A less dramatic but still serious threat to Skandia’s competitiveness was posed by high operating costs, measured in both salaries and scanner maintenance costs. However, the scanning process did play a vital role in supporting the customer service teams. “If one of the 10 service teams can’t function, the others can keep going, but if the scanning operation breaks down, there is no workflow and customer service suffers,” Hyland continued. "Without going through this technology initiative, we would not have in place an effective scanning process able to deliver work in a timely fashion to customer service. Put simply, that means they would fail in their mission to deliver customer service.”

productivity arid costs

Upon implementation of the new solution, scanned page levels jumped from about 1,000 pages per scanner per day to between 8,000 and 10,000 pages per scanner per day. The volume of overall documents received and processed also soared. The original archiving operation managed around 30,000 documents a week. The number of documents destined both for workflow and the archival system rose to 130,000-150,000 per week.

“If we had changed nothing in the face of this increasing volume of documents, we would have needed to employ 120 people in the scanning operation to handle the load,” Hyland estimated.

“We have removed a potentially critical bottleneck from the business. Without an efficient scanning operation, we would be unable to process applications fast enough, we couldn’t write to the business and we would end up damaging our relationship with the lFAs.” Today, 28 employees and four high-volume scanners manage a workload that has increased exponentially since the project started. Thanks to Captiva and InputAccel, the revamped scanning operation met the corporate objectives set for it under the change initiative. Productivity was substantially improved while unit costs were cut in half.

Contact: Dan Shapiro, Captiva Software Corporation, 10145 Pacific Heights Boulevard, San Diego, CA 92121 Tel: 858 320 1130 or dshapiro@captivasoffware.com

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C a s e S tud y

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DOCUMENT SCANNING FEATURE O P T IC A L IM A G E T E C H N O L O G Y -U K

Arun District Council A - Making a Difference with DocFinity Arun District Council, situated in the middle of the West Sussex coastal plain, covers an area of 85 square miles). Its population of 147,000 is contained in the main towns of Littlehampton, Bognor Regis and Arundel and a number of small villages. The district has a high population of elderly within the area and a third of all properties attract single resident discount. There is also a high level of movement within the district with 24,500 households either moving into, out of, or within the district.

There are high levels of affluence within the area, with over 2,500 second homes. Conversely, there are areas of high deprivation with high levels of benefit take up and collection problems.

Although the council has a Customer Information Point and “One-Stop Shop” facility at Bognor Regis Town Hall, the main service for Revenues and Benefits, including Sundry Debts, is run from the Civic Centre in Littlehampton. The department issues 65,500 Council Tax bills, 4,000 Business Rate bills and has a benefits caseload of over 10,000.

dooo DocFinity

file the electronic documents. The extensive use of Barcodes printed on system-generated forms has dramatically speeded up the indexing process, with a high level of accuracy.

Two-way integration with LoGoS system has been developed to enable users to view document images via the LoGoS screens.

This saves the users time, as there is no need to manually input the document attributes in order to look up the records held on DocFinity. Furthermore, when a Council Tax or Benefit Review Form is indexed into DocFinity, the data is validated and required index keys are exported to a text file, driving an automatic update of the LoGoS system to confirm that the Review Form has been returned.

Lotus WordPro templates have been created and used within DocFinity’s workflow. The system sends related property and tenant information into the WordPro template, saving users considerable time as there is no need to manually type in the contact details.

Achieving a Better Com m unity The Statement of Purpose within Arun D.C. is “Achieving a Better Community” - a simple statement designed to be meaningful to all, one which they could relate easily to the services they provide to the community. In order to stay true to this Statement of Purpose, the council determined that a new method was needed to help track the flow of information throughout the various departments of the organisation.

Arun D.C. also uses the DocFinity H S M module for automated document archiving and DocFinity Print ft Fax module which enables users to send and queue print or fax requests directly to the printer or faxing device, allowing users to proceed with other work duties. DocFinity can handle literally hundreds of print and fax requests, even allowing the user to print directly from a search, without ever retrieving the document and opening it first on the desktop.

Paul Askew of the Arun D.C. Revenues and Benefits Department explains “It was important to us that we keep the needs of the community at the forefront of our decision to implement a new system”. To manage the mammoth amount of paperwork generated by its Revenues and Benefits Department, the council sought the assistance of Optical Image Technology U K (01TUK).

All Revenues ft Benefits staff now utilise their DocFinity system for managing both electronic and paper-based documents and for driving workflow.

Additional features, newly developed for Arun D.C., include a ‘Grab’ feature which links all the documents in a case, allowing them to be worked on together via workflow. Future developments proposed include the ability to Capture electronic data directly from the Department of Social Services and process it automatically within DocFinity. There are also proposals to roll out view-only access to DocFinity for staff at the customer service point in Bognor Regis.

Key Initial Requirements ★ Reduce the dependence on paper ★ Reduce paper bottlenecks ★ Streamline document processes via audited workflow ★ Eliminate unnecessary printing and microfiche production The Benefits - Meeting the Expectations Since deploying DocFinity, Arun D.C. has been experiencing numerous and far-reaching benefits. They have documented significant reductions in bottlenecks and backlogs of documents waiting to be processed. There is now rapid access to documents as well as multi-user access around several departments. Askew continues “most importantly, we have noticed improved services to our customers throughout the community”.

The M ain Facilities Arun D.C.’s scanning team scans and indexes all Revenues and Benefits documents into the DocFinity system. All indexing criteria are verified using information downloaded from the existing LoGoS Revenues ft Benefits system. This prevents indexing errors and invalid data being entered to categorise and

Rolling forward with Arun District Council Arun D.C.’s Head of Revenues ft Benefits, Paul Askew sees the rolling out of the document management system as important. ’’The merits of the system within Revenues and Benefits have been noted elsewhere in the council and work will be carried out this year to look at using E D M within other departments.”

Tina McKeown, Senior Revenues Et Benefits Manager adds, “The DocFinity system has encouraged effective working arrangements and vastly improved accuracy on performance management, as well as the reduction of filing and storing of years of paperwork.”

Arun D.C. is now a strong player in the Local Authority Forum set up by 01TUK, which provides an avenue for existing Local Authority users of the DocFinity suite to discuss new ideas and even better ways to use the software as they move forward. The annual conference of the Forum is a key activity with a range of technical and business focused speakers, as well as open discussion seminars with the members.

For further information, please contact 01TUK, Talon House, Presley Way, M ilton Keynes, M K 8 OES. Telephone 0190 8 2 6 9 6 0 0 or e-mail: sales@oituk.com

The a d v a n c e d s c a n n e r r a n g e f r om C a n o

I can pick the scanner I want - for the job I want to do With a comprehensive range o f document and digital microfilm scanners, Canon is the smart imaging and document management solution.

