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Welcome Optix® Welcome

Document Management and Workfl ow Systems

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Celebrating Years of Excellence291988-2017

Company 29

Products 1

Services 12

Topics 16

Focused Access to your Documents 2A Revolutionary User Interface 3

An Advanced Scanning Architecture 5Boost Productivity with Workfl ow 7

Include your Web-based Users 9Secure your Document Assets 10

Exceptional Design Tools 11

Unmatched Technical Support 13Onsite Installation and Training 14

Custom Development 15

5 Reasons you need a Document Management System 165 Reasons you need to Scan your Paper Documents 18

5 Reasons you need Workfl ow 20Indexing Methods vs Search Time 22

The Legality of Scanned and Digital Documents 24Succeed by Involving your Users 25

Managing System Goals and Expectations 26Calculating Return On Investment (ROI) 28

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You’ve seen those “toolkit” vendors that promise document management and workfl ow systems but make you build your own - or even worse - they want to sell you expensive services to build it for you. And more services to deploy it. And still more services to maintain it. They’ll tell you that this is how document man-agement and workfl ow systems are done.

Don’t believe it.

With Optix, you get a totally integrated and operational system from day one - not just a bunch of librar-ies and third party add-ons that eat up your time and budget to deploy. Optix lets you hit the ground run-ning and gives you total control over all aspects of your applications - look and feel, indexing, security, and storage - with no programming required. Optix off ers applications that work eff ortlessly with your chosen DBMS vendor in a cross-platform environment that can include both Mac and PC workstations and a wide variety of servers.

Products

Highly Integrated • Totally Flexible • Extremely Powerful

Design custom document and workfl ow applications in minutes using our drag-and-drop editors.

Deploy new applications instantly - our server automatically creates the database tables that power your design.

Discover the hidden information in your organization and new effi ciencies in your operations.

“We consider Optix to be far and away the best document imaging and management system on the

market because of it’s cross-platform nature, easy scalability, best-of-class web interface and ease of

use at all levels.”

John DeMillionDirector of IT, CCIU

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Focused Access to your Documents

Try a browser based search for “Workfl ow vendors” on the web and you get over 2.5 million hits. This is because the web represents a vast unfocused and unorganized repository, indexed using all available con-tent. Wading through this sea of data to fi nd the information you need is a time-consuming and frustrating exercise.

With Optix, you decide how best to organize and index your documents, with results that are fast, focused and productive.

Optix provides the tools to create and deploy as many repositories and focused index-ing screens as you need. The Optix Server automatically creates the database tables

that drive the screens.[Note: Illustrations in this booklet use screenshots from our Mac, PC , and thin clients]

O ti id th t l t t d d l

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A Revolutionary User Interface

We packed over 22 years of user interface expertise into our latest version of Optix to defi ne the state of the art in multipage document management. Unlike older “imaging only” vendors that display one scanned image at a time, our focus is on empowering the user to view and manage modern document standards such as PDF, containing both formatted text and images. In addition to also supporting traditional multi-page TIFF, our Collections can contain an ordered array of mixed document types such as MS Word, Excel, or even multimedia.

Of course we also support traditional single page images such as JPEG, BMP, PNG, and GIF, among others.

Scan to any of our supported document formats or import documents from the desktop simply by drag-ging and dropping them into the thumbnail area of the document display. Need to assemble a custom document? No problem - simply drag page thumbnails from one document to another. Delete or rearrange pages within a document to meet your needs.

We provide a wide variety of methods to zoom, scroll, pan, rotate, crop, erase, and redact your docu-ments - and we know the diff erence between really redacting a PDF document and simply masking the text, allowing you to convert redacted PDF pages to unhackable raster bitmaps to ensure your documents are truly protected.

Express yourself with our full range of annotation tools, allowing you to mark up PDF, Collection, or any image-based document using graphics tools, colors, text, and font styles. Create custom image or text-based “stamps”, to quickly mark documents as received, invoices as paid, or documents signed with the image of your actual signature. And because our annotations are stored as overlays, they never modify the sensitive document itself.

Link documents together logically using our hyperlink tool. Retrieve one and access the other with a single click when needed.

Copy selected areas from existing documents using our marquee selection and edit tools and paste them into custom reports in MS Word or other document processing software.

Use our PDF in-document search tools to search text-based PDF documents to locate exactly the informa-tion you need.

View documents your way, selecting from single page, single page continuous, side-by-side, or side-by-side continuous as best suits your needs. Our selectable page interpolation ensures the highest quality display.

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An Advanced Scanning Architecture

Our latest version of Optix introduces the most advanced cross-platform scanning architecture avail-able anywhere. Our Mac and PC drivers support entire families of scanners, allowing us to easily keep pace with the latest hardware off erings from major vendors. Create custom scanner settings to produce the best results across all of your document types. Scan in black and white, grayscale, and color using any supported resolution, deploying sophisticated post-scan fi lters to perform rotation, noise removal, margin cleanup, auto crop, deskew, and blank page removal - even when not supported in the scanner hardware. Setups are stored in ultra-reliable XML fi les, selectable with a single click.

Defi ne the perfect scanner settings once and use them again and again - even across diff erent model scanners. Scan on Mac or PC.

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Automate complicated production using Optix Capture Tasks. Drag and drop Scanner Setups into a task along with Destination specifi cations that describe how and where

the document should be saved. Insert barcoded Patch Cards to separate documents in batches or perform exceptional scan-time processing

such as page rotation.

Automate your document distribution using Destinations - encapsulated instructions that specify the ultimate target and desired format for your documents. Automatically save documents to indexed server repositories, server work queues, workfl ows, e-mail, FTP locations, fax , printers, or simply save to a desktop folder.

And for those special applications that call for something really complex, Optix fully supports scripting using Applescript on the Mac and VBScript, JScript, COM and OLE on Windows.

