DM May-Jun 2020

DOCUMENT 

M A N A G E R 

Dm 

www.document-manager.com 

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT 

IMAGING & CAPTURE 

WORKFLOW/BPM 

CONTENT MANAGEMENT 

Ready, set, go: 

Get a head start with capture automation 

Working from home: 

The right tools 

Strategic intelligence: 

Targetting the use of AI 

Security: 

Can we trust digital documents? 

NEWS • PRODUCT FOCUS • USER PROFILE • INTERVIEWS 

ISSN 1351-3222 Vol 28 No 3 May/June 2020

Fujitsu 

Scanning 

Solutions 

Fujitsu scanners have a well deserved reputation for being the 

most reliable and hard-wearing devices on the market, offering 

transparency, compliance, efficiencies and cost savings 

S1100i 

iX100 – Ideal for 

community workers 

S1300i 

SP-1425 

SP-1120 / SP-1125 / 

SP-1130 

SV600 – Perfect for the 

classroom 

iX1500 – Intuitive 

scanning at your 

fingertips 

N7100 – Information 

sharing made easy 

fi-65F – Great for 

customer facing 

ID capture 

fi-7030 – Ideal for 

medical centres 

fi-800R – Specially designed 

for front desk operations 

fi-7460 /fi-7480 

fi-7260 / 

fi-7280 

fi-7160 – 

Best selling scanner 

fi-7140 – Document 

management at its best 

fi-7600 – A local 

government workhorse 

fi-7800/fi-7900 – Ideal for 

archive applications 

fi-7300NX – Web based document capture 

and network scanning 

fi-7700 / fi-7700S – Popular A3 

scanner within Government 

Fujitsu’s best-in-class scanner driver and document capturing software 

PaperStream 

Capture Pro 

Upgrade to PaperStream Capture Pro; 

Advanced Scan, Extract and Release 

For more information please email us at 

scannersales@uk.fujitsu.com or visit emea.fujitsu.com/scanners

Dm 

COMMENT 

Editor: 

Dave Tyler 

david.tyler@btc.co.uk 

Sub Editor: 

Mark Lyward 

mark.lyward@btc.co.uk 

Welcome to our May/June issue, which - 

Publishing Director: 

John Jageurs 

perhaps unsurprisingly - includes a 

john.jageurs@btc.co.uk 

Sales Manager: 

number of feature articles and 

Abby Penn 

opinions around the topic of how to keep 

abby.penn@btc.co.uk 

Lead Designer 

businesses operational during a global crisis, 

Ian Collis 

and specifically the challenges of an increasingly 

ian.collis@btc.co.uk 

Circulation/Subscriptions: 

home-based workforce. With some estimates 

Christina Willis 

suggesting that as much as 49% of the working 

christina.willis@btc.co.uk 

Managing Director: 

population was at home in April (some 

John Jageurs 

working, some not, of course) then it is very clear that working 

john.jageurs@btc.co.uk 

practices are having to evolve at an unprecedented pace. 

Published by: Barrow & 

Information governance, compliance, and version control are all 

Thompkins Connexion Ltd 

35 Station Square, 

suddenly very much to the fore as businesses get used to having a 

Petts Wood 

workforce that is not only geographically separated but also in many 

Kent BR5 1LZ 

Tel: 01689 616000 

cases working on non-standardised hardware and software, nonsecure 

networks and with poor controls over file access. 

Fax: 01689 826622 

Subscriptions: 

Jason Field of Document Logistix warns of immediate and major 

UK: £35/year, £60/two years, 

£80/three years 

challenges to business from the 'new normal': "COVID-19 has pushed 

Europe: £48/year, £85 two 

companies to operate in new ways, and systems resilience is being 

years, £127 three years. 

ROW:£62/year, £115/two 

tested like never before. As businesses juggle a range of new systems 

years, £168/three years 

priorities and challenges - business continuity risks, sudden changes in 

Published 6 times a year. 

Single copies can be bought 

volume, real-time decision-making, workforce productivity, security 

for £8.50 (includes postage & 

risks - leaders must act quickly to address immediate systems resilience 

packaging). No part of this 

magazine may be reproduced 

issues and lay a foundation for the future." 

without prior consent, in writing, 

from the publisher. 

Storetec's Amy Wright suggests though that - maybe - things aren't all 

©Copyright 2020 Barrow & 

negative in her article: "Reduced office costs, increased productivity and 

Thompkins 

boosting those 'eco-credentials' are just some of the potential benefits 

Connexion Ltd 

employers will recognise in the future. The prospect of reducing 

Articles published reflect the 

overhead office costs will be particularly beneficial to SME's in light of 

opinions of the authors and are 

not necessarily those of the 

the financial pressures businesses will likely face post Coronavirus." 

publisher or his employees. While 

every reasonable effort is made 

Once the lockdown finishes, it is certainly likely that more office 

to ensure that the contents of 

employees will incorporate remote working into their work lives after 

articles, editorial and advertising 

are accurate no responsibility can 

the crisis is over, as Alfresco's Dave Giordano explains in his article: 

be accepted by the publisher for 

errors, misrepresentations or any 

"Remote working offers businesses a unique opportunity to test out 

resulting effects 

efficient document management strategies. However, in order to cater 

to this growing demand, companies need to adapt and refine their 

policies on digital tools and document sharing now in order to ensure 

efficiency and productivity down the line." 

As we touched on in our last eNewsletter, it is hard to imagine that 

the world's businesses could have weathered this storm as well as they 

have if it weren't for the ubiquitous high-speed internet and cloud 

access that sits behind so many modern infrastructures. We aren't 

through it yet, but there's no doubt that technology is a huge boon as 

we struggle on. 

Dave Tyler 

Editor 

david.tyler@btc.co.uk 


May/June 2020 

@DMMagAndAwards 

3

Dm CONTENTS 

2 0 2 0 MAY/JUNE 

12 16 18 26 

Contents 

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

ANALYSIS: Remote working…………..................6 

CASE STUDY: Gibson Booth……...................….8 

RESEARCH: Automation……......................….10 

CASE STUDY: Royal Mail………...................…12 

SHARED SERVICE CENTRES…................….14 

OPINION: Working from home…….............……16 

CAPTURE STRATEGIES…......................…..18 

MANAGEMENT: Digital Mailroom…............…..20 

FEATURE: Working from home…………….....….24 

MANAGEMENT: Compliance……..............…..26 

FEATURE: Document Processing….......................28 

CASE STUDY: Royal College of Nursing………...….30 

MANAGEMENT: Cloud………......................32 

Features 

ANALYSIS: Remote working………............................................…..6 

The new normal will include workflow systems to accommodate remote 

working and flexi-hours, suggests Jason Field, Integration Manager at 

Document Logistix, with built-in security and management visibility 

RESEARCH: Automation……....................................................….10 

Now is the time to unlock new abilities to deliver by investing in digital 

capacity, argues Chris Huff, Chief Strategy Officer at Kofax 

SHARED SERVICE CENTRES…….....................................................14 

New research has revealed how Process Automation is increasing staff 

productivity and efficiency in shared service centre environments 

OPINION: Working from home……….......................................…16 

Collaborating from home in an effective manner means much more than 

email and messaging attachments, explains Dave Giordano, Chief Strategy 

Officer, Alfresco 

CAPTURE STRATEGIES……...........................................................18 

Ashley Keil of ibml explains how capture automation can be cost-effectively 

deployed on specific projects or at a departmental level, helping businesses 

to sprint ahead of the competition 

MANAGEMENT: Digital Mailroom…….........................................20 

Working from home is here to stay, according to Swiss Post Solutions, and 

there are ways to stay connected in the 'new normal' 

FEATURE: Document Processing…................................................28 

Charlie Newark-French of Hyperscience outlines some best practice 

approaches for achieving 'document processing excellence' even during high 

pressure situations such the current pandemic 

4 @DMMagAndAwards May/June 2020 www.document-manager.com

Dm ANALYSIS: REMOTE WORKING 

Building a new digital agility 

The new normal will include workflow systems to accommodate remote working and 

flexi-hours, suggests Jason Field, Integration Manager at Document Logistix, with 

built-in security and management visibility 

The next weeks and months present 

personal and professional challenges. 

What positive lessons have been 

learned in recent months that we ought to 

retain in our business operations and 

working lives? 

Every economic shock leaves a legacy. The 

Coronavirus pandemic will be no different. 

The twentieth century 'great depression' 

generated a "waste not want not" attitude 

that defined consumer patterns for 

decades. 

This time it's a public health emergency 

that has shaken the world economy. In a 

matter of weeks, people in affected areas 

have become accustomed to wearing 

masks, cancelling social and business 

gatherings, working from home and 

scrapping travel plans. 

Traces of such habits will endure after the 

virus lockdowns ease, prompting 

businesses and their staff to consider the 

ongoing benefits of remote working and 

flexible working hours. Office-based 

businesses have ramped up measures for 

teleworking and staggered shifts, during 

an enforced period of working that has 

allowed evaluation of the 'hard' and 'soft' 

benefits of dispersed teams. 

Document Logistix helps businesses to 

plan to incorporate the positives of remote 

working in robust, resilient, centralised 

systems. 

IMMEDIATE SYSTEMS CHALLENGES 

COVID-19 has pushed companies to 

operate in new ways, and systems 

resilience is being tested like never before. 

As businesses juggle a range of new 

systems priorities and challenges - business 

continuity risks, sudden changes in volume, 

real-time decision-making, workforce 

productivity, security risks - leaders must act 

quickly to address immediate systems 

resilience issues and lay a foundation for 

the future. 

A large proportion of Europeans never 

work from home. However, there are 

elements of teleworking that will appeal to 

workers as the world returns to work. In 

the UK, the average commuting time is 

one hour and twenty minutes a day, and 

many people have commented how they 

have not missed the heavy morning and 

evening congestion on roads, rail, 

underground and walkways. Phil Flaxton of 

Work Wise UK, says: "Excessive time spent 

commuting is one of the main factors 

contributing to work-life balance problems. 

Not only is the time spent commuting an 

issue, the nine-to-five culture with its peak 

travel times generates congestion." 

We have learned a lot about the capability 

of 'white collar' businesses to function 

productively with remote workers when 

the majority of staff have been working 

from home and staggering their hours. 

CHANGING TRAVEL HABITS 

The AA says that the aftermath of the 

Covid-19 crisis will transform the way we 

live, work and travel in the UK. AA 

President Edmund King told BBC News: 

"This current crisis has shown that the 

majority of companies can continue 

working from home, and it can be more 

efficient. People travelling up and down 

motorways just to hold meetings is 

inefficient, expensive and not good for the 

environment." 

The chief executives of Barclays and WPP 

have predicted an end to crowded city 

centre offices and rush hours as flexible 

working becomes the new normal. Jes 


ANALYSIS: REMOTE WORKING Dm 

Staley, Chief Executive of Barclays, said "I 

think the notion of putting 7,000 

people in a building may be a thing of 

the past, and we will find ways to 

operate with more distancing over a 

much longer period of time". The view is 

echoed by Mark Read, the Chief 

Executive of WPP, who says: "The 

number one question I get in… sessions 

I have with staff around the world is will 

there be more flexible working after 

Coronavirus." 

BALANCING WORK, FAMILY & 

LEISURE 

Businesses will have had a chance to 

evaluate their productivity and 

managers will have become accustomed 

to working with remote workers. When 

the lockdown is fully lifted, will we elect 

to do more from home, and eliminate or 

reduce commuting times? Perhaps we 

can make new school run and other 

family arrangements to improve worklife 

balance? 

Beyond the home, more of our 

embedded daily activities could be reevaluated. 

Universities and schools will 

need to be better prepared to educate 

online when events force closure. 

Distance learning could evolve as part of 

creative educational programmes. 

Work-life balance is about separating 

personal and professional lives without 

allowing one to encroach on the other. 

