By Steve Weissman of the Holly Group
After spending more than three days at the AIIM Conference/Info360 event in Washington, D.C., my brain is clogged with all kinds of interesting nuggets.
Here are but a few of the more intriguing story lines that stuck following my ECM Practitioner class, my series of show-floor briefings, and my numerous in-the-corridor-and-press-room perspective checks with buyers, vendors, and integrator/reseller types:
Misuse/overuse of the word “new”
This itself isn’t, well, new in terms of vendor marketing, but it kept surfacing in places where the principals really ought to have known better. The lesson is to ask, “In what way is this new?” when you hear the word.
Is the feature/product/capability truly innovative? Never before seen in this particular market space? Never before offered by this particular vendor? I found much of what was touted as “new” either to be old client/server development techniques wrapped in ECM/BPM clothes or long-standard features finally being offered by the vendor in question. So as they said in ancient Rome, caveat emptor.
Emerging stratification in the world of mobility
All the talk of customer engagement intersected with the drive to enhance the mobile experience to surface an important distinction between enabling browser-based smartphone or tablet access to content and process activities on the one hand, and fielding true mobile apps for the purpose on the other.
The separation of these two tiers is still nascent, but the long-term ramifications are significant since they speak to new ways to think about information architecture, content structure, usability, security, and privacy. The use of “m.” sites and formatting is just the beginning.
Tendency to ignore the past (and thus the risk of being condemned to repeat it)
Specifically, is cloud computing a true innovation or merely a viable hosting alternative with its roots in 1970s timesharing and 1990s ASPs? (See prior point regarding new.)
To be sure, the underlying technology is hugely more flexible and accessible today than it was then, but the takeaway here isn’t one of semantics and definition – rather, it has to do with cutting away the hype, focusing on the practical, and, especially, looking to preceding market models and technology trends for guidance.
Black/white vs. shades of gray
Perhaps it’s a reflection of how commodity so much of the technology has become, and thus how competitive the market is today. But there was an awful lot of talk about good tools vs. bad, all users vs. none wanting certain features, old technologies being dead vs. new ones being saviors.
Well, the world isn’t a binary place. Tools that do x vs. y aren’t better of worse; they’re merely different, and depending upon what you need to accomplish, they may be absolutely perfect for you. Just as, say, and “old” technology like microfiche is very much alive, and perhaps critical for archivists needing to think in terms of centuries-long retention schedules.
Conclusion
My mother-in-law used to say, “Remember who you are!” when the kids would go out, and so you should remember who you are when you attend conferences and exhibitions. There’ll be plenty that will stick in your brain, and you’ll best make sense of it only by using your own organization and needs as the touchstone.
What do you think?
Steve Weissman, ECMp, ECMs, BPMp, can be reached at 617-383-4655.
Showing posts with label imaging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label imaging. Show all posts
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Canon Scanner Demo
Posted by Mark Brousseau
A short video demonstrating the Canon DR 7580C Document Scanner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6arVZqpXqL8
A short video demonstrating the Canon DR 7580C Document Scanner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6arVZqpXqL8
Friday, June 27, 2008
Healthcare Gets a (Digital) Backbone
Posted by Mark Brousseau
The digital backbone that connects health providers, payers and vendors is expanding, according to Behind the Numbers: Healthcare Cost Trends for 2008, a new report from Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ Health Research Institute (www.pwc.com/hri).
Connecting the health system electronically will aid payers in better managing both performance and compliance throughout the continuum of care, the report concludes. Clinicians and business offices are increasingly using technologies such as personal computers, electronic health records, wireless systems, biometric devices, and imaging software to coordinate and improve care. For example, widespread adoption of electronic medical records and other health information technology is estimated to save $162 billion a year by improving care management, reducing preventable medical errors, lowering death rates from chronic disease, and reducing the number of employee sick days, the report finds.