From blueprints and newspapers to business cards and microfilm, there’s a Canon scanner to handle every size and format. In black and white, greyscale or even 24-bit colour. Not to mention full network connectivity and flexible image transfer capabilities, plus multiple scanning modes that provide complete control over image quality and resolution. No wonder more and more businesses are switching to Canon - the intelligent choice for the digital age.

you can

C anon www.canon-europe.com

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Kodak announces availability of Kodak Capture Software for i200 Series Scanners Powerful Production Scanning Software designed to yield productivity and throughput Eastman Kodak Company’s Document Imaging Group recently announced the availability of Kodak Capture Software for its newest line of production scanners, the i200 Series.

“Kodak Capture Software provides a popular and easy-to-use production scanning application for our i200 Series Scanners,” said Robert Young, UK manager, Capture and lmagelink. “This powerful, affordably priced software now supports our entire Kodak document scanner portfolio - from the desktop i50 and i60 Scanners to our highest speed i800 Series Scanners.”

Kodak Capture Software for the i200 Series Scanners is available in two versions: The Lite version of the software has been bundled, at no additional cost, with eveiy i200 Series Scanner since January 2003; the full version can be purchased through a Kodak authorised reseller. Customers who currently own or have recently purchased an i200 Series Scanner (either the i250 or i260 models) may download the Lite version of the software from the Kodak website at:www.kodak.com/go/capturesoftware.

Kodak Capture Software is a powerful plug and play scanning application that supports all features of Kodak scanners at rated speeds, helping to increase overall productivity and throughput from document scanning operations. The software provides an easy to use interface and offers an array of output formats to make it compatible with many popular imaging and document management systems.

Some of the key features of Kodak Capture Software for the i200 Series Scanners are: ★ Optimal performance at every scanner speed and resolution for colour, bitonal and grayscale images

★

★ ★ ★

Simultaneous colour and bitonal image output enables users to choose colour images for archiving and black-andwhite for transaction processing Full imprinter support for document tracking Support for colour dropout that makes it easy to use for forms processing applications Flatbed support with continuous scanning and book scanning mode for bound paper documents and exception document scanning

“Version after version, Kodak Capture Software has proven to be a robust, feature-rich package that keeps up with the high throughput rates of Kodak scanners. Combine that with the ease of integration of the Batch Output API to our workflow product, NM S eFlow, and it is no secret that Kodak Capture Software has become our leading scanning solution,” said Mike Morrison, vice president of N M S Imaging. “Our customers prefer colour images. We have not seen any other application that handles colour images as well as Kodak Capture Software.”

Kodak Capture Software Lite for the i200 Series Scanners fully enables most scanner features and is sufficient to use across general-purpose office environments for scanning, viewing and storing images in standard batch output forms.

The full version of the software comes with features to support applications within a production scanning environment such as bar code and patch code support, automatic batch and document separation and indexing. Kodak Capture Software puts no limitations on the number of scanned pages nor requires any “click charges.”

Contact: Robert Young, Kodak Document Imaging Tel: 01442 844 251 email: robert.m.young@kodak.com

Kodak adds iThresholding to Perfect Page Scanning New feature is upgrade to Kodak Digital Science Scanner 3520 Eastman Kodak Company has added iThresholding, a feature that automatically adjusts brightness and contrast for scanned documents, to its Kodak Digital Science Scanner 3520. An enhancement to Kodak’s Perfect Page Scanning, iThresholding reduces presorting, rescans and post-image processing by automatically adjusting for highlighting, low contrast and light­ weight paper - situations that previously required manual adjustments.

PAGE 8

Perfect Page Scanning with iThresholding captures images and optimises them at full processing speed. Edges are sharp, images are deskewed and borders removed without loss of information.

And in many cases, because images are cleaner, file sizes are smaller.

“Optimising performance of Kodak scanners is one of our primary goals,” said Robert Bijster, marketing manager of Kodak's Commercial Imaging Components business in Europe, Africa and Middle East. “The Scanner 3520, which was introduced in 2000,

has been noted by our customers for its exceptional paper handling.

However, customers expressed a need to reduce presorting of mixed documents of varying contrast and backgrounds. We have responded with the new iThresholding feature, which improves the conversion of images form grayscale to bitonal and provides outstanding legibility of text and lines - minimising unneeded markings and eliminating shaded areas.”

Kodak tested iThresholding at several customer sites. According to Ron Massie, vice president of Image Express, a service bureau headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, “We flew through work that before took us hours to prepare for scanning. With iThresholding, the scanner read virtually every signature card with ease, darkening even the lightest dot matrix field values and sharpening even the most ink-obscured dot matrix characters.”

Contact: Robert Young, Kodak Document Imaging robert.m.young@kodak.com Tel: 01442 844 986 or visit www.kodak.com/go/docimaging

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DOCUMENT SCANNING FEATURE

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The Tiling Plus Group pic is a leading bureau providing high volume imaging, microfilm and microfiche conversion, scan-on-demand plus additional services such as documents being pre-indexed before being collected from your premises, by trained document imaging staff. The clientele consists of many multinational organisations (on­ going projects range from Investment Banks, Solicitors and Property Companies right through to Local Government Departments ) who value the expertise and experience offered by Tiling Plus in leading them away from paper dependent processing and into the benefits of EDM (paper scanning) solutions.

Piling Plus’ London Docklands based scanning centre is equipped with the latest Kodak and Pujitsu document scanners. Capturing any size of document from A8 to AO at a rate of more than 50,000 images per day. Paper records are scanned and indexed using Kofax Ascent Capture 5 and Adobe Capture software products. Document Plus specailises in reproducing paper documents as full colour or black Et white electronic files usually in the following formats: TIFT, GIF, JPEG, JBIG, Bitmap, Adobe PDF.

DOCUMENT SCANNING FEATURE

Filing Plus now offers full colour scanning infrastructure to support its growing customer needs.

Headway sources only ’best of breed’ products from leading manufacturers, and the group’s product portfolio includes colour and monochrome scanners, document capture software, CD, DVD and optical jukeboxes, storage management software, tape back­ up solutions, e-mail management and security software, and display subsystems.

Through world-wide contacts and very close relationships with its supplier and customer bases, Headway, which has been specialising in imaging since its conception on a PC platform in 1985, enjoys an enviable market knowledge and understanding of the secondary markets and industry trends.

Finally, Document Plus is now also able to offer the revolutionary new colour compression software, Document Express, which for the first time, makes full colour image capture, a practical reality.