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Boost Productivity with Workfl ow

An insurance company that processes claims. A university that accepts student applications. A small offi ce that must pay vendor invoices. Large or small, all organizations have defi ned business processes for accom-plishing routine - often complicated - tasks. Tasks that often involve several departments and decision-mak-ing steps. Because a large portion of the processing involves paper documents provided by clients, manual methods tend to evolve over time, becoming complex, time-consuming, labor-intensive impediments to throughput.

Digitizing incoming paper documents and expressing a business process in Optix Workfl ow dramatically boosts productivity. Scanned paper documents may be combined with desktop electronic documents in a folder that fl ows eff ortlessly through the processing steps you defi ne, using rules that you control.

Route a package from user to user or from a user to a group. Once an item is ready for a fi nal decision, route it to all deci-sion-makers at once and have your workfl ow wait for their input before moving to the next step. You can also include complex computer-only steps in a workfl ow, passing infor-mation to third party applications to update external data-bases, create letter drafts, or perform any type of automated action.

A Workfl ow defi nes all of the paths a document may take during its processing lifecycle. Based on the rules you spec-ify, a document might be sent to a person responsible for writing an acceptance letter, to the Financial Aid group, or to an automated step awaiting input from a legacy system.

Users can open an item in their inbasket and view any of the documents they need to see to complete their task. They may add new documents to the pack-age or may annotate documents using any of our built-in graphical, text, or stamp annotation tools.

Users complete items by simply choosing one of the actions specifi ed in the workfl ow for their processing step. This can be an Accept or Reject decision, a selection from a list of actions that you defi ne, or simply an indication that the package has been read and should move to the next step.

Create as many Workfl ows as you need using the included Optix Application Generator.

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“Using Optix Document Management and Workfl ow, we decreased the turnaround time for processing an

application from four weeks to 72 hours”

Dave Alderson, Project ManagerOffi ce of Information Technology

University of Maryland

Workfl ow items appear in a user worklist. Users can quickly open, view, and complete tasks, speeding the item along to the next step. See exactly where an item is in the

process fl ow or get a graphical overview of the steps.

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Include your Web-based Users

Do you have employees on the road that need access to the corporate repository? Or perhaps you need to provide clients or business partners access to limited and secure document sets. Maybe your sales force is equipped only with Linux-based netbooks. Optix Web eff ortlessly provides secure repository access to web-based users. Our thin client runs on a variety of platforms and provides query, view, store, and index-ing capabilities - users can even participate in your workfl ow processes.

Integrate Optix Web with your existing website or deploy it as a protected internal resource, customized to meet your needs.

Provide web-based access to casual users and business partners.

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Secure your Document Assets

The Optix Server secures and manages document repositories. Available on platforms as diverse as Sun, Linux, AIX, Windows, and Mac OS X, the server is equipped with advanced libraries that allow it to interact with the underlying database of your choice - Oracle, Sybase, Informix , MS SQL Server, and the open source Firebird RDBMS. When your system administrator designs a new indexing screen or workfl ow route, the Optix Server automatically interacts with your RDBMS to create the required tables that drive the application.

Server management tools allow you confi gure your RAID or other fi lesystem-compatible storage to specify the volumes to be used to store your scanned images or desktop fi les - and to specify exactly who is authorized to access your documents. The server controls access to each document and provides check-in/check-out controls over their modifi cation. And when documents are updated, records on each new version are maintained. Authorized users can retrieve prior versions of documents or perform roll-back operations.

Batch processes assist in repository maintenance, allowing you to set end-of-life dates for selected classes of documents, automatically marking those ready to be moved to off -line archives.

The Optix Server is typically a single-server solution for most installations, easily running on the same server as the database with which it interacts, providing a convenient central backup location. Larger enter-prise deployments supporting thousands of users can easily factor functionality between several servers to balance and distribute the processing load.

Optix Server provides secure, managed document repositories using your database.

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Exceptional Design Tools

Our Optix Application Generator provides you everything needed to quickly design and deploy new applications. From simple indexing and query screens to master-detail relationships to sophisticated workfl ow routes, our unique tools make it easy to bring your vision to life. Drag-and-drop items onto a screen layout to add exactly the indexing fi elds you want, with full control over their appearance. When complete, immediately deploy the screen to the server with custom security that you select. The Optix Server automatically builds the database tables that power your design. The resulting repository is im-mediately available to Mac, PC, and thin clients at the same time.

Automate your business practices with new Workfl ow designs. Easily create new workfl ow nodes repre-senting users, groups and automated steps, then link them together with rules you specify. Create a routing slip containing all the database index information you want. When deployed, your users can create folders of mixed scanned and electronic documents that move along the steps you have specifi ed.

And best of all - you did it all yourself. No programming required, no costly consulting services, and no additional fees. With Optix, we put the power in your hands, where it belongs.

Easily design and deploy new applications - no programming required.Easily design and deploy new applications no programming required

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Services

When you select an Optix system, you gain the benefi t of our decades of experience in the Document Management and Workfl ow indus-try. Our experienced in-house technical sup-port and customer service staff will work with you to schedule your installation and on-site training which typically require a week or less, depending on system size.

And after your system is installed? Answers to any questions you may have is just a phone call or email away. We are seriously committed to making your Optix system work for you.

“The Optix technical support team is there when you need them. No

matter how small or great the problem, Optix technical support

has been exceptional.”

Robert Alum, Stockton Unifi ed School District

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Unmatched Technical Support

When you contact our Optix Help Desk, your interaction will be with an Optix expert with 10-20 years of hands-on experience with our products. You might even recall that you met them when they installed your system and trained your users. What you will not get is a faceless language-challenged robot, locat-ed half a world away, that is only authorized to read from a troubleshooting script.

A Document Management and Workfl ow system represents a capital investment by your organization, and an investment of our time to develop. We feel strongly that these investments should be nurtured and protected, and not allowed to wither over time. When you call us with a question or a problem, it benefi ts us to provide you with a complete and accurate response so that your system can continue to run smoothly. By providing you with great technical support, our hope is that when your IT buddies down the block ask you which Document Management and Workfl ow system to buy, you will know exactly who to recommend.