Providers are beginning to invest substantially in their own health information technology (IT) systems. During the past few years, most hospital systems have been allocating an average of 25 percent of their capital spending on health IT, according to Fitch Ratings, a New York ratings agency. While initial spending on IT has been shown to add to costs, the longer-term effect is one of reduction in costs. Health IT investment typically reaches a tipping point in terms of cost, according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ research released in 2007. That tipping point tends to reflect continued investment after which hospital operating costs are reduced. Building the digital backbone requires connecting to physicians, and an increasing percentage of physicians themselves are going business electronically as well, Pricewaterhouse Coopers found.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
The digital backbone that connects health providers, payers and vendors is expanding, according to Behind the Numbers: Healthcare Cost Trends for 2008, a new report from Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ Health Research Institute (www.pwc.com/hri).
Connecting the health system electronically will aid payers in better managing both performance and compliance throughout the continuum of care, the report concludes. Clinicians and business offices are increasingly using technologies such as personal computers, electronic health records, wireless systems, biometric devices, and imaging software to coordinate and improve care. For example, widespread adoption of electronic medical records and other health information technology is estimated to save $162 billion a year by improving care management, reducing preventable medical errors, lowering death rates from chronic disease, and reducing the number of employee sick days, the report finds.
Providers are beginning to invest substantially in their own health information technology (IT) systems. During the past few years, most hospital systems have been allocating an average of 25 percent of their capital spending on health IT, according to Fitch Ratings, a New York ratings agency. While initial spending on IT has been shown to add to costs, the longer-term effect is one of reduction in costs. Health IT investment typically reaches a tipping point in terms of cost, according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ research released in 2007. That tipping point tends to reflect continued investment after which hospital operating costs are reduced. Building the digital backbone requires connecting to physicians, and an increasing percentage of physicians themselves are going business electronically as well, Pricewaterhouse Coopers found.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Remote Deposit Capture Saves Gas
Posted by Mark Brousseau
An interesting article on remote deposit capture in yesterday's edition of The Charlotte Observer:
Remote deposit saves steps, gas
CHRISTINA REXRODE
In an era of online banking and cash-back at the grocery store, depositing a check is one of the few tasks that forces people to journey to the nearest bank or ATM.
Remote deposit -- or depositing a check online -- could change that.
Half the country's banks offer the service to business customers, touting its convenience. Now some smaller banks, looking for creative ways to distinguish themselves, are considering the same service for consumers.
Remote deposit lets customers scan a check, submit it to the bank online, then destroy it a few days later.
USAA Federal Savings Bank, a Texas-based bank that caters to the military, pioneered remote deposit for consumers when it launched Deposit@Home more than a year ago.
Kerri Herring, a teacher's assistant and part-time photographer in Kannapolis, said she and her husband use it at least a couple of times a month.
People often pay Herring by check for photography work.
"We're checkless most of the time," said Herring, 23, "but there are always going to be grandparents who send birthday money."
Herring hates driving to the bank just to deposit a check. "It wastes time," she said. "I hate standing in line."
Some financial institutions are starting to pick up on that vibe. Massachusetts-based EasCorp, which sells a remote deposit service called DeposZip, says seven credit unions in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Indiana and Oklahoma now offer it to consumers, and another nine throughout the country plan to do the same.
Charlotte-based NewDominion Bank, which already offers remote deposit for businesses, says consumer remote deposit is "on the drawing board." BB&T Corp. in Winston-Salem also says it's considering it.
Other companies say they're spreading the remote deposit concept, minus the scanner. In February, the Charlotte Metro Credit Union started advertising HomeDeposit, which lets "highly qualified" customers deposit checks by submitting information from the check to the credit union's Web site, then mailing it in.
"They've all had three or four checks laying around for $10, $15," said Nathan Tothrow, the vice president of marketing. "And who wants to get in the car and drive to the bank for that?"
