DM1907

DOCUMENT 

M A N A G E R 

Dm 

www.document-manager.com 

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT 

IMAGING & CAPTURE 

WORKFLOW/BPM 

CONTENT MANAGEMENT 

Many happy returns?: 

GDPR one year on 

Beyond RPA: 

The Intelligent Automation opportunity 

Digitisation trends: 

UK shows 'room for improvement' 

Capture focus: 

Paper handling 

NEWS • PRODUCT FOCUS • USER PROFILE • INTERVIEWS 

ISSN 1351-3222 Vol 27 No 4 July/August 2019

Dm 

COMMENT 

Editor: 

Dave Tyler 

david.tyler@btc.co.uk 

Sub Editor: 

Mark Lyward 

mark.lyward@btc.co.uk 

I'm delighted to finally be able to announce 

Publishing Director: 

John Jageurs 

officially that nominations have opened for 

john.jageurs@btc.co.uk 

Sales Manager: 

this year's DM Awards: see page10 of this 

Abby Penn 

issue for full details including how to make 

abby.penn@btc.co.uk 

Lead Designer 

your nominations. Now - unbelievably - in its 

Ian Collis 

13th year, our Awards ceremony was 

ian.collis@btc.co.uk 

Circulation/Subscriptions: 

established to showcase and reward the 

Christina Willis 

sector's true pioneers in technology products 

christina.willis@btc.co.uk 

Managing Director: 

and service. The event is now unquestionably 

John Jageurs 

the biggest date in the industry calendar. Nominations are open as 

john.jageurs@btc.co.uk 

you read this, and close on August 23rd. Online voting for finalists 

Published by: Barrow & 

will open shortly after that. 

Thompkins Connexion Ltd 

35 Station Square, 

This year there are 25 different categories in all in which you can 

Petts Wood 

nominate a company, product or service, as well as two additional 

Kent BR5 1LZ 

Tel: 01689 616000 

'Project of the Year' categories. As I've often said in previous years, 

Fax: 01689 826622 

the Project categories do hold a bit of a special place for me as 

Subscriptions: 

editor of the magazine, reflecting as they do some of the most 

UK: £35/year, £60/two years, 

£80/three years 

innovative uses of the technologies that we have been championing 

Europe: £48/year, £85 two 

here for so many years. 

years, £127 three years. 

ROW:£62/year, £115/two 

The big night itself will take place at the Leonardo Royal Hotel in 

years, £168/three years 

London on the 28th November 2019 - as ever, we are expecting not 

Published 6 times a year. 

Single copies can be bought 

just a memorable awards ceremony, but also the year's best and 

for £8.50 (includes postage & 

brightest social/networking event for the sector. The fact that well 

packaging). No part of this 

magazine may be reproduced 

over 90% of our guests book to come back every year is testament 

without prior consent, in writing, 

from the publisher. 

to the ongoing success of the awards night, and this year will be no 

©Copyright 2019 Barrow & 

exception. 

Thompkins 

I genuinely can't imagine the gap that would be left if the DM 

Connexion Ltd 

Awards was ever to come to an end. As far as we're aware, there is 

Articles published reflect the 

nothing to compare to it in the UK - or indeed anywhere in the 

opinions of the authors and are 

not necessarily those of the publisher 

or his employees. While 

world for that matter - and every year we get more nominations, 

every reasonable effort is made 

more online votes, more attendees. We've been the victim of our 

to ensure that the contents of 

own success more than once in having to find new venues to 

articles, editorial and advertising 

are accurate no responsibility can 

accommodate the growing list of attendees, but of course that's a 

be accepted by the publisher for 

errors, misrepresentations or any 

great problem to have. Despite a slightly unsettled business and 

resulting effects 

political environment in the UK at the moment we are already 

looking forward to potentially our biggest and best year ever at the 

DM Awards. 

Dave Tyler 

Editor 

david.tyler@btc.co.uk 


July/August 2019 

@DMMagAndAwards 

3

Dm CONTENTS 

2 0 1 9 JULY/AUGUST 

10 18 24 34 

Contents 

EDITOR'S comment.................................3 

MANAGEMENT: Intelligent Automation…....…...5 

CASE STUDY: Communisis.……….............…..8 

EVENT: DM Awards 2019……..................…..10 

ANALYSIS: Digitisation trends……............…..12 

CASE STUDY: Bluebird Care……..............…..14 

RESEARCH: Dark data……....................…..16 

ROUNDTABLE: GDPR….......................…..18 

CASE STUDY: Southall School.…...............….22 

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: Paper handling….......24 

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: Microfilm………...…28 

STRATEGY: Security…….........................…30 

OPINION: RPA…................................…..32 

CASE STUDY: Absolut…............................34 

Features 

ANALYSIS: Digitisation trends……….............................................12 

A new report from Kyocera Document Solutions indicates that the UK is 

leading the way in automating legal and logistics functions, but still has 

ground to make up in procurement and sales 

RESEARCH: Dark data……….........................................................16 

Half of organisations fear security breaches and regulation 

non-compliance due to unstructured data, says research from Crown 

Records Management 

ROUNDTABLE: GDPR…...........................................................…..18 

The EU GDPR has been in force for a whole year now, but what has been 

its real impact on the document and content management sectors as well 

as the wider world? DM Magazine shares insights from a selection of 

industry luminaries in an attempt to clarify the issues 

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: Paper handling…......................................24 

In a perfect world, every scan job would involve neatly stacked batches of 

the same size and weight paper, but in reality organisations handle a wide 

variety of document types every day. Petra Beck of Alaris describes some 

advanced paper handling technologies 

MANAGEMENT: Intelligent Automation………..........................…28 

Intelligent Automation offers the next step to 'working like tomorrow, 

today', argues Chris Huff, Chief Strategy Officer, Kofax 

STRATEGY: Security………............................................................30 

Jonathan Richardson, Managing Director of Russell Richardson, describes the 

security issues and potential solutions around paper and digital files 

OPINION: RPA…….......................................................................32 

Bruno Ferreira of UiPath explores the idea that Robotic Process Automation 

may in fact bolster employment rather than diminish it 

4 @DMMagAndAwards July/August 2019 www.document-manager.com

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Dm MANAGEMENT: INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION 

Beyond Robotic Process Automation 

Intelligent Automation offers the next step to 'working like tomorrow, today', argues 

Chris Huff, Chief Strategy Officer, Kofax 

Businesses of all sizes rely on an 

assortment of processes to get things 

done and achieve organisational 

goals. New customer onboarding, financial 

reporting, batch processing, and shipment 

scheduling and tracking are just a few 

examples. If handled quickly and efficiently, 

they deliver meaningful benefits that 

impact revenue and growth, including 

enhanced service levels, lower operational 

costs, and higher customer satisfaction. It's 

also true that these processes - often paperbased 

and manual - are excellent 

candidates for automation. 

To be sure, many companies have 

implemented robotic process automation 

(RPA) within pockets of their organisation. 

But even in the digital era, a large share 

have yet to implement RPA even for 

optimised processes, and even fewer to 

automate end-to-end using intelligent 

automation. A global Forbes Insights survey 

found a quarter of processes are still 

completely or mostly manual, and another 

37% are a mix of manual and automated. 

That there is still significant room for 

automation through the enterprise is hardly 

in dispute. In fact, nine out of 10 executives 

say they recognise its importance to their 

future success. And those that have started 

their transformation by implementing RPA 

technology, which uses software robots to 

automate routine, manual tasks, are seeing 

efficiency and productivity gains. 

The real opportunity, though, is to move 

beyond RPA to intelligent automation. This 

next generation technology - bringing 

together capabilities such as process 

orchestration, cognitive capture, and 

advanced analytics - is the only way to drive 

maximum business value. 

Thus, the true "next step" for the enterprise 

of the future isn't automating in small 

pockets with point solutions. Instead, it's 

implementing intelligent automation across 

the enterprise. This approach checks the 

box on every C-suite goal: time and cost 

savings, improved collaboration, higher 

employee satisfaction and a better 

customer experience. 

WHERE THE OPPORTUNITIES ARE 

But where do businesses start? How do 

they identify the most promising places 

within their organisation to extend 

automation capabilities? The Forbes 

Insights survey uncovered opportunities in 

three key areas. 

1. Document and data processing: 

Accounts payable, legal and sales teams are 

often unnecessarily burdened with 

document-heavy processes. But when 

invoices, contracts and sales and purchase 

orders are handled manually, errors and 

delays occur, leading to higher costs and 

missed payments. According to the Forbes 

Insight survey, just 13% of companies say 

they've fully automated the interpretation 

of unstructured content, while one-quarter 

simply turn text over to humans. Other 

organisations say their firms fall somewhere 

in between, with automation ranging from 

keyword extraction to sentiment analysis. 

Of course, manual processing of large 

volumes of documents isn't sustainable or 

desirable in a world where consumers value 

speed and experience most. Businesses 

need employees to focus on higher-value, 

customer-oriented tasks, and no one has 

time for bottlenecks. One way to transform 

this situation is to implement RPA with 

integrated intelligent optical character 

recognition (OCR). This technology creates 

a complete workflow that automates 

document-heavy processes, making them 

faster and more reliable while also giving 

employees more time to attend to 

customer needs. 

2. Automating tasks into an end-to-end 

sequence: Businesses so far have 

automated processes in discrete corners 


MANAGEMENT: INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION Dm 

"MANUAL PROCESSING OF LARGE VOLUMES OF DOCUMENTS ISN'T 

SUSTAINABLE OR DESIRABLE IN A WORLD WHERE CONSUMERS VALUE 

SPEED AND EXPERIENCE MOST. BUSINESSES NEED EMPLOYEES TO FOCUS 

ON HIGHER-VALUE, CUSTOMER-ORIENTED TASKS, AND NO ONE HAS TIME 

FOR BOTTLENECKS. ONE WAY TO TRANSFORM THIS SITUATION IS TO 

IMPLEMENT RPA WITH INTEGRATED INTELLIGENT OPTICAL CHARACTER 

RECOGNITION (OCR). THIS TECHNOLOGY CREATES A COMPLETE 

WORKFLOW THAT AUTOMATES DOCUMENT-HEAVY PROCESSES, MAKING 

THEM FASTER AND MORE RELIABLE WHILE ALSO GIVING EMPLOYEES MORE 

TIME TO ATTEND TO CUSTOMER NEEDS." 

of the enterprise, often starting with 

financial reporting. Yet, despite the 

success of these projects, most firms 

haven't attempted to automate a process 

from beginning to end. Just 25% of 

survey respondents say they've 

automated a larger business process, 

using humans to intervene only when 

there are exceptions. 

Those that have, though, realise 

significant time and cost savings. Dentsu 

Aegis, an advertising network, applied 

natural language processing (NLP) to craft 

new RFPs. Its program, which learned 

from ingesting 20 of the company's best 

and most recent RFP responses, reads an 

incoming request and understands the 

questions and the context. The bot then 

matches the open questions to previous 

responses, creates a draft and converts it 

into a PowerPoint presentation. 

