EPSIIA
Compart digital co-existence clears path to electronic presentment
When banks, utilities, mutual funds and other businesses need electronic document archiving, presentment and eDelivery, many turn to EPSIIA to help make it happen. Thousands of companies rely on EPSIIA to help them securely present documents on the web, via email, or on media like CD or DVD. One mutual fund company uses CD ROM, with broker data for monthly statements, trade confirms, tax documents and for long-term archiving and compliance. Other financial institutions use these services to their offerings for internet banking or eBanking.
"We pioneered turning print output into data to present on a screen. As a result, clients can eliminate microfiche, paper storage and print and mail costs and deliver information electronically on demand," said Jose Gutierrez, Director of Implementations and Professional Services at EPSIIA, a business unit of Fiserv, Inc.
600 Million Pages of Data a Month
Data comes into EPSIIA as structured data streams like Metacode, AFP, line data and PDF. Monthly input is measured in terabytes, and depending on the month, 500 million to 600 million pages are processed. EPSIIA is known for its high speed, high volume solutions. "This is where we concentrate our efforts, and at times we integrate with larger enterprise solutions offering workflow management, eBanking, electronic payment, e-archive and many flavors of e-document delivery," said Gutierrez.
After EPSIIA receives print output from clients or their print vendor, a proprietary application ingests and interprets, indexes, encrypts, compresses and stores data. Because clients send data in many formats, EPSIIA employs data management best practices to handle the variety. For more complex, variable formats like PostScript and PCL – and to establish digital co-existence – EPSIIA turns to DocBridge Mill software from Compart Software.
Pre-processing for Complex Formats, Not Re-engineering
DocBridge Mill modules for PostScript, VIPP and PDF formats serve as pre-processing normalization tools. "They convert the more complex variable data types into more manageable print streams like AFP," Gutierrez explained. "Our proprietary tool supports these, too, but the command set and variability of these formats was outpacing our ability to develop and keep up with client requests. If a print stream had a complex set of commands, that meant lengthy development and trial and error, and we often have limited time to reengineer our support for new data streams."
AFP and Metacode appear to have a finite number of commands to support, and they are well documented with fairly consistent commands. "With PostScript, there can be variables depending on who created a particular job. As I understand it, there are different commands for doing the same thing," he said.
Development Times Reduced By More than Half
"Now we pass the data through DocBridge Mill and convert it to a print stream that is easier to handle," explained Gutierrez. "DocBridge Mill reduced our data development time to just a few weeks, compared to six to eight weeks previously. It also frees up our application development resources to work on other items, and it has cut implementation time for client solutions. We have reduced implementation cycles and get to production quicker."
Even with two passes – once through DocBridge Mill and once through the ingestion engine – EPSIIA keeps up with SLAs and aggressive turnarounds because they can ingest millions of pages in a couple of hours. After a data stream "setup" is finalized, it runs in "lights out" mode for maximum operational efficiency.
Compart Data Knowledge Runs Deep
"With the breadth of data Docbridge Mill supports, we haven’t seen many print outputs it can’t handle. We have confidence that we can convert complex data with a high level of accuracy," said Gutierrez.
"Knowledge at Compart runs deep," he declared. "We have the benefit of working with a company that takes pride in interpreting data as their core strength." In a world of complex data and unforgiving deadlines, Compart digital co-existence gives EPSIIA confidence in data conversion and meeting commitments to customers.