Document Genetics Blog

Second class stamps to rise sharply to 55p - more reasons to use ParetoPost™

2012-01-23T08:04:00.000-08:00

23rd January 2012

The price of second class stamps is set to rise by more than 50 per cent, under plans laid out by Royal Mail.

The national mail organisation said it is hoping to increase second class stamps by 53 per cent from 36p to 55p, and insisted that the increase was still “affordable” for “vulnerable groups”.

Royal Mail, which posted group profits of £1million a day for the most recent six month period, would then be free to increase the price of second class stamps from as early as April.

The price of second class stamps would then rise further by inflation every year for seven years. There would be no limit on the price of a first class stamp, which currently costs 46p.

Such a large price rise could lead to consumers stockpiling books of second class stamps to take advantage of the cheaper cost of postage before prices go up.

Ofcom, the postal regulator, is now considering the request, and will decide whether to give it green light in a few weeks’ time.

The take-up of mail services has been badly dented by the expansion of email, broadband internet and the widespread use of mobile phones over the past decade.

Last November, Royal Mail reported a surprise jump in bottom-line profits to £176million in the six months to 25 September, which included a £146million one-off profits from the sale of properties. The UK letters, parcels and international business lost £41million after modernisation costs.

Royal Mail said at the time: “Were it not for profits from its GLS parcels business – £58 million – and the Post Office Limited – £55 million – the group overall would have made a loss”.

Introducing ParetoPost™

ParetoPost™ has been developed to fulfil the requirements of the SME market, but also provides larger corporates with cost effective secure document delivery. ParetoPost™ allows for the automatic or manual upload of virtually any business document and ensures delivery via a secure web portal. It’s implemented in a few hours and can save you up to 80% on your postage costs!

ParetoPost™ can provide you with:

No postage costs
Visibility
Reduce your aged debt
Traceability
Speed
Certainty of delivery
Customer self service
Reduce carbon footprint

Deliver business documents instantly, with visibility and up to 80% saving over post!

Every time you post a document it costs your business at least 90p*. So if you're sending 3,500 documents per month, by moving to ParetoPost™ you can instantly save over £2,000 per month with no up-front costs - now that's significant.

In the case of e-billing, if you are already sending PDF invoices to your customers, ParetoPost's™ self-service portal will save you money by reducing customer service enquiries, and best of all, document visibility allows credit controllers to see when custokers have read the document.

We're so confident ParetoPost™ will revolutionise the way you send business documents to your major customers, you can try ParetoPost™ for free.

Request your free demonstration today by clicking on our ParetoPost website www.paretopost.co.uk

* According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) “The true cost of sending a letter in the UK, including paper, envelope, toner, machine rental, post and time is between 90p and £1.20 (depends on staff hourly rate).

Document Genetics is pleased to announce its partnership with InfoStream

2011-11-28T06:38:00.001-08:00

Document Genetics partnership with Infostreams further strengthens our portfolio of software and solutions.

New applications include InfoRouter a fully web based EDRMS solution and collaboration portal which connects information to employees, wherever their location in the world. Formate, a leading output management solution designed to enhance or replace paper based systems by distributing information electronically, where and when it is needed and in the format required. ParetoPost, designed to reduce postage costs by up to 80% providing a secure way to deliver documents to end users.

For more information about these exciting new solutions please take a look at our website at www.document-genetics.co.uk

Royal Mail makes £1 million a day ahead of possible big increase in price of stamps

2011-11-28T06:36:00.000-08:00

Royal Mail is making profits of nearly £1 million a day as it considers pushing through huge hikes in the price of stamps.

The company reported a surprise jump in bottom-line profits to £171 million over the past six months.

This compares with a £55 million loss last year, and was boosted by better-than-expected performances from its Post Office branches.

Last night MPs on an influential Commons committee urged Royal Mail to think again before deciding whether to push through the stamp price increases next April.

Adrian Bailey MP, chairman of the Business Innovation and Skills committee, said that the company should “look again at the proposed increases”.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “These figures are much better than we were given to expect and call into question the need for the scale of the price increase that they are going to implement.

“They should look again at the proposed increases. In the light of these profits, Royal Mail should re-examine their pricing proposals given the fact that people are suffering high energy bills and petrol bills.”

A spokesman for the postal watchdog Consumer Focus added: “Royal Mail is going through major transformation, including modernisation and operational changes, as well as changes to its regulatory regime. This mustn’t divert attention from the fact it delivers an essential universal postal service which needs to be affordable and reliable."

Ofcom, the postal regulator, is considering allowing Royal Mail to hike the price of second class stamps by an unprecedented 50 per cent, and remove the cap on first class stamps.

The proposed seven-year deal would see the cost of a second-class stamp rise from the current 36p to between 45p and 55p.

There would be no limit on the price of a first-class stamp, which currently costs 46p. One option could be to bring it more closely into line with countries such as Denmark, where a first-class stamp costs 67p, or Italy, where a next-day delivery costs 69p.

Royal Mail normally sets its increases in stamps every December for the following April. The company is now likely to wait to see the outcome of a consultation on Ofcom’s proposals before deciding prices of stamps for next year.

Royal Mail said while its financial performance “is beginning to improve, we have a great deal to do still to return Royal Mail to sustained financial viability”.

In the half year to 25 September, Royal Mail’s group revenues increased by £200 million to £4.6 billion.

However the number of letters fell by 6 per cent to 59 million items delivered daily, the lowest for around 20 years as more people rely on email to communicate.

Losses in the UK Letters business narrowed slightly to £41 million. Royal Mail said: “Were it not for profits from its GLS parcels business – £58 million – and the Post Office Limited – £55 million – the group overall would have made a loss”.

Cost-cutting continued at the company, with 5,000 people losing their jobs over the past year, nearly 2,000 of them from its head office or other managerial roles, reducing the Royal Mail's workforce to 163,000.

Royal Mail said it was “vital” that the European Commission approves a plan for the Government to take over pension deficit, which is heavily in the red, allowing Royal Mail to be privatised.

Moya Greene, the company’s chief executive, said “painful changes” remained to be made to secure its future, including increased automation and more mail centre closures.

She said: “Our focus therefore remains on returning to sustained financial viability. We will continue to reduce our costs wherever possible without compromising the six-days-a-week service.

“We look forward to working with Ofcom to secure a new regulatory approach as the need to do so is pressing.

“Furthermore, it will be essential for Royal Mail that the European Commission approves the Government's state aid application to relieve the company of its historic pension liability and allow restructuring of the Royal Mail balance sheet.”

Inforouter requires 11g Oracle Client...

2011-11-28T06:35:00.002-08:00

[Inforouter] When using Oracle as the database behind an instance of Inforouter, the Inforouter server requires that at least an 11g Oracle Client be installed. This client is compatible with earlier databases but is required for .dotnet 2.0 compatibility. (pca)

Visit our tech blog (techblog.document-genetics.co.uk) for more of our product hints and tips.

Royal Mail reports profits rise

2011-11-28T06:35:00.001-08:00

Royal Mail lost money on delivering letters, despite the record rise in stamp prices in April.

Royal Mail has reported rising profits, while stressing that its core business of delivering letters is loss-making.

Pre-tax profits for the six months to 25 September came in at £187m, up from £50m in the same period last year.

Royal Mail made an exceptional gain of £190m from property sales, much of which came from the sale of its Rathbone Place depot in London.

It has cut the number of people it employs in the UK by 5,000 in the past 12 months.

The cuts have taken its workforce to 163,000, which is about 50,000 fewer than were employed 10 years ago.

The past year's reductions have been partly due to the use of new sorting machines.

Royal Mail's statement predicted more "painful changes for our people, as modernisation involves changes to working practices to improve efficiency".

Royal Mail was keen to highlight its operating profit, which includes modernisation costs but excludes other exceptional items, and which came in at £67m, up from £22m in the same period last year.

That figure included an operating loss of £41m from the letters and parcels division, which was an improvement on last year's loss of £55m.

The business is handling 6% fewer letters than at the same time last year and predicts "annual declines for the foreseeable future". Chief executive Moya Greene told BBC News that the 6% decline had been faster than she had originally forecast.

The losses came despite the record increase in stamp prices in April, when a first class stamp went up from 41 pence to 46p.

European companies could save billions with better document management

2011-11-28T06:34:00.001-08:00

If ever a company needed an argument in support of implementing a robust document management solution, here it is - European companies lose billions per year in potential revenue due to time wasted searching for records and information.

Conducted by Coleman Parkes , new research has revealed that companies on the continent combine to spend about 362 million hours each year looking for documents. Overall, that costs more than $210 billion, according to the new report.

"The Index shows how outdated, manual processes have multiple impacts on the business. For instance, if critical information is processed using traditional hard-copy methods, business risk is enhanced as the data is less likely to be backed-up," Carsten Bruhn , executive vice president for Ricoh Europe, which underwrote the study, said.

According to Coleman Parkes' poll, 22 percent of companies said they have a fully automated workflow in place for their business-critical documents. By implementing a records and document management solution, the remaining 78 percent of respondents would be able to find their information more quickly, because records would be organized and easily searchable.

Such a system is especially important for organizations that continue to rely on paper documents. That's because hard copies of information are easier to lose and are more prone to security breaches, according to the research.

On a good note, only about 8 percent of respondents said their data protection procedures don't fully protect paper documents. Yet 36 percent of respondents admitted that either they or their staff have lost or misplaced such information.

However, when a document management solution is deployed, respondents seemed to be on the same page when it comes to priorities. Sixty-seven percent said they hope a solution will improve data protection and 65 percent want to drive workforce efficiency.

Top reasons for not implementing such an information management platform included lack of time, as cited by 45 percent of respondents, and lack of resources, which was highlighted by 35 percent of respondents.

Why ignore Document Management?

2011-11-28T06:32:00.000-08:00

Did you know that many companies do a better job managing and securing their office supplies than they do their business-critical documents and files? It’s true. The electronic documents that are the very lifeblood of the modern business are all too often taken totally for granted. Document Management has long been ignored by many companies, but that is changing fast.

Very few businesses take the time to consider the expenses that they incur on a daily basis because of:

- Time and effort wasted in locating documents amounts to a lot more than one would think. Recent research has indicated that nearly 10% of an average office worker’s day is spent trying to locate existing information and documents.

- Redundant effort necessitated because it’s believed that it is often easier to recreate something than it would be to try to find it.

- Time and effort involved in figuring out who has the latest version of a document, and recovering when various revisions overwrite each other.

- Unnecessary usage of network storage devices and network bandwidth, because the documents are dispersed everywhere across the enterprise, rather than centralized.

The risks of NOT managing your documents

Likewise, few businesses take the time to consider the considerable risks that they expose themselves to on a daily basis because:

- Security is applied haphazardly at best, which exposes important information to scrutiny by potentially inappropriate people.

- Critical documents are stored -- often exclusively -- on laptop computers that could be lost, stolen, or damaged at any time.

- Documents stored centrally on Windows network drives, once deleted, do not go into a recycle bin as commonly believed. They simply disappear, and must be restored slowly from tape backups (if you’re lucky enough to have those).

- No record exists of precisely who has viewed and/or edited a document. It’s therefore impossible to audit a business process to uncover mistakes or inefficiencies.

Consider the facts above and find out how you are affected by not having a plan in place to manage your documents more effectively.

Very few organizations have implemented a robust document management software solution that can deliver real results. Talk to Document Genetics on 0844 557 6430 about how you can vastly improve your efficiency in managing your business documents.

Royal Mail postal services suspended due to uneven roads

2011-11-28T06:31:00.000-08:00

Postmen in one part of Essex have been ordered to stop making deliveries to houses on unmade roads due to health and safety concerns.

Residents in a small corner of Benfleet, Essex have been told they will no longer be able to receive deliveries because they live on roads with uneven surfaces making it too perilous for the postal workers to venture down.

Locals in the affected areas have said they are utterly perplexed by the decision as there has never been a problem with their deliveries in the past.

Many now face a round trip of up to hour in order to collect their mail from their nearest sorting office.

Doreen and Meredith Chatterton, who are both in their late 80s and have lived in the area for more than 40 years, said if the road surface was not too dangerous for them they could not understand why it was a problem for postal workers.

Mrs Chatterton said: “Royal Mail has said it's not delivering any mail at all to the ‘unmade’ roads, and there's quite a lot in this area. “We all had the letter from Royal Mail on Saturday and it starts now so we didn't even get any warning."

According to locals the letter stated that the decision had been taken following a health and safety review prompted by a number of “near miss accidents” on unmade road surfaces.

Mrs Chatterton said they would now be forced to travel 25 minutes each way to the nearest sorting office to collect their post.

She said: "We don't want to be doing that every day, especially with winter coming."

Sheila Stainer, another local resident who faces disruption, said she would struggle to get to the sorting office because she suffered from a spinal disability.

Mrs Stainer, who has lived in the area for 30-years, said: "The roads are not made up because we're on greenbelt, but I've never known one person to fall off their bike or slip on the road. They've done it without consultation from everyone or anyone."

Some residents are so angry at the decision that they have now launched an official appeal against the decision and are demanding full services are restored.

Royal Mail spokesman Sally Hopkins said the decision to temporarily suspend deliveries had been taken as a last resort.

She said: "We have reluctantly decided to temporarily suspend deliveries to a number of addresses in a particular part of Benfleet.

This is because the private, unpaved roads in the area are in a poor state of repair. That poor state of repair has meant some of our vehicles have been damaged and there have been some near accidents for our postmen and women.

“It is the responsibility of the residents to ensure that private roads are fit for purpose and do not constitute a safety risk. This is far from being a trivial matter and we will not compromise on the safety of our colleagues or the roadworthiness of our vehicles.

“We have already apologised to customers affected by this temporary suspension. We do hope that they understand our reasons for doing so. We have written to them giving details of how they can receive their mail – either delivery to an alternative address or how to collect items from us.

“We are keen to resume deliveries to these addresses. We will review doing so as soon as improvements are made to these roads.”

But it is not the first time the Royal Mail has provided a bizarre reason for disrupting deliveries.

In November last year a postman refused to deliver to one address in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk after complaining that the resident’s garden was too overgrown.

In another case in Portsmouth, a resident was warned he would his service suspended unless he took steps to keep his “aggressive cat” under control.

Elsewhere postal workers have faced more traditional hazards with an entire street in Plymouth losing its service following an attack on a postman by a Jack Russell called Rusty.

Royal Mail insists first class letters are given priority

2011-11-28T06:30:00.000-08:00

Royal Mail has insisted it is continuing to give first class letters priority over second class at all times after it was reported that it had stopped doing so on Saturdays.

Mail volumes overall have fallen by more than 20 per cent in the last five years

It was claimed that customers are needlessly putting first class stamps on post that is treated the same as second class – making millions for Royal Mail since the changes were ''secretly introduced'' in July.

The Mail on Sunday said it had seen a confidential document circulated to managers in mail centres, which says: ''Second class traffic posted Friday and Saturday will be processed along with first class posted Saturday, using Saturday first class labels.''

It adds: ''We want to move to a standardised way of dispatching our second class Saturday-posted traffic and to also simplify and reduce cost in our network by removing under-utilised services.