The result? Their sales team no longer 

needs to scramble to locate and tailor 

past proposals to client specifications, 

saving the company up to 60 hours of 

manual labour on each RFP. 

3. Judgement and decision making: 

Robots also free humans from routine 

decisions, thus optimising processes 

based on real-time information. Coyote 

Logistics, a subsidiary of UPS, uses 

artificial intelligence tools like natural 

language processing and machine 

learning to create robots that handle 

processes requiring judgement and 

decision making. 

"We process free text in real time and 

apply machine learning algorithms to 

make a judgement that directs the robot 

on a particular course of action," says 

Diana Rudha, senior manager, automation 

and software development at Coyote. 

WHAT IT TAKES TO SCALE 

AUTOMATION 

For building additional automation 

processes, it's critical to establish a centre 

of excellence (CoE). Slightly more than 

half of companies (51%) have already 

taken this step, according to the Forbes 

Insights survey, while 41% plan to 

establish one. 

Automation success, though, depends 

on three crucial elements: people, process 

and technology. As the Forbes Insights 

report states, it's important to involve IT 

early, as they provide essential guidance 

on the most appropriate technologies to 

adopt and how they best fit within the 

enterprise network and security protocol. 

Meanwhile, business people have the 

unique knowledge needed for identifying 

potential use cases. 

Selecting the right technology is also 

crucial. Organisations should look for an 

intelligent automation platform that is 

capable of aggregating the 

complementary technologies RPA 

requires, managing the robot teams and 

then scaling them across the entire 

enterprise. 

It's also important to strike a healthy 

balance between machines and humans. 

Companies are often captivated by the 

allure of driving exceptionally high 

straight-through processing rates or 

reducing labour costs. But firms are more 

likely to build a sustainable automation 

program when they recognise there are 

things robots inherently do well and 

things humans inherently do well. 

Intelligent automation is about 

integrating technologies and striking that 

balance, while also bringing transparency 

to the state of automated processes via 

responsive and innovative reporting. 

Forward-thinking enterprises harness 

automation to drive operational 

benefits, like time and cost savings and 

increased capacity. But they also 

understand the need to scale beyond 

single-point processes in order to deliver 

strategic benefits - such as higher 

customer and employee satisfaction, 

competitive differentiation and 

improved profit margins - essential to 

sustainability, scalability and success in 

the digital age. Intelligent automation 

provides the opportunities to work like 

tomorrow - today. 

More info: www.kofax.com 




7

Dm CASE STUDY: COMMUNISIS 

Weapon of choice 

Service provider Communisis is exploiting its investment 

in ibml solutions to underpin its bureau operations and 

service a number of major financial services clients 

Communisis, an integrated business 

services company recently acquired 

by OSG, is delivering a range of 

strategic BPO projects for flagship clients 

capitalising on its expertise and investment 

in ultra-high volume ibml scanning and 

capture software solutions. 

With a proven track record providing endto-end 

omni-channel communications for 

big brands in financial services, retail, 

utilities, insurance and the public sector, 

Communisis delivers customer 

communication management services at 

scale which are tailored to meet its 

customers' specific commercial 

requirements. ibml's technology is being 

used in two ways: 

1. A number of ibml scanners are at the 

core of Communisis' centralised scanning 

facility in Leeds which opened in November 

2017, along with other machines located 

at its Disaster Recovery site in Liverpool. 

Operational 24/7 and ISO 27001 

compliant, the Leeds centre has the 

capacity to process 300 million pages per 

annum for customers equating to 600 

million images. This is primarily achieved 

through the use of ibml SoftTrac Capture 

Suite (SCS) software and ImageTrac 

scanners which each output 292 A4 

documents per minute. The scanners and 

software were supplied by ibml partner, 

Alaris, who also delivers ongoing service 

and support. 

2. Communisis' staff operate a fleet of nine 

customer-owned ibml scanners to fulfil a 

significant outsourced digital mailroom and 

scanning FM contract for a major high 

street bank. Located on the bank's 

premises, the latest models have recently 

been installed which are faster and have 

more image processing features. 

Alex Morris, Communisis' Head of 

Enterprise Content Management says, "Our 

team has over 20 years expertise using ibml 

scanners so they're our weapon of choice 

8 



www.document-manager.com

CASE STUDY: COMMUNISIS Dm 

when it comes to digitising paper. We've 

benchmarked them against similar 

production scanners and they've always 

come out top in terms of image quality, 

throughput and scalability." 

A YEAR OF SUCCESS 

The creation of the Leeds bureau was in 

response to Communisis winning a 

substantial deal with a UK high street 

bank which involves scanning all cheques 

and inbound customer correspondence. 

Now celebrating the first anniversary of 

the contract, up to 40,000 cheques and 

associated documents are processed every 

day, which arrive in Leeds at around 

midnight delivered by couriers from 

Milton Keynes and Edinburgh. This is 

200% over the initial volume first 

expected, yet the tight Service Level 

Agreement - there is just a four hour 

window to digitise them - has still been 

met given the SCS software comes with 

features like MICR (Magnetic Ink Character 

Recognition) reading which automates 

and enhances read-rates. 

Once the cheques have been digitised, 

Communisis uses bespoke written 

software to collate the images produced 

and forward to an imaging and workflow 

platform which uses OCR to extract data 

like date, amount, recipient and signature 

presence from each image. This 

information is then released and 

integrated with the bank's back-end 

systems for further action. 

Morris explains, "We think this is one of 

the quickest turnaround SLAs in the UK 

for the volume processed with the highest 

accuracy and quality standards 

maintained. While the majority of cheques 

are automatically read and processed after 

scanning, any exceptions are auto-routed 

to our offshore partner in the Philippines. 

They have over 300 staff available, across 

six locations, who read and manually 

correct any individual fields that require 

validation." 

ANOTHER BANKING CLIENT 

In addition to the above project, 

Communisis works for another major 

British bank - considered one of the big 

four - providing large-scale, onsite digital 

mailroom and scanning services. 

Following the signing of a long-term 

contract, 460 people TUPE transferred to 

Communisis across three UK locations. 

Six ibml ImageTrac and three desktop DS 

scanners - owned by the bank, supported 

by Alaris but configured, operated and 

managed by Communisis staff as part of 

its FM contract - are used at three main 

UK operational centres of excellence. 

With guidance from Communisis, the 

scanners have recently been upgraded to 

the latest models to replace end of life 

equipment. They process 3 million 

inbound customer communications per 

month, creating around 4.5 million 

images. This includes letters, application 

forms and other documents related to the 

bank's financial products. Over the next 20 

months, the scanners will also process all 

so-called 'goneaways' - undeliverable 

customer mail - by scanning a barcode 

through the window of each envelope. 

Morris adds, "Since starting the contract 

five years ago, mail handling efficiency has 

improved by 30%. This has been achieved 

through a combination of technology to 

reduce manual intervention and the 

standardisation of business processes so 

that operators all work in the same way. 

This improves accuracy and consistency." 

Moving forward, Communisis is 

focused on generating business from 

clients who need a trusted partner to 

deliver outsourced billing, critical 

communications and payment solutions. 

Ashley Keil, ibml's sales director, 

Northern & Western Europe, Africa & 

India, says, "Typically these are 

organisations who operate in highly 

regulated industries with lots of 

customers. Our scanners are designed to 

operate faultlessly even when paper 

volumes are high and different 

document types - cheques, letters, forms 

and so on - have to be handled. This is 

crucial for a FM business like 

Communisis who offer BPO solutions to 

agreed SLAs which just have to be met." 

More info: www.ibml.com 

"OUR TEAM HAS OVER 20 YEARS 

EXPERTISE USING IBML SCANNERS SO 

THEY'RE OUR 'WEAPON OF CHOICE' 

WHEN IT COMES TO DIGITISING 

PAPER. WE'VE BENCHMARKED THEM 

AGAINST SIMILAR PRODUCTION 

SCANNERS AND THEY'VE ALWAYS 

COME OUT TOP IN TERMS OF IMAGE 

QUALITY, THROUGHPUT AND 

SCALABILITY." 




9

Dm EVENT: DM AWARDS 2019 

Time to get in the game 

Nominations are open for this year's DM Awards - see below for full details of how 

to vote, where and when 

Now in its 13th year, the DM 

Awards were established to 

showcase, recognise and reward 

the sector's true pioneers in technology 

products and service. The event is now 

unquestionably the biggest date in the 

industry calendar. Nominations are open 

right now, and close on August 23rd. 

Online voting for finalists will open shortly 

after that. 

This year there are 25 different 

categories in all in which you can 

nominate a company, product or service, 

as well as two additional 'Project of the 

Year' categories. Project award entries 

should be submitted as a PDF or a Word 

document; for details of entry and the 

criteria for submission please contact 

Abby Penn (see below). 

The big night itself will take place at 

the Leonardo Royal Hotel London City on 

the 28th November 2019 - as ever, we 

are expecting not just a memorable 

awards ceremony, but also the year's 

best and brightest social/networking 

event for the sector. The fact that well 

over 90% of our guests book to come 

back every year is testament to the 

ongoing success of the awards night, 

and this year will be no exception. 

DM Magazine editor David Tyler 

comments: "I genuinely think there would 

be mass disbelief and an outpouring of 

grief across the industry if the DM Awards 

was ever to come to an end. There is 

nothing to compare to it in the UK - or 

indeed anywhere in the world that we're 

aware of - and every year we get more 

nominations, more online votes, more 

attendees. We've been the victim of our 

own success more than once in having to 

find new venues to accommodate the 

growing list of attendees, but of course 

that's a great problem to have. Despite a 

slightly unsettled business and political 

environment in the UK at the moment 

we are already looking forward to 

potentially our biggest and best year ever 

at the DM Awards." 

For details of how to be involved this 

year, whether it is for nominating your 

company, submitting a project or 

becoming a sponsor for the event, please 

contact Abby Penn on 01689 616000 or 

email abby.penn@btc.co.uk. 

To make your nominations for a 

company, product or a service that you 

feel deserves recognition, head to the 

awards website now. 

More info: www.dmawards.com 

10 




EVENT: DM AWARDS 2019 Dm 

DM AWARDS CATEGORIES IN FULL 

PRODUCT AWARDS 

Accounts Payable/Invoicing Product of the Year 

AI/Robotic Process Automation Product of the Year 

Compliance Product of the Year 

Data Capture/Recognition Product of the Year 

Document Management Product of the Year 

Email Product of the Year 

Enterprise CMS Product of the Year 

Imaging Product of the Year - Desktop/Portable/Other 

Imaging Product of the Year - High Volume 

Imaging Product of the Year - Workgroup/Departmental 

Mobile Capture Product of the Year 

Print Fleet Management Solution of the Year 

Records Management Product of the Year 

Storage Product of the Year 

Security Product of the Year 

Workflow/BPM Product of the Year 

COMPANY AWARDS 

BPO/Bureau Business of the Year 

Data Destruction & Shredding Company of the Year 

Service/Support Company of the Year 

Channel Partner of the Year 

Software Product of the Year 

Hardware Product of the Year 

Product of the Year 

Company of the Year 

Editor's choice (not open to public nomination/vote) 

PROJECT AWARDS 

Public Sector Project of the Year 

Private Sector Project of the Year 

MORE INFO: WWW.DMAWARDS.COM 




11

Dm ANALYSIS: DIGITISATION TRENDS 

Room for improvement 

A new report from Kyocera Document Solutions indicates that the UK is leading 

the way among European countries when it comes to automating legal and 

logistics functions, but still has some ground to make up in areas like 

procurement and sales 

vast amounts of data that come in 

every day. 

