Capturing Faxed Data For Monsanto

A fax machine is a simple scanner, and therefore, can be used to automate document workflow. A case in point is Monsanto, one of the U.S.'s largest agricultural chemical companies. The company markets a range of technologies, including herbicides, insect-protected crop seeds, and growth hormone, to farmers across North America and has developed an innovative solution for handling returned product. As with most manufacturers, there is a percentage of products that is unused, surplus or defective, and farmers needed a handy and quick way to register and receive reimbursement. Today, the solution combines a Visifax server, Datacap capture software, and a Documentum document management system. The Challenge Farmers looking to return product receive a refund by faxing a "Technology Value Claim Form" to the company's headquarters, where the claim is evaluated and paid. During the peak growing season, from May to September, the company can receive up to 2,000 claims a day. Until recently, it took six full-time operators to gather up the faxes, enter them into the database manually, and process the claims. Often, they fell behind, which diminished the company's service to its customers, and farming is a business where cash flow is very important.

Looking for a solution that would speed the workflow of documents, increase accuracy, and require half the personnel to do it, the organization selected Datacap Taskmaster software. After a test run proved the value of the system in 1999, it became the new operations model for handling refunds.

The Solution

Using Taskmaster's Virtual Scan Task, faxes are input directly from the Visifax fax server (a Fujitsu 3097 scanner stands ready as a back-up, but isn't used much.) Then, Datacap Taskmaster document workflow software manages the processing, which includes form identification, recognition, verification, and upload to a Documentum document management system, which archives the data and supports easy retrieval.

Several steps enhanced the ability of Datacap to automate the process. The claim form itself was redesigned for improved ICR/OCR readability. Several database look-up functions, such as validation of city, state and zip codes, assure the company that they are sending the refund to an existing location. A date-checking feature helps verify that the claim concerns a purchase made within the past three years, further increasing the accuracy and speed of claims processing. Finally, to support upload to the company's Documentum "back end" system, a software conversion feature was designed to rename the image files to suit Documentum's file naming system.

Configuration

• Datacap Taskmaster
• Visifax Fax Server
• Fujitsu 3097 Scanner (for back-up)
• Documentum document management system

Result

The system is saving the chemical company time, money and delays related to inaccuracies and other quality problems. Today, processing refund claims requires only three full-time operators to handle validation of exceptions and some quality assurance samples with no backlog to inconvenience farmers, even during peak season. And because, Datacap software is flexible and open, the system can easily handle changes. For example, the company updates their forms every quarter to reflect their changing product set, but it's very easy for the system administrator to update the software and the keep the solution humming along.