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PRINT.IT
01732 759725
DATA CAPTURE
EASY’s digital content solution has
been live at the Business Intelligence
organistion for 18 months, and
Polly already has her sights set on
further enhancements. “We hope
to upgrade the Abbyy software
soon, as the latest version is even
more intelligent. For example, it
can recognise where a letter should
be a number and vice versa,” she
explains.
It is also preparing its systems
to cater for original content that
comes in digitally, as suppliers begin
to automate their own processes
and submit source documents
electronically – a development
Wilmington fully supports. “It will
save further administration time at
our end and save on paper costs, by
eliminating the need to print or scan
source content, only to re-enter it
manually,” Polly explains.
In the meantime, EASY has been
helping Wilmington Insight migrate to
a new database. It has replicated the
existing database software so that
workflow can be comprehensively
tested to make sure that it will
continue to work seamlessly in the
new, improved repository developed
by an external third party. “EASY has
pulled out all the stops to smooth
this transition for us, ensuring that
the XML feeds still work,” says Polly.
All in all, Polly judges the EASY
digital content management solution
to have been a great success,
even before the benefits of these
enhancements are realised. “We’re
definitely unlocking savings from all
the efficiencies we’ve gained, and
that doesn’t even take into account
the additional value we’re able to
offer our clients,” she says.
OPEX mailing equipment is speeding up the processing of French
social security contributions
The perfect contribution
According
to official
guidelines,
all mail
processing
must be
completed
by 11am
each day.
Since 1945, France has provided
health, family care and retirement
benefits through a social security
system funded by taxes and social
contributions from employees and
employers.
Responsibility for the collection
of contributions lies with the Union
de Recouvrement des Cotisations
de Sécurité Sociale et d’Allocations
Familiales (URSSAF), a private
organisation with a public service
mission.
The URSSAF is under the overall
control of the national Agence
Centrale des Organismes de Sécurité
Sociale (ACOSS), which manages the
financial and benefits disbursement
for each of the URSSAF’s 22 regional
branches.
In order to improve the efficiency
of postal processing and electronic
records management, URSSAF
recently specified OPEX mailcentre
automation technology for use in most
of its branches. In total, it acquired
32 OMATION 306 ‘envelopeners’
with sorting capability and 45
OPEX AS7200i out-of-the-envelope
document scanning systems.
In addition, two dedicated
collection centres, where daily mail
volumes can exceed 80,000 items,
have been equipped with OPEX
Eagle high speed mail extraction and
payment processing units. Top-of-
the-range Eagle units combine the
opening of sealed envelopes, the
extraction and imaging of contents and
presentation of the data for clearing
via accounts receivable software.
In tandem with the new mailing
processing equipment, the URSSAF
in-house IT unit, CIRTIL, created two
software programmes: Aladin, which
can read and clarify the sources of
cheques, coupons and forms, even if
the contents are missing or blurred;
and CIME, which identifies and
classifies correspondence by subject,
such as a change of address or
request for changes to payments.
Complete process
URSSAF set up a pilot site and training
hub for the system in its Toulon office.
Providing a template for regional
offices across France, the equipment
is set up to provide the fastest and
most efficient route for the processing
of the hundreds of thousands of
letters a branch receives each month.
According to official guidelines, all
mail processing must be completed by
11am each day.
Mail processing consists of a
number of clearly defined steps:
1. Opening.
OMATION 306
envelopeners open batches of
envelopes at speeds of up to 40,000
per hour and can be programmed to
sort by thickness, length and height,
which enables them to identify
‘clean’ and ‘exception’ mail. A milling
cutter with eight cut-depths protects
contents from damage and leaves a
soft, feathered edge to minimise the
risk of paper cuts.
2. Pre-scanning.
Opened envelopes
are placed in a holding area where
contents are pre-sorted prior to
scanning on AS7200i scanners.
Work is divided by function
depending on the number and type
of document.
3. Scanning.
The AS7200i scanners
significantly reduce preparation and
handling time, thanks to their ability
to capture documents in multiple
formats up to 300dpi, to handle poor
quality documents and to classify
documents using OCR, OMR and
barcode technology. The scanners
can cope with document up to A3
size and 12.25 x 18.25 inches.
4. Reporting.
Both the 306
envelopeners and the AS7200i
scanning systems can provide
statistics on throughput (speeds and
quantities).
The system has already proved a
great success, with Manuel Falaschi,
initiator of the OPEX solution in the
Toulon pilot site, declaring himself
“very impressed and pleased with
the new investment.”
01204 388838,
or
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