DM Nov-Dec 2021

DOCUMENT
M A N A G E R
Dm
www.document-manager.com
DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT
IMAGING & CAPTURE
WORKFLOW/BPM
CONTENT MANAGEMENT
DM Awards 2021:
Back with a bang!
The AI conversation:
Four key questions to ask
Intelligent automation:
Towards better compliance
Flexible working:
Addressing security concerns
NEWS • PRODUCT FOCUS • USER PROFILE • INTERVIEWS
ISSN 1351-3222 Vol 29 No 6 November/December 2021

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Dm
COMMENT
Editor:
Dave Tyler
david.tyler@btc.co.uk
Sub Editor:
Mark Lyward
mark.lyward@btc.co.uk
Our last issue of the year gives over a
Publishing Director:
John Jageurs
number of pages to the DM Awards
john.jageurs@btc.co.uk
Sales Manager:
which took place on November 18th in
Abby Penn
London: our first 'real life' awards in nearly two
abby.penn@btc.co.uk
Lead Designer
years went off swimmingly, and we've been
Ian Collis
overwhelmed by the positive feedback from
ian.collis@btc.co.uk
Circulation/Subscriptions:
everyone involved. See page 18 for the start of
Christina Willis
our coverage of the ceremony, including all the
christina.willis@btc.co.uk
Managing Director:
winners and runners-up.
John Jageurs
Elsewhere in this issue we look at AI from two very different
john.jageurs@btc.co.uk
perspectives: Stephen Boals of Ephesoft shares the four key questions
Published by: Barrow &
you need to ask an AI vendor before committing to any spend, while
Thompkins Connexion Ltd
35 Station Square,
Gregor Joeris of SER argues that too many organisations are struggling
Petts Wood
to reach the potential of AI projects as a result of data issues - both
Kent BR5 1LZ
Tel: 01689 616000
quality- and quantity-related. As Gregor says: "We are creating more and
Fax: 01689 826622
more data, and it is becoming an increasingly valuable business asset as
Subscriptions:
it defines an organisation's uniqueness. By 2025… IDC forecasts that
UK: £35/year, £60/two years,
£80/three years
worldwide data production will reach a massive 175 zettabytes, with
Europe: £48/year, £85 two
much of it sitting in the cloud. The big challenge, however, is that much
years, £127 three years.
ROW:£62/year, £115/two
of this data is stored in an unstructured way. This makes it challenging to
years, £168/three years
find centrally or analyse effectively for real business value."
Published 6 times a year.
Single copies can be bought
In other words, all the fancy AI and ML technology in the world won't
for £8.50 (includes postage &
really make much difference to how your business operates if you are not
packaging). No part of this
magazine may be reproduced
able to access the right data at the right time. Which is actually good
without prior consent, in writing,
from the publisher.
news for the DM/ECM industry, of course, as that is exactly what we
©Copyright 2021 Barrow &
have been focused on doing for a a very long time.
Thompkins
Stephen's article takes a different tack, questioning whether AI is
Connexion Ltd
becoming just another sales buzzword that IT vendors feel they have to
Articles published reflect the
offer as part of any solution. There is certainly a feeling if you watch any
opinions of the authors and are
not necessarily those of the
mainstream news programmes that there is a public perception of AI as
publisher or his employees. While
every reasonable effort is made
something we need to be wary of, and which is in danger of growing
to ensure that the contents of
out of our control. I suspect that if the general public understood how
articles, editorial and advertising
are accurate no responsibility can
limited most AI is at the moment, their fears would be largely allayed. As
be accepted by the publisher for
errors, misrepresentations or any
Stephen says of spurious claims about the power of AI: "If CEOs, CIOs,
resulting effects
CFOs and their managers had a pound for every time they heard these
statements, they could solve our national debt. Misleading AI
declarations and vastly overstated claims are commonplace in today's
technology conversations. A technologist may have one understanding, a
product manager another and a salesperson yet another."
Nobody would deny that AI has the potential to alter the world of
information management - but as these articles illustrate, we may have
some way to go yet.
Dave Tyler
Editor
david.tyler@btc.co.uk
www.document-manager.com
November/December 2021
@DMMagAndAwards
3

Dm CONTENTS
C O N T E N T S
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
6
10
22
23
30
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................
MARKET FOCUS: LEGAL…………...............................................................……….6
Storetec's Grace Schneider asks how law firms can overcome the security concerns that
come with the shift to more flexible working
CASE STUDY: CHICHESTER COLLEGE GROUP…..............................................……..8
Paper-heavy processes were preventing the achievement of the college group's goal to go
greener, until the deployment of a new cloud-based document management system
MANAGEMENT: AI…………............................................................................….10
Stephen Boals of Ephesoft shares the four key questions you need to ask an AI vendor
INTERVIEW: DYANIX…………......................................................................…….12
DM magazine spoke to Jeroen Kant, VP Business Development Solutions at Dyanix, about
the company's recent rebrand from Spigraph and its move towards a more solutionsoriented
approach
CASE STUDY: ISLE OF MAN CENTRAL REGISTRY…..........................................……14
The Isle of Man's Central Registry function has moved to a 'Digital-first' approach that
allowed them to improve services at no additional cost, even during lockdown
STRATEGY: CONTENT SERVICES……..............................................................……16
Digital transformation has taken on new meaning, argues Kyle McNabb of ASG
Technologies, as enterprises seek to improve their responsiveness to volatile and complex
market conditions
EVENT: DM AWARDS 2021……....................................................................……18
The fifteenth DM Awards saw a return to a live in-person event, and what a night it
was - here are all the winners and runners-up
CASE STUDY: UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE……………….............................…….22
Cambridge University enables hybrid printing for students and staff with PaperCut MF
and Mobility Print
STRATEGY: COVID-19……….........................................................................……23
The pandemic has made digital business processes an urgent requirement, argues Dan
Wajzner of Document Logistix, which poses challenges for culture change, speed of
implementation and data migration
MANAGEMENT: COMPLIANCE……….............................................................…..24
Jim Close of Kofax outlines his 'Risk-Averse Executive's Guide to Better Compliance Using
Intelligent Document Processing'
REVIEW: ITEXT DITO………..............................................................................….26
CASE STUDY: CLEARDATA………...............................................................………28
DM specialist Cleardata is investing over £1 million for growth, expanding its scanner fleet
in order to win new business
STRATEGY: SECURITY…..................................................................................……30
Michele Mabilia of Kyocera Document Solutions UK explains why a holistic approach to
security is the best way forward
STRATEGY: AI…….............................................................................................….32
AI research needs to centre on business case challenges, argues Dr. Gregor Joeris, CTO of
SER Group
ANALYSIS: CAPTURE TRENDS………...........................................................……..34
Harvey Spencer takes a sniff around developing technologies that promise to enable
digitisation of smells, and looks at the potential impact on the capture sector
4 @DMMagAndAwards November/December 2021 www.document-manager.com

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Total Distribution

Dm MARKET FOCUS: LEGAL
Open and shut case
Storetec's Grace Schneider asks how law firms can overcome the security concerns
that come with the shift to more flexible working
Many law firm leaders are
planning on welcoming their
staff back into the office and
exploring how this will work under a
hybrid model, alongside the new
challenges and opportunities this will
bring. But this also comes with many
concerns.
As increasing numbers of staff are told
that they are free to organise their own
office schedules and can work from
home whenever it is appropriate, such
new flexible working policies mean that
firms need to accommodate changing
document management requirements.
TRANSITIONING TO DIGITAL
Law firms have been working slowly over
the last decade to transition to digital
processes. In 2013, the government
launched an online claims portal to help
keep track of and manage claims
efficiently and quickly. Created to deal
with claims of up to £25,000, the portal
applies to organisations on the receiving
end of employer liability and public
liability claims. On 31 May 2021 a new
separate system was launched called
Official Injury Claim. This service deals
with motor accidents and handles
personal injury claims up to £5,000.
Virtual hearings conducted over the
telephone and video links are becoming
more common practice, which is
extremely useful in sensitive court cases.
Over the recent years, partly driven by
GDPR, many law firms have been forced
to rethink the way they manage data.
Paper case files and manual processes
were still very much prevalent in the legal
sector pre-Covid. The current crisis,
though, has completely shifted the way
law firms work; they have had to quickly
adopt new ways of working. It has
presented a window of opportunity for
private law firms to review company
structures and identify inefficiencies that
have existed for years.
The need for an efficient method of
working was highlighted further during
the lockdown when employees without
electronic access to documentation
struggled to work from home.
In a typical law firm, desks are stacked
with correspondence and filing cabinets,
and archive rooms are full of confidential
client documents. It is very hard for staff
to transport a vast amount of paperwork
around when working remotely,
especially if multiple people are working
on a case simultaneously from different
locations and need access to the same
case documents. With this
documentation being incredibly
confidential in nature, accessing such
records in a secure and compliant
environment was another obstacle law
firms faced.
SECURITY CONCERNS
Law firms have been warned to rethink
remote working policies to avoid cyberattacks
and data breaches, especially
when working with sensitive data.
When searching for a document
management provider, law firms need to
look for certain accreditations which will
give them the ease of mind that their
6
@DMMagAndAwards
November/December 2021
www.document-manager.com

