Cad Capture News 2003:

December 2003

Cad-Capture supplies the London Borough of Hillingdon with specialist AssetCapture Solution

Cad-Capture has recently completed a project for the London Borough of Hillingdon (LBH) using its AssetCapture services to enable the borough to fulfill their Asset Management Planning (AMP) obligations. The project involved conducting measured surveys of 90 schools within the borough and producing CAD drawings containing information which can be used as a basis for a variety of other data collection exercises to identify the buildings with the greatest need.

LBH was required by the Department for Education and Skills* to provide up-to-date plans of its schools in order to assess the sufficiency, suitability and condition of each space within each building. The information within the plans, such as space usage and category, would then be used for calculating Net capacity and also used as a basis for suitability and condition surveys which themselves determine funding priorities according to greatest need.

The borough chose Cad-Capture because of the company's successful experience in providing similar solutions to other local authorities, for example Westminster City Council and Buckinghamshire County Council.

The company's surveyors visited every school within the borough to measure each space, as well as including details such as radiators, heaters, blackboards, whiteboards, power sockets, network points and CAT 5 sockets onto the plans. This was a significant feature of the project and demonstrated the complexity of the AssetCapture solution provided to the borough.

The plans were converted into intelligent CAD files by Cad-Capture's CAD operators and contained information that was held in a digital format which then provided LBH with the means to calculate the net capacity of each school.

Cad-Capture's flexibility to adapt its AssetCapture service to meet the requirements of LBH emphasises the company's reputation of providing unique solutions to its customers in order to match specific requirements.

Michael Buck, AMP Officer at LBH said: "We have found the CAD files to be a good source of information providing asset management data on school buildings which can be electronically distributed to departments within the council and also external consultants and other organisations. Also we have found that information stored within the CAD files, such as room descriptions, types, useages and areas, can be updated relatively easily and means this is something we can now do in-house."

About Asset Management Planning

Asset Management Plans are key elements in ensuring that capital funding and existing assets are used as efficiently and effectively as possible in raising educational standard. For more information, please visit www.dfes.gov.uk

*Department for Children, Schools and Families - Formerly DfES

November 2003

Cad-Capture’s commitment to quality is reinforced by gaining BS EN ISO 9001:2000 certification

Cad-Capture, a leading document service provider, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, today announced that it has successfully achieved its transition to BS EN ISO 9001:2000 certification from BSI. ISO 9001 is an internationally recognised quality management standard which helps organisations to improve customer satisfaction levels, internal efficiency and employee involvement.

Cad-Capture has been a BSI registered company since 1994 when the company implemented the quality management standard ISO 9002. The transition to the new 2000 standard means that the company has a more process-based approach to quality management rather than the 1994 procedurally-based approach.

Implementing the new standard means the company has to deal with less documentation, is able to connect management systems to organisational processes, is a natural move towards improved organisational performance and greater orientation towards continual improvement and development. Simon Watts, Managing Director, Cad-Capture said: “Being successful in the company’s transition to the new quality management standard has been a welcome boost. A lot of hard work has been put into the transition and we have certainly reaped the rewards. 2003 has been a good year for Cad-Capture; the company has retained its Investor in People status and has also been listed in the Tech Track 100 list which ranks Britain’s fastest growing unquoted tech companies in Britain.”

About BS EN ISO 9001:2000

BS EN ISO 9001:2000 is the internationally recognised standard for quality management systems. The standard provides a framework for managing and improving an organisation’s quality system using a process approach.

Amongst the many benefits which can be gained, BS EN ISO 9001:2000 helps organisations to improve customer satisfaction levels, internal efficiency and employee involvement.

October 2003

Cad-Capture is one of the fastest growing Tech companies in Britain

Cad-Capture would like to announce its inclusion in this year’s Tech Track 100.

