SER SOLUTIONS ANNOUNCES U.S. LAUNCH OF SERdistiller

SER Solutions Inc, a leading provider of enterprise content management, workflow, and customer interaction technology, announced the U.S. launch of SERdistiller and the first completed U.S. installation of this innovative, new information extraction technology.

SERdistiller, which applies "smart" technology to traditional document imaging for improved productivity, rapid ROI, and enhanced customer service, enables, for the first time, automated classification and extraction of data from both structured and unstructured documents.

The introduction of SERdistiller marks the advent of an entirely new generation of information extraction solutions for the massive volume of unstructured documents, which comprise more than 90 percent of the world's data. Unstructured documents include reports, memos, letters, handwritten documents, and magazines for which there are no consistent sets of fields or field locations in the document.

Capital City Bank Selects SERdistiller

Capital City Bank Group Inc - a $1.7 billion financial services company headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, operates through two wholly owned banking subsidiaries (Capital City Bank and First National Bank of Grady County) and provides traditional deposit and credit services, asset management, trust, mortgage banking, credit cards, data processing, and securities brokerage services - is the first U.S. organization to install SERdistiller.

Capital City Bank Group and its subsidiaries operate 56 banking offices, 65 ATMs, and nine "Bank and Shop" locations in 22 counties in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

Capital City Bank deployed SER Solutions' SERdistiller document management system to automate access to loan documents (hand-written and typed) and signature cards. SERdistiller allows loan officers and other authorized associates in the bank's 56 branch offices to access loan documents and signature cards on-line via the company's wide area network (WAN).

"Before the installation of SERdistiller, our office associates had to request copies of a loan file or documents from the central office," explained Cindy Pyburn, senior vice president, Bank Operations, at Capital City Bank. "An associate at our headquarters would physically retrieve the file, photocopy the requested documents, and fax or mail them to the office, a costly and time consuming process. Today our office associates can access this vital information, instantly, online."

"We selected SERdistiller for one primary reason - in our opinion, of the systems we reviewed, it was the only system that could deliver on the promise of eliminating the tedious, manual document indexing associated with traditional document management systems," said Russell Grosvenor, executive vice president of Capital City Bank. "The newly installed system is already having a positive impact on our operations by enabling us to complete the centralization of our operations without adding staff."

SERdistiller: Unlike Forms Processing

"With traditional document imaging technology, numerous personnel and countless hours are required to review image files, classify document types, and determine where they should be electronically filed (indexing) - a process that is time consuming, expensive, and error prone," said Mike Ball, SER Solutions vice president of marketing.

"SERdistiller's 'unique' technology allows enterprises to replace, without tedious programming, the manual effort required to classify and index every document that goes into an imaging and knowledge management system," stated Ball. "Two of the most immediate benefits are improved accuracy and enhanced productivity, which enable an enterprise to optimize deployment of valuable, and often scarce, human resources."

SERdistiller does not rely on forms/rules-based software, bar codes, and manual methods to capture and extract data. All of these approaches have proven to be costly and time consuming.

Human-like Intelligence

SERdistiller literally mimics human learning by classifying documents based on similar content, which the system has seen before. The solution then classifies the full range of document types from completely unstructured to fully structured documents. It also extracts text and numerical fields for index population.

SERdistiller is powered by SERbrainware, a robust software engine that performs content analysis using advanced artificial intelligence techniques. SERbrainware forms the basis of a new generation of software programs, which read, analyze, and act on text, with human-like intelligence.

SERdistiller uses SERbrainware to analyze an initial "learning set" of five to 25 documents that define the type of document classification and data extraction that a given information system requires. This learning process can be modified, refined, or extended to optimize the process.

The result is consistent, high-quality document classification and an information extraction system that is superior to manual methods.

The SERbrainware engine empowers the SERdistiller product with two modes of application: a classification mode and an extraction mode. The classification application teaches SERbrainware how to categorize new text documents into defined classes, through the use of small samples of text.

In the extraction mode, the trained SERdistiller engine pulls the exact information a user requires out of a specific and narrow range of meaning from huge repositories of data on demand.

