Technology
Computhink — ViewWise
800-98-THINKwww.computhink.com
May. 29, 2008
From the June/July Review of Document
Management Systems
Computhink falls in the category of “horizontal” DMS solutions
that have the flexibility to meet the needs of many different industries including
banking, healthcare, education, manufacturing, government and financial services.
There are two primary DMS product offerings available: The Enterprise Solution
for larger organizations and The Paperless Office small business solution, which
offers the same feature set but packaged at a reasonable price for smaller organizations.
If you visit the vendor’s website at www.computhink.com/about_us/compliancy.asp,
you will find a link to a helpful recap of leading compliance standards including
SOX 404, HIPPA, Gramm-Leach Bliley Act and more.
Usability — 5 Stars
I appreciate how intuitive the interface of this system is for storing, retrieving
and viewing documents. The model used to organize files is a series of file
cabinets that you establish. Each cabinet contains multiple drawers, each drawer
contains multiple folders and the folders contain the individual documents.
The system is very easy to navigate. You have the ability to define the indexing
or metadata values according to your needs at the cabinet, drawer, folder or
document type level. For example, if you establish a document type for AP invoices,
you can establish the index values to be vendor, invoice number, date, etc.
Furthermore, indices can be auto-populated by parent/cabinet folders to reduce
data entry for same document types to one location. This gives you maximum flexibility
to organize your documents to meet your business processes.
Document searches can include Boolean logic; for example, you can search all
AP invoices that have a balance >$500. The document viewer supports the viewing
of more than 400 file formats without requiring the native software application.
For example, you can view an Excel spreadsheet even if you don’t have
Excel installed on the computer. You can also bundle multiple file types into
a single document file for viewing and still edit each of them in their native
application. A thumbnail view is provided so that you can quickly scroll through
a document. The system provides a set of stamps for annotating the TIFF images.
In addition, you can utilize the functions of Adobe Acrobat to annotate PDF
files. You can also apply redactions to sensitive data and secure it with a
password.
Scanning — 4 Stars
Computhink is designed to support scanning of documents in batches and then
file them either manually or through the “Eyes and Hands Connector”
module that can be set up to capture the indexing metadata directly from the
document or file. A virtual input tray allows you to scan a batch of documents
in and then index the documents as a group by establishing default values. OCR
processing is done at the server after the document is indexed and filed.
Integration — 4 Stars
ViewWise is a horizontal solution that lacks some of the direct integration
with tax and accounting packages that accountant-centric applications offer.
However, Computhink is planning to release a “screen scraping” technology
that can be used to automate the indexing of files and documents from various
sources. Integration with MS Office, including Outlook, is accomplished through
a direct interface button that allows you to save and retrieve Office files
directly to/from ViewWise. The Outlook interface is designed to store e-mail
messages and any file attachments as a single document; however, you can unbundle
the attachments if you prefer.
Workflow Tools — 4 Stars
The nature of the workflow functionality provided in ViewWise is based on a
document routing feature that lets you set up automatic routing based on the
folder and the document type. You can establish a sequence of individuals to
whom a document gets routed, and it can be moved from folder to folder as appropriate.
You can also activate an e-mail notification for documents that are routed.
In terms of routing a bundle of documents as a binder, this can be accommodated
by the functionality that lets you combine multiple file types into a single
document.
Client Portal — 4 Stars
ViewWise provides portal functionality through the ViewWise Online module that
essentially provides a web-based interface to the system that can be used for
remote access via the Internet. This allows you to set up access to specified
files for external users depending on security granted. You can also use this
module to process remote scanning of documents while in the field.
Technology — 5 Stars
ViewWise is a true DMS solution from the perspective that the documents are
stored in either a SQL or Oracle database, which provides the capability to
program advanced document management functionality. The system is developed
in the .NET platform. Computhink does not provide a hosted solution; however,
this option is available through selected resellers.
Pricing/Overall Value — 4 Stars
The pricing for ViewWise starts at around $8,000 and scales up depending upon
the combination of modules implemented and the number of users. This is a reasonable
pricing model for a system with the depth of functionality that ViewWise brings
to the table. Overall, the system offers a robust set of features that allows
you to implement an enterprise-level DMS solution.
2008 Overall Rating — 4.5 Stars