''Moving the traffic forward to a Saturday dispatch and ceasing Monday's second class dispatch is the most viable and cost-effective option that also protects quality.''

The newspaper said the move had made the company £4 million from customers needlessly putting first class stamps on post that had been treated the same as second class.

It claimed that around 40 million 46p first class stamps will have been used since July when a 36p second class stamp would have been just as quick, meaning there had been an unnecessary overpayment of £4 million.

Royal Mail spokesman David Simpson said: ''The Mail on Sunday is completely wrong to state that Royal Mail has 'stopped giving priority' to first class mail on Saturdays. The opposite is the truth. First class mail always has the priority over second class mail at all times.

''There has been no change at all in the service specification for first and second class mail. While we are committed to excellent service for all our mail, first class mail is our priority; we do everything possible to deliver it the next working day. The specification for second class mail is still to deliver it within three working days after posting.

''The UK is one of the few countries in Europe that provides a six-day postal service. That service is expensive to run and it has been losing significant amounts of money for some time.

''Mail volumes on a Saturday are very much lower than in the rest of the week, and stamped mail makes up a very small fraction of it.

''To help reduce the losses on running the six-day service, Royal Mail is no longer running a dedicated transport network for the small proportion of second class mail posted on a Saturday.

The delivery-within-three-working days specification for second class mail remains.''

Royal Mail made a £120 million operating loss last financial year, 2010-11.

Mail volumes overall have fallen by more than 20 per cent since 2005-06 and Royal Mail is now handling around 20 million fewer items of mail on average each day compared to five years ago.

Single piece items of mail – such as stamped mail – have fallen by more than 40 per cent over the last five years.

Price of second class stamp could rise by 50 per cent

2011-11-28T06:28:00.000-08:00

Royal Mail will be given the power to charge an unlimited price for first class stamps while the cost of sending a letter second-class could rise by more than 50%, under plans announced yesterday.

There should be no cap on prices for the vast majority of Royal Mail’s services, including business post, bulk mail, and large letters and parcels sent second class, the regulator, Ofcom, said.
The proposed seven-year deal would see the cost of a second-class stamp rise from the current 36p to between 45p and 55p

The plan to relax the limits on pricing are intended to ensure that Britain’s “universal” and “affordable” postal service remains viable, Ofcom said.

But consumer groups warned that customers could be put off if stamp prices rose too far, leading to another crisis for Royal Mail and even higher costs in future.

The take-up of mail services has been badly dented by the expansion of email, broadband internet and the widespread use of mobile phones over the past decade.

The number of postal deliveries has fallen by a quarter since 2006 and Royal Mail’s letters business made a £120 million loss last year. At the same time, increases in the price of stamps have been kept below the level of inflation, leaving the national postal service “under threat”, according to Ofcom.

The proposed seven-year deal, which could come into force in April, would see the cost of a second-class stamp rise from the current 36p to between 45p and 55p, a possible 53% increase.

There would be no limit on the price of a first class stamp, which currently costs 46p. One option could be to bring it more closely into line with countries such as Denmark, where a first-class stamp costs 67p, or Italy, where a next-day delivery costs 69p.

Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, said the public “love” the “universal” British mail system. Under the law, Royal Mail must collect and deliver post six days a week, at an affordable price, to every address in the UK.

“People want their postie on the street,” Mr Richards said. “It is really popular but it’s also what determines the underlying cost.”

Mr Richards argued that Royal Mail would be unlikely to increase the cost of first class post excessively because customers would simply “trade down” to second class, or rely on email if prices rose too far.

The reforms would also encourage far more competition, allowing rival companies to collect, transport and deliver post entirely independently of Royal Mail’s network, which could also keep prices keen, he suggested.

However, Mr Richards warned Royal Mail that it must find more “efficient” ways of operating as costs had risen sharply at a time when its business was in decline.

He said the government’s plan to privatise Royal Mail would help keep prices in check, while Ofcom would be able to “intervene” if postal services became too expensive for consumers.

Businesses and individuals were urged to give their views during the 11 week public consultation on Ofcom’s plans, before reforms are introduced in next spring.

The government and Royal Mail welcomed the consultation but consumer groups expressed alarm.

Mike O’Connor, chief executive of Consumer Focus, said: “This could be the biggest shake-up to the mail market that we have ever seen. “Mail services are going to get more expensive. While the unit cost of a stamp may seem small, consumers have a right to expect value for money.”

Richard Lloyd, executive director, Which?, said many customers felt postal services were “patchy” and that pricing was “confusing”.

“It is essential that these plans don’t result in a downward spiral, with more people put off sending letters, leading to even higher prices,” he said.

Document Genetics partners Kodak and ABBYY win categories in DM Awards

2011-11-28T06:27:00.000-08:00

Document Genetics' partner Kodak was today announced as winner of the Workgroup/Departmental Imaging Product of the year with their i2000 series scanner. Another winner was partner ABBYY who have won the category for Mobile Technology Project of the Year. Kodak were announced as runner's-up for the category Editor's Choice for the software Capture Pro 3. Well done to Kodak and ABBYY for these excellent achievements!

Digitised systems lead to happier customers, writes Cameron Mount, general manager of Ricoh Consulting Services

2011-10-04T09:25:00.000-07:00

We are not quite there on the paperless office. More than 90 per cent of businesses don't have an effective document strategy.

The average document is copied nine times, and then 40 per cent of documents are keyed back into a computer.

Studies have found some people at work spend nearly half of their time looking for information, and half feel overwhelmed by information.

By making information flow better there is a positive impact from cash flow and profit, through to customer satisfaction and regulatory compliance.

What common document processes are the cause of wasted time and effort?

No matter how well managed it is, virtually any organisation has one or more business processes which are either time-consuming, complex, or prone to error.

These invariably involve documents.

Take any department, from accounts payable to human resources, if it uses paper there is an efficiency solution which can improve it.

By replacing paper-based processes with digitised systems, there is increased efficiency, compliance and cost control, and happier customers.

What are the most common information-related time-wasters at work?

* Searching for information.
* Recreating content which can't be found.
* Reformatting documents.
* Publishing the same content in multiple formats.
* Coping with compatibility issues.

All of these can be vastly reduced through an efficient document solution system.

What are some ways companies can better manage their document processes?

It is critical to have an effective document strategy, based on a "map" of the information process, which charts the flow of documents between people and departments.

Understanding and assessing that map is crucial for improving productivity and reducing costs.

The first step is to chart the lifecycle of a document, from information capture, management, distribution, through to storage.

All these points can be addressed with a mix of accessible and intuitive document management and workflow solutions which are usually built on an integrated suite of software.

ParetoPost™ - the new e-billing strategy

2011-10-04T09:22:00.002-07:00

Did you know that every time you post a document it costs your business at least 90p?*

ParetoPost™ replaces traditional post by delivering business documents electronically via a secure web portal. It's simple to setup, cost effective and can save you up to 80% on your postage costs!

The benefits of ParetoPost™ are:

Visibility & Traceability | Eliminate postage costs | Reduce your age debt | Speed
Certainty of delivery | Customer self service | Cut your carbon footprint

If you're sending 3,500 letters per month, by moving to ParetoPost™ you can instantly save over £2,000 per month - now that's significant!

We're so confident ParetoPost™ will revolutionise the way you send business documents to your major customers, you can try ParetoPost™ for 30 days free of charge.

For more information visit our website www.paretopost.co.uk

*According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) "The true cost of sending a letter in the UK, including paper, envelope, toner, machine rental, post and time is between 90p and £1.20 (depends on staff hourly rate)."

Ebills linked to timely payments, reduced costs

2011-10-04T09:22:00.001-07:00

Offering electronic bills through online banking or the company's website can lead to enhanced cash flow and reduced customer care costs, according to results of a study of Con Edison customers conducted by Fiserv.

Con Edison, a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison Inc., is one of the nation's largest investor-owned energy companies and provides electric, gas, and steam service to more than 3 million customers in New York City and Westchester County, New York. The study shows that customers who receive electronic bills via a financial institution or the Con Edison website are more likely to make on-time payments, and use online self-service rather than costly customer service calls.

This is the first primary study of a utility that links electronic billing to critical business functions, such as more current payments receivables and higher levels of online customer service. The findings are consistent with ebilling research from telecommunications and other industries, the company said.

Conducted by AccuData on behalf of Fiserv, the study analyzed 2 million customer records with a focus on three customer segments: those receiving paper bills, those receiving ebills via online banking, and those receiving ebills at the Con Edison website. The research compared the three groups' customer service channel use and payment timing. The study found that ebill use had correlations with:

• Frequent on-time payments: Customers receiving ebills via online banking were 22% more likely to make on-time payments and customers receiving e-bills at ConEd.com were 6% more likely to make on-time payments, when compared to paper bill recipients. Banking sites offer due-date reminders which may help customers pay their bills on time.

• Reduced customer service calls: Customers receiving ebills via online banking were 64% less likely to call live customer service per month and customers receiving ebills at ConEd.com were 39% less likely to call, when compared to paper bill recipients.

• High online self-service engagement at ConEd.com: On average, customers receiving ebills via online banking or the Con Edison website conducted 1.57 and 1.37 registered self-service visits per month at ConEd.com, respectively. In contrast, paper bill users performed such activities 0.71 times per month. Bank-delivered e-bills provide links driving customers to ConEd.com for usage activity and billing history information.

"E-bills deliver strong business benefits that extend beyond cost savings, and this study reinforces ebilling as a strategic function worthy of C-level attention," said Jardon Bouska, president, Biller Solutions, Fiserv. "Whether they are delivered to bank websites or the company website, ebills drive value for businesses and consumers. "

Document Genetics' new e-billing product, ParetoPost™, replaces traditional post by delivering business documents electronically via a secure web portal. It’s quick to setup, cost effective and can save you up to 80% on your postage costs! If you send 3,500 letters per month, by moving to ParetoPost™ you can instantly save over £2,000 per month – now that’s significant.

We're so confident ParetoPost™ will revolutionise the way you send business documents to your major customers, you can try ParetoPost™ for 30 days free of charge. Try before you buy with no strings attached! Request your free demonstration today by calling us on 0844 557 6430.

Why is Document Management important?

2011-10-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

Did you know that many companies do a better job managing and securing their office supplies than they do their business-critical documents? It's true. The electronic documents that are the very lifeblood of the modern business are all too often taken totally for granted.

Very few businesses take the time to consider the expenses that they incur on a daily bases because of:

- Time and effort wasted in locating documents. Recent research has indicated that nearly 10% of an average office worker's day is spent trying to locate existing information and documents.

- Redundant effort necessitated because it's often easier to recreate something than it would be to try to find it.

- Time and effort involved in figuring out who has the latest version of a document, and recovering when various revisions overwrite each other.

- Unnecessary usage of network storage devices and network bandwidth, because the documents are dispersed everywhere across the enterprise, rather than centralised.

Likewise, few businesses take the time to consider the considerable risks that they expose themselves to on a daily basis because:

- Security is applied haphazardly at best, which exposes important information to scrutiny by potentially inappropriate people.

- Critical documents are stored -- often exclusively -- on laptop computers could be lost, stolen, or damaged at any time.

- Documents stored centrally on Windows network drives, once deleted, do not go into a recycle bin as commonly believed. They simply disappear, and must be restored slowly from tape backups (if you're lucky enough to have those).

- No record exists of precisely who has viewed and/or edited a document. It's therefore impossible to audit a business process to uncover mistakes or ineffeciences.

Document Genetics offer a range of Document Management Softwares that can eliminate these issues within the workplace, please see our website for more information www.document-genetics.co.uk

Migrating FormScape® users over to Formate

2011-09-13T02:27:00.001-07:00

We’ve had a few calls lately from FormScape® customers who can’t justify the upgrade cost to Bottomline’s latest output management software called Transform™.

It would appear there’s a pretty high cost to migrate from FormScape® to Transform™.

Although we don’t have a magic bullet to import existing FormScape® projects into Formate, we believe there’s a massive cost saving to be had by migrating to Formate. In addition, as Formate is a site license, a user can run any number of Formate Servers or Configurators (or Developers, in FormScape® speak) on a geographical site at no extra charge.

If you’re a FormScape® user reading this, we’ll be happy to discuss the feasibility of moving your application over to Formate and the costs savings applicable.

All trademarks acknowledged.

Royal Mail misses targets in half of UK postcodes

2011-09-13T02:26:00.000-07:00

Up to a fifth of first class letters arrived late in parts of Britain over the three months to June, with half of UK postcodes missing their delivery targets as a result of Royal Mail cost-cutting.

The postal service said yesterday that almost 20 per cent of first class letters were delivered late in Guildford, Surrey, over the period. Kingston upon Thames and Stoke-on-Trent also saw severe disruption to their delivery services.

The organisation blamed its bad performance on “teething problems” relating to its cost-cutting drive, which has involved postmen having to learn new delivery routes and the closure of some sorting offices. It also said that a small volcanic ash cloud in Iceland in May impacted mail that had to travel by air.

Royal Mail missed its delivery targets for first class post in half of all UK postcodes over the three months to June, its poorest spring performance since 2004.

The postal service aims to deliver first class post the next working day, including Saturdays. However it said that it missed its target of delivering 91.5 per cent of first class post on time in 59 of the UK’s 118 postcode areas between March 21 and June 5. This is double the number of postcodes that it failed to deliver on time to last year.

Consumer groups said that Royal Mail needs to urgently improve its performance and that the performance was “disappointing”.

The figures are included in Royal Mail’s quarterly Quality of Service report that it provides to Postcomm, the post regulator, and Consumer Focus, the watchdog.

Royal Mail also said that it missed a different national target of delivering 93 per cent of first class letters on time. The actual number was 91.4 per cent, meaning that almost one in ten first class letters was not delivered the following day. The national target is higher than the target in individual postcodes to compensate for poor performance in certain rural areas.

Second class deliveries also narrowly missed their national target, although over 98 out of every 100 second class letter were still delivered on time.

Royal Mail said that over the five weeks leading up to the first half of July it hit both its first and second class targets.

If your business is being affected by the postal delays, why not consider ParetoPost™? ParetoPost™ replaces traditional post by delivering business documents electronically via a secure web portal. It’s quick to setup, cost effective and can save you up to 80% on your postage costs! If you send 3,500 letters per month, by moving to ParetoPost™ you can instantly save over £2,000 per month – now that’s significant.

We're so confident ParetoPost™ will revolutionise the way you send business documents to your major customers, you can try ParetoPost™ for 30 days free of charge. Try before you buy with no strings attached! Request your free demonstration today by calling us on 0844 557 6430.

ABBYY FlexiCapture 10 - Data and Document Capture Customer Success Story

2011-09-13T02:24:00.000-07:00

Increase operational efficiency, improve access to data and reduce labour costs.

The bank is among the largest real estate financiers offering mortgages in the region with a portfolio in excess of 80 billion Euros. Mortgages are sold under different brands, largely through a network of independent brokers, and all of the associated paperwork generated is forwarded to the company’s centralised team for processing.

Customer
Mortgage division of large multi-national bank with over 400 billion Euros in assets.