The third annual Tech Track 100, published by the Sunday Times, ranks Britain’s fastest growing unquoted tech companies based on growth between 2000-2002. Cad-Capture, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, was ranked 68th and was one of only 11 companies to be included in the list from the North. Cad-Capture was established in 1987 as the country’s first large format scanning bureau. The company has rapidly grown since to become a leading document service provider.

Cad-Capture is able to provide its solutions to customers in both the public and private sectors. Clients that have benefited from its solutions include ConocoPhillips,

United Utilities, Somerset County Council, Kerry Foods, Denton Wilde Sapte and the London Borough of Hillingdon.

Simon Watts, Managing Director: “Cad-Capture has significantly achieved a great amount over the past 16 years and has grown from strength to strength. We are all pleased that this has been recognised by being included in this year’s Tech Track 100.”

About Tech Track 100

Now in its third year, The Sunday Times ARM Tech Track 100 annual league table is compiled by Oxford-based research company Fast Track and published with The Sunday Times business section on 28 September 2003 and on www.fasttrack100.co.uk

September 2003

Cad-Capture continues investing in people

Cad-Capture is celebrating once again after retaining its Investors in People (IIP) standard for the third time running. The standard sets out principles of good practice. Organisations that meet the standard show their investment in people is effective because:

• They are committed to developing their people
• They have clear goals and make sure that everyone understands them
• Their investment in people directly helps them to meet those goals
• They understand the impact that their investment has on their performance

Cad-Capture’s employees and customers benefit from the improved company performance and customer service implemented through investment in its people.

Cad-Capture was originally awarded the standard in 1997 and retained it in 2000 when the company was reassessed. Companies that are awarded the standard must be reassessed every three years to ensure that they still abide to the rules set out by IIP and staff members are selected to take part in interviews to examine if the IIP procedures are still in place.

Simon Watts, Managing Director of Cad-Capture said: “Retaining the standard reinforces Cad-Capture’s policy of being committed to investing in training and development of all its employees to help them perform to their maximum potential. Cad-Capture puts a lot of effort into maintaining this policy and I am thrilled that we have managed to retain it once again.”

August 2003

Gleeson discovers the benefits of converting its documents to DjVu

Gleeson, a leading construction services and property company based in the UK, recently chose Cad-Capture to provide Lizardtech’s Document Express software for viewing images in DjVu format.
Gleeson identified the need to store its scanned financial documents into smaller file sizes. The company was storing its documents in TIFF format which started to become impractical as the files were considerably slow to download and were also taking up too much disk space.

Following a visit to a website that provided its documents in DjVu format, Mark Golding, Group Systems Manager at Gleeson, noticed a large difference in the size of the documents. He contacted Lizardtech in the US who recommended he contact Cad-Capture.

Document Express enables extremely fast distribution of complex content and multi-page documents such as financial documents, for example invoices and proof of delivery notes, as well as product catalogues, CAD and engineering drawings, The benefits of the application include its ability to download documents at a fast rate and very small file sizes, which in-turn makes it an economically viable choice for businesses that have large amounts of documents to distribute and store.

Since having the software installed, Gleeson has noticed a considerable difference in the speed the documents take to download and the size of its documents once converted into DjVu format.

The company has found the software to be very user-friendly which has helped its employees adapt to it easily. With the desktop licence, the user is able to make annotations on the documents. Document Express is easy to install which means there is no delay in starting to use it and provides instant benefits to the user.
The application was also integrated within the company’s existing document management system which means that documents transferred into DjVu format can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Therefore, the company benefits from the short length of time documents take to load over slower communication lines.

Mark Golding said: “Since Cad-Capture provided us with the Document Express software, storing our invoices electronically has finally become a feasible choice. We are now applying it to other document types and applications.

“The files convert automatically to DjVu format which means we save man hours. Also the massive file size reductions mean we are able to store far larger amounts of documents in a very small amount of time. Staff members are now using files which they would previously not use because they took too long to download.”