This has helped the group establish an excellent reputation accredited by manufacturers as possibly the most effective Value Added Distributor in the document management and workflow market today.

Headway’s strength is in Europe with over 22 group locations strategically placed for their clients’ convenience. In addition the group has associated companies in South Africa and Singapore.

Headway specialist IT centres are located in key European cities to support its customer needs, whether for single locations or panEuropean roll-out.

The scanning hardware, Kofax licenses and Document Express were all provided to Document Plus by Europe’s premier document and storage management distributor, leading Distributor Headway Technology Group. Headway is Part of the ACAL pic Group, which is quoted on the London Stock Exchange and has a pan-European

Contact: Clare Williams, Marketing Communications Manager, Headway Technology Group, Headway House, Crosby Way, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 7XG Tel: +44(0)1252 741213 Mobile: 07885 581980 Email: clare_williams@headway.co.uk

Once scanned, the above information can then be supplied to yourselves, using virtually any storage media you require, including WORM Optical Disc, CD ROM, DVD, and Viewed via the document plus secure Web Site

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Trim Context recieves approval against revised public record office ERMS requirements Tower Software's latest release of its award-winning Electronic Document and Records Management software, TRIM Context has become the first product to achieve Approved product status against the UK Public Record Office 2002 revision of Functional Requirements for Electronic Records Management Systems.

TRIM Context is a highly scalable, strategic Information Management solution that combines Electronic Records Management, Document Management, Workflow, Imaging and Web Content Management into a single, ‘off-the-shelf product.

The Public Record Office (PRO) undertakes a strategic role in the OK Modernising Government program that will lead to all government departments and agencies managing newly created records electronically by 2004, and providing full Electronic Service Delivery by 2005. The target is intended to facilitate the exchange of records within and between departments, and to enable departments to manage records effectively and satisfy their public record obligations. A significant aspect of the PRO’S role is the evaluation of ERM S packages available in the UK, in order to create a list of approved products that public sector purchases should consider.

The PRO has recently revised its original requirements for ERM systems (first published in 1999) to take into account recent developments in e-Government, international records management standards, and the latest information management legislation. The new 2002 requirements also include a standard set of records management metadata cross-reference to the UK Government’s e-Gif standard.

The revised 2002 requirements are more stringent than those published in 1999 and, as a result of being drafted under consultation with UK government departments, confirm an increasing awareness in the importance of a strict information management regime to secure consistent and reliable records to support present day and future needs.

One particularly significant revision is the introduction of three distinct aggregation levels - classification, folder and record, rather than just folders and records as was the case in the 1999 requirements. This brings the requirements in line with the new ISO 15489 standard for records management, which recommends the use of a classification system to achieve consistent records management across an organisation and over time.

P A G tlO

Another important addition is the extensive requirement for statistical reporting. This reflects the evolving role of records managers today, from the traditional task of managing the records themselves, to the current role of overseeing the records system in which all members of an organisation’s staff may be responsible for capturing electronic records. Detailed statistical reporting allows the manager of the system to monitor usage and provide targeted training and ongoing support to the users.

In addition to fulfilling the PRO’S requirements for electronic records management in government, TRIM Context has also received Approval against additional criteria for document management, physical folder management, and hybrid environment management.

Peter Collins, Tower Software U K’s Managing Director, comments, “Many UK government departments are recognising the real value in managing their entire information resources in a consistent manner. It’s not just about meeting targets and maintaining

compliance, however; building a unified, corporate information management structure can bring tremendous benefits to individual workers as well as their organisation. Effective, enterprise-wide document and records management creates a shared information and knowledge base, that helps departments to ’join up’ and collaborate, and individuals to work ‘smarter’”.

Tower Software is a long-time advocate of sound records management practices to support valuable document Snd information management. The company has over 1,000 customers worldwide, in organisations that include central and local government departments, public/private utilities, and private corporations. In the UK, TRIM users include the Dept of Trade ft Industry, The British Library, English Heritage and Westminster City Council.

Commenting on the PRO’S testing, Urs Raas, TOWER Software UK’s Operations Manager, said, “The testing this time round seemed a lot easier even though the requirements have been made considerably harder. The close matchbetween the PRO’S requirements and the software proves that we are very much on the right track in our development of TRIM ”.

For more information, visit www.towersoft.co.uk

1 MANAGING BRITAIN'S MICROFILM LEGACY AMI The Advance Group Tel: 01902 459907 E-mail; docman@ami.co.uk www.ami.co.uk

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FEATURE • EEATURE • EEATURE • FEATURE • EEATURE • FEAT

The Changing Role of Part 7 - Making it Happen! -implementation and Review This is the final article in this series on the records management process. After the detailed process discussed in the earlier articles, we are now in a position to implement the systems and procedures we have built.

Direct changeover - This is, of course, the riskiest approach but, if it works, very cost effective. However, if a new requirement has been identified for which no previous procedure existed, there may be little other choice.

An implementation involves many aspects:

Data Conversion

Any implementation is doomed to failure if the preparatory work we discussed in earlier steps has not been completed properly. Taking a shrink wrapped software product out of the package and trying a quick pilot implementation is not a good foundation for success.

Implementation will involve "getting things done through other people" so effective communication, clear leadership and visible management support and approval are vital.

Project and change management methodologies which are known and understood within your organisation will significantly improve the probability of success.

One of the key factors is effective training - not only in the required procedures but also the underlying reasons for those procedures and the benefits to be gained by implementing them.

So, in short, think about practical implementation from the beginning of any project right through all the design stages. Then plan the implementation with the care of a military operation and keep all parties in the loop!

Roll Out There are a number of different ways that a new or revised system can be rolled out. For example: A pilot operation - This approach is particularly suited where the solution is radical and/or risky. It allows the implementation team to work with a representative group of users and refine the process prior to full implementation. The overall implementation process is more protracted but the risks reduced.

A phased implementation - This method is, by definition, only suited where there are a number of discrete elements which can be phased separately. For example, in a general insurance office, one may implement domestic policies before motor vehicle policies. It's slightly riskier than the pilot operation approach and still protracted but some benefit is achieved earlier in the cycle.

Running in parallel - Running both old and new systems in parallel is, potentially, an expensive and time consuming process which can stretch staff resources. Although, on the surface, it provides the opportunity to make direct comparisons between two systems, users are often confused and will often continue to use the old system if faced with any problems with the new approach.

i

Data conversion is, obviously, not a problem if we are in a start-up situation but this is rarely the case. Moving from one records management approach to a new one raises many issues relating to data conversion. Typical questions we should consider include: Do we need to convert previous data? If the application is starting at the start of a new business cycle (e.g. payroll information at the start of a new year or records relating to the design and build of a new building), then we may well be able to ignore previous records.