Fourthly, the task of making sure the 

right information is available to the 

right people, while access is tracked, is 

not automated. 

Finally, not having centralised systems 

that can be accessed from anywhere for 

support in decision making hinders 

productivity and performance. 

Organisations across Europe are 

moving ever more into a digital age, 

but the UK is losing ground in its 

adaptation of digital documentation, 

according to Kyocera's 'Business 

Digitalisation in Europe Outlook 2019' 

report. The research provides an in-depth 

insight into the way in which businesses 

across the continent are handling digital 

transformation processes. 

The study surveyed 1,750 business 

representatives, ranging from self-employed 

freelancers to professionals from 

international corporations in seven 

European markets. Whilst 61% of UK 

companies have digitalised at least half of 

their business documents, the rate is lower 

than four of the seven other countries 

surveyed: the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, and 

Spain. In fact, 12% of UK organisations 

admit to barely having digitalised any of 

their documents, a figure which is double 

that of the rate in Spain and Italy. 

The study also reveals that the rate of 

automation of business processes, another 

way of finding greater productivity, is 

expected to increase in years to come, given 

that nine out of every ten companies claim 

that they would consider automating more 

processes over the next 12 months. 

SAME OLD PROBLEMS 

Information management challenges have 

become commonplace for enterprises as 

problems arise from traditionally 

managing documents and data, which 

are quickly leading to losses and 

becoming unsustainable. As such, many 

companies still find themselves dealing 

with issues pertaining to inefficient 

traditional work environments. 

Firstly, businesses are still storing 

information in multiple places, which 

makes looking for information a 

tedious and lengthy process for 

employees. 

Secondly, there is no way of ensuring 

compliance and data consistency across 

data stored in the business. 

Thirdly, organisations lack the right 

capabilities or, in other cases, find it 

difficult to capture and categorise the 

How can an enterprise tackle these 

problems? The answer, say Kyocera, lies in 

Content Services - a set of integrated 

software, hardware, and service solutions 

aimed at overcoming business challenges. 

As Content Services' predecessor, ECM 

already brought about significant changes 

to the industry as it helped companies 

streamline their organisation while 

optimising and making their processes 

evermore efficient. Now, Content Services 

has taken over by combining nextgeneration 

technologies such as artificial 

intelligence with the reality of today's 

digital enterprises. 

A technological solution to the challenges 

that companies face is already available on 

the market as is seen through the 

application of Content Services and 

Enterprise Content Management. Yet, 

businesses do not seem to understand 

what value these tools can bring and have 

thus never seen that there is a real solution 

that can fix the problems they have. 

What's more, many mistakenly regard 

the technology, and the services 

associated with implementing it, as 

expensive and out of reach for small to 

medium sized enterprises' budgets - a 

typical case in which the benefits certainly 

exceed the costs. 

12 




ANALYSIS: DIGITISATION TRENDS Dm 

"We are seeing that UK companies face a 

variety of challenges such as securing vital 

information and storing documentation, 

without realising that easy solutions exist 

and are on the market in the form of 

document management solutions, such as 

Content Services," explained Michael 

Powell, Expert Software Product 

Management at Kyocera Document 

Solutions Europe. "The UK leads the way in 

some departments, such as Logistics and 

Legal, but significantly lags behind in both 

digitalisation and automation of areas such 

as Sales and Procurement. Such disparity 

between departments is reflective of the 

way in which companies are transitioning, 

and therefore still have some way to go." 

It is crucial, says Kyocera, that UK 

enterprises adapt solutions such as 

Document Management Systems, 

Enterprise Content Management and 

Content Services in order to streamline 

their workflows in the hunt for efficiency. 

Despite 44% of European companies not 

being aware of the solutions, these 

products are already making a big impact 

across various departments and industries. 

To this extent, using the technology to 

enhance automation is a strategic priority 

for 35% of organisations. 

PAPER CHALLENGES STILL ABOUND 

With all of these issues presented, it is no 

surprise that companies are beginning to 

open their eyes to the benefits of digital 

transformation. Yet, after decades of 

practice relying upon paper and printing 

in their day to day lives, it is to be 

expected that there can be some 

resistance to change. 

This is true to the extent that paper has a 

role to play in two of the interviewed 

businesses' top five challenges in 2018. 

One in three companies claimed that they 

spent excessive amounts of time on 

processing paper documents, implying 

hidden costs, while a further 28% 

admitted that they lacked the physical 

space to store the documents that is 

required. By taking all of this online with a 

well-executed digital transformation plan, 

these challenges can gradually be 

overcome whilst significantly reducing 

business costs and employee workloads. 

The issues reflected by a lack of digital coordination 

also fuel this disorganisation 

that can be created and cause major 

obstacles for business success. In this case, 

29% of users found that various different 

versions of documents saved across 

numerous computers within a company 

had created a problem, and 28% also 

spoke of the issues caused by documents 

which existed in different or incompatible 

formats, such as PDF files that users lacked 

the correct tools to edit and digitally sign. 

This can be particularly problematic within 

contract management, where these issues 

may eventually cause lost business or 

delays in negotiations. 

Other challenges can also be confronted 

through the introduction of Content 

Services and similar tools. For example, 

25% of businesses complained that their 

workflow is almost entirely paper-based 

and highly manual and a further 17% 

claimed that there was very little to no 

document mobility and another 16% 

confessed to an inability to locate content 

and data. Through the implementation of 

a digital transformation strategy, these 

tasks can all become simple and can be 

easily controlled with just a few clicks or 

taps on a mobile device screen. 

These issues identified by businesses 

highlight the true value of an automation or 

workflow process. Given that companies 

have yet to truly focus on the benefits that it 

could bring, it is clear to see what they are 

missing out on. Challenges would remain, 

as 28% of businesses fear that there would 

be user resistance to the introduction of 

such technological solutions, but major 

obstacles would be overcome. Pursuing 

digitalisation in this way is the most efficient 

approach to achieving the growth that 

companies need to compete in a 

demanding and modern market. 

To download the full report, visit: 

https://www.kyoceradocumentsolutions.eu 

/en/content-services/business- 

digitalisation/europe-outlook-2019- 

study.html 

More info: 

www.kyoceradocumentsolutions.eu 




13

Dm CASE STUDY: BLUEBIRD CARE 

Sharing the load 

Home care specialist Bluebird Care has alleviated its 

paperwork and regulatory headaches thanks to 

document management services from Storetec 

Storetec has a long-standing 

relationship with Bluebird Care, 

providing the home care and 

support specialists with useful scanning 

and document management services. 

Starting as a small family business in 

2004, the Bluebird Care brand has quickly 

grown and now has over 200 franchises 

across the UK and Ireland. Providing 

bespoke services to hundreds of 

individuals who need care entails a 

significant amount of paperwork and 

administration. In addition to filing and 

record-keeping, franchises also have the 

responsibly of ensuring they are meeting 

CQC regulations and are GDPR compliant. 

Bluebird Care sought Storetec's scanning 

services a couple of years ago when an 

individual franchise recognised the 

benefits a structured electronic filing 

system could bring their business. Since 

then, Storetec has become an approved 

supplier of Bluebird Care and has assisted 

countless franchises in the transition to a 

more digital way of working. Storetec also 

attends the annual Bluebird Care 

Conference and Awards which recognises 

franchises and individual team members 

who go above and beyond to provide an 

excellent service. 

MOUNTAINS OF PAPER 

In one of Storetec's first Bluebird Care 

Franchise projects, the company sorted 

and scanned almost 9 years' worth of 

documentation relating to previous clients 

and employees. The client commented: 

"The paper took up so much space in our 

office and was an eyesore at the same 

time. Storetec were able to scan the files 

in alphabetical order making the ongoing 

process effortless." 

As every business knows, its easy to let 

that filing cabinet in the corner of the 

office continue to build up and overflow, 

but 9 years' worth of documentation is 

something that can't be ignored. 

Following many discussions with the care 

manager, Storetec scheduled the 

collection and transportation of the 

documents to its production centre for 

digitisation. 

Once scanned, the customer and care 

team records were exported to the 

client's required output and transferred 

via an encrypted hard drive. When 

initially sorting the archive, it appeared 

that some documents had already 

surpassed retention periods. In addition 

to the scanning, Storetec then ensured 

the secure destruction of such 

documents, and provided certification as 

proof to the franchise. 

CQC REGULATIONS 

It's well known that organisations 

delivering health and social care across 

England are heavily audited and regulated 


CASE STUDY: BLUEBIRD CARE Dm 

"TO ENSURE EASE OF ACCESSIBILITY TO POLICY DOCUMENTATION AND 

CARE RECORDS, MANY BLUEBIRD CARE FRANCHISES HAVE OPTED TO 

ACCESS THEIR SCANNED RECORDS VIA FREEDOCS, STORETEC'S CLOUD- 

BASED DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. NOT ONLY DOES THE 

SYSTEM BENEFIT FROM ADVANCED SEARCHING CAPABILITIES, BUT ALSO 

ENCOMPASSES A NUMBER OF SECURITY FEATURES INCLUDING: DATA 

ENCRYPTION, COMPLETE AUDIT TRAILS, DELEGATE USER ACCESS AND 

SECURE BACKUPS." 

by the CQC (Care Quality Commission). 

The CQC is responsible for monitoring 

and inspecting organisations to ensure 

they are meeting fundamental standards 

of quality and safety. All findings 

(including performance ratings) are 

published to help individuals choose the 

right care provider. With this in mind, 

achieving an 'outstanding' rating by the 

CQC or the equivalent in Scotland, Wales 

or Northern Ireland is not only a huge 

achievement, but could also result in lots 

of new interest from individuals seeking 

the best local care provider for 

family/friends. 

Many Bluebird Care franchises have 

used Storetec's document scanning and 

cloud-based document management 

service to manage their records in line 

with CQC regulations. Neil Murray, Head 

of Quality and Compliance at Bluebird 

Care suggests best practice for preparing 

for CQC inspections includes ensuring 

that "… all evidence should be accessible 

to an inspector, including policies, 

procedures, feedback, complaints, 

notifications, care records, training 

records and staff records". 