Problem
Processing large volume of mortgage application documents received per post
Issue to resolve

- Document classification is a manual operation, prone to error and time consuming
- Retrieving documents later is difficult and also time consuming
- Overall timeline to process one mortgage application is too long
- Too many employees are required to handle these tasks

Goal
Increase operational efficiency, improve access to data and reduce labour costs

The bank is among the largest real estate financiers offering mortgages in the region with a portfolio in excess of 80 billion Euros. Mortgages are sold under different brands, largely through a network of independent brokers, and all of the associated paperwork generated is forwarded to the company’s centralised team for processing.

Mortgage applicants must submit a series of supporting documents to the bank in order to secure a loan. The bank has identified around 200 different types of documents they receive by post on a regular basis, amount them pay slips, employment contracts, passports and other identification cards, city council home appraisals, bank account statements, insurance policies, marriage certificates and pension documents.

Each parcel that arrives must be opened by one of the dozen employees in the central mail room. These workers must forward the documents on to the processing department where more than 200 clerks commence the time intensive task of identifying each type of document and correctly filing it with the corresponding customer record.

The volume of paperwork involved is large and the amount of labour intensive. On average 25,000 individual documents arrive every single business day and they all must be categorised and filed correctly. The problems with this process are threefold: the time to manually identify documents is too long, the chances for human error are high and the time required later for clerk to search and find a single document in order to approve or deny the customer’s mortgage application is often lengthy.

To speed up this process the bank turned to ABBYY FlexiCapture, an intelligent data capture platform which automates the classification of documents and also performs key data extraction. FlexiCapture can be used in many different scenarios in almost any industry because of the ability to develop templates to read any type of document. FlexiCapture analyses each of the elements of a document – text, headings, graphics, etc. – to understand what type of document it is in order to correctly classify it.

In the bank’s mail room documents sets are checked for completeness, collected into batches and then captured digitally by a scanner. Each scanned batch is automatically imported into ABBYY FlexiCapture which classifies the document and then input;s it into the customer’s back-end Document Management System (DMS). From the DMS one of the 200 clerks is able to quickly and easily access and retrieve the documents they need in order to process the mortgage applications.

With this solution the bank is now classifying the vast majority of their incoming documents with ABBYY FlexiCapture and the benefits have been clear. Document separation is done early in the workflow at the scanner station reducing the possibility of errors. Documents which are recognised correctly are automatically classified into two dozen types which simplifies the search and retrieval process downstream. And a largely automatic document classification system reduces time and labour and creates significant opportunities for cost reduction.

With a similar configuration organisations can reduce manual labour costs for such tasks by up to 50%. This frees employees up to focus on higher value tasks. But more important, the payback period of ROI for such a solution can be achieved in less than 10 months. Finally, over a three year period a company that processes on average 25,000 documents per day can see a total savings of 200 to 300%.

Kodak's Document Imaging Honoured With Best of FOSE Award At FOSE Conference 2011

2011-09-13T02:21:00.000-07:00

KODAK i2800 Scanner recognised in the peripherals category as an outstanding and innovative IT product for government use.

Kodak was among the top companies honoured with a Best of FOSE award during the July 2011 FOSE Conference and Exposition in Washington, D.C. The KODAK i2800 Scanner, a compact scanner offering numerous user benefits in productivity and efficiency, was named the winner of the Best of FOSE Award in the peripherals category. Each year, Government Computer News (GCN) staffers, consisting of writers, editors, and researchers judge exhibitors for the Best of FOSE Awards that recognise outstanding and innovative IT products best suited for government use.

The government technology industry relies on document imaging tools to effectively maintain both the accuracy and security of data distribution among employees. On all government levels, including local, state and federal, KODAK Scanners, Software and Services are utilised to meet shared workspace needs as well as records management requirements. The FOSE Conference and Exposition provides a forum between the public and private sector to introduce digital solutions to the government market as well as the international and commercial technology communities.

"Kodak offers a wide range of digital scanning solutions and services that not only meet the needs of our customers, but also achieve greater cost-savings and productivity gains," said Rick Churchville, Government Business Development Manager, Kodak's Document Imaging Group. "Within its compact size, the KODAK i2800 offers government agencies numerous efficiency and collaboration benefits. Kodak is honoured by the Best of FOSE recognition and will continue developing products that suit the unique needs of government agencies and offices."

From desktop to high-volume production, Kodak offers a broad portfolio of document scanning solutions which foster better practices for government employees to organise and monitor content. This year at FOSE booths, Kodak's Document Imaging exhibited a range of professional scanning solutions including the KODAK i2800 Scanner, the KODAK i5600 Scanner, the KODAK i4600 Scanner, the KODAK Scan Station Pro 550 and KODAK Capture Pro Software.

The award-winning, KODAK i2800 Scanner, one of three new KODAK i2000 Series Scanners introduced this year, is a compact device offering reliable performance, fast internal processes, and versatile document scanning capabilities, including double-sided materials. While small enough to work as a desktop scanner, high speeds of up to 70 pages per minute (ppm) enable smaller organisations to use the i2800 scanner as a departmental scanner.

Other recently introduced models within the i2000 Series Scanners include the KODAK i2400 Scanner and KODAK i2600 Scanner. The series includes a number of viable features that enable greater ease of use and more consistent image quality. KODAK Smart Touch Scanning feature includes up to nine pre-defined scan-to operations, while KODAK Perfect Page Image Processing Technology helps users to maintain high quality scans, using image sharpening, streak filtering and image hole file for high fidelity images.

Kodak's 2011 booth at FOSE also highlighted:

- the KODAK i4600 Scanner. The i4000 Series Scanners are powerful, workhorse scanners that offer a c-shape transport with additional straight-through paper path, 500-sheet feeder and A3/A4 optional flatbed for additional application flexibility.
- the KODAK Scan Station Pro 550, Kodak's one-touch networked scanner designed to automate data and transaction capture in order to feed into external business processes.

KODAK Capture Pro Software, helps users quickly convert forms, invoices and other critical business documents to high-quality images while providing enhanced integration with Microsoft SharePoint and other ECM systems. KODAK Capture Pro Software is available for standalone workstation configurations or networked enterprise installations.

Kodak is a global advisor and provider of integrated services to help companies transform and optimise their businesses. Through a network of service professionals in 120+ countries, Kodak provides technical, professional, consulting and managed services to enable customers to focus on growing their businesses, maximise productivity, and more effectively manage risks. All KODAK Products and Software are backed by KODAK Service and Support. To learn more, visit http://graphics.kodak.com/.

About Kodak
As the world's foremost imaging innovator, Kodak helps consumers, businesses, and creative professionals unleash the power of images, information, and printing to enrich their lives.

In the graphic communications industry, Kodak serves customers in the printing, publishing, packaging and enterprise markets with intelligent solutions for competitive advantage and greater return on investment.

Kodak helps customers adapt, transform and grow their businesses. Through a comprehensive product and solutions portfolio that integrates revolutionary technologies, smart automation and specialized services, Kodak supplies customers operating in traditional, hybrid and digital graphic environments the broadest choice of software, production products and services for creating and managing high value variable output efficiently and cost effectively.

SOURCE: Kodak

Document Genetics are finalist in two categories of Document Manager Awards 2011

2011-09-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Document management software provider, Document Genetics, is delighted to announce that they are a finalist in two separate categories of the DM (Document Manager) Awards 2011. This year's winners will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held at the Hotel Russell in London on 29 September 2011. This is Document Genetics’ first time entering the DM Awards and they are delighted to have reached the final.

Now in its fifth year, the DM Awards acknowledge and reward the outstanding products, suppliers and projects in the document management industry.

Document Genetics have made the final in two separate categories including Email Product of the Year (Formate) and Environmental Product of the Year (Formate).

Sharing the shortlist spotlight is Document Genetics’ partner ABBYY who have made the final in three separate categories including Data Capture/Recognition Product of the Year, Desktop/Portable/Other Imaging Product of the Year and DM Industry PR/Marketing Campaign of the Year.

Joe Hyde, Document Genetics’ Sales and Marketing Director comments, "The DM Awards are the UK's leading document management industry awards and so we are delighted to have been shortlisted in two separate categories."

Benefits of a Document Management System

2011-09-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

Document Management System benefits break down into two main types: Tangible and Intangible.

Tangible benefits are those things that can be measured in the sense that the benefit can be quantified.

Intangible benefits are things that is going to be hard to measure and attribute to the use of a Document Management Software, but are nevertheless known benefits that occur indirectly through the implementation of a Document Management Software.

Tangible benefits would include the following:

Reduced Storage

The cost of commercial property and the need to store documentation for e.g. retrieval, regulatory compliance means that paper based document storage competes with people for space within an organisation. Scanning documents and integrating them into a document management system can greatly reduce the amount of prime storage space required by paper. It also allows any documents that still have to be stored as paper to be stored in less expensive locations.

Flexible Retrieval

Retrieving documents stored as hard copies, or on microfilm absorbs time. A Document Management Software increases creates electronic images of documents and stores them centrally. Less time is spent locating the documents as they can be retrieved without leaving a desk. Document Management Software users can also access other systems available from the desktop at the same time as retrieving documents. With paper-based solutions documents are often removed from storage and taken back to the desk to access other systems (which can lead to loss, prevents others finding the same file, can be viewed by others).

Flexible Indexing

Indexing paper and microfilm in more than one way can be done, but it is awkward, costly and time-consuming. Images of documents stored within a Document Management Software can be indexed in several different ways simultaneously

Improved, faster and more flexible search

Document Management Systems can retrieve files by any word or phrase in the document - known as full text search - a capability that is impossible with paper or microfilm. A Document Management Software can also apply single or multiple taxonomies or categorisations to a document of folder that allow documents to be classified and stored in more than one way from a single instance or something which is not possible with paper or microfilm.

Controlled and Improved Document distribution

Imaging makes it easy to share documents electronically with colleagues and clients over a network, by email or via the Web in a controlled manner. Paper documents usually require photocopying to be shared, and microfilm requires conversion to paper. This provides a cost saving by reducing the overheads associated with paper based document distribution, such as printing and postage and removes the typical delay associated with providing hard copy information.

Improved Security

A Document Management Software can provide better, more flexible control over sensitive documents. Many Document Management Software solutions allow access to documents to be controlled at the folder and/or document level for different groups and individuals. Paper documents stored in a traditional filing cabinet or filing room have the same level of security i.e. if you have access to the cabinet you have access to all items in it. A Document Management Software also provides an audit trail of who viewed an item, when or who modified an item and when, which is difficult to maintain with paper or microfilm based systems. A Document Management Software also removes the possibility of having confidential material or trade secrets lying around unattended in an office.

Disaster Recovery

A Document Management Software provides an easy way to back-up documents for offsite storage and disaster recovery providing failsafe archives and an effective disaster recovery strategy. Paper is a bulky and expensive way to back-up records and is vulnerable to fire, flood, vandalism, theft and other 'Acts of God'

No Lost Files

Lost documents can be expensive and time-consuming to replace. Within a Document Management Software, imaged documents remain centrally stored when being viewed, so none are lost or misplaced. New documents are less likely to be incorrectly filed and even if incorrectly stored can be quickly and easily found and moved via the full-text searching mechanisms

Digital Archiving

Keeping archival versions of documents in a document management system helps protect paper documents, that still have to be retained, from over-handling and keeps electronic documents in a non-proprietary and native format, such as Microsoft Word or Excel

Improved Regulatory Compliance

The risk of non conformance leading to fines, a withdrawn licence to operate, or in certain circumstances custodial sentences when an audit takes place is reduced and in most cases removed. A combination of security control, audit trails, archiving and disaster recover ensure that an organisation is able to authenticate the validity of information stored and demonstrate compliance with regulations and requirements.

Improved Cash Flow

The increased productivity of processing document-based processes such as invoices, debt collection and other "cash critical" business documents, ensures that the flow of cash can be controlled centrally and all documentation required to make cash flow decisions can be accessed immediately.

Other less 'tangible' benefits of a Document Management Software might include:

Improved Internal Operations

The reduced time to complete processes provided by the tangible benefits, improves the day to day operations of all functions within an organisation, leading to an improved flow of information, an increased perception of staff in their ability to solve questions and tasks and a general 'feel good' factor.

Competitive Edge

The same information that was previously stored as paper or microfilm, can now be distributed to customers and target audiences electronically. The 'reduced time-to-market' effect can be for products, services, support - all of which improves the impression the external recipient has of the organisation and provides a competitive edge over your competitors (or it removes a competitive disadvantage if they have already deployed a Document Management Software).

Improved customer service and satisfaction

Reduced response times, a more professional response, a more accurate response with more controlled processes reduces the time spent on 'manually' ensuring customer satisfaction and allows staff to allocate resource to other core business activities.

Preserve Intellectual Capital - Organizational Knowledge

New or changed documentation can be 'pushed' to employees and no longer relies on 'hallway conversations' or 'round robin' emails. The locality of information is not locked away in the 'heads' of specific individuals and can be easily shared across departments and physical locations increasing the value of that information to the organisation.

If you think a Document Management Software could benefit your business, please call Document Genetics to find out more information about the solutions we offer on 0844 557 6430.

Poor document management costing firms heavily, says report

2011-08-15T02:24:00.000-07:00

15th August 2011

Inefficient document management means western European businesses are effectively losing billions of pounds of potential profits because of wasted time, according to a report.

Research conducted by Coleman Parkes shows that employees across Europe responsible for managing business critical document processes spend around 362 million hours of their time per year on the function. This equates to a rough overall business cost of €147 billion (£133 billion), according to the research.

The Ricoh Process Efficiency Index examines how European organisations are managing their business critical document processes - those that occur regularly and repeatedly and have a direct impact upon businesses interactions with clients and employees. This would include purchase orders, invoices, patient records and other documents.

TNK-BP deploys electronic document management Firms admit losing customers as a result of missing data

The study also identifies areas for improvement and the economic return that those improvements could deliver.

Carsten Bruhn, executive vice president for Ricoh Europe, which commissioned the survey, said: “The Index shows how outdated, manual processes have multiple impacts on the business. For instance, if critical information is processed using traditional hard-copy methods, business risk is enhanced as the data is less likely to be backed-up."

Bruhn said hard copies are also easier to lose, making them more prone to security breaches, although the news headlines are full of reports of lost USB sticks carrying important documents.

A main emphasis of the research though is the growing market for end-to-end electronic document management, which can replace invoices and purchase orders, for instance, being physically passed from one department to another, when they can be lost or misfiled.

Respondents in the Ricoh research said their top three priorities were to increase knowledge sharing and improving security (67 percent), and driving workforce effectiveness (65 percent).

The main barriers to making these improvements were lack of time (45 percent) and lack of resources (35 percent).

One-in-12 European businesses revealed that their existing security procedures do not protect confidential documents, with 36 percent admitting that either they themselves, or their staff, have lost or misplaced important information.

Only 22 percent of respondents said their organisation used a fully automated workflow system for their business critical documents.

For the research, 460 firms across western Europe employing over 1,000 staff were interviewed by Coleman Parkes.

