July 1998

Blended Solutions Bring Imaging to the Enterprise

Converging functionality, increasing processing power, plummeting hardware and software prices, growing networks and Web access . . . put it all together and the vision of enterprise imaging gets closer to reality.

If one thing is clear in the document technologies arena these days, it is that the conventional lines that separate applications from each other are blurring. Document management vendors are adding workflow and groupware to their systems. Production workflow vendors are moving downmarket to sell to the growing base of groupware users. Virtually every company is Web-enabling its product line.

Perhaps due to its complexity, document imaging has tended to stay in its own space without invading other application areas. This does not mean, however, that imaging has remained static -- quite the contrary, in fact. Groupware suite vendors are opening their products to imaging. Other vendors are working in the opposite direction by offering development platforms for image-enabling groupware applications. Database and document management vendors are extending their capabilities by integrating with imaging products. Component imaging vendors are tying in with document management systems to extend the functionality of their scan and capture solutions.

Add it all up -- converging functionality; ever-increasing processing power; plummeting hardware and software prices; rapidly growing, network-centric corporate infrastructures -- and the grand vision that imaging vendors have been chasing for years comes into relief: enterprise-wide document imaging. But as more and more vendors target this market, a variety of perspectives emerge.

"Enterprise document image management" has come to mean different things to different users and vendors. Indeed, many are skeptical of the term. They question whether it is practical or even desirable to implement imaging systems throughout all departments of a large corporation.

Examine the marketplace, though, and you'll discover that the term "enterprise imaging" really means that the system introduces measurable and (and, more often, strategic) business value throughout an organization by satisfying its image capture, storage, viewing and scalability requirements. Even if it is rarely fully implemented in practice, enterprise imaging software allows users at all departments and levels of a company to scan, process, index, store, retrieve and manage hundreds of thousands of images on a day-to-day basis. An enterprise system can operate across multiple sites at high speeds for production imaging, or it can simply provide access to large volumes of images across a LAN or WAN for more casual use.

You'll also find that convergence begets consolidation. The contemporary trend is to treat scanned images as "just another data type" within the context of a highly complex system that can manipulate and manage software objects rather than handle only files and images. It is still possible to install an enterprise system that does just imaging. But if you end up doing so, the odds are you'll design your system by combining a few off-the-shelf modules together from members of an all-inclusive enterprise suite. Either that or you'll build it from scratch out of components using OCX, ActiveX and COM controls from a component imaging toolkit. The good news is that either approach can help you attain your own version of an enterprise imaging solution.

Production Imaging

There are nearly a dozen suppliers that offer dedicated, production-oriented imaging systems for the enterprise. But nowadays, these offerings are usually embedded in industrial-strength "total document solutions" or are a part of "complete, turnkey systems" that tout ease of use and "seamlessly integrated, end-to-end" corporate-wide, object-oriented solutions.

Data General (Westboro, MA 508-898-5000), for example, offers the AV Image family of products for production imaging, document management, COLD and workflow. It's an integrated solution employing a scalable, distributed-object server approach. AV Image, Data General's production imaging product, is a high-volume, open client/server solution.

By combining this software with its Aviion servers (running Unix or Windows NT), OpStar optical storage and Clariion disk arrays, Data General recently introduced an "In-a-Box" solution that's billed as a single source for a corporation's document image management needs. Web-Track, Data General's new Java-based document manager, provides Web access to an AV Image system through any browser.

AV Image components include Express-Track batch image capture software ($3,000), which supports high-speed production scanning with OCR and barcode recognition. ObServer ($4,000 - $10,000) is the back-end server. The AV Image Viewer costs $1,000 per user.

ODOC Enterprise Object Management Suite is Bluebird System's (Carlsbad, CA, 760-438-2220) new solution for managing and distributing documents enterprise-wide, regardless of data type. ODOC controls image capture and workflow processes, and it handles everything from documents, drawings and signature records to video, maps, x-rays, voice clips and other digital records. Enterprise-wide accessibility and viewing is provided through Internet/intranet facilities enabled by ODOC.Web, a gateway for Web clients.

ODOC.Object is a server module that runs in a distributed, Windows NT client/server environment. It is designed for production environments that require high-speed capture, index, secure, store, and access to an unlimited number of diverse object types that typically include document images, faxes, EDI, work processing, COLD and other vital sources of corporate data.