Both are important, neither should be 

neglected. There are five reasons why 

you absolutely must maintain a healthy 

work-life balance: 

1. To maintain your mental health 

2. To ensure your physical health and 

well-being 

3. It increases productivity 

4. Become a more rounded individual 

5. You only get one life 

GEARING FOR A NEW MODEL 

It is not only large enterprises that can take 

advantage of secure, centralised digital 

systems with automated document 

workflows, from digital receipt or scan, to 

compliant destruction. 

If more people are to have access to 

company and customer data, working 

away from HQ, security, compliance and 

accountable management are key issues. 

Management 'line of sight' will need to be 

established and audit trails will become 

even more important. Copying files and 

duplication will need to be eliminated to 

enhance efficiency, to manage risk and to 

demonstrate compliance. 

If you want to implement a digital 

strategy to achieve operational efficiency 

and business continuity, or to expand your 

current capabilities, be sure to use the 

right tools. 

Our flagship product, Document 

Manager, helps you to capture, store, 

access, assign, share and approve 

documents and data. It also enables you 

to optimise process efficiency and stay 

closely connected with your team through 

efficient digital workflows, with secure 

access from any location. 

Here are some selected benefits of 

remote working with Document Manager: 

Index and assign electronically received 

or scanned documents 

Centralise access for all, with controlled 

access levels 

Standardise remote working policies 

Automate workflows from input to 

finalisation 

Checkpoint, threshold and scheduling 

alerts 

Compliance: no file duplication, 

automated retention, GDPR assurance 

Auditable: time-stamped records 

Any workflow benefits from periodic 

review to verify its efficiency, but reviews 

are rarely undertaken as often as they 

should be. However, in 2020 we have 

experienced a period of intense business 

operations analysis. 

During lockdown Document Logistix has 

helped customers to transform more of 

their processes to replace analogue, paperbased 

or over-complicated steps in their 

workflows. 

A case in point is our customers working 

in Healthcare, Education, and Research 

and Development, who have very heavy, 

complicated document and data 

throughput, and must also adhere to 

stringent policies for approvals, escalations 

and compliance. 

BOUNCE BACK, BETTER PREPARED 

Companies will have new perspectives on 

the world, the markets, customer 

engagement and their own organisation. 

Business-critical services are being 

restructured as organisations must 

respond quickly to maintain continuity and 

to de-risk operations in the future. 

In all likelihood, your culture and identity 

will change as a result of the pandemic. 

The challenge is to prioritise initiatives that 

will future-proof your organisation. 

More info: www.documentlogistix.com/wfh 

If it proves beneficial to the business to 

retain some of the flexibility (locations) 

experienced during lockdown, then we 

will need to look far beyond ad-hoc 

arrangements (temporary home office 

set-ups) and daisy-chained systems 

(email, phone, text, Messenger, etc.). 




7

Dm CASE STUDY: GIBSON BOOTH 

No more lost documents 

Insolvency specialists Gibson Booth have implemented best-of-breed capture and 

document management systems to ensure efficiency as the business grows 

Gibson Booth Business Solutions 

and Insolvency offers proactive 

business solutions and insolvency 

services to businesses and individuals that 

are facing financial difficulties. The 

company's staff have an in-depth 

knowledge of the issues involved, and 

can offer expert guidance and support at 

this crucial time. Gibson Booth works 

with a range of businesses and 

individuals across the UK, 

including many SMEs 

and ownermanaged 

businesses, as well as larger 

organisations. 

The uncertain economic climate 

presented the firm with a challenge to 

ensure their business and employees are 

working as efficiently as possible to 

continue to thrive and grow. 

Ted Wetton is the managing director for 

Gibson Booth based in Barnsley, South 

Yorkshire. He set up the insolvency wing 

of the business in 1992 and now has 12 

employees, all qualified Insolvency 

Practitioners or carry the Certificate of 

Proficiency in Insolvency. Ted has 

pinpointed a number of areas in his 

business that help them to 

achieve their goals: 

Increase return on investment by 

implementing best of breed systems 

Utilise systems to provide seamless 

workflows and processes to serve 

clients more efficiently 

Increase employee satisfaction with 

flexible remote working 

PUSH FOR CHANGE 

Although Gibson Booth have been 

paperless since 2001 they decided their 

existing document management system 

was becoming too expensive, and wasn't 

giving them the return they were looking 

for. It was time to seek out an alternative 

that could offer them more for their 

investment. 

Ted looked around the market and 

arranged meetings with 5 different 

document management providers, 

and commented: "The one 

that shone in a 

meeting 

8 



www.document-manager.com

CASE STUDY: GIBSON BOOTH Dm 

"WE ADVANCED TO PUTTING ON EVERYONE'S DESK A FUJITSU FI-7160, WHICH IS A VERY SMALL MULTI-SHEET 

COLOUR SCANNER WHICH SCANS BOTH SIDES. IF SOMEONE IS WORKING REMOTELY FROM HOME THEIR POST IS 

SCANNED IN AND SENT DIRECTLY TO THEIR IN-TRAY. LONG TERM IT HAS SAVED US SPACE, BUT THE MAJOR 

BENEFIT IS THE COST OF TIME TO FIND PAPERS ON THE FILE. YOU CAN'T LOSE A DOCUMENT ONCE YOU'VE 

SCANNED IT IN, AND FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF COMPLIANCE - THERE ARE NO LOST DOCUMENTS." 

with 6 of my senior staff, the one we 

couldn't trip up, and had everything we 

wanted, was Virtual Cabinet." 

PAPER FILING AND REAL ESTATE 

Like most established businesses, Gibson 

Booth required an ever-increasing 

amount of storage space to house paper 

files. Resulting in lost floor space and 

high costs to the business. Creating 

digital copies of all their files has meant 

huge savings on storage bills, as Ted 

commented: "Since we went paperless, 

we managed to empty the equivalent of 

a terraced house full of paper - which is 

now rented out and saved us an 

enormous cost." 

The benefits of digitising all their files 

wasn't limited to saving on real estate 

costs. Ted has realised that a huge 

amount of time is also saved through 

improved efficiency in locating the 

documents now kept within the system - 

allowing Gibson Booth to serve their 

clients in a timelier manner. 

"A major benefit is the time it takes to 

retrieve and see a document; the average 

time is approximately 5 or 6 seconds," 

explains Ted. "When we do an 

investigation, we will put part of the 

books of the insolvent company on to 

Virtual Cabinet. One of the biggest 

benefits of that is if we have to analyse 

bank statements, we can search for 

anything we want, for example a name, 

an account number, a type of 

transaction and so on." 

TRANSITION TO DIGITAL 

When the firm started capturing digital 

copies of their paper files, they used 

photocopiers with incorporated 

scanners, but found these to be slow 

and clunky. They were also not practical 

for staff due to the number and their 

location. 

To speed up this process Ted made the 

decision to move to fast, compact Fujitsu 

desktop scanners: "We advanced to 

putting on everyone's desk a Fujitsu 

fi-7160, which is a very small scanner, a 

multi-sheet feed colour scanner which 

scans both sides. If someone is working 

remotely from home their post is 

scanned in and sent directly to their intray. 

Long term it has saved us space, 

but the major benefit is the cost of time 

to find papers on the file. You can't lose 

a document once you've scanned it in, 

and from the viewpoint of compliance - 

there are no lost documents." 

With duplex scanning speeds of 120 

images per minute at 300 dpi, the 

fi-7160 protects Gibson Booth's 

documents with acoustic sensors, 

ensures that data is captured with smart 

ultrasonic technology, and reduces 

rescans by cleaning up their documents 

automatically in a single pass. Reliability 

is enhanced even further with new skew 

prevention technology for exceptional 

paper handling. 

COMPLEMENTARY SOFTWARE 

Finding systems that complemented the 

business and could integrate seamlessly 

with each other was key to ensuring 

workflows and processes are effective 

and easy for the staff to adopt. 

Ted started using Turnkey's IPS system in 

1992 and had a pre-existing file 

structure that worked for his business 

and IPS. When he chose to implement 

Virtual Cabinet it was imperative that it 

could mirror that structure, as he 

explains: "When we adopted IPS we kept 

their structure of 1 to 25 index with 

approx. 8 to 10 indexing inside each 

section.So that's what we went with and 

we haven't changed that, so our paper 

files were the same as the files in Virtual 

Cabinet." 

SECURE INFORMATION TRANSFER 

With privacy regulations being a hot 

topic for the last few years Gibson Booth 

is acutely aware of the importance of 

sending information securely. The use of 

portals is becoming increasingly required 

so Gibson Booth in fact adopted two. 

Both the Virtual Cabinet and IPS Portals 

have become essential tools to eliminate 

the use of email to transfer sensitive 

information and request electronic 

signatures. 

"You don't have to worry about GDPR 

as much if you're using the Virtual 

Cabinet Portal," explained Ted. "I consider 

it confidential between myself and the 

client I'm sending documents to. The 

Turnkey portal is excellent, creditors can 

put reports and their claims on there 

which frees up a lot of time." 

Work life balance and employee 

wellness are paramount at Gibson 

Booth. Being able to provide flexible 

remote working and have access to the 

tools needed to complete the work is 

key, as Ted concludes: "The main benefit 

of Virtual Cabinet is that I can be 

anywhere, and I can get into all my files, 

via the app or my laptop. My staff can 

work from home as if they were in the 

office and had the physical file there, 

which has improved staff working life. 

Staff can work more flexi-hours and can 

work from home. By having Virtual 

Cabinet they virtually have all the filing 

cabinets sat on their desk at home, so 

they can operate just as if they were in 

the office." 

More info: www.virtualcabinet.com 




9

Dm RESEARCH: AUTOMATION 

Automation for the people 

Now is the time to unlock new abilities to deliver by 

investing in digital capacity, argues Chris Huff, Chief 

Strategy Officer at Kofax 

Within a matter of months, the 

world has changed. Many 

employees have shifted to 

working from home. Offices are closed, and 

customers seek ways to engage and 

transact remotely. Business leaders have 

had to act swiftly to stabilise their 

businesses and adjust their operating 

models in response. 

This global disruption has been very 

painful. It has created a double-sided 

problem for business leaders: demand 

destruction and shortage of work capacity. 

Demand destruction has been driven by 

broad reductions in consumption as people 

go outside less and cut back on spending 

as a protective measure against uncertainty. 

Shortage of work capacity is a problem that 

has presented itself as organisations are 

expected to do more with less. In fact, 

some are dealing with demand spikes and 

customer outreach, which is overwhelming 

their existing workforce. They're dealing 

with extreme constraints, and herein lies an 

opportunity. 

In a book called "A Beautiful Constraint," a 

constraint is defined as a limitation imposed 

by outside circumstances that materially 

affects someone's ability to do something. 

The book goes on to explain that success in 

certain situations isn't in eliminating 

constraints, but positively leveraging them 

to unlock transformative benefits and 

possibilities. The current constraints on 

businesses present an opportunity to look 

at investment in digital capacity to 

streamline internal operations and 

customer-facing experiences. 

In what were previously 'normal' 

circumstances, knowledge workers around 

the world were challenged with everincreasing 

responsibilities and tasks. Across 

many organisations, knowledge workers 

have felt common pain that comes from an 

inability to focus as much on missioncentric 

and valued work. Today those 

constraints are felt more than ever. There's 

also a new sense of urgency to meet today's 

business challenges, yet lay a foundation 

for continued success in the long term-and 

ensure a level of resilience to future 

business or market disruptions. 

The question is, where's the necessary 

capacity going to come from given the 

constraints of today? 

Digital technologies. 

The good news is that, according to a 

recent Forrester study, for the second 

consecutive year, organisations are making 

considerable headway automating key 

front- and back-office operations: 

58% of organisations have deployed 

automation technologies to digitise 

information 

52% are using it to automate front-desk 

interaction 

49% have implemented automation for 

fulfilment and verification 

45% use it to perform rules-based tasks 

44% use automation for business spend 

management 

44% automate back-office tasks 

38% automate decisioning 

30% use it to automate Accounts 

Payable and orchestrate workflows 

However, it's a delicate balance to achieve 

- rapidly innovating and responding to the 

current challenges to meet customers' 

demands while keeping costs in check. 