Storetec's services continue to help 

franchises benefit from a clear and 

defined file structure, whereby they can 

access documents quickly and effectively. 

It's not uncommon for CQC inspectors 

to visit organisations with as little as 48 

hours' notice. Without Storetec's help it 

is hard to imagine the hours that 

managers would have to spend sorting 

paper records, checking care teams and 

customer records are filed in the correct 

folder and checking no records are 

missing - even assuming that these 

actions could be completed within 48 

hours. The team at Storetec is proud to 

think that their document scanning 

services have played a part in helping 

franchises achieve an outstanding rating 

by the CQC. 

MORE EFFECTIVE DM 

To ensure ease of accessibility to policy 

documentation and care records, many 

Bluebird Care franchises have opted to 

access their scanned records via 

FreeDocs, Storetec's cloud-based 

document management system. Not 

only does the system benefit from 

advanced searching capabilities, but also 

encompasses a number of security 

features including: data encryption, 

complete audit trails, delegate user 

access and secure backups. Such security 

measures are extremely important to 

businesses such as Bluebird Care who 

process and manage large quantities of 

personal and confidential data relating 

to individual people. 

The UK market for care at home is 

anticipated to increase year on year with 

more people being encouraged by the 

government to be cared for in their own 

homes instead of moving into residential 

care. With the need for experienced, 

quality home care services developing, 

Bluebird Care expects to take on new 

franchises, employ more staff and care 

for more customers. Storetec will 

continue to support Bluebird Care with 

their growing administrative burden in 

years to come. 

More info: www.storetec.net 




15

Dm RESEARCH: DARK DATA 

In the dark about your data? 

Half of organisations fear security breaches and regulation non-compliance due 

to unstructured data, says research from Crown Records Management 

UK CIOs have revealed the huge 

extent of dark and unstructured 

data lurking within - and 

posing a threat to - organisations. 

Nine out of 10 respondents in research 

by Crown Records Management say 

that unstructured 'data oceans' - a 

wealth of data which is difficult to 

view, access and secure - are a 

problem and pose risks of security and 

non-compliance with data regulations. 

As much as 59% of data across UK 

organisations is unstructured while 

40% of data is 'dark' or unused. With 

IDC suggesting that 90% of 

unstructured data is never analysed, 

organisations are in uncharted waters 

when it comes to managing risk, 

fulfilling personal information requests 

under GDPR or gaining intelligence 

from their information. 51% said 

unstructured data was a security risk 

and 49% said it put them in danger of 

non-compliance. 

Kevin Widdop, Information Security 

Consultant at Crown Records 

Management says: "Many 

organisations seem to be at risk of 

drowning in vast amounts of data that 

they are not aware of, and many are 

suffering from a wealth of data in 

which they don't know what 

information it contains. It's valid to 

hold unused data for compliance 

purposes. However, it becomes an 

issue when much of this data is held in 

unstructured formats and when 

sensitive data isn't adequately 

protected, potentially landing the 

business with a fine or negative public 

image if the data is breached." 

But it's not all about risk. Managed 

effectively, unstructured data appears 

to hold the key to further business 

success. 64% said they could improve 

operational efficiency and productivity 

by tapping into unstructured data 

more. 34% said they could grow sales, 

32% felt customer loyalty could be 

improved and 31% saw it as a source 

of improving employee engagement. 

Unstructured data is becoming more 

difficult to manage due to its 

complexity. Crown's research showed 

that unstructured data is split evenly 

into paper files, data in original 

electronic documents and data in 

scanned copies of documents. 

Respondents also revealed the types of 

unstructured data they are most 

worried about: 

90% were concerned about data 

in written documents 

88% were concerned about emails 

85% were concerned about social 

media 

85% were concerned about 

handwritten documents and forms. 

Given that these sources aren't 

adequately protected or easily 

accessed when data is required, 

organisations are afraid of security 

breaches and not being able to 

provide data within necessary 

timeframes. 

"As data indexing and management 

tools develop, organisations have 

increasing options to help them keep 

both their unstructured and dark data 

secure but accessible," said Widdop. 

"They can then ensure that risks around 

security and compliance are kept at a 

minimum. Dark data will become 

visible and easily accessible, giving 

organisations far better knowledge of 

the information that they hold and 

what it can do for them." 

More info: www.crownrms.com 

16 




Dm ROUNDTABLE: GDPR 

GDPR one year on: cause for celebration? 

The EU GDPR has been in force for a whole year now, but what has been its real 

impact on the document and content management sectors as well as the wider 

world? DM Magazine shares insights from a selection of industry luminaries in an 

attempt to clarify some of the issues 

May 2019 marked the first 

anniversary of the 

implementation of the EU 

General Data Protection Regulation, and 

early indications would seem to suggest 

that it has so far been a success as a 

breach notification law. GDPR has been 

seen to impact on multiple aspects of a 

business - perhaps more than many had 

expected beforehand. It has for instance 

created increased requirements for 

businesses to deal with issues such as 

security, compliance, data ownership, 

training and data management. The 

new regulation has required a 

fundamental change to many 

organisations' internal processes and a 

new ongoing focus on compliance. 

Frank Krieger, VP of Governance, Risk 

and Compliance at iland, says, "Overall, 

the understanding of the value and 

risks around personal data has had to 

be propagated through organisations 

and actively monitored. GDPR didn't act 

as a reminder of what ought to be 

done, but instead as a proper new 

regulation. It has changed how 

organisations collect and manage data 

and personal information, busting the 

myth that data management lived in 

the IT department silo and making it 

relevant for everyone. That has required 

extensive investment in people and 

tools to oversee, and a re-evaluation of 

business relationships with suppliers 

and customers alike." 

So has GDPR been the game-changer 

that many anticipated, wreaking 

corporate havoc along the lines of 

Sarbanes-Oxley in its day? Some argue 

that it has in fact had a far more 

positive influence on organisational 

behaviours. "Before May 2018 GDPR 

was thought to be a regulation that 

had the potential to end companies 

overnight, but that hasn't happened," 

says PFU's Mike Nelson. "Instead, it's 

18 

@DMMagAndAwards July/August 2019 


ROUNDTABLE: GDPR Dm 

"ONE YEAR ON AND THE QUESTION IS … WAS GDPR - LIKE Y2K - A LOT OF 

UNNECESSARY FUSS? WELL, NO. IN FACT IT HAS BECOME A MORE 

PERVASIVE TOPIC, AS THE GLOBE BEYOND EUROPE HAS WOKEN TO THE 

FACT THAT GDPR APPLIES NOT ONLY TO EU INSTITUTIONS BUT TO ANY 

ORGANISATION THAT DEALS WITH EU CITIZENS, WHEREVER THEY LIVE. A 

YEAR AGO, A LOT OF U.S. INSTITUTIONS WERE NOT QUITE AWAKE TO THE 

REQUIREMENTS OF GDPR, BUT IT'S NOW AS COMMONLY TALKED ABOUT 

AS CYBER-SECURITY." - DERMOT MCCAULEY, KOFAX 

enabled every organisation that 

handles data to ensure it focuses its 

attention on harvesting and using 

quality information, rather than simply 

collecting everything and hoping it will 

be useful one day. This approach 

benefits the end consumer and the 

organisation, as it doesn't waste 

valuable space or time capturing 

irrelevant data. 

"In PFU EMEA, and the wider image 

capture industry, we expect this trend 

to continue, with organisations actively 

taking steps to optimise their capture 

techniques to collect, digitise, analyse 

and use data better." 

Alex Scheinman, Director of Privacy, 

Cybersecurity and Risk at ACA 

Compliance, argues that there has been 

what he describes as 'a systemic shift' in 

the way that the public believes firms 

should handle data privacy, no matter 

where their clients may be based: "Over 

the last year 260,000 complaints were 

recorded by the data protection 

authority, suggesting huge awareness 

around new data rights. The regulation 

has pushed data into the spotlight 

leading to a growing public awareness 

around how businesses should protect 

it. As high profile cases such as 

Facebook and Cambridge Analytica 

further reinforce this, even 

governments outside of the EU are 

starting to pay attention. In the US 

there are copycat bills and possible 

federal laws on the horizon." 

Dermot McCauley, Vice President, 

Solutions Product Marketing, Kofax 

agrees that GDPR is having a significant 

global impact: "One year on and the 

question is … was GDPR - like Y2K - a 

lot of unnecessary fuss? Well, no. In 

fact GDPR has become a more pervasive 

topic, as the globe beyond Europe has 

woken to the fact that GDPR applies 

not only to EU institutions but to any 

organisation that deals with EU 

citizens, wherever they live. A year ago, 

a lot of U.S. institutions were not quite 

awake to the requirements of GDPR, 

but it's now as commonly talked about 

as cybersecurity. GDPR has also 

strengthened other privacy regulations. 

Most notably, the State of California 

Consumer Privacy Act that will go into 

effect January 1, 2020. With the 

experience Kofax has with GDPR, we 

are well positioned to help in California 

as well." 

At the same time, GDPR has dispelled 

once and for all the myth that data 

protection stops at an organisation's 

perimeter, as iland's Krieger explains: 

"Suddenly, businesses realised that they 

were responsible not just for their own 

data protection compliance, but that 

of all the links in their supply chain. 

Cloud computing is a case in point 

where IT and business managers 

realised that their CSP needed to be 

just as compliant as they were in order 

to avoid a huge security gap. From 

client-supplier, the relationship has 

shifted to that of a collaborative 

security partnership as the degree of 

trust and diligence needed between 

parties escalated." 




19

Dm ROUNDTABLE: GDPR 

"AS EXPECTED, GDPR HAS LED TO AN INCREASE IN THE VOLUME OF SARS 

OVER THE PAST 12 MONTHS. FURTHERMORE, RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT 

JUST 50% OF FS FIRMS ARE FULFILLING SARS WITHIN THE LEGAL 

TIMEFRAME, SO THERE IS A CLEAR ISSUE TO ADDRESS. PART OF THE 

REASON THAT SOME FIRMS ARE STRUGGLING WITH SARS IS BECAUSE THEY 

ARE ADDRESSING GDPR AS PURELY A DATA ISSUE, WHEN THEY SHOULD BE 

APPROACHING IT FROM A DATA, CONTENT, AND PROCESS PERSPECTIVE." - 

DAVE JONES, NUXEO 

IT'S COMPLICATED 

One recent report from the Information 

Technology and Innovation Foundation, 

however, suggests that things are far 

from rosy in the GDPR garden. It says 

there is mounting evidence that not 

only has the law not produced its 

intended outcomes, but that, the 

unintended consequences are severe 

and widespread. GDPR has, for 

example, been an unexpected drain on 

company resources: over 40 percent of 

companies, including U.S. firms with a 

data presence in the EU, had spent 

$10.1 million (€9 million) in compliance 

efforts according to PWC. 