About Gleeson

Gleeson was founded in 1903 as house building operation which grew to become a publicly quoted national company operating in three interlinked sectors – Construction Services, Homes and Property, with 19 offices nationwide.

July 2003

Moving on up!

Cad-Capture, a document service provider based in Lancashire, is pleased to announce that it has recently provided document management solutions to two major law firms in London.

Ince & Co and Denton Wilde Sapte have both received bespoke Hummingbird solutions. Hummingbird is a global enterprise information management company that has been a partner of Cad-Capture since 1999. Hummingbird’s Enterprise Information Management Systems (EIMS) are used more than any other document management software in the legal sector, and hence, was a reliable choice for the firms. Cad-Capture identified this niche and was successful in securing the contracts to provide professional services.

Ince & Co has received a solution based on Hummingbird DM and Denton Wilde Sapte; a solution based on Hummingbird Portal. Each was specifically tailored to match the firms’ specific requirements.

The move into the legal sector reinforces Cad-Capture’s position as a leading document service specialist. Its ability to shift into different vertical sectors reflects the vision of being a forward-thinking and progressive high-tech company.

Driving the move into the different vertical sectors, the company has invested in creating a new Telesales and Telemarketing Department, increasing the company’s workforce and reinforcing its position as an Investors in People organisation.

Julie Abbott, Head of Marketing said: “It is an exciting time at Cad-Capture and its staff are enthusiastic about the move into new vertical sectors. Being awarded the two legal contracts has been a definite boost and things can only get better!”

June 2003

Cad-Capture Paving the Way for Virtual Organisations

The interest in virtual organisations has grown considerably over the past decade. It has been driven by developments in information technology, in particular document management systems, virtual private networks and broadband internet connections.

Virtual organisations are created when a group of organisations collaborate via networked computer technology, to work on a particular project. United Utilities identified the need to utilise a virtual organisation as an enabler for the successful and speedy completion of its GIS (Geographical Information System) data capture project. United Utilities enlisted Cad-Capture’s expertise to turn the vision into reality.

Cad-Capture established a close working relationship with United Utilities following the successful completion of a previous project, ESCAR. This project was proposed as the ‘stepping stone to GIS’ and involved colour scanning of the company’s 210,000 large format map based records that represented a pictorial and geographical view of its electricity distribution network.

United Utilities decided to implement a new GIS system that would model the connectivity and hold a geographical representation of the company’s electricity distribution network for the North West of England. All physical features, for example, sub-stations, transformers, cables, street furniture, etc. in the network, had to be included in the GIS data model. The purpose of the new system was to allow its engineers to interact with the information in the office and in the field via ruggedised laptops previously issued as part of the ESCAR project. This would offer the company’s engineers and other planning and operational staff, fast access to more information than could be held on conventional paper records and both office based and remote access to more reliable information. The staff were no longer dependent on paper copies that were difficult to control and access, and slow to access in the field.

Baymont, a US-based provider of data conversion services, was awarded the contract to digitise and convert the features from the map based records that Cad-Capture had earlier scanned for the ESCAR project. Baymont was able to provide the service on a massive scale at its offices in Malaysia. Agra Baymont engaged for its ability to conduct a project of this size with its short deadlines, a feat very difficult to match for any UK organisation. At peak, the Malaysia operation would have 700 staff working on the United Utilities project.

Cad-Capture was selected to provide the Quality Assurance services for the project. This was a high knowledge activity designed to add value into the model building process. In its simplest form, this involved checking the features and their attributes for accuracy and passing or failing a batch but where Cad-Capture and United Utilities were really able to add value to the project was through the quality improvement feedback loop. United Utilities and Cad-Capture fed back suggestions for product and process improvements to Baymont. In practice, these continually improved the quality of the output, reduced rejected batches and the need for re-work. All these benefits were crucial to United Utilities to help realise the business benefits and maximise the investment in the GIS system.