Forrester also reports that "an unintended 

consequence of acting quickly to solve the 

problem at hand is the creation of 

automation silos." 

Cobbling together a variety of solutions 

from different vendors can end up doing 

more harm than good in the long term 

because the depth of integration is usually 

lacking; this can be a huge hurdle to 

realising the full business benefits of 

automation. Forty-five percent of Forrester 

study respondents reported having 

deployed a patchwork of automation 

solutions from several vendors. And nearly 

all (98 percent) reported that a nonintegrated 

automation approach created 

challenges such as high technical debt (46 

percent) and delays in successful outcomes 

(35 percent). 

AT AN INFLECTION POINT 

To date, most organisations have invested 

in specific technologies like RPA, based on 

their promise of managing 'specific tasks' 

like data entry. However, unlocking the 

ability to scale requires looking at broader 

processes and operations. This includes 

people, as well as a combination of 

10 




RESEARCH: AUTOMATION Dm 

complementary technologies supporting 

capture, processing and data 

manipulation. 

We're now at a point where many 

organisations have begun to acknowledge 

the potential for a combination of 

complementary technologies to provide 

digital capacity supporting people in 

getting work done. Enter Intelligent 

automation. 

An intelligent automation platform is 

unrivalled in its ability to automate 

processes, improve employee satisfaction, 

enhance compliance and drive operational 

efficiency for organisations: 

Process discovery: Identify automation 

opportunities from analysing patterns and 

tasks, and isolate and remedy potential 

challenges with compliance or regulatory 

issues. 

Business process management: Build and 

run automated processes in collaboration 

with existing applications and human 

workers. 

Robotic Process Automation (RPA): 

Reliably and efficiently automate repetitive, 

manual tasks across the enterprise, 

including through web interfaces and 

business apps. 

Artificial intelligence and machine 

learning: Understand, classify and extract 

data including voice, text, chat and 

images. AI allows you to automatically 

recognise people and documents, and 

understand the content and context of 

communications to make more insightful 

business decisions. 

Digital workforce management: Govern a 

growing digital workforce, including 

software robots that improve security, 

compliance, scalability and auditability, as 

well as a hybrid human-digital workforce 

to reduce process fragmentation and risk. 

According to Forrester, 35 percent of 

business leaders reported mitigating 

disruption to automated processes (due to 

changes in the underlying systems that 

automation interacts with) as an 

immediate need. 

Advanced analytics: Measure the impact of 

intelligent automation across the 

enterprise and calculate ROI. Improved 

visibility, process intelligence and insight 

into customers, employees and business 

partners help organisations adapt to 

changing market conditions and customer 

expectations. 

THE CASE FOR A SINGLE-VENDOR 

APPROACH 

Choosing to work with a single vendor is 

considered the ideal approach to 

automation. In fact, 99 percent of 

Forrester study decision-makers expressed 

the belief that there'd be considerable 

value in having a single automation 

vendor and platform (47 percent very 

valuable, 20 percent extremely valuable, 

32 percent valuable). 

The benefits of automation can be seen 

throughout the entire business, both 

internal and external-facing, positioning 

the organisation to be recognised as an 

industry leader while navigating today's 

challenges-and poised to capitalise on 

future opportunities. Here's a singlevendor 

benefits snapshot: 

Enhanced experience for customers: 

Automation enables your organisation to 

deliver a more personalised customer 

experience and respond more rapidly to 

customers' questions and needs. The result 

is improved satisfaction, loyalty and 

revenue. According to the Forrester study, 

improving the customer experience was 

the top response (54 percent) to the 

question of benefits achieved by adopting 

a single-vendor automation platform 

(versus a piecemeal approach). 

Improved employee experience: Human 

workers enjoy the more thoughtprovoking 

and strategic work that 

automation allows them. Rather than 

performing the same tasks day after day, 

employees can focus on projects adding 

value to the organisation and spend more 

time improving the customer experience. 

Workers get more satisfaction out of their 

jobs when they can see the added value 

they bring. Increased employee 

productivity (52 percent) and improved 

employee experience (43 percent) were 

also top Forrester study responses when 

decision-makers were asked about the 

benefits of single-vendor automation. 

Reduced costs: The intelligent automation 

of business processes and workflows 

reduces the time and resources needed to 

complete manual tasks, and cuts down on 

the number of errors. According to the 

Forrester study, improved operational 

efficiency (52 percent) and reduced 

operational expenses (42 percent) were 

chosen as single-vendor automation 

benefits by respondents. 

Scalability: Automation transforms a 

manual or complex task into a highly 

reliable and repeatable process. A 

collaborative ecosystem of complementary 

technologies and humans working 

together generates exponentially better 

outcomes across the business. This is 

critical, as according to Forrester, almost 

half of decision-makers surveyed expressed 

a desire to expand automation from a 

single team or department and scale 

across departments. 

Operational excellence: An efficient 

workforce comprised of the right blend of 

human and digital workers creates a 

flexible and agile organisation that can 

swiftly and appropriately respond to 

changing market conditions. Better 

compliance and transparency positions the 

business to promptly respond to any 

potential issues. In fact, more than half 

(51 percent) of Forrester study 

respondents said better security and 

compliance was a benefit achieved by a 

single-vendor automation approach. 

Ultimately, executives who want to drive 

innovation and transform business 

processes should embrace an integrated 

intelligent automation approach. To get 

there fast, it's recommended to look for an 

AI-enabled intelligent automation 

platform with integrated capabilities 

(ideally, single-vendor). This provides the 

smoothest path for organisations to 

navigate today's challenges and work like 

tomorrow, today. 

More info: www.kofax.com 




11

Dm CASE STUDY: ROYAL MAIL 

The daily mail delivery service is part of 

the fabric of everyday life. In the UK, 

85% of people say the Royal Mail is an 

important part of their local community. 

However, changing customer behaviour and 

new digital communication challenges 

means the UK's leading mail provider has to 

continually improve its efficiency and 

innovation. The company chose UiPath to 

help bring the power of Robotic Process 

Automation (RPA) to its central business 

activities. 

Royal Mail is one of the oldest companies 

in the UK able to trace its history back over 

500 years. Today, it employs over 160,000 

people and delivers 1.8 billion parcels and 

14 billion letters every year. However, in 

order to achieve its business objectives 

profitably, Royal Mail has to be lean and 

efficient in the way it works in all areas of 

the business. 

In 2017, Wendy Hulton, Head of the 

Process Simplification and Automation Team 

at Royal Mail established a proof of concept 

to demonstrate what automation could 

bring to the business. She says: "I'd seen RPA 

in action and wanted to show what it could 

RPA really delivers 

Changing customer behaviour and new digital 

communication challenges mean the Royal Mail has to 

continually improve its efficiency and innovation: in 

2018/19 alone RPA delivered over £4.5 million in value to 

the business 

do for the company. Royal Mail needs to 

find new ways of doing things and is now 

investing in our digital capabilities. I felt that 

we could take a lead in automation to help 

deliver the cost savings and employee 

productivity gains the company requires." 

MARVIN, WINSTON AND RUBY TOO 

With the help of consultants PWC, Wendy 

created a small team and began what 

quickly became three Proof of Values - each 

given its own human name to help with 

user adoption. 'Marvin' automated part of 

the customer set-up process while 'Winston' 

helped with supplier set-up. Both were 

similar processes that took data from forms, 

checked it, getting additional data and 

completing the set-up. In a matter of weeks 

both had been designed, developed and 

delivered to the business. 

Gary Turner, Royal Mail's Head of RPA 

Implementation, comments: "Both Marvin 

and Winston were quite simple processes 

and we were able to show that each saves 

the time equivalent of two employees. 

However, we were able to demonstrate 

something more important: how the robots 

helped us improve the quality of the 

processes they automate." 

The automation process allowed the team 

to identify that 40% of the customer set-up 

forms being received into the process were 

incorrect. They had data errors or 

information was missing. The team also 

discovered that the incorrect forms weren't 

being returned to the originator but, 

instead, the person doing the set-up would 

correct the forms, which added up to 

wasted time and money. Marvin 

automatically returned the form and 

identified where it needed changing. Within 

three weeks, the number of incorrect forms 

had been reduced to almost a quarter of 

the previous total. 

Wendy says: "While we got everything 

right with Marvin and Winston, we weren't 

so lucky with Ruby. We attempted to 

automate an entire HR recruitment process 

end-to-end. It was too big and too 

complex." 

Ruby handled everything from the 

placement of recruitment ads, to application 

management to booking interview 

appointments. While the automation 

worked, it wasn't robust enough and failed 

to meet user expectations. It was a very 

important piece of learning for Wendy and 

her team. 

She explains: "Ruby showed us that you 

shouldn't automate everything. You should 

look at the parts of the process that best 

suit RPA and build a simplified process 

where people and robots work together. In 

Ruby's case, it has meant developing six new 

robots that each undertake very specific 


CASE STUDY: ROYAL MAIL Dm 

tasks. Our mistake with Ruby has meant we 

build much better automations going 

forward." 

SIMPLE IS BEST 

The success of the Proof of Values allowed 

the team to establish a Centre of Excellence 

in September 2017 with an extremely 

important addition. What started as a 

central hub for automation only, became 

process simplification and automation. 

Gary explains: "The danger with RPA is that 

if you automate a bad process, you just 

have a faster bad process. The benefit of 

the combined approach is that it identifies 

where there are issues in your current 

processes. You can look at the process and 

see where improvements can be made, 

where people are not working as efficiently 

as they could and, frankly, where they don't 

need to be doing things at all. We are able 

to standardise our processes, then 

automate and look to create reusable 

components that can be simply ported 

from one process automation to another." 

By going through process simplification 

first, the Centre can identify where RPA can 

deliver the most value to a process and 

prepare those tasks or process elements for 

automation. 

By May 2018, the Centre of Excellence 

was fully staffed and operational and had 

defined four categories of robots - cost 

saving, service delivery, financial control and 

revenue improvement - and had 

successfully delivered nine new live robots 

for different parts of the Royal Mail 

business. 

That's when people really started to notice 

as Wendy explains: "People were beginning 

to see the benefits in terms of cost saving, 

productivity and employee satisfaction. The 

business told us that they wanted our 

automation to get bigger, faster and scale 

up across the organisation. So that's what 

we did." 

APPLYING RPA STRATEGICALLY 

Over the next nine months, Royal Mail went 

from 9 robots to 50. The strategy was to 

identify an area of the business with a 

pressing challenge, investigate all the 

processes within that area and identify 

where automation would deliver the best 

and most immediate effect. With 

aggressive business targets to meet, the 

Finance and HR shared service centres were 

ideal candidates. They both needed to 

achieve significant cost savings and find 

capacity without increasing headcount. 

The approach was simple and effective: 

"We worked with the business users to spot 

5 to 10 different processes that could be 

automated quickly and would remove a lot 

of the repetitive mundane tasks. This wasn't 

just about cost savings. It was a 

combination of savings, cost avoidance, 

revenue generation and freeing up capacity. 

We estimate that our robots delivered more 

than £4.5 million in value to the business in 

2018/19." 

To match the impressive speed of delivery - 

a new robot averaged between four and six 

weeks from concept to production - the 

team began to focus much more on testing 

and support to ensure high quality, robust 

automations that could scale across the 

business. 

Gary comments: "Often RPA is brought in 

at a departmental level and you do things 

the way you want them - not the way the 

IT department would. However, we found 

that imposing some of the IT disciplines 

when it comes to service delivery is 

extremely beneficial. If you take longer in 

testing and roll-out, then your robots are 

stable, and they do what your business 

users need." 

