Ignited by Nexus

Almost 3 years ago I was working as a Management Analyst for the State and I was given the opportunity to attend the Nexus ’07 event in Bellevue. I was unsure what the event was all about and how it was going to be incorporated with my job. A group of us drove to the event and was intrigued with the research that I had done on the event and the number of products that they offered information on. When we arrived we attended the welcome presentation and speaker that introduced me to a new technology for me in document imaging. I knew that we had incorporated a small part of this into the agency I was working for but was unclear as to how it worked. We broke into our choice of four sessions. It was incredibly interesting and helpful. For the next 2 days I found that each breakout session was very informative and at that point I could definitely see how this technology was incredibly applicable to any business in some way. I made notes and gathers brochures and information on different products and ideas that could be applied to different areas of the agency.

Not only did I gather such great information on new products for the agency but I also was able to meet the vendors and product developers for the different solutions. There were opportunities during the mingle times and product demonstrations that I could approach a vendor or representative and share my ideas and they were so informative and provided even more ideas for me to apply.

By the end of the event I was ready to do it all over again and attend different breakout sessions to learn about more exciting products and apply to my ideas. During the drive home I found that I was not the only one that had this kind of experience. Everyone had ideas and solutions and products that we could apply to different areas of the agency to not only save time but money as well.

When I started working for ImageSource I had no idea that the event that I had attended three years ago was put on by … well…. Us. I am looking forward to this upcoming NEXUS ’10 event on November 4-5. Now I will be attending it from the other side as one of the vendors who will no doubt be in contact with someone that is attending like I had three years ago looking for inspiration. For all those readers out there, be sure to register early so you don’t miss out.

Jen Hilt
Support Engineer
ImageSource Inc

ILINX® Capture Administration

I had the opportunity this week to attend our new ILINX Capture Administration class which Ruth Sheehan is currently finalizing here at ImageSource. It was a great experience; Ruth’s teaching style is very interactive and she really engages with her audience. It is a testament to both Ruth and ILINX Capture that such an in-depth course is successfully completed over the span of a few days.

The course is roughly divided between lecture where core concepts are explained and labs where students have the opportunity to immediately get practical hands-on experience.  The course load is definitely tilted toward lab-work and covers a full spectrum of configuration and management topics.

We started with installation and configuration of ILINX Capture itself.  This phase covered everything from required system specifications for both the server and workstations to making sense of the myriad configuration options present in the system.   The admin utility provides an easy to use and intuitive way of accessing all of the serverside functionality.  One of the coolest things I learned of in this phase was the concept of a Server Group.  A server group is an abstraction that represents one or more actual ILINX Capture servers.  This allows us to set policy (ie, what batches should be processed by these servers, etc) on this abstracted group level and have the members of the group receive policy changes without further admin time needed.  These also make it extremely easy to scale up the system as resource needs increase since new servers can simply be added to the server group.

After ILINX Capture is up and running the course transitions to the core batch profile and document type functionality.  The pace of the material is slow enough to provide a strong foundation yet at the same time respects the student’s personal capabilities and does not try to repeatedly explain the same concepts.  I enjoyed how each new lab built upon and reinforced skills introduced in the previous lab.  Starting from what surely must be the ‘Hello, World’ of batch profiles the course presents increasingly complicated situations.  I particularly enjoyed the lab where I set up a batch profile and document type which automatically recognized and scanned barcodes from multi-page documents and then made decisions by querying values from a database using the barcode number as an index value.  More than any other lab this really showed me what a powerful tool ILINX Capture is in a production environment where volume is high.

Overall, I feel that the course provides the background needed to really jump into administrating ILINX Capture.  And what the course does not directly teach you it provides all the tools one needs in order to create their own solutions for their own environment.  I’ve asked Ruth if she could keep me up to date with the course as it evolves further and I’m really excited to see where it’s going to head.  It’s off to a fantastic start already.

Les Harris
Support Engineer
ImageSource Inc.