In addition the ITIF report suggests 

that GDPR itself is proving too complex 

for businesses to implement: in one 

October 2018 survey of data protection 

professionals, more than half (56 

percent) of respondents at 

organisations subject to the GDPR say 

their organisations are far from 

compliance or will never comply. It also 

suggested that one in five respondents 

felt that 'full GDPR compliance is 

impossible'. 

Perhaps more worryingly, the report 

quotes research from the EU itself that 

suggests that the GDPR has failed in 

one of its main stated aims: to increase 

trust. Indeed, six months after it went 

into effect, consumer trust in the 

internet was at its lowest in a decade. 

The EU further stated that "at a country 

level there is no consistent relationship 

between awareness of GDPR and the 

level of control respondents feel they 

have over the personal information 

they post online." 

It remains to be seen whether 

document and content management 

technologies, and newer offerings such 

as RPA and AI/machine learning, might 

be able to lift some of the load for 

organisations struggling with GDPR's 

manifold requirements, from SARs to 

data retention schedules. 

SARS IN THEIR EYES 

Handling subject access requests (SARs) 

effectively and within the legal 

timeframe remains a particularly 

challenging aspect of GDPR for many 

employers - especially where SARs are 

becoming increasingly onerous. The 

amount of information held about 

employees and former employees 

(whether in a personnel file, internal 

memorandums, meeting notes or simply 

email correspondence) can be vast. 

Understanding from the outset how to 

respond to an SAR is crucial because 

failing to respond can expose the 

business to a claim, fines, enforcement 

action and reputational damage. 

Dave Jones, VP of Product Marketing 

at Nuxeo argues that SARs should not 

be thought of as just about data: "As 

expected, GDPR has led to an increase 

in the volume of SARs over the past 12 

months. Furthermore, research has 

shown that just 50% of FS firms are 

fulfilling SARs within the legal 

timeframe, so there is a clear issue to 

address. Part of the reason that some 

firms are struggling with SARs is 

because they are addressing GDPR as 

purely a data issue, when they should 

20 July/August 2019 www.document-manager.com 

@DMMagAndAwards

ROUNDTABLE: GDPR Dm 

"BEFORE MAY 2018 GDPR WAS THOUGHT TO BE A REGULATION THAT HAD 

THE POTENTIAL TO END COMPANIES OVERNIGHT, BUT THAT HASN'T 

HAPPENED. INSTEAD, IT'S ENABLED EVERY ORGANISATION THAT HANDLES 

DATA TO ENSURE IT FOCUSES ITS ATTENTION ON HARVESTING AND USING 

QUALITY INFORMATION, RATHER THAN SIMPLY COLLECTING EVERYTHING 

AND HOPING IT WILL BE USEFUL ONE DAY." - MIKE NELSON, PFU EMEA 

be approaching it from a data, 

content, and process perspective." 

TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS 

Dermot McCauley at Kofax feels that 

GDPR has actually helped with the 

acceptance of emerging technologies 

such as RPA: "Robotic Process 

Automation (RPA) has been a very hot 

market, but has had an additional 

boost thanks to GDPR. A new 

workforce of digital workers (aka RPA 

software robots) have been the perfect 

adjunct to the GDPR compliance 

workforce, adding capacity by 

automatically retrieving and updating 

data in every nook and cranny of an 

organisation." 

David Moseley, Product Marketing 

Director for Governance at iManage 

agrees that GDPR is acting as a 

catalyst for organisations to 

investigate how technology can help 

them demonstrate compliance - and 

bring them business differentiators 

into the bargain. He explains: 

"Reflecting on the GDPR, we have seen 

significant increases in both the 

deployment of electronic records 

management and interest in Artificial 

Intelligence to help define record 

retention schedules based on 

classification of content - say 

containing PII. 

"We've also seen growth in the 

number of law firms who are using 

need-to-know security as the default 

when opening new matters. Enforcing 

need-to-know access can minimise the 

impact of any data breach and 

demonstrates to regulators and clients 

a 'state of the art' security posture. 

Plus there are wider business benefits 

of adopting such Information 

Governance initiatives that go beyond 

helping with GDPR compliance - 

disposing of 'end-of-life' content and 

reducing storage costs help strengthen 

a broader data management strategy 

and adopting need-to-know access 

can be used as a differentiator when 

pitching for new business - clients 

expect due care to be taken with their 

sensitive content." 

ANOTHER FINE MESS? 

Alex Scheinman of ACA Compliance is 

concerned that many businesses are 

lagging behind to the point where 

they may be laying themselves open to 

legal problems if they don't make 

changes: "As we reach the 1 year 

anniversary since GDPR went into 

effect, there are still firms in Europe 

that are only now beginning to 

implement the procedures and 

functionality to their systems. When in 

fact, at this stage, they should be 

maintaining and revisiting these 

processes. Although enforcement in 

Europe has been low, we expect fines 

to pick up this summer." 

Any legislation, including GDPR, is 

only as powerful as its enforcement. 

Going forward, Ernst and Young have 

said they expect European authorities 

to become even more stringent in the 

future. "We expect European 

regulators to implement their 2019 

announcements and increase their 

fines," said EY partner Peter Katko. 

Nuxeo's David Jones agrees: "It's clear 

that GDPR fines are going to be 

enforced more strictly in 2019, and 

that firms could also face other 

penalties that come with noncompliance, 

such as damage to brand. 

Again, the best way of addressing this 

is to approach GDPR from an 

intelligent information management 

perspective, not just data, otherwise 

companies could run into serious 

difficulties." 

In fact there have already been GDPR 

fines totalling €56M in its first year, 

with more than 200,000 investigations 

- 64,000 of which were upheld. To be 

fair, the fines total includes the 

enormous €50 million charge issued to 

Google by France's national Data 

Protection Commission CNIL. 

Thorsten Kurpjuhn, European Market 

Development Manager at Zyxel argues 

that this refects a laissez-faire attitude 

from many organisations: "To some 

extent, the uncertainty about the legal 

implications of the legislation still 

prevails and businesses have in the 

meantime buried their heads in the 

sand under the assumption that it 

won't impact them." He goes on: "Time 

has not yet run out and those who act 

now can still prevent sanctions and 

reputational damage that comes hand 

in hand with data breaches. We need 

to break the silence and bring GDPR 

back to the top of the business 

agenda, otherwise, businesses will 

face a perfect storm in the second year 

of GDPR enforcement." DM 




21

Dm CASE STUDY: SOUTHALL SCHOOL 

Look and learn 

Visionary school saves time and space with Fujitsu scanning solution 

Southall Special school, based in 

Telford, is a leader in the use of 

best digital practices to offer a 

more complete learning and working 

experience. Part of the school's remit is 

keeping hundreds of files worth of 

accurate and up to date student 

records. An additional requirement is 

that pupils with special education 

needs (SEN) have school records which 

need to be safely and securely stored 

for 25 years. This was proving a 

problem for the school in several 

different ways, lack of storage space, 

access and retrieval issues as well as 

GDPR compliance. Fujitsu scanners in 

conjunction with software from 

partner Filestar have solved all of these 

problems. 

The filing cabinets at Southall School 

were filling up with pupil records, 

taking up valuable space, making 

document retrieval difficult and time 

consuming, whilst being at risk from 

theft, fire and flooding. Jonathan 

Barrett, IT Manager and part of the 

school's senior management team, 

knew there had to be a better solution, 

and thought that digital scanning may 

hold the answer. 

Barrett contacted Steve Hill at Filestar 

to get their expert help and advice. 

Filestar offers a cloud-based document 

management software solution which 

has comprehensive auditing facilities 

and flexible retention policies. This 

sounded like a great fit for the 

school's paper document problems. 

Filestar recommended the Fujitsu fi- 

7300NX scanner as the ideal 

companion to their software, for 

scanning the pupil records. 

ONE-BUTTON SOLUTION 

The stand-alone scanner can cope with 

a wide variety of documents that can 

then be seamlessly processed to a 

range of destinations and systems via 

the in-built touchscreen and intuitive 

software. 

With the scanning part of the 

problem solved, Jonathan and Steve 

worked together to customise the 

Filestar software to precisely meet the 

needs of the school. Filestar works like 

a virtual filing cabinet, and with just 

one button press on the Fujitsu 

scanner, the pupil records are scanned, 

the typed text is converted into digital, 

searchable text, and the document is 

automatically filed in the correct folder 

in the cloud. 

Having the documents kept securely 

in the cloud offers many advantages. 

Firstly, the school no longer needs to 

hold a paper copy, saving filing space 

and eliminating the risk of damage 

and theft. Secondly, the documents 

can only be accessed by the correct 

personnel with the right permissions, 

and every time the documents are 

accessed, there is a full audit trail of 

who has read what, and what they've 

done with the document. Finally, 

searching and retrieval of documents 

can be done instantly, enabling 

compliance with GDPR and saving time 

and administration resources. 

Jonathan Barrett and the school have 

been thrilled with the solution, and 

said that the scanners are 'absolutely 

amazing.' The scanner is very portable, 

and has moved around the school as 

the pupil records have been scanned 

and indexed. This has given the school 

staff some much needed extra room in 

the offices and ensured a safe and 

secure procedure for storing the 

records for many years to come. 

More info: emea.fujitsu.com/scanners 

22 




Dm TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: PAPER HANDLING 

Hard to handle? 

In a perfect world, every scan job would involve 

neatly stacked batches of the same size and weight 

paper, but in reality organisations handle a wide 

variety of document types every day. Petra Beck, 

Market and Business Intelligence Manager at Alaris, 

explains how to take advantage of advanced paper 

handling technologies 

Document capture is the critical first 

step for automating paper-based 

business processes. Scanners that 

offer advanced paper handling capabilities 

in addition to fast and efficient image 

processing significantly reduce the time 

spent digitising documents. Many 

organisations overlook the bottlenecks 

related to paper handling that slow down 

the capture process. Removing unnecessary 

manual steps when preparing documents is 

critical to saving time and money, and 

ensures valuable information flows 

seamlessly into business systems. 

BE PREPARED 

One of the most time-consuming elements 

of digitisation is document preparation - it's 

the first and most important step in a 

batch scanning process. Half of the staff 

involved in most scanning operations are 

dedicated to document preparation. This 

can include removing paper clips, staples 

and other binding materials; checking to 

ensure all edges are unfolded; and 

inspecting for tears or other damage to 

pages. There is also a requirement to presort 

papers that may cause problems 

during the scanning process. 

When scanners can't handle documents of 

mixed shapes and sizes, staff have to spend 

significant time to pre-sort or add steps like 

gluing smaller documents onto A4/letter 

sheets or cutting longer documents to align 

with A4 documents. Pre-sorting is also a 

workaround to address instances where 

scanners fail to deliver consistent output 

when processing documents with mixedquality 

colour and contrast. 

Digitisation often starts in the mailroom: 

incoming mail has to be dealt with 

efficiently on a daily basis and staff often 

have time-sensitive targets to scan 

documents and make them available for 

processing by a certain time of day. Where 

scanning is outsourced, BPOs and Scan 

Service Providers have to meet customer 

SLAs. Even in lower volume client-facing 

scanning applications, paper feeding issues 

can occur, resulting in a frustrated clerk and 

an unhappy customer. 