Originally posted in Computer World UK

infoRouter - Collaborative Document Portal

For a modern business to thrive, employees need information at their finger tips. The credit controller may want to see a copy invoice, the HR manager may need to review an employee’s contract of employment or an engineer may need to retrieve and revise an engineering drawing.

infoRouter provides a collaborative document portal which connects information to employee’s, wherever their location in the world.

infoRouter's intuitive interface makes learing how to use infoRouter easy. Your users will understand and begin using infoRouter within minutes without any training. Authorised users can create, view, edit, search and share documents or data in their native format. Users can manage the security and access to their own files. Users can even retrieve deleted documents from their own Recycle Bin. With quick-links to favourite folders and documents, infoRouter is full of powerful tools to make navigating simple.

All you need is a browser. Simple!

Please contact us to request a infoRouter demo on 0844 557 6430

Document Manager Awards Voting is now open!

2011-08-03T03:00:00.000-07:00

Voting for this year's DM Awards is now open. Document Genetics bestselling product Formate has been nominated in the following categories:

• Email product of the year
• Environmental product of the year

Vote for Document Genetics now by going to www.dmawards.com and clicking on VOTE. Voting closes 15th September and we thank you for your support.

Complaints to Royal Mail over 'lost' letters rise by more than a third

2011-07-20T04:05:00.001-07:00

20th July 2011
Complaints about the Royal Mail losing post have risen by more than a third among claims that more than 120,000 items went missing in just three months.

The national postal service received 120,884 complaints from angry customers in the first three months of the year – up 37 per cent on the same period in 2010.

The figure represents the highest level of dissatisfaction among customers in the last three years.

Royal Mail blamed the increase in missing mail on disruption to Britain’s roads, railways and airports at the beginning of the year, caused by snow and icy weather conditions.

The company was forced to pay out £5.1 million in compensation to customers for lost items in the last year – the equivalent of almost £100,000 every week.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “The complaints figures in the report for ‘lost’ mail in quarter four of Financial Year 2010/11 reflect last winter’s severe weather, which was the worst in living memory.

“From 22 November to 9 January, there were only three days when services were not affected by rail, air or road transport difficulties.

“This resulted in significant delays to mail services in some areas, and many customers logged complaints for ‘lost’ mail which were subsequently delivered. We do, of course, apologise to customers for these delays.

In total last year, the Royal Mail received 332,000 complaints for losing letters and parcels – more than 1,000 every working day. In the previous year the comparable number of complaints was just 306,000.

The Royal Mail revealed that the National Return Letter Centre costs more than £4 million per year to run although some money is recouped by auctioning off items where the owner cannot be located.

A spokesman for the watchdog Consumer Focus said: "Missing mail is a real cause for concern for consumers.

"If the figures are right, then Royal Mail needs to take a serious look at the service it's providing and take steps for improvement."

The complaint figures for lost post come against a backdrop of a sharp fall in the number of items delivered daily by the Royal Mail – down almost 25 per cent in the last five years.

Document Genetics are offering an alternative to posted mail through ParetoPost™.
ParetoPost™ provides an assured method to deliver electronic documents instantly to your customers and employees via a secure web portal. It’s great for guaranteed delivery of:

• E-Billing – invoices, statements etc
• Proof of Delivery
• Purchase Orders
• Drawings and project information
• Staff documentation

Unlike email, where messages can disappear into a black-hole, you’ll know who has viewed the document, the date and time that it was read, and lots more useful information. It delivers electronic documents quickly, securely and with low transmission cost (and we’re confident you’ll make a saving of up to 80% over traditional post.) The end-user experience is designed for simplicity and ease of use.

Publishing Documents into ParetoPost™
We've engineered ParetoPost™ so it's really simple to integrate with your current finacial or ERP system. You can install and host ParetoPost™ on your own server, or we can host it for you.

Do you want to be an early adopter of ParetoPost™?
We're actively looking for a limited number customers to act as early adopters.
In return, you'll get the product for FREE* and get a chance to recommend enhancements.

*Note: For early adopters, we'll provide a ParetoPost Server license free of charge. Annual support will still be charged if required. If we host ParetoPost™ on our servers, a charge for hosting will apply.

What do our customers have to say?

2011-07-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

Document Genetics have lots of happy customers and partners. Recently we have been collecting some testimonials and we would like to share some of these with you.

Ross Griffiths, IT Manager at Appleby Westward had the following to say “Implementing Formate enabled us to save costs beyond our expectations, by handling scores of tasks that were previously incurring significant administrative overheads.

Formate has proved to be an intuitive, robust and flexible solution - coupled with invaluable help from the Doc Gen team, we have yet to find a task that it cannot be adapted to.

By utilising Formate as an interface between multiple differing systems, we are able to consolidate and present data in a uniform and meaningful way, on which critical business decisions can be reliably made.

We cannot recommend it enough!”

Steve Hopkins, IT Manager at Unimer commented “The DG solution has been invaluable. We’ve automated the sorting and distribution of supplier invoices to our members, saving significant man hours every week. We also have the flexibility to deliver them by email, fax or post.”

Andy Siviter, Senior Analyst/Programmer at Betterware UK Ltd shared with us “Formate has been a big help to our company. Previously we spent a small fortune on traditional mail to our dispersed sales force, now the vast majority of our reports and documentation go by email. The sales force are delighted to get their information quickly and reliably, and they have flexibility in how they store them, either electronically or by selective hardcopy. We have used Formate for several years now, and it is the standard option for both internal and external documents now. Document Genetics have given first class service.”

Adrian List, IT Manager at Buildbase said “The receipt and delivery of documents electronically (XML) is essential to our business. The DG software is a vital part of the process.”

New Customers
We're pleased to welcome on board a number of new customers over the last few months, these being:

Rosemont Pharma
Aquafax
Breasley Foam
SPAR UK

Simple Workflow using Formate

2011-07-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

What is Workflow?
During our working life we all carry out lots of repeatable tasks, many of which involve paper documents and a logical set of rules. Workflow software, or as it’s also know, BPM (Business Process Management) software, allows us to create the business process, with all of its riles and logic in a paperless environment. Users would normally interact with the workflow process via email or a web portal on their intranet. Benefits of this type of system range from reduction in labour, faster processing of tasks, accountability and ability to remodel a process rapidly.

Formate Workflow
Workflow software offers many attractive benefits and associated savings, however many products on the market are expensive and complex and only suitable for large corporate companies with big budgets and IT resources.

Formate, whilst not a dedicated workflow tool, can perform simple workflow functionality at a fraction of the cost. Formate has the ability to follow a predefined set of rules and has interfaces into email (client and server), MS Excel, XML, Adobe LiveCycle Forms and MS SharePoint (web portal); all of which can be used to build a workflow process.

Formate isn’t suitable for very complex workflows with thousands of users across a very large organisation and for this environment we would always recommend a dedicated workflow product. However, in many instances Formate can work well, for a fraction of the cost.

Suitable Formate workflow applications may be:

• Purchase Requisitions
• Holiday Request Forms
• Customer Complaints
• Customer Request for Information
• Engineering Change Notes
• Supplier Invoice Approval
• Distributing Incoming Post Electronically

An example application:

Prior to placing an official purchase order, an employee must raise a purchase requisition which then needs authorisation by his/her immediate manager. Depending on the value (e.g. over £10,000), the purchase order may then need signing off by a company director. The existing paper process is time consuming, poor controlled and often results in lost purchase requisitions. If approvers are on holiday it stops working completely until that member of staff returns to work.

The new Formate process allows the employee to raise an electronic purchase order requisition, using either MS Excel or an intelligent Adobe LifeCycle Form (this appears like a PDF document but is in fact a form template which can be filled in). The spreadsheet or Adobe Form allows the employee to fill-in all the relevant details (supplier name, product, unit cost etc), and then submit the completed document via email.

The electronic purchase requisition is automatically emailed to the Formate server which reads the document and extracts the data. In the case of the Adobe Form, it reads the XML data file which contains the data entered into the form. Formate then decides, depending on the employee and cost, which managers or directors are required to approve the purchase requisition. The workflow process a document follows is decided by Formate once it refers to a lookup table or database containing all the employees, managers and directors. Formate emails the relevant people with a copy of the purchase requisition, requesting approval. The recipient can then accept or reject the purchase requisition. This is achieved by either answering the email with the word “accept” or “reject” or amending a field on the original purchase requisition. Further notes may also be added to the body of the email or in a specific area on the purchase requisition.

When the email is returned, Formate then relays the message appropriately and either sends the originator an acceptance message, telling them to proceed, or passing them a rejection notice. Electronic signatures could also be incorporated into this process if an Adobe LifeCycle Form was used for the purchase requisition.

This system has a number if benefits:

Firstly it eliminates the paper chain. Secondly it allows an administrator to instantly tell where a purchase requisition is in the workflow process. The process also copes with staff leaving the company or taking holidays. If the approver is substituted in the Formate approver roles database, then Formate will automatically route it to a substitute approver.

This is a simple example but hopefully gives an insight into what can be achieved but hopefully gives an insight into what can be achieved for very little cost, especially for an existing Formate user.

ABBYY FlexiCapture Helps Decrease Document Processing Time by 95% for Pharmaceutical Industry Company

2011-06-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

ABBYY and partner Document Genetics team up to streamline critical business processes.

Background
In the face of the growing assortment of pharmaceutical products, PharmacoVigilance, or the pharmacological science of detecting and assessing the side effects of medicines has become an important issue to both drug companies and consumers alike. In order to identify new information about the hazards associated with medicines and to prevent harm to patients, data from healthcare providers and individuals need to be collected, monitored, researched, assessed and evaluated. The PV evaluation process, however, involved significant amounts of time, particularly to process the large volumes of documents.

Because of the resources required to conduct proper PV, drug companies often turn to bureau service providers, such as Lambda Therapeutic (LT), to help them reduce or eliminate overhead costs. On a monthly basis LT receives an average of 350 forms called ASPRs (Anonymised Single Patient Report) with varying levels of length (from 2 to 10 pages) and complexity (from 50 to well over 100 fields). Each form contains valuable information that must be extracted and fed into a database by an employee – a manual and error-prone process, which takes approximately one hour or more per form, or a total of 400-450 hours per month.

The Solution
In order to find a suitable solution that would help streamline this key business process and save the company time and resources, LT turned to document management experts Document Genetics. With many years of experience Document Genetics has helped countless organisations of all sizes automate their document processes, something that cuts costs, improves customer service and delivers real business value and intelligence. Document Genetics analysed the situation and determined that a data capture solution was needed to extract the important information from the ASPR forms.

Considering the nature of their work, LT needed to be 100% confident that the data would be captured with accuracy, that the data could be verified, and that in case of incorrect entry, any error could be quickly resolved. The company also required that the data extraction software could connect with and easily export information to their self-developed database. Furthermore, as LT would soon be receiving reports from around the world in varying structures, the company needed a flexible system that could adapt to their changing needs.

After testing several options, Document Genetics chose to implement a solution that included ABBYY FlexiCapture. FlexiCapture is a highly intelligent software program that automates the process of pulling specific information from a wide range of documents including forms, invoices, surveys, shipping documents and contracts. It is an ideal solution for many projects because it allows users to build templates for reading key data in a wide variety of documents, extracting value from the information they contain. FlexiCapture is also able to export the data to a number of databases or Document Management Systems and is easily implemented into existing workflows.

The process for LT is now quite simple with the solution from Document Genetics. ASPR forms arrive in both paper and electronic PDF formats. In paper form, an administrator uses an internal office scanner to digitise the documents into PDF format. The PDF is then imported into FlexiCapture, data is intelligently extracted and verified, and at the end of the process they output two data files – a searchable PDF document for archiving and an XML file containing the data. The processing of electronic ASPRs (received in text searchable PDF format) is essentially the same but without the need to scan the paper form. Once the data has been extracted it is fed into LT’s database. At the same time, Formate, a software package provided by Document Genetics, takes the XML data that FlexiCapture has created and uses it to automatically build a spreadsheet that is used by LT for internal purposes.

The Outcome
LT have seen a number of benefits from their new automated solution. Previously, it was a resource intensive process to manually enter case data into the database and difficult to do anything else with the data once it was there. Now, by using ABBYY FlexiCapture coupled with Formate, LT can eliminate the time wasted on manual data extraction and automatically create the required XML output for their database and populate the spreadsheets with case data. The time-savings for LT has been significant – previously a single person processed on average 8 ASPRs per day; using ABBYY FlexiCapture up to 160 ASPRs are processed in the same amount of time. This represents a 20-fold increase in productivity!

“We recognized right away that ABBYY FlexiCapture could help us remove the repetitive and timeintensive manual work of entering our cases directly in our database”, says Grant Mccormak from LT. “It had the added advantage that we could configure a set of simple rules to check that the data was 100% correct and in a format we needed. In doing this we managed to automate the whole input and quality control process into one simple and easy to use step. Document Genetics always focused on our needs as a customer and we have been very pleased with the results of their work.”

About Document Genetics
At Document Genetics, we have helped countless businesses of all sizes to automate their document processes – this cuts costs, improves customer service and delivers many other benefits. We offer a wide range of software and services to address your need.

Contact Document Genetics
Hall Farm, Sywell Airport, Sywell, Northants, NN6 0BNTel: 0844 557 6430
Fax: 0844 557 6431

More information about Document Genetics at www.document-genetics.co.uk

About Lambda Therapeutic
Headquartered in Ahmedabad, the western part of India, Lambda Therapeutic Research Limited, is amongst the leading clinical research organizations in India. We have a portfolio of clinical development services – delivered through an experienced team fully geared to meet your needs with speed, expertise and competence.

More information about Lambda Therapeutic at www.lambda-cro.com

About ABBYY
ABBYY's optical character recognition technologies and products help people manage the increasing amount of information delivering powerful instruments which enable them to: unlock information from paper and digital documents, automatically acquire data, and process and store valuable information. Using ABBYY recognition and data capture products, organisations save money and effort typically spent on manual data entry and benefit from the ability to access information in new, faster and more efficient ways. Paper-intensive organisations from around the world use ABBYY software to automate their document capture business processes.

More information about ABBYY at www.ABBYY.com

ParetoPost™ - Crafting the Perfect Invoice

2011-06-24T03:35:00.000-07:00

This whitepaper considers the true cost to deliver a B2B invoice and proposes a flexible and innovative method to deliver invoices instantly, and with complete visibility.

Since 2007 the worldwide economy has been navigating a financial storm, with many weaker companies sinking under the pressure of falling order books and late payments.

A typical manufacturing company will have cut back on hiring new employees, stopped buying capital equipment, slashed research and development and frozen new product launches. Directly impacted by the recession is the accounts receivable (AR) process. The customers of the company that owe it money may pay slowly, late, or not at all, further reducing revenues. The affected company will pay its own bills more slowly, late, or in smaller increments - this in turn may reduce the company’s credit rating and its ability to obtain financing.

In short, it’s a vicious circle which many organisations have fallen victim to. So, any strategy to facilitate the payment of invoices and reduce the days sales outstanding (DSO) is critical to any business, large or small.