Cad-Capture added further value by playing a key role in the design, development, implementation, maintenance and operation of the IT infrastructure, which was an essential enabler for the virtual organisation. A document management system (DMS) was used to manage the project effectively and to facilitate collaboration between the community of workers who resided in each of the formal organisations involved i.e. United Utilities, Cad-Capture and Baymont, Malaysia. At the core of the IT infrastructure was Hummingbird DM. It allowed batches of maps to flow, quickly and smoothly through the processes, and around the world to the project’s community. The feedback facility within the DMS enabled all workers within the project’s community to collaborate effectively and instantly, making possible the fast-moving processes required by the project.

The ability to continually feedback information relevant to operations earlier in the process, is one of the fundamental factors that has made this group of companies a virtual organisation as opposed to a more traditional supply chain. It was made possible by delivering the document management system through a virtual private network thus enabling it to be accessed anytime, from any location in any time zone.

The technology implemented by Cad-Capture meant that United Utilities along with Cad-Capture and Baymont, formed a virtual organisation which removed the barriers associated with time and location. The virtual organisation created enabled United Utilities to make best use of the lower cost economy in Malaysia and the high knowledge economy in the UK.

Brian O’Neill of United Utilities said: “I proposed and managed the ESCAR project and when later asked to manage GIS data capture, from the outset, was determined to control and manage wholly electronically the sharing and transfer of project data and information between the companies and offshore. The virtual organisation formed through the implementation of the DMS has enabled United Utilities to dissolve the restrictions of space and time to the company’s full advantage, has eliminated constraints involved in managing a major offshore element and has enabled me to effectively manage and control quality, lead time and cost.”

About United Utilities

United Utilities is a leading utility company that owns and operates electricity distribution in the North West of England. For further information please visit www.unitedutilities.co.uk

May 2003

Stop Press... Stop Press...

London Borough of Greenwich – AMP Services

Cad-Capture has been awarded a major contract to assist the London Borough of Greenwich with its asset management planning (AMP) by conducting measured surveys at various sites within the Borough. The project will involve measuring corporate buildings such as residential homes and municipal buildings in order to help the council calculate funding appropriately.

OutletLocator solution for the National Australia Group

Airtime, the internet business division of Cad-Capture, has recently secured the contract to provide the National Australia Group (NAG) with its internet mapping solution, OutletLocator. The solution will provide visitors to the Group’s four UK banks’ websites (Clydesdale Bank, Yorkshire Bank, Northern Bank and the National Irish Bank) access to geographical and branch information for its banks and ATM locations.

Cad-Capture supplies scanner to APPH

Cad-Capture has recently supplied a Contex Premier Tx 36" large format scanner to APPH Ltd. The company required the scanner to capture large format drawings that would be uploaded to its iMan PDM system in order to facilitate direct access by suppliers and subcontractors alike, for “design to print" projects.

To find out more about scanners and other hardware Cad-Capture is able to supply, please visit the company’s e-commerce site, www.capturestore.co.uk.

Exhibitions – What Cad-Capture has been up to in May…

Over the past month Cad-Capture has attended numerous events and exhibitions including the Information Management Expo 2003, IT Directors Forum and Cimtech’s Electronic Document, Content and Records Management for e-Government.

April 2003

Cad-Capture’s Employment Charter Celebration

Cad-Capture has recently been awarded the Employment Charter by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.

The Council’s Employment Charter aims to help secure the social and physical regeneration of the towns, for the lasting benefit of local communities.

As a participating company, Cad-Capture notifies the Charter Manager of all employment opportunities and will, whenever possible, recruit local people providing recognised training and full time permanent work.

The Charter offers unemployed local residents: identification of their skills and abilities; assistance with applications; guaranteed interviews for suitable vacancies; on-going support; recognised training and finally, a full time permanent position which pays the rate for the job.

Paul Culligan, Finance Manager said: “Gaining the Employment Charter is an important achievement for Cad-Capture as it reinforces the Company’s commitment to providing employment opportunities for residents within the local community.”