Mitek Systems, a San Diego company, is advertising software that lets consumers deposit checks by photographing them and emailing the image -- all via cell phone.
Biggest thing since ATMs
Charlotte-based Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp. started offering remote deposit for big corporate clients in 2004.At Bank of America, product executive Bob Johnston says the response from businesses has been "phenomenal," especially for global companies who don't want to mail checks across the ocean to their different offices. "Ground courier to an airline, back to a ground courier -- you can imagine the length of time and cost to do that," Johnston said.
Among smaller companies, banks are betting that remote deposit will appeal to niches that still deal often with checks, like property managers or nonprofits.
Akil Boston, the community development coordinator for Charlotte's Second Harvest Food Bank, says that using Wachovia's corporate remote deposit has cut out his almost-daily trip to the bank. "Seven miles roundtrip," said Boston, 27. "When you look at gas prices nowadays, it's pretty economical."
Remote deposit benefits the banks, too. It can enable them to expand their reach, serving customers who don't live near a branch. It can cut down on foot traffic at the branches, which can save money on staffing. Ninety percent of a teller's work involves checks, according to Celent, a financial services research firm.
"There hasn't been a financial services technology that has received so much attention since the adoption of the ATM," said Christine Barry, research director with The Aite Group, a financial services research firm in Boston.
Consumer option unlikely soon
Remote deposit for consumers is in its early stages. A survey of 157 banks, released in March by Celent, found that one-fifth offer or are planning to offer it.
But Wachovia and Bank of America say they have no such plans. Some doubt whether most people would go to so much trouble to deposit a check.
"It would be easier to drop it in an ATM (or) the mail, or walk it into the branch during lunch hour," says Jim Bruene, editor of the Online Banking Report, a trade publication.
Banks usually charge business customers per month and per check for remote deposit, and compatible scanners can cost at least $300. To convince consumers to use remote deposit, Bruene and Barry say, banks will have to drop the fees and make it compatible with low-end scanners.
USAA, the EasCorp credit unions and the Charlotte Metro Credit Union charge no fees for their programs, and USAA and EasCorp say their programs work with most any scanner.
An interesting article on remote deposit capture in yesterday's edition of The Charlotte Observer:
Remote deposit saves steps, gas
CHRISTINA REXRODE
In an era of online banking and cash-back at the grocery store, depositing a check is one of the few tasks that forces people to journey to the nearest bank or ATM.
Remote deposit -- or depositing a check online -- could change that.
Half the country's banks offer the service to business customers, touting its convenience. Now some smaller banks, looking for creative ways to distinguish themselves, are considering the same service for consumers.
Remote deposit lets customers scan a check, submit it to the bank online, then destroy it a few days later.
USAA Federal Savings Bank, a Texas-based bank that caters to the military, pioneered remote deposit for consumers when it launched Deposit@Home more than a year ago.
Kerri Herring, a teacher's assistant and part-time photographer in Kannapolis, said she and her husband use it at least a couple of times a month.
People often pay Herring by check for photography work.
"We're checkless most of the time," said Herring, 23, "but there are always going to be grandparents who send birthday money."
Herring hates driving to the bank just to deposit a check. "It wastes time," she said. "I hate standing in line."
Some financial institutions are starting to pick up on that vibe. Massachusetts-based EasCorp, which sells a remote deposit service called DeposZip, says seven credit unions in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Indiana and Oklahoma now offer it to consumers, and another nine throughout the country plan to do the same.
Charlotte-based NewDominion Bank, which already offers remote deposit for businesses, says consumer remote deposit is "on the drawing board." BB&T Corp. in Winston-Salem also says it's considering it.
Other companies say they're spreading the remote deposit concept, minus the scanner. In February, the Charlotte Metro Credit Union started advertising HomeDeposit, which lets "highly qualified" customers deposit checks by submitting information from the check to the credit union's Web site, then mailing it in.
