Imageion™
Web and Workflow for the Professional Services Industry
The Imageion™ system was designed to be the central workflow repository for a professional services enterprise.
Service Workflow
We really wanted to add a methodical layer of professionalism that would enhance the way a firm works and bills for its services.
A system that was part of the day to day workflow and could incorporate client input and interaction and expose the process and progress of the work. It needed to be a diary for the many collaborative efforts of a team, and that team didn’t necessarily mean just those people inside the company.
Client & Project Managment
We wanted to be able to do a simple service call with ease, but also expand upon that with further elements that could support a much larger body of work, had a better memory than people possess and be searchable for when that important thing is needed.
We also wanted a way to legitimize the relationship between a client and the business beyond the simple quote and deposit mechanism that could be used to formalize a relationship over time but get to work right away. From our past experience, clients don’t usually have such a mechanism so doing it for them is a value add.
Working Repository.
The Imageion™ system exists to serve your enterprise with process visibility, workflow and project management, relationship management and digital media management fused together in an elegant, team oriented, web enabled library. An open framework system that any sized organization can put to use in short order.
The system is designed to function effectively as a solution for those just getting started with their businesses and equally as well in a conjunctive role that can be interlaced with existing solutions for a complexed long standing business endeavour.
A Workflow System
The system provides the applications necessary for both web and desktop users to create a closed loop event and case system that houses the entire administrative workflow.We wanted to be able to plug into a pre-existing web site of a business and manage all of the elements of a working relationship from login to billing. So we set out to include all of the elements needed to support online interaction as part of the Imageion™ offering.
Imageion™ is the combined form of “Images in Action” or “Image input output network. It provides for an all encompassing rendition of the activities of an organization from both a day to day and a planning perspective.
Imageion™
The Imageion™ Web and Workflow system provides the foundation for the internet presence of your business or professional organization.Your web site and day to day operations combined with the purpose of connecting the two into a harmonized identity that interacts directly with all of the people in your enterprise, everywhere, all the time.
It has the ability to communicate with team members, customers, third parties and capture associated digital media and image documents into a media library within a simple methodical and elegant chronological work flow. It can send e-mails with attachments as well.
We built the Imageion™system to be simple, and yet at the same time expansive and dynamic. We think that if you can get your customers further down the road than they already are in a short period of time then you really have value to add to their businesses and lives. In order to do that you have to add something to the routine of the day.
Important Points
Corporate Diary
Create an environment that would provide the essentials of a paperless environment for any organization.
Organize
Automate the day to day business workflow operations, transactions and relevant document and media.
Gallery
Acquire and process digital documents and media from an unlimited number of locations and sources into a single automated and intelligent library.
Dashboard
Provide for the foundation of a high level rule based executive interface with drill down capabilities into the detail transactions and documentation.
First Contact
Automate the process of becoming a customer or business partner through online registration that puts them in front of the right people in your enterprise.
Search
Enable a common search capability that finds the information you need quickly and easily.
Billing and Audit
Solid tracking capability that encompasses resource function, class and time period coverage for external customer billing and internal costing.
Features & Benefits
Web and Workflow for the Professional Services Industry
The system suits fast paced working environments as well as ongoing engagements that require long lead times. Keeping you and your important business relationships on the same page.
Reducing Lead Times
Reduce and Eliminate Paper FlowA key advantage to the Imageion™ system is the ability to reduce paper flow within an operation that spans a large geography and to accomodate the new customer/client relationship in a fast paced and efficient manner. With time keeping, case management, document and media imaging the record keeping is robust, complete and will produce a professional billing package.
Experience & Expertise
The Imageion™ Web and Workflow system provides the foundation for the internet presence of your business or professional organization.We amalgamated a lot of our expertise in time keeping, project tracking, case management, document and media imaging and billing packaging in order to put together the system and wanted to have an answer to those things that may not necessarily have "THE" answer but still needed something professional to back it up.
A web enabled system for process workflow, relationship management, digital media and document management, demand reporting, dashboard analysis, forms production, planning, project management and automated events such as electronic billing and market communications.
This means you can create cases and those cases contain important information, be they documents, photos, data files, notes such as work time for additional work effort that was required. When we put the system together we really wanted to manage things that occur in an enterprise that were just not as expected but cost money to do and so need to have the proper treatment. When that happens often enough, you have a new piece of your service enterprise.
Organized Workflow
Customers, resources and third parties can contribute to the business process
Make due diligence and corporate governance a consistent daily experience
Establish and maintain focus in your environment and scope your business relationships
Convert resource items into business activities
Establish a Research and Development chronology
Research and Development, Audit Projects, Legal
Special needs come to mind when performing Research and Development and Auditing related projects.One of the key capabilities was the ability to go back through a historical period and repackage the experience into another project or element and using the existing case data as the base data for a new project be that audit, legal or research, came as a logical extension to a case management system.