This whitepaper considers the true cost to deliver a business to business (B2B) invoice and proposes a flexible and innovative method (based around the Pareto principle or 80/20 law) to deliver invoices instantly, cost effectively and with complete visibility

The Death of Post
In the last five years we’ve seen an explosion in the growth of electronic business document transmission – common formats and methods of transmission include:

• EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
• XML, CSV or other structured file formats sent via email, FTP or secure web portals
• PDF or Tiff images sent via email

Of the formats and transmission methods listed above, PDF sent via email is proving popular. This is because it provides a direct replacement for post but at a negligible cost. You also negate the need to agree a “true electronic” format to exchange data, as a PDF is simply an electronic image of the original paper document.

Comparing the CostIf you’re comparing the cost of Post vs. PDF (sent via email), you realise the reason for its popularity:

Cost to create the document - Post vs. PDF
Post – circa 20p (this includes printing cost, paper, envelope, energy and labour)

PDF – circa 1p (there are no material and labour costs only software and energy)

Cost to send document - Post vs. PDF
Post – 20p (downstream access provider, e.g. UK Mail) to 39p (1st class franked mail)

PDF – less than 1p (there is a theoretical cost for the broadband access and the bandwidth but it’s practically zero when split over all the applications that use it)

Speed of delivery - Post vs. PDF
Post – 1 to 5 days depending on service levels

PDF – less than 1 hour (can be sent instantly but there may be delays due to email servers at customer end)

ROI - Post vs. PDF
If you can replace 3,500 posted packets a month, with a PDF transmission, you may be saving £2,000 a month – now that’s significant

What’s the catch?
It sounds too good to be true, if the cost savings are so significant, why isn’t everyone sending PDF invoices and statements (and other business documents).

There are a number of reasons for this:

1.Some companies can’t easily automate the creation and sending of PDF invoices from their business system

2.Some customers/partners won’t accept a PDF invoice – they want a true electronic exchange of data or they simply aren’t setup to receive an email (although these are pretty rare now, but they do exist)

3.Certain organisations feel they have to send post (e.g. Councils, Charities, NHS Hospitals, Legal companies, etc)

4.Some companies haven’t thought about it or are too lazy to change

5.Reliability – some companies feel post is more reliable and worry emails can, in some instances, disappear into the ether

Let’s look at how the objections above can be overcome:

1.Output Management Software (e.g. Formate Output Management Software) will take the generic output from ERP systems and intelligently create and deliver PDF documents

2.Tell your customer that it’s part of your environmental policy to deliver electronic documents to reduce your carbon footprint – after all, nobody likes to be seen as a “green ogre”

3.This is potentially the most difficult one to address – government organisations and certain professions are slow to change and bound by red tape. Although organisations need to address modern document delivery methods this is probably the most difficult sector to tackle

4.This is all about education, showing companies (and staff) what can be done

5.Reliability – email transmission of PDF invoices is more reliable in percentage terms than post, but technological issues can suddenly disrupt the process (changes of email address, email server crashes, spam filter/firewall updates blocking valid email traffic, loss of internet connection, etc)

We’re now going to look further at this last point (reliability) and look at ways to address this problem and add other benefits to the sender.

Reliability and Visibility
Document Genetics have developed a new technology called ParetoPost™ (click here for more info) to deliver electronic documents.

ParetoPost™ provides an assured method to deliver electronic documents instantly to your customers via a secure web portal. It’s ideal for the guaranteed delivery of:

• E-Billing – invoices, statements etc
• Proof of Delivery
• Purchase Orders
• Drawings and project information
• Staff documentation

Unlike email, you’ll know who has viewed the document, the date and time that it was read, and any notes the recipient has added. It delivers electronic documents quickly, securely and with a low delivery cost (and we’re confident you’ll make an 80% saving over traditional post). The end-user experience is designed for simplicity and ease of use because you won’t have the time or resource to train them.

Removing Excuses to Pay and Improve your DSO (Days Sales Outstanding)
If you’re a credit controller chasing overdue invoices, using ParetoPost™ you’ll be able to chase all the invoices which haven’t been viewed or downloaded. If the debtor claims not to have seen it, you can quickly point them at their secure ParetoPost™ portal or resend the unique document web address. In simple terms you take away their excuse not to pay.

The Pareto Principle
The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule), is named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Pareto further developed the principle by observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas. The simple rule works in many different walks of life from nature through to economics.

In many business organisations, 80% of the revenue will come from 20% of the customers or turned around; a company will send 80% of its invoices to 20% of its customers.

ParetoPost™ - Free for your Top 20 Customers
Using the Pareto principle, it makes sense to implement a new invoicing strategy for your most important customers (the top 20%) as these are one’s you send most invoices to (80% of the total invoices send).

We’re so confident ParetoPost™ will revolutionise the way a business sends documents to its major customers, it’s free to use for the top 20 customers.

Interfacing to your ERP system
Many new technology initiatives fall down as they’re too complex and costly to integrate into an existing infrastructure. ParetoPost™ has been engineered so it’s really simple to integrate with ERP processes (from Sage to SAP) and simply grabs the existing print output. You can install ParetoPost™ on your own web-server, or we can host it for you.

Whether your business is still sending paper invoices or emailing them we hope we’ve given you the impetus to investigate e-billing with ParetoPost™ further!

Document Genetics
Document Genetics are focused on improving document automation, workflow and collaboration within your business. Our range of innovative document management software and services can help your business now.

To remain competitive in the cut-throat world of modern business you need a document management strategy. Areas we can help you address include:

• Web based document management
• Document scanning systems
• Faxing software
• Document creation and delivery
• Electronic invoicing (e-Billing)
• Intelligent invoice recognition solutions
• Document archiving
• Kodak business scanners

http://www.document-genetics.co.uk/

Postal Address and Contact Details
Document Genetics, Hall Farm, Sywell Airport, Sywell, Northants, NN6 0BN. Tel: 08445576430

Contact this office for - General Enquiries, Sales, Accounts and Product Training

info@document-genetics.co.uk

Document Genetics are nominated for three DM Awards!

2011-06-22T02:44:00.000-07:00

Our bestselling product, Formate, has been nominated for:

“Email product of the year”
“Software product of the year”
“Environmental product of the year”

The awards aim to recognise and reward business excellence across all sectors, private and public. Open to organisations of any size, entries are encouraged from those that feel they are working smarter than their competitors to create a business edge.

Vote for Formate now by going to www.dmawards.com and clicking on NOMINATE NOW, it will only take a couple of minutes. Get your votes in before the 14th July 2011 - and we thank you for your support!

New Kodak i5000 Series Scanners deliver low cost class-leading intelligent imaging in production scanning environments

2011-06-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

CeBIT Hanover, March 1, 2011 – Kodak (NYSE:EK) today announced the launch of its latest generation production scanners - the new i5000 series – which deliver class-leading intelligent imaging, reduced total cost of ownership and future expandability.

Designed for intensive paper processing environments typically found in service bureaux and the financial, healthcare and government sectors, the Kodak i5000 Series Scanners are perfect for organisations wishing to address two conflicting demands – the necessity to reduce budgets on the one hand, yet cope with the demand to maintain and provide services on the other.

The Kodak i5000 Series Scanners consists of two models – the i5200 rated at 140 pages per minute (ppm), and the faster i5600 able to process 170 ppm with no degradation of performance even with imaging features all switched on even at 300 dpi colour and dual stream.

The current recessionary climate is forcing both public and private sector organisations to look carefully at how they operate. Commercial enterprises need to achieve business growth, innovate to do so, yet remain responsive to market and customer needs. In the public sector, investment used to be all about delivering effective public services. Today, it is delivering these services at lower cost, with value for money the primary driver

Richard Broden, Kodak’s EAMER products marketing manager, says, “Not only do IT leaders have to align IT with their business needs, but they have to do so with a clear focus on the financial side of IT to reduce cost. We’re mindful of these challenges and the new Kodak i5000 Scanners has been designed to give customers a mix of flexibility, performance, productivity and lower ongoing operating costs without impacting the quality or accuracy of images produced.”

The Kodak i15000 Series Scanners deliver total cost of ownership savings with consumables costing just € 34 for every 500,000 documents scanned.

With a 750 page automatic document feeder, recommended daily throughput is unlimited and an easy in the field modification means an i5200 scanner can be upgraded as volumes grow to i5600 performance without the need for customers to purchase additional hardware.

Industry-leading features

The Kodak i5000 Series Scanners offer a range of innovative features all designed to improve efficiency, enhance productivity and lower operating expenditure, including:

o A breakthrough digital architecture optimises internal memory allocation which speeds up scanning, image capture and data extraction;
o Over 30 Perfect Page imaging features such as streak filtering, dual stream output, auto colour detection and de-skewing result in fewer rescans and improved throughput and accuracy so that users can process more data per Euro invested;
o User definable resolution settings support Intelligent Data Recognition (IDR), including OCR and intelligent character recognition (otherwise known as handwriting recognition).
o SurePath and SureStack technology slash paper preparation and handling time – and associated staff costs - by eliminating problems feeding and stacking scanned documents of different weights and sizes. The scanners are able to process documents 304.8mm wide (12 inches) and up to 4.8 metres long (184 inches), and can cater for paper thickness ranging from 25 to 200 g/m2.

The Kodak i5000 Series Scanners are simple to use thanks to an intuitive colour LCD touch screen which can be programmed to simplify common tasks, with the adjustable screen designed to increase operator comfort.

Kodak i5000 Series Scanners support 32 and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, and can be easily integrated with other enterprise business systems through TWAIN, and ISIS.

Richard Broden says, “The Kodak i5000 Series Scanners greatly increase processing volume and accuracy, utilise IT infrastructure effectively, speed up business processes through faster document access and ultimately deliver real commercial value such as better customer service or new business generation given informed decisions can be made faster.”

Kodak i5000 Series Scanners will be available from April 2011 at a list price of €29,995 for the i5200 Scanner and €39,995 for the i5600 Scanner.

A service and support team to ensure high availability and no downtime

The new Kodak i5000 Series Scanners are backed by Kodak Service and Support – an organisation made up of more than 3,000 professionals in more than 120 countries. The largest and best trained service organisation in the world, Kodak Service and Support is a leading multi-vendor integrated services provider, delivering consulting, installation, maintenance and support services for the commercial printing, graphic communications, document imaging and data storage industries. Kodak Service and Support professionals are uniquely qualified to provide services that control costs, maximise productivity, and minimise business risk.

For further information, please visit the web at www.kodak.com/go/docimaging

About Kodak

As the world's foremost imaging innovator, Kodak helps consumers, businesses, and creative professionals unleash the power of pictures and printing to enrich their lives.

To learn more, visit www.kodak.com, and our blogs: 1000words.kodak.com, and 1000nerds.kodak.com. Kodak corporate news releases are now offered via RSS feeds. To subscribe, visit www.kodak.com/go/RSS and look for the RSS symbol.
In addition, Kodak podcasts are viewable at www.kodak.com/go/podcasts. Podcasts may be downloaded for viewing on iTunes, Quicktime, or other PC-based media players. Users may also subscribe to Kodak podcasts via the iTunes Store by typing “Kodak Close Up” in the search field at the top of the iTunes Store window. Kodak is a trademark of Eastman Kodak

Document Genetics learn how to ‘create an unbreakable business’ at NetSupport’s latest Business Continuity open day

2011-06-15T03:55:00.000-07:00

15th June 2011

Document Genetics attended the Netsupport & Peterborough Business Club latest Business Continuity Open Day at Netsupport Market Deeping offices last Friday. The event, titled ‘Creating an unbreakable business’, brought together local business leaders keen to learn how!

The impact of an unforeseen disaster on an organisation’s ability to continue trading should not be underestimated. Having a tried and tested business continuity and disaster recovery plan in place has therefore become established as one of the most critical areas of concern for senior management in ensuring the ongoing viability and success of their business in the event of a disaster.

In a series of quick fire sessions, eight specialist speakers provided attendees with an invaluable step-by-step guide aimed at helping them identify potential break points in their organisations. Geoff Chandler, Account Manager at Document Genetics, presented a session entitled “The Paperless Office” which included details on Document Genetic’s new solution ParetoPost™. ParetoPost™ provides a secure way to deliver documents to an end user, and delivers documents quickly, securely and with a low delivery cost. Our solution suite can not only reduce your carbon footprint, but can also turn your paper into electronic documents. This solution can then be included in your companies back-up security policy which in turn creates an unbreakable business in the event of a fire.

The day ended with a tour of NetSupport’s state-of-the-art business continuity, disaster recovery and server co-hosting facilities, including a tour around a mobile recovery unit supplied by one of NetSupport’s business continuity partners, ICM.

Royal Mail plan to shed 40,000 jobs by 2016

2011-06-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

9th June 2011

Royal Mail is preparing to cut nearly 40,000 jobs over the next five years as it seeks to combat the inexorable decline in postal volumes and privatisation. The Royal Mail has 165,000 staff, which makes it the second-biggest employer in the UK after the NHS.

In the world of burgeoning electronic communications for letters, greeting cards and invoices, it has already cut 65,000 jobs since 2002.

Document Genetics are offering an alternative to posted mail and are excited to announce the launch of ParetoPost™. ParetoPost™ provides an assured method to deliver electronic documents instantly to your customers and employees via a secure web portal. It’s great for guaranteed delivery of:

• E-Billing – invoices, statements etc
• Proof of Delivery
• Purchase Orders
• Drawings and project information
• Staff documentation

Unlike email, where messages can disappear into a black-hole, you’ll know who has viewed the document, the date and time that it was read, and lots more useful information. It delivers electronic documents quickly, securely and with low transmission cost (and we’re confident you’ll make a saving of up to 80% over traditional post.) The end-user experience is designed for simplicity and ease of use.

Publishing Documents into ParetoPost™
We've engineered ParetoPost™ so it's really simple to integrate with your current financial or ERP system. You can install and host ParetoPost™ on your own server, or we can host it for you.

Do you want to be an early adopter of ParetoPost™?
We're actively looking for a limited number customers to act as early adopters.
In return, you'll get the product for FREE* and get a chance to recommend enhancements.

*Note: For early adopters, we'll provide a ParetoPost Server license free of charge. Annual support will still be charged if required. If we host ParetoPost™ on our servers, a charge for hosting will apply.

e-Billing – The Death of Post!

2011-06-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

7th June 2011

Introduction
The timely delivery of documents is vital to any business, be it an invoice so you are paid on time or an urgent purchase order to buy crucial stock. How many times have you asked the question: “Am I really delivering this document in the most efficient and cost effective way?”

Post is a classic example. It’s expensive, slow and sometimes very unreliable. When delivered, it’s no better - post needs opening, distributing and filing, all of which cost money. We are amazed so many companies still persist in delivering business documents like statements and invoices by post. Let’s get your attention with an example:

The True Cost of Post
If a company delivers, just 1000 invoices and 500 statements per month, that’s a cost of:

1500 x 0.5 x 12 = £9,000 per annum

*This assumes a letter costs 50 pence – this covers the stamp, envelope, printing and paper cost but does not include the cost of lost post and the environmental impact.