MARKET FOCUS: LEGAL Dm
"WHILST DOCUMENTS EXIST IN HARD COPY FORMAT ALONE, THEY ARE ALWAYS AT RISK OF PERMANENT
DAMAGE OR LOSS VIA VARIOUS POTENTIAL DISASTERS SUCH AS FIRES, FLOODS, OR EVEN JUST BEING MISLAID
ON A COMMUTE TO THE OFFICE. BY DIGITISING DOCUMENTS, THE SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE IS REMOVED AS
DOCUMENTS CAN BE SECURELY STORED AND BACKED UP TO ENSURE THEY ARE NEVER AT RISK OF PERMANENT
LOSS, WHILST ALSO FACILITATING FAST AND SECURE ACCESS THAT IS NOT LIMITED BY LOCATION."
data is in safe hands. ISO 27001 is a
world recognised standard for
information security which outlines best
practice for processing and storing
sensitive data. Following regular audits,
Storetec continues to demonstrate
highly secure scanning operations and
subsequently, has maintained the ISO
27001 accreditation for years. This is
very important when looking for a
provider as they will be working with
sensitive case information.
The Cyber Essentials Plus certification
indicates that an organisation takes a
proactive stance against malicious
cyber-attacks and demonstrates that
they have taken the essential
precautions to protect their
organisation against cyber threats.
Being certified to Cyber Essentials Plus
means clients have the reassurance that
their provider is continuously looking to
improve IT and security measures
against the threat of cyber-attacks
which is essential when working with
and storing sensitive data.
To combat security concerns, firms
may already benefit from a Virtual
Private Network. A VPN reroutes a user's
internet activity to another location so
their location and identity cannot be
tracked. This will benefit firms massively
when their employees are working from
home or on a public network. It keeps
the user from becoming a victim of a
cyberattack and hackers from accessing
their data.
Another key consideration to ensure
adequate security of documents is
digitisation. Whilst documents exist in
hard copy format alone, they are always
at risk of permanent damage or loss via
various potential disasters such as fires,
floods, or even just being mislaid on a
commute to the office. By digitising
documents, the single point of failure is
removed as documents can be securely
stored and backed up to ensure they are
never at risk of permanent loss, whilst
also facilitating fast and secure access
that is not limited by location.
That said, digitisation itself also comes
with some key considerations such as legal
admissibility of the scanned images. This is
easily addressed by selecting a document
scanning provider, such as Storetec, who
can guarantee legal admissibility by
scanning in line with BS10008 - the
recognised British Standard for evidential
weight and legal admissibility of
electronically stored information which
outlines best practice for migrating paper
records into digital files.
WHAT ABOUT GDPR?
There are concerns about data retention
policies and whether remote workers
are abiding by required data retention
policies. With regulations such as GDPR
in place, businesses can receive serious
fines for mishandling personal data and
it is estimated that the average data
breach costs £3.86M to resolve.
Therefore, it is essential when looking
for a provider to ensure they have
extensive knowledge of regulations
governing data protection such as the
GDPR 2018. Storetec's compliance team
is available to advise on how data
protection impacts your business and
the steps to ensure GDPR compliance.
Article 32 of GDPR states that
businesses should implement
appropriate technical and organisational
measures to ensure document security -
meaning, if employees are working from
home and accessing confidential
personal information, there must be
appropriate security measures in place
such as data encryption.
As a solution, firms can utilise a secure
cloud-based document management,
such as FreeDocs, which has all
necessary security provisions in place to
protect the most confidential
documents. Document management
systems such as FreeDocs can
encompass several features such as data
encryption, detailed audit trails,
managed password policies, IP address
restrictions and super-user restrictions.
Furthermore, additional security
provisions can be integrated such as 2-
factor authentication; meaning when
logging in, a code will be sent via SMS
to a pre-approved phone number for
validation. User access can also be
restricted; this means employees
working remotely could be restricted
over printing, emailing, and accessing
certain confidential documents.
Storetec works closely with The Law
Society to offer support to solicitors
regarding effective records
management. Our experienced team
can offer advice and support on data
protection, statutory retention periods
and more. Get in touch today to learn
more about the benefits of effective
document management to combat the
various security concerns that can come
with flexible working.
More info: www.storetec.net
www.document-manager.com
November/December 2021
@DMMagAndAwards
7

Dm CASE STUDY: CHICHESTER COLLEGE GROUP
DM in the cloud helps college
group to grow smoothly
Paper-heavy processes were preventing the
achievement of the college group's goal to go
greener, until the deployment of a new cloud-based
document management system
The Chichester College Group is the
largest provider of further
education in Sussex. Through its
Colleges the Group educates and trains
around 25,000 full and part time
students every year and provides
teaching excellence to meet the future
needs of the regions' employers.
Even though Chichester College Group
was initially driven by a green initiative
to go paperless, in 2017 the college
merged with Crawley College; a merger
which asked stern questions of the
current management of the college's
paper-based systems. The shift to
digital would be a daunting but
necessary one, especially within an
organisation that relies so heavily on
paper-based systems.
Chichester College Group recognised
that to cope with the rising flow of
paper documents resulting from various
acquisitions, they would need to digitise
fast and find one solution to
incorporate document and content
capture, a robust document repository,
information retrieval and storage, and
track & control of documents across all
of their campuses.
They didn't know it at the time, but
COVID-19 would mean staff needed
instant, seamless and secure access to
critical documents when working from
home.
"Our Chief Executive looked at the
current environmental conditions and
determined that it was our
responsibility to make a stronger effort
to go paperless, especially with
additional college mergers on the
horizon," explained Sara Barrett, the
Group's HR Project Coordinator. "The
goal was to decrease our reliance on
paper-based systems and processes
whilst exceeding our already high levels
of compliance, all within a costeffective
manner. Educational
institutions' budgets are usually on a
shoestring, so we knew we had to be as
resourceful as possible."
Chichester College Group had several
objectives for their new Document
Management system, within various
departments. Employee records and
student records had previously been
printed, signed, scanned and stored in
bulging filing cabinets; consequently,
documents were time consuming to
process and access. The amount of
printing also contributed negatively to
the College's environmental
commitments.
08 @DMMagAndAwards November/December 2021 www.document-manager.com

CASE STUDY: CHICHESTER COLLEGE GROUP Dm
"AT OUR FINGERTIPS, IS HOW I'D DESCRIBE EMPLOYEE DATA NOW. BEING ABLE TO DRAG AND DROP DOCUMENTS FROM
OUTLOOK INTO TRAYS HAS BEEN A REAL GAME CHANGER. WE HAVE STREAMLINED ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS AND
IMPROVED INFORMATION FLOW, ALL WHILST MAINTAINING THE ABILITY TO TRACK, EDIT AND RETRIEVE DOCUMENTS IN
A GDPR COMPLIANT FASHION."
CLOUD APPROACH SOLVED
PROBLEMS
In 2018, Chichester College Group
deployed DocuWare to re-engineer
some long-standing, antiquated paperbased
processes, improve compliance,
increase storage and encourage some
new, greener ways of thinking. The
solution was implemented within a
busy HR department first, to handle
employee personnel files, ensuring that
employee data is equally as quick to
search as it is quick to retrieve.
"At our fingertips, is how I'd describe
employee data now. Being able to drag
and drop documents from Outlook
into trays has been a real game
changer," Sara went on to say. "We
have streamlined access to documents
and improved information flow, all
whilst maintaining the ability to track,
edit and retrieve documents in a GDPR
compliant fashion."
The number of documents that are
now managed digitally is in the
thousands, so the college has hit their
objective of reducing the negative
environmental impact and made huge
cost savings on paper, printer
cartridges and other consumables. The
HR Department has quick, easy access
to important employee documentation
which helps to enhance business
continuity by ensuring documents are
easily accessible in a disaster recovery
situation.
In 2019, Chichester College Group
also implemented DocuWare within
some of the college's other
departments including student records
and their executive office, primarily for
storing contractual paperwork within
the cloud. Sara explained further: "We
had one corridor which was lined with
locked filing cabinets - all departments
had contributed to this. Even though it
was a mammoth task to scan all those
documents, we desperately needed the
contents of those filing cabinets to be
stored safely within the cloud,
ensuring we had a higher level of data
security as well as being more efficient
with the data we held."
CHANGING MINDSETS
DocuWare has helped Chichester
College Group in an operational sense
by hitting their key objectives, but it
has also had a hand in changing
mindsets across a range of
departments. Rethinking paper-driven
processes has really helped them
identify inefficiencies and re-imagine
how different processes within other
departments could work more
efficiently. Sara said "We merged with
another college (Worthing College)
pretty much immediately after
implementing the DocuWare solution,
so we were able to assist them really
well with the scanning of their
documents into our community."
Chichester College Group was, and
continues to be, going through a
period of transition; proposed mergers
with other local colleges mean the
requirements for storage change on a
regular basis, as do the volume of
users. "Currently we have 25 users
across all the campuses, but the real
unforeseen benefit of DocuWare was
being able to access this data from
home without using a VPN. A lot of
the work just couldn't have been done
by staff over the lockdown period, so
we've managed to avoid a really
difficult situation," Sara said.
The HR department are lucky enough
to benefit from well-trained, hands-on
staff and have found getting used to
DocuWare straightforward. In fact, the
team regularly share hints and tips
with each other and have created a
comprehensive best practice policy.
Sara concluded: "We've learned so
much throughout this journey and
things are running more smoothly than
they ever have. Of course, we've
discovered our own dos and don'ts and
the way we deploy DocuWare is now
quite bespoke in a way".
The Chichester College Group
roadmap is merger driven. The Group
expects to go from strength to
strength in its document management
journey with additional storage and
implementation into the Sales &
Marketing departments and the Estates
and Facilities Management
departments
More info: www.docuware.com
www.document-manager.com
November/December 2021
@DMMagAndAwards
09

Dm MANAGEMENT: AI
The what, why, where and how
of the AI conversation
Stephen Boals of Ephesoft shares the four key questions
you need to ask an AI vendor
"We use AI." "It's AI-based." "This is
an AI-powered solution." If CEOs,
CIOs, CFOs and their managers
had a pound for every time they heard
these statements, they could solve our
national debt. Misleading AI declarations
and vastly overstated claims are
commonplace in today's technology
conversations. A technologist may have one
understanding, a product manager another
and a salesperson yet another. I personally
witness misunderstandings on a daily basis
that are caused by our imprecise, and often
inaccurate, use of the term.
Below I've outlined some clear and
focused guidelines to help you respond to
the inevitable phrase, "We use AI."
What is AI?: The concept of Artificial
Intelligence was developed by scientists and
mathematicians in the 1950s who explored
the mathematical possibilities of machines
making decisions with human-like
intelligence. At that time, computers could
not store commands, they just executed
instruction sets. But the dream and concept
of AI was here: the ability of machines to
perform human tasks.
Today, AI has become a pervasive term in
our day-to-day business lives, overused
(often incorrectly) and misunderstood by
many. A key first step in evaluating AI
solutions and vendor offerings is to ask
how a vendor or consultant defines AI, in
order to set the ground rules. Is it the
simplest version of a machine performing
human tasks? Is it predictive? Or are we
talking about Skynet and self-awareness?
(Terminator reference - I'm a big fan).
Establishing this mutual definition will
provide a solid grounding for all follow-up
conversations and help to manage
expectations.
Why do you use AI?: Adopting AI for the
sake of its buzzword value is likely to be a
waste of precious resources and provide
little to no advantage if the technology is
used in the wrong circumstances. AI should
be implemented in situations where intense
human involvement is a drain on the
organisation, or where the consumption
and analysis of large volumes of data can
provide competitive advantage. Essentially,
it should only be used if it will deliver a
better business outcome.
In answering this question, any vendor
should be able to outline the advantage
that AI will bring over an alternative
solution and clearly state how business
outcomes will improve as a result.
Where do you use AI and where is it
hosted?: Understanding where in the
process or business solution AI is used can
be very telling and give you a feel for how
well your vendor has grasped the
requirements and expected business results.
Does the model align with your
understanding of the problem? Will it
genuinely alleviate delays and errors and
improve your productivity? It's important to
ensure that your hands-on business teams
validate the 'Where' as this will help guide
both your project your results.
The second part of this question focuses
on another important point: where does
your AI live? The rise of cloud has made AI
infrastructure a no-brainer, with
companies such as AWS and Microsoft
offering application developers and data
science teams access to unlimited
horsepower and key components for rapid
development and management. Is a cloud
environment right for your organisation or
do you need a containerised offering that
can run on-premise?
How do you use AI?: The final question ties
all the previous questions and answers
together. You don't need a sledgehammer
to crack a nut, and not all business
problems require AI as a solution. At
Ephesoft we leverage AI in complex
document tasks where it can replace
laborious, time consuming and often
inaccurate human tasks. For example, we
use AI and supervised machine learning
technology to identify and extract complex
invoice table data. However, not every
problem requires that type of solution or
the overhead of AI processes. For example,
if you need a system to classify high
volumes of different document types, AI
may be too slow. In this case, there may be
non-AI processing techniques that are
much faster. The 'How' needs to make
sense, and AI needs to be the right tool for
the right job.
More info: www.ephesoft.com
10 @DMMagAndAwards November/December 2021 www.document-manager.com

