Capturing Print Streams: Bringing Critical Business Data to People

How, When, and Where They Need It

By Harold Hockman, Director of Professional Services, and Ron Rien, Optical Image Technology, Inc.

(Note: This article was originally published in the May 2006 edition of Document eNotes)

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Introduction

Information contained in print streams is a lot like water: it emerges from a source, increasing, and pushing through the most direct path toward a collection point, where it is stored for times it is needed. In the case of flowing water and information, if people remove what they need from the flow, or if it is otherwise diverted from path, some of the contents get lost. When there is a flood, water often bursts over the banks and runs away. When a business can’t handle large volumes of information effectively, lost or misplaced data causes serious problems.

Information: the “Water of Life” for Businesses

For centuries, people built their lives along rivers because they depended on this critical source of life and its reliable flow for survival, just like we rely on the flow of business information. Yet in the past, there was no easy way to bring water from a source to the people. Today modern technology allows many people to live far from water; it is delivered via pipelines, ensuring they have it when needed. The value of capturing print streams is no different than streams of water: to a business, information is the water of life.

With Enterprise Report Management (ERM) technology (formerly called COLD, or computer output to laser disk), a business’s critical information is pushed electronically from the source through a well-laid pipeline to a central collection point. Through the power of the Web, it is accessed or flowed onward to people who need it, regardless of location. The technology is not new — but you can do far more with it today than you may be aware. Today, large volumes of information can be effectively compressed, enabling expedient flow to the storage destination for future retrieval. A business’s efficiency, and even its survival in a competitive world, depends upon this steady, uninterrupted and reliable flow of information.

The Key to Survival in Business: Building an Efficient Information Reservoir

Banks, insurance companies, and businesses that produce regular reports and send documents to customers benefit greatly by capturing print streams and directing them to an electronic storage repository. Examples include financial institutions that produce nightly, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual reports; insurance agencies issuing policies to clients; companies producing general ledgers, trial balances and audit reports internally; or invoices sent to customers. Instead of merely capturing the data contained in these documents or reports and then printing them, the information is indexed, compressed to ensure that the maximum allowable data flows through the pipeline, and the data streams are captured for electronic storage instead of traveling to a printer. Systematic indexing of the information to be stored, based on how you want to search the information later, is critical. Whether a company stores data on paper or electronically, it might as well write its corporate information on water and watch it disappear into a sea of information if it is not indexed properly. Careful indexing is like well-placed buoys, marking a place and guaranteeing information can be found when needed.

A high compression rate ensures masses of high-density information hastening toward the central information storehouse like water in a canyon rushing towards the sea. Once the information is stored, companies can search and access the raw data and the actual forms they would have otherwise printed, producing them intact when they are requested or demanded, and reducing unnecessary paper and printing.

How it Works

Let’s back up to the source: the computer outputs data into a steady stream in the form of either line data (a small, manageable stream of information that requires minimal storage space) or an APA (All Points Addressable) data stream, which is more like a river of data, and almost always rendered to unalterable PDFs. Because both of these formats are tamperproof, companies have the ability to reproduce at a moment’s notice the exact reports they created, and/or print the invoices they sent, or the policies they previously issued. Unlike microfilm or microfiche, which is more like a remote reservoir where the information is stored but not easily accessible, persons authorized within companies that are using COLD can instantly access the information they need by using the indexing values within the metadata that describes both the files and the information stored within them. The data and documents are searchable by using keywords — like an Internet search — to find what is needed. Their information — their “aqua preciousa” — is immediately available.

The Benefits

There are many advantages to capturing print streams and storing the information electronically. No longer do reports and invoices require printing; copies sent to customers can be stored as PDFs or on CD-Rom, saving tons of paper. Man hours spent filing and searching for information are dramatically reduced because the data is accessible with a few clicks of a mouse, which means no more desperate searches. The convenience of the newer PDF, PCL, AFP, Metacode, DJDE and postscript file formats mean tellers, insurance agents, managers, and others can see the information they sent to customers previously in exactly the same form in which the customers received the information, thereby improving customer service and facilitating audits. Instead of printing a 500-page report to locate two applicable pages that are needed for a specific customer or auditor, the exact two pages can be located electronically in a fraction of the time and printed or accessed electronically.

Multiplying the Benefits: Adding Workflow and Digital Signature Capability

The potential return on investment increases substantially when electronic workflow is tied into the electronic storage repository. Workflow enables companies to take overdue invoices and premiums, reports for audits, and other vital documents stored through COLD and then push the requested documents or images like water through a pipeline to the right people for review, signatures, or other actions. Like people in small villages procuring water from a pipeline, the information is available remotely via the Web. Documents that require immediate review or action are available within seconds, and can be pushed across the globe to multiple locations like tributaries from a water source. For example, imagine an insurance company searching its electronic repository for all of the policy premiums that are 30 days overdue, then sending an exact copy of the previously generated invoice to the appropriate agents across the country within minutes. The agent then follows up with the appropriate clients to get the invoices paid before the policies are in jeopardy of being cancelled.

When electronic signature capability is added, documents that were compressed by COLD for electronic storage can be located and sent for needed signatures. Imagine a change in a contract’s addendum — instead of printing out the entire contract to send for signatures in the mail, the addendum section can be independently retrieved and sent electronically for internal signatures, then forwarded to the customer for countersignature.

Summary

We have all heard the saying from the Samuel Coleridge’s Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, “Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.” In business, there is a sea of information — without intelligent collection, thorough indexing, centralized storage, and easy access to information, the sea of information remains as useless as saltwater to the thirsty mariner. By turning your information into usable data, your business will never thirst for the information it needs.

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