"They've all had three or four checks laying around for $10, $15," said Nathan Tothrow, the vice president of marketing. "And who wants to get in the car and drive to the bank for that?"
Mitek Systems, a San Diego company, is advertising software that lets consumers deposit checks by photographing them and emailing the image -- all via cell phone.
Biggest thing since ATMs
Charlotte-based Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp. started offering remote deposit for big corporate clients in 2004.At Bank of America, product executive Bob Johnston says the response from businesses has been "phenomenal," especially for global companies who don't want to mail checks across the ocean to their different offices. "Ground courier to an airline, back to a ground courier -- you can imagine the length of time and cost to do that," Johnston said.
Among smaller companies, banks are betting that remote deposit will appeal to niches that still deal often with checks, like property managers or nonprofits.
Akil Boston, the community development coordinator for Charlotte's Second Harvest Food Bank, says that using Wachovia's corporate remote deposit has cut out his almost-daily trip to the bank. "Seven miles roundtrip," said Boston, 27. "When you look at gas prices nowadays, it's pretty economical."
Remote deposit benefits the banks, too. It can enable them to expand their reach, serving customers who don't live near a branch. It can cut down on foot traffic at the branches, which can save money on staffing. Ninety percent of a teller's work involves checks, according to Celent, a financial services research firm.
"There hasn't been a financial services technology that has received so much attention since the adoption of the ATM," said Christine Barry, research director with The Aite Group, a financial services research firm in Boston.
Consumer option unlikely soon
Remote deposit for consumers is in its early stages. A survey of 157 banks, released in March by Celent, found that one-fifth offer or are planning to offer it.
But Wachovia and Bank of America say they have no such plans. Some doubt whether most people would go to so much trouble to deposit a check.
"It would be easier to drop it in an ATM (or) the mail, or walk it into the branch during lunch hour," says Jim Bruene, editor of the Online Banking Report, a trade publication.
Banks usually charge business customers per month and per check for remote deposit, and compatible scanners can cost at least $300. To convince consumers to use remote deposit, Bruene and Barry say, banks will have to drop the fees and make it compatible with low-end scanners.
USAA, the EasCorp credit unions and the Charlotte Metro Credit Union charge no fees for their programs, and USAA and EasCorp say their programs work with most any scanner.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
3 Key Trends In Remote Capture
By Mark Brousseau
Financial institutions have growth opportunities in implementing check imaging and remote deposit capture solutions as more customers request the services and, as the banks themselves, search out new opportunities for expansion. That’s according to Andy Lawrence, Worldwide Solutions Business Manager, Document Imaging, Graphic Communications Group, Eastman Kodak Company.
“Today’s challenging credit and mortgage environments are narrowing profit margins in both loan and deposit portfolios,” Lawrence told me. “Banks are looking to improve operational efficiency in dealing with the aforementioned and that is also fueling interest in check imaging and remote deposit capture.”
Lawrence said there are three significant trends occurring in the remote capture marketplace today.
First, small to medium-sized banks are increasingly signing up as clients to outsourced or hosted services for check imaging and remote deposit capture. There are many reasons for this, Lawrence noted; however, the prime reason has much to do with organizational philosophy. That necessitates answering a fundamental question: Does an organization have the scope within its resources to implement and maintain a remote deposit capture solution or does it want to concentrate resources on its core business, that of banking?
“Certainly, costs enter the picture in terms of affording dedicated IT resources and capital investments in hardware and software,” Lawrence noted. “So, too, business growth opportunities enter the decision process. We’re seeing small to medium sized banks use hosted services to expand their business without building and staffing new branches. Regardless if the system is in house or hosted, banks of all sizes have quickly realized that offering check imaging and remote deposit capture solutions to customers has enabled them to grow business cost effectively.”
