DM1703

DOCUMENT 

M A N A G E R 

Dm 

www.document-manager.com 

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT 

IMAGING & CAPTURE 

WORKFLOW/BPM 

CONTENT MANAGEMENT 

Paper weight: 

Going paperless aids digital transformation 

What’s in a name? 

Behind the ‘Content Services’ hype 

Size matters: 

Large format scanning 

Review: 

Kodak Alaris i3500 

Cloud strategies: 

Choose your partners 

NEWS • PRODUCT FOCUS • USER PROFILE • INTERVIEWS 

ISSN 1351-3222 Vol 25 No 2 March/April 2017

Northamber & Fujitsu 

Fujitsu Scanners, helping to provide 

transparency and accountability at 

a moment’s notice 

The public sector landscape faces enormous challenges, including 

skyrocketing costs, historic regulatory changes, client demands 

for instant access to their records, freedom of information (FOI), 

bureaucracy and security concerns. 

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include: 

• Centralised storage with 

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• Business process 

agility that can lead to 

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• Enhanced compliance 

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departments with all 

regulatory guidelines. 

• Faster access to client 

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northamber.com | follow us 

©Northamber 2017 E and O.E. March ‘17 

Total Distribution

Dm 

COMMENT 

This issue of Document Manager boasts a wide 

variety of opinions and bylines from industry 

leaders, covering a range of topics. This is 

when DM is at its best, I believe: when it functions 

as a 'one stop shop' for informative and occasionally 

controversial views and insights from across the 

entire industry, and beyond. 

Editor: 

Dave Tyler 

david.tyler@btc.co.uk 

News Editor: 

Mark Lyward 

mark.lyward@btc.co.uk 

Publishing Director: 

John Jageurs 

john.jageurs@btc.co.uk 

Sales Manager: 

David Hammond 

david.hammond@btc.co.uk 

Production Manager: 

Abby Penn 

abby.penn@btc.co.uk 

Lead Designer 

Ian Collis 

ian.collis@btc.co.uk 

Circulation/Subscriptions: 

Christina Willis 

christina.willis@btc.co.uk 

Managing Director: 

John Jageurs 

john.jageurs@btc.co.uk 

Published by: Barrow & 

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Published 6 times a year. 

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©Copyright 2017 Barrow & 

Thompkins 

Connexion Ltd 

Hyland's Tim Rushent offers a comprehensive 

checklist for anyone considering shifting business critical systems into the 

cloud; some (security, backup plans) may seem obvious, but others may 

prompt discussions among readers - who is responsible for compliance 

audits of the infrastructure, for instance? And once a supplier is identified 

there are still contractual issues to consider, says Rushent: "Don't get locked 

into a long-term agreement from which it is very costly to withdraw. Also, 

pay particular attention to how data will be transferred at the end of the 

contract and what would happen to it in the event that the provider ceases 

trading. The contract should be clear about what would happen if there 

were difficulties with any third party involved, where responsibilities lie and 

what compensation would be payable in the event of outages." 

Elsewhere David Jones of Konica Minolta shares some outspoken views on 

the widely reported idea that ECM as a term should be retired, with 'Content 

Services' likely to be the next big thing. Is ECM on its way out? Industry 

stalwart (and regular judge at the DM Awards) Martyn Christian of Undrstnd 

Group thinks not: "Six billion dollar markets don't just die". So is this just a rebranding 

exercise? 

Articles published reflect the 

opinions of the authors and are 

not necessarily those of the publisher 

or his employees. While 

every reasonable effort is made 

to ensure that the contents of 

articles, editorial and advertising 

are accurate no responsibility can 

be accepted by the publisher for 

errors, misrepresentations or any 

resulting effects 

Jones argues: "End users will benefit from the new lexicon - but as a 

concept more than a naming convention... In theory this 'Holy Grail' sees 

applications, platforms and components playing nicely together. This would 

provide end users with the ability to quickly create a cloud-based Accounts 

Payable solution, hooking into another cloud-based digital signature service, 

fully integrated into their ERP or accounts system, and all usable from day 

one with mobile and tablet capture. Who cannot see the benefit in that?" 

What this means for the market is not yet entirely clear, but it is probable 

that 'traditional ECM' vendors are going to have to consider opening up their 

architectures and content, while new players on the Content Services side will 

have to learn to scale very quickly - or find an established partner to work 

with. Interesting times indeed! 

Dave Tyler 

Editor 

david.tyler@btc.co.uk 


March/April 2017 

@DMMagAndAwards 

3

Dm CONTENTS 

2 0 1 7 MARCH/APRIL 

16 18 22 34 

Contents 

EDITOR’S comment.....................................3 

NEWS roundup...........................................6 

• New cheque scanners from Canon 

• M-Files acquires StreamDesign 

PRODUCT REVIEW: Kodak Alaris i3500 ....................8 

OPINION: Contract Management……..................10 

OPINION: Digital Transformation…………............….14 

ANALYSIS: SME ……......................................15 

CASE STUDY: Die Mobiliar………….....................16 

STRATEGY: Going paperless……............................18 

CASE STUDY: Wincanton…………......................20 

MARKET FOCUS: Healthcare……………..............22 

VIEWPOINT: Content Services…………..............….24 

CASE STUDY: JMD………...............................27 

OPINION: Legacy Systems……….....................….28 

CASE STUDY: TrustID……….............................30 

STRATEGY: Cloud………............................…..32 

RESEARCH: Mailroom Automation………................34 

Features 

OPINION: Digital Transformation……….................................…….14 

Digital transformation efforts must extend to payments and invoicing in order 

to achieve greater insight and more efficient business processes, argues Andy 

Lilley of Bottomline Technologies 

STRATEGY: Going paperless……....................................................18 

Andrew Morrison of Xerox describes how different market sectors (manufacturing, 

banking and education) are addressing the opportunities of 

paperless working in order to enable strategies for digital transformation 

LARGE FORMAT SCANNING……….............................................…21 

There is an art to scanning large documents, explains Daniel Johnson of 

Storetec Services Limited 

MARKET FOCUS: Healthcare……………........................................22 

SynApps Solutions' Gary Britnell says the best response by the UK health IT 

community to Jeremy Hunt's recent dismissal of NHS paperless targets is to 

look at the progress made so far 

VIEWPOINT: Content Services…………......................................….24 

David Jones, ECM Marketing Manager at Konica Minolta, discusses the hype 

around the recently-announced industry term 'Content Services', and what it 

really means for the ECM sector 

STRATEGY: Cloud…………...........................................................32 

The advantages of the cloud reach to the core of most businesses - but 

executives must choose their partners carefully, argues Tim Rushent of Hyland 

RESEARCH: Mailroom Automation………................................…..34 

Less than one-fifth of UK businesses currently automate their post and inbound 

communications, according to new research from EDM Group 

4 @DMMagAndAwards March/April 2017 www.document-manager.com

EASY CONTRACTS 

FOR ADVANCED 

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Advanced forecasting abilities 

combined with super visibility on 

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ABOUT SOLUTIONS SERVICES ABOUT CUSTOMERS SOLUTIONS CONTACT SERVICES ABOUT CUSTOMERS SOLUTIONS CONTACT SERVICES CUSTOMERS CONTACT 

www.easysoftware.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)1284 727870 

EASY CONTRACT EASY INVOICE EASY RECORDS for HR

NEWS Dm NEWS ROUND UP UP 

Copyrite brings Worldox Cloud to the UK 

Copyrite & World Software 

Corporation have 

partnered to deliver Worldox 

Cloud to UK customers. 

Copyrite will exclusively 

deliver Worldox Document 

Management Software 

(DMS) in the cloud to UK 

firms utilising data centres 

within the UK. World Software, 

based in Glen Rock, 

New Jersey, is the creator of 

Worldox DMS software, the 

document management 

choice of more than 5000 

law firms. Copyrite offers a 

secure UK-based cloud platform 

for firms to access their 

data and applications. 

Kodak Alaris launch new partner program 

Ben Summerfield, Director 

at Copyrite said "Having data 

in the cloud empowers firms 

to deliver better client services 

from anywhere their 

staff need to be with no 

upfront cost or expensive 

hardware." Worldox Cloud 

UK documents and data are 

stored in a UK-based data 

centre and can be securely 

accessed over any Internet 

connection, eliminating the 

need to manage DMS software 

in-house. Worldox also 

provides Disaster Recovery 

protection with automated, 

frequent backups. 

www.copywrite.co.uk 

Kodak Alaris’ Information 

Management division 

(IM) has revamped its 

channel partner program, 

introducing a number of 

new sales tools, incentives 

and technical resources 

designed to support its 

partners and help them 

expand their businesses. 

The Alaris Partner Program 

includes the launch of a 

dedicated, mobile responsive 

web portal, which provides 

a one-stop resource 

for a wide range of sales 

enablement and training 

tools, marketing assets and 

support. 

The new online portal 

provides single sign-on 

access to Kodak Alaris systems 

and enables partners 

to automate administrative 

tasks in the sales cycle. It 

provides additional sales 

enablers, such as content 

marketing assets and stateof-the-art 

automation 

tools, and helps partners to 

create customised cobranded 

campaigns. 

The Alaris Partner Program 

also includes financial 

incentives including a new 

set of reseller benefits and 

bonuses, which are determined 

by membership tiers 

and a partner’s level of 

commitment to Kodak 

Alaris. The new portal will 

launch in select countries 

beginning February 2017 

and will be available globally 

in the coming months. 

"More than 90 per cent of 

Kodak Alaris’ Information 

Management business is 

done via resellers and distributors, 

meaning if our 

partners aren’t successful, 

neither are we," said Rick 

Costanzo, President and 

General Manager of Kodak 

Alaris Information Management. 

"Our new partner 

program is designed to 

enable our channel partners 

to offer best-in-class 

technology, sophisticated 

solutions and services, and 

to grow their businesses by 

helping customers solve 

their information management 

challenges." 

www.kodakalaris.com 

Cheque out Canon's new scanner range 

Canon has added three 

new cheque scanners 

to its successful imageFOR- 

MULA range: the image- 

FORMULA CR-150, image- 

FORMULA CR-120 and 

imageFORMULA CR-120 

UV. Building on the success 

of the popular imageFOR- 

MULA CR-190i and image- 

FORMULA CR-135i series, 

The imageFORMULA CR- 

150 and imageFORMULA 

CR-120 series are capable 

of accurately scanning up 

to 12,000 cheques per day, 

with up to 150 or 120 

cheques processed per 

minute respectively. 