Our personnel regularly provide support via telephone and e-mail. If your problem is really tough, we can also work right alongside you using WebEx™ on a shared desktop.

Conceptual representation of a technical support person. Actual Optix Customer Support personnel dress more casually, have 10-20 years of

hands-on experience, and may have a few worry lines from answering your questions.

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Onsite Installation and Training

Our Customer Support staff works closely with you on all details of your installation and training. Prior to our on-site visit, we contact you to discuss scheduling, equipment preparation, and training facilities. We typically work one-on-one alongside your system administrator when performing Optix Server installa-tion, confi guration, and setup, to ensure that they know exactly how Optix and your database work togeth-er. We train your administrator in the use of the Optix Application Generator to create your initial reposito-ries, indexing screens, and workfl ows. Once your server is up and running, we move to hands-on training of your users and scan operators with the Optix Workstation, interacting with the actual system.

Our goal is to empower you to manage your Optix system to get the maximum benefi t from your invest-ment. It is in our best interests to ensure that you and your users are properly trained, since a knowledge-able client means a productive client and less help desk calls for us.

Training Topics - Administrator• Optix Server Installation • Storage Confi guration • Establishing Backups • Database Confi guration •

• Optix Administration Tools • Optix Application Generator • Establishing Users and Groups •• Security Confi guration •

Training Topics - Scan Operators• Optix Workstation Basic features • Optix Workstation Advanced features • Scan Operations •

• Scan and Index • Scan to Queues and Workfl ow • Creation and use of Patch Cards •

Training Topics - Users• Optix Workstation Basic features • Save and Index Desktop Files • Save to Queues and Workfl ow •

• Query and Hit Lists • Workfl ow • Document Viewing and Annotation • Check-in/Check-out •

Conceptual training classroom. We have never actually seen a classroom this organized.

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Custom Development

Over time, your organization has acquired a number of specialized systems and applications to meet spe-cifi c needs. We understand that an Optix Document Management and Workfl ow system must often interact with legacy systems to best leverage your organizational knowledge and information. For decades, our highly experienced development staff has been performing state-of-the-art systems integration for gov-ernment and business on all types of client and server platforms, using the most advanced languages and tools. If it is possible to achieve your vision, we can get the job done. From the design stage through testing and deployment, we can advise on what can be achieved with off -the-shelf tools as well as build custom ap-plications to meet your exacting requirements.

Examples of previous custom client work

Integration of legacy systems and Optix to build an updatable aircraft maintenance documentation system accessed via the web by mechanics worldwide.

Integration of legacy publishing systems and Optix to build a print ad processing and workfl ow system for a major Washington D.C. newspaper.

Integration of legacy systems and Optix to support a 1,000 person creative design staff at a major greeting card manufacturer.

Conceptual developer. Ours are just as attractive, but more focused and experienced.We have no idea why she is writing on her computer screen.

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2. Your sensitive documents are vulnerable to being corrupted, deleted, or stolen.

Like all your employees, Tom sometimes needs a break and hops on the internet while having a cup of coff ee. Oops, he just got infected by that malware package you heard about yesterday. You know - that really bad one that deletes all fi les starting with the letter “A” - as in Annual Report 2009. Or perhaps you are patting yourself on the back for installing that super fi rewall, but forgot about how your janitor was the low bidder. The one with the thumb drive in his pocket.

With a Document Management System, critical fi les are managed in a secure central location - typically on a server that is much better protected than your desktops against both malicious mal-ware and casual access by unauthorized personnel. It is far easier to secure a single server than 50 desktops.

5 Reasons you need a Document Management System

1. You haven’t got a clue where your documents really are or how to get to them quickly.

Perhaps you have 20 computer users all busy creating documents that drive your business. Each one is naming fi les to suit their own tastes and storing them in folders organized to meet their own indi-vidual needs. Sure, you could go ask Tom to give you a copy of the 2009 Annual Report, and if he is well-organized, he can probably fi nd it and email you a copy in a few minutes. If he can’t fi nd it or he deleted it to make space for other stuff , you have to hope that someone else can turn up a copy.

With a Document Management System, all critical fi les are stored on a secure, central server in well-organized repositories. Each document is represented by a database index record, using meaningful values and fi eld types that you assign. By performing a quick search on your “Corpo-rate documents repository” for “Annual Report 2009”, you can retrieve and be viewing the exact document you need in a few seconds - and you didn’t have to interrupt Tom.

3. Your documents are disappearing.

Three facts of computing life combine to ensure that your employees are losing documents: (1) Individuals are notoriously bad at backing up their own systems; (2) hard drives fail; and (3) desk-top systems are prone to corruption, often requiring a system wipe and reinstall.

Because a centralized Document Management system is backed up on a rigorous (often automat-ed) schedule, the mission-critical information employees store there is protected. Backup man-agement is easier and less costly than attempting to manage backup of desktops.

Topics

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4. Your database administration costs appear endless.

Just when you are ready to roll out the new mortgage client database, you are hit with new manage-ment directives that force you to add new fi elds, so that when sales representatives are speaking with your clients they have all the info they need. Repeat endlessly.

Now imagine that you have deployed a Document Management system around a repository that is indexed using a solid but minimal set of client data fi elds, and that every document related to this client is indexed with these values. Your database - the structured information you maintain on your clients - remains constant with little change over time, while the vast amount of unstruc-tured document-based information for each client can easily grow without expensive eff orts. Your sales representatives can fi nd and view any of those documents in seconds. When you fi nd your-self in an endless database redesign, it signals that you are trying to jam too much information into your structured records, and should move towards using records pointing to the vast store of information in unstructured documents.