Our partner ScaleHub offers a highly scalable managed
service to process and label data at enterprise quality.
ScaleHub harnesses the world’s largest crowd of human
contributors on a leading AI-driven platform.

Dm INTERVIEW: DYANIX
Changing with the times
DM magazine spoke to Jeroen Kant, VP Business
Development Solutions at Dyanix, about the company's
recent re-brand from Spigraph and its move towards a
more solutions-oriented approach
David Tyler: The obvious place to start
is with the name change from
Spigraph to Dyanix. What was the
reasoning behind the shift: is it more than
just a re-brand?
Jeroen Kant: Indeed, 2021 was a very
transformative year. We had enjoyed a
steadily growing journey with Spigraph in
document scanning and capture solutions
across Europe for over 20 years. And we
still do, as Dyanix.
The decision to change the name and
strategy for all European countries outside
France, became important as our portfolio
was expanding beyond digitisation and
information management.
Today, Dyanix focuses on building a
comprehensive portfolio of business
solutions and services across Europe, really
a one-stop shop for European partners.
DT: Can you tell more about the
new portfolio and how your new
solution offerings complement the
document management business?
JK: Our existing capture and
information management
business continues to be the core
of our activities, and as demand
increases, we will continually add
resources, tailored services and
expert workforce.
Since the market is shifting
toward digital transformation
technologies, we respond to this by
adding innovative and competitive
software and solutions to our
portfolio.
Specifically, we are having
great success with
ScaleHub, which is
a crowdsourcing
solution that
any BPO
(Business Process Outsourcer) partner can
leverage and scale according to the project
needs or chase projects on a European
level.
DT: What makes ScaleHub such a unique
solution?
JK: ScaleHub offers a scalable managed
service to process and label data at
enterprise quality by using the world’s
largest crowd. By creating snippets, dataentry
is performed safely and securely, while
the worldwide network offers fast
completion.
ScaleHub offers great flexibility;
organisations can scale up or down
depending their workload. At Dyanix we
are able to give optimal support to our
customers while offering smaller trial
projects to experience ScaleHub.
DT: You mentioned that the new portfolio
supports BPOs to expand on a European
level. Could you give us an example of how
this might be achieved with Scalehub?
JK: A good example is the massive amount
of paperwork that insurance companies
have to handle with accident forms. By
using ScaleHub data is entered and double
checked in a short amount of time and in
line with GDPR requirements. This is a
game-changing solution for insurance
companies or other organisations who deal
with large amounts of paperwork being
digitised.
DT: This all sounds very interesting for our
readers, I’ve no doubt. So what are the next
steps of Dyanix for the new year?
JK: We will, of course, continue to work on
our current solutions in document scanning
and capture. Besides this we are developing
a comprehensive services portfolio that
offers technical and professional services to
our customers.
We are ambitious and will add new
innovative solutions to enable digital
transformation. We are bringing Apty to
the European market – a solution to adopt
enterprise software into organisations, that
allows flawless integration and use and
offers process optimisation. So, we are very
excited about the future.
More info: www.dyanix.com
12 @DMMagAndAwards November/December 2021 www.document-manager.com

Modernize Your Enterprise with
Laserfiche
Cloud
Accelerate and automate processes, and
take control of content across departments.
https://www.laserfiche.com/solutions/ecm-uk
© 2021 Laserfiche

Dm CASE STUDY: ISLE OF MAN CENTRAL REGISTRY
The ascent of man
The Isle of Man's Central Registry function has moved to a 'Digital-first' approach that has
allowed them to improve services at no additional cost, even during lockdown
In recent years, the Isle of Man has
undertaken modernisation efforts to the
benefit of citizens, bringing more services
online and increasing efficiency using
Laserfiche for digital records management,
electronic forms and workflow automation.
These initiatives have created a foundation
upon which to build a digital-first
government, enhancing the experience for
anyone seeking services, whether they are
private citizens or businesses.
The Isle of Man Central Registry's digital
transformation efforts unexpectedly
became a key factor in its ability to keep
business moving during the COVID-19
pandemic. "Having Laserfiche installed, and
integrated with government's online service,
was a godsend for the Land and Deeds
Registries and all of our customers as it
enabled us to continue to provide a full
service throughout the lockdown period,"
said Registrar General Ed Clague. "In
conjunction with government online
services, we operated successfully
throughout the lockdowns."
BUILDING A FOUNDATION
As a self-governing British Crown
Dependency, the Isle of Man's parliament is
the world's oldest, dating back more than
1,000 years. The Island's Central Registry is
responsible for maintaining and
administering services for a population of
86,000, related to a family of registries
including the Civil Registry, Companies
Registry, Deeds Registry, Land Registry, and
Public Record Office.
Prior to implementing Laserfiche, the land
and deeds registries had a mixed way of
managing records, which comprised
manual search and retrieval, and a bespoke
legacy system that was not internetenabled
and approaching end-of-life.
"The biggest motivation for us to move to
Laserfiche was its off-the-shelf capabilities,
which reduces the risk of having to retire
another legacy system in the future, and
provides us with a demonstrable upgrade
path," Clague said. "Most importantly,
Laserfiche gives us a platform for further
digital services. It's a perfect system for our
requirements."
By transitioning from the registry's legacy
records system to Laserfiche digital
records management, the organisation
safeguards and centralises historic records
and ultimately provides better customer
service via improved efficiency and easier
access to information by the people who
need it. The ability to provide documents
to people who have requested them
online and on-demand also reinforces the
Isle of Man's commitment to open
government; the organisation aims to
make more of its records available online
within the coming years.
14
@DMMagAndAwards
November/December 2021
www.document-manager.com

CASE STUDY: ISLE OF MAN CENTRAL REGISTRY Dm
"GOVERNMENTS CAN GET CAUGHT IN A VICIOUS CYCLE WHEN TRYING TO DO MORE WITH LESS, BUT WE'VE
CREATED A VIRTUOUS CIRCLE. WE'VE FREED UP TIME BY DIGITALISING, AND THE MORE THAT WE DIGITALISE,
THE MORE WE CAN SERVE OUR CUSTOMERS. IT'S ALLOWED US TO MAINTAIN AND IMPROVE OUR SERVICES AT
NO ADDITIONAL COST, EVEN DURING LOCKDOWNS."
KEEPING COMPLIANCE OVERHEAD
LOW
The digitalisation initiative also supports
the Isle of Man's compliance practices,
which have become increasingly important
with the introduction of GDPR in 2018.
The Isle of Man aims to maintain its
reputation for meeting high international
standards in its compliance practices,
making sure that data is as accurate,
reliable and up to date as possible.
"We want to be early adopters of
international guidelines; we want to make
sure that IT systems can keep up as well,"
Clague said. "Our goal is to enable the
organisation to evolve with international
standards, and we want our practices to
be demonstrable, while keeping
compliance overhead low."
While the registry's initial phase of
Laserfiche implementation included
digitalisation and data migration, the
organisation began seeing even more
benefit when Laserfiche was integrated
with the Isle of Man's GIS platform based
on ESRI's ArcGIS, as well as the
government's payment gateway in order
to streamline land and deeds processes
and to create a public search portal for
land and deeds. The registry has worked
with Laserfiche Solution Provider Manx
Business Solutions (MBS) for
implementation, selecting the company
for its expertise and experience after
evaluating a number of partners.
"People make the project. We have
worked with MBS and they have been a
fantastic team to work with: a solutionorientated
team which listens carefully to
our needs and suggesting options,"
Clague explained. "MBS is knowledgeable,
personable, professional, and flexible at
all times. To varying degrees, almost my
entire team has worked with MBS at
some point of the project - and I'm
pleased to say this view is universally
shared. I take this opportunity to thank
the MBS team, for the work it has done
and work it continues to provide - keep
up the good work."
The Isle of Man's public portal now
allows people to access Laserfiche online
24/7 to purchase deeds. Through the
Laserfiche integration with ESRI, the Land
Registry also enables customers to search
an online map for properties, and view all
available documents related to those
properties.
"The Isle of Man's new Land Registry
solution based on our ArcGIS technology
required a document management
element," said Nart Tamash, solution
architect at ESRI UK. "This is where the
team at MBS and Laserfiche came into
play which enabled us to deliver an endto-end
solution to the Isle of Man's Central
Registry by integrating our off-the-shelf
web-based products. The most exciting
thing is that this pattern is repeatable, and
customisable thanks to our APIs, across
many organisations and use cases that
require a world class mapping and
document management system."
Quinn Legal, a leading law firm on the
Isle of Man, has saved significant time
utilising the Laserfiche driven Land and
Deeds Registry process. Historically, the
firm's staff would have had to visit the
registry on a daily basis whereas now,
most of their business can be undertaken
online. "This came into its own when
COVID struck, with the Island of Man
going into lockdown," said Neil Quilliam,
senior conveyancer at Quinn Legal. "Quinn
Legal staff were able to seamlessly
continue with their daily interaction with
the Land and Deeds Registry online."
ENHANCING THE EXPERIENCE
When lockdowns took effect, the Central
Registry had to close its office to visitors in
person, but it was able to provide a digital
alternative for all its services.
"Our implementation of Laserfiche was
very timely," Clague said. "This is the new
normal now - we still have customers who
visit the office - they may not be able to
access digital forms at home for various
reasons - but for the most part people
now prefer to access our services online.
The number of people visiting the office
has dropped by 90% if not more. It's been
a massive benefit."
Along with the rest of the world during
COVID-19 surges and mandates, the
Central Registry has experienced a
growing demand for access to
information in real-time online and digital
services. By providing those digital services,
the Isle of Man has been able to reduce
physical foot traffic and simultaneously
increase efficiency in its processes,
reclaiming time that staff has used to
improve the experience for both
government employees and the people
they serve.
"Governments can get caught in a vicious
cycle when trying to do more with less,
but we've created a virtuous circle," Clague
said. "We've freed up time by digitalising,
and the more that we digitalise, the more
we can serve our customers. It's allowed us
to maintain and improve our services at no
additional cost, even during lockdowns."
"We are not resting on our laurels,"
Clague added. "We want the ability to
innovate and move forward. We will be
using Laserfiche has a fundamental
component in transforming our business.
We will be moving more of our services
online. We will be protecting our critical
business records. And we will be
improving our working environment and
improving our efficiency."
More info: www.laserfiche.com
www.document-manager.com
November/December 2021
@DMMagAndAwards
15

