Document Center Partners with OIT to Provide Clients AFP Conversion Capabilities
the problem
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A major utility company in Utah had over 70,000 customer statements to print each month. With each statement containing up to twenty pages, they were processing up to 750,000 pages! In order to review the printed statements before mailing, a representative would have to drive twenty minutes to the plant. If a mistake was found, all 750,000 pages had to be reprinted.
The utility company needed a solution that would not only drastically cut the costs involved in printing their statements, but would also increase their productivity by making the statements available on-line. Also, since they use the AFP print stream, they wanted a solution that could not only process their data, but convert it to viewable PDF format as well.
A document center in Oregon was hired by the utility company to find the solution to their problem. This document center is part of a worldwide chain, and is one of eight located in the United States. These document centers provide strategic document management services, including Technology Management, Management Processes and Production Practices, for businesses wishing to outsource such jobs.
This document center partnered with Optical Image Technology, Inc. (OIT) to become a Service Provider of OIT’s DocFinity® COLD-ERM (Computer Output to Laser Disk-Enterprise Report Management) and DocFinity IntraVIEWER® (Browser Access) modules.
an easy decision
The decision to utilize OIT’s products came after a short, two month evaluation period in which time six companies were researched. “OIT spoke knowledgeably on the very first day and they were able to deliver a customized solution in a very short time as promised,” says a spokesperson for the document center. “Also, their technical expertise and pricing were deciding factors.”
The document center spent three days in State College, PA at OIT’s headquarters learning the system. During this time, OIT developed several customized features for this installation, including a completely new high speed indexing function that dramatically reduces processing time and a customized interface as well. “OIT provided excellent training at their facility, and they accomplished several customized features overnight for this very rushed implementation schedule” says the spokesperson. “They met every deadline, which, given the short notice, is very impressive.”
During testing at OIT, the document center discovered that the OIT system was able to process a sample run of 150,000 pages (indexed and converted AFP data to PDF) in about thirty minutes. Implementing a document management solution has dramatically reduced processing time needed to produce the billing statements for the utility company. The document center now has the statements available for viewing and auditing in fewer than 4 hours, while the printing (on three large Xerox printers) requires roughly 27 machine hours!
The document center elected to use a single processor machine to handle the bills; however, as the system grows, OIT can support 32 queues per processor and unlimited processors.
converting the files
Since the utility company was printing the billing statements from IBM’s AFP data, the document center needed a solution that would convert AFP to PDF file format for added viewing capabilities. DocFinity COLD-ERM has had the capability of storing and retrieving AFP files, as well as Xerox’s Metacode / DJDE files, in the past. However, in order to view the special fonts and graphics, each user must have had expensive viewers installed on their computers. Now that these files can be converted to PDF format, anyone can view the documents without the risk of changing the layout. This is perfect for users who simply have to review, print, or fax the information on the documents.
IBM’s AFP and Xerox’s Metacode/ DJDE offer embedded graphics, multiple fonts, and forms capabilities in reports. When the reports are processed by the host, the report data is merged with the other resources, including fonts, graphics, and form data. DocFinity COLD-ERM processes the reports with embedded graphics, multiple fonts and forms, and gives the user a choice of whether to view the faster draft mode text version or the original advanced form that contains the fonts and graphics.
In addition to printed statements, the utility company also wanted to make the viewing of its statements available over the World Wide Web. This was accomplished with DocFinity IntraVIEWER, which allows users from around the world to retrieve any object that is stored within OIT’s DocFinity software via a web browser on any platform—PC, Macintosh, Unix, etc. This includes access of scanned images, COLD-ERM reports, PC files, spreadsheets, color photos, word processor, CAD, multimedia, voice, etc.
DocFinity IntraVIEWER’s extensive security limits data access rights to any index level including the page level. It is compatible with most Internet browsers such as Netscape and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Flexibility also permits users to create their own front-end. DocFinity IntraVIEWER recognizes over 190 different file formats.
customers first
The parent company of the document center continues to win awards for their outstanding customer service. Their document centers offer core competencies in five key areas, including, distribute and print on demand of key business documents, printing systems, production color, global distribution and print and operational excellence. The document centers demonstrate their advanced technology and process excellence, while creating a real competitive advantage for their customers within a time-critical and quality-conscious environment.