Will My Customer Accept an Electronic Invoice?
Given the above example most companies recognise e-Billing is worth looking at but often dismiss the idea with the old nutshell, “Our customer simply won’t accept an electronic invoice”. It’s strange that your customers won’t agree to this when we all routinely use the internet and it’s very rare we receive a paper invoice. Have you actually spoken to your customers recently? In our experience, when companies ask the question they are surprised by the numbers agreeing to electronic invoicing; we would expect a typical uptake from 50 to 75%. Going back to our example calculation above, that equates to a cost saving of £5,400 per annum based on a 60% uptake rate. Just because you have a few die-hard customers, don’t hold your business back based on their reaction. Convert the proactive ones now and move the traditionalists later.

Hint- a great way to drive e-Billing is to play the environmental card, nobody likes to be an “Eco Dinosaur”.

Invoice Formats
What format do I send my invoice in? This all depends on if you are moving to a true e-commerce type scenario or simply looking to bill your customers more cost effectively. Output management software (e.g. Formate software http://www.formate.uk.com ) is an ideal "document translation hub" to take existing document output from your business system and seamlessly deliver to your customer in virtually any format – electronic invoices can be presented in many different formats (e.g. PDF, XML, CSV, EDI, TIFF, HTML, FAX etc) but most popular would be either Adobe PDF or XML format. PDF is an image representation of the invoice and is best suited to e-Billing, whereas XML is more suited to a true electronic interchange of invoice data and requires more setup. A good starting point is PDF, moving to XML if requested at a later date.

How does it Work?
Assuming you haven’t got a 100% uptake rate, you need to add some logic to the current process to decide how a specific invoice needs delivering (i.e. post or electronic) – this logic which may come from the host application or failing that may come from a simple lookup table or database. For example, an MS SQL database can be created containing the account code and the relevant delivery method. Companies whose account code is not listed would automatically receive their invoices and statements via post. Companies whose account code does appear in the database would receive an electronic copy of their invoice. It’s also good practice to put a file copy away into a document management system ( http://www.document-genetics.co.uk/page/1qis3/Downloads/Read_White_Papers.html

•You can’t guarantee an invoice has been delivered
•You can’t guarantee the customer has viewed the invoice

Document delivery portals can solve this problem – rather than send the invoice directly to the customer, the invoice is posted to an intermediate portal or web site. The customer is then sent an email prompting them to view the invoice from a web link (as this has no attachment it is less likely to be caught in an email spam filter). The customer clicks on the link, signs in securely, and can then see the new invoice alongside an archive of older ones. The sender meanwhile gets lots of useful information – information on who has viewed what invoice, when and even if they have downloaded a local copy. A credit controller can now optimise there effort by only chasing overdue invoices which haven’t been viewed. It’s also really easy to resend a link to a specific invoice if the customer has lost it.

If your business is still sending paper invoices we hope we’ve given you the impetus to investigate e-billing further!

AUTHOR – JOE HYDE
I'm the Sales and Marketing Director of Document Genetics.

©Joe Hyde Document Genetics 2010

ABBYY Releases FlexiCapture 10 Software System for Enterprise Data and Document Capture

2011-06-03T01:58:00.000-07:00

3rd June 2011

Next-Generation FlexiCapture Technology with Auto-Learning Ensures Quick Deployment and Ease-of-Use while Preserving Outstanding Accuracy of Data Capture

Bracknell, UK (19 May,, 2011) — ABBYY, a leading provider of document recognition, document capture, and linguistic technologies and services, today announced the availability of ABBYY FlexiCapture 10, the next generation of its data and document capture system. With the new release, ABBYY offers one of the most comprehensive data capture solutions, serving a broad range of user scenarios from desktop to enterprise level and delivering template-based form processing and intelligent document recognition in a single product. New FlexiCapture technology with auto-learning helps companies “start smart”, significantly reducing an organization’s time to results, yet delivers outstanding accuracy in locating and recognizing data fields in documents of any complexity. The system also extends its industry-leading feature set for the enterprise with enhanced processing power and maximum fault tolerance. In addition, it delivers new intelligent tools for remote operations as well as customization features for easier integration with business processes and applications.

Addressing document processing problems common among large organisations, ABBYY FlexiCapture 10 provides intelligent technologies for streamlining the process of extracting key data from a variety of documents including machine-readable forms, semi-structured and unstructured documents. It offers a full range of functionality for document scanning, classification, indexing and data extraction, enabling the solution to meet needs specific to each individual organisation. A powerful all-in-one solution, FlexiCapture 10 scales from a standalone application to a distributed system. It is designed to locate key data fields on complex document layouts so that it can process multiple types of documents in a single stream, eliminating the need for multiple systems to process different kinds of document types.

“FlexiCapture has evolved with the needs of the market, becoming more and more self-sufficient and capable of performing the majority of tasks automatically and simplifying various stages of the document management process in organizations,” said Aram Pakhchanian, director of Data Capture Products department at ABBYY. “FlexiCapture 10’s product advancements were developed to save organizations time, streamline data processing and communication, and reduce implementation costs, ultimately improving the user experience for both customers and integrators”

ABBYY FlexiCapture 10 comes with a broad range of solution enhancements and new features:

Starting Smart: New FlexiCapture Technology with Auto-learning
New FlexiCapture technology helps to significantly speed up project implementation. FlexiCapture’s new auto-learning functions simplify the creation of flexible descriptions (FlexiLayouts) which serve as templates for processing semi-structured and unstructured documents. Users can generate FlexiLayouts automatically by simply pointing on data fields in several images of each document type.

While being easy to work with, FlexiCapture technology allows users to fine-tune data capture logic. Unlike typical systems with auto-learning, FlexiCapture provides administrators with direct access to, and complete control over, generated document descriptions. That helps to manually change those descriptions if necessary and achieve the best possible accuracy in locating and recognizing data fields on a document.

By using as few as 3-5 sample images of each document type, the system can be trained for automated classification of documents in a stream. The result is less time and effort typically spent on manual description of classification rules.

Attuned to Business Processes: Tighter Integration through Customization
FlexiCapture 10 supports easier and closer integration into existing business processes with new functions such as:

• Custom routing rules for each document type — Standard workflows can be customized according to particular requirements and adjusted for a variety of user scenarios — for example, additional processing modules such as import, image pre-processing, custom verification module, external recognition engines, etc. can be easily integrated.

• Customizable Verification Station — Scripting tools enable customization of the user interface for the document verification process. Administrators can modify menus and toolbars, add new controls or adjust the station response to certain documents. This feature is ideal for projects that require use of special tools or must meet special regulations.

Enterprise-level Scalability and Fault Tolerance
ABBYY FlexiCapture 10 also includes enhancements for deploying enterprise-scale projects with distributed processing across multiple CPU cores simultaneously (the system reliably scales to hundred CPU cores). FlexiCapture 10’s fault-tolerant architecture with added Microsoft® Cluster Server support allows server-based components to be installed on high-availability cluster nodes to ensure consistent system operation, eliminate bottlenecks and prevent data loss in case of a system failure.

Remote Operations and Distributed Processing across the Enterprise
ABBYY FlexiCapture 10 meets the requirements of a multinational working environment by providing powerful tools for remote operations and processing features which help enterprises to fulfill their data and document capture tasks more efficiently.

• Web-based Data Verification — An intuitive Web-based interface for data verification that doesn’t require installation and is accessible anytime, anywhere. To start verification processes, an operator needs only to follow the specified link and log in.
• Simple Remote Scanning — Completely automated installation of Scanning Stations via a single click on a remote link. On-demand scanning can be performed remotely from any location. The scanning profiles can be managed locally by the scanning operator or enforced centrally from the server.
• Email-based Data Capture — The system captures data directly from images sent as email attachments, thanks to integration with the new Microsoft Exchange Server and POP3 mail server.

About ABBYY UK Ltd.
ABBYY UK is a member of the ABBYY Group and supports sales and marketing activities in Western Europe. ABBYY is a leading provider of document recognition, data capture, and linguistic technologies and services. Its products include the ABBYY FineReader line of optical character recognition (OCR) applications, ABBYY FlexiCapture line of data capture solutions, ABBYY Lingvo dictionary software, and development tools. ABBYY Language Services provides comprehensive linguistic solutions to corporate customers. Paper-intensive organisations from all over the world use ABBYY solutions to automate time- and labour-consuming tasks and to streamline business processes. ABBYY products are used in large-scale government projects such as those of Australian Taxation Office, Lithuanian Tax Inspectorate, Ministry of Education of Russia, Ministry of Education of Ukraine, and Montgomery County Government of the USA. Companies that license ABBYY technologies include BancTec, Canon, EMC/Captiva, Hewlett-Packard, KnowledgeLake, Microsoft, NewSoft, Notable Solutions, Samsung Electronics and more. ABBYY OCR applications are shipped with equipment from the world’s top manufacturers such as Epson, Fujitsu, Fuji Xerox, Microtek, Panasonic, Plustek, Toshiba, and Xerox. ABBYY is headquartered in Moscow, Russia, with offices in Germany, the United States, Ukraine, the UK, Cyprus, Japan and Taiwan. For more information, visit www.ABBYY.com.

ABBYY, the ABBYY Logo, ADRT, FineReader, Lingvo, FlexiCapture and PDF Transformer are either registered trademarks or trademarks of ABBYY Software Ltd. Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby recognized.

For more information, please contact:

ABBYY
Colin Miller
Elsenheimerstrasse 49
D - 80687 Munich
Tel.: 089/511 159-0
Fax: 089/511 159-59
E-Mail: press_eu@abbyy.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Web: www.ABBYY.com

Document Genetics are excited to announce the launch of ParetoPost™

2011-06-01T06:27:00.000-07:00

1st June 2011

Every time you post an invoice it costs your business at least 65p.

ParetoPost™ provides an assured method to deliver electronic documents instantly to your customers and employees via a secure web portal. It's great for the guaranteed delivery of:

• E-Billing - invoices, statements etc
• Proof of Delivery
• Purchase Orders
• Drawings and project information
• Staff documentation

Unlike email, where messages can disappear into a black-hole, you'll know who has viewed the document, the date and time that it was read, and lots more useful information. It delivers electronic documents quickly, securely and with a low transmission cost (and we're confident you'll make a saving of up to 80% over traditional post). The end-user experience is designed for simplicity and ease of use.

Publishing Documents into ParetoPost™
We've engineered ParetoPost™ so it's really simple to integrate with your current finacial or ERP system. You can install and host ParetoPost™ on your own server, or we can host it for you.

Do you want to be an early adopter of ParetoPost™?
We're actively looking for a limited number customers to act as early adopters.
In return, you'll get the product for FREE* and get a chance to recommend enhancements. Please contact Joe Hyde if you are interested on joe@document-genetics.co.uk or 0844 557 6430

*Note: For early adopters, we'll provide a ParetoPost Server license free of charge. Annual support will still be charged if required. If we host ParetoPost™ on our servers, a charge for hosting will apply.

ABBYY Announce that Partner Document Genetics has been Certified on FlexiCapture 9.0

2011-06-01T06:24:00.000-07:00

19th May

Bracknell, UK (11th May, 2010) – ABBYY UK Ltd., a member of the ABBYY Group and a leading provider of document recognition, data capture and linguistic software, today announced that Document Genetics of Northampton, is now an ABBYY FlexiCapture 9.0 Certified Partner. Document Genetics has demonstrated expertise with ABBYY technology and an ability to work with customers to meet their data capture needs. Document Genetics joins a network of highly skilled resellers and integrators who can provide data capture solutions based on ABBYY technology as part of the Certified Partner programme.

ABBYY FlexiCapture is an intelligent solution for capturing data from forms and other types of documents for input into databases and other back end systems. With its powerful algorithm for intelligent document classification and selective processing approach, ABBYY FlexiCapture is capable of finding and extracting key fields of information, even if the location of the field varies from page to page. As a result, FlexiCapture can be used as a single entry point for all kinds of paper documents including: forms (questionnaires, tests, insurance forms, tax returns, etc.), semi-structured documents (invoices, purchase orders, waybills, etc.) and unstructured documents (letters, contracts, articles, etc.).

“ABBYY FlexiCapture 9.0 has been invaluable. In our experience, FlexiCapture is the most powerful and flexible data capture engine on the market today,” said Document Genetics Director, Joe Hyde. “We’re now getting results which are above our expectations, meaning we can tackle ever more advanced data extraction applications – for example, we can now reliably extract order information from faxes, which in the past wouldn’t have been possible.”

ABBYY FlexiCapture Certified Partners receive a valuable set of benefits including access to training and technical assistance, as well as support for marketing activities, all of which gives them a true competitive advantage. ABBYY’s document and data capture software products such as FlexiCapture enable organisations to efficiently automate business processes, dramatically minimise manual operations associated with document processing and data capture and increase overall productivity. Easy-to-deploy, cost-effective yet powerful solutions from ABBYY are designed to meet document processing needs in a variety of industries including government, banking, insurance, education, healthcare, accounting, legal and many more.

“Document Genetics are true professionals whose skill levels will help us bring our Data Capture technologies to new customers in the UK market,” explained Regional Sales Director for the UK and Ireland Dave Evans. “Organisations have serious demands related to getting data from paper and streamlining their business processes. Our partnerships are essential because businesses are constantly searching for advanced technology solutions and companies who are able to successfully implement those solutions. We are very pleased to say that Document Genetics fits this mould and we have the utmost confidence they will successfully represent and deploy ABBYY FlexiCapture 9.0 in the marketplace.”

About Document Genetics

Document Genetics is an established UK based company providing a comprehensive range of document management solutions. We focus on improving document automation, workflow and collaboration within our client organizations, and our range of innovative solutions and specialist services help to save time and money by processing documents and data more efficiently

About ABBYY UK Ltd.

ABBYY UK Ltd. is a member of the ABBYY Group supporting sales and marketing activities in Western Europe. ABBYY is a leading provider of document recognition, data capture and linguistic software. Its products include the ABBYY FineReader line of optical character recognition (OCR) applications, ABBYY FlexiCapture line of data capture solutions, ABBYY Lingvo dictionary software, and development tools. Paper-intensive organizations from all over the world use ABBYY software to automate time- and labour-consuming tasks and to streamline business processes. ABBYY products are used in large-scale government projects such as those of Australian Taxation Office, Lithuanian Tax Inspectorate, Ministry of Education of Russia, Ministry of Education of Ukraine, and Montgomery County Government of the USA. Companies that license ABBYY technologies include BancTec, Canon, EMC/Captiva, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, NewSoft, Notable Solutions, Samsung Electronics and more. ABBYY OCR applications are shipped with equipment from the world's top manufacturers such as BenQ, Epson, Fujitsu, Fuji Xerox, Microtek, Panasonic, Plustek, Toshiba, and Xerox. ABBYY is headquartered in Moscow, Russia, with offices in Germany, the United States, Ukraine, the UK, Japan and Taiwan. For more information, please contact:

Web: www.ABBYY.com/

Email: sales_uk@abbyy.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Press: press_eu@abbyy.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Phone: +44 (0)1344 392 610

Press Contact Info:

AxiCom for ABBYY UK

Asim Qureshi
Tel: +44 208 392 4084
Email: asim.qureshi@axicom.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

KODAK i2000 Series Scanners Take Distributed Scanning to New Performance Levels for Office Collaboration, Productivity and Efficiency

2011-05-17T07:56:00.001-07:00

17th May 2011

Office collaboration, productivity and efficiency increase when users have easy-to-use, accurate and fast document information capture capability built into workflows. Designed for finance, insurance, healthcare, government and general office applications, the KODAK i2000 Series Scanners transform changing paper-based information into readily accessible digital information at the desktop—all at the touch of a button and all backed by a three-year worry-free warranty*.

