Review

From Document Manager Magazine Vol 17 No 01 - January/February 2009

Hamburg-based foxray has recently made its 'xbound' platform available in the UK via Surrey consultants Datafinity UK,

Hamburg-based foxray has recently made its 'xbound' platform available in the UK via Surrey consultants Datafinity UK, who are now actively seeking to develop partnerships within the channel. Foxray originated from a management buy-out within the services division of airline Lufthansa, an industry with its own unique challenges in document processing. Since then the xbound product has found favour in insurance and other financial services organisations, as well as outsourcing firms looking for a highly flexible approach to document management and integration.

The product itself is entirely built on SOAP/.NET architecture, making it very straightforward for potential partners to develop components that will tightly integrate with the document platform. It can easily use the likes of ReadSoft, Kofax and other market leading tools, treating them effectively as plug-ins, while the platform itself comprises a combination of best-of breed technologies to ensure that the most appropriate tool is being used for every step of the process: components are predominantly foxray's own, but can also include offerings from IBML, Kodak and Paradatec where suitable, among many others.

This approach means that the origin and format of any document entering the system is effectively irrelevant, whether paper-based or electronic. The xbound platform offers a very powerful means to define, run and monitor all sorts of document-oriented processes. Around

the platform foxray offers specific components to adapt to the users' document requirements including:

Collect components: manage delivery of documents through any channel, via fax or email servers, ISIS scan drivers etc. Signature components: managing security via digital signature/PIN systems Imaging components: to manage image processing including editing (crop, alignment etc.) as well as classification and QA Identify components: document types are determined so they can be routed to the appropriate destination, whether an individual or a back-office system for further processing Transform components: perform automatic extraction of data from different types of input, whether invoices, unstructured documents, forms etc.

Integration components: perhaps foxray's key differentiator is those components which allow documents to be made available to other systems during or after processing within xbound. These allow for near-transparent integration of relevant systems including ERP, databases, document archives or workflow systems.

By facilitating the direct integration of individual document components and systems such as OCR engines or archive systems, xbound allows users to protect the investments made in their existing DM/CM and other systems. This is a sensible approach given the large number of systems already deployed in all kinds of sectors, many of which have been unable

-until now - to deliver on the promises made when they were implemented. More info: www.datafinity.co.uk www.foxray.co.uk

VERDICT: While still a relatively small player in the UK market, the highly flexible xbound platform appears to offer much to appeal to mailroom functions and service providers who may have found existing solutions lacking in integration capabilities January/February 2009 www.DMmagazine.com/register

Review