DOCUMENTS AREN'T PERFECT 

Organisations handle a wide variety of 

document types every day - including 

A4/letter, A3/tabloid and larger or longer 

format documents, envelopes, postcards, 

checks, vouchers and ID cards. The majority 

of production scanning applications involve 

batches of mixed and paper quality. 

Documents rarely arrive in perfect 

condition. They are folded, corners bent or 

torn, and may be wrinkled, lightweight or 

fragile. Documents may have photographs 

glued on, post-it notes attached, or be 

bound together by staples or paper-clips. 

The mix and condition of documents to 

be scanned thus helps define the paper 

handling requirements of the scanner used 

for the project. 

ON THE WAY OUT 

It's also important to consider what 

happens to documents after scanning. 

This determines the requirements for 

output stacking. 

Scenario 1: Paper documents will be put 

back into folders after scanning so original 

order must be maintained. 

Scenario 2: Paper documents will be stored 

in boxes for archival purposes so order is 

not always critical. However, when retaining 

original order is imperative, image 

addressing permits sequential numbers to 

be applied to each scanned document and 

each batch to be accurately tracked using 

patch codes. 

Scenario 3: Paper documents will be 

destroyed after scanning so the document 

output order is not important. 

Alaris research suggests that more than 

48% of low volume production scanning 

applications fall into Scenario 1, thus the 

order of documents is critically important. 

Making the right technology choices at the 

24 




TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: PAPER HANDLING Dm 

outset can have far-reaching benefits such 

as ensuring the media handling features 

are fit for purpose, so operators can 

complete the scanning process with 

minimum fuss. 

FEEDING TIME 

Feeding challenges increase exponentially 

in high volume production type 

environments. For example, a double feed 

(where two pages stick together) stops the 

scanning process and forces the operator 

to determine where the multi-feed 

occurred. The operator typically needs to 

delete a partial image and rescan all 

documents involved. If documents are 

damaged during the multi-feed, additional 

time-consuming steps may include taping 

or gluing pages to another document for 

additional stability. This brings the 

scanning operation to a standstill for 

several minutes and has a significant 

negative impact on productivity. 

The paper path is an important part of a 

scanner's design. Leading manufacturers 

focus much of their attention and 

engineering expertise on developing the 

best paper feeding technology available. 

The design must take into consideration 

the range of document types that need to 

be handled. There are simple yet essential 

design aspects like ensuring there are no 

catch points in the paper path where 

pages can get stuck. The "waterfall" design 

concept is important to ensure that the 

paper flows through smoothly. 

Designing an efficient paper path starts 

with choosing between a C-shaped or 

straight-through transport. In terms of user 

comfort, ease of use and reliability, a C- 

shaped transport is far superior for most 

uses. A well-designed, C-shaped paper 

path can handle thicker weight papers. 

Alternatively, a straight-through paper path 

maintains order for very thick or stiff 

documents but has no other advantages. 

MINIMISING INTERVENTION 

For scanner input trays, size and design 

requirements vary based on the needs of 

the scanning operation. Operators may 

prefer an input tray that aligns with batch 

sizes, which vary based on the business 

application and to a lesser degree the 

individual operational requirements of an 

organisation. It's also key to ensure that 

the input tray is capable of processing 

long documents without requiring 

operator intervention. 

For ad-hoc scanning applications, a 

scanner's form factor comes into play. For 

example, the ability to fold up the input 

tray to minimise footprint when the 

scanner is not in use can be a valueadded 

feature. 

GIVE PRODUCTIVITY A LIFT 

Users of high-end scanners with large input 

trays benefit from an automatic elevator 

design, which accommodates various 

stacks of documents up to 750 sheets. 

When the input elevator is set to the 

document feeder position, it will remain in 

the highest position. When set to 

accommodate a specific number of pages, 

it will automatically raise to feed documents 

and lower after the last document in the 

stack has been fed. This saves time when 

loading and switching batches. 

ACTIVE FEED TECHNOLOGY 

For scanning projects that involve messy 

document stacks, which are particularly 

common in applications involving mixedsize 

document batches, the operator needs 

to align all pages before they can be fed. 

This is important to control the skew of 

documents as they enter the transport to 

avoid clipped corners. The design of the 

registration gates supports the alignment 

of a batch. Alaris has optimised this design 

to be located at the bottom and fold out. 

Production scanning operations often use 

a jogging device which requires an extra 

step in the process. Advanced technology 

like Alaris Active Feed Technology, 

introduced with the Alaris S2000 Series 

Scanners, optimises feeding performance 

to make scan preparation simpler, 

removing the requirement to stack 

documents perfectly in the document 

feeder. Active Feed Technology jogs the 

pages to align them for error-free 

scanning. Stacks of small documents can 

be pulsed for optimal feeding. This 

significantly reduces mis-feeds and poor 

alignment - which require time-intensive 

manual re-scans. 

PREVENTING DATA LOSS 

For scanning operators and knowledge 

workers alike, speed is of the essence. 

Maximising hourly and daily throughput in 

a production environment is particularly 

critical because any delay can impact 

efficiency, productivity and profitability. 

Paper jams halt the scanning process and 

cost users valuable time clearing jams and 

figuring out which documents have and 

have not been scanned. This may seriously 

impact the ability to meet SLAs. 

Interactive Multi-Feed Detection, a feature 

unique to Alaris production scanners, 

instantly detects a multi-feed or multi-layer 

document, such as a sheet of paper with a 

sticky note attached. Alaris has raised the 

bar on multi-feed detection with built-in 

ultrasonic sensors that use multiple 

microphones to listen for sheets that are 

starting to crumble. Documents that set off 

an alert are pushed to the scanner's exit 

path without stopping the scanning 

process, and the operator can then make a 

decision whether to accept, ignore or 

rescan images. 

Additionally, this Alaris functionality 

enables operators to skip what would be 

registered as a multi-feed, to allow items 

such as envelopes to be scanned alongside 

other documents. This ensures no pages 

are missed in the scanning process and 

prevents loss of critical data. 

Interactive Multi-Feed Detection delivers 

99.999% document feed accuracy using 

scanners from Alaris, according to Keypoint 

Intelligence/Buyers Lab testing. 

INTELLIGENT DOCUMENT 

PROTECTION 

The best approach to dealing with paper 

feeding issues is to proactively identify and 

address them. Alaris' R&D team has 

developed a proprietary technology called 

Intelligent Document Protection, which 

defends against damaged documents and 

lost data to improve efficiency with no 

compromise on quality control. 

Intelligent Document Protection monitors 

the condition of paper being scanned 

using ultrasonic sensors to 'listen' for 

problems and alert the user before jams or 

misfeeds occur. It immediately stops the 

scanning process at the first indication of 




25

Dm TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: PAPER HANDLING 

document damage, so users can preserve 

the document and the information it 

contains. This feature also detects staples 

that may have been missed in the pre-scan 

preparation process. 

COLLECTION & STACKING 

As noted earlier, output stacking 

requirements depend on how the paper 

documents are handled after the scanning 

process. For situations where documents 

need to be reassembled in the same order 

or even moved back into binders, the 

order and quality of stacking play an 

important role. 

Where mixed-size batches - and in 

particular those involving lightweight 

documents - are scanned, this presents a 

significant challenge and may result in 

operators spending unnecessary time postscan 

dealing with messy output stacks. The 

order of documents can easily be mixed up, 

making it difficult to locate specific 

documents that need to be found or cause 

issues in a BPO environment where originals 

often need to be returned to the customer. 

Alaris offers leading technology for 

controlled output stacking on Kodak 

production scanners and the Alaris S2000 

Series, which reduces time and effort by 

placing paper neatly in the output tray. 

Scanners from Alaris ensure lightweight 

papers such as rice paper are slightly bent 

in the middle for additional stiffness. In 

addition, the exit deflector 'holds' pages 

down, which is particularly important to 

ensure that small sheets settle down next to 

the scanner and allow the following pages 

to settle on top. It is adjustable to easily 

align the edges of the documents after 

exiting to form a neat stack and can also be 

popped out of the way if desired. 

Controlled output stacking is also 

enhanced with software that controls and 

changes the velocity of the sheet as it lands 

on the exit tray. Operators can capture 

images at high speed and slow down the 

output speed through the software to 

ensure lightweight pages, for example, rest 

on the exit tray as opposed to the floor. 

SMARTER SORTING 

Most high-volume scanners with sorting 

capability require proprietary software. 

Alaris has designed the i5650S and i5850S 

Scanners to enable most sorting jobs via 

standard drivers such as TWAIN and ISIS. 

This makes it much easier for operators to 

get to the next level of productivity without 

having to learn a completely new system. 

Alaris production scanners also offer 

three-pocket sorting designed for the 

extreme scanning demands of Service 

Bureaus, BPOs and corporate mailrooms. 

Combining smart sorting with high speed 

throughput and superior image quality 

leads to increased productivity and 

significantly lower capture costs. 

In some applications (e.g. banking and 

insurance) original documents such as proof 

of ID have to be returned to the customer 

after scanning, which means operators have 

to carefully prepare documents beforehand, 

then separate them once scanning is 

complete. This manual process can be errorprone, 

labour intensive and costly. 

The i5650S and i5850S Scanners simplify 

the process by reducing the amount of 

manual labour. Using the patch-sheet 

recognition feature to separate document 

batches, reusable patch sheets are 

separated and output to the rear exit tray, 

while original customer documents are 

automatically separated and output to an 

exception tray at the front of the scanner. 

With the automated sorting capabilities 

these scanners deliver, separator sheets can 

now be reused many times. Scanning 

service providers no longer have to throw 

away millions of separator sheets each year. 

The ability to reuse separator sheets delivers 

substantial cost savings and reduces the 

waste footprint. 

BEST-IN-CLASS 

Advanced paper handling capabilities can 

take a lot of the complexity and manual 

intervention out of the scanning process. 

Alaris offers best-in-class technology for 

handling and feeding mixed batches 

without causing paper jams, especially for 

batches involving a mix of document shape, 

thickness and size. Our partners and 

customers accredit Alaris' paper handling 

capabilities as a significant competitive 

advantage alongside our leading image 

processing capabilities. 

More info: www.alarisworld.com 


Dm TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: MICROFILM 

Time to update your film 

collection? 

Microfilm users need to consider a number of issues 

before commencing down the digitisation path, explains 

Todd Kahle, Vice President of e-ImageData Corp 

Our digital world has conditioned 

us to expect needed information 

to be accessible almost instantly. 

Even people who grew up in a preinternet 

world have come to demand 

this. Most information today is available 

in a form that meets this instant 

accessibility expectation. However, there 

are many trillions of documents that are 

only available on microfilm and even 

when using modern microfilm scanners, 

accessing these documents is less than 

instant. For this reason, and others, 

there is an almost universal desire to 

digitise microfilm collections. 