“Kodak continues pushing the envelope to enable document-intensive organizations to achieve more at the point of capture—automatically with intelligent features for pre-defined scanning destinations including MICROSOFT SHAREPOINT Servers and image enhancement—empowering them to invigorate workflows to easily process and use information, improving customer service and facilitating business growth,” said Tony Barbeau, General Manager, Document Imaging, Kodak’s Business Solutions and Services Group. “Desktop, distributed scanning is the fastest growing segment in our industry, offering significant productivity gains for users. Customer research shows end users are adopting broader client/server architectures, which places further emphasis for desktop scanners to provide efficient and intelligent image processing. The i2000 Series Scanners deliver on this need in an easy-to-use package that provides quick return on investment.”

The i2000 Series Scanners are available in three models—all duplex—which provide performance levels to meet the information capture needs of small, medium and large businesses:

•The KODAK i2400 Scanner features speeds up to 30 ppm with a recommended daily volume of 2,000 scans.
•The KODAK i2600 Scanner delivers up to 50 ppm with a recommended daily volume of 4,000 scans.
•The KODAK i2800 Scanner features speeds up to 70 ppm with a recommended daily volume of 6,000 scans.
The i2000 Series Scanners include Kodak’s Perfect Page Image Processing Technology that automates image enhancement, providing high image quality and consistent scans, while eliminating time consuming pre-scan document sorting—all enhancing productivity. The latest version of Perfect Page Image Processing Technology provides capabilities such as image sharpening, streak filtering and image hole fill, resulting in high fidelity images.

All KODAK i2000 Series Scanners also feature Kodak’s Smart Touch Scanning feature that allows all users—even occasional walkup users—to scan and send images with ease. With a touch of a button, users can pre-define up to nine scan-to operations, including scanning to PDF, searchable PDF, JPEG and TIFF files, and sending into MICROSOFT SHAREPOINT Servers, Word, email, Web-mail, file folders and any other 3rd party application that can open scanned images.“We took the Smart Touch scanning solution up a notch on the i2600 and i2800 Scanners,” said Budd Webster, Business Director, Scanners, Document Imaging, Kodak’s Business Solutions and Services Group. “These models include a graphical LCD operator control panel that enables the display of Smart Touch configuration information, document type and even scanning function reminders.”

In addition to image processing and software performance enhancements, the i2000 Series Scanners feature a new, innovative exterior design that gives users a number of benefits in productivity and efficiency. Market research indicated that a number of customers move desktop scanners among multiple job site locations. Kodak designed the shell of the i2000 Series Scanners to serve as its own traveling case. With the stow-or-go design, users can return their scanners to an upright position and use the built-in handle for easy carrying. Once reaching their destination, users simply plug in power and USB cables, tilt the scanner open to begin scanning.

Kodak’s product development team also provided the i2000 Series Scanners the capability to scan embossed hard cards without the need for a special accessory. All i2000 Series Scanners feature integrated, self-contained output trays which can be adjusted in seconds to accommodate multiple sizes and types of documents. The trays add to the ease of operation and keep documents exiting the scanner as neat and orderly as when they entered.

The i2000 Series Scanners feature energy efficient dual LED lamps, two per camera, ready to go the moment scanning begins as the lamps require no warm-up time. LED illumination also improves image clarity, consistency and colour stability. Kodak internal tests show that LED illumination yields higher OCR read rates over conventional lamp systems for increased accuracy in data extraction. The new reinforced ribbed paper path handles all kinds of documents with ease—from onion skin to embossed hard cards.

“The KODAK i2000 Series Scanners redefine desktop scanning by providing a number of critical technology innovations designed to make information capture easy, direct and accurate for business process applications and workflows,” Barbeau said.

The i2000 Series Scanners will be available in March with pricing starting at 895 Euros for the i2400, 1195 Euros for the i2600 and 1895 Euros for the i2800 Scanner.

KODAK Products are backed by KODAK Service and Support. KODAK Service and Support is made up of more than 3,000 professionals reaching more than 120 countries. It is a leading multi-vendor integrated services provider, delivering consulting, installation, maintenance and support services for the commercial printing, graphic communications, document imaging, data storage and retail industries. KODAK Service and Support professionals are uniquely qualified to provide services that control costs, maximize productivity, and minimize business risk.

*Geographical limitations apply

Kodak Expands Capture Software Suite with Two New Microsoft® SharePoint Offerings

2011-05-12T04:47:00.000-07:00

12th May 2011

Kodak introduces two new software products that will help office workers using Microsoft® SharePoint environments gain efficiencies in sharing, viewing, editing and searching documents, as well as extending the benefits of SharePoint to include paper documents.

KODAK Document Viewer Software and KODAK Scan and View Software enable enterprise organizations to use paper documents to trigger specific workflows, speed up existing processes and add more value to business operations. Web-based software programs make it easy to find, review, compare, annotate and scan documents from within SharePoint environments. Now, companies can better manage document-driven workflows such as invoice processing, contract management or new hire on-boarding.

“SharePoint adoption is clearly on the rise, with an estimated 100,000 server installations and 200 million Client Access Licenses to-date, yet many businesses still search for organizational structure and management tools needed to take full advantage of this powerful system,” said Tim Mortenson, Worldwide Business Director, Software, Document Imaging, Kodak’s Business Solutions and Services Group. “Kodak’s new software offerings enable users to more easily find, view and work with documents and metadata uploaded to SharePoint from any source, including paper documents, files and records.”

KODAK Document Viewer Software embeds an inline document preview function directly within SharePoint. A visual search function provides full document previews within search results on SharePoint. Document Viewer Software can display document previews in either thumbnail or full page format and users may zoom in and out or fit the document to the width of screen. Document previews are especially fast because Kodak’s viewing software doesn’t need to wait for the entire document to be transmitted and has compatibility with more than 300 file types, allowing users to review virtually any file stored in SharePoint, even if the application associated with the file is not installed on the user’s computer or workstation.

KODAK Scan and View Software supports document scanning and image enhancement directly within SharePoint. The integrated document capture functionality makes it an ideal solution for ad-hoc document scanning to SharePoint and works well with Kodak’s market-leading lineup of document scanners such as the KODAK SCANMATE i1120 Scanner or the KODAK i2400 Scanner. The software also provides support for TWAIN compliant capture devices.

Equally important, Scan and View Software extends the preview and search capabilities of the Document Viewer Software through several additional capabilities that operate seamlessly in SharePoint. An enhanced search function provides users with the ability to search for specific document metadata, yielding pinpointed search results. The software also works to improve collaboration and business workflow process with tools that enable users to annotate, stamp and highlight specific documents. Scan and View Software simplifies the time consuming task of reformatting files, with single-click tools that rearrange and remove pages, and split and merge documents. Users can edit and enhance documents in SharePoint environments with tools such as border removal, page de-skewing, and image cleanup.

KODAK Document Viewer and Scan and View Software support strategic business and IT priorities. Documents used with Document Viewer and Scan and View Software remain in SharePoint environments, creating a consistent and constant audit trail for paper-based documents. To minimize impact on network bandwidth, the document preview function runs completely in a web browser, eliminating the need for large file downloads and system memory for programs and applications. The software programs’ server-based installation also simplifies IT workload and maintenance.

Finally, the new KODAK Document Viewer and Scan and View Software are fully complementary to KODAK Capture Pro Software, which offers functionality that easily goes beyond ad hoc scanning and can automate metadata capture. Capture Pro Software is designed to work seamlessly with both SharePoint 2007 and 2010.

“The new software programs are an important development for Kodak’s Document Imaging business, our partners and our customers,” said Tony Barbeau, General Manager, Document Imaging, Kodak’s Business Solutions and Services Group. “They demonstrate our intent and ability to deliver specific improvements for IT- and services-led systems, such as SharePoint, enabling organizations to do more with images and information to improve processes, foster business growth, and increase profits.”

KODAK Document Viewer Software and KODAK Scan and View Software will be available beginning in May of 2011. Availability will vary by geographic location. For more information about KODAK Document Viewer Software and KODAK Scan and View Software, go to www.kodak.com/go/sharepoint.

KODAK products are backed by KODAK Service and Support, which is made up of more than 3,000 professionals reaching more than 120 countries. It is a leading multi-vendor integrated services provider, delivering consulting, installation, maintenance and support services for the commercial printing, graphic communications, document imaging, data storage, and retail industries. KODAK Service and Support professionals are uniquely qualified to provide services that control costs, maximize productivity, and minimize business risk.

About Kodak
Kodak’s Document Imaging business enables customers to capture and use valuable information from electronic and paper documents. Our document imaging solutions include award-winning scanners and capture software, and industry-leading service and support. From small offices to global operations, Kodak has the right solution to feed your business the information it needs.

For more information about KODAK Document Viewer Software and KODAK Scan and View Software, go to www.kodak.com/go/sharepoint.

Document Genetics are excited to announce the launch of ParetoPost™ - save 80% on your postage bill!

2011-05-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

6th May 2011

ParetoPost™ saves 80% on your postage bill and provides an assured method to deliver electronic documents instantly to your customers via a secure web portal. It’s great for the guaranteed delivery of:

• E-Billing – invoices, statements etc

• Proof of Delivery

• Purchase Orders

• Drawings and project information

• Staff documentation

Unlike email, you’ll know who has viewed the document, the date and time that it was read, and lots more useful information. It delivers electronic documents quickly, securely and with a low delivery cost (and we’re confident you’ll make an 80% saving over traditional post). The end-user experience is designed for simplicity and ease of use.

Benefits of ParetoPost™:

• Save up to 80% on your postage costs

• Personalise every document you send

• Trace every document

• Self Service Access 24/7

• Improved Cash Flow

• Improved Customer Service

• Customers can download current and historic documents

Interfacing to ERP Systems

We’ve engineered the interface so it’s really simple to integrate with your existing ERP processes. Documents are uploaded by submitting a PDF image and an XML file into a watch folder on the ParetoPost™ server. The XML file contains all of the information about the document and the intended recipient. The PDF image and XML file can normally be generated by a backend business system, or automated by using our Formate output management software

You can install and host ParetoPost™ on you own web-server, or we can host ParetoPost™ for you (SaaS model).

Follow this link for more info:

http://www.document-genetics.co.uk/page/1snug/Document_management/ParetoPost.html

Document Genetics would like to welcome Breasley Foam Ltd as a new customer

2011-05-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

4th May 2011

Breasley Foam is the largest independent foam converter in Great Britain. For over 30 years, they have provided customers with high quality products and excellent service to keep them at the forefront of the profession. State of the art machinery, combined with a comprehensive knowledge of foam conversion allows them to provide their customers with high or low volume, bespoke runs in a wide variety of foam grades.

Breasley Foam has purchased our Formate output management software to enhance the document output from their ERP System. The new Formate process will deliver invoices and statements electronically in a PDF format where possible - invoices will only be printed and posted to customers not willing to accept an electronic copy. Formate has also been used to add a barcode (containing the delivery note number) to the delivery note - this allows automatic recognition by their scanning process, which will improve the speed of processing and enhance the accuracy of indexing. The indexed delivery note is then archived into their SharePoint document repository.

Breasley Foam are confident the Formate e-Billing solution will have a payback period of less than 12 months. In addition, Formate will improve their document presentation, allow them to react rapidly to new business requirements and eliminate their reliance on their ERP vendor for document modifications.

Visit their website at http://www.breasley.co.uk

How will Document Management help your business?

2011-04-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

21st April 2011

Have you ever hunted for a file or document that you just couldn’t put your hands on? Document management and scanning can help you organise your office. By clearing storage space and instead digitally scanning all your documents into one easy accessable and searchable database, prevents this scenario from happening again. Document management saves space, time and more importantly money.

An advantage to storing documents digitally is that you not only save time but it potentially saves you space. You save time, money, and increase the size of your office for more important matters.

Why not take your business into the modern age? As more and more businesses decide to purchase, document scanning and electronic storage is growing increasingly. You might find these steps difficult to make sometimes, though as technology continues to advance it is an foreseeable step everyone will eventually have to make. Some companies may not have been made aware of the many benefits which come with document management such as increased productivity, profits and general quality of work.

Why not get in touch with us today to find out how our document management services can help your company turn into a faster and more efficient business?

Record 5p rise in price of a first-class stamp

2011-04-15T05:34:00.001-07:00

Higher UK postage prices have come into force - with a first-class stamp now costing 46p. Now is a better time than ever to look at our Formate, E-Billing solutions...

This is a record 5p rise in the cost of sending standard letters weighing up to 100g by first-class post.

Royal Mail has also increased the cost of a second-class stamp by 4p to 36p. A first-class, large letter stamp has risen by 9p to 75p, and by 7p to 58p for second-class mail.

A watchdog described the inflation-busting rise as "disappointing".

Spending
The average UK household spends around 60p a week on stamps, according to Royal Mail. These price rises would add 6p to this amount, it said.

However, in cash terms, the 5p rise is the highest recorded for first-class stamps.

Regulator Postcomm gave permission for the increase in November, and the plans were announced by Royal Mail a month later.

Postcomm said the changes would help Royal Mail to fund its modernisation programme and help safeguard the one-price-goes-anywhere universal service in the UK.

Moya Greene, of Royal Mail, said that the decision had not been taken lightly.

"We have thought carefully about these increases as we are conscious of the difficult economic circumstances our customers are facing," she said.

"No-one likes to pay more and we regret having had to take these tough decisions on pricing. After these increases, we will continue providing value for money as our prices will still be among the lowest in Europe.

"We are investing heavily to modernise our operations, which is all about providing our customers with the services they need in today's open, highly competitive postal marketplace.

"With the sharp declines in mail volume, our revenues are falling. That means if we do not generate more income, we will simply not be able to keep funding our six-days-a-week collection, sorting, transport and delivery operation to the UK's 28 million homes and businesses."

Competition
Philip Cullum, of watchdog Consumer Focus, said people would be extremely disappointed by the latest rise in prices above inflation.

"Royal Mail needs to modernise but customers are being asked to pick up the tab. In return, they will expect to see a far more efficient, effective and competitive service," he said.

Hosiery business UK Tights uses Royal Mail to send its orders to customers.

"This cost increase as well as the VAT increase will have a direct effect on our profitability. For us there is no real alternative to Royal Mail as we send low-cost small packets," said Jonathan Barber, who set up the business with his wife Dawn.

"Royal Mail has no competition in this market sector. We feel this needs to change."

Now is a better time than ever to look at our Formate, E-Billing solutions...