Dm STRATEGY: CONTENT SERVICES
Reimagining content processes
Digital transformation has taken on new
meaning, argues Kyle McNabb of ASG
Technologies, as enterprises seek to improve
their responsiveness to volatile and complex
market conditions
Improving responsiveness amidst
constant change demands companies
re-imagine their content-rich processes
- the complex interactions people have
with content, processes and systems.
Leaders in today's enterprises are well
aware of the struggle to capture,
manage and govern the explosive
growth of content that has accelerated
with the shift to remote and hybrid
work structures. With the increasing,
even insatiable, demand to automate
processes to improve responsiveness to
today's change, the next step of their
digital transformations puts attention on
how their content is used to improve
experiences, optimise productivity, and
mitigate risks.
Navigating the next steps of an
enterprise's digital transformation
journey requires building a content
services roadmap that seeks to simplify
the way large volumes of information
are managed and governed and
automate content-rich processes at
scale. Here are three objectives to
consider when building modern content
strategies to support ever-changing
digital transformation demands.
1. Enable secure collaboration
Improving collaboration between
employees, customers, partners and
other end users increases productivity,
streamlines processes and improves
experiences. However, with content
spread across shared drives, platforms
such as Teams, Google Workspace and
DropBox, it is increasingly difficult for
users to quickly find the content they
need, and for organisations to ensure it
is safe and secure.
Organisations must elevate their
governance strategies to ensure content
complies with increasingly complex
external regulations and internal
policies. To start, they must first gain
visibility into where sensitive information
resides within their content. To address
this, organisations need an integrated
approach to scan for sensitive
information and apply appropriate
governance policies, migrating content
to secure repositories when needed
while supporting the way people work -
using Teams, SharePoint and other
familiar tools.
2. Eliminate information silos
Today's drive to improve responsiveness
to change also demands enterprises
eliminate information bloat that
negatively impacts costs, productivity
and experiences. Many of the file shares
and collaboration platforms mentioned
contribute to information bloat as
employees download, copy and share
documents and content with each other
and with applications. This bloat also
introduces additional compliance and
regulatory risk as sensitive information is
left ungoverned, unsecured and
vulnerable to cybersecurity risks.
Modern content services strategies
eliminate information bloat by enabling
organisations to discover disparate
content silos, understand what they
contain, and make educated decisions
on what to migrate, retire, and
eliminate. This results in business
productivity gains, reduced costs,
improved adherence to compliance
demands and increased agility.
3. Accelerate content-rich Process
Automation
Content-rich processes - such as
onboarding employees, opening new
customer accounts and completing
internal audits - often require complex
interactions between people, content,
processes and systems. No one
capability can automate these processes.
Enterprises need to plan on a mix of
BPM, RPA, AI and more to automate
both the mundane, repetitive tasks and
the more complex decision making.
With a breadth of capabilities,
enterprises can extract intelligence from
content to automate decisions and
orchestrate multiple steps and possible
paths. When done well, employees
spend less time organising and
classifying information and more time
resolving exceptions and escalations that
improve customer experiences and
deliver improved outcomes.
MODERNISE CONTENT PROCESSES
FOR INCREASED AGILITY
In the digital era, companies must
modernise their content services
strategy to make operational excellence
a reality. This IT goal is aligned with
business results from improved
customer and employee experiences, to
cost reduction and increased
productivity. With expert guidance and
the right solutions, enterprises can
locate and remedy content pain points
that slow their responsiveness to today's
constant change.
More info: www.asg.com
16 @DMMagAndAwards November/December 2021 www.document-manager.com

OPTIMIZE YOUR
INVOICE PROCESSES
All organizations receive
numerous paper and
electronic invoices.
Processing them is time
consuming and resource
intensive. The IRISXtract
Accounts Payable
Solution helps you
optimize your business
processes and focus on
your core business. It
automates the invoice
data capture, limits
manual error and reduces
the costs for data entry by
up to 80%. All of your
accounting data is
incorporated into the
heart of your company’s
systems. Right where you
need it to be.
www.irisdatacapture.com
Experts in automation solutions & services

Dm EVENT: DM AWARDS 2021
Back with a bang!
The fifteenth DM Awards saw a return to a live inperson
event, and what a night it was - read on for all
the winners and runners-up
The DM Awards returned with a
vengeance on November 18th, and
we've been overwhelmed by the
positive feedback from attendees telling us
that the night was most certainly a return
to form, and a resounding success.
Vendors, channel partners and clients
from across the UK and numerous other
countries joined us at the Leonardo City
Hotel in central London for an evening
that will live long in the memory.
There was a genuine feeling of being
glad to be back after almost two years of
'solitary confinement' for so many of us in
our personal and/or business lives.
Entertainment for the night was provided
by the hugely talented Alex Wall and
Damien Carter, whose beautiful opera
singing hushed even the rowdiest tables.
DM Editor David Tyler commented after
the ceremony: "I had a great time
announcing all the trophies on the night,
and thanks to those present for not
heckling me too much! With almost 30
awards to present, there was something
of interest for everyone, and it was
gratifying to see so many familiar and notso-familiar
faces coming up to collect their
trophies - as always, one of the best
things about our awards night is the
mixture of established 'big-name players'
and innovative start-ups, all mixing
together and networking."
Once again we would like thank all of
our sponsors: Crown Records
Management, Document Logistix, Dyanix,
PFU, IRIS, OASIS, Pearl Scan, Yooz,
Storetec, Northamber, Aluma, Dokmee,
Kodak Alaris, e-ImageData and Joisto.
Without the backing of the industry,
nights like this simply couldn't happen, so
we really do appreciate everyone who
sponsors and supports us every year.
Lastly of course huge congratulations to all
our winners and runners-up - see the
following pages for the breakdown of exactly
who won what - see you all next year!
More info: www.dmawards.com
18 @DMMagAndAwards November/December 2021 www.document-manager.com

EVENT: DM AWARDS 2021 Dm
ONE TO WATCH: COMPANY
(SPONSORED BY PEARL SCAN SOLUTIONS)
Winner: Crown Records Management
Runner up: Nikec Solutions
ONE TO WATCH: PRODUCT
Winner: Records Transformation - Gilby IM EDRM SaaS
Runner up: Yooz - Yooz
ACCOUNTS PAYABLE/INVOICING PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Winner: IRIS (Canon Group) - IRISXtract
Runner up: Kyocera - Kyocera AP Automation
WORKFLOW/BPM PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
(SPONSORED BY IRIS (CANON GROUP))
Winner: DocuWare - DocuWare Version 7.4
Runner up: OASIS Group - Omnidox 5
ENTERPRISE CMS PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Winner: Hyland Software - Alfresco Content Services
Runner up: M-files - M-files Document Management
OPEN SOURCE DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE OF THE YEAR
Winner: Pearl Scan Solutions - Halogen
Runner up: Hyland Software - Alfresco Community Edition
LOW-CODE DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
(SPONSORED BY PFU (EMEA))
Winner: FileStream - FileStream 5
Runner up: iText - iText DITO
@RevEvents
Thanks to
@OASISGroup_IS
for your fab company tonight! And
congratulations on your win. And to all
other winners at
@DMMagAndAwards
Esp nice to see Abby & Dave
.....................................................
Storetec Services
@StoretecHull
·
Winners again at the
@DMMagAndAwards
immensely proud of team #storetec
.....................................................
@InstinctiveDave
·
Thrilled to be with "one to watch" winner
at the DMAwards - Crown Records
Management
.....................................................
@DLXMK
·
Here's raising a glass to the #Data and
#Workflow sectors, and their work helping
business to cope with disruption caused
by the pandemic. We are looking forward
to seeing our peers at the
@DMMagAndAwards
Awards tonight.
PRINT FLEET MANAGEMENT SOLUTION OF THE YEAR
Winner: Brother - BRAdmin Professional 4
Runner up: Canon - uniFLOW
BPO/OUTSOURCING/BUREAU BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
Winner: Storetec Services Limited
Runner up: Crown Records Management
DATA CAPTURE/RECOGNITION PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
(SPONSORED BY OASIS GROUP)
Winner: Kodak Alaris - Perfect Page Technology
Runner up: Kofax - Kofax ControlSuite
www.document-manager.com
November/December 2021
@DMMagAndAwards
19