A large 150-sheet feeder 

and 200 sheet eject pocket 

helps reduce the time spent 

loading and unloading 

cheques, while the robust 

automatic feeding mechanism 

ensures reliable 

cheque separation. The 

new devices recognise 

magnetic ink characters 

using Magnetic Ink Character 

Recognition (MICR) 

head and powerful Optical 

Character Recognition 

(OCR) zonal processing. 

Both results from the MICR 

and OCR can then be 

processed to create a 

unique algorithm to crosscheck 

characters for 

improved accuracy. 

Canon's imageFORMULA 

CR-120 UV adds an additional 

layer of security to 

the scanning process, using 

built-in ultraviolet sensors 

to detect fraudulent information 

and process both a 

regular and a UV image of 

the cheque simultaneously. 

www.canon.co.uk 

Perceptive approach to invoice approval 

Kofax’s Perceptive AP 

Invoice Approval 2.0 is 

designed to streamline the 

invoice approval process 

via a mobile-optimised 

interface usable on any 

device. The new release 

includes GL (general 

ledger) coding which 

enables users to easily allocate 

and validate costs outside 

the ERP and accelerate 

approval routing. 

The addition of GL coding 

allows users to select or 

edit GL codes and receive 

real-time validation and 

feedback to ensure fewer 

workflow errors. It also 

reduces approval times, 

enhances cost tracking, 

and preserves an audit trail. 

Additional features 

include Single Sign On 

(SSO) to simplify the 

authentication process, 

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 

for providing a secure connection 

for end users outside 

the network, and integration 

of "Out of Office" 

status updates to reroute 

requests for alternative 

approval and decreased 

processing times. 

www.kofax.com 

6 



www.document-manager.com

NEWS NEWS ROUND UP DmUP 

Fujitsu ScanSnaps worldwide sales record 

Worldwide sales of the 

Fujitsu ScanSnap 

series have now exceeded 

four million units. This is 

significant as now only 

Fujitsu’s own fi Series range 

of professional document 

management scanners 

have a larger user base. 

"ScanSnap is a personal 

productivity solution – simple 

to install and operate 

but with fantastic capabilities 

and new features 

being added all the time", 

said Mike Nelson, Vice 

President at PFU (EMEA) 

Limited. "We have already 

sold 4 million units and 

with ScanSnap Cloud we 

can bring even greater productivity 

to users of our 

FineReader 14 is the latest 

version of ABBYY’s 

flagship desktop software 

that combines optical 

character recognition 

(OCR) with advanced capabilities 

for working with 

PDFs and document comparison. 

With the new version 

users can easily manage 

and accomplish all 

kinds of daily tasks – editing, 

converting, commenting 

and comparing documents 

– using one, intuitive 

application. 

FineReader 14 comes 

with the main functionality 

required to work with any 

paper-based document 

and PDFs, whether 

wireless models, iX100 and 

iX500. This exciting new 

feature is sure to attract 

many new users to the 

ScanSnap community." 

PFU is continually developing 

the ScanSnap range 

in line with business trends, 

embracing cloud connectivity, 

mobility and the ability 

to scan any document. This 

is underlined by the recent 

launch of ScanSnap Cloud, 

a new free service that 

enables ScanSnap iX100 

and ScanSnap iX500 customers 

to streamline document 

scanning workflows 

by transmitting data directly 

from ScanSnap to popular 

cloud services. 

www.scansnapcloud.com 

OCR refined with ABBYY FineReader 14 

scanned or digitally created. 

Key areas of functionality 

and notable improvements 

in the new release 

include the highly accurate 

conversion of PDFs and 

scans into actionable formats, 

PDF editing and collaboration, 

cross-format 

document comparison, 

deep OCR integration into 

PDF tools, and support for 

over 190 OCR languages. 

FineReader 14 is available 

now in three editions - 

Standard, Corporate and 

Enterprise - and can be 

ordered through online 

stores and selected 

resellers worldwide. 

www.abbyy.com 

Unique, secure document authentication 

Authlogics has 

launched Authenti- 

Doc, an innovative new 

Secure Document Authentication 

solution, based 

on its award-winning PINgrid 

technology. The software 

enables any 

Microsoft Office, PDF or 

ZIP file to be securely 

encrypted, sent and 

decrypted by the authorised 

recipient, using a 

simple One Time Code 

(OTC). 

To secure a document 

the creator/sender uses 

the AuthentiDoc software 

to quickly encrypt the 

file/s before sending. 

When the recipient 

receives the message, and 

attempts to open the document 

they use a PINgrid 

challenge (a six-by-six grid 

number grid) together 

with their pattern to 

derive a OTC which will 

decrypt and open the 

M-Files acquires StreamDesign 

M-Files has acquired 

StreamDesign, a consulting 

and information 

management services company 

based in France. M- 

Files has built a strong presence 

in France via the company's 

channel network, 

with StreamDesign serving 

as one of its most successful 

partners in the region. 

With the acquisition M- 

Files has established a 

French headquarters that 

will enable the company to 

accelerate the growth of its 

customer base through its 

growing channel partner 

network, as well as via 

direct sales and support 

activities. 

The acquisition comes as 

an increasing number of 

document. 

To decrypt and access 

the document the recipient 

simply enters the OTC 

into the application that is 

used to open the file no 

additional client side software 

is required. 

Crucially, the solution 

does not require an Internet 

connection, so once 

the document/file has 

been downloaded it can 

be accessed whenever and 

wherever they choose, 

using PINgrid each time 

to decrypt the file. 

AuthentiDoc can be 

used to identify a user 

over the phone to a call 

centre, by embedding a 

PINgrid watermark with a 

document which is unique 

to the document. This is a 

very low cost analogue 

OTC system for companies 

who already email or post 

out paperwork. 

www.authlogics.com 

French enterprises are 

recognising information 

management as a strategic 

priority. As a result, many 

organisations in the region 

are looking for solutions to 

help them eliminate manual, 

error-prone processes 

and replace existing ECM 

systems that have proven to 

be complicated and difficult 

to use. "Our acquisition of 

StreamDesign accelerates 

our growth plans in France 

by continuing to elevate the 

level of support we provide 

our partners and ensuring 

we deliver the highest level 

of customer service and 

support possible to our customers," 

said Jim Geary, 

Executive Chairman, M-Files. 

www.m-files.com 




7

Dm PRODUCT FOCUS 

KODAK ALARIS i3500 

Kodak Alaris' i3000 

colour duplex 

scanner range 

goes from the i3200 at 

around 50 pages per 

minute right up to the 

model we looked at for 

this review, the i3500, 

which is capable of a 

hugely impressive 110 

pages per minute. 

Optional accessories 

include flatbed add-ons 

(A3 or A4) and a rear 

imprinter, but the range 

also includes two 

variants with A4 flatbeds 

built in, the i3250 and i3450 devices. 

The i3500 we tested is 

unquestionably a serious and robust 

scanner, engineered for consistent 

availability and throughput. Despite its 

relatively small footprint, it is heavy (in 

a good way) at around 35 lbs - 

although it is noteworthy that the two 

devices mentioned above (with flatbed 

built in) are even heavier at 39lbs. 

Clearly there is a trade-off decision to 

be made between scan speed and how 

often users might need to scan the 

kind of exception documents that 

necessitate a flatbed. 

A toggle on the rear of the scanner 

allows the user to select straight 

through scanning for thick documents, 

card etc. that might not travel 

smoothly through the rotary path of 

the i3500. There is also support for 

'long document mode' for nonstandard 

documents such as 

healthcare records, up to just over 4m 

in length. 

With a rated daily throughput of up 

to 25,000 pages, and a front ADF that 

can hold 300 sheets at a time, the 

i3500 works best when it is being 

worked hard. Scans are uniformly fast 

and image quality very impressive, as is 

only to be expected from Kodak Alaris. 

Intelligent Document Protection is a 

feature we've raved about in previous 

Kodak Alaris reviews, and of course it 

is present here too - 'listening in' to 

documents as they pass through the 

scan path, in order to prevent potential 

problems with jams before they 

happen. This handy feature means 

operators no longer have 

to 'fish out' a crumpled 

wreck of a document from 

the guts of a scanner. The 

feed module and 

transport rollers are easily 

accessible for user 

maintenance/replacement. 

Bundled software is also 

as good as we have come 

to expect, with Kodak's 

Capture Pro and Smart 

Touch offerings both 

included. Smart Touch 

offers a fast and intuitive 

interface for most basic 

requirements, using the LCD 

operator control panel to select the 

scan destination from nine common 

options including B&W or Colour PDF, 

TIF and email among others. These 

options are of course configurable for 

more advanced users. 

This software bundle, together with 

Perfect Page image processing, means 

that there is very little need for 

additional image enhancement post 

scan - punch holes, blank pages, 

skewed and poor quality documents 

are all handled with ease. 

Overall, the i3500 came out of our 

tests seeming a bit like the TARDIS: 

compact and unobtrusive to look at, 

but with hidden depths and strengths, 

this is a fast, flexible and reliable 

desktop workhorse. 

More info: www.kodakalaris.com 

VERDICT 

The i3500 made light work of our testing, giving perfect results and not a single jam or reject - it is a fast, heavy 

duty scanner that won't seem out of place in an office environment. 


Bring your Blipped Microfilm into the Digital 

Age with the ScanPro i9300! 

The ScanPro ® i9300 microfilm scanner is the product you’ve been waiting 

for to bring your blipped film into the digital age. We know that original 

blipped film scanners are aging and limited in their capabilities. That’s 

where the i9300 comes in! 

Find your blip the first time 

Utilizing patent pending technology, the ScanPro i9300 finds your 

blip the first time with fast and exceptionally accurate searching. 

It works with one, two, and three level simplex and duplex film 

and is ALWAYS as easy as 1-2-3. 

1 2 3 

load your film | enter your search address | click search 

Automatic Scanning/Printing Included: 

The i9300 automatically scans and prints a single image or a range 

of images of one-, two-, or three-level simplex and duplex film. 