Job Vacancy at Document Genetics

2011-01-28T10:13:00.000-08:00

Job Vacancy for a Marketing Assistant at our Northampton office - POSITION HAS BEEN FILLED

Salary
£15,000 to £25,000 per annum depending on experience

Overview
Document Genetics are a well-established, dynamic and successful IT Solutions company and have a vacancy for an enthusiastic and creative Marketing Assistant. Reporting to the Marketing Director, this is an ideal role for a marketing graduate in a fast paced industry. Our clients include well known organisations such as Boots, BuildBase, Betterware, Random House Group.

Responsibilities
In this busy fast paced sales environment, creativity, flexibility and the ability to prioritise and respond quickly is vital. This industry is always introducing innovative new solutions; your key skills will help translate these into lead generation campaigns using all elements of the marketing mix.

Candidate Background
Strong PC, database & web research skills.
Graduate or CIM qualifications preferred
Personal Attributes:
• Creativity
• Enthusiasm
• Team player
• Desire to succeed and develop marketing career

Role Overview
• Assist with executing joint marketing plans with key vendors and partners or lead generation programmes and ensure appropriate measurement of ROI
• Assist with prioritising, planning and managing most appropriate methods for marketing campaigns from creation to implementation including lead generation, corporate hospitality and events
• Manage the customer experience programme to build awareness and loyalty of brand
• Create and manage ad hoc marketing campaigns working closely with the sales team
• CRM and database manipulation of data for campaigns
• Effective lead tracking and follow up working with external telemarketing agency
• Various admin duties to ensure efficient running of campaigns
• Manage website development and content
• Create and manage Google Adword campaigns
• Maintain blogs and other social media

Location/Transport
This role is based in our Northampton office and the candidate would require their own transport.

Contact
Please send your CV to Joe.hyde@document-genetics.co.uk

Document Genetics Survey

2011-01-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to all our customers who took the time to participate in our branding survey and we’ve now donated £5 on your behalf to your chosen charity.

We’ve had some really helpful feedback and will be incorporating this into our marketing strategy for 2011.

Here’s a sample of the responses to the question, if you were recommending Document Genetics to a friend or colleague, how would you sum us up?

• DG listens to the customers needs and tailors their proposal around the most efficient tools available.

• Reliable, trusted & capable supplier

• The 'George at Asda' of IT solutions: Does the job, looks great, not paying for the label!

• friendly efficient service

• Good software, good support

• Again a friendly, efficient service all round

• Good support, provide a solution and not too corporate.

Thanks again for your help and support and we look forward to working with you in 2011.

Happy Christmas to all of our customers

2010-12-20T07:18:00.000-08:00

Everyone at Document Genetics would like to thank you for your support this year.

Christmas Opening Hours
Although Document Genetics will be closed over the Christmas period, technical support will be provided on the following days:

23rd December 9am to 5pm
24th December 9am to 4pm
25th December closed
26th December closed
27th Decemeber closed
28th December closed
29th December 9am to 4pm
30th December 9am to 4pm
31st December 9am to 4pm
3rd January closed
4th January 9am to 4pm

Branding Survey

Help us with our Branding Survey and we'll donate £5 on your behalf to charity
For every Document Genetics customer who completes our branding survey (there's only 8 questions), we'll donate £5 to a selection of charities (you choose the one you prefer).
We appreciate your feedback and will be using this information to help with our marketing in the New Year.

Click on this link to participate in the Document Genetics branding survey

Thank you and Happy Christmas from everyone at Document Genetics

Formate Events for Sept 2010

2010-08-19T06:06:00.000-07:00

Well the summer break is nearly over, so now's a good time to sharpen up your Formate skills.

We've got two events scheduled for Sept, these being:

Formate Workshop (16th Sept 2010) - Smart Ways to Process Incoming Documents

This free of charge 1 day Formate workshop, will look at ways to streamline the receipt and processing of various incoming document types (Purchase Invoices, Customer Orders, PODs etc), providing real examples and showing interfaces to 3rd party products where necessary. This workshop is suitable for any Formate user (business user, developer or administrator) looking to make the most of Formate and make tangible savings.

Formate Standard Training Course (29th and 30th of Sept)

We also have a Formate standard training course scheduled for the 29th and 30th of Sept. This two day course is ideal for users who want to unleash the full potential of Formate.

Special Offer

As a special offer, we'll train 2 delegates for the price of one. The 2nd delegate can attend this course or any other Formate standard course, but must be trained before the end of this year (2010).

This is the ideal opportunity to spread your Formate skills over a number of users and ensure backup for holidays, sickness etc. See below for more info and to register.

Formate Workshop (16th Sept) - Smart Ways to Process Incoming Documents

Traditionally, Formate has been used to manipulate and deliver documents from an organisation's own ERP system. However, we're now uncovering many new applications which entail collecting and processing incoming documents, which originate from an outside source.

This free of charge 1 day Formate workshop will look at ways to streamline the receipt and processing of these incoming document types, providing real examples and showing interfaces to 3rd party products where necessary. This workshop is suitable for any Formate user (business user, developer or administrator) looking to make the most of Formate and make tangible savings.

Date: 16 of September (9.45am to 4.00pm) Location: Northampton Cost: Free

We'll be looking at:

· Supplier Invoices (in Paper, PDF, EDI or XML format - these may have been posted, emailed, or sent via EDI) - we'll show ways to receive and receipt these electronically, extract invoice data (making use of the Formate PDF Editing module)then pass to an approval workflow

· Customer Orders (in Paper, PDF, EDI or XML format- these may have been posted, faxed, emailed or sent via EDI) - we'll look at ways of capturing customer orders, in their many flavours, validating the order, then posting the order to the backend business system

· Proof of Delivery (Paper or electronic images - these could be paper documents or electronic images containing the customer signature) - we'll consider ways to simply the capture of PODs, without having to resort to expensive scanning solutions.

There will also be an open forum question and answer session and a discount voucher which can be used against Formate software and services.

This workshop is free of charge but availability is limited (first come first served).

Click here for on-line registration

Formate Standard Training (29th & 30th of Sept) - £995 for up to 2 delegates

The 2 day course is recommended for any Formate user wanting to develop or administer Formate applications.

Topics covered include:
Installation of Formate software
Server administration and configuration
Good housekeeping
Mapping of spool file data
Designing form layouts
Scripting fundamentals
Creation of PDF and Word Documents
Workshop examples
Other applications and uses of Formate

Where & When:

Document Genetics
Hall Farm
Northampton, NN6 0BN
29th and 30th of Sept
9:30AM-4:30PM

Click here for on-line registration, costs and further information

If you have any questions or customised training requirements, please contact me.

Sincerely,

Joseph Hyde
Document Genetics

For the attention of Formate customers

2010-07-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

Major New Release of Formate Output Management Software

To provide support for MS Windows 2008 (32bit only) and MS Windows 7, Trilogic have released a new version of Formate (2.15.7), which will be available as of the 26th of July 2010 via the Formate web updater.

Please read this carefully.

Important
When upgrading an existing Formate installation, the previous version of Formate must be fully removed and the new version (2.15.7) installed as if it were a fresh install.

**Before removing the earlier version of Formate, a note of all existingFormate Server settings should be taken, as settings will not be preserved during the un-install / install process, and a full back-up of all Formtypes, Tasks, and associated resources should be taken.

This is the compulsory upgrade methodology, and if it is not followed, then the only solution will be to uninstall all Formate elements from the server, including any registry entries, and complete either a fresh install, or restore from a valid backup. "

Note:
We only recommend upgrading immediately if you require support for MS Windows 2008 (32bit only) and MS Windows 7, or require a specific technical fix which is available in this latest release.

Document Management Software

2010-07-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

We’ve just launched a new micro website dedicated to document management software.
If you’re interested, please visit:

http://www.document-management-software.co.uk/

2010-06-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

Job Vacancies at Document Genetics

Full-time Support Services Consultant (Office) – Programming/application Support
Northampton (Posted on 1st June 2010)

Salary - dependent upon experience

This role would suite either a new Graduate or one with a year’s commercial experience. The role offered is office based in Northampton, and the successful candidate would be required to give remote support to our Customers on a range of Document Management and Output Management Software products.

This role is in the Professional Services section of a small highly focused company and would be providing support to a wide ranging Customer base of end users by telephone, email or remote access. It will encompass, problem diagnosis, problem rectification, and application configuration and programming as needed, directly interacting with our Customers.

The role requires a highly professional confident manner, an analytical approach to problem solving and an ability to organize and prioritize tasks independently, within a small team. In addition to the above the successful Candidate will be able to demonstrate some proficiency in a script based programming language, such as VB.Net, or ASP.NET, or in basic web design (with some scripting). The Candidate should be prepared to offer a portfolio of work to evidence these skills. Alternatively skill associated with MS products such as SQL, Sharepoint or network support experience backed by suitable evidence may be acceptable.

This is an interesting and varied role, providing an outstanding opportunity to work within a small Company offering Professional Services in the Document Management environment. There is full scope to develop your career to become one of our full Professional Services Consultant, delivering solutions to our Customers on their own sites, both in the UK and abroad. It would suit somebody wishing to get involved in software support and then product integration, and implementation. Immediate start.

Contact Details for Document Genetics

Tel: 0844 557 6430 Fax: 0844 557 6431 Email: info@document-genetics.co.uk

Barcode Recognition Engine (BRE)

2010-06-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

Document Genetics Barcode Recognition Engine (BRE)

Scanning paper documents can be a tricky process and companies are often frightened by the investment in the capture software, scanners and associated training.

Document Genetics recognised the need for a simple solution to enable any dept in a business to easily scan their documents into their document management archive (e.g. infoRouter, Alchemy, SharePoint etc) using existing MFPs (digital copiers).

The Document Genetics Barcode Recognition Engine (BRE) is a highly accurate and powerful software module which recognizes 1-D and 2-D barcodes from digital images and bitmaps. Using the BRE, it’s easy to collect barcoded documents from multiple scanners or digital copiers, recognize the contents of the barcode, then publish to a workflow or document management system.

The following image formats are supported: BMP, TIF, JPG, PNG and multipage TIF and PDF (Portable Document Format). The unique and fast barcode recognition algorithm searches for barcodes in any position and orientation from your images.

What happens if your document doesn't have a Barcode on it?

We've developed a BRE label client to allow people to create barcode labels from and capture the data from any system.

BRE Label Client

The BRE Label Client allows a user to capture data from virtually any MS Windows application (e.g. an ERP or CRM system) and print a 2-D barcode label containing this information. Up to 100 characters of information can be encoded in the barcode label.

The label can then be stuck to a document to be scanned and processed. Once scanned, the BRE software reads the information in the barcode and makes it available to a backend document management system (e.g. infoRouter, Alchemy, SharePoint etc) or a workflow process (e.g. a purchase invoice approval process).

Document Management Software Micro Site

2010-06-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

Document Genetics have just created a new micro website http://document-management-software.co.uk/ which is dedicated to document management software and solutions.
There’s lots of info on there about the benefits of document management and detailed information on infoRouter document management software.

2010-03-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

Document Genetics are now an approved distributor for Secap mailroom products

We can now provide the full range of Secap products, from desktop address printers to production addressing systems, tabbing equipment, folder inserters and mailing software.
If you have any requirements you would like to discuss, please call Fred Harvey our mailroom solutions consultant.

2010-03-11T03:24:00.000-08:00

Major New Release of Formate

Trilogic have just released the latest version of Formate (2.15.4) for prerelease
testing by our technical team at DG.

Suffice to say, there's been an awful lot of work put into this one, mainly due to the need for compatibility (and extra security implications) for MS Windows7, Vista and Server 2008.

For example the Formate installation routines have been upgraded to store all configuration files off the CommonAppData folder (usually C:\ProgramData or "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data" depending on which O/S
you're running) and to include "Trilogic" in the path to the program folder. These changes are for better compatibility with Windows 7 and Vista, and Server 2008 Another useful addition is the support of Print Monitor under Windows Vista and
Server 2008.

Subject to testing we hope to release this during March 2010

2010-03-11T03:19:00.000-08:00

New Customers
We're pleased to welcome on board a number of new customers over the last few months, these being:

Alpla - e-Billing application using Formate

Radio Taxis - replacing line printers with Formate and writing reports into PDF format

Whittlebury Hall Health Club -using infoRouter to manage supplier invoices and other business documents

Gleadell Agriculture- using infoRouter and the BRE to scan and
archive delivery tickets

Compton and Woodhouse - using Formate to format and deliver a
variety of customer facing documents

VF Northern - using Formate and Castelle Faxpress to deliver invoices via print, fax or email

Computer Service Centre - working with DG to provide a hosted SaaS
infoRouter service (i.e. customers pay a simple cost per user per month charge for a document management SaaS service)

2010-03-11T03:14:00.000-08:00

Free Prize Draw
To celebrate the launch of our new Mailroom Solutions portfolio, we are running a prize draw for three lucky customers to win a mid-week overnight stay for two people at Whittlebury Hall Hotel and Health Club, including dinner, bed and breakfast.

To enter, click on the following link and answer three simple questions

Enter Free Prize Draw

Closing date 31st of March 2010 - This prize draw is only open to customers of Document Genetics or business users of post.

2010-03-11T02:52:00.000-08:00

We're please to welcome Fred Harvey to DG

Fred has over 20 years experience in the Mailroom Environment and his remit is to provide a trusted alternative to Neopost/Pitney Bowes duopoly.

Every time you post a document it costs your company 50p. Do your own maths with your company volumes - it's often a frightening cost.

Fred says "DG customers are now making substantial cost reductions after receiving a little help and information and without making major changes to their mail processes, unfortunately there is very little help available for the end users, thus few companies can achieve these savings. It's a fact of life that all traditional providers of mail services are there to make a profit so why would they openly show the users how to spend less and in return make less themselves, it's just business."

If you want to make some postal savings or work more efficiently, give Fred a call on 0844 5576430.

The Religion of Formate

2010-01-14T08:47:00.000-08:00

Document Genetics have lots of happy Formate customers, but we just had to share this comment, made by Eazipay.

Eazipay is a BACS approved commercial bureau which collects Direct Debits on behalf of clients.

http://www.eazipay.co.uk/

Luisa Grey of Eazipay had the following to say:

"

Our strangest but most important member of staff is called DocGen or “GOD”…. He never complains or argues, he just sits in the corner of the Directors office and chugs away, giving us all the information we need to continue with our day. What did we do before he came?? How did we manage??

Formate/Doc Gen was introduced to the Eazipay office over a year ago, it manages several chores, counting activity for invoicing and converting data into the format we need to import into our Direct Debit system without the need for manual intervention. Before it was installed all staff were trained to write BACS files…. Now we don’t even need to think about how – it just happens. We also had to write down all the processed activity that each client produced in order to raise an invoice, now we just put in the date to and from and a report is generated automatically. WE LOVE DOC GEN!! Eazipay would not manage without our GOD!"

Welcome to the Document Genetics blog

2010-01-14T08:00:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the Document Genetics "Document Collaboration and Output Management" blog. We'll be using this blog to keep our customers up to speed on our new products and services. In addition, we'll also be listing our new customers and the reasons they've opted for Document Genetics' solutions. If there's anything else you'd like to see, please let us know.