March 2010 Newsletter
Managing Accounts Payable documents is often challenging due to the variety of layouts that paper and electronic vendor invoices can come in. What is the best way to capture and process these documents? Many imaging vendors recommend OCR (optical character recognition) as the solution, but this is not always the best option. OCR can fail on as many as 5% of all characters on a page. Correcting these errors requires dual entry of key index values. That costs valuable time.
To ensure consistency and accuracy across all documents, RJS recommends one of two options, with WebDocs as the back-end document repository. The first is an integrated key-value or metadata capture from your data entry screens or ERP system. With one click or the press of a button, key values can be electronically passed from one application to WebDocs with 100% accuracy. The second option is full data entry automation with more sophisticated OCR capabilities and application of business logic to each invoice for verification and pass/fail on those business rules.
Contact us at 888-RJS-SOFT or sales@rjssoftware.com to learn more about data capture and automating AP and other business processes.
Bill Whalen, Sales & Marketing - billw@rjssoftware.com
Join the Mobile Workforce
Today’s workforce is increasingly mobile. From CEOs to sales teams, warehouse workers to doctors, nurses and lab technicians, these people are on-the-go 24x7. They need instant access to their documents and information immediately from wherever they happen to be.
The new RJS Mobile Framework software quickly enables your CRM, ERP, sales, manufacturing or other line-of-business applications to be accessed from any mobile device. Instead of logging on to a terminal or connecting to VPN, mobile users simply send information requests to their key systems from the mail client to request information or update existing information as needed. RJS Software is adding this mobile capability to all of our core applications in 2010.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can enable your business to maximize your software and mobile device investments. Click here to register for our upcoming Mobile Applicatoin webinar on March 18.
Richard J. Schoen, President, CTO - richard@rjssoftware.com
RJS Powers Forms Creation at CPD
BACKGROUND
Central Power Distributors (CPD), founded in 1985, is a burgeoning lawn and garden engine parts distributor that employs more than 60 people at three locations, including its headquarters in Anoka, Minnesota and facilities in Dayton, Ohio and Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
CHALLENGE
With multiple warehouses to manage, CPD needed a way to print data onto forms in remote locations from a single, centralized system. Stocking preprinted forms in each location was impractical. In addition to the cost of having the forms printed and then distributing them to the different facilities and storing them there, it would have been necessary to have an operator present at each location to load the special forms as required. That would have been neither practical nor cost-effective.
One alternative might have been to print raw data onto blank paper, but that would have looked unprofessional. Bills-of-lading, invoices and statements all end up in customers’ hands and should, therefore, project an image that reinforces the customers’ high regard for CPD. What CPD really wanted was the best of both worlds – the professionalism of high quality preprinted forms, including graphics, coupled with the costeffectiveness and simplicity of printing on blank paper wherever and whenever it makes the most sense to do so. “The best of both worlds” is often impossible, but not in this case.
SOLUTION
The way CPD solved the problem was to not use preprinted forms, but rather store graphical form images online, merge data into the forms and then send them off to be printed at the most appropriate
location. The software it uses to easily facilitate this solution is WinSpool/400 Electronic Forms from RJS Software Solutions.
WinSpool/400 Electronic Forms allows you to design, manage and produce electronic forms using an IBM i server. When creating a new form, you can either design it from scratch using a graphical, PC-based editor or you can scan in an existing preprinted form to use as a template. Once the form is created, it is simply a matter of using the built-in design tool to select the information that needs to be imported into the report template.
WinSpool/400 Electronic Forms then automatically merges the necessary data and the report can be printed or it can be saved as a PDF, PCL or Postscript file that can be archived, emailed, faxed or printed as required.
CPD uses WinSpool/400 Electronic Forms to mergevariable data and form templates to create completed documents, such as packing slips and invoices. CPD then sends the documents over a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to be printed in the appropriate facility.
RESULTS
Dave Wald, IT Manager at CPD reports that WinSpool/400 Electronic Forms provides functionality that CPD can’t otherwise get from the system, functionality that helps the company to project a more professional image to its customers. And it does so without the need for inefficient centralized print operations or the expense of producing and managing preprinted forms.
Wald also sees WinSpool/400 Electronic Forms opening doors to hat CPD will be able to do in the future by allowing the company to easily merge forms and data in a seamless process. Keeping everything electronic and printing forms as required onto blank paper will allow the company to use database fields to sort and collate documents for output in order to improve productivity.
Wald has found the support provided by RJS to be outstanding. When he came on board as a result of an acquisition, CPD was already using WinSpool/400 Electronic Forms, but it was experiencing some instability when using the product. Wald called RJS support and a little troubleshooting effort determined that the problem was, in fact, caused by something that CPD’s staff was doing, not by the software. CPD changed its procedures and the software has been running solidly ever since.
Nobody wants to have problems, but a benefit of dealing with one is that you get to test the mettle of your supplier’s support. RJS passed the test with flying colors. Even though the issue was not with its software, rather than pointing fingers, RJS immediately and
willingly helped to find the cause of the problem and resolve it.
“RJS support is one of the best I’ve ever experienced,” exclaimed Wald. “They were willing to do whatever it took to help me. The support people were very knowledgeable and very willing to take the time to explain things in detail. (Unlike support staff at some other vendors,) it was not a matter of ‘push, push; hurry up; let’s get onto the next person.’ I was quite impressed.”
Stopping Data Leakage
Organizations are increasingly aware of the need to control the information that flows into, through and out of their networks. Download our whitepaper which demonstrates the need to establish an effective policy to prevent data leakage. The paper also provides practical guidance on how to use your security budget effectively
to protect data at the gateway and endpoint, and highlights the benefits of encryption in securing data in the event that it does get stolen or lost.
The whitepaper also focuses on the growing importance of Data Leakage Protection (DLP) and how monitoring employees’ Internet usage can be the first step in protecting your company’s data. Click here to download the whitepaper on “Stopping Data Leakage.”
Join us for a FREE Live Event March 29 in Chicago, Illinois. We’ll have a two hour presentation covering Data Leakage and the current 2010 Network Threat Landscape Report to help you understand how to protect your company’s data. Visit our events page to register for the event.
Greg Schmidt, Director of Technology Services - greg@rjssoftware.com
Managing WebDocs Sessions
The IBM i version of WebDocs uses a mechanism called “sessions” as a place where it can go to determine access rights and privileges when a user logs in. Folder access, document type access, administrator rights, ability to upload documents and filter criteria are all stored in a session file.
These sessions eliminate the need to query all WebDocs security files each time a user signs in to WebDocs. The result is quicker
login and less database activity. It also means quicker response time when document access is requested from other line-of-business applications.
Customers have the option of creating a new session each time a user logs in, or looking for an existing session in the RJSTEMP library. Without proper maintenance, either of these options can cause the RJSTEMP library to become very large in size. Using
the IBM i job scheduler to run WebDocs session maintenance programs such as DOCSESPRG, you can control how long unused sessions are kept, thereby limiting the size of the RJSTEMP library.
For more information please contact your account representative or the RJS Sales Team at sales@rjssoftware.com or 888-RJS-SOFT.
Larry John, Tech Manager - larry@rjssoftware.com