If we are starting a new business cycle, would it be advantageous to capture some of the semi­ permanent data from a previous system (e.g. in a payroll application, the information about employees, salary scales, positions, locations etc which would be useful without considering previous years data)?

If we do need to consider previous information (e.g. if we are considering long term insurance policies or pension details) and that information is in a form such as paper or microfilm, should we embark on a major back-file conversion process or should we incorporate such information into our new system as and when needed?

If we are considering back-file conversions, shouldn't we be considering putting such exercises out to service organisations rather than gearing up for a short term requirement?

Plan the Post Implementation Review If we don't plan what we intend to review before the implementation, we are unlikely to be gathering the right statistics that will allow us to measure performance at the end! Furthermore we may even find that we have no mechanism in place to collect the information we need.

So, we need to review the overall objectives of our project which we have identified during our initial investigations and make sure that we will be in a position post implementation to measure performance.

In broad terms, there are three categories of information of possible interest: Suitability - Does the solution meet the organisation's needs? Are we able to operate the process with our resources? Have we bridged the records gaps we identified?

By

URE • FEATURE • FEATURE • FEATURE • FEATURE • FEATURE

R e co rd s M a n a g e m e n t U J

David Aspinall, Datum Solutions Ltd Efficiency - Are our overall costs within expectations and are they comparable to similar systems?

Effectiveness - How well do the results compare with the objectives? How do they compare with what they have replaced?

Do they meet the business needs and the expectations of stake holders?

The Implementation Process Good implementation is a time consuming and expensive process and there is frequently pressure to produce results. So it is vital that all parties have similar expectations. Hence a detailed timetable for implementation effectively communicated and agreed by all parties is a good foundation for a successful implementation.

So, breaking the process down into elements which will be common to all, we have the following processes: Timetable - this process includes discussion with all parties, allocation of responsibilities, initial training and, of course, effective communication which by default include agreement!

Roll Out - There are a myriad number of steps involved in the roll out. This is the first step which requires the active and positive co-operation of all parties. The next step is an integral part of both the roll out and subsequent process's.

Design, implement, review and improve. - This process needs to be almost continuous during the roll out process and until the system is accepted. The trick is to accept that things won't be perfect first time but equally important, you can't measure something if it’s in a continuous state of flux! All problems have to be quantified and, of course, if a problem is fundamental to the running of the system, then change has to be introduced quickly. However, improvements should be scheduled for later versions depending on their benefits.

Ongoing Implementation - Don’t expect people to take everything onboard at once. You will need to have mechanisms in place to monitor usage and problems. Refresher courses and help desk support are likely to be needed. Workshops to discuss progress help staff feel part of the process and make them feel valued. One to one training may be required in some case. Ensure that training is included in any induction of new staff.

Implementation Changes - ensure all changes are documented with proper version control and project minutes.

Implementation Report - This is a valuable exercise at the end of the implementation process. Any changes to timetables, budgets, training plans, procedures, actions and future implementation needs should be identified at this stage.

Post Implementation Review Typically carried out 6-12 months after implementation, the process needs to be completed by appropriately skilled staff. This could vary from outside consultants for a large project to the immediate manager.

The review could involve interviewing, questionnaires, watching the system in operation, checking out procedures and training, quality checks and statistical analysis of usage figures etc..

It should, obviously, address how well the system meets the identified objectives but typically, the review would systematically address the major areas of records management: The records creation and retrieval process, Retention and disposal, Access rights etc., Effective management, Training And, how effective was the process.

In Conclusion Over the last six months or so we have examined the whole records management implementation process from initial organisational analysis to final review. With initiatives such as the Freedom of Information Act, e-governance and closer examination of corporate governance, all types of organisation are having to put in place practices and procedures so that staff understand that the information they hold is the property of the organisation and not their personal C: drive!

There are simply not enough records management practitioners available to meet the current and anticipated requirement over the next two or three years. Furthermore, an effective records management strategy is the cornerstone of effective governance and allows organisations to leverage their knowledge to gain strategic advantage.

The winners will be those organisations whose senior management values corporate knowledge and understands the benefits to be gained.

So I'll finish with a quotation from Peter Drucker -

‘'Knowledge is being applied to knowledge itself. It is now fast becoming the one factor in production, sidelining both capital and labour. ” David Aspinall, Datum Solutions Limited, Datum House, 4 Priory Close, Fleet, Hampshire, GU51 4ED, Telephone: 01252 612805, E-mail: d_aspinall@btconnect.com

CeBIT

s lo w s a s m ic r o fil

CeBIT was the venue for an incredible array of new microfilm products this spring. Held from the 12th to 19th March in Hannover, Germany, CeBIT is probably the largest IT exhibition in the world. However, it showed all the signs of the current trend for a lack of interest in exhibitions. Official figures were unavailable, but it is believed that the number of exhibitors was down by between 600 and 1000 to 6526. Last year’s attendances had already been significantly down, and this year the story was the same, with estimates of a 10-15% drop in numbers.

It was, therefore, very interesting to see a large number of new microfilm products launched at an IT show with lower numbers.

In the category of completely new products were the following:

The ES200 fiche/jacket scanner has a new colour scheme, new SCANE1CHE software and new imaging technology and can now scan at up to 100 images per minute for 24x A4 documents at 200 dpi on 7x14 fiche.

All three ranges take advantage of the very latest version of the SMARTSCAN imaging technology with new versions of the SCANF1CHE and SCANE1LM software.

Another new feature is the OCR naming option, which is available on some of the units.

Couple the new Wicks and Wilson range with the new , Zeutschel, the new Nextscan (Green Sheet Issue 14), abounding rumours that Mekel may be launching a new product at A11M plus the recent Sunrise scanner and one can see that the production film scanner market is really hotting up. www.wwl.co.uk The new Kodak i9600

Omniscan 1000 16/35mm microfilm scanner from Zeutschel. This is a very attractive and modern looking compact production scanner. There are three versions - the M S production model, the SP scan to print and scan to file on demand model and the OS colour microfilm model. The M S and SP are both 256 greyscale and black and white models whilst the OS has 36-bit colour.

Kodak were showing two new microfilm products - the i7300 which is the replacement for the Intelligent Microimage Scanner (IMS) and the 9600 series Archive Writers which replace the 4800 writer.

Zeutschel Omniscan 1000

The speed is very impressive with a quoted 160 images per minute for 16mm film at 200 dpi and 60 images per minute for 35mm film at 300 dpi.