There are, though, many questions to 

be addressed before a decision can be 

made to move forward with digitisation. 

1) Copyright: Before microfilmed 

documents can be digitised, permission 

to copy must be obtained or it must be 

confirmed that the documents are in 

the public domain. For more 

information on copyright laws, please 

visit http://e-imagedata.info/copyright. 

2) Security: If the microfilm to be 

digitised contains sensitive information 

and cannot be moved off site, 

digitisation will need to be done on site. 

3) Accessibility: If the microfilmed 

documents to be digitised must be 

available during the digitisation 

process, it may be logistically 

impractical to move the film off site. 

4) Indexing: An index is the means by 

which finding a document is possible. 

Creating an index can be a major 

expense for any digitisation project. The 

greater the granularity of the index the 

more quickly a document can be found, 

but the more expensive it is to create. 

5) File Format: File format is how the 

digitised image is stored on the 

computer. Formats such as PDF or TIFF 

can be integrated with any document 

management system, whereas 

proprietary file formats cannot. 

Furthermore, proprietary file formats 

will require a proprietary viewer. 

Choosing a proprietary file format 

creates an unhealthy and perpetual 

dependency on the company providing 

them. 

6) Bit Depth: Typical values are 8-bit 

(256 shades of grey) or 1-bit (2 shades 

of grey which is black and white). 1-bit 

files require substantially less storage 

28 




TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: MICROFILM Dm 

"DOCUMENTS ON MICROFILM ARE OFTEN OF POOR QUALITY. JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN DIGITISED 

DOESN'T MEAN THAT THE DIGITISED VERSION IS READABLE. DESTROYING THE ORIGINAL MICROFILM AFTER 

DIGITISATION IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED, BUT IF THAT IS THE INTENT, THEN IT WILL BE NECESSARY TO INSPECT 

100% OF THE DIGITISED IMAGES PRIOR TO THE FILM'S DESTRUCTION. IT IS COMMON FOR A FILM COLLECTION 

TO CONTAIN MANY MILLIONS OF DOCUMENT IMAGES, BUT IF THE DIGITAL COPY OF JUST 1 MILLION 

DOCUMENTS WERE INSPECTED, SPENDING JUST 1 SECOND ON EACH WOULD TAKE A MINIMUM OF 277 MAN- 

HOURS TO COMPLETE." 

space than 8-bit files. However, if the 

document image on film is of poor 

quality, which is frequently the case, 

to capture all image detail, it may be 

necessary to use 8-bit grayscale. 

7) Dot Per Inch (DPI): DPI affects both 

image clarity and file size. A typical 

value is 300 dpi. Higher DPI may 

improve image clarity but will increase 

required storage space. 

8) Quality Assurance: Documents on 

microfilm are often of poor quality. 

Just because they have been digitised 

doesn't mean that the digitised version 

is readable. Destroying the original 

microfilm after digitisation is strongly 

discouraged, but if that is the intent, 

then it will be necessary to inspect 

100% of the digitised images prior to 

the film's destruction. It is common for 

a film collection to contain many 

millions of document images, but if 

the digital copy of just 1 million 

documents were inspected, spending 

just 1 second on each would take a 

minimum of 277 man-hours to 

complete. Nonetheless, 100% 

inspection is not 100% accurate. 

100% inspection will be a major 

expense of the digitisation process 

and in many cases, it is impractical. 

For this reason, it is suggested that 

the film always be retained, thereby 

making the inspection step 

unnecessary. If while using the 

digitised images, it is discovered that 

the quality of an image is 

unacceptable the film can then be 

used to re-digitise and replace the 

unacceptable image. 

9) Hardware: Hardware will be needed 

to accomplish three tasks. The first is 

the actual digitisation. The second is 

to store, serve, and backup the files. 

The third is to accomplish re-scans 

when a digitised image is found to be 

unacceptable. 

10) Software: Depending on the file 

format chosen, it may be necessary to 

purchase a proprietary viewer for each 

computer needing access to the 

digitised images. This software 

frequently includes recurring software 

charges. Therefore, proprietary file 

formats are not recommended. 

11) Cost: The cost of digitising 

microfilm is influenced by many 

factors such as how many images are 

to be digitised, do the images need to 

be 100% inspected, what level of 

granularity is needed for indexing, 

hardware costs, storage/server costs, 

recurring software charges, recurring 

storage/server charges, etc. 

If all this seems overwhelming, take 

comfort in the fact that you are not 

alone. At this point in the evolution of 

microfilm digitisation technology, the 

best digitisation path is frequently not 

clear. In fact, for many institutions, 

practically speaking, a path does not 

exist. e-ImageData is dedicated and 

focused on changing that - making 

the pathway to digitisation clearer and 

within reach for everyone. 

As industry leaders in micrographics 

for the past 3 decades, we at e- 

ImageData are continually improving 

the way people work with microfilm 

worldwide by providing the latest 

technologies available. We are excited 

to be on the brink of yet another 

extraordinary technology that will 

make digitising microfilm easier, more 

accurate, more accessible, and more 

affordable than ever before. 

More info: www.e-imagedata.com 




29

Dm STRATEGY: SECURITY 

Once more unto the breach? 

Jonathan Richardson, managing director of Russell Richardson, describes some of 

the security issues and potential solutions around paper and digital files 

As technology advances, 

implementing a thorough online 

security system has never been 

so important. Despite efforts to make 

devices and software safer, there was a 

reported 125% increase in cases of 

identity theft between 2007 and 2017, 

the majority of which occurred online. 

Cybercriminals are using inventive 

methods to hack into people's 

computers and steal valuable 

information. In 2017, hackers stole a 

piece of software developed by the US 

National Security Agency for exploiting 

vulnerable Windows systems and 

corrupted more than 230,000 

computers with a ransomware known 

as WannaCry. 

Victims were forced to pay the 

attackers $300 in Bitcoin to get the 

files back. If this wasn't paid after three 

days, the amount doubled and after a 

week, the hackers permanently deleted 

the files. 

The incident also hit a number of 

high-profile corporations across the 

globe. It cost the NHS a reported £92 

million in lost output from disrupted 

services and additional IT support, 

affecting around one-third of hospital 

trusts and 8% of GP practices. 

Companies that lose such important 

information - whether digitally or on 

paper - can be at risk of breaching 

GDPR, the European Union data 

protection regulations implemented in 

2018. It's crucial to educate employees 

about the risks of losing sensitive 

business data, as well as ways to 

identify threats and protect 

information. 

SECURITY FIRST 

Businesses that store documents in 

digital formats or online in the cloud 

could be exposed to cyber-attacks if 

their devices or software are outdated. 

Software needs to be updated 

regularly, otherwise it could become 

incompatible with file formats and 

render important documents 

inaccessible. This could result in extra 

costs for businesses if important files 

need to be converted to a usable 

format. 

"Not having up-to-date and patched 

software is a big problem," said Duncan 

Sutcliffe, director of Sutcliffe & Co 

Insurance Brokers. "When your 

computer suggests you install an 

update it's usually because the software 

company has found a problem which 

allows criminals to operate and the 

update will 'patch' this hole. Older 

systems like Windows XP are no longer 

supported so no longer get patches." 

Digital files should be passwordprotected 

and made only accessible to 

the necessary employees, who should 

receive proper data security training. 

Zain Ul-Haq, head of cyber-security at 

Cyfor, comments: "Countermeasures 

don't just stop at the technical. 

Companies can prevent or mitigate 

inappropriate behaviour by staff by 

carrying out a reasoned risk 

assessment. We are still seeing 

businesses lack proper systems for 

handling and destroying data, use 

untested and inappropriate backup 

processes, grant administrator rights to 

all users, share passwords, and allow 

employees to connect personal devices 

to company networks. Gone are the 

days when companies could pass the 

headaches of cybersecurity to the IT 

department. It's absolutely a business 

risk which one department or person 

can't handle alone - it's a team sport." 

Despite the growing popularity of 

paperless offices, many businesses still 

rely on paper records. Industries such 

as law, finance, and real estate still 

depend on physical documents in their 

day-to-day operations. Even with a 

stringent storage system in place, these 

documents are still at risk of theft 

when kept in the workplace. 

Businesses can use an off-site 

archiving facility to store documents 

they are legally obliged to retain for a 

certain period of time - such as financial 

records - but don't require frequent 

access to. Off-site archiving services 

monitor all records continuously by 

CCTV and restrict access to securitychecked 

staff only. For a full audit trail, 

a scanning system logs any documents 

that staff move or retrieve. 

It's essential that companies organise 

and keep wage and salary records in a 

secure location for the retention period 

of six years, before disposing of them 

properly. 


STRATEGY: SECURITY Dm 

"DESPITE THE GROWING POPULARITY OF PAPERLESS OFFICES, MANY 

BUSINESSES STILL RELY ON PAPER RECORDS. INDUSTRIES SUCH AS LAW, 

FINANCE, AND REAL ESTATE STILL DEPEND ON PHYSICAL DOCUMENTS IN 

THEIR DAY-TO-DAY OPERATIONS. EVEN WITH A STRINGENT STORAGE 

SYSTEM IN PLACE, THESE DOCUMENTS ARE STILL AT RISK OF THEFT WHEN 

KEPT IN THE WORKPLACE." 

THE RISK TO SMALL BUSINESS 

Hackers don't just go after big 

corporations. Research suggests small 

and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) 

are even more vulnerable to cyberattacks. 

A study in 2016 by the 

Federation of Small Businesses found 

that around two-thirds of SMEs have 

been targeted by cybercriminals. 

According to a survey conducted by 

professional indemnity insurance 

brokers PolicyBee, one-third of small 

businesses believe a cyber-attack is a 

matter of 'when' not 'if', but 43% of 

SMEs have no plan in place to deal 

with cybercrime. 

"A single SME might not make a 

criminal rich but they are easier to 

attack because they spend less money 

on security and training," said Duncan 

Sutcliffe, director of Sutcliffe & Co 

Insurance Brokers. "Criminals will 

prefer to target numerous easy SMEs 

rather than one difficult large 

organisation." 

SMEs are particularly exposed to 

'phishing' attacks - where hackers send 

emails posing as trustworthy sources 

and ask for sensitive information - and 

the 'hack attack'. This is when a hacker 

exploits an unpatched software 

vulnerability to access a company's 

network and steal its data. 

Further, almost a quarter of SMEs still 

manage their finances solely on paper. 

No amount of staff training and 

workplace policies can predict a simple 

mishap such as accidentally shredding 

or misplacing a document. 

"Old-fashioned security like locked 

cabinets, locked doors, locked 

windows, intruder alarms and 

procedures for transporting documents 

safely are the best ways to ensure 

paper documents don't get into the 

wrong hands," says Sutcliffe. 

However, for SMEs with limited 

budgets, this may prove to be an 

expensive investment. Choices will 

have to be made to get the best and 

most economical option for document 

safety. If businesses don't have the 

budget or time to set up an online 

security system to avoid the risks of 

online fraud, they may need to 

consider keeping only paper versions 

of files in a safe space, until their 

situation changes. 