Dm EVENT: DM AWARDS 2021
Craig Prince Co-founder of Quertum, Head
of UK & Sales at Joisto Group
A week after the main event (last post on
this promise! ??) run by the super team at
Document Manager Magazine & Awards
…great night! Great to Win! Great team!
Go Joisto Group
.....................................................
George Harpur Co-Founder & CEO at
alum.io
It was great to be part of the aluma.io
team collecting the AI Product of the Year
award at the recent DM Awards dinner.
Thanks to everyone who voted for us!
.....................................................
Pearl Scan Group
What a pleasure it was to attend the 17th
year of the DM Awards.
As a team, we want to thank every single
person who voted for us - we are now the
Open Source Document Management
Software 2021 WINNERS! Thank you for a
great night Abby Penn and the DM team!
RECORDS MANAGEMENT PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Winner: Joisto Quertum - Joisto
Runner up: Dokmee - Dokmee ECM
AI PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
(SPONSORED BY DOCUMENT LOGISTIX)
Winner: Aluma Technology - Aluma
Runner up: IRIS (Canon Group) - IRISXtract
RPA PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Winner: Yooz - Yooz
Runner up: KnowledgeLake - KnowledgeLake Platform
SERVICE/SUPPORT COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Winner: Dyanix
Runner up: Scansation
STORAGE PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Winner: Principled Storage - The Principled Storage GDPR Compliant Tote
Runner up: FileBank - The Vault
COMPLIANCE PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
(SPONSORED BY YOOZ)
Winner: Lemmana - Lemmana
Runner up: iDocs - iDocs Binder Safesend
CHANNEL PARTNER OF THE YEAR
Winner: Northamber
Runner up: Midwich
IMAGING PRODUCT OF THE YEAR: HIGH VOLUME
Winner: ibml - FUSiON
Runner up: OPEX - Falcon+
IMAGING PRODUCT OF THE YEAR: DESKTOP/PORTABLE/OTHER
Winner: e-ImageData - ScanPro All-in-One
Runner up: Kodak Alaris - S2085f
IMAGING PRODUCT OF THE YEAR: WORKGROUP/DEPARTMENTAL
Winner: Canon - Canon imageFORMULA DR-M160II
Runner up: Docufree - ScanCloud
MOBILE CAPTURE PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Winner: Dokmee - Dokmee Capture
Runner up: PFU (EMEA) Limited - ScanSnap iX100
20 @DMMagAndAwards November/December 2021 www.document-manager.com

EVENT: DM AWARDS 2021 Dm
PROJECT OF THE YEAR: PUBLIC SECTOR
Winner: iText with Dedoco/Sign with Singpass
Runner up: Document Logistix with Hillcrest Housing Group
PROJECT OF THE YEAR AWARD: PRIVATE SECTOR
Winner: Docufree with Morgan & Morgan
Runner up: Klippa with Banijay Benelux
EDITOR'S CHOICE
Winner: Laserfiche
SOFTWARE PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Winner: OASIS Group - Omnidox 5
Runner up: Aluma Technology - Aluma
HARDWARE PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Winner: PFU (EMEA) Limited - Fujitsu fi-800R
Runner up: Kodak Alaris - S2085f
MARKETING TEAM OF THE YEAR
Winner: Storetec Services Limited
Runner up: PFU (EMEA) Limited
PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Winner: Document Logistix - Document Manager 5
Runner up: ABBYY - ABBYY Vantage 2
Dokmee
Last Thursday was the 2021 Document
Manager Award Show!
Dokmee Capture won "Mobile Capture
Product Of The Year." Dokmee ECM was
runner-up in "Records Management
Product Of The Year! We want to take the
time to thank everyone who took the
time to vote for us. It's greatly
appreciated!
We also want to thank Document Manager
Magazine for having us and putting on
another wonderful event!
We are looking forward to the 2022
Document Manager Award show!
.....................................................
Ben Davies Director & Co-founder
Lemmana
A big thank you Document Manager
Magazine and to all who voted for
Lemmana as DM Awards for Compliance
product of the year 2021. Will be putting
this alongside the DM Awards Editors
Choice Award 2020. Still buzzing! Great
event! Fantastic to see everyone in person
and have a proper catch up!
.....................................................
Steven Keating, Kodak Alaris
Great evening at the DM awards,
congratulations to all the winners, always
nice to celebrate during difficult times
COMPANY OF THE YEAR
(SPONSORED BY CROWN RECORDS MANAGEMENT)
Winner: PFU (EMEA) Limited
Runner up: Northamber
More info: www.dmawards.com
www.document-manager.com
November/December 2021
@DMMagAndAwards
21

Dm CASE STUDY: UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Going the extra mile
Cambridge University enables hybrid printing for students and staff with PaperCut
MF and Mobility Print
Founded in 1209 - the fourth-oldest
university in the world - the
University of Cambridge consists of
more than 20,000 students and 11,000
staff members across 31 Colleges and
150 departments.
When it comes to print, that's a lot of
devices and end-users to support. This
was especially the case when COVID-19
lockdowns meant the colleges entered a
hybrid working model, with students
and staff divided between working
remotely and on-site.
With Google Cloud Print's deprecation
looming, Kelvin Morgan, computer
officer, and Dean Feltham, print
technician, also needed a robust BYOD
print enablement tool to support their
Colleges' independent network
infrastructures - all while continuing to
support their students via their
centralised printing subscription service.
"We manage 27 Colleges," said Kelvin,
"Even though they are members of the
University, each College manages its own
IT infrastructure including networking."
An additional issue for network access
is student accommodation: "Colleges
also provide different types of
accommodation for the students that
will be either in college or out of
college." This can make printing difficult
as, says Kelvin, "They have all sorts of
arrangements and may not necessarily
have a connection to the University's
data network."
Cambridge offers a centralised
subscription printing service which
became an even more gargantuan task
when COVID-19 closures saw students
and staff transition to a hybrid working
model: "When we had people selfisolating,
and they needed to hand in an
assignment on time, there were some
challenges."
The team used PaperCut MF to
underpin their centralised service, which
offers participation via subscription. With
PaperCut, they can manage print,
photocopying, and scanning for their
entire student body. To support selfisolating
students, they set up PaperCut
MF's Delegated Print feature: "Rather
than having the job held on a queue, we
could set it up so another student could
release the print job and collect it on the
student's behalf. With that, PaperCut
helped considerably during lockdown."
Mobility Print solved the additional pain
point of Google Cloud Print's
deprecation. Kelvin and Dean could
support students between Colleges who
weren't able to connect to the
University's data network: "They have a
requirement to print from outside the
network. We find some Colleges run
NATs (Network Address Translations) -
which causes problems as well - so
Mobility Print helps with that. What we
really like about Mobility Print is that it's
simple for the user, especially installing
it," says Kelvin. "There is no learning
curve once they've got it installed. It
just works."
"Managed print as a service can be
both time-consuming and difficult to get
right," says Kelvin. "PaperCut goes the
extra mile to help make it work really
well and efficiently."
Not only is Cambridge's centralised
printing service in demand with the
student body, its track record now
means Kelvin is looking at offering it to
Cambridge's 11,000 members of staff: "If
it wasn't for PaperCut we wouldn't be in
the position we are in now. 10 years
ago, our print service was facing a
number of challenges and needed to
evolve. Now it's a service where people
come to us and say 'We really need to
join this service. We've heard what it can
provide'."
More info: www.papercut.com
22 @DMMagAndAwards November/December 2021 www.document-manager.com

STRATEGY: COVID-19 Dm
Covid-19 means we can no longer postpone
digitisation
The pandemic has made digital business processes an urgent requirement, argues
Dan Wajzner of Document Logistix, which poses challenges for culture change,
speed of implementation and data migration
Would you like to digitise business
processes but have too many
paper-based or manual systems?
Data migration or integration making
digitisation appear too complicated to
achieve? Current company culture only
permits slow change? Let's examine some
examples of digital upgrade or
transformation that were achieved
successfully mid-pandemic.
According to a McKinsey Global Survey,
during the pandemic companies
accelerated the digitisation of their
customer and supply-chain interactions and
internal operations by three to four years.
The urgent objectives included: building
business resilience, empowering remote
staff and suppliers, providing workflow
visibility, and eliminating inefficiency
associated with manual processes.
In short, digitisation became a necessity
overnight and technology rose in strategic
importance as a critical component of the
business, not just as a source of cost
efficiencies. The keys to streamlined digital
business are data centralisation and
automation that enable organisations to
embed best practice as well as the
safeguards that eliminate compliance risks.
Scottish housing organisation Hillcrest
successfully implemented comprehensive
digital processes in Accounts departments
across its four businesses in a quarter of the
time usually allotted. The pandemic
stimulated thinking about business agility
and Hillcrest prioritised its plans to upgrade
its digital document management, which
had been used in the business for ten
years, as a means to enhance operations.
Among the Hillcrest project goals were
integration with QL Finance and
implementing an intelligent OCR solution
to capture data contained in 50,000
invoices processed annually.
Historical payment processes created
issues such as bottlenecks at every stage,
for longer than Hillcrest would have
wished. Bottlenecks in turn generated
repetition and duplication that led to
unproductive communication to resolve
issues that could have been avoided. Other
historical pitfalls resulted from the
proliferation of multiple image and
document types.
As for many companies, the Covid-19
outbreak caused business disruption at
Hillcrest and remote working exacerbated
any process inefficiencies. Automation
became a high priority and was viewed as a
sprint project. Managed speed was of the
essence. Tim Cowell, Document Logistix
CIO, wanted to put on record his
appreciation of the effort everyone put into
the project. "Both teams played vital roles in
making this project a success. It's been a
while since I enjoyed a project that was
both a technical challenge and such a
pleasure. I am looking forward to working
on further enhancements to introduce
automation in more business processes."
INSURER MIGRATES DATA IN 4 DAYS
The usual way to move data from one
business to another in insurance is to
migrate products and policies at renewal
time, which can take about eighteen
months to complete. However, following a
merger with Co-op Insurance, Markerstudy
opted for a one-hit, big bang approach.
The Markerstudy Project Manager described
the project as 'career defining': "We lived
and breathed the project, and there were
legal deadlines and regulatory mandates to
be fulfilled." No surprise then that, after
migrating 40 million Co-op customer
correspondence records (9 TB) working
remotely during lock-down, the
Markerstudy team exclaimed with delight:
"We did it!"
GOING DIGITAL FROM SCRATCH
Avara Foods eliminated tonnes of paper
from their daily operations and
streamlined HR to manage 500,000
documents and allow for remote working.
This video - www.documentlogistix.com/dlx-avara-foods-digitaltransformation-video
- is an invaluable
watch for any organisation starting from
scratch or considering the next steps in
their digital transformation journey.
More info: www.document-logistix.com
www.document-manager.com
November/December 2021
@DMMagAndAwards
23