Lawrence said Kodak also is beginning to see that small and medium size business are seeking to buy remote deposit capture solutions directly from vendors versus sourcing them exclusively through banks as was the case in the initial Check 21 push. While banks are anxious to reach beyond their own client base, the reality is that they are limited by the scale of their sales organization and ability to implement and service solutions, Lawrence explained. In fact, he claims bank adoption has been widespread but client adoption has been limited and is almost at a standstill.
“We realized that this would happen,” Lawrence said. “To prepare for it, Kodak has been expanding application knowledge and market presence for the last three years. In effect, Kodak is playing the role of matchmaker by driving awareness and leveraging our relationships with businesses to bring clients to banks with which we’ve partnered.”
The last trend Lawrence noted involves capture technology itself, and the disruption being caused in the market by businesses requesting to use document scanner platforms for remote deposit capture. “These businesses do not require MICR and want to optimize return on investment in document scanners through using one scanning platform for financial transactions and business documents,” Lawrence said. “Doing so can lead to equipment cost savings, reduced training requirements and streamlined process flow.”
Lawrence said that in the four years since Congress passed the Check Clearing Act for the 21st Century Act enabling check scanning and remote deposit capture, the industry has moved from early adopters of the technology marketing the service to a few major customers to growing acceptance by all sizes of banks and customers.
Trends in hosted services, businesses purchasing remote deposit capture solutions directly from vendors and the ability to scan checks via document scanners will only accelerate the interest and pace of adoption in the market for Check 21 solutions, he predicted.
What do you think? E-mail me at m_brousseau@msn.com.
Financial institutions have growth opportunities in implementing check imaging and remote deposit capture solutions as more customers request the services and, as the banks themselves, search out new opportunities for expansion. That’s according to Andy Lawrence, Worldwide Solutions Business Manager, Document Imaging, Graphic Communications Group, Eastman Kodak Company.
“Today’s challenging credit and mortgage environments are narrowing profit margins in both loan and deposit portfolios,” Lawrence told me. “Banks are looking to improve operational efficiency in dealing with the aforementioned and that is also fueling interest in check imaging and remote deposit capture.”
Lawrence said there are three significant trends occurring in the remote capture marketplace today.
First, small to medium-sized banks are increasingly signing up as clients to outsourced or hosted services for check imaging and remote deposit capture. There are many reasons for this, Lawrence noted; however, the prime reason has much to do with organizational philosophy. That necessitates answering a fundamental question: Does an organization have the scope within its resources to implement and maintain a remote deposit capture solution or does it want to concentrate resources on its core business, that of banking?
“Certainly, costs enter the picture in terms of affording dedicated IT resources and capital investments in hardware and software,” Lawrence noted. “So, too, business growth opportunities enter the decision process. We’re seeing small to medium sized banks use hosted services to expand their business without building and staffing new branches. Regardless if the system is in house or hosted, banks of all sizes have quickly realized that offering check imaging and remote deposit capture solutions to customers has enabled them to grow business cost effectively.”
Lawrence said Kodak also is beginning to see that small and medium size business are seeking to buy remote deposit capture solutions directly from vendors versus sourcing them exclusively through banks as was the case in the initial Check 21 push. While banks are anxious to reach beyond their own client base, the reality is that they are limited by the scale of their sales organization and ability to implement and service solutions, Lawrence explained. In fact, he claims bank adoption has been widespread but client adoption has been limited and is almost at a standstill.
“We realized that this would happen,” Lawrence said. “To prepare for it, Kodak has been expanding application knowledge and market presence for the last three years. In effect, Kodak is playing the role of matchmaker by driving awareness and leveraging our relationships with businesses to bring clients to banks with which we’ve partnered.”
The last trend Lawrence noted involves capture technology itself, and the disruption being caused in the market by businesses requesting to use document scanner platforms for remote deposit capture. “These businesses do not require MICR and want to optimize return on investment in document scanners through using one scanning platform for financial transactions and business documents,” Lawrence said. “Doing so can lead to equipment cost savings, reduced training requirements and streamlined process flow.”