Indicated list prices start at 47,000 Euros for the SP model, rising to approx 83,000 Euros for the colour OS model. www.zeutschel.de W icks and W ilson used CeBIT, to show for the first time, their new and improved scanner range. All models are now available in a new silver colour scheme, which looks excellent. The range now consists of the CS aperture card scanners, the RS roll film scanners and the ES200 fiche scanner.

The CS aperture card range consists of the CS300, CS500 and CS750. These numbers indicate their rated speed at 200 dpi bi-tonal i.e. 300, 500 and 750 cards per hour respectively. The CS750 is the only one to have optional greyscale.

Wicks and Wilson ScanStation for both 16 and 35mm roll film

The RS roll film range consists of the RS100, R SI 50 and RS200 with speeds of 65, 120 and a very impressive 180 images per minute respectively for 16mm film at 200 dpi.

All three models can scan 16mm and 35mm film with the R S I 50 and RS200 having new optional 256 advanced greyscale imaging.

The i7300 is faster than the IM S at approximately 25 images per minute, it now has the option of being able to use Powerfilm software as well as the normal software, the price has been reduced (list is now in the region of Euro 20,000) and it works a lot more quietly than the IM S (although the IM S was never what you would call loud!). Therefore, if you want a fast on-demand 16mm only film scanner, the i7300 is for you.

The new Archive Writer has a better image quality, rising from 4800 to 9600 pixels - hence the change of name to the 9600 series. The 9610 is the same speed as the old 4800 but slightly cheaper. The 9620 is double the speed of the 9610 but for only a 2 5 % higher price. (At 24x reduction 170 images per minute, 7225 images per film; At 40x reduction 400 images per minute, 17000 images per film). A new Archive Writer film has also been developed to match the better image output.

Not shown at the show but soon to be released is a software module that will allow for a seamless bridge between a paper scanner, the Archive Writer, the i7300 and your document management software package. Kofax and Captiva have also recently launched similar modules so that it is now extremely easy to include digital archiving into your document management system. ' Both the i7300 and 9600 series sport a very fashionable new dark grey casing. www.kodak.com/go/docimaging Still very much in development were two new products from Staude - the “Allfilm” and the “Digital Film Reader”.

The Allfilm scanner is Staude’s first step into the production microfilm scanner market. The idea is that it will have three

different carriers, one for fiche/jackets, one for 16/35mm roll film and one for aperture cards. These carriers will be interchangeable thus allowing one machine to scan different microform types. No throughput speeds prices are being quoted at the moment.

The Digital Film Reader is an innovative desktop microform reader, the idea is that it is not a scanner but a digital reader. The model on show was the fiche version and you just push the fiche into a letterbox slot - just like pushing a CD or disk into a PC. This will be its best selling point because the user will then start to think of microfilm as another digital storage medium not as a different technology. Once the fiche is inserted a prescan is performed and the whole fiche is shown on your PC screen with little thumbnails of each image. Currently you click on the image you want to see and then that image is properly scanned and displayed in full. The medium term aim is for the initial prescan to be of a good enough quality that no subsequent individual scan is required. If this is achieved, then this scanner will revolutionise the use of microfilm.

There are also click on carriers to accommodate aperture cards and 16/35mm roll film.

As mentioned, both the Allfilm and the Digital Film Reader are under development at the moment but they are only six months away from being launched. www.e-staude.com 5) Launched a few months ago but seen in public for the first time was another film scanner from Staude - the Multi-Fly. staude “M u it i- F y This is actually a fiche carrier (rather scanner than a stand alone scanner), which fits on the Minolta and Canon scanners.

It allows a whole fiche/jacket to be scanned automatically, the operator being required only to insert a new fiche/jacket once the scanning process is complete approximately five minutes per fiche.

The claim to fame of the M ulti-Fly is that it is excellent on fiche/jackets when the images are of different sizes. Also, because it fits on economical Canon and Minolta film scanners, two or three units can be purchased more cheaply than one production scanner and one operator can operate two machines.

This unit is ready for dispatch and actually works. Several sales have been made already with one scanning job of 6 million fiche.

The Canon M S3 0 0 www.e-staude.com 6) Another product launched recently but not seen properly i n public was the Canon M S300. This looks like a M S400/500 and utilises all the same carriers and lenses.

However, this unit has 8-bit greyscale scanning and a scan to e-mail facility that works with your existing mail programme. Scanning resolution is also higher at up to 600

PAGE 15

s p r in g s in t o t h e fu t u r e

x 600 dpi as opposed to 400 x 400 dpi on the MS400/500.

The M S3 0 0 can also be used as a printer by connecting it to your PC and using your existing printer. www.canon.com 7) On the Alos stand was the new Minolta ACF-7 automatic aperture card carrier. Currently this fits on both the Minolta 6000 and 7000 (Kodak 2400DSV and 3000DSV).

This is an impressive carrier that can hold up to 150 aperture cards in the hopper and will automatically scan all of them. It sits very well in the medium-high volume aperture card scanning sector. It also means that the scanner can be used for other microforms by the simple change of carriers. www.minolta.com www.kodak.com/go/docimaging As you can see CeBIT was an excellent springboard for a whole host of new micrographic products. At a time of political and commercial uncertainty, microfilm is bucking the trend. Watch out for news of more new micrographic products soon in our post A11M issue. (May, Issue no. 17).

A Better Film Scanner?

See for Yourself.

The new Mekel 6 0 0 Series production-level microfilm scanners deliver the highest level of image quality and performance. You can see the difference.

• " N o R e s c a n " S c a n n in g — Provides both bitonal and greyscale images simultaneously.

• "E n h a n c e d A u t o " T h re sh o ld — Produces more accurate image reproduction.

• S im p lifie d Im a g e P ro c e ssin g C o n tro ls— M ake filmScan software easier to use.

See fo r Y o u rse lf a t A IIM Se e the M ekel 6 0 0 at booth # / / / / at A IIM in N e w York April 7 - 9 .

O r contact H F at www.myhfi.com.

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e-lm ageData THE NEW NAME, NEW FACE FOR INFOGRAPHIX MICROFILM RETRIEVAL EQUIPMENT

James H. Westoby, president and founder of e-lmageData James Westoby, former president of InfoGraphix Corporation, a manufacturer and distributor of microfilm retrieval equipment, announced today the management buyout of InfoGraphix Corp. and the company’s new name: e-lmageData.

Building on the market success of the Microfilm ScanPro scanner, e-lmageData plans to release an enhanced product called ScanPro Direct later this year. ScanPro Direct offers all the functionality of the original Microfilm ScanPro, plus the ability to print directly to a laser printer, with no computer required.

e-lmageData will continue to offer products under the InfoGraphix name, in addition to parts, supplies and service, according to Westoby, now president of the new company.