TOWARDS STANDARDISED 

OPERATIONS 

Royal Mail operates more than 1300 

delivery offices throughout the UK. Each 

office acts like a small business with staff 

undertaking hundreds of small, manual 

administrative tasks every day. The 

processes within every delivery office are 

very similar but each separate operation has 

developed slightly different ways of doing 

things. The team is now looking at ways to 

use automation to help standardise 

processes across the delivery offices. 

"Every day, the offices are doing many 

simple things, generally on a variety of 

spreadsheets, all taking time and effort. 

We'd like to apply the same approach of 

identifying the five or ten process steps 

most viable for automation and show the 

benefits that would bring to every delivery 

office. Even if we just free 20 minutes in the 

day for our managers that would translate 

to realisable cost savings and better quality 

of service," concludes Wendy. 

More info: www.uipath.com 




13

Dm RESEARCH: SHARED SERVICE CENTRES 

A problem shared… 

New research has revealed how Process Automation is 

increasing staff productivity and efficiency in shared service 

centre environments 

The automation of manual 

processes in shared service centres 

is having a positive impact on the 

productivity and accuracy of data. 

Automation is enabling nearly half 

(46%) of managers to start new 

projects that they previously did not 

have the time for, according to new 

research by Winshuttle, a leader in data 

management and process automation. 

Winshuttle worked with market 

research firm, Sapio to survey over 100 

owners, directors, C-level and 

managers at companies with 1000+ 

employees and with shared services 

centres in the UK & Ireland. 

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) 

tools allow large enterprises to 

eliminate manual processes like 

repetitive data entry, lower overall costs 

and free up employees' time for other 

tasks. The research indicates that 

successful adoption of automation has 

enabled 34% of professionals working 

in shared service centres in the UK and 

Ireland (UKI) to instead focus their skills 

and attention on more productive tasks 

that have the potential to offer greater 

value to the business. 

The research also shows that shared 

service centre managers have taken 

proactive steps with their teams to 

ensure success with initial 

implementations of automation 

software. For instance, over half of 

respondents (52%) reported it was 

essential to reassure staff that the 

introduction of automation would not 

put their jobs under threat. In fact, 

successful automation projects have 

seen over a third of employees transfer 

their skills elsewhere in the business 

doing higher value tasks. 

Andrew Hayden, senior product 

marketing manager at Winshuttle said: 

"People often perceive that automation 

of manual processes is fuelling worker 

displacements. The reality, however, is 

that automation software enables 

finance professionals in shared service 

centres to play a more valuable role 

beyond data entry, and this has been 

reflected in the research results. It's not 

just about replacing humans with 

robots, it's about using automation to 

drive greater worker productivity." 

For 42% of respondents, achieving 

small project wins using automation 

software was necessary to demonstrate 

its value to the wider business. In 

addition 30% believe that to guarantee 

success, it's important to start small 

and ensure that business and users 

expectations for the technology are 

aligned. 

"It's not unusual to see highly 

qualified professionals spending a 

significant amount of time on errorprone, 

manual data entry for financial 

processes," added Hayden in 

conclusion. "This can include processes 

like accounts payable and purchase to 

pay, general ledger or journal entries. 

As a result, these tedious activities can 

drain morale and lower team 

productivity. Adopting automation 

frees up these professionals to take on 

other projects and make a real impact 

on the business.". 

Vodafone, Engie and Novacon are just 

a few of the enterprises Winshuttle has 

worked with to help consolidate and 

optimise data in their shared financial 

services environments using its 

automation platform for improving SAP 

data management processes. 

More info: www.winshuttle.com 


DIGITAL CONTINUITY FOR A 

NEW BUSINESS LANDSCAPE 

SECURE 

AGILE 

REMOTE 

AUTOMATED 

WORKFLOWS 

COVID-19 has forced companies to 

operate in new ways, and systems 

resilience is being tested as never 

before. As businesses juggle a range 

of new systems challenges - business 

continuity risks, changes in volume, 

real-time decision-making, workforce 

productivity, security risks - they must 

act quickly to address immediate 

systems resilience issues and lay 

foundations for the future. 

Implement Document Manager. 

Facilitate remote working Embed efficiency Optimise security Maintain compliance 

www.document-logistix.com/wfh | 01908 366 388

Dm OPINION: WORKING FROM HOME 

The right tools for working from home 

Collaborating from home in an effective manner means much more than email and 

messaging attachments, explains Dave Giordano, Chief Strategy Officer, Alfresco 

Remote working is a work-style that 

companies and employees alike 

have had to sharply adjust to. With 

such a rapid change, procedures are 

likely hastily implemented or not 

implemented at all. For the sake of 

efficiency in the short term, employees 

take shortcuts in sharing documents on 

email, speed hacks become ingrained as 

normal behaviour and document 

processing best practices fall by the 

wayside. 

To get the best of both worlds, we need 

to embrace the technology enabling 

remote working, as well as the provision 

of electronic document management and 

workflow. There are some best practices 

for developing productive and efficient 

document processing systems and habits 

over email and messaging attachments 

which organisations can easily and 

quickly implement to make this happen. 

1. Cloud sharing and storage usage 

While email and instant messaging are 

great ways to distribute content, 

attaching documents as a habit can have 

some long-term consequences including: 

Bloated email and messaging servers 

where multiple attachments (to 

multiple people) are consistently 

passed back and forth 

Versioning difficulties where, as 

documents evolve, tracking which is 

the most current can be difficult 

Concurrency issues when it comes to 

working documents where having 

more than one person updating the 

document can result in multiple 

changes and inefficiencies in 

consolidating to one version 

Distribution issues with attachments 

or other means where documents 

tend to be floating around with little 

control 

Security issues where attached 

documents are difficult to control in 

the email itself 

Similar issues exist with messaging tools 

like Slack or Teams. Multiple copies result 

in poor control of the documents. 

Depending on the document type and 

process, sharing tools that provide file 

storage and synchronisation services can 

better avoid the email attachment issues 

with a consistent and shared document 

repository. 

2. Bypassing email attachments with links 

While email or messaging is an easy hack 

to quickly distribute a document, a better 

process focuses on sending links and 

bringing users back into a controlled 

environment where they can be the most 

efficient by: 

Seeing the most recent version where 

16 




OPINION: WORKING FROM HOME Dm 

updates in real-time to a document 

can be seen and reviewed by an 

editor 

Collaborating on the document 

where changes can be tracked and 

new comments inserted 

Not bloating email or messaging with 

document attachments so that 

weighty file transfer and security 

issues with file trust can be avoided 

Collaborative software is far more 

effective than a back-and-forth volley of 

emails. Some great recent examples of 

new content management and update 

notification features on business 

software include collaborative integration 

on Slack, where new features can be 

utilised to send task notification alerts 

straight to the user in the application 

rather than relying only on emails that 

could get lost. There is a similar 

integration feature now with Microsoft 

Teams, where direct messaging helps 

alert users to task updates and 

notifications. 

3. Reviewing documents with online tools 

Other benefits of links versus 

attachments includes quick viewing and 

acting on documents. Rather than 

downloading the document and 

launching a PC application to 

view/manipulate the content, links to 

document repositories can quickly take 

advantage of the browser and page-bypage 

viewing. 

Tied to the viewing mentioned above, 

software which allows users to see both 

the document as well as the annotations 

is really helpful. For efficiency, rather 

than manually scrolling through a large 

100-page document page and losing 

your place, such software allows for 

quick searching to just the annotations 

and provides high-speed viewing. 

4. Annotation vs. editing 

Collaborative approaches with Google 

Drive, Office 365 or other methods are 

great, but reviewers need to remember 

to turn on "suggestion" mode for certain 

scenarios when authors are looking for 

feedback but not edits. Annotation is a 

great means for collecting suggestions 

without running the risk of users feeling 

they are enabled or required to 

wordsmith or make changes to a 

document. 

Software which provides the means to 

collaboratively annotate where users see 

annotations and comments from 

multiple users real-time - saving the 

annotations as layers rather than directly 

in the document - allows collaboration to 

happen in a secure manner as required. 

For a browser-based approach, these 

features can be accessed from home 

computers as long as they have a 

modern browser. 

5. Leveraging electronic approval 

Too often documents are approved via 

email without proper audit or controls. 

Efficiently storing as a record with the 

correct signatures is difficult when the 

email is the only audit trail of an 

approved document. In addition, this is 

often not stored in the correct system of 

record. 

Software which offers true electronic 

signature compatible with the high legal 

standards, as well as integration with 

document signing software, is key. This 

integration lets you seamlessly send 

documents from a content management 

repository to be signed, then onwards to 

be automatically filed as the document 

of record. 

One area businesses need to focus on is 

the need to apply rules and requirements 

to reduce the number and requirements 

for signature. Efficient systems not only 

allow for electronic approval, but also 

the intelligence to determine who should 

be approving and when. 

6. Processing documents using intuitive 

features 

Gaining efficiency and productivity 

around documents is more than just 

sending and receiving documents, but 

how to best enable users to work with 

the documents as part of their job 

function. Efficiency and productivity, 

when it comes to the processing of claim 

documents, includes: 

Integrations into other systems to 

simplify document management 

implementation and maintain the 

document's security 

Correspondence recorded with the 

documents so that audit activity is 

automatically captured in the system 

and documents stay linked to the 

email without being duplicated again 

in the claim folder 

Automated document creation and 

combining of documents where a 

form drives to collect the relevant 

information and fills out the correct 

template 

Side-by-side organised viewing so 

that users can use separate tabs of 

the same document and don't lose 

their place in the document list by 

viewing 

7. Switching to paperless 

Keeping employees productive with 

documents also includes keeping external 

parties just as efficient when it comes to 

sending documents. Rather than mail or 

email documents, innovative companies 

are building or leveraging third-party 

tools to have vendors or other third 

parties contribute electronic copies and 

index correctly. 

Many companies are switching to 

paperless models, so they value portals 

that can accept - and often require - 

indexing from a vendor or third-party, 

rather than an email which will require 

reviewing and indexing internally. 

FUTURE PROOFING 

Once the lockdown finishes, it is likely 

more office employees will incorporate 

remote working into their work-style 

regularly, as research has found that 82% 

would like to work remotely one day a 

week or more after the COVID-19 crisis is 

over. Remote working offers businesses a 

unique opportunity to test out efficient 

document management strategies. 

However, in order to cater to this 

growing demand, companies need to 

adapt and refine their policies on digital 

tools and document sharing now in 

order to ensure efficiency and 

productivity down the line. 

More info: www.alfresco.com 




17

Dm MANAGEMENT: CAPTURE STRATEGIES 

Ready, set, go 

Ashley Keil , Vice President Sales EMEA and APAC at ibml, explains how capture 

automation can be cost-effectively deployed on specific projects or at a departmental 

level, helping businesses to sprint ahead of the competition 

Standing still in business can be costly - 

even terminal - in competitive price 

conscious industries where the 

demand to deliver for customers and other 

stakeholders is high. The late Andy Grove, 

Intel's third employee and its former CEO 

and chairman, had a succinct and 

memorable motto for how organisations 

should act to stay ahead: "Only the 

paranoid survive." He wanted to encourage 

experimentation among his managers and 

help prepare for the future. Methods have 

to change. Focus has to change. Values 

have to change. The sum total of this 

change is transformation - exactly the kind 

of thinking which explains how he steered 

Intel from making memory chips to 

microprocessors in the 1980s thereby 

helping to usher in the age of the PC. 

In the world of document management, 

transformation is very much on the agenda, 

too. In a recent survey by the Association 

for Intelligent Information Management 

(AIIM), 62% of organisations said they "are 

committed to digital transformation" with 

79% of firms stating that it is important to 

them, 53% see disruptive times ahead, yet 

many acknowledge that there's still an 

ongoing gap when it comes to their 

effectiveness to change. 