  

Is It Time to Take Your Workflow In For a Checkup?

Almost every business has documents that go through some kind of work process such as expense reports and application processing that uses some kind of Business Process Management [BPM].  BPM is generally defined as a systematic approach to improving and automating an organization’s business processes and workflows.  These workflows may be core to your business process and over the years as rules, regulation, and other external factors alter the original flow it is critical to to plan on performing regularly scheduled checkups of your BPM processes.

While supporting systems that have little or no changes to their BPM workflow maps in over a decade it is very common to run into issues and complications caused by knowledge workers who have devised workarounds for changes that have occurred over time.  One of the biggest problems I see with not revisiting and performing analysis and research to get a current picture on a regular basis is User Acceptance.

When we run into this type of a situation the knowledge workers are often frustrated and highly irritated with the software and how the system works.  The user feels that their performance is based on rules and regulations that no longer apply and will complain stating “I had nothing to do with how this was configured”, “this is how we do it because it has always been like this” and “I don’t understand why we have to do it this way.”  The user is often very negative about the inefficiencies and wants to tell everyone and anyone willing to listen.  This can have an immense impact on the work environment and acceptance of your ECM system and future applications.

Where to start:  The efficient flow of documents through your organization is critical to remaining competitive and document management and workflow solutions are proven to cut cost and improve efficiencies.  If you have been using a rules based electronic workflow for over 3-5 years it is a good practice to review the “as is” state of the workflows and update them on a regular basis.  BPM workflow updates should be visible to upper management and budgeted for the future along with software upgrades.  Most importantly involve the knowledge works in the discovery and development process. “Because we have always done it this way” does not need to be the number one comment about your ECM system.  The success of BPM is rooted in starting with the right process and continuing best practices for regular checkups and maintenance.

Leigh Woody

Program Manager

ImageSource, Inc.

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.

Barcode Document Separation with ILINX Capture

While exploring different document separation techniques I discovered that bar code separation may cause the document to be split multiple times.   I scanned in a single document that had 334 pages and for some reason it split the document multiple times.  There were no other barcodes except one Patch Type T separator at the beginning of the document.  

After looking over the settings on the Barcode QSX module inside the ILINX Capture Server Manager I noticed that the Patch Type T document separator and the 3 of 9 barcode separator were enabled.  Please see picture below…  

ILINX Capture Barcode OSX Module

One of the challenges with setting up barcode separation with both Patch Type T document separator and the 3 of 9 barcode separator is that every time the recognition engine comes across a 3 of 9 barcode it will separate the document automatically regardless if you want it to or not . Unfortunately the software can get tripped up on its own logic and every time the recognition engine comes across a 3 of 9 barcode it will separate the document automatically.  ILINX Capture’s recognition engine still separates by the Patch Type T Patch Code as well as every 3 of 9 barcode. This can give unexpected results with the number of documents that are automatically generated.  To fix the above example I removed the bar code separation because it was not needed. As you can see in the following example…  

ILINX Capture Barcode Settings

However, in some cases this may not meet a client’s needs and different approach to document separation is needed. The best practice for multiple document separation is when using Patch Type T Patch separator pages and 3 of 9 barcode separation you need to add a prefix for each type of document you want to separate.  

Here is a good example:  

A client may want to separate documents by what’s in the barcode itself, such as capturing the word “ILINX” in the barcode for a document type of “Application” and the word “Invoice” in the barcode for a document type of “Invoice”.  To do this you need to add a prefix value with a document type see.

As you can see ILINX Capture has the ability to be customized to fit your needs no matter how basic and/or how complicated the requirements are. The main concept here is ILINX Capture is a very powerful tool and needs to be configure properly to get want you need out of it. The above example is only a small scratch on the surface on what this tool can actually do.  

However, in some cases this may not meet a client’s needs and different approach to document separation is needed. The best practice for multiple document separation is when using Patch Type T Patch separator pages and 3 of 9 barcode separation you need to add a prefix for each type of document you want to separate. 