“The name change to e-lmageData better reflects the changing hybrid role of microfilm in an increasingly digital world,” Westoby said. ’’Microfilm continues to be a cost-effective, secure, archival media for storing information. And, combined with the distribution capabilities of digital, a hybrid approach can frequently be the best overall solution for storing and handling information.”

Westoby reports that the The Microfilm ScanPro Scanner, a ScanPro Direct will be complete desktop scanning solution bimodal, competitively priced, compatible with any TW AIN-com pliant and exceptionally reliable. Like programme. tbe Microfilm ScanPro scanner, it will include a lens, fiche carrier, document management software, and cable to connect to any PC.

The new company will leverage the technologies developed by InfoGraphix to provide innovative solutions for handling information stored on microfilm at competitive prices. New product development will concentrate on combining the advantages of digital technology and the advantages archival microfilm storage.

0

Contact: James Westoby, e-lmageData, 24 0 Grant St, Hartford, W1 53027 D S A jwestoby@e-imagedata.com Tel: 2 6 2 -6 7 3 -3 4 7 6 Pax: 2 6 2 -6 7 3 -3 4 9 6

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PAGE 1/

"Can I afford to convert from Microfilm to Digital Im aging?"

We all know microfilm works. In comparison to paper management, micro-imaging saves space and consequently, money. Usually, it's much easier and quicker to find. The benefits of digital imaging, however, are even better.

In addition to drastic cost and space savings, digital imaging opens up gateways to all forms of data and business system integration and access options.

Scanned images don't need to be stored on physical media, either.

By using our online repository, FARIO (File and Retrieve Information Online), you need never store microfilm or paper again! FARIO allows you to keep control of the entire business process lifecycle, routing and analyzing information held within digitized images, as well as storing, tracking and retrieving it, providing not only an archive solution but more valuably, increased scope to manage active files.

The cost savings associated with the process efficiencies of scanning documents often justifies the higher imaging cost compared to microfilm, so the question should be ....

"CAN YOU AFFORD NOT TO?" For more information call us or visit our website

01908 269600

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A1 Tauber, U.S. industry leader, passes away

Out with the Old? It’s not so Simple

At Tauber, an AllM Fellow active in international standards committee work, passed away in late January. Me spent almost 50 years in the document management field, starting as a systems analyst at NCR in 1956. Tauber was a major player in the development and marketing of Image Systems’ pioneering microfiche retrieval unit and was one of the first experts on CAR and COM. Over the years, be held managerial and executive positions at Zytron and U.S. Bancorp and was a consultant to many other firms. Tauber was a well-known seminar and conference speaker, as well as author of a number of publications. Perhaps more importantly, be was a mentor to many.

That was the headline on a front-page story in the national edition of Sl)f jNetuTJork Eimcs last month. It dealt with the fact that in the electronic age when the trails that information users leave are often digital, the biggest trail of all may be the stream of computer hardware left behind in the process of upgrading.

ACS names Head of New Unit ACS announced that G. Edward DeSeve joined the company as SVP and managing director of the newly-formed Finance and Revenue Solutions (FRS) group within ACS’ State and Local Solutions business. FRS will develop solutions to solve key revenue and expenditure problems for state and local governments. Currently professor of management, finance and leadership at the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland, DeSeve served as the deputy director for management in the Executive Office of the (U.S.) President from 1997 to 1999.

Congress promises $100m for Digital Archives In the strongest signal to date of its commitment to preserving the nation’s digital legacy, Congress has set aside $100 million for the Library of Congress to carry out a plan for collecting and preserving digital information, including images, CDs, web pages and electronic journals. In January, after the expenditure of an initial $5 million, Congress approved a proposal for digital preservation developed for and submitted by the Library. Congress then said it would release $20 million more of the set aside for carrying out the early phases of the plan. Congress will allot an additional $75 million on condition that this amount is matched by the private sector.

Whether or not the Library will be able to attract the matching funds it needs, remains uncertain, given the current state of the U.S. economy.

Experts inside and outside of government admit the problem of preserving digital archives is complex. Not only do computer hardware and software quickly become obsolescent, but the durability of electronic storage media is also limited.

Dr. James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, noted, “We know about paper disintegrating but the digital world is so much more evanescent”.

The article describes how for many people, particularly those under age 40, the archives of life no longer consist of boxes of paper and photographs but reside in word processing documents, e-mail messages on an old hard drive or on 3-1/2” or (worse) 5-1/4” floppy diskettes, both of which are now considered fossils. Migration becomes more and more difficult and sometimes impossible as new software is incompatible with old, and ancient cables w on’t fit the latest machines. , Only now is the consumer world starting to become aware of problems with digital information storage and preservation that the micrographics world has been trying to convey (generally not too successfully) for many years.Maybe now they’ll have a better chance for success.

A New Entrant into the Film Scanner Field nextScan, a new entrant into the international microfilm scanning, made its debut at AllM International’s conference and exposition in New York this month. The company, based in California and incorporated in 2002, offers the nextScan Eclipse family of production level rollfilm scanners that it says offers superior image quality at faster speed than other scanners. It also offers the nextScan Phoenix upgrade for existing, older SunRise 16mm and 35mm scanners.

The Eclipse can scan up to 300 ppm and create grayscale and bitonal images at the same time without a reduction of output speed.

The Phoenix scans 220 ppm, scans grayscale and bitonal at the same speed, and can output grayscale and bitonal simultaneously. limage Retrieval has been appointed U.S. reseller for the nextScan products, limage, in Texas and in the microfilm conversion market for more than 15 years, will provide sales, service and support.

For more information go to www.nextscan.com or call 925831-3141.

Brand new formatted Web Site from The Microfilm Shop

Not a word about microfilm for storage of vital digital data from the Library or the Congress.

Information Overload? Wow! According to a report produced by the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California at Berkeley, the world’s total yearly production of print, film, optical and magnetic content would require roughly 1.5 billion gigabytes of storage. This is the equivalent of 250 megabytes per person for each man, woman and child on earth.

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www.microfilrrr.com including a ^^^Hcomprehensive equipment section

Information Management eXpo 2003

I

iMX 2003 tours the UK in May. The FREE expo and comprehensive educational programme sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP helps executives and key decision-makers tackle the complexities of information management and business process. End user case studies, seminars, discussions and workshops will explore the potential productivity and profitability benefits along with strategies for implementing solutions. Visit www.imexpo.co.uk for details.

Now in its 11th year, 1MX is the only dedicated Information Management FREE event of its kind in the UK. The programme of business focused, educational features enables delegates from enterprises around the country and across sectors to engage

with the strategic and operational issues involved with managing information and their business processes.

