BancTec/Plexus releases version 3.5 of eFIRST Capture

BancTec/Plexus, has today announced the release of version 3.5 of eFIRST Capture, its state of the art data capture system. The new version, which brings the data capture discipline onto the next evolutionary level, will facilitate speedier implementation of information management systems.

The aim of the new release of eFIRST Capture is to focus on Intelligent Document Recognition techniques. These allow the automatic capture of mixed document types such as invoices, letters or application forms from a variety of sources (e.g. scanned paper; faxes; on-line forms; emails) with minimal operator intervention.

The new version of eFIRST Capture eliminates pre-sorting requirements through the use of a variety of textual and image-based techniques for document identification. Once captured and identified, each document type can be subjected to a set of operations specified to its layout and content. For example, eMulti-line delivery notes go through several steps of recognition, data cleansing and high-speed operator correction, whereas correspondence items may only have a contact name and department extracted.

As Gert Meijerink, eFIRST Capture's product manager explains: "All companies have an accounts payable function that deals with invoices, often in a plethora of formats. In the past, companies had to deploy substantial human resources to sort, interpret and process the data. The new version of eFIRST Capture offers methods for locating these documents in the incoming daily mail, classifying all documents and extracting relevant information, no matter what format it comes in. This will help to revolutionise the data capture process."

The new version of eFIRST Capture also incorporates improved "document clean up" functionality, which will reduce errors and the need for human intervention in the data capture process. As Gert explains: "Images from fax machines are often tricky to process as they can be distorted and prone to smudging. The software resizes and re-orientates a shrunken or skewed document image and cleans up the added lines and speckles whilst keeping all relevant data intact."

Another element of the new look eFIRST capture is the Service Manager application, which controls functionality on workstations. Introducing the service manager application, BancTec ensures that the software can be deployed across many workstations within the organisation. Traditionally, many capture applications have struggled with scalability but this new version is capable of deploying capture to lots of users, with minimal disruption.

As Pete Dinham, international product director at BancTec/Plexus affirms: "This new version of eFIRST capture will revolutionise the application for its many users. Information Management in its best form is capable of streamlining administration within organisations and can seriously impact costs and free up resources."