5. You know the document you need exists. You can’t fi nd it.

You are a government contractor and constantly generate proposals. You know you covered a topic before in an especially well-written section of a prior submission and you would like to include it in the document you are writing now, but you can’t remember which proposal it was in - and it’s driving you nuts.

With a Document Management system, you are no longer limited to fi le and folder names - you can design your repository indexing scheme to include all relevant data by which you may need to fi nd the document later. Instead of hunting for the fi lename “USAF Labor Prop”, you designed your system so you could also fi nd the document by searching on a location such as “Ft. Bragg”, the contracting offi cer such as “MSgt Susan Jones, CO”, or the purpose of the labor proposal such as “Vulture UAV Drone”.

Bonus Reason: Your employees can be happier and work more effi ciently.

Each time an employee cannot meet your request to fi nd a document, or cannot answer a client inquiry, or does not close a sale because they don’t have current information - it feels like failure, even if the reasons are not within their control.

Each time an employee fulfi lls their tasks faster or smarter or better because the information they need is readily available in seconds - it feels like success, even if it was you that made it all possible.

Deploying a Document Management system gives your employees the tools they need to succeed, and that is perhaps the best reason of all.

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5 Reasons you need to Scan your Paper Documents

1. Offi ce space is not free.

The longer you are in business, the more paper you generate and the more fi le cabinets you need to store the paper. File cabinets eat fl oor space, and fl oor space means money - money that could be better spent on room for additional employees.

By scanning and digitizing your paper documents, you can get rid of those space-wasting fi le cabi-nets (even if you also box the paper and send it to a warehouse).

2. Librarians are not free.

Storing all your paper documents in folders creates artifi cial librarian positions in your company, so that Sue’s Human Resource folder or Bob’s Academic Records are properly accounted for and never go missing. If your company is large, you likely not only have librarians to manage folders but have involved sets of rules about checking out the folders - and people who maintain the rules, etc.

Scanning and indexing your critical paper documents into a secure, centralized Document Man-agement system allows the server to assume the librarian function and your employee’s time is freed up to perform more meaningful work.

3. Paper documents grow legs.

Paper documents always seem to get lost. Perhaps Bob’s transcript is missing from his academic re-cords. Was Jean looking at it last? A glance at a typical employee desktop and the mounds of paper that reside there illustrate how hopeless it can be to fi nd a missing paper document.

By scanning and digitizing your paper documents into a central Document Management system, all documents are available in seconds, avoiding the paper chase.

4. Data entry is not free.

Your business involves a number of forms submitted by clients - forms that are manually completed. In order to capture this critical information, you employ data entry clerks to enter the information into your database.

With a Document Management system, you can create a database of client records containing a relatively static and minimal number of fi elds. The handwritten forms submitted by your clients can then be scanned and stored using this minimal indexing scheme. Employees can retrieve ev-ery form submitted by a client with a single query and view the forms containing the information they need - all in a matter of seconds. This eliminates the need for extensive form-to-database data entry operations and saves you money.

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5. Paper is a serial medium.

When a document only exists in paper form, only one person can access it at the same time. This lim-itation can result in bizarre processing scenarios in your organization whereby a new incoming paper document is copied and distributed to everyone that needs rapid access. And if you don’t make cop-ies, Sue still has to pass that document on to Bob, who passes it to Joe, who eventually sends it to the librarian for fi ling.

A digitally scanned document is a parallel medium, accessible by everyone at the same time. No expensive copies, no waiting on Bob to fi nish his work, no chance of a misplaced page.

Bonus Reason: Your new pay raise.

As a division head, you have identifi ed a number of places money could be saved simply by scanning your paper documents. Let’s add it up:

- Money could be saved if you were able to free up fl oor space used by fi le cabinets.- Money could be saved if your employees were not drafted into being librarians.- Money could be saved if your employees weren’t wasting time looking for documents.- Money could be saved if data entry could be reduced or eliminated.- Money could be saved if you didn’t have to make copies or wait on serial processing.

Would the ability to save this kind of money look good on your resume, enhance your standing in your organization, or improve your chances of obtaining that raise you want?

“Optix allows us to quickly respond to user needs. We can design and deploy a

new custom indexed application in only a few hours.”

Stefanie Elsea, System Administrator, IT Applications Department, BWXT Pantex

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5 Reasons you need Workfl ow

1. Your manual processing methods are ineffi cient.

You are a major university and several times a year you must deal with a huge number of student ap-plications. Students submit transcripts, forms, fi nancial aid documents and other materials that must be arranged into a package for later evaluation by an admissions department. Applicants complain about the amount of time it takes to get a response, and you suspect that if you could just get that acceptance letter to the applicant faster, they might not need to apply to your competition.

A Document Management and Workfl ow system enables you to quickly digitize and index incom-ing student applications and related documents into folders. Automating your evaluation pro-cess in a custom, easily designed workfl ow enables the student folder to speedily fl ow through the admission steps required. The decisions made by each participant control the fl ow of the package based on rules you specify. The result is a speedy response to the student applicant.

2. Paper-based business processes are slow.

You are a bank that receives credit applications that must go through an approval process before a loan is made. Each person that looks at the application adds another day as the paper moves from their Out basket to the next person’s In basket.

Digitizing the application when it is received and defi ning a workfl ow that specifi es the individu-als or groups that must make a decision moves the application quickly through the organization. As each person completes their action, the package (which can consist of a folder of documents if needed) is automatically placed into the inbasket of the next person or group in the process fl ow, depending on the rules you specify (an approval can go to one person, denials to another, for example). Processing that previously took several days is now easily accomplished in a few hours or less.

3. Paper-based processes can be halted when critical people are on vacation or off -site.

Credit applications you process must be ultimately authorized by the Loan Department VP. When she is off -site at a meeting or on vacation, applications can begin to stack up.

Documents are available via secure thin clients on the web, allowing your critical VP to view and approve applications remotely. This ensures that your most critical clients receive the credit they need in a timely fashion and do not search elsewhere for alternatives.