Written as a collection of 32-bit components, ODOC.Object is scalable to meet the needs of workgroups, departments and large enterprises without changing software engines. Components can be run on a single NT server or any number of NT servers distributed over a WAN/LAN network. A High Speed Import (ODOC.HSI) component enables high-volume batch importing, indexing and routing of document images. It provides a bridge between ODOC.Object and high-performance data capture systems (as well as to low-performance ad hoc capture engines). Pricing was unavailable from Bluebird.

FileNet (Costa Mesa, CA 714-966-3400) recently released Panagon Capture, the front end of its new Panagon suite of integrated document management (IDM), a component-based software solution for capturing multiple document types anywhere across the enterprise. Panagon Capture is the first module to be introduced in the integrated Panagon IDM product line. For now, object-oriented development tools in the IDM Desktop toolkit make it possible to customize applications that integrate Panagon with other functions, like workflow and COLD. Later Panagon products are expected to incorporate these and other applications on an off-the-shelf, modular basis. Panagon Capture runs on Microsoft Windows NT, HP/UX, IBM AIX and Sun Solaris.

Panagon Capture's "out-of-the-box" functionality includes scanning, automated batch and document separation, document assembly, automatic indexing, barcode recognition, image enhancement and quality assurance. It can capture and store scanned images, facsimiles, electronic text, drawings, HTML forms, photos and video. It employs a Microsoft Windows Explorer-like interface that is easy to learn and use.

Panagon's modular design is customizable, allowing document capture components to be included or removed, depending on processing requirements. The component imaging architecture supports OCX, ActiveX and COM controls and enables multiple subcomponents of the same type (such as scanning, document assembly, barcode processing and index processing) to operate in parallel to dramatically improve document throughput. In addition, each Panagon Capture subcomponent can operate independently of the document scanning workstations; this supports flexible, multi-phased processing of more than 250,000 documents per day.

One Panagon Capture server costs $40,000. An Access license fee is quoted on a configuration-specific basis. The Panagon Web client costs $3,030 for one copy. End-user licenses for Web browsers are free.

LaserFiche (Torrance, CA 310-793-1888) introduced WebLink at the AIIM Show in May. WebLink brings the features of the company's document imaging system to a corporate intranet or the Internet. Large volumes of paper documents can be distributed through the Web without any HTML coding or file copying. Standard Web browsers can be used to view and search documents, eliminating the need for client software or additional plug-ins.

One of the pioneers of imaging systems, LaserFiche develops client-server document imaging, management and workflow systems for Microsoft NT and Novell NetWare servers. LaserFiche's Enterprise edition supports up to 10,000 document databases distributed across multiple servers. Each database manages up to two billion documents. LaserFiche has been used by organizations that need to archive, manage and distribute mountains of scanned paper documents and/or digitally generated archives.

The LaserFiche imaging system combines scanning, OCR, indexing and search capabilities with a robust client/server architecture. "Fuzzy logic" searches enable a user to find virtually any document ý even those with misspelled words or OCR errors.

The LaserFiche Enterprise Edition is available in configurations ranging from a 10-user system to a 1,000-user system. Pricing starts at $19,995 for the 10-user system.

IBM's (Somers, NY 914-766-1900) ImagePlus VisualInfo for AS/400 is a widely used imaging system with more than 2,700 installations worldwide. VisualInfo (VI) systems are available for a variety of platforms, and they join workflow, online storage and retrieval and groupware modules that together form IBM's EDMSuite of offerings.

The latest rendition of VI for AS/400 is version 4.1. At this writing, a "starter kit" promotion with one library server, one object server and one concurrent user was priced at $15,000. VI version 4.1 has a folder-based indexing scheme. Folders may contain documents or other folders. Each folder and document in the system also belongs to an "index class." An Index Class is an indexing scheme in which up to eight key fields are associated with the document or folder. Users can search for items (documents or folders) on the system by using the data in the index fields. Version 4.1 also provides virtual workbaskets, similar to email inbaskets. The workbaskets provide a way to manage work and route it to one or more people.

Included with ImagePlus VI for AS/400 is client software that operates under Windows NT or Windows 95. This software offers a set of about 55 API functions that let you access items inside the library and object server. It's a simple matter to logically link those items to an application. All of the API functions are available as methods to several different OLE objects. To make development even easier, ImagePlus VI for AS/400 includes a set of Visual Basic functions built on top of the OLE interface.