Lawrence said that in the four years since Congress passed the Check Clearing Act for the 21st Century Act enabling check scanning and remote deposit capture, the industry has moved from early adopters of the technology marketing the service to a few major customers to growing acceptance by all sizes of banks and customers.
Trends in hosted services, businesses purchasing remote deposit capture solutions directly from vendors and the ability to scan checks via document scanners will only accelerate the interest and pace of adoption in the market for Check 21 solutions, he predicted.
What do you think? E-mail me at m_brousseau@msn.com.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Why The Fuss Over Remote Capture?
By Mark Brousseau
Many people believe that the future of electronic payment processing includes a growing trend toward including accounts receivable, check and deposit capture at the point of presentment. So what are the benefits of this strategy? And what about its challenges?
“The strategy of moving image capture to the point of presentment provides numerous advantages,” Wally Vogel (wally_vogel@creditron.com), president of Creditron, Inc., told me. “Obviously, there is the reduction of payment document handling and forwarding, and the associated lag time. This improves cash control and offers faster funds availability.”
“Beyond that, image capture at the point of presentment allows for greater control and audit capabilities,” Vogel added. “As soon as the document is scanned, it is captured and logged, and can be tracked through various processes for depositing, accounts receivable updates, and handling change of address requests and customer service inquiries, among other functions.”
With the proper systems in place, Vogel added, document images can be viewed from any authorized inquiry station on the network for customer purposes, within minutes of receiving the document. This means that data completion from image can be completed in a remote office or in a centralized location, providing greater flexibility while maintaining strict control and a complete audit trail for each transaction, wherever it is processed.
“One of the significant challenges of image capture at the point of presentment is the need to standardize rules, processes and practices across remote offices. Otherwise, users may not get the full advantage of remote capture,” Vogel said. “This may require a thorough business analysis and a willingness to unify business processes.”
What do you think? E-mail me at m_brousseau@msn.com.
Many people believe that the future of electronic payment processing includes a growing trend toward including accounts receivable, check and deposit capture at the point of presentment. So what are the benefits of this strategy? And what about its challenges?
“The strategy of moving image capture to the point of presentment provides numerous advantages,” Wally Vogel (wally_vogel@creditron.com), president of Creditron, Inc., told me. “Obviously, there is the reduction of payment document handling and forwarding, and the associated lag time. This improves cash control and offers faster funds availability.”
“Beyond that, image capture at the point of presentment allows for greater control and audit capabilities,” Vogel added. “As soon as the document is scanned, it is captured and logged, and can be tracked through various processes for depositing, accounts receivable updates, and handling change of address requests and customer service inquiries, among other functions.”
With the proper systems in place, Vogel added, document images can be viewed from any authorized inquiry station on the network for customer purposes, within minutes of receiving the document. This means that data completion from image can be completed in a remote office or in a centralized location, providing greater flexibility while maintaining strict control and a complete audit trail for each transaction, wherever it is processed.
“One of the significant challenges of image capture at the point of presentment is the need to standardize rules, processes and practices across remote offices. Otherwise, users may not get the full advantage of remote capture,” Vogel said. “This may require a thorough business analysis and a willingness to unify business processes.”
What do you think? E-mail me at m_brousseau@msn.com.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Parascript Goes To India
Posted by Mark Brousseau
An interesting article on Parascript from the Indus Business Journal.
Colo. software company checks into Indian market
Check-recognition product for payment processors
BY CHRIS NELSON
BOULDER, Colo. – Parascript LLC – a U.S.-based company that specializes in image-analysis and pattern-recognition technology – has set its sights on the Indian market. The Boulder-based company recently introduced its universal check-recognition and verification software, CheckPlus International, to banks and other payment processors for use in India.
The software that the company has made available for use in India is essentially an updated version of CheckPlus International, which the company developed from the original CheckPlus software. Designed for use among banks, financial institutions and payment processors, CheckPlus enables efficient processing of digitized check images and “makes sense” of the data found on checks, according to Yuri Prizemin, Parascript’s director of product marketing.