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“Our creative teams rely on Optix Workfl ow to streamline the

movement of media during the design process.”

Karen Lindhorst, Hallmark

4. Documents used in paper-based processing are easily lost or misplaced.

You are a large communications company that receives thousands of problem reports daily via fax. Dispatchers must review the problem, create a service request, and assign it to a technician based on location and availability. However, you periodically lose an incoming problem when a fax machine runs out of paper, resulting in an unhappy client.

An Optix Fax Server receives incoming faxes electronically - avoiding paper losses - and automati-cally saves it to your Dispatch workfl ow. The workfl ow routes the new incoming faxes to your Dispatch group, and the next available dispatcher receives and views the fax. She creates a new trouble ticket, adding it to the package with the fax and enters the technician name and location to which the ticket is assigned. Upon completion, the package is directed to the supervisor at the proper substation for subsequent dispatch of the technician. Because the entire process is auto-mated, no incoming faxes or outgoing trouble tickets are lost. Substation supervisors mark the workfl ow package as resolved when work is completed, and the package is archived for future reference.

5. Paper-based processes are prone to errors

You maintain a large staff to process paper-based product orders. These are primarily entry-level positions and turnover is high. New employees cause delays when they do not follow the rules and orders are processed incorrectly.

A workfl ow embodies the processing rules you specify. Orders are automatically sent to the proper people. This ensures a smooth and accurate processing fl ow, even when driven by newly trained employees.

Bonus Reason: Your organization is more profi table

By automating your critical business processes with Optix Workfl ow, you have improved the speed, effi ciency, accuracy, and reliability of your transactions, resulting in a more profi table enterprise.

Workfl ow has been a proven benefi t in a wide range of applications. Could it help yours?

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Indexing Methods vs. Search Time

In order to be productive, users of a Document Management system must be able to easily fi nd and retrieve the documents they need. As the number of documents in a system grows, this task becomes more chal-lenging. Historically there have been three indexing methods used to help organize documents and make locating them easier. These are:

• Database Records. Each document is associated with a database record in a traditional RDBMS such as Oracle or Sybase. Records may contain any number of structured fi elds of various types. To retrieve, users perform standard queries against the database.

• Keyword Tagging. Keywords are input and associated with each document, typically less than a dozen entered in a freeform fashion. To retrieve, users perform queries using one or a combination of key-words.

• Text Search. The contents of documents are indexed. To retrieve, users input words or phrases that are likely to appear in the content.

Each of the above methods requires varying amounts of time and eff ort when the document is added to the system. As we will see, this up-front time is inversely proportional to the amount of time required to fi nd and retrieve the document at a later date.

Source: Craig Landrum, CTO, Mindwrap, Inc.

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Database Records

Because users must enter index information for each document stored, database records typically require the most time up-front. However, there are several subtle advantages to using this method:

• Users are prompted to enter data for each fi eld and fi elds may be specifi ed to be mandatory. This means that all documents in a repository have an excellent chance of receiving good, pertinent indexing data.

• Each fi eld has a type such as text, number, or date allowing the data entered in a fi eld to be type-checked for consistency, resulting in higher quality and more complete records.

• Because each fi eld normally has a prompt (SSN, Name, etc) users know exactly the type of data to enter and where to enter it when searching for documents. Because users know exactly what data was re-corded about a document at the time it was stored, they know exactly what they can use to search and can often fi nd a single record in seconds.

Keyword Tagging

Keywords can be considered to be a freeform method of entering document attributes. For example, an en-vironmental impact document might be assigned the keywords “environment”, “wetlands”, and “Louisiana”. Some of the characteristics of this method include:

• There is typically no enforcement of either the number or quality of keywords entered, and a user might simply enter “environment” without the additional qualifying keywords. This means that users searching for “wetlands” and “Louisiana” would miss the “environment” document. Therefore we can see that the useful-ness of a keyword system depends on the procedural rigor with which users assign the keywords.

• When searching, users normally have no idea what keywords were assigned to documents in the reposi-tory. If a “keywords used” list is available from which users may select, it is normally presented with the most commonly used keywords fi rst, selection of which would result in the retrieval of the most documents – not normally what a user wants when trying to fi nd just one document. It is only by combining several selec-tions of common keywords that a user can typically narrow down a search – a process that often occurs in-teractively, requiring many seconds. Contrast this with a database’s ability to fi nd a single record in a second or two based on the input of an SSN, for example.

Text Search

Text Search is attractive to clients because it appears to off er document organization for little to no up-front eff ort. While it is certainly true that the up-front eff ort involved is minimal, the back-end search time can be prohibitive. Characteristics of text search include:

• If documents are scanned, they must be processed through an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) step before the text will exist to be indexed. If a quality assurance step is added to correct OCR’s inevitable mistakes, this up-front process can now be longer than user data entry for a database.

• Text Search suff ers from many of the same drawbacks as keyword assignment – if the content of a document does not contain the word(s) used in a search, a document will be missed and never found. Using more generic search terms results in more hits, but as anyone who has used Google knows, attempting to fi nd the one document you need from a list of thousands is simply unrealistic.

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• Search terms can appear multiple times in a document, causing the document to appear in the result set each time a word is repeated. The resulting list of hits can be quite large and require a signifi cant amount of time to review.

Conclusions

Several conclusions can be drawn:

• Because documents can easily be missed using the keyword or text search methods, if your applica-tion requires that you absolutely be able to fi nd all documents in your system, you should use the database record method.

• If you rarely retrieve documents and can aff ord to miss one on retrieval, the keyword or text search methods will likely save you up-front time.

• If speed of searching and retrieval is vital (perhaps in response to a phone call at a help desk for example), you should use the database record method.

In short, the more time you spend up front, the faster and more accurate your searches on the back end.