A client may want to separate documents by what’s in the barcode itself, such as capturing the word “ILINX” in the barcode for a document type of “Application” and the word “Invoice” in the barcode for a document type of “Invoice”. To do this you need to add a prefix value with a document type see.

ILINX Capture Prefix Settings

As you can see ILINX Capture has the ability to be customized to fit your needs no matter how basic and/or how complicated the requirements are. The main concept here is ILINX Capture is a very powerful tool and needs to be configure properly to get want you need out of it. The above example is only a small scratch on the surface on what this tool can actually do. 

John Hart
ImageSource Inc.

  

Advanced eForms Strategies for LiquidOffice

Information technology can improve operational efficiency and businesses are turning to forms processing for automating complex processes where information is often very dynamic and acted upon in parallel.  Many of our clients request very complicated multi-form rule based combinations that can be extremely complex and have data dictionaries exceeding 1,500 form fields.  There are two different ways to approach advanced multi-form development and design.  One is to use a method called form chaining or you can use tools such as Liquid Office Case Management.

Form Chaining is a method of displaying subsequent forms based on the submission of the original form.  This is done when field data from the first form is mapped to the 2^nd form – chained forms open sequentially upon submission of a primary form.  Simple chaining can be achieved using out-of-the box features of the LiquidOffice Process studio.  Outside of a formal workflow, the same results can be achieved.  The following is code example for ad-hoc form chaining.  In this example, the ‘chained’ form that opens on submission is called ‘FormB2’.

function CSForm_OnSubmit()

{

var auth = CSForm.getField(“Entry1″).getValue();  //get value from 1st form = then on submit, pass this field value to the next chained form

CSForm.setResponseURL(“http://servername/lfserver/FormB2?Entry1=” + auth );  //this loads the 2nd, chained form and populates one of the fields with a value from the 1st form

return true;

}

Alternatively, Autonomy Case Management (ACM) can be used for more complex multidimensional and nested forms.  ACM addresses the same need but manages forms and documents as packets or a case.   Items within a packet are able to dynamically exist as either standalone entities or as part of a collection depending upon real-time conditions which are automatically detected. Users are guided through the process using a Table of Contents to ensure completion at each step as shown below.

The ACM design studio is a GUI-based point and click tool which is integrated directly into the Autonomy Enterprise Information Processing platform.  This means that with a click all information that may contribute to the design of a case is available in real-time directly from within the design environment.  Complex rule sets can be developed and applied at any level of the case such as packet, form and field which allows for an extremely tuned process.

Leigh Woody                  Peter Lang

Program Manager        System Engineer

ImageSource, Inc.

A Different Perspective on How ECM Can Impact Workplaces

I recently was part of a team tasked with working on site to observe a client’s work process to determine what improvements could be made on this clients Process /Imaging system reduce end user pain points, help eliminate unnecessary redundant actions, and ways to streamline the workflow. 

I don’t want to name the client directly, but I can say that the client that we are working with is a government agency that provides direct services to its citizens, and at this time they are flooded with citizen requests for services.  Some of these requests are complex and require several different workers to evaluate the requests.  Also they are on strict time lines in which to process these requests.

In working with both end users and supervisors, we were able to gather enough information and devise several modifications that can be implemented on their system for an immediate and positive effect.  One of the most intriguing parts of working on this project was that growing up both of my parents worked for this agency.  My mother was even doing the same type of work that we were looking to help streamline, but back in the early 1980’s.  I recall the difficulty that this type of work entails and the amount of time it requires to do properly.  Growing up and seeing how this agency use to have to perform their normal business duties gave me what I feel is a unique perspective on how huge of an impact implementing an imaging and business workflow system had on this agency.