Optional IMS AUTO-Scan ® Pro: 

With the IMS AUTO-Scan Pro optional software, the i9300 will also automatically: 

• Scan and print an entire roll of film 

• Name the files using the document address 

• Convert the files to text with OCR technology 

• Collate them into multi-page PDFs grouped by batch, file, and page addresses 

IMS AUTO-Scan Pro does all of this with unparalleled speed and accuracy. 

The ScanPro i9300. 

Precise. Powerful. Universal. 

Universal microfilm scanner 

Not only does the i9300 support blipped 

film, it also scans/prints your fiche, 

ultra-fiche, aperture cards, micro 

cards, and 35mm roll film microfilm, 

making it truly universal! 

The ScanPro i9300 is the solution 

you’ve been waiting for. It is easy 

to use, reliable and backed by an 

unmatched 3-year warranty and a 

lifetime lamp warranty. 

Blipped Film 

www.e-imagedata.com • 800-251-2261 

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Dm OPINION: CONTRACT MANAGEMENT 

Procurement fraud: your new 

security nightmare 

A major challenge for companies, as it is one of the 

most difficult and complex to investigate, procurement 

fraud is on the rise - but technology can help, says 

Howard Frear of EASY Software 

Is the growth in contract 

management and the outsourcing of 

goods and services pushing up 

procurement fraud? The evidence is 

that on balance it is - and on a global 

scale, providing yet another headache 

for enterprises having to do more to 

control their security in the Digital Age. 

Procurement fraud is effectively any 

fraud linked to a company purchasing 

goods, services or commissioning 

construction projects from third parties. 

It can take the shape of 'discrepancies' 

at the tender process stage, such as 

taking a payment under the table to 

award a contract to a specific supplier, 

or when payments made for goods and 

services not actually delivered, or which 

were not as specified on the order. It 

can also involve collaborating with 

suppliers to charge an inflated price, 

and then skimming off and pocketing 

the difference. 

According to global information group 

Experian, all this adds up to an eyewatering 

£4,000 a second being 

siphoned off UK GDP. That's nearly £346 

million for every day of the year and a 

staggering £127 billion a year in the UK 

alone for procurement-related 

fraudulent activity. Indeed, the group 

maintains that procurement is now the 

largest single source of fraud in the UK, 

accounting for almost 66% of total 

losses every year. 

Most CEOs today are aware of 

procurement fraud, and major 

enterprises and public sector 

organisations generally have solid anti- 

10 




OPINION: CONTRACT MANAGEMENT Dm 

"TECHNOLOGY IS GREAT - BUT IT'S NOT ENOUGH. WHAT YOU ALSO 

NEED TO FOCUS ON IS PUTTING IN PLACE BEST PRACTICE CONTRACT 

MANAGEMENT DISCIPLINES - AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN. YOU 

SHOULD ALSO REALLY LOOK AT THE ENTIRE PROCUREMENT PROCESS: 

WHO IS ON THE APPROVED SUPPLIER LIST? DO WE REALLY NEED THIS 

MANY? WHAT'S OUR RISK EXPOSURE HERE - ALL ESSENTIAL 

QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERS IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT 

MINIMISING YOUR PROCUREMENT FRAUD RISK." - HOWARD FREAR OF 

EASY SOFTWARE 

fraud and governance procedures in 

place around procurement to deter 

fraudsters. The real issue is for small to 

medium companies who may not have 

cast-iron best practice established, 

leaving them vulnerable to deceit both 

inside and outside the organisation. 

THE SOFTWARE EFFECT 

Thankfully, the right technology can be 

highly effective in the fight against 

procurement fraud. Accura, the data 

analysis arm of payments giant 

VocaLink, for example, uses smart backend 

analytics and its parent company's 

massive store of payments data to 

quickly identify and flag up fraudulent 

payments before money is transferred, 

in much the same way credit card 

software protects us by spotting 

irregular activity. 

What you should be focusing on is 

using technology to check your 

processes and pull out any rogue 

invoices or suspicious internal 

behaviours. You need to look very 

carefully at your procurement process. 

What are the rules around invoicing 

with that core set of suppliers? Can you 

account for all your funds right now? 

Are your funds where they should be? 

These are all essential questions that 

need answers. 

Another help is going to be pushing 

as hard as you can on squeezing any 

last vestiges of paper out of your 

system. Digital invoicing and contracts 

can be easily tagged and tracked, 

while paper-based ones make it 

practically impossible to establish links 

between data. 

The reality is that it is easy to conceal 

malpractice when it is impossible to 

join the dots and find a pattern. The 

audit trail is often hard to follow and is 

neither robust nor dependable when 

you can only rely on paper. Case in 

point: a building sector client, whose 

finance processes we were helping to 

digitise, stumbled on a substantial 




11

Dm OPINION: CONTRACT MANAGEMENT 

fraud it had been totally unaware of 

until the morning it was finally able to 

start matching delivery notes against 

physical goods coming in. £100,000 

worth of fraudulent activity quickly 

came to light after all the paperwork, 

was scanned and it became clear items 

had been claimed for that had not 

been delivered. 

Such breakthroughs are only possible 

when finance systems are automated, 

making the payment process more 

visible and transparent both internally 

and externally. In this case the fraud 

was eventually pinned against an 

ordering number disparity. 

Specialised ECM (enterprise content 

management) technologies can play a 

very helpful role here, helping CIOs to 

harvest data and analyse it to highlight 

any trends that may indicate 

procurement fraud. ECM systems can 

also provide a three-way match 

between orders-payments and delivery 

when Enterprise Resource Planning 

(ERP) is tied to all of the invoicing 

processes. 

THE ROLE OF CONTRACT 

MANAGEMENT 

Great contract management is the very 

lifeblood of the way any business 

operates, stretching across all its 

primary functions. Contract 

management software can contribute 

significantly to increasing revenue, 

reducing costs, minimising risks and 

improving overall control of the 

process. The key is in integrating 

contract management into other parts 

of the business, creating a 

collaborative ecosystem that can work 

off the same data to create bottom 

line value. 

To win over employees to change, put 

a high premium on simplicity, whether 

it is in documenting and developing a 

process, or choosing and implementing 

software. When looking at possible 

solutions, always focus on the ones 

that are likely to deliver value to you 

where you are now, and avoid 'one size 

fits all' that could lock you into an 

unsympathetic vendor's view of the 

initiative, which may be way different 

to your own. 

Finally, carefully consider how users 

will use the system: make sure that is a 

positive experience. Integrate into their 

other systems where possible, 

especially where contract management 

can be linked into the core ERP system. 

Technology use is a key piece of the 

solution, but it will only be effective if 

you focus on defining the process 

together with deploying skills, 

documenting and sharing knowledge. 

There are many pieces to the puzzle, 

but once you have a solid practice 

framework for contract management in 

place you will have a new competitive 

edge to your business in place. 

BEST PRACTICE VS. 

PROCUREMENT FRAUD 

Technology is great - but it's not 

enough. What you also need to focus 

on is putting in place best practice 

contract management disciplines - and 

as quickly as you can. You should also 

really look at the entire procurement 

process: who is on the approved 

supplier list? Do we really need this 

many? What's our risk exposure here - 

all essential questions that need 

answers if you are serious about 

minimising your procurement fraud risk. 

Best practice guidance available from 

procurement membership 

organisations like the International 

Association for Contract and 

Commercial Management (IACCM) can 

also help build a wall to keep 

fraudsters out. ECMs, incorporating 

data records, documents, forms and 

history, can give companies a 360- 

degree view of their business estate. 

The reality of life is that there will 

always be fraud, no matter what name 

we use for it. But technology, allied to 

some of the best practice guidance you 

can get hold of and implement, means 

that CIOs have a hope that this waste 

of assets can be properly boxed in. 

More info: www.easysoftware.co.uk 


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Dm OPINION: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION 

Transforming the 

finance landscape 

Digital transformation efforts must extend to payments 

and invoicing in order to achieve greater insight and more 

efficient business processes, argues Andy Lilley, Regional 

Director FDA at Bottomline Technologies 

For much of the last ten years, 

investment in financial technology 

has been focused on meeting a 

stream of financial regulations and 

transactions inside the system of 

record. But a shift towards business 

efficiency and improved service levels is 

now taking place, especially with 

customer delight being at the forefront 

of growth. 

Today's companies are more aware 

than ever of how they want to 

consume their technology - whether 

that is through a cloud, hybrid or onpremise 

model. We hear the term 

'digital transformation' used a lot, and 

a major part of this is the acceptance 

of cloud technology. 

CLOUD: THE LOGICAL MOVE 

As part of this aforementioned shift 

towards improved business efficiency, 

Bottomline Technologies has moved 

over 5,500 customers to a cloud-based 

business solution suite, PT-X, which 

includes payments and financial 

document automation functionality. 

According to AIIM, removing paper 

from business processes can improve 

efficiency by up to 300%. Despite this, 

research by PayStream Advisors shows 

that around 70% of invoices are still 

received by organisations as paper or 

plain PDF documents. To truly make a 

digital transformation and capitalise on 

the opportunities it offers, automating 

and digitising processes is key. 

There are several technologies that 

can help release financial resources for 

redeployment. A/P automation 

significantly reduces manual grudge 

work by automating the extraction and 

validation of invoices. Additionally, 

payments technologies provide other 

obvious benefits, such as 'Know Your 

Customer' checks which provide 

immediate validation and verification of 

customers and suppliers in a fraction of 

the time. 

REMOVING THE LAG 

By automating compliance, exceptions 

and manual filing of documents and 

payments, tasks can be significantly 

reduced. But it's not just about 

efficiency - it's also about removing the 

lag in the end-to-end financial process 

and improving visibility and control to 

free up resource and enable those 

higher value tasks. 

I am a firm believer in the idea that 

standing still is the fastest way of going 

backwards. If, when invoicing or carrying 

out other financial tasks, you make it 

difficult for your customers to buy from 

you, they may not choose to do so 

again. Customers want these processes 

to be transparent, collaborative and easy 

in this digital world. 

From a document automation 

perspective, Bottomline's PT-X 

payments and business solution suite 

offers a service that gives clients an 

insight into how their customers are 

responding to invoices. They can 

monitor the patterns of individual 

customers and proactively identify 

where to invest their time and effort 

when looking to reduce aged debt. 

