As I mentioned in a previous post, we have had the fun of playing with the software ” Lego’s ” that makes up a large portion of iLinx Capture. At the heart of the matter you have the ILINX Server. This is a nice scalable service which allows you to process your image files.

The Hierarchy goes something like this. Configure an Input Source: an input source monitors a directory and upon finding a matching file type will pass that on to the assigned Batch. The Input Sources are configured after clicking on a server group, and then a corresponding server.

In order to assign a Batch though, you need to have added the batch to your ‘Profiles’ (On the right)

To configure the import just set a Polling Folder, Archive Folder, and Exception Folder. Then use the familiar *.tif wildcard and assign these incoming images to the AP Batch.

Now that the formalities of getting images in has been taken care of, what next? Pull out your Lego’s cause this is where you can go crazy 🙂 Under Batch Profiles, you can configure what will next happen to your image. In my next post I will delve in deeper for how we ended up configuring this. But at a conceptual level, after experimenting with various methods of separating out our invoices we decided to go with barcode separator sheets. From simplest to most complex some of the options are

1) Have a button assigned to each route, and press a button to scan each separate ‘document’ – The most simple approach possible, negating the need for any type of separator sheet. Cons: This can turn into a large amount of button pressing as well as requiring a lot of ‘babysitting time’ and does not allow for high volume tasks.

2) Have a button assigned to each route, use separator page(s) within the batch to mark the beginning of a new ‘document’. Pros: Once again,  very easy to understand and implement. Cons: This scenario could easily end up creating a large amount of scanto buttons. This approach requires a medium amount of ‘babysitting’ since you have to wait between different routes. This approach also requires pre sorting of documents into their specific routes.

3) Have a single button for the Invoices. Use barcode sheets to identify the beginning of a document and what route it should be assigned. Pros: Allows you to batch up document imaging and handle higher volumes (Less babysitting, more automation). Allows you to mix and match document types. Cons: Slightly more technically difficult to implement, maybe harder for users to understand, could end up with a lot of different barcode sheets. Need to trust the scanner more (needs to have robust feeding mechanism as well as excellent double feed detection)

With always the goal of having a higher degree of automation we choose to go the barcode sheet method. Our users have actually found this method to be fairly easy to understand. We had a lot of fun creating the various barcode sheets. (We gave them unique border colors as well as easily identifiable images) These sheets are also printed on legal paper and then trimmed to where they are still an inch or so longer than regular paper to allow them to be pulled back out easily.

Our CIO hasn’t noticed yet but we used his effigy (with a barcode across his forehead, of course) to indicate an IT invoice (He is our fearless leader)

You can imagine some of the fun we have had with some of the others! One other thing to note, I would think using a barcode prefix would be considered ‘best practice’ otherwise you might end up splitting a document off of some random vendor barcode which is not the desired behavior.

Well, that’s enough for today. Until next time, happy ECM trails.