Transforming the Business Process: Key Benefits

"Document management systems do a good job at systematically organizing huge numbers of digital files in short periods of time, but, while those systems do well at converting them into computer-usable data, they do not turn them into human-usable knowledge," noted Arthur Gingrande, Partner IMERGE Consulting www.imergeconsult.com, in his report titled SERdistiller Offers Smart Solution to Document Content Management. "For knowledge to result, a document archive must be intelligently distilled, so that the document content can be extracted according to the intrinsic structure and implicit perspective of the knowledge already within a given company. More often than not, the procedures for extracting knowledge cannot be governed by explicit rules or formal procedures. Human intuition is required to convert information or data into knowledge, and doing that is too time-consuming a task to meet the speed of contemporary business."

SERdistiller improves mission-critical business processes that produce measurable benefits at every organizational level. Primary benefits include:

• SERdistiller delivers substantial gains in productivity, enabling enterprises to optimize utilization of their scarce technology and human resources. In short, SERdistiller makes workforce redeployment a reality. A single Pentium computer running SERdistiller will classify up to 5,000 documents per second, without Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
• SERdistiller automates the classification and indexing processes inherent in a rules-based imaging and knowledge management system, replacing costly manual data entry and allowing companies to maximize their human resources.
• SERdistiller's advanced classification and extraction capabilities open new opportunities for enterprises to strengthen customer relationships through enhanced service (including expanded self-service capabilities, faster processing, improved record control/accuracy, etc.) and sophisticated cross-selling and up-selling initiatives. SERdistiller delivers the right information to the customer or customer service representative when it is needed.
• SERdistiller dramatically improves the quality of knowledge management. SERdistiller's faster and more accurate content extraction means knowledge quality is not only improved, but is made available to company knowledge workers more rapidly. This information, in turn, can be leveraged more rapidly and efficiently in the customer service, accounting, and sales functions, to cite a few examples.
• SERdistiller's sophisticated neural network technology understands content without tedious programming, thereby accelerating an enterprise's ROI. The solution literally mimics human learning, enabling SERdistiller to read, understand, and automatically classify structured and completely unstructured documents. ROI is also enhanced by the solution's ability to improve cash management through accelerated generation of outgoing invoices and processing of incoming receivables, and through improved facilities utilization.

Key Applications

SERdistiller is ideal for implementing the following applications:

• SERdistiller automatically processes invoices and hard-to-distinguish, imaged forms - SERdistiller's ability to manipulate unstructured documents makes it a powerful tool for processing invoices. In addition, SERbrainware enables it to identify minute differences within similar document types, such as IRS and medical claims.
• SERdistiller automatically sorts incoming faxes - SERdistiller identifies and routes arriving faxes to a user's inbox as an attachment. Fax messages are converted into text and delivered to appropriate recipients as e-mail messages.
• SERdistiller automatically consolidates customer/concept data - SERdistiller learns to recognize and route data from numerous sources, including e-mail, fax, scanned images, and text, to a common folder, then process that information as a single data stream through the same set of business guidelines and workflow.
• SERdistiller offers content-based indexing of mass data and backfile conversion - SERdistiller utilizes enterprise report management (COLD) technology to systematically alter, spilt, file, and archive large data pools by indexing mass data, as well as converting rarely used archives into a usable knowledge base.
• SERdistiller assists in portal-based customer relationship management (CRM) and customer self-service (CSS) - SERdistiller extracts and processes unstructured data from sources such as invoices, resumes, and letters of complaint, leveraging its data recognition capabilities.

System Availability, Pricing

SERdistiller is available for immediate delivery. Additional product and pricing information can be obtained by calling 800-274-5676 or via email at info.usa@ser.com.

About SER Solutions Inc

SER Solutions, headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, is a leading provider of enterprise content management, workflow, and customer interaction solutions. The company is the U.S. subsidiary of SER Systems AG, headquartered in Neustadt/Wied, Germany. SER is Europe's largest supplier of document management systems and workflow solutions.

SER Solutions unites SER's three independent United States operations - formerly known as Portal Connect, DoxSys, and SER Macrosoft - to leverage the unique synergies that existed between the three independent organizations.

Portal Connect, formerly EIS International, was known worldwide as a leading provider of customer interaction technology. DoxSys made its mark as a premier supplier of enterprise-wide workflow solutions, and Macrosoft specialized in knowledge management solutions for the financial services industry.

Additional information on SER Solutions is available on the company's Web site at www.sersolutions.com.

Contact SER Solutions Inc, Kathy Billie, 301-841-1008, Kathy.billie@ser.com.