Oracle Imaging & Process Management – Oracle I/PM 11g
Leigh Woody
Program Manager
ILINX Capture: Scanning in a Production Environment
ILINX Capture utilizes a web based platform that combines functionality as well as ease of use while scanning in a production environment. This platform allows production workers to remotely tap into the system to perform any task in the production workflow. Capture makes use of many different image enhancement techniques. In ILINX Capture’s production environment, batches move through the processes in an efficient and organized workflow.
ILINX Capture’s web based platform makes it possible for a technician to scan and process batches from remote locations. This feature allows technicians convenient access to the production environment while not at the same locations. Each process in the workflow (ie Capture, Classify and Indexing) can be performed by an operator whether or not they are on site. Knowledge workers can answer questions without having to look over the shoulder of the production worker.
ILINX Capture has many functional image enhancement tools for scanning less than good quality paper. Images can be replaced, inserted or appended at any stage in the workflow process. Images can be copied into various places throughout the batch. Images can also be printed at anytime during the workflow. If images are scanned out of order and need to be corrected, with ILINX Capture you can move images around after they scanned into the system.
The most important aspect of Production Scanning is efficient workflow. ILINX Capture workflow allows batches to move seamlessly from one process to the next. Batches can also be moved backwards in the workflow if they need to be reworked. With ILINX Capture you can use any scanner as long as the PC you are using has the twain drivers installed on it. In the user window, a batch can be easily found at any stage in the workflow without confusion or the necessity of using the Server Manager.
Jeff Martin Ali Adam
ImageSource, Inc. ImageSource, Inc.
eForms Technology Short Cuts That Really Work!
Often we are up against tight deadlines and we need to use all our tricks and tools to help increase efficiency and provide a better client experience. When we have clients with large form libraries that need converting to eForms; one of my favorite tools to use is FormBridge for Liquid Office. FormBridge does direct conversions of PDF, word, excel and other common form files to Liquid Office xfm files like magic! The converted forms are fully editable and are amazingly accurate copies with minor tweaks for formatting once translated. FormBridge automatically creates fillable fields, just as a forms designer would and this is a huge time saver.
Forms kick-off workflows and drive business. Moving paper based and un-editable eforms to an intelligent digital format has many benefits such as cost savings based on efficiencies and increased accessibility. Even a small business may have hundreds of forms. As a system integrator of ECM technologies we know what tools and tips to help your eForms initiative become a huge success.
Leigh Woody Program Manager ImageSource, Inc.
Exchange 2010 Upgrade
As part of our Enterprise Content Management system we are upgrading our Exchange servers to 2010 to better handle our enterprise demands for e-mail content and integrate with SharePoint 2010. Upgrading from Exchange Server 2003 to 2010 most users won’t notice a huge difference in E-mail performance but where they will notice changes is the new look and feel of OWA (Outlook Web Access) 2010. OWA 2010 has some great new features such as Conversation view, which allows a user to view the whole chain of responses in one threaded view. Another great feature that I think everyone will be happy about is that in OWA 2010 all messages show up on one page, with OWA 2003 the maximum limit was 100 per page, now with OWA 2010 there is no limit no matter how big your inbox is all your messages are on one page. Also a great feature which we just tested is the function to allow a user to remotely wipe their phone via OWA, so if your phone is lost or stolen you can completely wipe your phone clean of sensitive information.
At ImageSource we represent a variety of software options, our consulting services provide an independent and objective approach. Many consultants use a one size fits all philosophy. Our flexible and proven methodologies allow us to help you define truly suitable solutions for ECM and integration with corporatet office tools.
Will Hart
Support Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.
Nexus 2009 Shows Promise for a Stronger Economy
I’ve heard many comments from individuals summing up their ‘NEXUS ECM Experience’ over the past week following the show’s November 2nd close. From my perspective, the tweets and blogs captured the momentum and attendance at the show was greater than last year. I think this is because the quality and value of the show in general was up. Attendees this year definitely had an agenda, and most were actively seeking solutions, as compared to years passed. The companies that will be on top when the economy turns will be those who have a strong ECM foundation for business processes. It was encouraging to see the excitement and drive to get back to work and start retooling for a more efficient future. If you missed out this year, make sure to register for Nexus 2010 and lock in the reduced rate of $195! Use code NEXUS10SPL
Leigh Woody
Program Manager
Enterprise Content Management (ECM): Best Practices for Backfile Conversion
The 2 main aspects of Backfile Conversion are Security and Quality. Security within the document scanning process is tracking and maintaining records for each document through the workflow. If a conversion workflow is tracked and accounted for efficiently, a quality product will be the result.
In addition to maintaining records of documents it is not uncommon that someone will want to view one of the documents that are in the workflow. If an itemized inventory list (tracking log) was created at the beginning of the conversion workflow and an entry to the tracking log was made every time the document was processed, it should take minutes to locate where the document is and provide either the hard copy or the imaged copy of that document for the individual looking for the document.
The conversion workflow process usually consists of incoming inventory, preparation of documents for scanning, scanning of documents, indexing, releasing of images into the Document Management System and outgoing inventory. When an entry is made to the tracking log, the name and date should be included in the entry. This will assign that technician the responsibility of the document during this stage in the workflow. The goal with assigning responsibility is to add incentive for the technician to make sure the document is imaged clearly and indexed accurately. Accountability ensures quality of work being produced.
