ATAPY Software helps a Dutch recruitment agency to develop a Document Management System

Processing semi-structured documents such as invoices, credit notes, expense notes, timesheets, resumes, is still an issue for many small and mid-sized businesses. There are a number of complete data capture software packages allowing to effectively process thousands of forms a day, but their diverse functionality is often excessive for the needs of SMB customers, and still doesn't provide full automation of the document cycle, falling short of important document management functions. Many IT companies today gain their competitive advantage by delivering universal all-in-one Document Management systems which offer smart approach to data capture and rich capabilities for tuning. Such products feature a wealth of configurable workflow options allowing customers to completely tailor the system to their documentation procedures.

In 2005, a Netherlands-based company IT-Staffing approached ATAPY Software with a request to assist in development of an Electronic Document Management System. After several successfully completed project phases and 2,5 years of development,  AXZAM IDP - a complete A to Z software package aimed at processing semi-structured documents - was released.

Feature highlights

The AXZAM IDP (Intelligent Document Processing) system automates the whole document lifecycle, from scanning paper documents up to final approval of the electronic document and export into external format for archiving. The system effectively processes a wide range of business documents via a variety of configurable workflow types.

The key feature of the system is flexibility of all processing steps: the user can create an individual document structure for each document type; each document can be processed according to its own rules (several users could check and approve the document simultaneously or one after another, additional information from external sources may be requested, documents may be sent to several users for approval, et cetera). Customizable export into several formats is available. AXZAM system supports advanced document permission checks based on company, supplier, account number, amount values, and other document data. A user can script the system behavior using C#.

The data capture process in AXZAM IDP is powered by ABBYY FineReader Engine - an OCR toolkit by ABBYY Software House. Semi-structured forms processing is implemented using ABBYY FlexiCapture technology.

The system features the following functionality:

• Scanning paper documents, creating electronic documents
• Control of the entire document workflow process; transparent management of the process: bypassing bottlenecks and resolving invoice backlogs
• Processing documents according to the company policy
• Import of accounting data from external sources
• Export of documents into external (financial) systems
• Monitoring each document throughout the process; reporting.

AXZAM Intelligent Document Processing architecture: modules

Module	User operations
AXZAM Administrator	Configure AXZAM system-wide settings: security, general document processing settings, etc.
AXZAM Scan Client	Create batches Set batch parameters Scan paper documents (or import images from other sources) Transfer batches to the server for subsequent recognition
AXZAM Recognition service	Transfer documents to the AXZAM database OR Recognize documents according to user-specified settings and transfer the information to the AXZAM database
AXZAM Manager	Enter the incoming scanned and electronic documents into the database Carry out major document-processing tasks: Create/process document Determine workflow settings for document Edit document metadata Perform the final check/approval of the document Control and report the document flow process
AXZAM Scheduler	Plan and execute data import and data export tasks
AXZAM Updating service	Maintain and update AXZAM client applications files

Document processing workflow in AXZAM IDP

The AXZAM documentation process features a sophisticated sequence of phases tied together in an effective work model targeted at the specifics of recruitment companies' operation.

Manual re-processing of incorrectly recognized documents: the "recognition on-the-fly" approach

One of the innovative ideas behind the product is a specialized operator-guided "recognition on-the-fly" procedure which was introduced for dealing with poorly recognized documents. The majority of recognition mistakes occur due to incorrect pre-recognition zoning of the image. In the AZXAM IPD procedure, the operator performs the following steps:

1. Reviews the source image. The interface features comfortable zoom, scrolling, and a variety of display modes
2. Manually places a block on the image by drawing it around the required data with a mouse
3. Maps the block to a corresponding data field by placing the mouse cursor inside the field
4. Initiates recognition in the application GUI

The contents of the block are recognized and inserted into the selected field.

When implementing this process, ATAPY re-used its experience and findings gained while elaborating their own product - the ImageControl visual component.

About IT-Staffing

IT-Staffing was founded in 1986 and has grown into one of the biggest staffing agencies in the IT sphere in the Netherlands. With seven ISO-certified staffing companies collaborating in it, IT-Staffing Group serves a wide range of both commercial and not-for-profit companies, providing effective solutions to their recruitment needs.