Output Management Becomes Low-Cost EAI

by Lowell Rapaport

Output management got its start as a tool for reliably delivering customized report printouts across an enterprise. Today it's much more, handling multichannel delivery of information to users and applications. Among the products pioneering this broader functionality is FormScape, from the Morrisville, NC-based company of the same name.

At its most basic level, FormScape accepts raw ASCII or other data output formats from sources including ERP systems, report management systems and mainframe legacy applications. Through the use of user-defined templates, the system parses and delivers the data as finished documents, complete with custom graphical elements, suitable for internal or external reporting.

FormScape 2.4, introduced in January, has added FormScape Connect, an optional module that eases application data integration, and FormScape DocsOnline, a Web-accessible repository for reports, statements and other output content.

FormScape has two core components: a Windows-based Developer, which lets users analyze and transform incoming data streams, and a Server, which is mounted to a network and accomplishes the actual output management tasks. The FormScape Developer tool lets users identify data such as customer names and addresses and graphically lay the content out on a template for delivery as a printed or electronic document. Delivery options include fax, email, COLD and output to databases as well as to any type of printer.

FormScape has minimal hardware requirements, requiring only Windows NT/2000 and a modest 128 MB of memory. Rather than running FormScape on a dedicated server, the company says most users run the software as a service alongside other applications.

Another advantage of the system is its ability to find organization within variable data. "With FormScape you don't have to do anything to change your output data stream," says Eddie Riddell, FormScape's vice president of global marketing. "FormScape can identify fields of data - even unstructured fields - from common embedded delimiting characters like commas, tabs and so on."

One feature missing from FormScape's output management functionality is proof-of-delivery reporting and alternative routing. These features track delivery and attempt alternative routing, such as fax instead of printouts, when an error is encountered. Such systems also provide reports on the success of information delivery. Products offering these features include Hewlett Packard's Dazel, Austin, TX.

"FormScape is more concerned with the proper funneling of content from source data streams to destination documents," says Riddell. "However, FormScape can be used in concert with other output management systems that do concentrate on proof of delivery and global routing." Used this way, FormScape is placed between the output stream and an enterprisewide print system where it can apply proper formatting to output documents before they get printed.

Formatting application output for print delivery is a basic function of most output management software. The latest version of FormScape adds XML data interchange capabilities and a connection option for Microsoft's BizTalk Server.

FormScape's new Connect module works with the FormScape Developer and Server to convert structured data into any format, including electronic data interchange (EDI) formats or XML. Connect essentially provides a data transformation tool that builds enterprise application integration (EAI) right into the product, allowing FormScape to be a bridge or point of integration between applications, enterprises and users.

FormScape is also offering a Connect for BizTalk module that provides this same integration capability with Microsoft's BizTalk Server. BizTalk combines XML and EDI with encryption and digital signatures to provide a secure digital environment for online business transactions. FormScape's Connect for BizTalk takes advantage of these capabilities, permitting any application to communicate with other business systems online.

One customer planning to use the Connect module is Lenexa, KS-based Gear For Sports, which makes custom sportswear and accessories for businesses, universities and other institutions. According to the company's system analyst, Cathy Bricker, FormScape has already saved the company money by replacing costly preprinted forms, but the company wanted to do more.

"We currently convert documents to portable document format (PDF) before e-mailing them ... but we have several customers who want to conduct business electronically using EDI," Bricker explains.

Gear For Sports will use FormScape Connect to generate two streams of output: one in EDI format for current customers, and another in XML for the company's archives as well as use in integrating with new systems that Bricker expects customers to bring online over the next few years.

"Converting [documents] to XML makes them more compatible with Web browsers and lets customers and suppliers import the tagged data directly into their systems," says Bricker.

While FormScape Connect provides new options for delivering data and documents, the new DocsOnLine server provides a central repository from which they can be retrieved. The system embeds documents such as reports, invoices or checks into HTML Web pages that can be served over the Internet, and it archives in a repository with indexing and search features such as those common to document management systems.

Milwaukee, WI-based Tricom, a back-office services company for more than 250 temporary employment agencies, plans to use DocsOnline to cut print distribution costs. "We print 12,000 to 14,000 checks per week, and we process more than 70,000 W-2s per year," says Tricom vice president Julie-Ann Blazei. "We use FormScape to create customized checks, invoices and other documents. DocsOnLine will let us put our documents on the Web and allow our clients to log on to our servers and have secure access to their documents."

Blazei says Tricom currently sends paper copies of every check, invoice and W-2 to each customer, which costs the company roughly $15,000 per month just in overnight shipping charges. Blazei says Tricom will encourage clients to log on to a secure DocsOnLine Web site so the company can provide faster access to documents and avoid shipping paper all over the country. This will also improve security, since Tricom's clients will no longer have to worry about lost or late overnight packages.

DocsOnLine uses a SQL 2000 database, and it archives documents in PDF, Group 3 and Group 4 fax formats, JPEG and GIF. It requires Windows NT or Windows 2000 Server and runs on Microsoft's Internet Information Services. DocsOnLine also provides basic document management functionality, such as the ability to create expiration dates for documents. However, the company still has work to do on the product. For example, while DocsOnLine can serve images and documents embedded within XML and HTML Web pages, it cannot yet archive documents encoded in XML or HTML. Users will have to wait for the next version of DocsOnLine, expected in the spring of 2002, for a more complete set of content management features.