Through the use of a tracking log documents are secure in that they know where they are at all times. Technicians are held accountable for their work.
Jeff Martin
Conversion Services Project Coordinator
ImageSource, Inc.
Monitoring Server Performance
Does your ECM server seem to have performance related issues? Are requests to your ECM software taking longer than normal? If so then you may have a few choices:
- You can always add some extra physical ram, this may help but may not get you to the root of the problem.
- You could maybe add a processor or two and hope for the best, or you can figure out why your ECM server is running so slowly.
There are several different things that can cause ECM system performance degradation. In this article we will explain how you can use Performance Monitor aka “PerfMon” a Microsoft Windows built in diagnostic tool to help determine the cause of your ECM server’s bottle neck.
As with any other diagnostic tool Performance Monitor is a running process and like any other process, Performance Monitor may consume things like CPU cycles, system memory, and potentially hard disk resources. This will slightly lower the amount of available system resources reported by Performance Monitor then when performance monitor is not running. Even with that Performance Monitor is still accurate enough that it can be used to help IT staff determine system bottle necks that are causing performance related issues.
When running Performance Monitor we recommend turning off all of the default counters. This will allow you to add the counters and attributes that we are going to discuss below.
- % Processor Time
- This counter will show you what percentage of the available CPU cycles that are being consumed by the system. For example if the % Processor Time counter reads 40, then the CPU is working at 40% capacity. If your processor is exceeding 65% capacity then this will be a problem area.
- % Disk Time
- This counter’s average value should be as low as possible. An average value of 70% or above indicates that the hard disk can’t keep up. Adding more spindles or faster hard disks may be required.
- Current Disk Queue Length
- This counter will show you how many I/O operations are waiting for the hard disk to become available. Our recommendation is that the average disk queue length should be 4 or less. Adding more spindles or faster hard disks may be required.
- Cache Bytes
- This counter monitors the amount of memory being used for the file system cache. Anything over 10 MB would be considered too much. If this is the case it is recommended that you add more physical memory.
- Pool Non-paged Bytes and Pool Non-paged Allocations
- Another way to test for memory leaks is to monitor these two counters. The Pool Non-paged Bytes counter counts pages of memory that can’t be moved to virtual memory, these will stay in physical RAM. Most likely, if this value is too high, you’ll have to add more physical memory to the system. You can also watch the Pool Non-paged Allocations counter to see how many calls are being made to that portion of the memory. If the number of calls does not seem to correspond with the number of memory pages, you may likely have a memory leak rather than an insufficient amount of physical ram.
- PAGES/SEC
- This value counts the number of times per second that the system is accessing virtual memory rather than physical memory. A value above 20 is considered to be high, and it may indicate a problem with the way your virtual memory is configured rather than a problem or shortage of physical memory.
We recommend monitoring these counters over a day or more to document and establish a baseline.
Co-Authered by:
Jon Sutherland
Senior Systems Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.
Bryan Wilhelm
Senior Systems Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.
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Benefits of Remote Services for ECM Support
Would you land a plane in dense fog without radar? Probably not, so why can it be difficult to get support representatives of major software manufactures to dial in and assess critical business ECM servers to aid with troubleshooting? I recently worked with a large ECM company that told me “Before that occurs ( dialing in ) … the customer needs to have the understanding that all we would be doing is observing the issue and that no troubleshooting or resolution recommendations would occur”.
What kind of a response it that! I literally thought it was a joke. I brought this to the attention of the technician’s manager and he agreed with his staff and said to me that in some occasions a remote session is the very first request (and occasionally only info) in new service requests. He went on to tell me that occasionally something like – “my system isn’t working start a web session so I can show you”. is frustrating for them because it is easy to get trapped into a complete unknown situation with no measurable exit strategy. This can turn a quick 30 minute dial up session into an all day ordeal burning multiple resources at the expense of their other customer’s Service Request”. So, they don’t want to help you because it may take up too much time?
Dumbfounded I went back to the support technician for more clues to this odd adaptation of quality customer support:
“To answer your question, it is not a joke. Since we do not know the cause of the issue we cannot state what the customer should do regarding resolution or troubleshooting. Therefore remote access is not going to accomplish anything outside of observing the customer system and possibly gathering new information. We often experience remote access sessions where the customer had the false expectation that just because we have remotely accessed the system we have an intimate knowledge of exactly what is causing the issue when in fact we are simply trying to discern the nature of the issue. The customer is then quite upset that we did not fix the reported issue. To avoid disappointment for the customer I felt it was of value to set an expectation of what the remote session would accomplish.”
This is a very experienced and knowledgeable technician who has already confirmed the validity of the issue and should be helping us figure out the solution to very complex problems by using all the tools available. As the manager of the ImageSource Support Department there was no way that I was going to have a conversation with the client to tell them that I had a specialist on the line who has no intention of troubleshooting or coming up with possible resolution recommendations.
At ImageSource, It is our philosophy that we dial into a system because we don’t have an intimate knowledge of what’s causing the issue. If you had “intimate knowledge of exactly what is causing the issue” you would have no practical need to take a look. We at ImageSource understand the value of getting in and taking a firsthand look to confirm the actual facts and maintain momentum to solve problems. We believe that it is impossible to get the level of good data required to close service request and garner the benefits of informative research without truly understanding the environment. You know the adage… I picture is worth a thousand words.
Leigh Woody
Program Manager
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