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Financial Solutions
Financial Brokerage Company Seeks Automation with Barcode Routing and Digital Document Splitting
SNAPS proposed a solution integrated with the client’s workflow environment that helped to eliminate lost documents and enable faster processing of paper based documents received through the client’s mailroom. Documents that are scanned in the mailroom today are separated by barcode header pages which allow the Snapsflow application to pick up the document, create a workflow ticket within client's workflow system, correctly orientate the image and present the image via the SNAPS TifEd viewer to the client’s indexer for completion of any required indexing data.
Snapsflow will then submit the ticket to their workflow environment for processing. Snapsflow will also route electronic faxed documents via RightFax created within the workflow environment, for example request confirmations. Business rules may be created or modified within Snapsflow to adapt to changing processes and has the ability to scale to different electronic image inputs.
This Snapsflow productivity solution is for managing scanned documents separated by bar code cover sheets initially and is easily expanded to cover other electronic documents that are faxed in on the present RightFax server, or that exist in a folder on the network.
Client was manually processing snail mail, faxes and scanned documents into backend workflow systems. Client was spending a tremendous amount of manual labor to repeatedly index documents and create tickets in the workflow system. Client was expecting approximately 500,000 documents per year which equated to almost 2,100 documents per day. This volume was scheduled to increase over the next 6 months after implementation.
Business Need
The client's Call centers receive thousands of documents via mail, fax and email daily. These documents are a mixture of solicited and unsolicited forms sent in by their existing customers, new prospects or generated by the Field Sales Representatives (FSR). One of the client's primary objectives is to process and track all of these documents within the Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 24-48 hours from receipt. The current process takes many hours for the customer service group to acknowledge receipt of a document. This process involves many manual tasks before a traceable process within the client's Workflow system is started. This action leads to many additional phone calls from customers and a tremendous amount of labor to confirm that a document has been processed which can lead to lost revenue and customers. The Client needed an intelligent routing automation and imaging solution for sorting scanned documents, presenting the digital images, and importing the indexed data along with the image into the their workflow environment. Client had a need to for editing TIFF files, viewing the scanned documents, creating an index and ticket in their workflow.
Benefit/ROI
- Ability to reallocate labor to other higher valued tasks
- Ability to process more documents faster, with little manual intervention and without adding personnel
- Reduced the propensity for lost documents within their workflow
- Met their 24-48 hour SLA requirements
- They could now accurately track the life cycle of the document prior to being input into their workflow system
Scope of Project:
- Installed Snapsflow Engine on the Client SQL server using
- Configured the system to monitor network subdirectories and pick up multi-page TIFF files generated by scanning
- Configured the system to monitor one or more RightFax user mailboxes and pick up fax images for processing
- Split the scanned/faxed images
- Perform auto-rotation on the image as required
- Extract barcode data if available
- Save TIFF files into a working directory using an agreed upon file naming convention
- Created a workflow process by posting XML data to URL/Web service
- Included exception handling and notification in the event that errors occur
- Fax enabled application for outbound faxing via HTTP/XML interface
TifEd Deployment
ASP.NET web page that will host the TifEd user control. This web page is opened via a URL link from within the Workflow system. Secure access to this web page is controlled by Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS). The client is responsible for configuring the IIS server to integrate with their authentication software.
Once a user has clicked the link, from within workflow, and the user authentication has taken place, a web page opens in Microsoft Internet Explorer. The link URL contains a unique identifier for the image file to open. This page allows the user to view and annotate TIFF files.
TifEd supports the following features:
- Fit image to width
- Fit image to height
- Zoom In/Out
- Rotate page left/right
- Re-order page
- Pan
- Zoom to rectangle
- Currently TifEd supports the following annotation features:
- Hollow rectangle
- Filled rectangle
- Translucent rectangle (highlighting)
- Text notes with configurable fonts, bold, underline and italics
- Merged images
- SNAPS components used:
- RightFax Connector
- Barcode Module
- XML module
- RightFax Listener
- Snapsflow Engine
- TIFF processor
Client was up and running in production in two weeks.
Regional Bank Automating the Indexing of Loan Documents
This client is a major regional bank, with hundreds of branch offices located throughout the southeast. Historically, each branch would fax loan applications into headquarters where they were manually scanned and indexed. While they had recently purchased RightFax, there was still a significant amount of manual labor involved in splitting and indexing the documents into their Electronic Document Management System (EDMS).
To solve this problem we used Snapsflow and its Coversheet Expert. The Coversheet Expert allowed the loan officers in the branch to quickly generate cover sheets and separator pages before faxing loan documents to headquarters. Snapsflow auto-rotated all pages upright, split faxes by document type and created an index file for loading faxes into the EDMS.
The process starts in the branch office when customers come in to apply for mortgage, auto, home equity and other types of loans. Supporting documentation must be supplied to the underwriters before the bank will approve the loan. Each document set includes multiple types of documents. The manual process required a clerk to sort the document pages by document type and then scan the documents into their PC based indexing software. Next the indexer would perform database lookups to find the applicant's information. Once this information was found it was associated with the application and the documents were imported into the OnBase EDMS. Thousands of loan applications were processed each week, so a number of people were involved in this process. Determining how many people were needed was a challenge since the volume of incoming documents varied on a daily basis. The client wanted to automate the process of indexing and scanning the documents into their EDMS. The manual process was slowing down their operation and adding cost from the required scan station operators and indexers.
The Snapsflow solution saved the client the cost of four employees and allowed them to speed up their loan approval process resulting in increased revenue for the bank.
To fully automate this process two software applications were needed. First, the Coversheet Expert had to be deployed in the branch offices. The client had developed their own custom loan origination system. We worked with their developers to add a button to the application form so the branch loan officer could quickly transfer customer information to the web based Coversheet Expert. When the loan officer clicks the button, the customer's information is automatically transferred to a web browser and a set of barcoded pages is automatically generated. All the loan officer has to do is print the pages to a local printer. The final step in the branch office is to take the customer's supporting documentation and insert the separator pages and fax the entire set of document to headquarters.
The Snapsflow Engine is configured to monitor the RightFax servers. When a new fax is received, Snapsflow first scan every page to determine the correct orientation. If the document is upside down, it is automatically rotated. Next, Snapsflow performs bar-code recognition, looking for the cover sheet and separator pages. The cover sheet contains the customer information and application ID, while the separator pages contain a bar-code that identifies the document type. When a separator page is encountered, the document is split and a separate TIFF image file is generated. After the splitting process is complete, Snapsflow creates an index file for each document. Both the index file and TIFF file are then be dropped into a folder where the EDMS picks them up. The index information is read and the information is stored. The system was tested extensively and the client was in production in a matter of weeks.
Collaboration Improves Lives
This simple axiom drives everything we do. It shapes how we approach problems, execute solutions and measure results. It’s not enough to be a real-time organization; you need to facilitate real-time collaboration. We do this using the Adaptive Exchange Methodology.
The Adaptive Exchange Methodology uses a stack of technologies called the Snapsflow Framework. Each technology is focused on overcoming specific challenges in achieving Real Time Collaboration. The Holon Framework was built, from the ground up, to be configured into combinations that lower the technical and human hurdles to collaboration while optimizing strategic agility and operational efficiency.