This is partly explained as the volume of 

paper documents still remains a huge 

source of how information is shared despite 

widespread computerisation. Rather 

surprisingly, over 46 million fax machines 

are still in use worldwide meaning nearly 

17 billion paper-based faxes are sent each 

and every year. The same with printed 

forms - US firms alone spend more than 

$120 billion a year producing them, with 

global invoicing also still primarily paperbased. 

Research shows that at least 550 

billion invoices were issued worldwide in 

2019, with this expected to quadruple by 

2035. Two-thirds are received in 

unstructured formats like paper or PDF - a 

significant portion of which then have to be 

handled and dealt with manually. 

Indeed, over the next two years, 

organisations predict that the volume of all 

paper they are likely to deal with - not just 

invoices - will actually grow. In some cases, 

this could be up to four and half times. And 

then there is, of course, the vast amount of 

content shared in emails and email 

attachments. 

REDUCING THE BURDEN 

As a result, firms need to find ways to 

eliminate tedious and unnecessary pre and 

post-scan labour which - according to AIIM 

- eats 76% of total capture costs and 

creates major drains on operational 

efficiency. 

Ever-increasing data volumes demand 

exponentially faster processing. Capture 

automation is one way of dealing with this 

ongoing tsunami of electronic and paperbased 

information - particularly after 

scanning - with cost effective and modular 

recognition technology readily available to 

help deal with this structured and semistructured 

data. Typically, this involves 

documents which have a set layout - 

designed by organisations themselves - 

such as proof of delivery notices (PoDs), 

application forms, insurance claims 

paperwork or simple variations of them. 

Recognition technology means barcodes 

and patch codes can be processed, logos 

detected, ICR (Intelligent Character 

Recognition) enabling handprint data to be 

read, along with OCR capability to handle 

machine print. Metadata can then be 

extracted quickly - like customer reference, 

account number, date and amount - to 

automatically populate downstream line of 

business applications like ERP and CRM 

systems or any number of financial 

packages without staff having to waste 


MANAGEMENT: CAPTURE STRATEGIES Dm 

COMPETITIVELY PRICED RECOGNITION SOLUTIONS ARE AVAILABLE - 

RUNNING ON DEDICATED SERVERS WHICH CAN SCALE UP AS REQUIRED 

BASED ON THE NUMBER OF SERVER CORES UTILISED. IBML'S POSTSCAN 

DOCNETICS IS ONE SUCH OPTION. FOR SMES OR BPOS LOOKING FOR A 

POINT SOLUTION TO SPEED UP WORKFLOWS, IT CAN LITERALLY BE 

PLUGGED INTO PRETTY MUCH ANY EXISTING SCANNING PLATFORM OR 

CAPTURE ENVIRONMENT. 

time manually re-keying data. 

And gone are the days of having to do 

this using expensive all-singing, all-dancing 

enterprise capture software which has a 

big ticket purchase price typically involving 

software licencing fees, annual support 

costs along with dreaded 'click charges' - 

typically a per image fee each time a 

document is processed. This adds a 

variable cost - a bit like putting fuel in a car 

once you've purchased it - which adds up 

as paper volumes grow and can become 

difficult for some to plan for and then 

fund. 

GETTING STARTED ISN'T 

COMPLICATED 

Competitively priced recognition solutions 

are available - running on dedicated servers 

which can scale up as required based on 

the number of server cores utilised. ibml's 

PostScan DocNetics is one such option. For 

SMEs or BPOs looking for a point solution 

to speed up workflows, it can literally be 

plugged into pretty much any existing 

scanning platform or capture environment. 

Given an open architecture, intelligent 

automation is then quickly and easily 

accessible without existing investments in 

hardware or software having to be thrown 

away - which clearly isn't realistic given the 

tough commercial climate all organisations 

currently face. 

Return on investment is swift. For SMEs or 

larger corporates who have yet to install 

capture automation, recognition solutions 

speed up data capture processing, enable 

SLAs to be met as well as making operators 

that more productive - at least a threefold 

improvement based on experiences in the 

field is very possible. Think of it as doing 

the heavy lifting as manual processes are 

removed. Clearly this type of technology 

avoids the necessity to hire additional 

headcount if and when quantities grow. 

With recognition solutions now lower in 

cost, implementing this kind of software 

around one department's needs or even to 

support a key corporate application or 

workstream can make practical sense. 

For BPOs driven by margin, lowering the 

cost of capture is crucial. Recognition 

technology offers real flexibility for bureaus 

wishing to cater for a myriad of customers 

all with different needs. It can be applied 

to specific client projects rather than 

running paperwork through whatever 

enterprise capture platform is in use - with 

all the variable operational expenditure 

that this often entails. This just makes 

sound commercial sense as money is 

saved. 

Transitioning to using recognition 

technology isn't a complex process either. 

To ensure smooth rollout, there's clearly a 

job to do to assess and get to know the 

documents to be processed in terms of 

volume, quality, design type, the business 

rules which need to be applied and where 

the metadata then needs to be sent. 

Categorising documents is an important 

step to ensure any system is properly 

scoped and set up correctly. Adding a 

server-based solution between an existing 

capture platform and line of business 

application is quick to do, with minimal IT 

professional services required to get 

everything set up and running and 

integrated properly. 

Ultimately, a lightweight standalone 

recognition technology solution will help 

organisations embrace the opportunity of 

automation by applying it to a variety of 

defined situations. It helps organisations to 

transform, evolve and change for the 

better, improve efficiency, stay sharp and 

keep on top of ever changing commercial 

imperatives. Andy Grove would no doubt 

approve. 

More info: www.ibml.com 




19

Dm MANAGEMENT: DIGITAL MAILROOM 

You've got mail 

Working from home is here to stay, says Chris Blood, Head of Business Services UK, 

Swiss Post Solutions, but there are ways to stay connected in the 'new normal' 

The life-changing disruption of 

COVID-19 has impacted all 

businesses, employees and 

customers, and whilst so much of the 

future remains unknown, it's clear that 

a more long-term plan is needed to 

facilitate remote working as we start to 

define the 'new normal'. 

Swiss Post Solutions initially developed 

a Crisis Management Solution in 

response to their clients' facing up to 

the challenge of maintaining 

communications using the traditional 

model of on-site mail. Suddenly, 

complex, hybrid environments made up 

of both the physical and digital and 

that require social distancing to be 

adhered to at every stage are here to 

stay as the country awaits the call to 

return to work. 

Meeting this challenge head on with a 

simple yet crucial Return to Work 

Digital Documents Solution, means 

teams need never miss an item of post 

or a piece of printed communication 

whilst working remotely. The solution is 

a web-based application that is securely 

hosted within the cloud and can be 

swiftly deployed within 7 days, 

delivering digital mail to a homeworker 

or office-based worker's desktop or 

mobile and offering guaranteed access 

during extended working hours. 

The centralised Digital Documents 

Portal allows teams to create numerous 

digital desks with a user permissions 

hierarchy to ensure swift and accurate 

distribution of mail and documents. 

Users can: 

Download and view mail 

Take/relinquish ownership of mail 

Add comments 

Forward to colleagues or teams 

Close or complete a mail item 

Delete a mail item 

The system maintains a full audit log of 

every mail item interaction by any user, 

and is built on a tried and tested, highly 

secure, fully compliant and pre-existing 

technology platform. 

Very little software installation is 

needed in a set-up process that simply 

involves connecting a scanner(s) to a 

workstation on customer premises and 

connecting to an online application to 

scan and deliver the documents. Mail is 

scanned either by on-site staff or Swiss 

Post Solutions mailroom staff ensuring 

a business can be serviced whatever 

their social restrictions. Alternatively, 

post can be collected from customer 

premises and scanned at one of SPS' 

secure and certified Document 

Processing Centres (DPC's). 

Clients are already seeing reductions 

in mail handling costs of 15%, mail 

processing times coming down by 75%, 

and document management costs 

reduced by 30%. 

These unprecedented times leave a lot 

unknown, but with Swiss Post Solutions 

you could not be in a safer pair of 

hands for the return to work. With over 

90 years' experience of managing 

mailrooms for some of the world's most 

demanding organisations, and currently 

operating over 500 mailrooms 

worldwide, they handle around 120 

million items of mail for clients each 

year. And with a 96% contract renewal 

rate and a 'World Class' customer 

satisfaction Net Promoter Score of 78, 

it's fair to say that these are happy 

clients. 

Do you need urgent digital access to 

mail items but have no current process 

in place? Then it's time to talk to Swiss 

Post Solutions. As soon as this time 

next week you could have peace of 

mind. Contact us for more information 

on info.sps.uk@swisspost.com. 

More info: 

www.swisspostsolutions.com 


COMPANY FOCUS: SWISS POST SOLUTIONS Dm 

Leading the charge 

Looking at some savvy businesses who've successfully flipped the digital switch 

using solutions from Swiss Post 

Swiss Post Solutions works with a 

vast array of clients who lead their 

respective fields, including 25% of 

Fortune 100 companies. The company 

has already helped clients achieve great 

results with a digital mailroom solution 

that now empowers them to tackle the 

challenges of what lies ahead. 

Efficient communications were an 

issue for the insurance industry even 

before the COVID-19 crisis, where paper 

has always been the dominant 

communication channel. 

For ERS Insurance, the SPS mailroom 

solution was off-site, replacing two 

traditional mailrooms. It focused on 

converting mail to digital at the earliest 

opportunity, before processing it either 

to an individual or to a "digital desk" 

which all team members can access. 

The benefits were immediate; 87% 

faster processing of incoming mail, 

along with improved access and 

tracking, to create vastly more efficient 

processes. 

The Co-operative Bank was looking for 

a new, digital solution for storing and 

accessing correspondence, as access 

could take up to 5 days to achieve. The 

solution implemented by Swiss Post 

included a 'day forward' scanning 

operation and web portal based around 

SPS Document Management software 

to provide instant access to all 

correspondence. The result? The time 

to access to correspondence was 

reduced to an average of just 5 

seconds, dramatically improving 

efficiency, business continuity and the 

customer experience. 

A final example is Zurich Insurance 

Group. Zurich receives high volumes of 

diverse forms of mail that previously 

were handled as part of a labour 

intensive, manual process. Swiss Post 

proposed a scanning solution that 

would centralise and automate the 

scanning and processing of FinOps 

mail. This technology allows users to 

receive, view, process and archive digital 

mail documents, essentially replacing 

the physical delivery process. This new 

quick to implement solution achieved a 

6x faster processing time and 5x faster 

access to business critical documents. 

More info: 

www.swisspostsolutions.com 

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A0562A0320_HybridMail-DigitalMail Advert v5b.indd 1 05/05/2020 11:07:46

Dm MANAGEMENT: STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE 

Data-driven transformation: its 

time has come 

Transforming the stakeholder experience requires an open 

approach to data exchange and the targeted use of AI, 

says EASY SOFTWARE's Michael Reiserer 

Smart use of data is the key to 

business improvement. Global airline 

Lufthansa has made impressive 

achievements by being highly data-driven, 

especially around enhancing the 

stakeholder experience through data. 

Rather than trying to predict and fulfil 

every possible new experience that 

customers, employees and suppliers might 

wish to have in their future interactions 

with the airline, Lufthansa management 

instead initiated open access to its 

operational data. What's the logic here? 

The idea was to access the wisdom of the 

crowd, so that external developers could 

help. In fact, the move to open up those 

key data assets to a growing partner 

ecosystem has been such a game-changer, 

it has opened up a whole new revenue 

stream for the company. 

For one, Lufthansa can charge for access 

to its data, as it's now acknowledged to be 

so valuable by the market. Plus, by 

harnessing the widest possible spectrum of 

ideas and talent across its network, 

Lufthansa will be able to deliver ever more 

compelling experiences to customers 

without ever overstretching its own skills 

and resources. 