1MX helps delegates to identify the needs of their organisation, understand the inherent business value of their information and intellectual capital, and learn more about the technologies available to enable the implementation of integrated solutions. Experts will offer impartial advice on the significant benefits to be gained from effective information management in terms of customer service, process efficiency, cost reduction and competitive advantage, not to mention the legal imperatives associated with records management, corporate governance and regulatory compliance. The encroaching deadlines for e-Service delivery place eGovemment and information management in the public sector firmly on the agenda too.

The event is a unique opportunity to interact with suppliers, gain an insight into the wider business issues surrounding enterprise content management and network with peers facing similar challenges of running enterprises in the information age.

1MX is organised by A11M Europe, part of A11M International - the worldwide professional association for Information Management with a remit to provide market education to both end users and suppliers through events, research and publications, standard setting and best practice.

Dates for your Diary EDINBURGH - International Conference Centre

29th April

MANCHESTER - G-Mex Centre

1st May

BRISTOL - Marriott Hotel

2nd May

BIRMINGHAM - National Motorcycle Museum 7th May LONDON - Novotel London West

8/9th May

For further enquirier, please telephone or email: Sarah Drew, Event ft Publications Editor, A11M Europe, sarah.drew@aiim.org.uk, Tel: +44 (0)1905 727600

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Document management and data processing - the difference between Commodity Services and Business Process Support

By Nikki Samme - Head of Group Marketing, Graphic Data (UK) Ltd An organisations’ ability to maintain strategic vision in to day’s com petitive markets relies largely on its com munication and information management efficiencies.

Technology has enabled organisations to consolidate business data from a variety o f sources and media. This capability alone has revolutionised market and globalisation strategies and allowed the development of CRM, B 2 B and Customer Focus initiatives.

Such customer-oriented practices bring new challenges to businesses. The need for faster, more flexible and, above all, cheaper business processes, has required companies to look again to technology to maintain their competitive edge. These technologies are docum ent im aging, automated data capture, workflow and online and internet based transactions processing.

At a time when threats of recession and worries about the econom ic dow nturn are co n tin u in g to cause much instability within businesses across the world, organisations are understandably increasingly reluctant to invest in IT, with the associated risks o f capital investment, business analysis, development time, staffing and roll-out programmes.

N ot surprisingly, as a result of such economic uncertainty, many organisations are turning to service providers for business process support, as an alternative to investing in internal resource and technology. In the world of document management and data processing the scope of such services ranges from simple post-process document im a gin g and web retrieval through to complete outsourcing of an entire function such as the purchase ledger or application form processing.

Companies are increasingly m aking purchase decisions based on quality, speed and the ability to customise product and service offerings - cost is no longer the sole factor. In order for vendors to meet these demands, they have to have a unique selling proposition that is quicker, smarter and consistently higher in quality than the rest.

F R E E

IN F O R M A T IO N

G G Baker & Associates - suppliers of unbiased reference works for over 30 years - invite you to use their very extensive website at

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www.ggbaker.com The UK's most comprehensive directory of document management products and services.

Tutorials relating to electronic document management, micrographics and hybrid systems.

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It makes sense that specialist service providers can provide costs savings whatever the scope of the project: document management is their core business, and as such they have themselves already invested in expertise, new technology and volume processing capabilities. The process efficiencies and economies of scale achieved by service providers make cost savings a certainty.

However, there is more value to be gained in w orking with a business process support partner in addition to cost savings, the provision o f a platform for assim ilating islands of information and removing the inefficiencies involved in paper based processes. By gaining a real understanding ofi each physical step in an entire paper-based business process, suppliers can realise the opportunities for value add services. This unique proposition marks the real difference between providing a remote com modity service and true business process support.

W hilst financial savings and minimal capital investment are indeed driving forces in business strategy, it is vital that organisations keep customer focus as their primary concern.

Financial security alone does not provide a unique selling proposition over and above the competition, critical to sustain market share and enjoy growth.

This article will concentrate on business processes which, by their very nature, are paper intensive and within businesses which are regulated to some degree (e.g. Data Protection Act and /or Financial Services regulations). The business processes are often life time m anagem ent o f client relationships (e.g. pensions), in v o lvin g hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of clients, causing a range of known ’’events” every day (e.g. claims, amendments).

Paper intensive processes Businesses in these areas are keen to lower the costs of customer acquisition, customer management, reduce churn and yet keep competitive by being effective, responsive and customer friendly.

The inputs to these business processes are mainly paper, often form based (e.g. credit card applications), but the business would like to migrate the customer to an ebusiness relationship (e.g. internet application).

The output is usually a large and grow ing file, which may find itself in box storage or microfilmed, requiring large warehousing space and a plethora of retrieval and disposal strategies.

Companies are very attuned to the idea that image and workflow technology, internet services and- global access to documents and data will reduce processing costs, but how do they access the various services and technology, traditionally supplied by com modity processing bureaux, software licence suppliers, consultants and systems integrators? These suppliers all tend to leave the risks with the com pany and provide only a part o f the overall solution.

So what is Bu sin e ss Process Supp ort (B P S)?

B P S is the com prom ise between B u sin e ss

Process

A BP S supplier is a service provider who provides both the physical services of say mailroom management, scanning, data capture and archiving, together with services (not products!) to integrate image and workflow technologies and internet access within the core business processes.

This would free a com pany to concentrate on its core processes, w ithout the need to invest in the services and technologies normally required to make radical process change, since these are now supplied on some form of unit cost model, not licence fee based.

Strategy for value-add Compared to the US, the U K and Europe have a distinct lack of knowledge about the additional advantages of BP S and the delivery of value-add services back to the customer.

However the key start point to supporting customers core strategies and providing value add services lies in gaining an in-depth understanding of their current processes and commercial goals - in effect, becom ing an extension of their in-house operations. Only once this learning curve is complete can a BPS service provider begin to audit and evaluate existing processes and establish areas for value add services.

W hat is meant by “value-add”? This can be defined as “to facilitate the assimilation and analysis of primary and secondary data, on which basis top line business critical decisions are made”.

Take credit card application processing, for example.

Significant process efficiencies can be made in autom ating the transfer of data from paper applications to electronic systems. As a com modity service there are very real and tangible benefits here: optimal accuracy, productivity gains though the eradication of manual keying and a decrease in internal resource. However, handling paper and capturing data forms only a very small part of the costs involved in processing a customer application for a credit card.

The bulk o f the costs arise from fraud prevention, underwriting, credit clearance, account set-up and card issue. These are the areas where w rong decisions can have a devastating impact on the core business, for example, the average cost of issuing a card to a fraudulent application is £5,000.