The Legality of Scanned and Digital Documents

The legality of scanned and digital documents is a topic that may be of particular concern to you if your system will contain sensitive corporate information, patents, trademarks, or other documents that might at some time be called into play in a legal setting. Some document management vendors tend to step around this issue by confi guring a form of optical media (CD, DVD, or WORM) as the document storage on the server, and informing clients that this solves the problem. This is an incorrect assumption, since the media on which documents are stored has little to do with their admissibility in court. Furthermore, by using slow CD, DVD, or WORM drives instead of much faster magnetic media (perhaps organized in a RAID confi guration), you are heavily impacting the performance and potential throughput of your system.

The alterability of the medium is not the central issue in terms of legality – rather it is the trustworthiness of the records (index data and documents) themselves. If it can be shown that the records have been created and maintained in a diligent manner, they are normally acceptable to the court.

The enactment of the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) in 1975 specifi cally recognized the advent of com-puterized business records and the need to govern their admissibility at the federal level. Most states have adopted rules based on the FRE as recommended by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. Section 803(6) of the FRE defi nes what constitutes an admissible business record:

“A memorandum, report, record or data compilation, in any form of acts, events, conditions, opinions or diag-nosis, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make the memorandum, report, record or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or other qualifi ed witness, unless the source of the information or the method or circumstances of preparation indi-cate lack of trustworthiness. The term “business” used in this paragraph includes business, institution, associa-tion, profession, occupation and call of every kind, whether or not conducted for profi t.”

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In the above paragraph, it is the obvious intent that if a record can be shown to be trustworthy, it must be admissible. While the media on which a record is stored can contribute to its trustworthiness, it cannot be the sole – or even most important – factor. Over time, technology improves and advances and all electronic records must forever be migrated to the next generation of media in order to remain retrievable. Over time, all electronic media becomes obsolete. There are currently no national standards for the permanency of the medium on which electronic records are stored.

To summarize, the legal admissibility of scanned documents stored on magnetic media is primarily deter-mined by the level to which the data can be shown to be trustworthy, and that this trustworthiness is best enhanced with diligent procedures, proper security, and careful management by the custodian of the data. It is this custodian that will ultimately have to testify to the accuracy and trustworthiness of the information under their care.

This section includes opinions of Mindwrap, Inc. and may not apply to your situation. You should consult legal counsel for advice on all evidentiary and regulatory issues related to your documents.

Succeed by Involving your Users

In the early days of Document Management, deploying a new system meant installing new desktop com-puters, scanners, and other high-tech equipment. Learning new digital work skills was often intimidating to users who had previously performed primarily paper-based tasks. As a result, the learning curve - and potential push-back from the user community - presented a deployment risk that required careful planning and preparation.

Today, virtually all employees are familiar with computers to some extent and easily accept working in a digital medium. The primary risks incurred with modern deployments center around ensuring that criti-cal business processes are not interrupted and that deployment goals are met. The best way to ensure a smooth transition is to understand your current business practices - and nobody understands these better than the users that must perform them daily.

Employees faced with performing repetitive routine tasks learn over time the most effi cient methods for accomplishing those tasks. This can include any aspect of the job at hand, from keyboard shortcuts used to speed data entry to the best way to fold transcript pages before they go into a folder. They know exactly which manager knows the most about a subject, who to go to when a problem occurs, and how best to dodge bureaucratic rules that impede their productivity . The way in which a task is performed often dif-fers widely from the original implementation. In other words, employees often represent a subculture that smooths the way to effi cient, productive operations within your organization.

It is this productive subculture that you need to reach out to when making design and deployment deci-sions. One of the best ways to kick this off is to have a general meeting outlining the capabilities of the sys-tem to be deployed, i.e. how documents are stored, indexed, retrieved, placed into workfl ow, etc. Once users understand these capabilities (and limitations), they will eagerly off er suggestions on how best to translate their own daily tasks to new system tasks. For example, once they realize that all forms are being scanned - thus eliminating most data entry from forms - they can quickly tell you the fi elds they use on a daily basis to retrieve client records. This allows you to establish the minimum set of indexing fi elds for a particular appli-cation.

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Your users are also aware of which processing rules cannot be bypassed. This is particularly useful in a work-fl ow. For example, federal regulations might govern some steps in the process of insurance claims, and your employees can quickly spot when your proposed workfl ow has left out a critical step. Likewise, they can off er suggestions on how to streamline a process, eliminating needless bureaucracy.

By involving your users is the design process, you get critical “buy-in” - the feeling among your users that they have been a part of the decision-making process, especially one that will directly impact their working lives. This buy-in is critical to the later deployment process - without it, your users will reject any new system as unneeded or ill-concieved, leading to it’s ultimate failure (so that things can return to “normal”, i.e. the way it was done before).

Your users should also be involved with deployment plans, since they will be responsible for ensuring its suc-cess. For example, prior to deploying a new system, it might be necessary to “clear the decks” of outstanding paper-based transactions, requiring extra work (or overtime) on the part of employees to make this happen.

Your users will also need to be fully trained in the operation of the new system prior to its deployment so that they can hit the ground running and be productive from day one. You will need their cooperation when scheduling this training and you will want to consider various training strategies (such as “train-the-trainer”, whereby leading users or supervisors undergo full training and then train subordinates).

A new system should improve the effi ciency, security, or capabilities of your organization. By involving your users early in the system design and deployment tasks, you can help ensure that your goals will be achieved.

Managing System Goals and Expectations

The planned procurement of a Document Management and Workfl ow system can lead to unreasonable expectations on the part of management and users unfamiliar with the state of the art. A typical scenario is one of using unsupportable capability statements to justify the system procurement in the process of “sell-ing” the capital expenditure to upper management. Unreasonable (“blue sky”) expectations often show up in formal Requests For Proposal (RFPs), causing vendors to increase system costs to cover the risk.