Dm MANAGEMENT: COMPLIANCE
"Stalled" automation continues to push up
compliance costs
Jim Close, VP UK & EMEA at Kofax, outlines his 'Risk-Averse Executive's Guide to
Better Compliance Using Intelligent Document Processing'
British government regulations are the
risk-averse executive's most persistent
obstacles on the road to profitability.
Each time a new measure appears,
unexpected twists and turns are sure to
follow, yielding numerous headaches,
vexing questions and amped-up anxiety
along the way.
Yet given the constantly changing
regulatory landscape, the desire to send
red flares into the sky each time a new
requirement is proposed or passed is
understandable. As governmental, financial
and data protection regulations increase in
number and complexity, they've become
more difficult and time-consuming to
manage. This situation means businesses
are exposed to more risk than ever before.
With each consecutive year executives are
presented with new reasons to focus on
risk and compliance and more cause
to worry about their organisation's
ability to manage it effectively.
Consider, for example, how Brexit
and its messy aftermath are
generating uncertainty across
multiple industries and company
operations. Add in the COVID-
19 pandemic, and risk and
compliance management has
veered into uncharted waters
populated with
unprecedented hidden
obstacles and challenges
relating to business
continuity,
accountability,
liability,
profitability and worker and customer
safety. These and other issues have forced
executives to re-examine how their
businesses operate.
Unfortunately, these same disruptions
have also led enterprises to re-prioritise and
detour from long-held plans to digitally
transform their business operations.
Though organisations prioritised the
automation of operational workflows,
many of these initiatives have effectively
stalled. That means many processes that
could make compliance with new
regulations easier aren't yet fully
automated.
Even more troubling, some remain
manual and paper-based. Indeed, 51
percent of decision makers say their
compliance workflows remain either
partially automated or manual, according
to a study from Kofax and Forrester. The
outcome of this stalled approach means
the associated errors and delays of "the
paper game" will continue to drive up the
cost of compliance.
ROUGH ROAD AHEAD
The truth is that new regulations and
requirements will only compound the
standard risk factors all companies face
with document governance. Today's
organisations are awash in documents -
project plans, internal emails, spreadsheets,
contracts and more, that exist in digital
and paper format. Each time an employee
edits or revises one of these documents, a
new version is created, raising the risk level
even higher.
These documents also have a tendency to
travel. They're printed, emailed and stored
in shared locations, making them easier to
misplace or to misuse. A form sent to the
wrong printer can put sensitive customer
information out into the open. It's all too
easy for an employee to mistake an older,
24
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November/December 2021
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MANAGEMENT: COMPLIANCE Dm
"ADOPTING MACHINE LEARNING, NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WITH
EXISTING PLATFORMS WILL ALLOW ORGANISATIONS TO ACHIEVE HYPER-AUTOMATION, PROVIDE AUDIT TRAILS
AND COMPLIANCE REPORTING AND ELEVATE BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL. EVEN THOSE COMPANIES IN A
HYBRID STATE OF AUTOMATION THAT ALREADY CAPTURE DOCUMENTS DIGITALLY NEED TO RE-EVALUATE
PROCESSES AND MAP OUT THEIR NEXT STEPS TOWARD END-TO-END INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION."
inaccurate version of a sales proposal for
the current version - and inadvertently
send the wrong terms to a potential
client. The risk factors associated with
such missteps include security and
compliance exposures, lost productivity,
lost time, costly errors and lost value.
It's not hard to imagine how poor
document governance can lead to a
business suffering material losses. This
includes loss of customers, loss of
employees, PR crises, compliance failures
and the triggering of costly audits.
Further, every minute an employee spends
searching through gigabytes of data for
the right document steals significant time
away from the organisation. Not only
does the hunt lower productivity, it also
contributes to delayed decision-making or
responses to customers.
When information is incomplete or out of
date, it can be like trying to find your way
without road signs or street lamps. The risk
of making a wrong turn is higher.
Executives have a greater chance of making
a bad decision or a mistake in a high-stakes
situation. Attorneys run the risk of entering
negotiations under-prepared and reaching
less desirable deal terms.
Without effective, rigorous management
of all types of content across the business,
organisations can't reap the full potential
business value. This only becomes more
difficult with each new rule added to the
organisational roadmap.
Although requirements like the EU's
General Data Protection Regulations and
forthcoming Artificial Intelligence Act risk
slowing businesses down, there are ways
to accelerate compliance. When
executives leverage artificial intelligence
(AI) for document processing, where
many of the compliance issues lurk, they
supercharge document workflows and
thus mitigate risk.
KICK DOCUMENT PROCESSING
WORKFLOWS INTO HIGH GEAR
One of the biggest problems with
regulations, new and existing, is they
add time and complexity to operational
workflows, thereby increasing the
likelihood something will go wrong.
Document processing workflows are
especially susceptible due to the
inevitability of human error, making
manual and paper-based processes a
common way for organisations to fall
foul of regulators.
Intelligent document processing is
becoming de rigueur for organisations
to de-risk workflows and kick into high
gear. A typical AI-enabled intelligent
document processing platform is
capable of extracting data from millions
of documents in virtually any format,
and it's faster and more accurate than
human workers. Automation also
makes it easier for organisations to
verify their digital records' provenance,
allowing them to satisfy the necessary
legal evidentiary thresholds for
compliance, such as BS10008.
Mitigating this risk helps accelerate
business objectives across the enterprise
and helps executives sleep at night.
To keep pace with new regulatory
requirements, executives need to put
automation efforts back at the top of their
priority lists. Adopting machine learning,
natural language processing and artificial
intelligence with existing platforms will
allow organisations to achieve hyperautomation,
provide audit trails and
compliance reporting and elevate business
to the next level. Even those companies in
a hybrid state of automation that already
capture documents digitally need to reevaluate
processes and map out their next
steps toward end-to-end intelligent
automation.
HOW INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION HELPS
Executives seeking the most reliable
route to compliance can confidently
follow the road to end-to-end workflow
automation. Intelligent document
processing consistently meets the high
demands of the risk-averse, allowing
them to:
Offer clients improved customer
experience and assurance their data
is treated appropriately;
Ensure data security with contentaware
workflows and provide audit
trails with a visible chain of custody;
Apply consistent business rules and
data protection policies, including
automatic redaction, watermarking
and rules-based printing;
Increase productivity and efficiency
with document workflow
automation, while enriching
information quality, increasing
accuracy and reducing error-prone
manual tasks; and
Leverage higher levels of security and
efficiency by leveraging intelligent
document workflows in the cloud.
The progressive complexity of business
regulation isn't likely to reverse course.
Executives who want to achieve
financial goals need to drive digital
transformation efforts focusing on
automating information-intensive
business workflows to improve
efficiency while meeting compliance
requirements. With document
processing at the heart of many
businesses, leveraging the new
generation of intelligent document
processing platforms keeps
organisations ahead of their compliance
challenges.
More info: www.kofax.com
www.document-manager.com
November/December 2021
@DMMagAndAwards
25

Dm PRODUCT FOCUS
iText DITO
When creating any business
document as part of a PDF
workflow there is often a tradeoff
to be made between the various
stakeholders involved: the marketing team
may focus on branding, logos, colour
schemes etc., while the business users will
be more concerned with the business logic
and functional requirements (for example
showing negative figures in red). The IT
team, meanwhile, has had to juggle these
demands along with the system
specifications for their applications.
Traditionally this has often meant a 'decoupled'
development process with lots of
emails or other threads and documentation
- which in turn slows down deployment
and introduces the potential for errors.
iText DITO aims to bring all these strands
together into one 'sandbox', making PDF
development and deployment a much
smoother and more manageable process,
with far less IT involvement required. The
software includes Java and REST APIs, and
the most recent release makes it easy to
design and deploy in the kind of Kubernetes
environments where high performance,
high availability, and high scalability are key.
The company has been around since 2000
with a focus on 'leveraging the power of
PDF', and this newest offering is designed to
bring a much higher level of convenience
and ease of use to PDF creators in
businesses of all sizes. With 125 million
users there is no doubting iText's expertise.
It is rare to see current document
generation solutions exploiting the
microservices architecture approach; there's
no question it makes a difference in terms
of flexibility and simplicity for users.
iText DITO essentially comprises an
SDK/API, a Manager, and an Editor element.
The SDK/API gives developers the flexibility
VERDICT
to integrate its functionality into existing
processes and can be customised to meet
any document workflow requirements. The
Manager and Editor are combined in a
browser-based interface, with the former
allowing management of templates and
template resources, SDK/API instances,
workspaces, user access and security roles.
For template design tasks, the interface
switches to the Editor which offers a wide
range of tools for advanced formatting and
business logic. Using templates makes it
easy to share specific styles and resources,
so non-technical users needn’t start from a
'blank page' every time - nor do they need
to understand the processes going on
behind the design screen.
Using templates also means that if there is
a change to Terms and Conditions, say,
there is no need to wade through every
relevant document to make the change -
just modify the footer in a composition
template, and it will be reflected in all
documents which share that footer.
Once designed, a template document can
be easily previewed as a PDF populated with
representative sample data from a data
collection. These are JSON-based data
structures that can be associated with
multiple templates. Conditional content
management allows users to control which
data might appear on any given document
dependent on the values in those fields; an
example might be localised boilerplate in an
invoice footer that changes depending on
whether it is sent to a UK or US customer.
iText DITO supports version control, so it is
easy to see who last altered a template and
why - different stakeholders might, for
instance, modify a logo or a font, or alter
the business logic behind a particular
invoice layout. More info: itextpdf.com/en
iText DITO is a hugely flexible and scalable tool: the days of a business unit attempting to design a PDF document
and having to send it through numerous iterations with IT before deployment are gone - with iText DITO the entire
process can be slickly and easily managed by even non-technical users.
26 @DMMagAndAwards November/December 2021 www.document-manager.com