Enhanced visibility and control - 

which paper-based systems and 

processes and even emailing PDF's 

cannot fully deliver - means that you 

can identify where best to deploy 

resources. The result is tactical 

increases to operations and strategic 

improvement to business processes. 

We are living in a digital world and it 

is not a question of should businesses 

embrace digital transformation, but 

rather how will they if they haven't 

already? 

More info: www.bottomline.co.uk 

14 




ANALYSIS: SME Dm 

File under 'costly' 

Employee printing and the use of traditional filing 

methods to store documents can cost a small business 

as much as £14,616 each year, according to software 

developers Reckon 

The average UK office worker 

prints out 6,000 sides of A4 each 

year; that's a whopping 500 

sheets per month. Furthermore, there 

are also the costs of running and 

maintaining a printer, which average at 

around £148 per employee for a 

medium sized business. 

Coupling the price of paper and 

printing with the cost of maintaining 

filing cabinets, which can be as high as 

£690 per cabinet in central London, 

shows just how much businesses are 

spending in order to manage and safely 

store documentation. 

Reckon, developers of Virtual Cabinet 

and Reckon One, found that the space 

taken by a standard sized filing 

cabinet is typically £360 per year, 

although this cost is significantly 

higher in major cities. 

A typical filing cabinet takes up more 

than five square feet of commercial 

space including the space needed to 

open and operate the drawers, a 

significant cost when the average 

commercial rent of £115 per square 

foot in London and £60 per square foot 

in the wider UK is taken into account. 

Pairing this expense with the price of 

printing and of course the paper itself, 

demonstrates just how costly using 

traditional business processes can be. 

Commercial rates are expected to 

continue to rise at a steady rate, 

meaning a rent incrsease of 25% could 

leave a business in the City of London 

spending as much as £863 in rent 

annually for each filing cabinet within 

the next five years. ONS research shows 

that office-based employment has 

grown each year since 2008 and will 

continue to do so, meaning the need for 

office space and storage will become 

greater and that making efficient use of 

a premises will become all the more 

important. 

Mark Woolley, commercial director at 

Reckon, said: "The figures we've 

compiled highlight the high cost of 

printing and storing documents, 

especially for those in the accounting, 

legal, insolvency and property sectors. 

While these figures make for expensive 

reading, they don't even begin to 

include other documentation expenses, 

such as postage, retrieval of documents 

onsite and/or off site at storage facilities 

along with the cost of time taken to 

manage filing cabinets." 

Woolley suggests that when every 

square foot matters in terms of cost and 

efficiency, it's important to make the 

best possible use of space. Document 

storage can take up room, which forces 

business owners to maintain a larger 

than necessary space and can stop a 

business from using its floor-space for 

more productive uses, such as meeting 

space or even a workstation for a new 

team member. Likewise a printer and its 

associated products can be a bulky 

addition to a tight office space. 

"As we continue to move towards 

more digital ways of working, it's 

surprising to see how many businesses 

still rely on paper documents," he 

concludes. "The savings made by 

digitalisation mean that much needed 

new colleagues can be hired or that the 

business can even downsize to more 

appropriate premises that will save 

serious money on rent." 

More info: www.reckon.com/uk 




15

Dm CASE STUDY: DIE MOBILIAR 

Leading the field 

A dynamic two-level approach to process 

management has sharpened competitive edge at 

Swiss insurer Die Mobiliar 

Die Mobiliar, the oldest private 

insurance company in 

Switzerland, holds the leading 

position in the Swiss market, providing a 

full range of insurance and pension 

products and services ranging from 

property, liability and vehicle to life 

insurance. Nearly 1.7 million customers 

rely on Die Mobiliar when it comes to 

their safety: around one third of all 

Swiss households and companies are 

insured by Die Mobiliar. Die Mobiliar 

garnered the WfMC Global Award in 

2015 (for 'excellence in BPM and 

workflow') for its "Mobiliar 

Korrespondenz System" or MKS, based 

on the Papyrus platform. 

CHANGING THE TEMPLATE 

Die Mobiliar saw documents serving 

different insurance use cases as an 

opportunity for the company to 

communicate and build strong 

relationships with its customers in 

different languages and countries, 

especially across Europe. 

With annual business user 

correspondence volumes exceeding 6.3 

million envelopes, Die Mobiliar 

recognised the importance of an 

effective system capable of producing 

and delivering huge amounts of highquality, 

multichannel customer 

communications in a short time. 

The existing system, based on 

Microsoft Word, could fulfil only part of 

the wide range of needs at Die Mobiliar. 

Document administrators were 

struggling to effectively maintain 

hundreds of templates in multiple 

language variants across the distributed 

system used by more than 4,000 

insurance clerks. Creating thousands of 

documents from local document 

templates during their daily work had 

resulted in uncontrollable growth of 

template versions and deviations from 

the corporate style. 

Manual data exchange, document 

delivery and attachments to the 

insurance cases managed by other 

business applications also caused 

16 




CASE STUDY: DIE MOBILIAR Dm 

"SUPPORTED BY A THIN-CLIENT BROWSER ARCHITECTURE, INSURANCE CLERKS CAN NOW ACCESS THE SYSTEM 

INDEPENDENTLY FROM THEIR OFFICE LOCATIONS AND EASILY CREATE DOCUMENTS THAT CATER DIRECTLY TO 

EACH CUSTOMER'S NEEDS BY SIMPLY ANSWERING PROMPTED QUESTIONS. THE ASSOCIATED DOCUMENT 

PROCESSES DYNAMICALLY CONNECT TO VARIOUS BACK-END SERVICES AND PROVIDE REQUIRED DATA ON THE FLY, 

NOTE THE CLERK'S DECISIONS AND PERFORM ANY REQUIRED WORK, AUTOMATICALLY ASSEMBLING THE 

INSURANCE DOCUMENT THAT WILL EXACTLY MATCH THE CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC SITUATION, WHILE TAKING ALL 

RELEVANT INSURANCE REGULATIONS INTO CONSIDERATION AND MAKING SURE THERE ARE NO MISTAKES OR 

OMISSIONS." 

considerable time delays and 

high costs in administration 

efforts for Die Mobiliar's 

customer communication. 

DUAL LEVEL APPROACH 

The new centralised Mobiliar 

Korrespondenz System based 

on the business-oriented 

Papyrus Platform helped the 

company introduce a new 

"dual-level approach," with a 

process-driven working style 

that empowers each player to focus on 

their strengths and promotes 

collaboration along clearly defined lines 

of responsibilities. 

Business users can flexibly design and 

maintain content and processes 

without IT involvement by using a 

specialised, role-based workplace that 

integrates all tools and permissions for 

document and process design. The IT 

team provides support with more 

complex and technical tasks like 

integration to external systems and 

services, as needed. 

To ensure consistency and maximise 

resources, the MKS allows large-scale 

re-usability of document components 

and complements document templates 

with streamlined processes that allow 

the front-office staff to focus on 

customer needs. All document and 

process templates and resources are 

managed directly by the system and 

stored in a versioned central repository, 

ensuring consistent corporate identity 

and design. 

The system also allows the multilingual 

business staff to work in the 

language of their choice regardless of 

the correspondence language that 

meets the preference of the recipient. 

DYNAMIC AND PRECISE 

Supported by a thin-client browser 

architecture, insurance clerks can now 

access the system independently from 

their office locations and easily create 

documents that cater directly to each 

customer's needs by simply answering 

prompted questions. The associated 

document processes dynamically 

connect to various back-end services 

and provide required data on the fly, 

note the clerk's decisions and perform 

any required work, automatically 

assembling the insurance document 

that will exactly match the customerspecific 

situation, while taking all 

relevant insurance regulations into 

consideration and making sure there 

are no mistakes or omissions. 

Once the document is completed, it 

can be optionally edited by the 

insurance clerk and locally 

printed, exported as PDF or 

delivered to customers by email 

or fax per selected delivery 

channels - or even exchanged 

with Die Mobiliar business 

applications respectively. 

Using the Papyrus Adaptive Case 

Management and BPM 

capabilities, MKS manages the 

complete document lifecycle 

from design through execution to 

delivery according to specific Die 

Mobiliar policy. Process control is in the 

hands of the business users, who can 

perform updates on document and 

process templates at any time as new 

business requirements demand, 

allowing Die Mobiliar to quickly 

respond to change and seize new 

opportunities. 

The new MKS exceeded expectations 

for Die Mobiliar, providing efficiency, 

production and service improvements 

across the organisation: 

Reduced number of document 

templates and improved document 

quality 

Daily document production 

increased 20x 

Synchronous data integration from 

backend systems using Web Services 

Significantly reduced time to market 

for new insurance services 

Enhanced focus on customer 

experience. 

More info: www.isis-papyrus.com 




17

Dm STRATEGY: GOING PAPERLESS 

Lifting the weight 

Andrew Morrison, President of Large Enterprise 

Operations, Europe at Xerox describes how different 

market sectors (manufacturing, banking and education) 

are addressing the opportunities of paperless working 

in order to enable strategies for digital transformation 

It's 2017 and we have digital technology 

at our fingertips, yet few bank accounts 

can be opened without printing and 

signing a paper form. A student can't get 

their exam results until an examiner 

manually crosses and marks their paper. 

Our reliance on paper runs deep and 

many business workflows continue to 

bear the "paper weight" burden. 

In a business setting, the paper weight 

counteracts efforts to automate, ensuring 

efficiencies and savings. Automation 

requires the availability and reliability of 

data from all business units, in a digital 

format. Having small, isolated pockets of 

automation across a business doesn't 

equate to a digital enterprise. 

Removing the paper weight requires 

time, but doing so is instrumental in 

enabling digital transformation. Not 

sure how this works? Let's look at how 

clear and realistic the opportunities are 

in the manufacturing, banking and 

education sectors. 

MANUFACTURING 

Manufacturers must reduce costs and 

improve operational efficiencies, whilst 

growing sales and competing in an agile, 

18 




STRATEGY: GOING PAPERLESS Dm 

global market. It's at this intersection that 

software and technology can have a 

major impact. 

Consider research and development 

(R&D), for example. This is an essential 

part of keeping manufacturers 

competitive, and by digitising, companies 

can streamline their processes and foster 

collaboration. Relevant information from 

R&D is integrated into an efficient 

workflow so that the right team can 

share information, conduct market 

testing and complete projects, on one 

centralised platform. The integration 

ensures R&D remains agile, allowing 

companies to launch more successful 

new products. 