A BP S supplier can offer additional services to support, for example, the existing fraud department and its processes. By referencing the live application (primary data) to legacy applications (secondary data), it is possible to highlight irregular data in potentially fraudulent applications. All of this inform ation is consolidated into one database and can be used to check against new applications. For instance, if one particular postcode continues to appear in card application forms, the database can highlight how many additional applications have been made with similar details, over the period of a week or a month or a year. The in-house fraud team can then have their “application” supported with work queues o f document images at their desktop, derived from the processing of applications.

This a perfect example of value add, whereby a business process support provider moves beyond proving a volume

processing service to better qualifying information used for business critical decision making.

The principals and benefits of BP S services apply to any high volum e paper based business operation, be it purchase invoices or insurance claim forms, the physical paper still needs to be collated, stored and the data within them transferred to some kind of electronic business application. This in turn needs to be validated and resolved in some way.

There are opportunities for value add services in every type of application, such as fraud prevention, risk assessments, approval processing, exception management o f any kind or simple status checks, that strengthen and justify the importance of the role of B P S within business today.

As organisations continue to revise financial spending and look for opportunities to save time, money and resources, the aim to get more for your money becomes increasing valuable. BPS assists organisations in achieving this aim.

Service providers such as Graphic Data Online, who have a broad base o f com modity service offerings, combined with the capabilities and vision to work alongside customers in their business practices, are providing a distinct competitive advantage for organisations. The key to the success o f their proposition lies in their ability to work alongside customers in their business practices whatever the requirement - whether it be bureau im aging services or full blown end to end process management.

Contact: N ikki Sam m e on + 4 4 (0 )1 9 0 8 2 6 9 6 0 0 E-m ail: n ikki_sam m e@ graphicdata.co.uk

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PAGE 21

Outsourcing (BPO) - where a company contracts the whole process to a third party - and the more traditional “build/buy” solution of investing in process change and inhouse technology.

U.S. Financial Footnotes

Year-end Financial Results a Mixed Bag As year-end earnings reports are released, it appears some U.S.imaging-related companies did very well, while others didn’t.

There was no obvious pattern.

ACS, a Fortune 1000 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange and which evolved from early service bureau and data processing origins, reported record second quarter results for the period ended Dec. 31, 2002. Revenues were $929 million, a 24°/o increase over a year earlier, and net income was $74 million, a 33°/o increase. Delighted over the record results, ACS CEO Jeff Rich said prospects for the quarter ending in March 2003 are also excellent. ACS specialises in technology outsourcing solutions (including digital and analogue) for “world- class commercial and government clients.”

Anacomp, which restructured in 2002, announced $0.8 million income from continuing operations before taxes for the 2002 fiscal year (nine months ended Sept. 30, 2002). After making cash payments of $16.1 million in excess of scheduled debt retirement, the company ended fiscal 2002 with $15.6 million in cash and $14.8 million in borrowing capacity. Anacomp expects to reduce debt even more following receipt of proceeds from the previously-announced sale of its Swiss subsidiaries.

During the year Multi-Vendor Services (OEM agreements and services provided for products manufactured by other companies) was a major growth area. Web Presentment Services revenues also increased while CD/Digital revenues declined slightly. COM revenues declined 27% from the prior year. The company said “COM customers continue to opt for digital solutions such as Web abd CD services.”

Eastman Kodak posted poorer-than-expected fourth quarter (Dec. 31) results. Net income was $113 million on revenues of $3.36 billion. The net income figure looks good compared to a loss of $206 million a year earlier but the latter included large write-offs. Eourth quarter revenues were up 2 % while sales were flat. The lower-than-anticipated (by Wall Street analysts) results were due to falling overall film sales and a plunge in the print making business, both parts of Kodak’s consumer business. Document imaging, part of the commercial imaging group, seemed to do well though its revenues and earnings contribution are not broken down.

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ImageMax had not announced its year-end results at press time but it did trumpet an agreement to expand its revolving credit line to $6 million. CEO Mark Glassman said “Our ability to increase the credit line at this time is directly attributed to (increased) borrowing eligibility...primarily due to higher revenues”.

The company also announced it moved its Northeastern operating HQ to Canton MA.

Eason reported third quarter (Sept. 30) net income of approximately $0.5 million on revenues of $50.3 million. This is the first quarterly report since the company emerged from a Chapter 11 reorganisation. Eason said it had $22.2 million cash in hand and working capital of $43.5 million. It also announced the appointment of Mark J. Clinton as president of its Data Capture operation.

Eason, still a leading provider of information outsourcing solutions, has more than 60 locations and facilities management sites in 26 states, Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, India, and China.

A m b it io u s S a le s E x e c u tiv e r e q u ir e d L M B is a records management company based in Leicester, providing document storage and scanning services to organizations in England and Wales. Established in 1977 we employ 90 staff, have ISO 9002 accreditation and IIP status.

Due to a forthcoming retirement, we need to recruit a salesperson with a proven record in sales to cover the midlands area.

The successful candidate will be expected to prospect for new business whilst managing and expanding the sales within existing Accounts. Prospects for advancement are excellent as we are a small ambitious management team.

If you are bright, have a positive mental attitude and can bring drive to this role, we'd like to hear from you.

A good basic salary, performance based bonus and company car are offered. Preference will be given to candidates living max Ihour from Leicester. xxx

Apply write with CV and salarydetails to:

icrodata

Sim o n C ockb ill, LM B B ro o kla n d House, B ro o kla n d Road, Leicester, LE2 6AB.

T II E

MARKETPLACE

The Global Marketplace feature is designed for companies that wish to take out small classified advertisements without breaking the bank. Rates are £35 ($50) per insertion with a limit of 25 words. Each additional 25 words or fraction are £35 ($50). There is an additional £10 ($15) charge for the use of Box number. For display (boxed) ads add £20 ($30). To place a classified ad, send copy to Micrographics Marketing Ltd, 65 Winchester Drive, Burbage, Leic LEI0 2BA UK, or fax it to +44 (0) 24 7638 2319 or Email it to sales@green-sheet.net. Always specify which issue(s) you wish your ad to appear in.

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PAGE 23

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The new KODAK i200 Series will change the way you look at desktop production scanning.

Colour, Greyscale, Bitonal —at the same speed Up to 134 ipm Dockable Flatbed Perfect Page Scanning SurePath Paper Flandling 3D Ultrasonic Double Feed Detection Optional Imprinter

Call us at 01442-844791, e-mail us at gb-scanners@kodak.com, and take the next step today.

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