Dm CASE STUDY: CLEARDATA
Ramping up
DM specialist Cleardata is investing over £1 million for growth, expanding its
scanner fleet in order to win new business
Document management company
Cleardata has invested £1.1
million in new buildings and
intelligent, scalable document capture
technology from Kodak Alaris. The
investment has seen the Blythheadquartered
firm open two new
facilities, create up to 70 new jobs, and
expand its production scanner fleet.
In a first round of investment, Cleardata,
the largest single-site user of scanners
from Kodak Alaris in the UK, doubled its
capability with the addition of several new
Kodak i5850S Scanners and the ibml
FUSiON document capture platform,
supplied by Kodak Alaris, ibml's lead
distribution partner in the region. Phase
two of the investment programme has
seen Cleardata, the first UK company to
install the ibml FUSiON ultra-high volume
scanner, add a further two FUSiON
scanners to its armoury.
BUSINESS EXPANSION
Cleardata provides high-volume document
scanning, digital mailroom, secure archive
storage, cloud document management
and automated document processing
services throughout the UK. The business
has continued to enjoy fantastic year-onyear
growth, and announced plans last
year to expand from two to four units,
with more than 52,000 square feet, on
the Riverside Business Park in Blyth,
Northumberland.
With a strategy to double its footprint,
Cleardata turned to Kodak Alaris for advice
on the latest capture technology. After
listening to the company's plans and
specific requirements, Kodak Alaris invited
them to try out the ibml FUSiON
document capture platform.
"We handle lots of different document
types, on mixed media and with varying
levels of quality. Scanners from Kodak
Alaris have never let us down in terms of
image quality, reliability and throughput,
so we have never considered an alternative
capture platform," Managing Director
David Bryce, explained. "We agreed to
have a look at the FUSiON document
capture platform and we were not
disappointed."
Cleardata visited the Kodak Alaris
showroom and ran a number of test jobs
through the ibml FUSiON scanner. "The
technology is superb, we were extremely
impressed both in terms of performance
and the platform's ability to handle many
different document types," Bryce explains.
"Of particular note is the ibml iQpro image
processing technology which optimises
image capture for better accuracy of data
extraction from images. After using the
platform for a few months, we had no
hesitation in investing in a further two
FUSiON scanners."
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CASE STUDY: CLEARDATA Dm
"THIS STRATEGIC INVESTMENT HAS PLACED OUR SCANNING BUREAU AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE DIGITISATION
AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY AND WILL BE A GAME-CHANGER FOR THE BUSINESS. THE FUSION
PLATFORM PERFECTLY COMPLEMENTS THE SCANNERS FROM KODAK ALARIS THAT WE USE WITHIN OUR
SCANNING BUREAU AND DIGITAL MAILROOM SERVICES DIVISION. WE'RE REALLY CONFIDENT THAT THIS LATEST
INVESTMENT WILL HELP US TAKE THE BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL."
MAJOR CONTRACT WIN
The investment is an essential part of the
firm's plan to accelerate growth and
supports a major project by Northumbria
Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to
digitise millions of patient records.
Cleardata has been awarded a scanning
contract worth over £10 million by the
Trust, which runs hospitals and community
services in the county as well as North
Tyneside. The project will see the firm
convert more than 1.2 million traditional
paper records into digital versions over a
three-year period, in line with the NHS
digital transformation plan. This
digitisation will enhance patient care as
clinicians will be able to access records
across the Trust's sites and share
information easily.
Once scanned, the patient record will be
viewed by Northumbria clinicians on a
next-generation electronic document
management solution provided by IMMJ
Systems. The system, MediViewer, has
been specifically built for UK healthcare
trusts and clinicians will be able to use
SmartIndex technology which makes the
patient record easy to view and search.
David Elliott, Chief Digital Information
Officer at Northumbria Healthcare, said:
"It's important our digital systems meet the
needs of clinicians and support them to
continually improve patient care. Our
scanning and digital systems will do this
by making vital information available to
clinicians at the times they need it,
whether that be in A&E, one of our
general or community hospitals or out in
the community, for example, by one of
our district nurses or health visitors. This
project is crucial to modernising our
services, helping our services interact more
seamlessly with one another and reducing
margins for error, making care even safer."
JOBS BOOST
The contract also provides a jobs boost
for Northumberland, with Cleardata
providing up to 70 full and part-time
roles, including opportunities through the
Government's Kick Start Scheme,
Traineeship Programme and Sector-Based
Work Academies.
According to Marion Dickson, the Trust's
Executive Director of Nursing, being able
to work in an integrated way across
services has never been more important
and digital patient records are essential to
this: "Given our commitment to
supporting our populations beyond their
health needs, as we pledged through Our
Community Promise earlier this year, it's
also fantastic that this contract will be
creating jobs right here in
Northumberland and providing a boost to
the local economy."
Bryce added: "We were absolutely
delighted to win this digitisation project
for Northumbria Healthcare NHS
Foundation Trust. This is a record contract
for Cleardata and I'm so very proud of our
business growth and the whole team."
12,000,000 IMAGES A MONTH
The digitisation process is in what Bryce
calls the 'ramp-up' phase. "We are using
the FUSiON scanners to conduct both
back-scanning and day forward
scanning," he explained. "We expect
activity to peak at 12 million images a
month. The majority of documents are
what we would deem 'imperfect' and as
such we are running the FUSiON scanners
at less than full rated speed, however the
throughput and quality is outstanding.
Whilst we are still at the very early stage
and are not yet running at full capacity,
we expect to achieve a very strong return
on investment."
KEY DIFFERENTIATOR
The scanning bureau has worked in
partnership with Kodak Alaris for 15
years. "We have continued to invest in
high-volume capture solutions from
Kodak Alaris to optimise our operations,
boost our capability, improve
productivity and offer higher value
services," said Bryce. "Leveraging the very
latest and best technology is key to
being able to differentiate in an
increasingly competitive marketplace,
our commitment to ongoing investment
sets us apart and makes it easy for our
customers to make the decision to go
with Cleardata."
COVID-19 has been a catalyst for
transforming the public sector's digital
infrastructure and accelerating digital
transformation has become an
increasingly important area of focus.
Cleardata features on a number of
frameworks including Crown
Commercial Service (CCS), NHS Shared
Business Services (SBS), and NHS
England's Dynamic Purchasing System
(DPS).This latest technology refresh,
combined with the opening of two
additional units in Blyth, strongly
positions the company to win new
opportunities in the sector.
"This strategic investment has placed
our scanning bureau at the forefront of
the digitisation and document
management industry and will be a
game-changer for the business," Bryce
said, adding: "The FUSiON platform
perfectly complements the scanners from
Kodak Alaris that we use within our
scanning bureau and digital mailroom
services division. We're really confident
that this latest investment will help us
take the business to the next level."
More info: www.alarisworld.com
www.document-manager.com
November/December 2021
@DMMagAndAwards
29

Dm STRATEGY: SECURITY
A zero-trust future for a hybrid working world
Michele Mabilia of Kyocera Document Solutions UK explains why a holistic approach
to security is the best way forward
As employees return to offices, a
largely successful period of remote
working for many businesses is
now giving way to a hybrid working
future. Flexibility for employees is now
the norm rather than the exception,
which promises to make for happier
workforces in the long term. That said,
there are still challenges to address. One
of these is the need to protect company
data and devices from the impact of
ransomware attacks, which have become
the modus operandi for millions of
hackers in the last couple of years.
As businesses plan for hybrid working,
connected devices such as phones,
computers and printers are often
earmarked for close scrutiny in the bid to
shore up cybersecurity capabilities. To
achieve this, organisations need to take a
cautious approach to security, and
ensure this is replicated across the entire
IT estate. This is where a holistic zerotrust
approach has merit.
The hybrid working model brings
several key challenges for employers,
including the need to properly manage
BYOD policies and staff using the same
devices for work and personal activities,
as well as encouraging responsible cyber
practices without regular face-to-face
interaction. All endpoints - whether
remote or office-based - must have the
right security software in place to
prevent attacks. Finally, this has to be
done while minimising the impact on
productivity.
Mobile phones, laptops and printers are
often among the first devices mentioned
when discussing security risks. There are
legitimate reasons for this: these are
highly recognisable pieces of home or
office equipment, so it is easy to consider
these devices as a likely route through
which opportunistic hackers could try to
gain access to sensitive data. Alongside
these, the ubiquity of software such as
email or cloud storage means
cybercriminals have a huge attack surface
to conduct their operations.
Recent research has found that 92 per
cent of UK businesses suffered a
cyberattack in the last 12 months, and
78% feel unprepared to deal with
current threats. Despite the upsurge in
attacks, more than a quarter of UK
companies do not consider IT within
their top three priorities as they plan for
the next 12 months. This is concerning
when considering the finding that
cyberattacks cost nearly one in ten (8%)
UK businesses over £1 million.
Plenty of work needs to be done across
the entire IT estate to actively address
these issues. Organisations need tools to
cover all the bases, including multi-factor
authentication to govern access to
sensitive data, secure document
management systems to ensure
information is shared in a safe and
compliant manner, and encryption
capabilities that reduce the chances of
stored data - on-premise or in the cloud
- being compromised.
Adopting a zero-trust framework and
applying it across all elements of the IT
estate offers a variety of security benefits.
Zero-trust presumes all applications and
services are malicious and are denied
access from connecting until they can be
positively verified by their identity
attributes. Therefore, this model reduces
risk because it closely scrutinises what is
on the network and how those assets are
communicating. Further, as baselines are
created, a zero-trust model reduces risk
by eliminating over-provisioned software
and services and continuously checking
the "credentials" of all devices - whether
they are printers, computers, mobiles or
any other internet-enabled technology.
Functioning efficiently and safely in a
hybrid work environment all boils down
to risk management. This means better
visibility and understanding of the way
people work, and by association, the way
they interact with business systems and
sensitive data. Zero-trust doesn't have to
be a complete change in the business
working model or mean that existing
security architectures need to be
replaced. It simply provides a solution to
gain more control within the network,
creating an even stronger shield and
barrier. It is the way forward for
organisations that want to be confident
that they have the necessary tools and
support to combat evolving threats.
More info:
www.kyoceradocumentsolutions.co.uk
30 @DMMagAndAwards November/December 2021 www.document-manager.com

