Midrange Stuff, OS/400 Edition

RJS Software Systems historically has been a report-delivery software company whose products are designed to take advantage of electronic delivery via e-mail or the Web. The company has been successful to the tune of building a 1000-customer base in its 10-year existence, but it also took note of a market made up of companies that don't use e-mail. That led to the recent introduction of Enterprise Fax Solution, which lets iSeries users generate and send text-based faxes from iSeries applications.

Enterprise Fax Solution, which was announced by RJS President Richard Schoen during the fall 2003 COMMON conference and expo in Orlando, Florida, last week, also allows PC users to generate and send faxes by printing from any PC application, and also integrates with third-party network-based applications, via APIs. Enterprise Fax Solution also supports inbound faxing and the faxing of iSeries reports. OS/400 requirements are V4R3 and later, and TCP/IP connectivity. On the PC side, Enterprise Fax Solution runs with Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, or 2003.

By faxing from the native applications, there is the potential to eliminate manually printed and faxed documents. It also allows the automated distribution of incoming faxes to specified e-mail accounts.

RJS uses a Castelle FaxPress Network Fax Server, tied to a TCP/IP-based iSeries, via APIs, as the hardware solution.

Pricing for the Enterprise Fax is $5,000 for the two-line unit, $8,000 for the four-line unit, and $11,000 for the eight-line unit.

RJS also announced several upgrades to its Web-browser-based document-management system called Image Server400. Image Server400 is developed in RPG and C and uses a native iSeries Web server. With it, documents can be stored on the iSeries, on optical drives, or on network drives if a Windows 2000 server is used.

The major enhancements relate to document workflow, providing the capability to scan and check in a document and then move it electronically, rather than as a paper document. All of the latest enhancements are designed to streamline the acquisition of documents, either through interactive scanning, bringing them through the Web, or by using the batch interface.

Zone OCR is one of the new features. It allows standard documents to have index information added, which prevents hand-keying information into the system. As an example, if the invoice number is always in the upper right corner, it can be automatically pulled from the document and entered into the system.

The capability to do full-text indexing has also been added. All information captured from the Web can be turned into a PDF file that has full-text indexing. The indexing capabilities also work with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint programs.

Barcode indexing is another feature that allows a document to be automatically read when scanned. In most instances, the cover page has a barcode, so users can search for that page, and all information that follows, until the next barcode is found. This speeds workflow, and because barcoding is nearly 100 percent accurate, it reduces the time spent making corrections.

Also added is a screen-scraper feature that allows users to bring up a green screen and scan it. This is particularly useful if the source code is no longer known.

Image Server400 also incorporates an automated batch import feature that handles high-volume reports from custom applications that have been standardized using an index file format. Examples might be a Windows- or Unix-based product that generates PDF documents or other images, or information that is stored on a CD. Image Server400 also includes the option of exporting documents to CD or DVD, a feature that can be used to purge files or to take them offline very quickly.

RJS built its indexing scheme based on word and document IDs. This involved tweaking SQL and using what Schoen calls hit list type logic. According to Schoen, it produces sub-second search times.

Pricing for Image Server is set at $10,000, including all the features mentioned above. It's likely, Schoen says, that Zone OCR and Barcode Indexing will eventually become extra-charge items as a new pricing scheme is being developed.

RJS has more than two dozen products, and the plan is to repackage them into solutions. The packages will be designed to make it clear how all the pieces fit together. There will be packaged report delivery solutions and packaged document management solutions; however, each can be unbundled to fit individual customer desires.

RJS also offers subscription pricing that allows the use of all iSeries development products as long as the maintenance contracts are current.

For more information on the company and its products, go to www.rjssoftware.com.