Using digital technology, manufacturers 

can transform their infrastructures and 

automate business-critical processes to 

cut out paper-based inefficiencies, 

improving global collaboration, 

innovation and productivity. 

BANKING 

Cost pressures, increasing regulation and 

legacy systems are making it hard for 

traditional banks to keep up with the 

banking revolution. Digital technology 

also has changed customer expectations. 

According to Capgemini's 2016 World 

Retail Banking Report, only 54 per cent 

of banks' customers globally are likely to 

stay with their primary bank, which 

underscores the necessity of a positive 

customer experience. Think about the 

customer sign-up process. As critical as 

this process is, it often remains manual 

and time-consuming, and delays raise 

the possibility of losing potential 

customers. 

Workflow automation software, which 

involves digitally inputting information 

and having that analysed in a single, 

central repository, streamlines the 

process. Employees can route critical 

documents in real time, retrieve new 

account information quickly, decrease 

processing times, and reduce costs and 

demands of new client processing. 

Ultimately automation improves the 

overall customer experience - a must in 

today's competitive banking 

environment. 

"IF IT'S NOT ALREADY, IT WILL SOON BE A MAJOR REQUIREMENT FOR 

COMPANIES AND ORGANISATIONS ACROSS ALL INDUSTRIES TO IDENTIFY 

HOW TO BEGIN - THROUGH AUTOMATION - TO BUILD COMPREHENSIVE 

DIGITAL STRATEGIES AND TOOLS, AND HOW TO MAKE THEM STICK. THEY 

WILL BE LOOKING FOR PARTNERS THAT CAN ENSURE AUTOMATION TOOLS 

IMPACT THE ENTIRE BUSINESS, NOT JUST PART OF IT." 

EDUCATION 

Students today live in a digital world. So 

why do administrators still work with the 

mountains of documents across university 

departments? 

Digitising documents may begin with an 

extensive scanning process, but with the 

right tools in place this can lead to 

transformation, and an enhanced 

approach to keeping up with the demands 

of the student body. It can transform 

error-prone, repetitive and tedious tasks 

into accurate and automated processes 

that save time and money. 

Workflow automation tools can be used 

to fully manage or automate elements of 

processes such as financial aid, 

recordkeeping and student admissions. 

The value lies not only in the proven time 

and cost savings, but also in the increased 

student satisfaction and improved student 

experience that automation instils 

campus-wide. 

SPOT YOUR PARTNER 

If it's not already, it will soon be a major 

requirement for companies and 

organisations across all industries to 

identify how to begin - through 

automation - to build comprehensive 

digital strategies and tools, and how to 

make them stick. They will be looking for 

partners that can ensure automation 

tools impact the entire business, not just 

part of it. 

With so much potential for positive 

change, the "paper weight" needs to be 

recognised and removed. When that 

happens we will see our world move 

towards fully digitised processes and start 

to make good on the promises of digital 

transformation. 

More info: www.xerox.co.uk 




19

Dm CASE STUDY: WINCANTON 

Wincanton is the largest 

logistics firm in Britain, 

providing supply chain 

consultancy and solutions to some of 

the world's most admired brands. The 

company employs approximately 

17,500 people across more than 200 

sites and have a 3,400-strong fleet of 

vehicles. Due to the requirements of 

some top revenue generating 

customers, Wincanton's container 

logistics business was required to send 

invoices in an XML format. The XML 

files had to be compliant with the VISA 

Invoicing Standard. 

In order to address this requirement 

themselves, Wincanton would have had 

to write lengthy codes using RPG on 

the IBM Power i. Writing these 

programs requires in-depth knowledge 

of RPG, and the creation of a single 

invoice in an XML format takes a 

Expert delivery 

Logistics giant Wincanton has achieved 'EDI-XML 

invoicing excellence' as a result of an automated 

solution from Symtrax 

considerable amount of time. Over and 

above the time consumed, the overlays 

in RPG are not flexible as most of it is 

hard-coded, with a little soft coding 

embedded. 

Wincanton generates approximately 

2,500 invoices per month in both 

paper and XML formats. These invoices 

are generated on a weekly basis. 

Wincanton turned to Symtrax for a 

solution. Compleo for XML offered 

Wincanton a simple to use and easy to 

understand GUI to create XML files 

from Spool Outputs. 

"With Compleo for XML we can now 

offer invoices in XML as a valued added 

service to our customers," commented 

Wincanton's IT Director, who went on 

to stipulate that the best thing about 

Compleo Suite is that all modules have 

an identical interface with a Windowsstyle 

tree structure - meaning if you 

have used one module you can use all 

of them. 

In Compleo for XML, Wincanton are 

able to use an existing or sample XML 

file provided by the customer to create 

an XML template which save the 

company more time. When using an 

existing XML file, the structure of the 

XML file is automatically imported into 

the Compleo for XML wizard which 

Wincanton describe as 'very handy'. 

Subsequently, all that is required is to 

map out the relevant information from 

the spool file to the elements in the 

XML structure. 

Once the XML files are created, they 

are automatically distributed to 

customers using FTP. The recipients' 

systems then verify the XML file. 

Wincanton has not had any customers 

express concern about the XML 

structure. From there, Wincanton's 

customers have their own processes 

and software applications that load the 

XML into their ERP or Accounting 

systems. The ability to automate the 

process end-to-end was a very 

important aspect of the project, one 

that Symtrax delivered expertly on. 

More info: www.symtrax.com 

20 




LARGE FORMAT SCANNING Dm 

Size matters 

There is an art to scanning large documents, explains Daniel Johnson of Storetec 

Scanning documents is not just for big 

businesses, but also for smaller clients 

that want to digitally store and have 

prints made of their documents or artwork 

for resale. The problem with this is that 

documents come in a huge variety of 

resolutions, and require different 

techniques and equipment to reproduce to 

the standard required for future use. The 

ability to use specialist Large Format 

Scanning Equipment, which involves a 

higher resolution than would be used for 

standard documents, is highly valued, as it 

allows users to truly get a high quality 

digital representation of their work should 

it be complex blueprints or fine art prints. 

Luckily, the latest technology, combined 

with top of the range equipment retains 

all fine detail, converting even the most 

complex of artwork into a sharp 

professional high resolution digital image. 

The same goes for large format 

documents with complex details that need 

to be protected, even when converted to 

computer files. 

Whether your documents are black and 

white, or you require colour accuracy; or 

it's a large format document that needs 

preserving as close to the original as 

possible, it is possible to digitise even the 

largest format documents to an extremely 

high standard. At Storetec we know how 

difficult and often time-consuming it can 

be to get your large format documents 

scanned to the standards you require. We 

are confident that your digitised 

documents will have strong definition of 

shading if required, and the wide-gamut 

colour will exceed your expectations - no 

matter what type of document requires 

digitisation. Our unbeatable colour image 

quality exceeds industry RGB and sRGB 

recognised standards, and in addition to 

all that, our equipment supports colour 

managed workflow, which means that 

your scanned image will be a true accurate 

representation of your original document. 

Whatever your documents, you will gain 

digital back-ups in easy to manage digital 

files, which you can store on a hard-drive. 

Instant online access of all your artwork is 

also possible, via our cloud-based Free- 

Docs. Your documents can then be 

safeguarded and encrypted with a 

password, making it easier for owners to 

access and manage their files in the future. 

You will find it is easy to reproduce any 

print much further down the line, and 

image quality will always be retained. 

An example of one our recent artistic 

clients is former RAF worker Noel Hogan, 

who produces fine graphite pencil 

artworks of RAF aircraft. Ground Crew 

Prints is a tribute to all things squadron 

aircraft of yesteryear and present day, and 

particularly ground crew engineering. 

Storetec were able to scan Noel's aircraft 

artwork in all its glorious detail, so that he 

can have prints made at a printing 

company for re-sale. 

Noel's artwork honours all RAF squadron 

and ground crew, and is ideal for anybody 

who had served in the RAF and for 

enthusiasts. Soon the last of the Tornado 

aircraft will land for good. Noel himself 

had previously loaded weapons into, and 

serviced the Tornado GR1 during the 

1980's and 1990's - and now he has a 

perfect digital replica of an aircraft very 

close to his heart, that he can access at 

any time. 

More info: www.storetec.net 




21

Dm MARKET FOCUS: HEALTHCARE 

NHS: paperless by 2018? 

SynApps Solutions' Gary Britnell says the best response by the UK health IT 

community to Jeremy Hunt's recent dismissal of NHS paperless targets is to look at 

the progress made so far 

The NHS has recently lost more than 

half a million pieces of confidential 

medical correspondence, including 

test results and treatment plans. In one of 

the biggest losses of sensitive clinical 

information in the NHS's entire history, 

more than 500,000 pieces of patient data 

sent between GPs and hospitals went 

undelivered for over five years from 2011 

to 2016. 

Ironically, as that data leakage was going 

on, the Department of Health started to 

stress the need to get the NHS fully 

paperless by 2018 - in order to ensure that 

data issues that put the lives of millions at 

risk like this never happen. 

NHS IT leaders took the idea of a 

paperless NHS very seriously, and have 

been working towards meeting that goal 

since 2013. But, it seems, maybe not to 

the same degree as the Department of 

Health was. Last month many of us in the 

UK health IT community were taken aback 

by what seemed a somewhat dismissive 

attitude to a Paperless NHS by the head of 

the Department, Jeremy Hunt, who told 

MPs he was "quite relieved most people 

seem to have forgotten" the target. 

Let's be clear about the course of events 

here. The Department of Health told Trusts 

to work to become fully paperless by 2018. 

That became 2020, and following a review 

by Professor Bob Wachter from the 

University of California, which stated that 

the 2020 target was also "likely to fail", 

some now think we're looking at 2023 at 

the earliest. 

The problem for the sector is that the 

majority of Trusts took the plan to 

become fully digital exceedingly seriously, 

even if politicians and some observers are 

no longer so committed. After all, a 

paper-free NHS was a route of travel that 

was regularly discussed by Jeremy Hunt, 

senior stakeholders in NHS England and 

by Trust IT managers to find ways to 

deliver against it. Only last year, Hunt 

announced that he had received an extra 

£4bn to help Trusts get there. 