Example 1

In the mid 1990’s we were invited to Singapore to consult with a bank on the possible deployment of a new forms capture system. Having read up on OCR and seen scanning operations in action, a management member of the bank determined that it should be possible to automate the capture of data from credit ap-plications using scanning and OCR. Upon further discussions, it was determined that all of the forms were handwritten, there were 20-30 fi elds that required capture, and the forms were submitted in several diff er-ent languages.

What made this a blue sky project: OCR is a limited technology. It examines scanned images and attempts to read the text that it fi nds. It does reasonably well on printed documents, although it is never without some degree of error. Recognition of handwriting is very limited, has high error rates when attempted, and is only moderately successful even when using specially designed and constrained forms. The multi-lingual nature of the project was not a large hurdle, but the amount of handwriting recognition and its OCR error rates placed this project out of reach. The project never came to fruition and was cancelled.

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Example 2

A recent RFP from a well-known university contained a “laundry list” of requirements. Most had been marked as “must meet” or “mandatory”. Upon further examination, these requirements were a compendium of capabilities of products from most of the leading document management vendors. No single vendor could meet all requirements off the shelf. This meant that each vendor would need to fi ll in the blanks with third party software or hardware, depending on their own product’s missing pieces.

What made this a blue sky project: By gathering a list of favorite and exciting technologies from most cur-rent document management vendors and then requiring the winning bidder to meet them all, the univer-sity caused all vendors to bid extra third party software to meet the unreasonable expectations. This caused each vendor’s bid to be priced out of the range the university could aff ord and the procurement was can-celled.

The fi rst example illustrates the result when lack of knowledge about the limitations of a technology causes unreasonable expectations, leading to disappointment.

The second example illustrates the result when too much knowledge and high expectations become re-quirements that are virtually impossible for any vendor to meet, leading to the project never getting off the ground.

When considering the procurement of a system, it is best not to assume how the solution will be embodied or to require that the vendors meet your preconceived expectation of how a problem should be solved. It is much better to list the functionality you need or the results you wish to achieve and allow the vendors to propose creative solutions. Most document management and workfl ow vendors have delivered hundreds to thousands of systems and have a vast knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work in actual produc-tion. Most can tell you quickly whether your needs can be met off the shelf or will require additional devel-opment or integration. This allows you to balance potential benefi ts against cost and pick the vendor that best meets your functional requirements.

“Optix has truly become a core operational system at the University of St. Thomas. We have found Optix to be

extremely fl exible and customizable to address any of our document management and workfl ow challenges. Optix’s ease of use, coupled with world class technical support, has made Optix one of our most relied-upon

technologies.”

Tony Wilkinson, ManagerUniversity of St. Thomas

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Calculating Return on Investment (ROI)

Before you can procure the Document Management and Workfl ow system you feel you need, you typically must present a cost justifi cation analysis to upper management. One of the more eff ective models uses a three-tiered approach that includes hard dollar savings, soft dollar savings, and strategic benefi ts. You should address all three in your presentation.

Hard Dollar Savings

These are annually incurred hard dollar savings that can be measured and calculated. Examples include:

• Improved cash fl ow and investment potential through faster revenue collection, • Reduce or eliminate costs for photocopying, courier and microfi lm services, • Space savings by eliminating fi le cabinets, thus eliminating need to rent offi ce space, • Staff reduction

Soft Dollar Savings

Senior management is enthusiastic about productivity-based soft dollar savings if projections are realistic. Productivity improvements can result from:

• Parallel electronic access to documents by all users rather than serialized paper access, • Directing relevant information to the right people when they need it, • Reduction in time and labor required to process a transaction, • Reduction in the number of steps required to complete a transaction, • Improving the quality of work by providing consistent access and processing methods, • Reducing the amount of unproductive time searching for information, • Enabling new activities as a result of more free time, • Improved records control and security

Strategic Benefi ts

Strategic benefi ts include the enhanced competitive position of your organization due to reduced trans-action time and improved customer response time, or by providing new benefi ts and services. Strategic benefi ts are company-wide and often require integration with legacy systems to achieve their full potential. Real-world strategic benefi t examples include:

• A drug company saved $1,000,000 in one year by bringing a drug to market 3 months faster. • An insurance company saved $500,000 by reducing new group plan rollout from 9 to 3 months. • A company paid $15 a page to answer subpoenas. A DM system reduced this to $4 a page.

These are examples that can help guide the creation of your presentation. You can likely think of specifi c issues unique to your marketplace or organization. To help make your case, you can factor the savings over several years. For example, if the system you need costs $100,000 and your analysis demonstrates an annual post-deployment savings of $50,000, the system can pay for itself in two years.

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The technology and talents that would one day become Mindwrap were brought to life by a small group of engineers at Planning Research Corpora-tion in 1979. The 8-bit Intel 8080 microprocessor had been invented just fi ve years earlier and the team was endeavoring to build high-resolution docu-ment scanners using handcrafted multibus boards founded on the newer and more powerful Zilog Z-80 processor.

Using the latest in Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) technology combined with revolutionary hardware and fi rmware design, the team built custom solu-tions for early adopters of the nascent document management industry.

A direct result of these early digital imaging proj-ects was the unique expertise that allowed PRC to successfully bid on the development of a custom imaging system to support the patent examination process for the US Patent Offi ce in 1985.

Using TDC scanners enhanced with PRC’s Z-80 based controllers, Kofax compression boards, and feeding image data to Masscomp Unix-based minicomputers for storage onto 6250 bpi magnetic tape, the USPTO scanning project captured over 30 terabytes of data in three years. These were then loaded onto Sony Optical Disk jukeboxes attached to water-cooled IBM mainframes to support searching and display by the USPTO examiners.

Company

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PRC’s decision not to productize the technology they developed presented an opportunity. Having been the lead developer of the Unix software and scanning fi rmware for the imaging team at PRC, Craig Landrum, along with Jim Small, decided to start a new company to further develop Unix-based client-server imaging solutions.