March 2003

Centro Captures Hummingbird DM

Centro, the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive, has chosen Cad-Capture to provide its new document management solution based on Hummingbird DM. Centro is the key body responsible for promoting and developing public transport in the West Midlands, including the Midland Metro.

Centro decided their existing document management system was out of date and no longer supported their business requirements. Cad-Capture was chosen as the replacement because they were able to provide the best value solution. Centro required a document management solution that could be applied to both general office document management and to project-based document management, for example the storage of plans and other engineering documents associated with the Midland Metro project. Hummingbird DM was flexible enough to provide this and was specially tailored by Cad-Capture to meet Centro’s requirements.

The solution Cad-Capture provided is based on Hummingbird DM but also features elements of Hummingbird Workflow, Hummingbird Imaging, Autovue and Kofax Ascent Capture. The combination of these elements has built on the core document management functionality by allowing ad hoc scanning, batch scanning and the ability to view engineering drawings and plans.

Centro staff are being provided with relevant training and after sales service from Cad-Capture in order to ensure the document management solution will be used to its full potential.

Surinder Thandi, Principal Systems Developer/Project Manager said: “We chose Cad-Capture because they were flexible and easy to work with. They were able to customise the software and provide a complete document management solution to suit our business needs. Cad-Capture was also able to provide us with comprehensive training that has allowed us to fully operate the solution.”

About the Solution

The solution Cad-Capture provided was based on Hummingbird DM but also featured elements of Hummingbird WorkFlow, Hummingbird Imaging, AutoVue and Kofax Ascent Capture. Hummingbird DM is a document management system that transforms document-based information into knowledge assets. It achieves this through enabling the capture, manipulation and distribution of working knowledge. Hummingbird WorkFlow has allowed users to easily determine how, when and where content should flow. Hummingbird Imaging has provided a means to capture and index paper-based documents and manage them in tandem with electronic content that produces a library of resources and is managed by Hummingbird DM.

By transforming paper documents into digital knowledge assets, users have immediate access to essential resources that have been previously held on paper format. Hummingbird Imaging has provides the ability to scan paper files, annotate and manipulate them and then store them in Hummingbird DM repositories. AutoVue has given users with the means to view print and convert their electronic documents. It also has allowed them to import scanned documents from projects straight into the document management system. Finally, Kofax Ascent Capture allows everything from scanned paper documents to electronic files to be captured. Kofax Ascent Capture extracts important data, indexes files and documents and delivers the information directly into document management systems and provides instant access to information and the ability to retrieve it quickly.

About Centro

Centro is the key body responsible for reducing congestion on the roads of the West Midlands. It works within a political and financial framework formulated by the West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority. It is a statutory organisation responsible for promoting and developing public transport across the West Midlands metropolitan area. Centro does this by creating conditions where the public transport alternative is more appealing. Centro employs a team of more than 300 transport professionals including planners, designers and transport policy experts. This team is dedicated to developing and promoting public transport in the area.

February 2003

Cad-Capture’s Net Capacity Sheet Service

Cad-Capture can now provide its customers with a unique service that enables the information collated from digitised floor plans to be transferred straight into Net Capacity Sheets (NCS) that are required by the Department for Education and Skills* as part of Asset Management Planning (AMP).

The department requires the information so that it can provide funding into education fairly; dependent upon condition, suitability and sufficiency. Once this information has been received the money will be allocated to the schools accordingly. Data accumulated for AMP is entered into a Net Capacity Sheet which is used to calculate the total number of pupil places available and in-turn establish how much funding it is entitled to receive.

The process of entering data into a Net Capacity Sheet is normally a long and lengthy process and the accuracy cannot always be guaranteed. Cad-Capture has identified this and now offers a service to its customers as an option of the company’s AssetCapture product. A computer program specifically written by Cad-Capture transfers data direct from intelligent CAD drawings into the Net Capacity Sheets instantly.

