June 2001

TRANSACTIONS

Deliver Information in the Customer's Way

by Doug Henschen

Supporting transactions requires more than just capturing information. The transaction lifecycle extends to information delivery, and these days there are more options than ever for getting data into the right hands at the right time. The Web, email and mobile devices have joined traditional fax and print options, adding faster, paper-free alternatives for keeping employees, business partners and customers informed.

The only trouble with all these choices is that it is costly and time consuming to customize multiple applications to handle multiple delivery methods. Output management systems address this challenge by placing a middle layer between applications and delivery channels, easing integration.

Among the latest products in this category is Pulse, a multichannel output management system introduced in February by Esker Software, Stillwater, OK. Pulse captures documents, text or print-stream data from applications and then formats and delivers the output as Web pages, emails, wireless messages, faxes or printouts.

In a statement presentment role, Pulse could be used by a credit card company to convert output from billing systems or report management systems to the recipient's format of choice, be it a Web page, a PDF email attachment, a fax or a conventional printed document to be mailed. The system could also send out wireless alerts to customers approaching their credit limits.

In a business-to-business scenario, an insurance company could use Pulse to speed service to independent agents by delivering policy quotes or claim notifications via Web, email or fax - as per the agent's requests - rather than through the mail.

Pulse users set up delivery through the product's point-and-click design tool, defining transmission rules and identifying content within the output to be delivered. This identifying content could be a unique file type, a key word, word positions or combinations thereof. Esker's "General Document Recognition" technology spots the content and invokes the associated rules. The rules automate the conversion to HTML, XML, PDF, fax, SMS messages or print formats, and they also handle LDAP and database lookups for address information. Pulse can even track whether messages were sent successfully and resend messages through alternative channels to ensure delivery.

Competing output management products include Optio Document Customization Server, from Optio Software, Alpharetta, GA (www.optio-software.com) and the Dazel Output Server, from Hewlett-Packard's Dazel unit, Austin, TX, (www.dazel.com). Both products support Web, email, fax and print delivery. Optio has even ventured into application-to-application integration, harnessing electronic data interchange (EDI) inputs as well as XML output streams. Pulse currently accepts XML input and there are plans to add XML output, but Esker says it sees little demand for EDI. While Pulse runs only on Windows NT/2000 servers, Dazel and Optio also offer Unix and, in Optio's case, AS/400 versions of its software.

As with other output management systems, Pulse does not index and archive print output for later retrieval (a common feature in COLD/report management systems), but Esker has partnered with Mobius Management Systems, Rye, NY (www.mobius.com), to integrate with Mobius' report management software.

What makes Pulse stand out from other output management systems is its ease of use, according to Virginia Higgins, a senior consultant with Cap Ventures, Norwell, MA. "Pulse has a very user-friendly interface," Higgins says. "Administration at the IT level is also extremely easy, but the software lets ordinary business users select the delivery methods and file formats they prefer. That's something some of the competing programs don't offer at the user level."

Doug Hanna, an electronic output technologist at management consulting and outsourcing giant Hewitt Associates, Lincolnshire, IL, echoes Higgin's view. Hanna is evaluating Pulse for use in human resources applications.

"A customer might hire us to do benefits outsourcing - providing call centers that handle all the employee interactions with company insurance providers, defined benefit [pension] and defined contribution [401(k)] plans," Hanna says. "Pulse would allow us to return statements and documents to employees in the form they want to see it in."

Hanna says the Pulse user interface would enable call center operators to change the delivery configuration on the fly. "If an employee is away on vacation and needs information on his or her health care plan, we could send it some place other than the [normally] preferred destination."

While Hewitt is still evaluating Pulse, Hanna calls it a "top tier" data routing middleware product. "I don't see many vendors offering the ability to resend a single source document multiple ways without having to change the document itself by adding code or some sort of tagging."