Special requirement projects come up all the time, having a place to put them where people can keep them top of mind makes good business sense. Especially for the out of the ordinary circumstances.
Organized Relationships
Provide exemplary customer service and vendor relations
Find and acquire the information you need when you need it
Move freely from one business channel to another
Effect and communicate change in a fast paced environment with a systematic methodology
Promote a forward momentum through web and workflow for a growing and busy workgroup
Integrate your operational systems to provide a centralized portal for your business or professional organization
More Benefits
Improve your cash flow with an automated and recordable workflow
Create a professional, organized, open access environment
Organize your document and digital media into a centralized and highly accessible database with a powerful global search capability
Access your business or organization from anywhere
Convert daily business into actionable items and future referral items
Create an auditable trail in a paper free system
Features
We wanted the Imageion™system to support your company in getting to work as soon as possible. An important element of that was to allow the system to sit behind your website so that it became an integral part of your web space. The system could easily exist within your intra-net as well, but we wanted to add the elements necessary to interact with your clients and other business partnerships.
Send e-mails from the system, and it is recorded with the case as an event. Add attachments from the media booked in the case.
Billing via e-mail with various billing breakdown formats available and output options for PDF, Word, Excel, etc.
Image++, Image Plus Plus, is a digital document and media storage solution which encapsulates all media classifications and types into a relational database environment for application in any business or organization.
Interface
Web and Desktop
interfaces to the system allow for a seamless integration while working within the same system.
Web Interfaces
Reduce and Eliminate Paper FlowThe system employs web interfaces as a means to interconnect customers and business partners to the workflow of the commercial enterprise. The system is aware of the relationship and acts accordingly based on the party accessing the system.
- Business to Consumer (B2C)
- Customer Web Interface
- Customer Service Representative (CSR) Web Interface
- Business to Business (B2B)
- Business/Alliance Partner Web Interface
- Resource Inteface for Time Oriented Work Posting
Depending on the nature of your enterprise the Imageion™ system may be all you need to evoke projects, cases, work items and support document and media imaging and relevance indexing. If not sufficient then additional integration with your system to integrate important business transactions would be necessary to create that relevance. Typically the relationship breakdown for access to the system looks something like this.
Customer and Project Interface
Relationships are based on how registration is performed in the system, with the necessary approval steps made, projects and cases can be initiated right away. With unlimited support of both Projects, Sub-Projects and Cases.
Customer accounts have profiles alomg with one or many locations, and one or many access individuals allowing for large client management within the system. An all important element when working with clients that have many locations, new locations (sites) and a changing work force.
Case Interface
The Case Interface provides for lengthy description, work notes, customer notes, detailed time booking, Image++ document and media imaging (unlimited digital types permitted), communications inbound, communications outbound and various report format and output options for cases. Along with a standard case number and barcode at both the header and footer of each case output. We desingened the case interface to act as the all important wrapper to your inbound work flow.
Notification and Time Booking
Standard notification of resources, customers, third parties can be triggered with the case creation and any changes thereto, so that important relevance remains at the top of the list and top of mind.
This makes the system well suited to large work teams that may or may not be in a position to speak with each other regularly but need to know what is new as far as the work at hand is concerned.
Resource data and time booking as well as trip counts for client visits coupled with task type and rating type allow for detailed billing at various cost structures to be created for your client agreements.
The system allows you to book time to prior work for re-visits and allows for cases to be created from the last case viewed in order to speed up the work flow process. Credits can also be posted when entry errors have been made allowing for a post and forward audit of entries into the system, rather than modifying on the fly. This also allows for control over the assurance that billed items are not modified but adjusted for the next billing run.
Billing
Billing are generated with multiple breakdowns, with or without cost summary and detailed case reports that backup the totals on the billing package.
Billing can be reset, re-run and posted to the Imageion™ system as new cases under the administrative header associated with them. This provides for the same search and actions available to the billing production as any other relevant work item.
Technical
The system is comprised of a collection of web and workflow applications for the support of business relationships and fulfillment of work flow requirements of a business enterprise. Customers and business partners are the cornerstone relationships in contact with the system in support of work activities.
The primary objectives are; integration, data acquisition, case and event management and billing presentation.
The external interfaces of the system are based upon commonly available mediums; web, internet (e-mail and XML) and fax communications, promoting global availability, efficiency and ease of use.
- Integration of the workflow operations and data consumption requirements of customers, business partners and related internal resources.
- The acquisition, processing and delivery of business transaction document images that are used in the day to day operation of the business.
- The management of business cases and events associated with ongoing support of operations bundled with administration and billing presentation.
