Prepress
Capita TDS ramps up document imaging capacity purchasing Kodak i700 series production scanners to meet rapid business growth
Tuesday 01. June 2010 - 500% growth in premises and 300% increase in revenue over the past two years; Scanning operation supports multi million pound outsourcing deals won by Capita Group; Over 3 million documents processed each month with workload expected to at least double in 2010 ; Simplicity of Kodak Capture Pro 2.0 software means £50k saved on IT resources annually
Kodak (NYSE:EK) today announced that Capita Total Document Solutions (TDS), Capita Groups bureau services organisation, has more than doubled its scanner capacity to support exponential business growth and enable the expansion and delivery of new services such as digital mailroom solutions and application forms processing for customers with exacting service level agreements.
Capita TDS has upgraded its scanner fleet to increase capacity purchasing eight Kodak i700 series high performance production scanners, three Kodak i1440 departmental scanners, with Kodak Capture Pro 2.0 software installed to ensure the efficient management of documents.
Based at Capita TDS three UK sites in Bicester, Fenton and Darlington, the new equipment has been implemented alongside seven i600 series scanners already in use. In total, Capita TDS has invested in excess of £300,000 to date to standardise on Kodak scanning equipment and software.
With 24 hour CCTV and swipe card access to its facilities, Capita TDS provides integrated end-to-end solutions to enable clients to better manage documents throughout their lifecycle from scanning; intelligent data capture, electronic document management and workflow; preservation and microfiche conversion services along with physical document archiving and destruction.
Capita TDS is part of the Capita Group, a FTSE 100-listed company and the UKs leading provider of business process outsourcing (BPO) and business transformation services to the private and public sectors and local and central government. Over the past 5 years, the group has achieved 18% compound growth on revenues, with profits last year totalling £277.2 million from a turnover of £2,441 million.
One of the fastest growing businesses within the group, over the past two years, Capita TDS revenues have grown 300%, with the size of its Darlington-based flagship centre increasing 500% from 30,000 to 150,000 sq ft with over 150 staff now employed.
This has been driven by various new contracts won by the company including the creation of digital mailrooms to process mail on behalf of organisations including the BBC, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme as well as central government scanning contracts. The range of digital mailroom services offered by Capita TDS also extend to high volume invoice processing and the scanning and data capture of over 140,000 expense claims per annum.
In addition, as part of Capita Group, Capita TDS provide mailroom and scanning services as part of the processing of 350,000 application forms annually as part of the Home Access Grant Administration scheme it runs for Becta (1) along with 500,000 Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) applications – each with 12 pages – handled for the Learning and Skills Council (2).
With the large scale outsourcing contracts mentioned above, Capita TDS currently scans 3 million documents every month with its workload expected to at least double in 2010. Expanding its scanning capacity was paramount and, having evaluated a number of suppliers, Kodak was chosen as its equipment is easy to use, robust, reliable and cost effective.
In the context of a digital mailroom environment, the pressure to deliver quality-scanned images to ever tighter timescales is immense. Capita TDS decided to install multiple i1700 series production scanners rather than a fewer number of larger capacity open-transport machines typically used for volume transaction processing of application forms.
Typically Capita TDS receives mail at 6.30am which has to be delivered by 10am. Having more individual production scanners means staff can process clients A, B and C and so on at the same time rather than waiting for a bigger machine to churn through everything. In the context of the FSCS project, at one point staff were scanning up to 8,000 letters everyday within this window to meet the requirements of their client during an unprecedented peak period..
Anthony Lamb, Capita TDS operations manager, says, “We have a mixed scanning environment where one minute were scanning post, then changing to scan documents for archival purposes. We dont have the luxury or budgets to just use equipment for discrete jobs – it has to be flexible. Multiple machines also means we avoid having a single point of failure in the business which is crucial when customers are trusting us with their mail and corporate documents.”
The three i1440 departmental scanners are used to process expense claims from Capita Groups 36,000 staff which equates to around 600 every day, with receipts scanned regardless of quality.
The Kodak i700 series scanners are the only scanners in their price/performance class that operate at full-rated speeds with all advanced image processing features switched on, including dual-stream, irrespective of whether scanning is done at 200 or 300 dpi. Compared to competitors who make grandiose claims about performance but whose scanners slow by as much as 30% when higher resolutions are selected, this means the scanners are perfect for high volume scanning environments of up to 115,000 pages per day where speed and image quality counts, especially when OCR and bar-coding applications are used as is the case at Capita TDS.
Here Kodak Capture Pro 2.0 software comes into its own. Firstly, it is easy for staff to use and means that Capita TDS can respond very quickly to client requests and new business opportunities without the need for IT resources to be bought in to get projects up and running – a saving the company estimates of £50,000 annually.
Lamb explains, “Weve increased the skill level of staff by developing their job roles and creating super users in this area which means we not only save on IT costs, but provide a better service to clients as operators understand their businesses and what we need to do for them and why.”
Secondly, Capita TDS avoids having to employ staff to re-key data in after documents are scanned which makes the business more efficient and competitive – savings which are passed back to customers.
Thirdly, Capture Pro 2.0 easily integrates with a wide range of EDMS and ERP systems based on Capita TDS specific client requirements including Anite, Civica, SAP, Staffware and various in-house developed systems. Scanned documents are transmitted by secure FTP, made accessible on Capitas WAN, saved on clients dedicated servers, or made accessible online through its Retrieve service, a web-based document access solution.
Lamb says, “Kodak Capture Pro 2.0 doesnt have any click charges which is important to us given the quantity of documents we scan. It also means we can plan future work with more confidence and ensure that we are consistently competitive.”
Colin Labrum, Kodaks UK channel sales manager, says, “Capita TDS has massively increased the size, and scope of its bureau business with the expectation that growth will continue unabated. The quality and performance of Kodaks scanner technology and software means that the Capita TDS team can confidently meet any challenges presented in the course of servicing clients in what are expected to be ongoing tough commercial times.”
(1) Becta provides grants so that low-income families can buy computers and/or Internet access to help their children learn at home.
(2) The EMA provides 16 to 18 year olds who are about to leave compulsory education an allowance of up to £30 per week to encourage them to carry on learning whether it be for A-levels, GCSE resits, diplomas or a course that leads to an apprenticeship.