Fujitsu Expands Document Management Software Solutions Portfolio

Fujitsu has announced the availability of its latest scanning software, PaperStream Server.  “PaperStream Server is a web-based enterprise-class document processing platform that allows users to collect, process, index, and route business critical documents into either line-of-business systems or ECM systems,” said Marni Carmichael, senior director of product management at Fujitsu Corporate Products of America. “It is a version 1.0 product, so it is brand new for us.”

Designed to enable an organization to customize its own processes, PaperStream Server can integrate with existing document capture or ECM applications without the need for complicated mapping to connect to an organization’s back-end system. The platform enables organizations to import or ingest both scanned images and digital documents from multiple sources, process those documents, then send them into business workflows.

Beyond batch processing, the software can also pull in existing digital documents from watched folders, emails, CSV/XML files or other client applications, such as Fujitsu’s PaperStream Capture Pro. In addition, the system offers built-in web indexing to enable rapid processing of documents, and the software can adapt to seamlessly support any number of documents.

Fujitsu has been working in the last couple of years to understand users’ scanner needs and the challenges they are facing, said Carmichael. “What we have found is there is definitely a substantial amount of the market that needs to grow and supplement their ECM or capture solution but they don’t really need - in all departments - complete business process automation,” she said.

While there “are excellent complex solutions solving real business problems” there is shortage of solutions meeting users’ more standard capture or ECM needs, Carmichael observed. “They have some simple steps - some processes - that they need to be able to add at a reasonable cost and with a very simple deployment methodology.”

Key capabilities of the new product, according to Carmichael, are a visual workflow process designer enabling the drag-and-drop of required steps; flexible document capture from paper and digital sources; and server-based image processing that enhances and cleans up images for improved accuracy of data extracting and indexing. In addition, there is document separation using fixed page, barcode, and patch codes; indexing and metadata creation using methods such as web indexing, barcode, database look-up and system data; and validation of data using pattern matching, required fields, read-only fields, database lookup, and default values.

There is also the ability to release images in multiple formats such as TIFF, PDF, or Searchable PDF, as XML, to network folders or an established line-of-business system or ECM connectors, said Carmichael.  "Today, we have connectors for Office 365, SharePoint, and Box, and we are finishing one for Google Docs, as well."

An important aspect of PaperStream Server is that it is web-based, she noted, “and that means that the components and applications can be accessed anywhere by any kind of user, and that it very simple to deploy.”