The effectiveness of this service means that there is no room for error compared with manual entry. The conversion of data to the Net Capacity Sheets can also be completed at the same time as digitised floor plans which means the service is also cost effective. A number of County Councils have recently benefited from the service and found the speed, convenience and accuracy of the service to be unbeatable.

Simon Watts, Managing Director of Cad-Capture: “The introduction of this service means that through innovation and forward thinking, Cad-Capture is continually striving to provide its customers with a Best Value solution.”

About Asset Management Planning

Asset Management Planning processes and the underlying data will provide a basis for making decisions on spending priorities. AMPs are key plans in terms of ensuring overall best value and improvements in standards from capital investment in buildings. Please visit www.dfes.gov.uk

*Department for Children, Schools and Families - Formerly DfES

January 2003

Kerry Foods chooses Cad-Capture to provide its Document Management Solution

Cad-Capture has recently been awarded the contract to provide Kerry Foods with a new document management solution.

Kerry Foods wanted to replace its old document management system, as it no longer fulfilled its business needs. The company required a solution that would allow control over it and have the ability to develop it in-house. The purpose of the document management solution was to enable Kerry Foods to store financial documents such as invoices and delivery notes and retrieve them quickly in the event of a query from another company within the supply chain.

The document management solution provided by Cad-Capture consisted of Hummingbird DM and MaxRetriever, an integrated Computer Online Data (COLD) solution. MaxRetriever provides integration between the Promix ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and the document management system by capturing and storing the sales invoices produced into a printer spool file. MaxRetriever allows all of Kerry Foods' computer generated invoices to be stored within Hummingbird DM as one compact file and managed using automatically generated meta-data for each invoice. In the event of a query Kerry Foods is now able to retrieve any single invoice within a few seconds.

The second stage of the project has involved using the document management solution to store proof of delivery notes with signatures from deliveries obtained by Kerry Foods' delivery drivers on their hand-held computers. Software developed by Kerry Foods has enabled the company to store these signatures with the electronic proof of delivery note. Kerry Foods has made them instantly accessible within the document management solution. Again this process means Kerry Foods has instant access to essential documents. The effectiveness of the document management solution has provided Kerry Foods with a solution that allows them to retrieve financial documents speedily and the company plan to implement the solution with Kofax Ascent Capture batch scanning software to retrieve purchase invoices and other documentation.

Cad-Capture was chosen for the project because the company offered a comprehensive solution that is easily tailored, accommodated Kerry Foods requests and provided the company with the freedom to adapt the solution to suit the business's requirements. The company now has the ability to implement the solution into other areas of the business and to make changes to the solution as and when they are required.

Bob Goodchild, IT director of Kerry Foods said: "Cad-Capture gave us a professional service, were flexible and provided us with an ideal solution that has enabled us to capture and store the financial documents we produce and receive on a day to day basis. Cad-Capture has now provided us with a solution that that has given us the ability to be in control and adapt it in the future as our business requirements evolve. The Cad-Capture solution is very flexible and will allow us to leverage the investment in other areas of the business".

About Kerry Foods

Kerry Foods is a leader in consumer foods markets and has built its successful food production and marketing businesses by responding to the needs of consumers. As part of the Kerry Group, the division spans six principal product categories; savoury, porkmeat, dairy, poultry, homebaking and convenient/snacking products. Kerry Foods has progressively grown in recent years, having established strong working relationships with its retail partners through individual development and service programmes. Through responding to the consumer challenge, Kerry has selected market sectors where it can have a major influence.

For more information please visit www.kerrygroup.com

About Document Management

Document Management Systems enable businesses to capture, store, manage and retrieve documents quickly and easily through their computer within a matter of seconds. By minimising their reliance on paper based systems businesses can have complete control over and almost instantaneous access to their documents.

About Hummingbird DM

Hummingbird DM is a document management system that transforms document-based information into knowledge assets. It achieves this through enabling the capture, manipulation and distribution of working knowledge.