ImagePlus VI for AS/400 is now Web-enabled. At the recent AIIM Show, IBM announced a new EDMSuite offering called ContentConnect -- a Java application based on Lotus Domino. It delivers the capability for any Web browsers, EDMSuite family applications, and Lotus Notes clients to search, access and manage imaged and digital documents across an enterprise. With a search request from a browser, EDMSuite users can retrieve images, faxes, computer-generated statements, word processing documents and spreadsheets from various repositories.

Pricing for ContentConnect starts at $8,000 for the connection server and includes a connection to one IBM document repository. Each additional connection is priced at $5,000.

Insci's (Westborough, MA 508-870-4000) Coinserv for Windows NT is a high-speed document archive and retrieval system that uses high-density, low-cost optical disk technology in a client/server environment based on the Windows NT server. Formatted computer output pages (ASCII and EBCDIC), intelligent data streams (such as IBM AFP, Adobe PDF and Xerox Metacode and DJDE) and scanned images are written to magnetic or optical disks. Once pages are archived onto magnetic disk, hierarchical storage management lets you move less-frequently used data to less-expensive optical disks for long-term storage. Insci's latest release of Coinserv, Advanced Coinserv Release 2, integrates COLD, imaging and workflow management functions.

Coinscan is an image-based enhancement to Coinserv that integrates scanned documents into the system. Coinserv and Coinscan work together to retrieve data or images from a single display or query in a Microsoft Windows environment. The index of scanned images is integrated with the index of electronic documents. Any query to the database for a particular index value results in a list of all documents (both imaged and electronic) that match the key value entered. Like Coinserv, Coinscan provides automatic image archiving.

Data is retrieved by keyword search, line item search and text searches. Multiple index/search fields can be utilized within one query. Once a user-initiated query has been executed, the database is searched and a document list is displayed. The user then requests one or more documents to be retrieved from optical disk. The requested data can be displayed on the user's screen or printed on a laser printer utilizing character or vector form overlays.

Coinserv and Coinscan run on the same hardware, software and optical sub-systems, making them a cost-effective solution. A 10-concurrent-user Coinserv/ Coinscan solution, which includes a scan station and indexing station, costs $28,000.

Mobius Management Systems (Rye, NY 914-921-7200) offers electronic document warehouse (EDW) software for high-volume document imaging, archiving and retrieval. DocumentDirect Application Suite is the company's EDW viewing client. The clerk or customer service representative who needs fast access to documents in a well defined, customized environment uses it. It incorporates a series of templates that serve a wide range of applications.

Once images are captured and indexed in Mobius' EDW, they are treated like computer-output documents. They are wrapped in a common document envelope, called the UniversalArchive, and then stored so users can retrieve them along with any other document, regardless of format. In this way, Mobius' EDW effectively integrates imaging and computer-output systems. The EDW archive engine can find and access any document on any server and from any storage device. It runs on NT, Unix, OS/2 and mainframe environments.

Mobius' DocuAnalyzer lets users "mine" documents for data that can then be sorted, tabulated, graphed, screened, queried and sent to other users or other applications, such as databases and spreadsheets, for processing or review. Prices for Mobius' EDW viewing client, DocumentDirect, start at $10,000 for a single-server, five-user, version.

Optical Image Technology's (State College, PA 814-238-0038) OptiImage is a Windows-based document imaging system that stores scanned documents in electronic "folders" on optical disks (CD, DVD, etc.).

Once documents are accessed, users can fax, print and add annotations to existing files. The software allows virtually any computer-generated file to be added to the index structure used to store scanned pages and reports.

There is no limit to the number of pages that can be scanned to a batch, and there is no limit to the number of batches that can be created. Multiple scan stations can be used to scan batches of documents while other stations simultaneously index and retrieve.

Power indexing increases the speed in which new documents can be indexed by displaying all information in a single window. Annotation tools include stamps, highlighting, sticky notes, lines, arrows, typed text and freehand drawing. Annotations can be moved, cut, copied, pasted and deleted. OLE objects, such as a graph, can also be inserted into a document.

OptiImage is fully integrated with the company's Total Solution suite of document management tools. The suite lets you store, retrieve and automatically route not only scanned images, but also computer-generated files and reports. Total Solution is available in five "series" for licensing: Global Enterprise, Unlimited User Corporate Enterprise, Enterprise, Workgroup and Workgroup "Lite." A license for Global Enterprise 7.0 starts at $200,000. An IntraViewer module provides enterprise-wide access to imaged and other documents through the Internet or corporate intranets.

