RJS Tackles Business Workflow

Published: March 28, 2006

by Alex Woodie

At the COMMON conference this week, RJS Software Systems is planning to unveil several new products, including an XML Forms offering called WebForms, a Web portal for accessing host applications called WebConnect, as well as the first of its industry-specific application packs, which will target the insurance and financial services industry. These products, as well as an upcoming CRM offering, demonstrate RJS Software's current focus on smoothing the workflow between the front- and back-office.

Richard Schoen's company has been developing software that helps OS/400 shops manage their output since way back when grunge music dominated the Top 40 in the early '90s. Over the years, RJS Software's offerings have matured from the fairly simple RPG-based OS/400 report splitter into more sophisticated Java-based content management and workflow systems that can run on either iSeries or Windows servers.

The focus at RJS has also shifted from primarily managing business output from OS/400 systems to streamlining the input of documents and data into applications and data stores, as well. This is where the company's new WebForms product will come in. This new product will allow the customers or partners of a WebForms user to enter data directly into a back-end data store, instead of using scanners and OCR software or requiring a customer service representative to enter information into a computer.

XML-Based Forms

WebForms will run on the iSeries, Windows, and Linux computers, and support just about any database, including DB2/400, SQL Server, MySQL, and others. Users will be able to convert their existing business or government forms into electronic forms based on the accepted XML forms standard, or users can select from a series of preconfigured forms templates, such as forms that comply with the ACORD standard in the insurance industry, for an additional fee. In most instances, the software will be deployed with RJS's Enterprise Workflow software, which automates the document routing and approval process, and WebDocs, the RJS archiving offering, Schoen says.

WebForms will help customers get rid of the paper shuffle. "We had the scanning, storing, and workflow components. But we're finding that instead of using paper, customers want to go paperless," Schoen says. "Companies are trying to improve their processes. They're hiring more clerical staff to do the same amount of work as they grow. With WebForms, companies can grow incrementally without having to add staff. That's the bottom line in business process management."

The target market for WebForms is the small and midsize business segment--companies that may not have an extra $300,000 lying around to buy an enterprise content management system from leaders in the field like FileNet, OnBase, or IBM. "It's hard to ROI that," Schoen says. "It's $100,000 for ours, for Workflow and all the other components . . . We've tried to make the technology approachable."

The company will also conduct a site survey for a customer, to figure how why the customers wants to improve its process, and what's the best way to accomplish that--whether it means using Enterprise Workflow or other products.

The Vertical Approach

WebForms is also at the center of RJS's new vertical approach to product bundling and marketing to certain industries. "The first vertical focus is going to be with the insurance industries, but this works across all the industries," Schoen says. "This WebForms tool is going to be a huge front end for companies that want to capture info from their customers and suppliers and for routing data through their systems."

RJS is also planning to announce, during the COMMON Conference, a new secure Web portal product called WebConnect. WebConnect provides centralized access to a range of applications, including internal company Web sites and portlets, as well as host-based applications running on iSeries or Windows Terminal Services that users access via Client Access and other emulators. The product provides built-in VPN support, and includes single sign-on to all the applications users access through it.

IBM's WebSphere Portal was the impetus for the creation of WebConnect, Schoen says. "What we found was it's a nice place to hang information, but it doesn't provide secure access to backend applications running on iSeries or Windows Terminal Services," he says. "It was also limiting because portlets aren't the only things people need access to." So RJS created WebConnect, which gives them access to both Web-based applications as well as host-based applications.

New CRM Software

One of the host-based applications RJS customers may be accessing through WebConnect in the future is a new CRM product that RJS is currently developing. RJS, like many other companies, has struggled to find a contact management or CRM system that really fits the way it does business.

"We used ACT!, then GoldMine, then SalesLogix. These products are overpriced and require huge processors on the PC. We also weren't satisfied with how they ran on the Web. Very kludgey," he says. "So what we decided was we'd throw our hat in the ring."

RJS' new CRM offering is currently slated for release in the June timeframe. The software will help users manage their contacts and sales opportunities, and offer project-tracking capabilities. It will play into RJS's "Information Now" product theme, in which the company promises to handle the where, when, and how of information distribution. "CRM is becoming one of those key components to getting information into your sales peoples' hands," Schoen says. It will be written primarily in Java, as most of RJS's new development is, and will run on the iSeries.

The new CRM product will integrate with customers' existing ERP systems, including the midmarket offerings from CMS Software and Vormitagg Associates, among others. "What' we're not going to become is a standard ERP layer. We're complimentary to the ERP products out there. Our products play well with those."