This kind of collaboration around 

improving the stakeholder experience is 

going to become more prevalent. And it's 

my prediction that intelligent data-driven 

processes will take care of more and more 

standard transactions. Meanwhile our 

experiences of dealing with companies will 

become lighter and more intuitive via 

whichever channel we prefer (desktop, 

mobile app, voice or web chat). They will 

be curated and developed for us outside 

the traditional corporate boundary in the 

way that Lufthansa has pioneered here. 

And it is through interconnections like 

this that organisations can begin to make 

real breakthroughs with process 

improvement - not merely accelerating 

processes, or delivering them more costefficiently, 

but also creating scope for 

doing things in new and better ways, and 

delivering new experiences. 

DISRUPTION VIA IMPROVEMENT? 

At the same time, outsourcing your 

stakeholder improvement can also happen 

on a far less ambitious scale, yet 

nonetheless the results can be just as 

transformational. Often, this can centre on 

another way of using data - not opening it 

up, but digitising it. 

Take retail, for instance, where a brand's 

USP depends on its product range but also 

on a supply chain that's usually a mix of 

big-name brands and boutique suppliers. 

Those smaller suppliers may be more 

vulnerable to cash flow problems, while at 

the same time still using paper invoicing, 

which can cause delay. This delay can strain 

critical relationships (especially if the retailer 

earns a reputation for being a poor payer). 

A smart invoice processing system, 

however, would be able to process all 

forms of invoice and extract data reliably 

from them, ensuring swift payment and 

ensuring that relationships and reputations 

remain untarnished. Once the company 

can extract data from invoices and 

combine this with information in other 

systems or out in the wider world, it can 

start to make smarter purchasing 

decisions, aligning with its internal KPIs. It 

becomes easier to compare what the 

organisation is paying for utilities, for 

instance, and switch to a better deal, 

among other benefits. 

While large enterprises may have 

procurement teams and business analysts 

to draw on to make decisions about 

managing costs, maintaining supply, or 

generating quality customer experiences, 

small organisations rely a bit more on 

guesswork in arriving at these businesscritical 

decisions. However, turning 

everyday documents and transactional 

information into strategic intelligence for 

these companies means they now have 

robust evidence to support and inform 

business decisions and process reform 

going forward. 

So whether it's for opening up CX data or 

improving your internal processes, data is 

at the heart of improvement. Businesses 

should start mapping out a vision for datadriven 

transformation, as its time has 

definitely come. 

More info: www.easy-software.com/uk 


Dm FEATURE: WORKING FROM HOME 

Can working from home become the new normal? 

In these strange and difficult times, many organisations have taken necessary measures 

to allow employees to work from home. But, asks Amy Wright of Storetec, with the 

threat of Coronavirus impacting our lives for the foreseeable months rather than weeks, 

can we assume that working from home is to become the new norm? 

Recent figures issued by the 

National Statistics Office identified 

that a staggering 49.2% of adults 

in employment were working from 

home as a result of social distancing 

measures from the pandemic. Of 

course, this flexible working model is 

only appropriate for certain job roles; 

but the benefits of working from home, 

outside the remit of Coronavirus, are 

extensive! 

Reduced office costs, increased 

productivity and boosting those 'ecocredentials' 

are just some of the 

potential benefits employers will 

recognise in the future. The prospect of 

reducing overhead office costs will be 

particularly beneficial to SME's in light 


FEATURE: WORKING FROM HOME Dm 

"ONE MAJOR CONSIDERATION SURROUNDING REMOTE WORKING WHICH RINGS ALARM BELLS IS HOW 

EMPLOYEES CAN ACCESS CRITICAL BUSINESS DOCUMENTS. TAKING THE PAPER DOCUMENTS HOME WOULD NOT 

BE AN OPTION, AS HOW CAN COLLEAGUES THEN SHARE RECORDS? NOT TO MENTION THE CLUTTER AND SPACE 

THAT COMES WITH STORING PAPER RECORDS. THE SOLUTION IS SIMPLE: A DIGITAL ARCHIVE. BY SCANNING 

DOCUMENTS INTO ACCESSIBLE PDF’S, EMPLOYEES CAN LOGIN TO A CENTRAL ONLINE SYSTEM, ACCESSING THE 

RECORDS THEY REQUIRE 24/7, WITHOUT DELAY. FURTHERMORE, EMPLOYEES CAN SET UP VIRTUAL MEETINGS TO 

COLLABORATE AND DISCUSS RECORDS, OR QUICKLY SEND OVER ANNOTATED DOCUMENTS VIA EMAIL." 

of the financial pressures businesses 

will likely face post Coronavirus. 

PRODUCTIVITY QUESTIONS 

One of the big questions over remote 

working is whether employees will 

actually work productively. It would 

seem that many employers have a 

rather pessimistic outlook that their 

employees will spend their working day 

relaxing rather than working. However, 

in actual fact, 75% of employees feel 

they would be more productive due to 

reduced distractions. Furthermore, 

without the daily commute to work, 

employees can wake up refreshed and 

dive straight into their workload for 

the day without stress or tension. 

There are of course drawbacks to an 

all new culture of remote working in 

the future. Spending 24/7 at home can 

get lonely and without the office 

laughs and jokes, daily working life can 

become less enjoyable. Switching off 

from work and finding the right 

home/work life balance might also be 

difficult to achieve. But with plenty of 

free web-based collaboration and 

conferencing systems such as Microsoft 

Teams & Skype, there are ways round 

keeping connected with colleagues. 

THE PAPER PROBLEM 

One major consideration surrounding 

remote working which rings alarm bells 

is how employees can access critical 

business documents. Taking the paper 

documents home would not be an 

option, as how can colleagues then 

share records? Not to mention the 

clutter and space that comes with 

storing paper records. The solution is 

simple: a digital archive. 

By scanning documents into 

accessible PDF's, employees can login 

to a central online system, accessing 

the records they require 24/7, without 

delay. Furthermore, employees can set 

up virtual meetings to collaborate and 

discuss records, or quickly send over 

annotated documents via email. The 

options are endless. 

HOW SECURE IS REMOTE 

WORKING? 

As leading document scanning & 

cloud-based document management 

providers, we at Storetec have been 

busy helping clients facilitate remote 

working over the last six weeks. With 

the rush for businesses to set up 

remote working infrastructure and 

follow critical government orders, the 

reality is that currently, many 

businesses security systems are 

compromised. 

Data gathered from independent 

surveys distributed to a range of 

businesses identified that some 

employees are accessing critical 

documents via email, USB and other 

non-secure networks. We would like to 

think that there aren't cyber-criminals 

waiting to take advantage of the 

situation… but in reality, that's exactly 

what's happening. If the Coronavirus 

pandemic has taught us anything, it's 

that the unexpected can happen, and 

businesses should be prepared to face 

any eventuality. 

Is there a solution to the security 

problem, you may ask? There is: an 

encrypted cloud-based document 

management solution. Products such 

as our award-winning system FreeDocs 

will enable you to: 

Access confidential documents in a 

secure, cloud-based database. 

Set multi-user restrictions to 

determine levels of access. 

Review audit trails of which records 

employees have accessed remotely. 

Have the peace of mind knowing 

documents are secure, protected 

behind data encryption and 2- 

factor authentication. 

You may already have a system like this 

in place, which means you're absolutely 

on the right track. But if you are one of 

the employees accessing records via 

USB or email transfer, we urge you to 

contact us today for some free advice 

over your cloud-based solution. 

With the Coronavirus pandemic 

unfortunately expected to impact our 

lives throughout 2020, now is the time 

to ensure your organisation is on track 

with its business continuity and record 

management. As for the months and 

years following Coronavirus, who 

knows? But one thing is for certain; 

the pandemic has changed the UK's 

working life culture. As a result, 

working from home may indeed 

become the new normal for millions of 

employees. 

If you would like any advice or 

information regarding Storetec's secure 

document scanning and cloud-based 

document management services, 

please do not hesitate to contact us on 

0800 612 4065 or sales@storetec.net. 

More info: www.storetec.net 




25

Dm MANAGEMENT: COMPLIANCE 

According to the recentlypublished 

DLA Piper GDPR Data 

Breach Survey 2020, more than 

160,000 data breach notifications have 

been reported across Europe since the 

General Data Protection Regulation 

(GDPR) came into force in May 2018. 

The survey also found that data 

protection regulators have imposed 

114 million Euros in fines under the 

GDPR regime for a wide range of GDPR 

infringements. It is clear therefore that 

GDPR: risk vs. reward 

The right approach to backup and recovery can help 

organisations to remain GDPR-compliant, explains Mike 

Sanders, General Manager, Unitrends, a Kaseya 

company 

that many businesses are still facing 

challenges when it comes to meeting 

and maintaining compliance. 

Backup and recovery can play key 

roles in helping ensure organisations 

remain compliant with GDPR at all 

times and avoid a breach and the costly 

fines associated with it. But in today's 

increasingly cloud-based environments, 

how can businesses best manage their 

data retention policies and control the 

location and replication of their data in 

the cloud? Here are some top tips they 

should follow to help them achieve 

these goals. 

Make use of geo-controlled cloud 

data: Articles 45-47 of GDPR govern 

the location and privacy of EU citizens' 

data in the cloud. Organisations should 

consider cloud solutions that let them 

choose the geographic region where 

their data is based and contain data 

replication within a selected region, 

such as the EU, unless a different 

geography is specifically requested. 

Make sure you can access automated 

compliance reporting: Under GDPR, 

organisations are responsible for how 

they manage and protect the privacy of 

EU citizens' user data (Article 5). Make 

26 




MANAGEMENT: COMPLIANCE Dm 

"IN ADDITION TO SUBSTANTIAL PENALTIES THAT CAN QUICKLY EAT INTO THE BOTTOM LINE OF THE BUSINESS, 

THE BIGGEST RISKS ARE TO THE COMPANY'S REPUTATION AND THE GOODWILL SHOWN TO IT. ANY COMPANY 

THAT FAILS TO FOLLOW THE STIPULATIONS OF GDPR AND EXPERIENCES A DATA LEAK AS A RESULT OPENS 

THEMSELVES UP TO SEVERE MONETARY PENALTIES AND FINES, LOSS OF FUTURE BUSINESS, NETWORK 

DOWNTIME, ONGOING LEGAL FEES, LOSS OF CUSTOMER TRUST AND CONFIDENCE, UNHAPPY SHAREHOLDERS 

AND POOR EMPLOYEE MORALE." 

sure you choose backup, recovery and 

cloud software solutions that provide 

robust compliance reporting built into 

the user interface, including outage 

impact predictions and comprehensive 

data recoverability reports that are 

available in formats that can be shared 

with leadership or auditors. 

Ensure backup and recovery is 'stateof-the-art': 

As part of its commitment 

to protecting users and their data, 

GDPR encourages companies to 

implement backup and recovery that is 

state of the art (Articles 25 and 32). It 

is important to seek out solutions that 

provide advanced ransomware 

protection and machine learning-based 

predictive analytics. 

Put in place data retention policies 

that are easy to manage: Article 6 of 

GDPR requires a strategic plan for 

storing data about EU citizens that 

includes a mechanism to delete data 

when the use case completes. It is 

therefore key to seek out a solution 

that simplifies the process of defining 

and managing data retention policies 

for both on-premises back-up and data 

in the cloud. 

Implement intuitive search and 

delete: One of the most talked about 

articles of GDPR is Article 17, the Right 

to be Forgotten. In order to address 

this, it is important to ensure your 

chosen backup and recovery tools 

include intuitive search functionality 

that enable your administrators to find 

specific files. Administrators can then 

choose to delete data as needed, 

though it should be noted that, 

depending on the data source, 

deletion may require erasing a block of 

data and administrators should also be 

aware of how other compliance 

regulations might be impacted. 

Instigate role-based access control: 

As another way of controlling the 

privacy of EU citizens' data, Article 23 

of GDPR mandates that organisations 

restrict access to personal data 

whenever possible. Role-based access 

control can be instrumental here in 

helping administrators meet this 

requirement by letting them manage 

and restrict data access levels within 

their team. 