Founded as Blueridge Technologies in 1988, the company added additional developers and support personnel in order to get their new product out the door. This product, initially developed for Arix com-puters, was quickly ported to Sun servers, backed with the Informix RDBMS. In 1988, the Macintosh II had just been announced, and its 68000 based non-segmented architecture was well-suited technically to handle the large contiguous memory require-ments needed for high-resolution imaging. One of the very fi rst clients for the new Optix system was the Macintosh-based magnet division of the Super-conducting Supercollider Project.

As Optix grew to encompass new technologies such as Text Search, Forms Processing, and COLD, our cli-ent list continued to expand to include some of the best-known names in the commercial world.

In the early 1990’s, as the Windows platform matured into a proven OS that supported quality imaging displays, we added full support for PCs, thus becom-ing the only mainstream document management company to support both Macintosh and Windows. This unique cross-platform expertise has served us well, allowing us to address the diverse needs of our many K-12 , Higher Education, and commercial clients across the country.

The rise of the Internet in the mid 1990’s allowed us to quickly expand our existing client-server technol-ogy to support browser-based users via the web. This proved to be a pivotal capability that allowed us to develop an advanced maintenance documenta-tion system for a major US airline, making up-to-date manuals available via standard web browsers to airframe and powerplant mechanics worldwide from a secure, centralized server.

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As client repositories grew and informational de-mands became more immediate, customers increas-ingly felt the need to integrate document manage-ment with the automation of business practices. Our release of Optix Workfl ow met this demand, allowing users to package folders of new electronic desktop documents and existing scanned paper documents into server-based packages that could automatically move through an organization on pre-viously manual paths. With the addition of annota-tion capabilities and rules-based routing, it became possible to implement user-interactive decision making, producing a dynamic and powerful envi-ronment that often resulted in a 10-fold decrease in processing time over older manual methods.

As our client list expanded, our technology partners expanded to keep pace, allowing us to port our server to platforms such as Sun, Linux, AIX, Win-dows, and Mac OS X, running with Informix, Oracle, Sybase, SQL Server, and FireBird database manage-ment systems.

The need for Optix to integrate with existing legacy systems drove the creation of our API libraries, both for native server applications and internet based Java applications.

We rebranded as Mindwrap is 1999, but the people remain the same and our focus on empowering our customers has remained constant - a focus that is of-ten in sharp contrast with the practices of our com-petitors. In short, it is our fi rm belief that by provid-ing our clients with all of the tools needed to deploy and manage their own systems, combined with the confi dence that comes with proper on-site training and world-class technical support, we empower our customers to achieve their goals. This has paid off for us in incredible customer loyalty - some of our clients have been with us for over 15 years.

The native PC and Macintosh programs we provide can be used by anyone to deploy new document management applications and manage their docu-ment repositories. Our Optix tools have been wield-ed by secretaries, fi re inspectors, CEOs, physicians, lawyers, offi ce managers, airline mechanics and many others - not just trained IT professionals.

Today we stand ready to demonstrate how that document management legacy borne in 1979 and tempered through over 30 years of experience and real-world achievements stands ready to meet the needs of your organization. We continue to be dedicated to our cross-platform principles, providing ongoing development for both Macintosh and Win-dows platforms with native Optix clients that include common scanning, indexing, workfl ow, and display technology.

Call us. We’ll listen. Choose us, and we’ll be here to support you if you ever need a helping hand.

The fi rst industrial-strength document imaging system for the Macintosh is born—Optix®.

Optix fi rst to connect large-format scanners and printers to the Macintosh.

Optix becomes the fi rst “shrink-wrapped” desktop document imaging software.

Optix fi rst to post sub-second response time for images retrieved via TCP/IP.

Optix fi rst to be 100 percent Internet compatible with both Macintosh and Windows platforms.

Optix is the fi rst to incorporate natural language recognition in its text retrieval program.Optix awarded Imaging Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award.Optix fi rst to support workfl ow, document imaging, natural language search, COLD and document management and control on both Macintosh and Windows.

Optix is fi rst to provide scripting on both Macintosh and Windows. Optix COLD™ mainframe report publishing released.

Optix Web™ provides thin client access to Optix repositories.

Optix is enhanced with advanced foldering and workfl ow capabilities.

OptixWeb is enhanced to provide web-based workfl ow.

Optix becomes the fi rst industrial-strength document management system optimized for use by Macintosh, Windows, Windows NT, Unix and Linux.

Optix Web adds support for both server and client-side Java.

Mindwrap introduces turnkey Optix solutions for departments and small business.

Optix becomes the fi rst document management system to support Macintosh OS X.

Optix 6 is released for Macintosh, Windows, Windows NT, Unix, and Linux.

Optix brings world-class document management and workfl ow to Apple Computer’s XServe.

Mindwrap announces Optix 8 with built-in support for PDF.

Optix adds support for open-source Firebird™ RDBMS.

Optix support for economical Fujitsu ScanSnap™ scanners.

Optix 7 turbocharges workfl ow for Macintosh and Windows clients.

Optix Application Generator delivers integrated indexing and workfl ow creation.

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Optix implements extended fi lenames and improved workfl ow throughput. 2010Optix speeds document capture and distribution with automated Scan Tasks. 2011Optix adds support for metadata extraction and autoindexing of common desktop fi les. 2012

2013Mindwrap leverages metadata extraction and scripting to automate donations processing.

2014Optix adds support for automated Form Recognition and Adaptive OCR

2015Optix streamlines invoice processing for major food distributor

2016Mindwrap speeds batch donation processing for major charitable organization

2017Mindwrap supports bulk import of archival land records for northeast state

mindwrap

Mindwrap Inc.492 Blackwell Road

Suite 202Warrenton, VA 20186 U.S.A.

(540) 347-2552 (phone)(540) 347-2556 (fax)www.mindwrap.com info@mindwrap.com

© 2017 Mindwrap Inc. Mindwrap and Optix are registered trademarks of Mindwrap Inc.

All other trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.

Optix Booklet Rev 8.3