Dm STRATEGY: AI
Improving data-driven strategies
AI research needs to centre on business case challenges, argues Dr. Gregor Joeris,
CTO of SER Group
As we enter the so-called new
different, organisations are
looking at optimising their
business processes to come back
stronger by accelerating
their digital
transformation for
greater agility and
resilience.
The trailblazers
have been using
advanced analytics
to combine data
sources for smarter
decision-making. Yet,
getting started with
artificial intelligence (AI)
and machine learning
(ML) is becoming far more
reachable for many
organisations. AI, however,
comes with its own
challenges. Notably,
complexity and issues such
as data quality and the
amount of data needed to
feed AI. There is also a
shortage of expertise in the
marketplace.
Academic institutions play a
fundamental role in AI and ML
development. This is where much
essential experimental work has
been carried out. The difficulty
for academia has been
in accessing realworld
data
that can
be
used
to
improve model training and AI
platforms.
It is pivotal that the academic and
industrial worlds collaborate to speed
up innovation in this area. For example,
Professor Dirk Krechel and Professor
Adrian Ulges and their team at the
RheinMain University of Applied
Sciences have taken up a unique
opportunity to work on scientific and
technical challenges in direct
cooperation with industry to look at the
business challenges of AI. By sharing
resources and talents, they pave the way
for an exciting future for AI in the
industrial space.
EXPLOITING DATA ANALYSIS FOR
BUSINESS
Currently, the team at RheinMain
University is looking into how data can
be managed and analysed effectively in a
business environment. The so-called
'Deep Content Analytics' (DeepCA)
project combines deep learning and
content analytics. The latter looks to
harvest knowledge from heterogeneous
data sources. In a business context,
sources can be found in databases and
applications. The aim is to take
advantage of data analysis to solve realworld
business challenges and discover
complex relationships between data.
SER Group is amongst several industry
players involved in DeepCA funded by
the Federal Ministry of Education and
Research in Germany. Both sides,
industry, and academia, gain valuable
information and experience from this
collaboration. Students learn about the
real-world mandates and typical
development processes found at a
software vendor like ourselves. In return,
companies such as the SER Group
32
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November/December 2021
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STRATEGY: AI Dm
"BY 2025, ANALYST FIRM IDC FORECASTS THAT WORLDWIDE DATA PRODUCTION WILL REACH A MASSIVE 175
ZETTABYTES, WITH MUCH OF IT SITTING IN THE CLOUD. THE BIG CHALLENGE, HOWEVER, IS THAT MUCH OF
THIS DATA IS STORED IN AN UNSTRUCTURED WAY. THIS MAKES IT CHALLENGING TO FIND CENTRALLY OR
ANALYSE EFFECTIVELY FOR REAL BUSINESS VALUE. AS PROFESSOR KRECHEL EXPLAINS, THIS DATA IS SITTING
THERE DOING NOTHING. WHAT HE AND HIS TEAM ARE DOING IS LOOKING AT PROCESSES THAT WILL ENABLE
THIS DATA TO BE "EASILY TAPPED IN AN ECM ENVIRONMENT AND ACTIVELY USED IN WORKFLOWS." THIS DATA
IS STRATEGICALLY ESSENTIAL TO ALL DIGITAL COMPANIES MOVING FORWARD AS IT ALLOWS THEM TO SATISFY
CHANGING CUSTOMER DEMANDS AND REMAIN VIABLE."
benefit from in-depth academic
research to develop next-generation
software systems that enable businesses
to build a competitive advantage.
Within DeepCA, professors, students,
and researchers primarily examine the
AI algorithms that put data under the
virtual microscope. In contrast to
structured data, natural language texts
cannot be searched and evaluated as
quickly using conventional methods.
This is where deep learning in the form
of Natural Language Processing (NLP)
comes into its own and where research
is currently being focused. Academia is
looking to enhance the search,
classification, and categorisation of
documents within a business context.
EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS A DATA
AND ANALYTICS STRATEGY
We are creating more and more data,
and it is becoming an increasingly
valuable business asset as it defines an
organisation's uniqueness. By 2025,
analyst firm IDC forecasts that
worldwide data production will reach a
massive 175 zettabytes, with much of it
sitting in the cloud.
The big challenge, however, is that
much of this data is stored in an
unstructured way. This makes it
challenging to find centrally or analyse
effectively for real business value. In
addition, this data is often not secured
properly, leaving it open to malevolent
actors and data hacks.
As Professor Krechel explains, this data
is sitting there doing nothing. What he
and his team are doing is looking at
processes that will enable this data to
be "easily tapped in an ECM
environment and actively used in
workflows." This data is strategically
essential to all digital companies
moving forward as it allows them to
satisfy changing customer demands
and remain viable.
MAKING IT WORK IN PRACTICE
There is classic extraction, for instance,
where metadata is mined from
unstructured information. Or there is
semantic search, which enables
organisations to use internal document
pools. This approach can dramatically
improve the results of searches for
similar documents relating to a specific
business process, according to
Professor Krechel.
A section of DeepCA's research is
designed to investigate how the
proximity of certain words to one
another can be used to recognise
similar documents. In a business
scenario, this system lets users quickly
search through existing legal contracts
for specific clauses and retrieve all
instances where the clauses have been
superseded, making them invalid, for
example.
With such a prominent business
advantage, why are organisations
hesitant to adopt AI? Much of this is
down to the work and amount of data
they believe is needed to train AI
models properly. However, Professor
Krechel and his team have highlighted
that limited sample data can still turn
up excellent results with quality data.
Models start by learning from
conventional research machines, such
as using Okapi BM25, a ranking
function used by search engines. The
models can be refined using feedback
from employees searching documents,
for example. Going down this route
allows enterprises to utilise the
intelligence of significant search
engines and adapt it to individual
business needs.
Business processes can be defined
through a small volume of documents
and let the ECM system display similar
processes from which they can take
over responsibilities, for example. This
can save a significant amount of time
on organising workflows.
INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIA
COLLABORATE
The truth is that every business will be a
data business in some shape or form in
the future. Collaboration between
organisations such as SER Group and
universities and research institutions are
central to accelerating AI innovation.
Professor Krechel and his team are now
looking at real-world applications for
the project and initially considering
business cases for the insurance and
finance industries.
Neither business nor academia can be
the single master of AI advancements.
By forging strategic relationships with
academic institutions, both can benefit
from a two-way flow of ideas that will
advance society and business as a
whole.
More info: www.sergroup.com
www.document-manager.com
November/December 2021
@DMMagAndAwards
33

Dm ANALYSIS: CAPTURE TRENDS
Scent to try us?
Harvey Spencer takes a sniff around developing technologies that promise to enable
digitisation of smells, and looks at the potential impact on the capture sector
Smell is probably the oldest and the
most powerful of the five human
senses, bringing back strong
memories. But what has it got to do with
Document Management? The answer is
not obvious - this article was spurred by a
recent piece in the Financial Times entitled
"Switzerland's Silicon Valley of smell makes
scents out of big data"
(www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/switzerlan
d-s--silicon-valley-of-smell--prospers-in-ageof-big-data/46858594).
That article considered how people's tastes
are changing in the era of COVID. Everyday
products such as soap, cleaners and
shampoos had been trending towards fruit
based scents, but now people are showing
a distinct preference for antiseptic smells -
hopefully we will not go
back
to the smell of Dettol everywhere! But
identifying changes in consumer tastes are
critical to the retail industry - those who
identify and change most quickly can profit
substantially. So identifying changes in
scent (and taste) within a Customer
Experience (CX) application could be very
attractive. Apparently companies such as
Firmenich are letting users upload their
scent preferences - but this is in words.
What if you could do it automatically?
We can already digitise scent - it is similar
to colour in having a small number of base
scents such that with up to 128 (8bit)
variants you can pretty much create any
scent discernible to a human. We know
how to use this information to create 'scent'
machines that have been used over the
years to attract
(Abercrombie and Fitch
probably being the most
famous) or to influence
audiences as in
"Smell-O-Vision" in
cinema seats in
the 1960's.
The
Israeli
Weizmann Institute has recently claimed to
have the technology to build a simple chip
to digitise scents and stated that we are a
few years away from a "tele-smell' with the
capability embedded like GPS in a smart
phone. This may have some large potential.
In addition to identifying consumer
preferences in a better way than using
words, I can think of telehealth or
teledentistry assessing the smell of
someone's breath. The insurance industry
or emergency workers could benefit from
being able to identify an accident and level
of danger on a report of "I can smell
something burning". Obviously games
players will be candidates for improving
virtual reality. Maybe news industry
reporting from a remote site might want to
transmit the scent of some dramatic event
and YouTube might transmit this with scent
creators able to recreate the smells.
Smell and taste are clearly cultural with
various cultures preferring different tastes
and smells. I remember a discussion with a
scent production company (they had a
small ink-jet type printer that recreated
smells) who were trying to encourage food
shoppers and told me they had discovered
that Thai people have a completely
different view from Europeans of the best
bananas based on the scent. It is similar to
vision - Kodak and other colour film
manufacturers used different film in Asia
than in Europe. The Asian film produced
much more vibrant primary colours than
the more muted European film. With the
multitude of exotic smells in many Asian
and African societies, it would not be
surprising to find out that household scents
need to be stronger and different: an
important consideration for consumer
companies.
Smell is an important component of who
we are and how we communicate and so
should be included within the "capture"
umbrella. It may be later for digitisation and
usage than the other senses, but it is set to
become a key input for the future. DM
34
@DMMagAndAwards
November/December 2021
www.document-manager.com

New
Date
AIIM FORUM EUROPE
INTELLIGENT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
22ND JUNE 2022
GRAND CONNAUGHT ROOMS, LONDON
Join the AIIM
Tribe in London
Join us on 22nd June 2022 in London for an unmissable
day of interactive and curated Keynotes, Roundtables,
Advisory Seminars and Fireside Chats – showing best
practice in action at organisations just like yours.
Here is what our attendees and Partners think of AIIM Forum Europe:
Early Bird Rates
Available
Places start at just
£75 + VAT!
Attending AIIM Forum Europe is a must for
industry professionals who are interested in
capturing the latest market insights, delving
into discussions about complex issues,
sharing common pains and exploring new
opportunities. I know I am joined by many
of the delegates who agreed that this year’s
Forum was one of the best
This year’s event was very interesting in
updating about privacy, new technologies,
and future management systems, and
importantly about raising the awareness
about this important area within our
organisations
Excellent opportunity to meet the
great and the good in information
management, great vendors and good
people working within the sector that
are very happy to help and share best
practice solutions
Very positive feedback overall - we were
really happy with our roundtable session
- great attendance and lots of good
conversations for us after the session.
AIIM Partner and Session Host
Our stand was busier than ever, thanks
to the AIIM team for all your support in
making the event a huge success for us.
AIIM Partner
For more information and to register visit: www.aiimforumeurope.com
OUR EVENT PARTNERS INCLUDE SOME OF EUROPE’S LEADING VENDOR’S IN INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT, GET IN TOUCH TO JOIN THEM:
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