Provide secure encryption: GDPR 

Article 32 mandates that all data is 

securely processed and stored. With 

the latest high-quality backup 

solutions, data can be encrypted inflight 

and at-rest using military grade 

encryption. 

Instant recovery: In addition to 

security, GDPR article 32 also requires 

the ability to quickly restore data. A 

high-quality backup and data recovery 

solution makes it easier for you to 

recover lost data in seconds. 

RUNNING THE RISK 

By failing to ensure compliance with 

GDPR, any business is running some 

significant risks. In addition to 

substantial penalties that can quickly 

eat into the bottom line of the 

business, the biggest risks are to the 

company's reputation and the goodwill 

shown to it. 

Any company that fails to follow the 

stipulations of GDPR and experiences a 

data leak as a result opens themselves up 

to severe monetary penalties and fines, 

loss of future business, network 

downtime, ongoing legal fees, loss of 

customer trust and confidence, unhappy 

shareholders and poor employee morale. 

That's food for thought for every business 

when they decide whether or not they 

should put the necessary measures in 

place to comply. 

GDPR is not going to go away and every 

organisation needs to ensure it has put its 

own house in order. Complying with the 

regulation means putting in place a multifaceted 

approach that is as much about 

implementing new processes as it is about 

installing new technologies. The latest 

backup and recovery solutions will 

typically have a key part to play in 

delivering best practice data management 

and by extension helping to meet GDPR. 

The Unitrends Fifth Annual Cloud and 

Disaster Recovery Report found, however, 

that 30 percent of its respondents are 

experiencing data loss, and 40 percent 

suffered downtime, showing that many 

organisations still need support to 

leverage backup and disaster recovery 

solutions and best practices. 

Moving forward, organisations that 

implement these tools will often be better 

placed to comply with GDPR and other 

regulations. Ultimately too, there is no 

time like the present to start putting them 

in place. 

More info: www.unitrends.com 




27

Dm FEATURE: DOCUMENT PROCESSING 

Rising to the data extraction challenge 

Charlie Newark-French, COO of Hyperscience, outlines some best practice 

approaches for achieving 'document processing excellence' even during high 

pressure situations such as the current pandemic 

Fast and easy document processing, 

which is critical to smooth-running 

operations in the best of times, 

becomes absolutely essential during a crisis. 

That's when organisations are confronted 

with new challenges and must find ways to 

do more with the same or less. 

Redundancies or weaknesses in operations 

often become more apparent during 

challenging times and create more problems 

if left unchecked. Organisations often have 

to let go of the old ways of doing things 

and rethink operations. 

We're seeing this issue play out now on the 

world stage. Financial services firms, such as 

banks and insurance companies, as well as 

government agencies, have been hit with a 

deluge of forms, as people rush to take 

advantage of economic stimulus packages 

and interest rates. 

In the UK, lenders haven't been 

able to issue money quickly enough 

due to the overwhelming number 

of applications, and similarly, 

bounce-back loans for small 

businesses are expected to be in 

high demand. Governments in the 

U.S. are feeling the pain as well. 

Operations at the state level are 

being stretched thin in response 

to record unemployment claims, 

and federal refunds are being 

delayed as the IRS struggles to 

process the huge volume of 

paper-based returns. Many 

financial institutions are hardpressed 

to process the huge 

volume of small business loans 

and mortgage refinancing 

applications as well. 

The difficulties in legacy 

document processing 

workflows are magnified 

during and following a crisis, 

when organisations return to 

usual operations and are 

faced with an influx of forms, 

on top of growing backlogs. Organisations 

need to be able to handle variable 

document volumes, even outside normal 

peak times, in an efficient and effective 

manner. 

OUTDATED PROCESSES & SYSTEMS 

In the midst of all these challenges, many 

organisations are faced with a stark reality: 

their manual processes and outdated 

systems are failing them at a time when they 

need them most. Despite the desire to be 

"digital first," many organisations are still 

relying on manual processes, using data 

entry staff to index and extract data from 

handwritten or computer-generated forms 

and key it into their systems for processing. 

This is an inefficient, costly and error-prone 

process that is costing businesses nearly 

US$60 billion each year. 

Other organisations are relying on offshore 

manual operations to handle data entry 

because of the reduced cost; however, due 

to quarantines, staff in locations such as 

India have been forced to stay home, and 

these outsourcers lack the IT infrastructure 

or contingency plans to keep operations 

running. 

Even during normal times, these processes 

are inefficient - a stop-gap or band-aid 

approach that worked in part, but never 

delivered the quick and accurate processing 

of applications, claims and other forms at 

the scale that organisations need to stay 

agile and responsive in today's world. As 

organisations grapple with uncertainty, 

these pains are all the more salient, and 

relieving the administrative burden, reallocating 

employee time, obtaining 

accurate data, and having the ability to 

quickly respond to customer needs have 

become more important than ever. 

THE DATA CHALLENGE 

So, why has data extraction remained such a 

challenge? To start, documents are messy 

and vary in layout, quality and complexity. In 

28 




FEATURE: DOCUMENT PROCESSING Dm 

addition, when it comes to high-value 

transactional processing, reliable and 

accurate data is critical, and one incorrect 

digit can be the difference between a 

mortgage application or claim being 

approved or rejected. 

Following are some of the factors that have 

made document processing so difficult for 

organisations: 

Many of the forms are handwritten, 

which make them hard to read. In 

addition to the challenges of 

handwritten text, a smudge or lowquality 

image can contribute to 

readability issues, for example making 

a "c" look like an "o." There could be 

scratched-out text, writing outside of 

the boxes and other issues that can 

further complicate a computer's ability 

to recognise and extract characters 

correctly. In the absence of reliable 

technology solutions for processing 

data, organisations have relied on 

humans to decipher hard-to-read 

words based on context and 

comprehension. Fortunately, advances 

in technology have bridged the gap 

between human understanding and 

machine processing, since handwriting, 

just like paper-based forms, will not be 

going away any time soon. 

The lack of standardisation impairs 

machine-to-machine communication. 

It's hard for computers to read 

machine-generated forms largely due 

to the lack of global standardised 

formats. For example, there are a 

number of ways an invoice number 

can be represented by different 

vendors, such as "Inv. No.," "Invoice #" 

or "INV-#." This makes it hard for 

traditional rules-based technology 

systems to identify the page, locate the 

right field for extraction, and accurately 

extract the data for downstream 

processing. 

Forms often have imperfections. Clientgenerated 

documents can often have 

fax marks, stamps, or other 

imperfections. If a scanner is used to 

digitise a paper document, it can result 

in faded print or uneven scan, all of 

which make it difficult for a computer 

to process reliably. 

THE POWER OF AI 

The good news is that many companies 

are turning to technology to help tackle 

these challenges and remove the 

inefficiencies and errors of manual 

processes and legacy systems. 

To date, rudimentary automation 

technologies have been favoured because 

they're quick to implement and fit into 

existing processes, but they fail to unlock 

and lift unstructured document data. This 

data, which can be found in PDFs, images 

and other document types, doesn't have a 

pre-defined data model and is not in a 

format that can be used by a company's 

processing system - yet it makes up the 

bulk of an organisation's data stack. The 

ability to unlock and process these 

documents is critical to achieving 

meaningful efficiencies and driving end-toend 

automation. 

The advent of artificial intelligence 

technologies, however, has been a gamechanger, 

enabling companies to take a 

more sophisticated, robust approach to 

document processing. Machine learning 

(ML), for example, can train and continue 

to learn based on the data it's exposed to. 

With the right approach and training, MLenabled 

solutions can capture, extract and 

classify unstructured data from a variety of 

documents and structure it into a format 

that is usable by the internal processing 

system. 

This new category, Intelligent Document 

Processing (IDP), automates the ability to 

read pages with context in order to capture 

and process data with a high degree of 

accuracy, efficiency and speed. It not only 

enables enterprises to achieve cost savings, 

but also furthers workforce productivity 

and overall customer experience. 

During crises and other challenging times 

when document processing inefficiencies 

are more glaring and painful, companies 

are particularly focused on ways to increase 

effectiveness. Here are some best practices 

organisations can implement that will 

enable them to scale when document 

volumes increase and also prime them for 

long-term success: 

Take a good, hard look at your 

processes to identify where technology 

can have the greatest impact. Evaluate 

processes end-to-end to measure and 

quantify current bottlenecks or pain 

points. Given current critical needs and 

the evolving global economic situation, 

it's important to invest resources and 

budget in solutions that solve a key 

problem, are easy-to-deploy and add 

tangible value. Look for practical 

applications of AI and other key 

technologies rather than experimental 

initiatives. 

Make the best use of human and 

computing resources. Now is not the 

time to waste people resources on low 

value, repetitive tasks, when advanced 

document processing technology can 

handle that with a high level of 

accuracy. Humans will continue to play 

a role by handling exceptions and 

providing the knowledge and context 

to process those hardest-to-read 

documents. However, by freeing up 

staff time previously needed for manual 

processing, technology enables 

employees to focus on higher-level 

activities like providing better customer 

service or uncovering new 

opportunities - at a time when it's 

particularly important. 

Create a plan and framework for 

successful implementation. Map out 

processes needed to design, develop 

and implement your automation 

strategy. C-level buy-in and 

organisational adoption will be key, so 

make sure to include key stakeholders 

at the beginning of the process and 

every step of the way. Ensure the 

sustainability of the initiative by setting 

aside the ongoing resources and 

investment that will be required after 

deployment. 

By implementing best practices and 

relying on the intelligence of advanced 

technology, organisations can meet critical 

need as market conditions evolve, elevate 

the customer experience, and position 

themselves for success in all economic 

climates. 

More info: www.hyperscience.com 




29

Dm CASE STUDY: ROYAL COLLEGE OF NURSING 

Clinical precision 

The Royal College of Nursing is supporting frontline nurses during the COVID-19 

pandemic with an online information hub 

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), 

the world's largest nursing union and 

professional body, representing more 

than 450,000 nurses, student nurses, 

midwives and nursing support workers in 

the UK and internationally, has partnered 

with digital preservation specialist 

Preservica to ensure vital medical and 

clinical guidance is made available online 

and preserved for its 450,000 members 

during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The information is critical to supporting 

front-line NHS nurses, midwives, student 

and newly qualified nurses, support 

workers and retired nurses "returning to 

duty" at this unprecedented time. The 

initiative is helping reassure RCN staff and 

senior decision-makers that records 

documenting decisions and actions of the 

RCN, as well as advice given to members, 

are being actively collected. Actions include 

the RCN lobbying the UK government on 

the availability of testing and PPE (Personal 

Protective Equipment) for its members. 

REAL-TIME DIGITAL PRESERVATION & 

ACCESS 

Led by the RCN's archives team, the college 

has already made more than a thousand 

historical clinical guidance publications 

available online through a secure members 

portal. The very latest information on 

tackling infectious diseases and a full 

summary of all UK government advice and 

statements is available on the RCN 

website. 

The team is also actively capturing and 

preserving RCN website bulletins related to 

COVID-19, and working with the RCN's 

comms team to harvest testimonials of 

front-line nurses that have been shared on 

social media. The aim is to document the 

contribution of the college and its 

members for future generations and 

enable the RCN to supply evidence that 

demonstrate its role and actions during the 

pandemic. 

Fiona Bourne, Archive Manager at the 

RCN, commented: "A lot of nursing 

students have just qualified, and they're 

going straight into the workforce to tackle 

the pandemic. Without that depth of 

experience, it's part of our job to ensure 

that they have access to vital clinical 

information as well as the most up to date 

advice and guidance so they can come up 

to speed quickly and safely." 

The RCN is using Preservica's online digital 

preservation and discovery platform to 

quickly capture, preserve and make 

material securely accessible to members no 

matter where they are or what device they 

might be using. The college is also 

participating in an initiative launched by 

Preservica called #ourcovid19story that is 

donating additional free cloud storage to 

the user community for COVID-19 related 

collections. 