A Paperless NHS has always been framed 

as an NHS that would stop having 

documents going astray, as well as one 

that could do far more with patient 

information, with no need for re-keying or 

asking the patient the same questions, 

allowing for collation of data for better 

analysis of the bigger disease and health 

trends, programmatic search, and so on. 

THE WAY WE HAVE TO GO 

The good news is that the need for 

paperless hasn't being forgotten but 

pushed out further, as the sector tries to 

implement building blocks towards it. As 

the Secretary has confirmed, there's lots of 

solid progress by Trusts all over the country 

toward the target. 

Paper is far more expensive in the long 

term, and at a time of unprecedented 

financial stress, that really matters. Every 

day we see the pay-back NHS customers 

get by ending the paper chase, achieving 

22 




MARKET FOCUS: HEALTHCARE Dm 

great things via standards-based content 

management based approaches to 

information sharing and archiving, 

achieving the kind of benefits that the 

original 2013 Paperless NHS objectives 

called for. 

So is the paperless goal in trouble? 

Should it be quietly set aside? Absolutely 

not. The best response to the Health 

Secretary's casual attitude is to show that 

2018 remains a realistic target for some 

ambitious Trusts, as is absolutely the case. 

Let's consider the basis for such 

optimism. Practical techniques like the 

integrated digital care record (IDCR), for 

instance, are emerging as a great way to 

deliver against the Paperless ideal, seen by 

NHS England's digital leadership as key to 

"a fully integrated digital patient record 

across all care settings by 2018" that could 

only be achieved "where all NHS providers 

are connected to the flow of information". 

IDCR also supports the aims of the Five 

Year Forward View agenda. 

In a presentation for The Kings Fund, 

now departed NHS IT supremo Tim Kelsey 

saw IDCRs coming on stream, while 2020 

would see "all local areas" at full local 

implementation stage. And there are some 

fantastic success stories such as at 

Bradford and Airedale, which offer 

inspiration. 

But great as IDCR is, given everything else 

the NHS has to worry about right now, the 

IDCR idea still needs a bit of a push to help 

it make further progress. I think we all 

know that will come from local, bottomup 

thinking by CCGs and Trusts to find 

affordable, tactical ways of doing things. 

If you look out over the current NHS IT 

landscape, there are some technologies 

available that can help with IDCR projects. 

More are in development. However, what 

a lot of these solutions suffer from is a lack 

of openness - they are often closed and 

reminiscent of the vendor lock-in in the 

NHS CIOs want to get away from. The 

spirit of IDCR and the 2020 targets is 

openness and interoperability; it's hard to 

see how a silo approach can really push 

around the wealth of data and data types 

you need for a good IDCR, such as path 

test results, DICOM format scans, referral 

notes, social care records, and so on. 

2018 REMAINS A REALISTIC TARGET 

Going forward, NHS software - open and 

totally lined up with all the right standards 

to promote interoperability - will need to 

be at the centre of any convincing 

Paperless plan. A rock-solid commitment 

to openness and interoperability standards 

stands a better chance of delivering 

success than more restricted alternatives. 

An open, standards based, partnershipdriven 

approach, backed by some of the 

best clinical content management 

technology on the market, can help make 

a truly digital and integrated 2020 not 

another missed NHS ambition, but a real 

milestone of progress. 

We can't afford any more data loss, and 

we can't afford paper either. One way or 

another, we need to get to Paperless, no 

matter how long it takes - although some 

Trusts will absolutely get there by 2018 if 

they are determined enough. 

More info: www.synapps-solutions.com

Dm VIEWPOINT: CONTENT SERVICES 

What's in a name? 

David Jones, ECM Marketing Manager at Konica 

Minolta, discusses the hype around the recentlyannounced 

industry term 'Content Services', and what 

it really means for the ECM sector 

You will have been hard-pressed to 

miss the discussions currently 

raging about the fact that Gartner 

have "retired" the term ECM, and "reinvented" 

it as Content Services. This has 

led to a whole series of (sometimes 

heated) conversations wondering 

whether ECM is dead, whether the 

market will disappear overnight, or 

possibly even if aliens might come down 

from space, erase the memory of 

everyone from Gartner and magically 

put things back to the way they were. 

OK, so I made that last one up - but you 

get the gist. 

The whole debate reminded me of a 

conversation I had with a friend of mine 

who recently got married. I can't quite 

remember why, but he found himself in 

a situation where he was being asked to 

take his wife's surname in the marriage, 

as opposed to the traditional way of the 

wife taking the man's surname. We 

debated the pros and cons of this over 

many craft beers and came up with 

some typically male conclusions: 

Getting married is about much more 

than what your surname will 

eventually be. 

What real difference does it make 

what your surname is? 

Aside from the traditionalists, who 

really cares? 

It was the second point that we kept 

coming back to. Yes there is some initial 

pain caused by having to inform friends, 

banks, the tax man, Facebook and so on 

that your surname has changed, but 

beyond that - not much pain at all. 

Then 18 months into the marriage does 

anyone even remember what your 

maiden name was? 

THE VIEW FROM THE FENCE 

And for me this is where the whole 

'ECM vs. Content Services' discussion 

currently sits. On one side of the fence 

is ECM; an established, multi-billion 

dollar revenue market that has 

developed over time to digitally manage 

some of the most important processes 

within a business. And this is a market, 

24 




VIEWPOINT: CONTENT SERVICES Dm 

by the way, that is not going to 

disappear anytime soon - as Martyn 

Christian of the Undrstnd Group said: 

"$6bn markets don't just die". 

On the other side you have the 

upstarts, the disruptors - the file sync 

and share tools, collaboration tools, 

and connectivity services - which I will 

collectively call Content 2.0 for now. 

Lean, agile, built for mobile and cloud, 

rental model-based solutions - designed 

for usability, and often consumer-driven 

and led. In many ways they are 

everything that traditional ECM is not. 

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS 

What Gartner are proposing with 

Content Services is a combination of 

these - the love child of slow, traditional 

ECM and young, fast moving Content 

2.0. Could this possibly work? 

Let's face it: despite the market sizing 

of ECM and the public love of Content 

2.0 neither have really become as 

successful within the business 

environment as they would have liked. 

How many times within a business have 

you heard someone say "We really need 

to get Salesforce.com up and running" 

or "Marketo will solve all of our 

problems"? Lots? Now ask the same 

question for ECM or Content 2.0 

solutions. Not such a positive response. 

Part of that problem is brand related. 

The hard reality is that no end-user 

really cares what we call a solution to 

their problem, as long as it solves their 

problem - and this is what Gartner are 

trying to address. 

Even if users were worried about what 

the solutions were called, vendors on 

either side of the fence have a brand 

that is big enough, or strong enough, 

within a business context to drive the 

agenda forward. Yes you can argue that 

IBM has huge brand recognition - but 

for ECM? I rest my case. 

So there would appear to be a strong 

argument for making changes - but 

who benefits? 

TOWARDS THE GRAIL 

This refocus is being driven by the 

analysts, not the customers or the 

vendors. Gartner have explained in 

detail what they mean by content 

services (in short three aspects: Content 

Services Applications, Platforms and 

Components) and also their reasoning 

behind the retirement. They believe that 

ECM is very rarely deployed at an 

enterprise level (with which I would 

agree) and that many organisations 

stop after deploying one or two 

horizontal solutions. They argue that 

the change will allow organisations to 

better marry their business goals with 

the technology to solve them. 

Again I tend to agree. End users will 

benefit from the new lexicon - but as a 

concept more than a naming 

convention. Think about what Content 

Services actually brings to an 

organisation. In theory this 'Holy Grail' 

sees applications, platforms and 

components playing nicely together. 

This would provide end users with the 

ability to quickly create a cloud-based 

Accounts Payable solution, hooking into 

another cloud-based digital signature 

service, fully integrated into their ERP or 

accounts system, and all usable from 

day one with mobile and tablet capture. 

Who cannot see the benefit in that? 

I made an argument earlier that a lack 

of branding was an issue in the ECM 

and Content 2.0 markets - but the 

content services model actually removes 

that hurdle. You needed a big brand 

previously because vendors were rolling 

out the Lord of the Rings mentality - 

'one tool to rule them all'. This is no 

longer the case. The ecosystem now 

allows, and actually thrives on, having 

lots of small, interconnected players. 

Brand is still important, but nowhere 

near as much as it was. 

Vendors remain harder to convince 

though. Certainly the response that I 

witnessed on this topic at the recent 

AIIM Executive Leadership Council from 

the vendors was muted at best, 

although this was largely from the ECM 

side of the fence. In my opinion those 

vendors who get on board with this 

concept could see customers coming in 

from all sorts of new and diverse 

directions. 




25

Dm VIEWPOINT: CONTENT SERVICES 

"THIS RE-FOCUS IS BEING DRIVEN BY THE ANALYSTS - NOT THE CUSTOMERS, 

OR THE VENDORS. GARTNER HAVE EXPLAINED IN DETAIL WHAT THEY MEAN 

BY CONTENT SERVICES… AND ALSO THEIR REASONING BEHIND THE 

RETIREMENT (OF ECM). THEY BELIEVE THAT ECM IS VERY RARELY DEPLOYED 

AT AN ENTERPRISE LEVEL (WITH WHICH I WOULD AGREE) AND THAT MANY 

ORGANISATIONS STOP AFTER DEPLOYING ONE OR TWO HORIZONTAL 

SOLUTIONS. THEY ARGUE THAT THE CHANGE WILL ALLOW ORGANISATIONS 

TO BETTER MARRY THEIR BUSINESS GOALS WITH THE TECHNOLOGY TO 

SOLVE THEM." - DAVID JONES, KONICA MINOLTA 

NO PAIN NO GAIN 

Yes, it will be a painful transition, and 

require new and challenging changes 

to the business. It may require 

completely new ways of developing, 

marketing and selling your offerings. 

But think about some of the upsides: 

online, fully automated sign-ups, 

ongoing subscription or usage fees, 

and integration with new solutions 

from industry verticals you never even 

knew existed. 

For those vendors on the ECM side 

who don't open up their architectures 

and content (via APIs, web services, or 

whatever) there will be less and less 

new revenue to go around as more 

heads to the Content Services players. 