“Parascript’s technology extracts meaningful data from documents and turns it into actual information,” he said. “CheckPlus offers a streamlined approach to processing checks and other financial documents because it incorporates three important technologies – check recognition, forms recognition and signature verification – into a single product.”
Already being used in nine international markets – including France and Portugal – CheckPlus International allows payment processors to meet country-specific check formats, backgrounds and writing styles while accurately interpreting information on documents, according to ParaScript. India, which is home to at least 29 different languages and hundreds of dialects, presented Parascript with a problem that it had not encountered in other nations, according to Prizemin.
“India is a unique country in that it is home to so many languages,” Prizemin said. “So we started with an English-language version of CheckPlus International, but have plans to expand it to other languages in the future.”
Depending on the country, CheckPlus International is also able to read a check’s payee line, the so-called magnetic ink character recognition, or MICR line (the band of computer-generated numbers printed at the bottom of a check; it was developed in 1956 by the American Bankers Association to facilitate the processing of checks); and checksum. The latter is a computed value that enables a financial institution to check the validity of something; typically, checksums are used in data transmissions to detect if the data has been transmitted successfully.
The technology can also perform signature presence detection and verification on personal and business checks, making it easier for financial institutions to quickly identify random and skilled forgeries.
Prizemin said Parascript has long recognized the need to expand to other international markets aside from those that it already operates in, so when the company’s partners in India asked it to develop a version of CheckPlus International specifically for the subcontinent, it acted quickly.
“They told us that us they needed a technology solution [to handle electronic check processing] in India,” he said. “From our perspective, we knew that we could do this because we had already built the basic fundamental technology base layers in CheckPlus and CheckPlus International; we knew that we could adapt both programs for use in multiple international markets. So, we simply added some modules to CheckPlus International for use in India.”
Thus far, only one of Parascript’s partners in India – Aperta Ltd., a payment-processing company headquartered in the United Kingdom with locations worldwide – has permitted the company to acknowledge it publicly.
In a statement, Aperta technical director Martin Wylupke said CheckPlus International enhances the products that Aperta markets to its banking and service partners in India, when used in conjunction with Aperta’s check-image processing application.
CheckPlus works by automatically locating and recognizing eight standard field types that are typically found on business and personal checks, cash tickets, deposit slips, money orders and image-replacement documents, which were mandated by the federal Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act (better known as Check 21) of 2003.
Those field types include the currency amount, payee line, check date, check number, MICR line, the location of the payor block on personal and business checks, and verification of the payor’s signature on personal and business checks.
Adopted Oct. 28, 2004, Check 21 is a Congressionally approved law that allows the recipient of a paper check to create a digital version, thereby eliminating the need for further handling of the physical document. It essentially promotes an image swap among or between financial institutions, rather than the decades-old practice of exchanging paper checks, which in turn accelerates clearing cycles and reduces processing and labor costs.
An interesting article on Parascript from the Indus Business Journal.
Colo. software company checks into Indian market
Check-recognition product for payment processors
BY CHRIS NELSON
BOULDER, Colo. – Parascript LLC – a U.S.-based company that specializes in image-analysis and pattern-recognition technology – has set its sights on the Indian market. The Boulder-based company recently introduced its universal check-recognition and verification software, CheckPlus International, to banks and other payment processors for use in India.
The software that the company has made available for use in India is essentially an updated version of CheckPlus International, which the company developed from the original CheckPlus software. Designed for use among banks, financial institutions and payment processors, CheckPlus enables efficient processing of digitized check images and “makes sense” of the data found on checks, according to Yuri Prizemin, Parascript’s director of product marketing.
“Parascript’s technology extracts meaningful data from documents and turns it into actual information,” he said. “CheckPlus offers a streamlined approach to processing checks and other financial documents because it incorporates three important technologies – check recognition, forms recognition and signature verification – into a single product.”