This has taken pressure off the RCN 

archive team enabling them to ensure 

information is collected and made 

available in near-real-time without 

worrying about storage space. The cloud 

hosted Preservica application has also 

meant that the team have been able to 

remain productive while working remotely 

during "lockdown". 

Fiona added: "If, as seems likely in the 

future, there is a public enquiry about the 

government's response to the pandemic, 

we'll be able to provide evidence promptly 

and effectively to the relevant body. That 

same evidence will show what the 

organisation has done in terms of advice 

and support for nurses and care workers 

across the NHS and the independent 

sector, and the contribution of key staff to 

government advisory committees". 

More info: www.preservica.com 


ANALYSIS: DOCUMENT SECURITY Dm 

Can we trust digital documents? 

A new White Paper examines the implications of the transition from physical to 

digital security documents 

‘ Physical to Digital: A Revolution in 

Document Security’ considers the 

implications behind the current 

digital revolution in the areas of 

financial transactions and ID 

document security. The publication 

contrasts more than 1,000 years of 

experience in printing and examining 

security documents with the last three 

decades, which has seen a huge 

growth in the use of smartphones in 

what has previously been the domain 

of secured printed documents. 

Protection and security are seen as 

the primary drivers in the physical 

document world, while digital growth 

is being propelled by a 'Can we do it? 

And if so how?' attitude, rather than 

security. Examples of breaches, hacks 

and outages in the digital world are 

included in the White Paper. A 

comparison reveals that in the 

Eurozone the incidence of payment 

card fraud is over 300 times bigger 

than the number of euro banknotes 

that are counterfeited. 

The paper also considers how far the 

transition in security documents from 

the physical to digital has gone and 

what the future holds. It also 

questions how safe is the data that is 

held and used in the digital world, 

where we're seeing data breaches that 

enable the theft of personal 

information about tens of millions of 

people. 

And whilst there is a recognition that 

society cannot turn the clock back, the 

White Paper nevertheless urges 

caution and the need to change the 

mind-set of people working on digital 

finance and digital ID, to put data and 

personal security at the heart of this 

new world. 

The White Paper concludes that the 

use of digital technologies has some 

way to go before replacing cash - 

most people in most countries 

continue to rely on cash for retail 

transactions. Similarly, when it comes 

to ID documents, digital technologies, 

while attractive, remain for the time 

being some way short of being 

ubiquitous. 

It's clear, says the paper, that physical 

banknotes and ID credentials remain 

the norm, with the inspection of these 

documents by people and machines 

remaining the essential step in 

detecting fraudulent documents. 

Ian Lancaster, founder and former 

managing director of Reconnaissance 

International and lead author and 

editor, said the White Paper is an 

important contribution to the digital 

document debate, clarifying the 

current position and the critical issues: 

"A digital revolution is taking place. 

We are moving from a world in which 

people can examine and inspect a 

document to check its legitimacy to 

one in which we are required to trust 

that a device, such as our smartphone, 

is doing what we think it's doing. Is 

the data it's using accurate and secure 

and is the decision it leads us to make 

correct and appropriate? Throughout 

all the issues and considerations this 

raises, we must ask the question: does 

digital make us and our data safe and 

secure?" 

More info: 

www.digitaldocumentsecurity.com/ 




31

Dm MANAGEMENT: CLOUD 

From the 'cloud rush' to 

enlightenment 

Adrian Moir, Senior Consultant at Quest Software, 

looks at the growing trend for 'cloud repatriation' and 

asks whether the cost and time involved are being 

given adequate consideration in finding the appropriate 

balance 

Many organisations have felt the 

pressure to move towards the 

cloud and it was only four 

years ago that Gartner 

suggested a "cloudfirst" 

strategy was 

the foundation 

for staying 

relevant in 

today's world. 

There is no 

denying the 

substantial 

benefits 

that 

cloud 

can 

deliver, but there is a difference 

between taking a considered and 

strategic approach, and 'forcing' cloud 

migration simply due to fear of being 

left behind. 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but 

what many organisations didn't predict 

was the level of complexity and 

additional costs of simply lifting and 

shifting everything into these new 

environments. So how can businesses 

find the right model for their cloudbased 

workloads as data continues to 

grow? 

CLOUD ADOPTION 

The last decade has seen an influx of 

cloud initiatives, with many businesses 

seeing it as a must-have platform. CIOs 

were enamoured by the sudden 

scalability available at their fingertips 

and as the technology proliferated, 

many companies clamoured to migrate 

their workloads. The cloud computing 

model captured everyone's 

imagination by promising an agile, 

scalable and cost-effective platform. 

It seemed to be the perfect solution 

to many of the challenges businesses 

were experiencing with older legacy 

systems. 

Traditional storage platforms were 

struggling to keep up with volumes of 

data and the need to over- provision 

32 




MANAGEMENT: CLOUD Dm 

"ONE OF THE MAIN DRAWBACKS OF THE CLOUD IS THAT POOR PLANNING CAN QUICKLY ACCUMULATE TO 

WASTED TIME, MONEY AND RESOURCES. WITH A CONSUMPTION MODEL SUCH AS CLOUD COMPUTING IT'S 

IMPORTANT TO LOOK AT HOW QUICKLY COSTS COULD RACK UP, WHERE THE DATA IS STORED AND HOW 

BACKUP AND COMPLIANCE/REGULATION WILL IMPACT THE BUSINESS STRATEGY." 

resources was costly and difficult to 

plan. Many businesses also found 

backups were becoming inefficient 

and less reliable. It seemed like the 

cloud came at a perfect time for 

industry. As such, some companies 

took this as an opportunity to upgrade 

all their infrastructure and move to a 

pure cloud-based structure. However, 

today we are now seeing these 

organisations struggle with a number 

of data challenges, so perhaps it was 

case of running before they could 

walk. 

THE MISCONCEPTIONS 

It is absolutely true that cloud has 

been and continues to be a clear 

enabler of business success. A recent 

survey found that over 50% of 

respondents are using the cloud in 

some way as a part of their disaster 

recovery processes. Furthermore, the 

cloud has also enabled many 

businesses to kick-start their digital 

transformation efforts, driving 

innovation through almost every level 

of the organisation. 

But all of this is only useful if 

businesses invest the right amount of 

time, money and resources into their 

cloud strategy from the start. It is also 

important to make informed decisions 

about its suitability and how this 

supports the businesses goals. A key 

part of this is cost forecasting to 

ensure that there are no nasty 

surprises further down the line. 

When looking at the rush towards 

the cloud, cost reduction is top of the 

wish list for many CIOs. Improved 

business agility and reliable scalability 

during peak time periods also prove 

enriching. However, while the initial 

rollout of the cloud was regarded as a 

cheaper option to on-premises, this is 

not the case for every organisation 

and today there are many businesses 

facing cost overruns, complexity and 

backup challenges. 

One of the main drawbacks of the 

cloud is that poor planning can 

quickly accumulate to wasted time, 

money and resources. With a 

consumption model such as cloud 

computing it's important to look at 

how quickly costs could rack up, 

where the data is stored and how 

backup and compliance/regulation will 

impact the business strategy. While 

the idea of outsourcing is a major 

appeal, businesses are still 

accountable for data so it's important 

to forecast, plan and consider all the 

options. 

These challenges are causing many 

organisations to rethink their cloud 

strategy, with some organisations 

going as far as pulling data back onpremises. 

While in some cases this 

might be necessary, repatriating data 

from the cloud is not a simple click of 

a button - it is costly and timeconsuming, 

the two key things that 

any CIO would wish to avoid. 

Finding an enlightened path 

Many of these obstacles are not a 

reflection on cloud computing itself 

but of poor planning and a lack of 

strategy. It is forcing a cloud-first 

mandate that is leading towards the 

need to pull data back. 

Most organisations will benefit from 

using a balance of different services 

but it is important to keep an open 

mind about which model will suit 

which workloads and adapt 

accordingly. Carefully choosing exactly 

where data should live is critical. 

Understanding what you have and 

how it behaves is of paramount 

importance, before you begin moving 

workloads to new environments. 

While over-provisioned resources 

should be recovered first it is essential 

that the workload behaviour is 

understood and how that can be 

analysed to prevent cost over-run or a 

drop in performance during peak 

requirement. 

Aligning a reduction in overprovisioned 

resources, knowing 

behaviour along with the cost analysis 

of both current and future planned 

deployment locations will enable 

businesses to be well on the way to 

understanding if cloud adoption is 

right - and for which workloads. New 

technologies and services will always 

emerge in today's digital world so we 

should use this as an opportunity to 

learn how poor planning can cause 

significant longer-term repercussions. 

More info: www.quest.com 




33

Dm CASE STUDY: CLAIRE DAVIES, ADVOCATE 

A good advocate for digitisation 

One leading Jersey legal practice is 

driving document innovation and 

responding to the local court 

requirements for electronic 

bundling 

Respected Jersey-based specialist 

family law practice Claire Davies, 

Advocate has chosen electronic 

document bundling software from leading 

legal software innovator Zylpha. The move 

has proven extremely timely as the island's 

Royal Court (Family division) is now actively 

encouraging the use of electronic legal 

document bundles for all hearings. Ideally 

suited to the Court's demands, Zylpha is 

winning many friends and gaining huge 

interest amongst other local practices. 

As a leading family practice Claire Davies, 

Advocate is committed to providing a firstclass 

service. By utilising Zylpha, it has been 

able to produce electronic document 

bundles in a fraction of the time it would 

take to produce them manually, whilst also 

making considerable saving across 

stationery, photocopying, physical storage 

and the use of couriers. 

Clients too have expressed satisfaction 

with the enhanced service levels available. 

By being ready to capitalise on the 

acceptance of digital files by the Jersey 

family court, Claire Davies, Advocate has 

been able to hit the ground running from 

day one with high-quality professional 

electronic bundles. 

According to Claire Davies herself, the 

move reflects a significant commitment to 

both innovation and customer service. In 

her view, "The decision to go with Zylpha is 

part of a broader programme of adopting 

"NOW THAT THE JERSEY FAMILY COURTS ARE DICTATING THAT FIRMS USE 

ELECTRONIC BUNDLING, COMPLEX LEGAL DOCUMENT BUNDLES CAN BE 

PRODUCED IN A FRACTION OF THE TIME IT TOOK PREVIOUSLY WITH 

MANUAL SYSTEMS, IN SOME CASES SAVING DAYS OF WORK. USING 

ZYLPHA ALSO INCLUDES ALL THE SET-UP AND PRACTICES FOR PRODUCING 

BUNDLES WHILST WORKING FROM HOME WITHOUT DISRUPTION. THIS IS 

ALL A MAJOR LEAP FORWARD." 

innovation aimed at driving client service 

levels. Despite exploring a number of 

different digital document management 

solutions, Zylpha was the only document 

bundling system that offered the robust 

service levels required here." 

She went on: "Now that the Jersey family 

courts are dictating that firms use 

electronic bundling, complex legal 

document bundles can be produced in a 

fraction of the time it took previously with 

manual systems, in some cases saving days 

of work. Using Zylpha also includes all the 

set-up and practices for producing bundles 

whilst working from home without 

disruption. This is all a major leap 

forward... and the courts themselves are 

highlighting to others that what we are 

doing with Zylpha is good practice!" 

For his part, Zylpha's CEO Tim Long 

welcomed Claire Davies' comments 

adding, "Claire Davies, Advocate is one of 

the leading family legal practices in Jersey, 

and their commitment to driving 

innovation is being recognised as a huge 

credit to the community. We are delighted 

therefore that having chosen Zylpha the 

practice is now supported by an 

appreciative local court system. We look 

forward to hearing of their excellent work 

in Channel Islands and of the role Zylpha 

has played there." 

More info: www.zylpha.com 


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