While I was growing up, I recall the office that my parents worked in as being filled with filing cabinets, some of these cabinets always seemed to have people filing and finding documents required for request processing.  If a request made to the agency spanned several regions or required several different departments in the agency to evaluate, there was a ton of lost time in sending documents back and forth.  Plus there was also the risk of misplacing or misfiling documents.

A central image repository, with a well structured indexing scheme, for documents drastically reduces the time in accessing documents and also provides a secure location for document storage.  With the addition of email, requests and the accompanying documents and almost instantly be transferred between the workers required for request processing.  I could go on and on about how this type of system can positively impact a business and reduce costs, but there are already volumes of documentation out there to look through.

I’ve been working with content management and business process systems for a while now, but this was the one moment that the overall impact that this type of system can have really hit home.  There was also a fair bit of gratification in the overall effect that helping implement this type of system with a client that directly touches so many lives.

Random McParks
Support Engineer
ImageSource Inc.

  

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.

Integrating Legacy Systems with ECM

I’ve been working on a project that required scraping values from an IBM Terminal Emulator and using them for updating indexes in an Oracle IPM imaging repository and was lucky enough to have the ILINX AIK tool to work with in accomplishing this task.

The first challenge was in dealing with the values that we were gathering from the Terminal Emulator Screen.  The way that the data was served to the terminal emulator was not parsed into separate values.  The AIK allowed us, through VB Script, to parse the data into a form that we could use.  Once the data was massaged into a usable form, we used the values to update indexes in Oracle IBPM.  The ILINX AIK natively comes with connections to Oracle IPM for searching.  However, updating index values on documents that already exist in the system can be a challenge.

To overcome this obstacle we used the ILINX AIK to map the data into an executable.  This option was used for performing the Oracle IPM Index updates, and we were able to accomplish this by mapping the data to an executable with the mapped index values as arguments, and having the executable perform the index updates.

In the distributed final project, end users select the line on the Terminal screen that holds the data they need to update in Oracle IPM , click a button (one of the event choices for telling the AIK when to perform the action you designated for it), and are able to move on to their next task.

The flexibility of this product is one of its strong suites.  Out of the box it comes with connectors for everything from Terminal Emulators to .NET windows, it gives you the ability to set scripts in each project if needed to correct issues that could be present with the data pulled.  Additionally, it has a wide array of choices for triggering data pull events.  If one of the many options native to the AIK for mapping your output data won’t work, it has the flexibility to allow you to create your own output method thus, giving System Engineer’s and Project Managers endless possibilities when setting up systems and processes where a client would like to scrape data from a screen and have it stored in another location.

The first challenge was in dealing with the values that we were gathering from the Terminal Emulator Screen.  The way that the data was served to the terminal emulator was not parsed into separate values.  The AIK allowed us, through VB Script, to parse the data into a form that we could use.  Once the data was massaged into a usable form, we used the values to update indexes in Oracle IBPM.  The ILINX AIK natively comes with connections to Oracle IBPM for searching.  However, updating index values on documents that already exist in the system can be a challenge.

To overcome this obstacle we used the ILINX AIK to map the data into an executable.  This option was used for performing the Oracle IBPM Index updates, and we were able to accomplish this by mapping the data to an executable with the mapped index values as agruments, and having the executable perform the index updates.

In the distributed final project, end users select the line on the Terminal screen that holds the data they need to update in Oracle IBPM , click a button (one of the event choices for telling the AIK when to perform the action you designated for it), and are able to move on to their next task.

The flexibility of this product is one of its strong suites.  Out of the box it comes with connectors for everything from Terminal Emulators to .NET windows, it gives you the ability to set scripts in each project if needed to correct issues that could be present with the data pulled.  Additionally, it has a wide array of choices for triggering data pull events.  If one of the many options native to the ILINX AIK for mapping your output data won’t work, it has the flexibility to allow you to create your own output method thus, giving System Engineer’s and Project Managers endless possibilities when setting up systems and processes where a client would like to scrape data from a screen and have it stored in another location.

 

Random McParks
Support Engineer
ImageSource Inc.