July 1998
Hit the Spot with App-Specific Enablers
Some products don't try to image-enable everything but have a specific mission in life. These are some examples.
Accounting: Samson Infotech (New York, NY 212-616-8600) introduced
ImageNavigator ($1295 per seat) at the AIIM show in May. This is
image-enabling software for accounting packages. It works with software
from ACCPAC International (a division of Computer Associates), Macola
Software and Great Plains Software, and they're planning integration with
other accounting packages. ImageNavigator handles scanning, retrieval,
viewing, annotation and storage management. Users work in their
accounting packages until they need to see the image behind an invoice,
payroll item or other element. They click on an "Imaging" button on the
accounting software toolbar. That automatically triggers ImageNavigator
and calls up the associated file, which may include check images, COLD
statements, Word documents and spreadsheets, as well as document images.
ImageNavigator uses the Samson Capture Transfer Protocol, an interface
that sits between ImageNavigator and the MIS/accounting application.
Claims processing: Insurdata's (Irving, TX 972-443-5000) Insur-Image
handles the imaging and processing of insurance claims (particularly
HCFAs, UB92s and dental forms) in tandem with legacy applications. It
provides centralized scanning, forms identification, OCR/ICR recognition
and verification. It can be used with the company's other products
(Insur-Claims, Insur-Dental and Insur-PPO) or with any legacy claims
processing system.
Insur-Image runs on a Unix platform and uses standard TIFF images and
protocols. Part of the product runs on NT and a future release will run
completely on NT.
Customers typically have their own employees do the scanning and
document preparation. They run the scanner, the OCR packages recognize
text and the verification process takes place. The back end of the system
produces two outputs: an image and an EDI transaction.
Insur-Image creates an image address, links it to the EDI transaction
and passes both into the legacy application that it's interfaced to. When
a claims examiner, customer service person or supervisor needs to pull an
image up from the system, they click on the image address. That sends a
command back to Insur-Image, which responds by popping up the claim
document.
The product has an unusual OCR verification feature called Sorted
Character Image Verification. This lets you put data verification in the
hands of operators, who may have no idea what the actual claim form looks
like. The system lifts the characters off the form and puts all the As,
Bs, Cs and so on together and has the operator verify that the characters
on the screen are like characters.
The system lets you correct characters the OCR engines are insecure
about and view questionable characters in context. It can insert false
negatives. If sleepy operators miss the known wrong characters, the
system can stop them and make them redo their work. Insur-Image provides
dual entry, database lookups and range checks.
Healthcare: LanVision (Cincinnati, OH 513-794-7100) offers OmniVision,
a 32-bit image-enabling application for healthcare systems. It provides
seamless access from any application to documents and diagnostic images
stored in a LanVision database.LanVision has worked with many other
third-party healthcare applications, including programs from Oasis,
Cerner, SMS and IDX. They have image enabled a variety of applications
for more than 200 customers.
OmniVision has an open architecture and a standard API. A WebView
component lets clients access OmniVision through nothing more than a
browser loaded on a workstation. On the capture side, this product
incorporates Input Software's Input Accel and Datacap's Paper Keyboard.
It offers automated indexing through barcodes and OCR.
"We believe that barcoding is the most reliable and accurate way to
index, so the first line of defense is barcodes," Bill Geers, senior
director of business development and marketing.
The OCR for indexing kicks in when the barcode is not read
successfully or doesn't exist. The OCR looks for a unique identifying
pattern, such as an account number. OCR also handles data extraction. The
user identifies key information they want to pull off a form. A file is
created as the fields are recognized and the information in that file is
used to update the host application. This approach avoids manual entry of
data.
Although PCs are appearing on more and more desktops in doctors'
offices and hospitals, imaging is still important. "We're seeing more of
a need for image enabling," says Geers. "The idea of the paperless
medical record was first talked about in 1958. In reality, most hospitals
recognize that we're no closer to that now than we were then. Clearly
there's a place for images in the electronic medical record today, and we
see that [continuing] for many years to come."
SAP: iXOS's (San Mateo, CA 650-294-5800) iXOS Archive product is
focused on SAP's R/3 enterprise software, and is used by 400 SAP-user
companies. SAP owns part of iXOS. IXOS created a database, a development
engine and graphical user interfaces for SAP using their protocols and
methodology.
IXOS Archive captures images and moves them into SAP. It doesn't index
images; it links them to the existing SAP database. The scan module
provides iXOS's own scan drivers for many different scanners. These
provide more options for scanning and correcting images than the
manufacturers' own scanner drivers. The batch scanning feature lets you
batch documents with white separator pages, dark separator pages and
barcodes.
Anything that you can print in R/3 you can archive into iXOS Archive.
It supports more than 200 file formats. It lets you save Word files as
TIFF files so that if future versions of Microsoft Word are not
compatible or readable from your SAP software, you'll be able to read
those files anyway. The software can run on thousands of servers anywhere
in the world. The server boxes can be RS6000s, HP Unix, Sun Unix or other
platforms. You can mix and match.
Archive generates COLD-like hyperlinked reports. Click on a file name
or number to call up the image or fax it to someone.
--Penny Lunt
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