STAY ONE STEP AHEAD 

It's important for businesses to be 

vigilant and keep up with the latest 

cybercrime techniques. An example is 

'drive-by' downloading. This occurs 

when someone is tricked into 

downloading malware onto their 

device, granting hackers access to their 

data. "It's impossible to be 100% safe 

but you can mitigate most common 

threats by taking some simple 

technical measures. Every small 

improvement you make reduces the 

risks to your business," said Duncan 

Sutcliffe. 

The National Cyber Security Centre 

recommends a number of technical 

measures for cyber-security. These 

include: 

Securing internet connection by 

installing a firewall 

Choosing appropriate security 

settings on devices and software, 

such as passwords and 'two-factor' 

authentication to certain accounts 

Monitoring who has access to data 

and services, such as administrative 

accounts and extra permissions 

Installing software to protect against 

malware such as viruses and 

ransomware 

Updating devices, operating systems, 

apps and software, also known as 

'patching' 

But information isn't just stolen online. 

Paper documents are just as attractive to 

thieves when they haven't been correctly 

shredded or destroyed. "There's an 

expression called 'dumpster diving', 

which is where criminals go through bins 

to find valuable information," added 

Duncan Sutcliffe. 

Going paperless can free up a lot of 

space in the office. But it can also put 

businesses in a more vulnerable position 

when it comes to data theft and fraud if 

the necessary security measures and staff 

training aren't taken seriously. Using an 

off-site archiving facility to store 

important legal and financial documents 

can clear space as well as protect a 

business from malicious attacks. 

More info: www.russellrichardson.co.uk 




31

Dm OPINION: RPA 

Just the job 

Bruno Ferreira, Area Vice President for UK & Ireland, UiPath, explores the idea that 

Robotic Process Automation may in fact bolster employment rather than diminish it 

Recent stories have prophesied a 

bleak future for human workers. 

The Office for National Statistics 

has predicted that automation could 

replace 1.5 million jobs - however, the 

same was said about the internet. 

Rather than take jobs, it boosted 

employment, and today new 

technologies - including robotics 

process automation (RPA) - are set to 

do the same. 

In fact, a World Economic Forum 

study has predicted that machines and 

algorithms in the workplace could add 

up to 58 million new jobs in the next 

few years. In addition, AI, robotics and 

other forms of smart automation have 

the potential to bring great economic 

benefits, contributing up to $15 trillion 

to global GDP by 2030. 

When it comes to specific 

organisations, RPA can help both staff 

and businesses - unlocking previously 

untapped human resources by freeing 

workers up from repetitive, routine 

tasks. UK employees are still bogged 

down in daily admin, with more than 

two-thirds (71%) spending a day a 

week on repetitive tasks that could be 

undertaken by software robots. At the 

same time, workers are recognising that 

automation will free them up to 

complete more valuable tasks and 

projects: 58% of people working for 

organisations where RPA has been 

introduced say it has had a positive 

impact on their role. 

With nearly two-thirds (63%) of the 

UK workforce saying they would 

outsource tasks to a robot given the 

choice (figures from research by 

ABBYY), it becomes clear that robots 

32 




OPINION: RPA Dm 

"THERE WERE ONCE FEARS THAT COMPUTERS, THE INTERNET AND EMAIL WOULD ERADICATE WORKFORCES, 

AND YET IT'S HAD THE OPPOSITE EFFECT. NOWADAYS, THERE ARE BARELY ANY INDUSTRIES IN THE WORLD THAT 

DO NOT RELY ON MODERN TECHNOLOGY TO SOME DEGREE - AND THESE INNOVATIONS HAVE EVEN CREATED 

JOBS THAT DIDN'T EXIST 30 YEARS AGO. RPA IS PRIMED TO HAVE THE SAME IMPACT: CREATING NOT JUST JOBS, 

BUT ALSO POSITIVELY AFFECTING SOCIETY AND ENABLING STAFF MEMBERS TO FOCUS ON MORE VALUABLE, 

GRATIFYING WORK." 

will enhance job satisfaction, allowing 

workers to spend more time on adding 

value to their businesses where it 

matters most. As Professor Daniel 

Cable at London Business School and 

author of Alive at Work, comments: 

"Humans aren't built for routine and 

repetition. We are designed to crave 

exploration, experimentation and 

learning." 

For companies seeking to produce 

high-quality products and services for 

customers, provide an optimal working 

environment for employees, as well as 

boost productivity and revenue, RPA 

technology could be the answer. It 

mimics the activities of human 

employees, whilst far exceeding their 

speed, accuracy or volume of output. 

ACCELERATING HUMAN 

PERFORMANCE 

RPA is helping improve the job market 

by outsourcing the everyday and the 

routine. By taking care of admin tasks 

such as invoice processing, CV checking 

or customer support, RPA gives humans 

more time to spend on strategising and 

planning, as well as on other highervalue 

tasks. These tasks bring bigger 

benefits to businesses - profit growth, 

business expansion, and a larger 

human workforce. 

A recent study conducted with 

Forrester Consulting has shown that 

businesses and organisations have 

observed multiple benefits to RPA - 

including increased employee 

engagement. That's because RPA allows 

employees to engage in richer 

interactions with others, perform work 

that requires more brain power, and 

make fewer mistakes. Two-thirds (66 

percent) of respondents said that RPA 

restructures existing work, enabling 

employees to have more human 

interactions, whilst 60 percent said RPA 

helps employees focus on more 

meaningful, strategic tasks. This has led 

to better employee engagement, 

according to over half (57 percent) of 

respondents. 

REINVESTING IN WHAT MATTERS 

One example of a company benefiting 

from RPA is EDF Energy, the largest 

supplier of low-carbon electricity in the 

UK, which employees around 12,500 

people. It uses RPA for manual journalentry 

financial processing. Previously, 

every time a new entry was added, a 

team member had to manually review 

and enter it into an ERP system. After 

automating the process, EDF has saved 

£100,000 in software license and 

development costs, and 70 man-hours 

- nearly two work weeks' worth of 

time, which can now be better spent 

elsewhere. This has brought an 

additional £50,000 worth of 

aggregated annual savings to the firm - 

money that can be reinvested in the 

business and its current employees. 

Another example of tangible business 

benefits caused by RPA is at General 

Electric. The company had already 

implemented RPA and wanted to 

expand its automation scope to an 

enterprise level, achieving high-scale 

adoption and enhanced productivity. It 

created an RPA Centre of Excellence 

and training hundreds of finance 

professionals on RPA. 

After incorporating machine learning 

and business process management 

(BPM) into its RPA stack, the company 

recorded a $150 million productivity 

benefit. 

RPA can bring business benefits across 

all sectors - including contact centres, 

where human talent will still be 

prevalent, even as automation rises. A 

report from McKinsey has found that 

the majority (96%) of customer-care 

leaders think new technology won't 

reduce the need for human skills - 

whilst 94% believe that they will need 

to hire new agents. 

Every contact centre agent needs to 

rapidly access multiple data sources in 

real-time and a software robot will 

significantly boost both speed and 

accuracy, delivering increased job 

satisfaction for agents. RPA can also 

help with the considerable number of 

administrative tasks brought in during 

and after each call, again enabling call 

centre workers to save time and 

increase their job satisfaction. 

A SIGN OF POSITIVE CHANGE 

RPA and other new technologies 

becoming widespread in our society is 

inevitable, and it should be embraced 

positively - and implemented correctly. 

On the surface, automation job 

statistics may seem alarming, but far 

from destroying jobs, robotic process 

automation (RPA) can help transform 

jobs and keep employees happy and 

engaged. There were once fears that 

computers, the internet and email 

would eradicate workforces, and yet it's 

had the opposite effect. Nowadays, 

there are barely any industries in the 

world that do not rely on modern 

technology to some degree - and these 

innovations have even created jobs that 

didn't exist 30 years ago. 

RPA is primed to have the same 

impact: creating not just jobs, but also 

positively affecting society and 

enabling staff members to focus on 

more valuable, gratifying work. 

More info: www.uipath.com 




33

Dm CASE STUDY: ABSOLUT 

Absolut no-brainer 

Preservica's cloud hosted active digital preservation platform is to be used to 

safeguard unique advertising, posters and product images for the Absolut 

Company's many household name brands 

The Absolut Company has selected a 

cloud hosted active digital 

preservation platform from 

Preservica to protect and future-proof 

more than 140 years of unique brand 

heritage and company history. The online 

archive will be used to inspire and 

empower marketing, comms and 

product teams across the business, as 

well as engage employees in the values 

and history of the company and iconic 

brands including Absolut Vodka, Malibu 

and Kahlúa. 

The Absolut Company has more than 

100,000 items in its archive including 

company history and records as well as 

brand heritage, posters, advertising, and 

product images. 

Lovisa Kragerud, corporate archivist & 

chief storyteller for the Absolut Company 

commented: "When I joined the company 

it became clear that our unique history 

and brand heritage was spread across 

different locations, systems and types of 

media. This put our digital assets at risk of 

being lost or becoming obsolete and 

made them difficult to find quickly to be 

used by the archive and other teams 

across the business. Our marketing team 

use a traditional DAM system for our 

current campaigns and assets, however, 

we realised that we needed a digital 

preservation platform to create a 

company-wide resource that would also 

ensure our unique heritage assets could 

be found and reused over decades." 

Preservica was seen as incredibly userfriendly 

and ready to work 'out of the 

box'. Particularly appealing was 

Preservica's discovery and search 

capabilities - this is a critical requirement 

for enabling teams across the business to 

quickly find, view and retrieve authentic 

heritage assets. 

The solution has been designed 

specifically to protect and future-proof 

critical long-term digital information. 

Available in the cloud (SaaS) or on-premise, 

Preservica's active digital preservation 

software targets the unique challenges of 

ensuring digital information remains 

accessible and trustworthy over decades. 

Lovisa continued: "I'm already seeing a 

lot of excitement in our marketing team 

around the benefits we're anticipating. 

Not only will people be able to quickly 

and easily access and reuse materials from 

the past to inspire new campaigns but 

also by accessing suggestions, metrics and 

presentations it will remind us what 

success for our brand looks like as well as 

what doesn't work for us. We also plan to 

use Preservica's built-in secure access 

portal to enable employees all over the 

world to discover and download 

authentic heritage assets. Our aim is to 

create a central resource of lasting value 

to the company." 

Mike Quinn, CEO of Preservica, added: 

"We are delighted that the Absolut 

Company has chosen Preservica to 

safeguard its amazing brand heritage and 

history. They join a growing community of 

major global brands using Preservica to 

future-proof unique digital assets and 

create lasting value for the business. We 

look forward to supporting the team at 

The Absolut Company as they leverage 

their digital heritage to innovate new 

campaigns, brands and products." 

More info: www.preservica.com 

34 




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