- The presentation of billings to customers in a paper free and electronic environment with enhanced turnaround time and improved cash flow
Workflow
The system workflow applications provide for data flow interfaces for external data acquisition and processing as well as external delivery of processed information. This includes data harvested from external systems (TOKENIMPORT), data from business partners and internal resources at various locales (IMAGE++/RDOC) and automated data communications (MAILSEND). System and user maintenance is also provided via a support application (WEBMANAGEMENT).
The workflow applications work in conjunction with the web applications in order to provide a seamless flow of information in both directions.
The objective of the workflow applications are to provide an automated means to move information throughout the enterprise and present that information flow in a communicative window that is useful to the parties involved in the exchange.
TokenImport is driven by the need for integration into the main line of business application of any enterprise which typically dispatches work or the results of that work on a financial basis into the Imageion™ system for its use in conjuction with relationship/project/case/resource structure.
TOKENIMPORT
The TOKENIMPORT application provides the means by which business transaction source data is injected into the system database. This is driven by a token data exchange interface which processes transaction data using a discrete one token per shipment transaction interface. A token is a data file representing a single business transaction triggered by an update event in the billing and administrative system for the enterprise. The token is processed and used to update the web and workflow system in real time (or near real time) fashion. The application operates in a service mode whereby it is running at all times and should it fail at any point it will restart and pick up where it left off. The application uses an FTP protocol for movement of tokens from the source system to the web and workflow system and processes them as they are acquired.
The process occurs in real time. A real time data stream provides for distinct advantages to the overall web and workflow process because information is presented on an as is available basis and appears to be directly linked to the billing and administrative system of the enterprise. This create a more robust environment which allows for real time reporting and display of information which would otherwise be less useful as the timing would lag too far behind the physical and administrative processes of the enterprise.
Another benefit is the self healing nature of the overall process. Problematic data is removed from the data stream and narrowed down to the shipment level due to the nature of the process and permits the overall process to continue, while the problem token/data are diverted for treatment. In many cases future tokens correct prior problem tokens. In the event of a system failure on either side of the processing equation the system will bring itself back into line upon re-commencement.
IMAGE++/RDOC SERVER GATEWAY
The IMAGE++/RDOC workflow application provides a centralized gateway for remote document transactions to enter the system and the means to manage the relationship with the sending party.
This provides for improved reporting times over manual document movement and an organized communication process for both the source and destination of the document image.
The IMAGE++/RDOC (Remote Document Image) application provides for an e-mail interface and a fax interface for remote locations to report document images for processing in the enterprise imaging system and further update of the web and workflow system. The documents are batched by document type and communicated via e-mail, fax and fax to e-mail, to the appropriate phone number of e-mail address for the document type at issue. The application accepts the digital image file for processing based upon the channel it is received in, processes the information and returns an acceptance number to the sending party as configured by their configuration information in the system.
The system supports generic fax, e-mail attachments and fax to e-mail devices.
MAIL AND MAINTENANCE APPLICATIONS
The MAILSEND application provides periodic reporting of workflow and document transaction images to customer accounts in an effort to spread the benefit of the system out to the receiving parties. The process is defined using the IMAGE++/RDOC interface whereby controls are put in place for the transmissions to occur, what information and document image classes are to be transferred and scheduling information (with a backdating capability) on a per customer account basis.
This automates the process of information reporting to the customer using an outbound e-mail reporting method where a manual ongoing process would normally take place.
The MAILSEND application prepares and sends out the e-mail using an SMTP server as dictated by the configuration information for the application.
The WebMaintenance application provides the system administrator with user definition/maintenance and the management of dynamic areas of the website where ongoing changes are required without the need of programming or technical resources.
Dynamic areas of the website are pre-programmed with access to the web objects with the web and workflow system. The WebMaintenance application provides an easy to use access point where a word processing style interface is employed for the task of updating the web site news, jobs, events, locales and contact information.
The WebMaintenance application also provides a user access report which provides the ability to track the performance of registered users and anonymous users as they interact with the system over time. Management can see the effectiveness and use of the web site with this reporting option.
Developing Assets. Our asset is intellectual property, from craft to implementation. We recognized the need for the corporate diary that would house the pillars of that value. It became how we operate.
IMAGEPLUS.PLUS
Distributing Inventory. Merchandise and materials management workflow, supply chain, logistics, retail, EDI, sales integration, wholesale, website, warehousing and distribution.
WORKFLOW.PLUS
Delivering Services. Workflow for the services enterprise that adds a methodical layer of professionalism, integrating people, work elements, initial and resultant documents and digital media support. A solid client, project and billing management system.
PATCHWORK.PLUS
With systems running in 10+ year engagements, we have a proven track record of returning substantial value for your companies technology investment.
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Toronto: +1-289-401-2364
Email: capetown@capetown.ca