QAI Re-Ups Multi-Million Deal with NIH

Fulton, MD-based document imaging services specialist Quality Associates, Inc. (QAI) has signed another five-year contract with the National Institute of Health. The contract, which has one base year band four renewal options, is initially valued at $18 million. It's the second consecutive such contract for QAI, which offers both document conversion and systems integration services.

According to the press release, "Efforts to transition NIH’s grant applications function to a paperless process will thus proceed uninterrupted and benefit from the expertise accrued during the initial contract period. In addition, the new contract expands the service offerings QAI will provide NIH. Notably, QAI will offer 508 compliance consulting and training and will design, install and manage end-to-end electronic content management (ECM) systems. QAI’s Microsoft Gold Certified SharePoint subsidiary, DocPoint Solutions (DPS), will spearhead the design and installation of a comprehensive end-to-end SharePoint ECM."

Presidential Memo Demands Improved Records Management

A recent memo issued by the office of the President of the U.S. has created quite a bit of buzz around the document imaging and records management software markets. The memo basically calls for improved records management within federal government agencies and sets out deadlines of one-month, three months, and six months, for making things happen.

From the "Purpose" section of the memo:  "This memorandum begins an executive branch wide effort to reform records management policies and practices.....  Greater reliance on electronic communication and systems has radically increased the volume and diversity of information that agencies must manage." The second part is certainly a pitch we have heard many ECM vendors make in recent years.

From the "Agency Commitments" section: "Within 120 days of the deadline for reports submitted pursuant to section 2(b) of this memorandum, the Director of OMB and the Archivist, in coordination with the Associate Attorney General, shall issue a Records Management Directive that directs agency heads to take specific steps to reform and improve records management policies and practices within their agency." Sounds like they're serious.

My take: It seems like the federal government is serious about laying out improved RM plans. This would seem to present a great opportunity for software vendors in our market. However, at least from my perspective and understanding of the federal government's financial situation: it would behoove anyone selling into this RM space to come to the table armed with ROIs, because I didn't see anything in the memo about funding.

Big Capture Projects Continue

By most accounts, the last three months of 2010 were a good time for the capture industry. ReadSoft, Kofax, and Top Image Systems, three publicly traded companies, each announced strong calendar fourth quarters. And that momentum appears to have flowed over into the first part of 2010. Top Image recently announced this $760,000 deal for the Argentinian Census. According to Omri Gelb, executive VP, it is TIS's 11th census win in the last year.

Utilizing automated data capture on census forms seems to have become a no-brainer. In a census that was fraught with budget overruns in other areas, scanner vendor ibml has announced that "its high-speed document scanning technology played a key role in helping the Lockheed Martin-led Decennial Response Integration System (DRIS) team complete the 2010 U.S. Census forms processing operation on schedule and under budget." From the ibml press release, "the team was able to process as many as 2.5 million 2010 Census forms every 24 hours during peak production. Lockheed Martin used 44 ibml ImageTrac scanners across three data capture centers to capture images from more than 165 million 2010 Census forms."

Finally, what report on the document capture space would be complete without mention of Kofax, which recently announced a $900,000 invoice processing deal. It's a combination Kofax Capture/KTM and Markview workflow deal - the type Kofax envisioned when it bought 170 Systems about a year and a half ago.

Lockheed Delivers DRIS Info to Census Bureau

With all the publicity surrounding cost overruns surrounding the 2010 U.S. Census, it's good to hear that Lockheed Martin has completed the Decennial Response Integration System (DRIS) contract on scheudle and under budget. "Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] made its final set of deliveries for the population count—which included data from more than 165 million 2010 Census forms—to the U.S. Census Bureau," said a recent press release.

The release touts the delivery as the culmination of a six-year effort, which was covered extensively in DIR. Here's a story we did in Feb. of this year when things were about to go live. It dicusses the deployment of some 45 IBML ImageTrac IV scanners at three sites, which were used to scan the forms in color. The 2010 Census marked the second time, image-based data collection technology was used. And it seems like a smashing success, especially when compared to alternative data collection technologies like mobile computing, which was tried and failed this time around--accounting for an increase in the number for forms handled by DRIS. 

We also expect digital images to be accepted by NARA this year for the first time, for long-term archiving, saving millions in microfilm costs.

2010 Census Forms on Track to be Saved as Digital Images

If you remember, after the 2000 U.S. Census, in which digital imaging was used for the first time to capture data from the forms, the forms were all transferred to microfilm before being submitted to NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) for long-term storage. This was after the Census Bureau had originally thought the digital images would be good enough for archiving. But, apparently, there was some disagreement over who would be in charge of ensuring that electronic images remained current, so a "human-readable" format - microfilm, was chosen.

Shortly thereafter, the PDF/A - A for "archiving" initiative was undertaken. We're not saying that NARA and the Census Bureau have agreed that PDF/A will be the long-term electronic format, but it's at least now an option - and over the past 10 years, people have certainly increased their focus on perserving electronic documents for lengthy periods of time.

Regarding the 2010 Census forms, which were once again captured digitally for data processing, early signs are that they will be archived as electronic images. From the timeline I've seen, most of the data extraction should be done by now and the information should be being prepared for submission to the President's office.

Here's an e-mail we recently received from the U.S. Census Bureau, ""The DRIS program considers all images used in the Census to be permanent records and has and will maintain them with links to the data throughout the life of the program. The referenced "blog" on the NARA website is a very accurate description of the activities being worked between Census and NARA to prepare the formal records schedule."

The "referenced blog" attempts to dispel some rumors that no images of the forms are going to be saved - only the data.

Ralph