Similarly, those on the Content 2.0 side 

who fail to upscale their solutions to 

enterprise-grade offerings, do not 

partner with an existing ECM player 

(ala Box and IBM), or fail to find a 

revenue model that actually delivers 

profit will quickly make an exit from the 

playground. 

Heading back to my friend's dilemma 

about his surname, I'd love to say that 

after debating the topic for several 

hours and several beers he decided to 

take his wife's surname - then about 10 

minutes later she called him to say that 

she was happy to take his surname! It 

would be lovely for me to suggest that 

they had both realised that actually 

their surnames weren't the reason they 

were getting married, because being 

together was more important - but that 

would be way too cheesy. 

In the world of Content Services 

though, these two markets do make 

more sense together than alone and 

fighting each other. End-users are 

looking for solutions to their business 

problems in areas such as digital 

transformation, security and 

compliance and automation - not 

software feature-sets. 

Those vendors who understand this 

and can adapt to the new, Content 

Services, ecosystem model will start to 

realise the promised land that both 

ECM and Content 2.0 have been 

searching for: widespread business 

penetration, lots of happy customers 

(i.e. lots of revenue) - and no debates 

about names ever again. 

More info: www.konicaminolta.co.uk 

26 March/April 2017 www.document-manager.com 

@DMMagAndAwards

CASE STUDY: JMD Dm 

Got it covered 

JMD, a specialist supplier of insurance services, has increased productivity by up to 

20 per cent with Alfresco 

JMD, a market leading outsource 

supplier to the (re)insurance industry, 

chose the Alfresco One and Alfresco 

Activiti due to its agility, scalability, and 

data compliance capabilities. As a result 

of significant business growth JMD had 

been faced with a number of challenges: 

Managing the ever-growing volume of 

data and multiple interconnected 

processes 

The need to easily track accountability 

of both process and data 

The need to comply with market 

regulations and reporting standards 

Addressing data standardisation and 

inconsistent file formatting 

Unstructured data hindered 

productivity 

Improvements in reliability to 

eliminate costly downtime 

Robert Dewen, Managing Director of 

JMD commented, "Our exceptional 

customer growth and the resulting data 

and process challenges confronting us 

made it clear that we needed to improve 

and automate our document and process 

management system. A future-proof 

solution with the ability to integrate with 

our existing equipment and enable us to 

achieve structured and standardised data 

paths that abide to the market's 

compliance needs was key." 

"JMD's original system, built in 2009, 

served its purpose but didn't lend itself to 

growth," said Edward Wichmann, 

Perspective Technologies, one of Alfresco's 

premium channel partners. "We outlined 

a few suitable solutions, but it soon 

became clear that the open source nature 

of Alfresco gave the company the 

flexibility and scale for its growth plans. 

Open-standard makes it easier to 

implement changes to service offerings as 

required, whereas other off-the-shelf 

solutions have a high cost per change 

request and greater development time. 

Out of the box Alfresco gives businesses 

document management and 

collaboration capabilities, as well as the 

ability to customise processes. This is an 

essential component, allowing the 

company's data to be incorporated and 

seen within the user interface easily." 

The Alfresco platform is also integrated 

with the company's email system, 

allowing information to be pulled into 

corresponding records automatically. 

There is instant management of data 

received, date filed, and by what user, 

which enables easier auditing. While 

Alfresco Activiti, the workflow engine, 

manages and transforms the data 

provided to the format and location 

required. Additionally, any compliance 

exceptions are sent back to the business 

user for review thanks to this 

interconnectivity. 

"Employees can now execute their daily 

tasks more efficiently, with automatically 

generated document paths that plan, 

notify, and record activity as it happens," 

continued Dewen. "As a result we have 

seen admin times reduced by up to 20 

percent. This is thanks to the elimination 

of manual checking of tick boxes, which is 

prone to user error, and pulls data from 

multiple sources into one - including from 

third parties. It gives us a new and 

effective visibility of bottlenecks and 

performance. We couldn't manage the 

volume of data that we do without 

Alfresco's software and reliability is never 

a concern." 

Today, the business has clear oversight 

for document management and 

ownership. Process flow time has been 

cut - making it easier to manage 

increased workloads. Over the last two 

years the platform has: 

Processed in excess of 130,000 

'bordereau' files from agency 

companies 

Uploaded in excess of 12.5 million 

premiums, claims and risk details. 

Performed in excess of 65 million 

automated regulatory and 

compliance checks 

Paul Hampton, Senior Director, Product 

Marketing, at Alfresco concluded, "Modern 

ECM solutions are crucial for the financial 

and insurance industries, providing 

flexibility along with the security measures 

needed to meet stringent regulatory and 

compliance requirements. These solutions 

are fundamental in enabling organisations 

to reduce costs, improve agility and ensure 

ease of auditability - resulting in 

accelerating the businesses and driving 

customer satisfaction." 

More info: www.alfresco.com 




27

Dm OPINION: LEGACY SYSTEMS 

Relieving the legacy burden 

Are legacy systems holding back your enterprise? 

Samppa Lahtinen of M-Files shares some insights 

We've all been there, whether 

it's bandwidth-hogging old 

servers, outdated line-ofbusiness 

(LOB) applications or legacy 

ECM systems - maintaining old 

technology is one of the most difficult 

challenges CIOs face. Constant 

technological innovation often weakens 

the business value of legacy systems 

that have been deployed over the years. 

However, at some point, the weight of 

legacy systems in terms of the cost to 

maintain them and their inability to 

adapt to address ever-changing 

business requirements becomes a 

burden to the enterprise. In particular, 

the upkeep of legacy ECM systems can 

be extremely expensive. 

Legacy ECM systems earn this label 

because the original vendor's 

technology is outdated or obsolete, but 

the service it performs is still relevant. 

This puts the organisation in an 

awkward position and forces them to 

ask the question: "Should we stick with 

our current system that is versionlocked 

or should we invest in a newer 

solution that can better address our 

specific needs?" 

Before establishing whether you should 

transition away from your legacy ECM 

system to a next generation ECM 

solution, there are several questions I ask 

my clients that you should also consider: 

How cost effective is it to maintain the 

legacy ECM system? 

Is there sufficient support available for 

the legacy ECM system? Is it being 

'sunsetted'? 

Will we need to integrate the legacy 

ECM system with the new ECM system? 

Does the legacy ECM system support 

integration with new LOB applications? 

Does the legacy ECM system support 

our mobile workforce? 

Will we need to perform a data 

migration if we transition from our 

legacy ECM system to a new solution? 

RIP & REPLACE? 

When an organisation is facing challenges 

because of their legacy ECM system, they're 

often tempted to quickly replace it - and 

quite frankly that has been the only viable 

option if you wanted to leverage new 

technology. However, I urge caution 

because it might not be the most judicious 

choice. An outright rip-and-replace 

introduces a lot of risk to companies. Most 

IT leaders probably do not need a reminder 

about the risks involved during the 

migration process. How and when you 

transfer your information assets from a 

legacy system requires a lot of forethought 

and planning. 

It's critical to consider how much time you 

spent customising your old system and 

how much time you'll need to configure the 

new one. Equally important when 

calculating risk is to consider how this 

disruption will affect your internal and 

external customer base. Additionally, the 

risk of errors in recreating business logic, 

security policies and permissions in the new 

system needs to be considered. Also, it's 

important not to discount the hurdle of 

introducing a completely new system and 

the user adoption challenges such a change 

can present. 

THE MIDDLE PATH 

With new ECM systems with IML 

(Intelligent Metadata Layer) there is a 

middle path. You simply don't need to rip 

and replace. A next generation ECM 

solution can 'play nice' with other systems 

while helping to ensure multiple versions of 

the same information asset are not saved in 

different applications and repositories. 

The future of ECM lies in decoupling 

information from 'where' it resides and 

instead focuses on 'what' it is. Once focus is 

shifted in this manner, many of the risks 

noted above are mitigated and content can 

be accessed and managed, securely, 

regardless of the system or device. 

More info: www.m-files.com 

28 




Your Business, Your Process, Your Information 

featuring 

Solutions 

Wednesday 21st June 2017 

Ibis London Earl’s Court (ILEC) 

Time To Transform Your Information Processes? 

With the global economy finally gaining 

momentum but still highly unpredictable, now 

is the time to review how your information 

processes and systems can be better leveraged to 

support and accelerate your featuring 

business objectives 

for the next five years. 

If you are considering business process decisions, 

this year’s AIIM Forum UK will identify and 

explain the most significant trends and latest 

innovations to improve your information strategy 

- this year featuring 365 Solutions. Hear expert 

advice from Atle Skjekkeland, Senior VP, AIIM 

and Industry Analyst, Alan Pelz-Sharpe who 

has appeared on the BBC, CNBC, ABC as an 

expert guest, plus many of the industry’s most 

innovative thinkers. 

And best of all... 

ENTRY IS FREE 

WHEN YOU REGISTER ONLINE! 

www.aiimforum.co.uk 

featuring 

Qualifying delegates will learn how effective 

information systems can: 

• Integrate communications across multiple 

channels 

• Improve frontline service and customer loyalty 

• Reduce process Solutions 

costs without sacrificing quality 

• Minimise legal & financial risk 

• Exploit mobile, cloud & social technologies 

• Gain competitive advantage 

• Build sustainable growth 

featuring 

365 Solutions 

Including complimentary hot drinks, lunch & afternoon networking drinks! 

Sponsors for 

2017 include: 

silver sponsor 

IN CONFIDENCE 

Get Involved! Sponsorship Opportunities are still available: Please contact 

Deborah Ward-Johnstone on 01892 820936 or deborah@revolution-events.com quoting Ref:A17

Dm CASE STUDY: TRUSTID 

You know who 

Document checking service TrustID has deployed ABBYY's text recognition 

technology in its Cloud-based identity validation solution 

"THE EXCELLENT QUALITY OF ABBYY OCR SOFTWARE MEANS THAT THE 

DATA IS EXTRACTED FROM IDENTITY DOCUMENTS WITH THE HIGHEST 

ACCURACY. THEREFORE, THE DEMAND FOR HUMAN INTERACTION IS 

GREATLY REDUCED. THIS ALLOWS US TO CONTROL OUR PROCESSING 

COSTS WHILE MAINTAINING EXCELLENT SERVICE AND HIGH LEVELS OF 

COMPLIANCE AND SECURITY." 

