By Jamie Bsales, Associate Editor, March 31, 2009
Kofax plc developers have been hard at work, readying major releases of two of the company’s document solutions. Last month, the company unveiled version 2.0 of its Kofax Document Exchange Server, aimed at enterprises looking for a robust business process automation platform for document-intensive workflows. Then in late March Kofax announced the availability of version 4.0 of its Kofax Transformation Modules, for the transactional capture market.
Improved Usability And Administration
Enhancements to Document Exchange Server (DES) include a more user-friendly interface and streamlined functionality, making the software even more accessible to a wider range of users. As before, the DES platform extends back-office capture abilities to front-office users: Rather than shuttling paper documents to a central reprographic department (CRD) or dedicated production scanner for batch processing, employees can capture documents in the front office (where they originate) via standard MFPs and scanners.
Kofax also claims DES 2.0 offers improved accuracy as documents are processed, as well as support for multiple languages. Administration improvements include support for LDAP and Active Directory to improve security and make it easier for administrators to add users to the system. The new version also lets customers use any TWAIN-compliant scanner to capture documents into DES. In addition, Kofax now offers a Web Services SDK (software development kit) to let customers or resellers create customized connectors from other input sources.
“Kofax Document Exchange Server empowers front-office staff to easily initiate document-driven processes at a desktop scanner or MFP,” said Jim Nicol, executive vice president of products at Kofax. “This results in better, faster, less costly and more accurate document processing and allows employees to focus more time on vital customer-facing activities.”
Kofax said that DES is ideal for large organizations in document-intensive industries such as financial services, insurance, government and healthcare. DES 2.0 is available now, and pricing varies based on a customer’s number of servers, end users, input devices and output destinations, the company said.
Easier Deployment And Maintenance
The company has also updated its Kofax Transformation Modules offering, delivering enhancements that increase ease-of-use and application flexibility, according to Kofax. Used for the automated processing and data-extraction of forms, invoices, correspondence and other documents, Kofax Transformation Modules turn a company’s incoming paper documents into structured electronic files.
New in version 4.0 is the full integration of Kofax’s Xtrata Pro and INDICIUS technologies into a single, unified platform. This lets customers use one platform to process structured and unstructured forms and documents of any type, according to Kofax, resulting in faster deployment of the solution and less costly maintenance. Another key benefit of the new offering is the company’s “learn-by-example” technology that can automate the classification and extraction of information from any form or document type. By feeding sample forms or documents into the system, customers can train the software to automatically recognize the document type as well as the specific location of important information on the form or document. This can result in much reduced operator interaction.
In addition, version 4.0’s Document Review feature lets operators verify the results of the software’s automated data classification and separation prior to extraction, which can increase overall document throughput rates. An enhanced Verification capability then allows data to be double-checked, increasing data accuracy.
Kofax said that version 4.0 is scalable and suitable for departments processing 100 forms a day as well as enterprises scanning 100,000 documents a day. Typical applications include accounts payable automation to extract invoice information and automatically book invoices into leading ERP systems, such as SAP, Oracle Financials and JD Edwards. The solution can also be used for sales-order processing, workflow/mailroom automation and forms processing for insurance, financial and other industries.
This article was originally posted on BLI