Optika (Colorado Springs, CO 719-548-9800) offers the FilePower suite of DM applications, a Windows NT-based system that provides a comprehensive infrastructure for organizing and managing complex collections of image and non-image data (computer generated reports, word processing files, spreadsheets, etc.) The document management software provides all of the tools necessary to capture, view, file, store, retrieve, share, print, fax and route documents.

For capturing document images, Optika's FPmulti works with a wide variety of desktop and production scanners ranging in speeds from 10 to more than 100 pages per minute. Electronic images are managed in a batch process that can be monitored and "tuned" for maximum productivity. Each image can be rapidly indexed into the SQL database using full text retrieval or dynamic data exchange (DDE) links to legacy systems. Legacy data can be used to pre-build file folder and document index fields. After a document is scanned, it can be filed into the appropriate folder quickly and accurately, improving productivity and cutting conversion expenses.

FPmulti supports Windows 3.1, 3.11, Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms. FPmulti is network independent; protocols include IPX/ SPX, TCP/IP, NetBIOS, Named Pipes, Vines/IP, and NETBEUI. For fast distribution of documents via the Internet, there is FPweb, which works in conjunction with standard web servers and browsers to transfer documents from corporate imaging databases to any workstation with Internet access. Prices for FPmulti and FPweb were not available.

Siemens-Nixdorf's (Mississauga, Ontario 905-819-8000) Arcis Suite is Siemens-Nixdorf's industrial strength, component-based solution for integrated document management. It includes imaging and archiving, document capture, document management, COLD, workflow and Internet/intranet functionality. Arcis-NT is a 32-bit application designed for the Windows NT operating system. Based on the latest standards for COM, OLE and ODMA, it exploits the advantages of Windows NT, including scalability, smooth integration with other applications and ease of use.

The Arcis NT archiving and imaging system acts as the central service control center for the management and archiving. Information from a wide variety of sources can be fed into the system, including scanned documents, fax messages or Internet/intranet image files, any type of electronic information (Word, Excel, HTML, etc.) and reports from host systems.

Arcis NT has tools for automating the indexing process to maximize productivity and flexibility in retrieval. Information can be indexed manually by selecting from drop-down index information or automatically via barcode and/or OCR/ICR.

Following indexing, Arcis NT moves the information to magnetic or optical storage. Indexes are written to any ODBC database (SQL server, Oracle, Informix), and retrievals are facilitated by the Arcis NT retrieval client. Customers can create a hit list based on index criteria or full-text search. Hit lists and references can be saved to minimize future retrieval efforts. Also, all Arcis NT documents can be accessed via the Web using Microsoft or Netscape browsers.

The price for 20 user licenses and scan stations plus 20 retrieval stations for ARCIS 7.0 is $22,000 to $25,000. This includes all server and client software.

Treev (formerly Network Imaging, Herndon, VA 703-478-2260) offers the Treev suite of integrated software products. The suite provides a scalable framework of ActiveX building blocks for developing customizable client/server and Web-based applications for managing documents and other unstructured data.

Based on Microsoft's COM architecture, the Treev suite includes industrial-strength imaging, COLD, workflow, and document management engines. Treev's standards-based design lets you connect with leading third-party document management systems and existing line-of-business applications.

DocuTreev is a document imaging system that captures, stores and retrieves scanned images, word processing documents, spreadsheets and graphical files. Images can be stored and retrieved from RAID, CD-R or optical disk. DocuTreev takes advantage of Windows NT and SQL technologies to deliver a true enterprise-wide scalable solution. Users can perform searches within applications or globally.

DocuTreev manages and stores all file formats as well as imaged documents. Imaged documents can be coupled with word processing, spreadsheets and other graphical document files to deliver a heterogeneous document. DocuTreev also provides viewing technology for hundreds of file formats outside of native applications.

DocuTreev's high-speed batch services are designed to accommodate scanning from hand-fed flatbed scanners to production scanners. DocuTreev's batch scanning provides default scanner configurations and recognizes document separators. Definable scanner configurations let you identify common document characteristics such as paper size, orientation, paper contrast and intensity. Documents are organized and stored using a file cabinet paradigm. DocuTreev was set to ship by June, but at this writing, pricing had yet to be established.

Arthur Gingrande is a partner with Imerge Consulting, a firm specializing in imaging, COLD, workflow and EDMS technology solutions. He can be reached at 781- 646-1893 or by email: arthur@imergeconsult.com.

Related Articles:

• Add Imaging Across Enterprise Desktops
• Bring Your Intranet into the Imaging Mix