TrustID, a provider of IT-based 

solutions for validation of 

personal identification documents, 

has chosen ABBYY OCR technology to 

power its TrustID Cloud service. Private 

and public-sector customers can use 

this service to validate ID documents 

presented to them and easily detect 

possible fraudulent actions. 

TrustID Cloud was created to meet the 

needs of companies looking to process 

identity documents remotely. Typical 

scenarios include on-boarding new 

customers, employees or tenants by 

scanning or photographing personal 

identification documents, such as 

passports, driving licences, biometric 

residence permits or visas. 

These images are uploaded into the 

TrustID Cloud for checking to support 

legal compliance with Right to Rent 

and Right to Work legislation, as well 

as Know Your Customer (KYC) and 

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) for 

financial services. The integrated 

ABBYY OCR technology is used to 

extract the name, date of birth, 

document number and other data, 

enabling the TrustID software to 

perform an automated validation 

check. The validation results appear to 

the user within just a few seconds. 

"A visual inspection of identity 

documents often leads to 

inconsistencies in the level of checking. 

This may mean that suspicious 

documents are more likely to be 

missed, resulting in an organisation not 

being compliant with legal 

requirements," said David Park, 

Commercial Director of TrustID. "The 

fast and robust checks of TrustID Cloud 

quickly solve this challenge and ABBYY 

is the perfect match in this process. The 

excellent quality of ABBYY OCR 

software means that the data is 

extracted from identity documents with 

the highest accuracy. Therefore, the 

demand for human interaction is 

greatly reduced. This allows us to 

control our processing costs while 

maintaining excellent service and high 

levels of compliance and security." 

The TrustID Cloud solution meets the 

needs of customers looking to quickly 

process identity documents, even when 

working remotely. It offers the flexibility 

of a scalable system that is easy to 

deploy. 

ABBYY offers its premium OCR 

technology for integration to 

independent software vendors, system 

integrators and business process 

outsources. The ABBYY FineReader 

Engine software development kit allows 

them to integrate optical text 

recognition technologies into their 

applications. The ABBYY recognition 

platform delivers award-winning OCR, 

intelligent character recognition (ICR), 

barcode, checkmark, field-level/zonal 

recognition and PDF conversion. It 

enables scanned documents and 

images to be automatically transformed 

into searchable and editable document 

formats. 

"ABBYY OCR technology adds value to 

applications used across many sectors. 

ID check is an important topic for 

organisations and TrustID's cloud 

solution provides a high level of 

security to them," said Sven Diedrich, 

Director Business Unit Technology 

Licensing at ABBYY. "We're pleased to 

be helping TrustID take the next step 

towards reaching a wider market and 

making their services automated, more 

efficient and thus attractive for their 

customers." 

More info: www.abbyy.com 

30 




Dm STRATEGY: CLOUD 

Choose your partners 

Advantages of the cloud reach to the core of most 

businesses - but executives must choose their partners 

carefully, argues Tim Rushent, Account Manager for 

industry and commerce at Hyland 

Nearly four-fifths of all data 

centre traffic will be cloudbased 

by 2019 according to 

some predictions, fuelled by a growing 

awareness of the opportunity to scale 

an organisation's digital capacity, not 

just in terms of storage, but also 

functionality. 

As early concerns over security have 

been assuaged, executives have been 

persuaded to embrace the cloud for its 

flexibility and reduced costs: however, 

most remain unaware of further 

opportunities that the move presents - 

and its hidden risks. For example, a 

move to the cloud can be an ideal time 

to adopt an enterprise information 

platform that unites data from 

different systems and formats, from 

where it can be accessed, analysed and 

managed. From increased efficiency at 

a user level, to automated workflow 

management and vastly improved 

executive overview, a fundamental 

technology overhaul may not be 

necessary, as enterprise content 

management (ECM) software can 

provide the seamless link needed to 

bring together existing platforms. 

The move to cloud makes the 

adoption of such systems even easier, 

as they will not be restrained by 

capacity. But it is not enough to simply 

trust that a cloud provider will keep a 

company's data secure: it is important 

to thoroughly evaluate key aspects, 

such as the provider's infrastructure 

and security provisions, alongside their 

track record and industry reputation. 

32 




STRATEGY: CLOUD Dm 

"THE MOVE TO CLOUD MAKES THE ADOPTION OF ECM SYSTEMS EVEN EASIER, AS THEY WILL NOT BE RESTRAINED 

BY CAPACITY. BUT IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO SIMPLY TRUST THAT A CLOUD PROVIDER WILL KEEP A COMPANY'S DATA 

SECURE: IT IS IMPORTANT TO THOROUGHLY EVALUATE KEY ASPECTS, SUCH AS THE PROVIDER'S INFRASTRUCTURE 

AND SECURITY PROVISIONS, ALONGSIDE THEIR TRACK RECORD AND INDUSTRY REPUTATION." 

Common pitfalls include failure to 

ensure a system offers the scope to 

cater for longer-term needs; becoming 

locked into contracts that can hold a 

firm's data hostage; and failure to 

make adequate provision for 

disruptive events, such as outages or 

the cloud provider going bust. All of 

these scenarios can be avoided or 

suitably mitigated, but they must be 

considered at an early stage - not 

when they happen out of the blue 

and leave a company unable to use its 

essential IT infrastructure. 

Other key issues to consider include: 

= Security - What technologies are in 

place to manage risks and what 

are the processes for dealing with 

a data breach? How is encryption 

used and what data backup 

regime do they have in place? 

= Audits - Will the provider carry out 

regular infrastructure reviews, to 

ensure regulatory and legal 

compliance? Who is responsible 

for carrying out such audits and 

are they prepared to share earlier 

reviews with you? 

= Integration - Are there any 

technical or other hurdles to 

overcome, to ensure the cloud 

resources can readily be integrated 

with your own on-premise and 

existing cloud systems? Does the 

hosting provider have sufficient 

networking bandwidth in place to 

deal with increased data volumes? 

When evaluating vendors, 

remember not all cloud providers are 

the same. For example, if you are 

looking for a provider to deliver ECM 

services, that provider's infrastructure 

must be specifically designed for the 

task. Servers, data stores and 

networking links must be optimised 

to ensure they can provide the level 

of availability and performance that 

is required. 

Once a cloud provider has been 

selected, putting an effective 

contract in place is the next 

important step. Don't get locked into 

a long-term agreement from which it 

is very costly to withdraw. Also, pay 

particular attention to how data will 

be transferred at the end of the 

contract and what would happen to 

it in the event that the provider 

ceases trading. The contract should 

be clear about what would happen if 

there were difficulties with any third 

party involved, where responsibilities 

lie and what compensation would be 

payable in the event of outages. 

The flexibility and scalability offered 

by the cloud provides a golden 

opportunity for firms looking to 

develop their digital infrastructure 

and build further competitive 

advantage through a single 

enterprise information platform. 

However it is important to carefully 

review the prospective hosting 

provider before entering what should 

be a very productive long-term 

relationship. 

More info: www.onbase.com 




33

Dm RESEARCH: MAILROOM AUTOMATION 

The ins and outs of mail automation 

Less than one-fifth of UK businesses currently automate 

their post and in-bound communications, according to 

new research from EDM Group 

Four-in-ten respondents to a new 

study by EDM Group believe that a 

digital mailroom would improve 

the overall performance of their 

business. Just a quarter (26%) thought 

that a digital mailroom would have no 

impact at all. 

The study by EDM found that just 16% 

of respondents believe their 

organisation always meets its mail 

service levels. Around a third (30%) said 

that mishandling mail has a negative 

effect on their performance or 

reputation while two fifths (39%) stated 

that mishandling mail has a negative 

impact on customer service levels. 

The EDM research into use of digital 

mailrooms comes at a time when many 

UK firms are focused on how digital 

technologies can help transform and 

improve their businesses - not just by 

increasing efficiency and customer focus 

but also by developing data-driven 

insights and meeting increasingly strict 

regulations such as the General Data 

Protection Regulation (GDPR), which 

enters into application in May 2018. 

The research found a quarter (23%) of 

UK businesses receive more than 5,000 

items of inbound mail every month, 

while three fifths (60%) still receive faxes 

into their mailrooms. Just 19% of UK 

business use some form of mailroom 

automation to manage their post and 

in-bound communication. 

Spencer Wyer, Group Chief Technology 

Officer at EDM Group, said: "Mailroom 

automation is the bridge between the 

paper-based processes that companies 

will always deal with and the demands 

to digitally transform business models. 

Digital mailrooms are highly efficient, 

cost effective ways for businesses to 

digitise their customer communications 

- dramatically improving data capture 

and information management as well as 

enhancing customer service and 

compliance." 

Digital mailrooms allow organisations 

to achieve cost-savings and business 

process improvements by digitising 

paper documents and incorporating 

them into a single platform. Paperbased 

communications such as inbound 

mail can be absorbed into 

digitised processes alongside email, web 

forms and other communications 

formats. 

"As indicated by regulations such as 

the GDPR, businesses need to get a lot 

smarter with regards to information and 

data," concluded Wyer. "The risks of not 

doing so are becoming significant, 

including the real threat of financial and 

reputational losses. Implementing a 

digital mailroom and automating key 

processes are major steps any business 

can take towards addressing these 

demands while creating competitive 

advantage." 

More info: www.edmgroup.com 

34 




Make light work of 

converting documents 

High Speed Desktop Scanner for 

the modern office 

ADS-2100e 

Duplex Document 

Scanner 

£261.60 Plus 

NOW FROM 

£75 ** 

£214 .80* Cashback 

The ADS-2100e has a range of features which allow you to convert paper documents to digital copies 

with ease. With a 50 page Automatic Document Feeder, programmable buttons, resolution of 600dpi 

and USB connection; it can increase productivity in any modern office. 

Buy online now from your preferred supplier: 

® 

*Savings based on a standard Suggested Mail Order Price (SMOP) of £261.60 versus the current promotional SMOP of £214.80. All prices are including VAT. 

Promotion valid until 31st March 2017 or whilst stocks last. **Cashback or 3 year warranty available, Ts & Cs apply. Valid until 31/03/2017.

DM1703

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