Already being used in nine international markets – including France and Portugal – CheckPlus International allows payment processors to meet country-specific check formats, backgrounds and writing styles while accurately interpreting information on documents, according to ParaScript. India, which is home to at least 29 different languages and hundreds of dialects, presented Parascript with a problem that it had not encountered in other nations, according to Prizemin.
“India is a unique country in that it is home to so many languages,” Prizemin said. “So we started with an English-language version of CheckPlus International, but have plans to expand it to other languages in the future.”
Depending on the country, CheckPlus International is also able to read a check’s payee line, the so-called magnetic ink character recognition, or MICR line (the band of computer-generated numbers printed at the bottom of a check; it was developed in 1956 by the American Bankers Association to facilitate the processing of checks); and checksum. The latter is a computed value that enables a financial institution to check the validity of something; typically, checksums are used in data transmissions to detect if the data has been transmitted successfully.
The technology can also perform signature presence detection and verification on personal and business checks, making it easier for financial institutions to quickly identify random and skilled forgeries.
Prizemin said Parascript has long recognized the need to expand to other international markets aside from those that it already operates in, so when the company’s partners in India asked it to develop a version of CheckPlus International specifically for the subcontinent, it acted quickly.
“They told us that us they needed a technology solution [to handle electronic check processing] in India,” he said. “From our perspective, we knew that we could do this because we had already built the basic fundamental technology base layers in CheckPlus and CheckPlus International; we knew that we could adapt both programs for use in multiple international markets. So, we simply added some modules to CheckPlus International for use in India.”
Thus far, only one of Parascript’s partners in India – Aperta Ltd., a payment-processing company headquartered in the United Kingdom with locations worldwide – has permitted the company to acknowledge it publicly.
In a statement, Aperta technical director Martin Wylupke said CheckPlus International enhances the products that Aperta markets to its banking and service partners in India, when used in conjunction with Aperta’s check-image processing application.
CheckPlus works by automatically locating and recognizing eight standard field types that are typically found on business and personal checks, cash tickets, deposit slips, money orders and image-replacement documents, which were mandated by the federal Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act (better known as Check 21) of 2003.
Those field types include the currency amount, payee line, check date, check number, MICR line, the location of the payor block on personal and business checks, and verification of the payor’s signature on personal and business checks.
Adopted Oct. 28, 2004, Check 21 is a Congressionally approved law that allows the recipient of a paper check to create a digital version, thereby eliminating the need for further handling of the physical document. It essentially promotes an image swap among or between financial institutions, rather than the decades-old practice of exchanging paper checks, which in turn accelerates clearing cycles and reduces processing and labor costs.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Structured Docs Going Image
By Mark Brousseau
Despite all the industry talk about automating unstructured document processing – and it’s sure to be a hot topic at TAWPI’s Capture Conference in December – to date, most organizations have focused their imaging efforts on structured documents. According to a recent Question of the Week on the TAWPI Web site, 80 percent of respondents said they imaged “mostly structured documents,” while 11 percent of respondents said they imaged “mostly unstructured docs.” Nine percent of the 87 respondents to the question said their organizations imaged “mostly semi-structured documents.” Where is your organization putting its efforts? E-mail me at m_brousseau@msn.com.
Despite all the industry talk about automating unstructured document processing – and it’s sure to be a hot topic at TAWPI’s Capture Conference in December – to date, most organizations have focused their imaging efforts on structured documents. According to a recent Question of the Week on the TAWPI Web site, 80 percent of respondents said they imaged “mostly structured documents,” while 11 percent of respondents said they imaged “mostly unstructured docs.” Nine percent of the 87 respondents to the question said their organizations imaged “mostly semi-structured documents.” Where is your organization putting its efforts? E-mail me at m_brousseau@msn.com.
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