CaseStudy

From Document Manager Magazine Vol 20 No 03 - May/June

The DVLA has been able to enjoy productivity enhancements alongside improved customer service as a result of significant improvements to its existing document capture and imaging platforms

The DVLA is an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport. The primary objectives of the DVLA are to facilitate road safety and general law enforcement by maintaining registers of drivers and vehicles, and to collect vehicle excise duty (car tax).

In addition to managing large databases the Agency issues some 8 million driving licences, approximately 18 million registration certificates and responds to more than 24 million enquiries from the police and customers on driver licensing and vehicle registration issues each year. Amongst all of this responsibility and activity there are in the region of 60 million pieces of paper that carry information the DVLA needs to go about its business every year.

During 2000 the DVLA implemented a Document Processing software system that would be used to process the paper documents associated with maintaining the Vehicles Data Register. The software platform chosen was a combination of InputAccel Workflow, then from Captiva, and a third party image based Data Capture and Key from Image system. This software, along with a number of high speed document image scanners, was project managed and implemented by Scan Optics Ltd., a specialist Data Capture Systems Integrator, after an OJEC Procurement process and in accordance with the DVLA's stated requirements.

After some 6 years of successful use and increased productivity over the previous Key from Paper system a sequence of events led to the requirement to replace the third party image based Data Capture system. Also, as a result of an Imaging Strategy review within the Agency, it was decided to enhance the overall Document Processing system to cater for both "front end" and "back end" scanning and data capture requirements.

Following a period of evaluation and due diligence both replacement and enhancement products were identified for installation and implementation. Richard Harris, the Project Manager with responsibility for the internal delivery of this new system to his users, summarises the situation: "We had to make the decision to replace the old Data Capture software because the original third party manufacturer had declared "end of life" on the product, meaning that 2nd line support for that software would no longer be available."

An evaluation project was therefore undertaken to identify the combination of features and functions essential to provide the least disruptive replacement and enhancements and in the timeliest manner. Harris continues: "We turned to our trusted partners Scan Optics Ltd. and engaged them to remove the redundant software platform and to install EMC Captiva's Formware and Dispatcher products. These were complementary to the existing InputAccel backbone software that had been originally installed and which has now been successfully rolled-out to the Data Preparation area. All paper document transactions are scanned, imaged and the data is captured and validated using the combined EMC InputAccel, Formware and Dispatcher software platforms".

Head of Operations, Nadine Davies, has the responsibility of the timely delivery of accurate data to the DVLA's mainframe computer systems where the Vehicles Register is held, and she adds: "It was clear that we had to move forward to a key-from-image system that would provide us with a current and supported Data Entry facility into the future. The replacement solution had to be robust enough to manage the high volumes of documents coming through and flexible enough to accommodate document redesigns and process improvements."

"It was also important to minimise disruption and re-training of our operators and provide identified process improvements at the same time" continued Davies. "We are delighted with the new EMC Captiva system that has been deployed by Scan Optics Ltd. They were a key part of the choice because of their intimate knowledge of our Data Capture applications and the associated business rules."

More info:www.scanoptics.co.uk

CaseStudy