AutoDoc HSE is essentially a peripheral tool consisting of two main components - a
virtual printer, and an administrator's
configuration interface. To the end user, the virtual printer is simply another printer in their list of available printers.
The virtual printer incorporates a PDF
converter which streamlines any print to PDF requirements your users
have, including the ability to 'scan' image files to a PDF.
Because all of AutoDoc HSE's functionality is built in to the
virtual printer, all your end users need to do to make AutoDoc HSE email, fax, archive, SMS, and print hard copies, is hit the ‘print’ button.
Operating as a virtual printer, the stand-out feature of AutoDoc HSE
is its ability to quickly integrate with third-party applications to
deliver documents in an "intelligently" contextual manner, so that,
for example, your MYOB ® or
SAP ®
debtor statements are delivered via internet fax gateway, standard
fax, email, or hard copy, with an optional accompanying
SMS gateway
message, all dependent upon your customers' preferences,
automatically. This intelligently contextual document delivery is
extended to the point that information from the source documents
themselves can be included in the delivery method to create a
document-specific, and yet standardised, message.
When AutoDoc HSE receives a print job, it reads the document’s content and determines how that document should be
processed, based on the user-defined settings that have been pre-configured by your AutoDoc HSE administrator. These settings
are managed in the configuration interface, and can allow for any combination of the application’s delivery methods
to be applied to the print job. Each of these
delivery
methods is also highly configurable, allowing for a multitude of options in total.
In addition, AutoDoc HSE allows for multiple ‘forms’ (99 in the Enterprise edition), which are discrete sets
of pre-configured delivery options – which makes the system a very flexible, as well as very powerful, tool.
Because AutoDoc HSE delivers documents in an intelligently
contextual manner, your invoice for ABC Automotive for $320, can be sent with a subject heading of “Invoice for ABC Automotive,
$320” - and all you have to do to make this happen, is hit the print button.
As with most great ideas, AutoDoc HSE's powerful functionality is achieved through a very simple method: AutoDoc HSE recognises
document content by focusing on the colour of the text in the print job. Two key AutoDoc HSE concepts are 'commands' and
'variables'. Commands are what tell the printer to do something with the document, other than just printing it. A
command can instruct AutoDoc HSE to email the document, for example. Commands are located within the printed document itself
and are recognised by AutoDoc HSE on the basis of their text colour. By default, AutoDoc HSE treats any white
text (which, in most documents, is invisible to the reader, but not to AutoDoc
HSE) as a command. So, you could configure your invoices (using the example above) to include the email address of the recipient in white text. While the recipient can't
see it, AutoDoc HSE can, and it will treat that text as a command and email the document to that email address.
The second key concept, variables, works in a similar fashion. Again, using the example above, the invoice could have
the account name ('ABC Automotive') printed in red text, and the invoice total ($320), in blue text. The AutoDoc HSE administrator
configures AutoDoc HSE to look for these colours, and when they appear in a print job, AutoDoc HSE stores that text as a
variable, which can then be used in the delivery outputs. So, effectively, AutoDoc HSE knows to look for text of a certain
colour, and when it finds it, it stores that text and can use it
later.
"Okay, but what if my invoices aren't multicoloured?" Well, it depends on your definition of multicoloured...
For example, this paragraph is written in text that is plain black (that is, its RGB - Red, Green, Blue - value is 0,0,0).....
.....while this paragraph is written in text that is not quite black (RGB = 10, 10, 10). You probably can't tell the
difference, but AutoDoc HSE can. In fact, there are literally hundreds of shades of difference between this paragraph
and the paragraph above, as far as AutoDoc HSE is concerned.
This means that you can have a variable rich ('multicoloured') document which, to the reader, looks like any other black
and white document.
But we have allowed for the possibility that some programs may not allow you to produce text in 'colour'. In this
case AutoDoc HSE can use the position of text in a document to recognise that text.
The flexibility provided by variables is amazing. For example, as well as delivering your invoice via email (which can include
various file formats such as PDF, plain text, XML, XLS), AutoDoc HSE can also archive your invoice. And because, using the
example, it has stored the account name of the invoice, this can be used to dynamically construct directory and file names.
In addition, AutoDoc HSE also has 'system variables', which include such information as who sent the print job to the printer,
date stamps, and so on.
So, without doing anything except clicking the print button, you can send a personally addressed email (including contact
details of the person who 'printed' the invoice) with the invoice attached in a variety of formats, as well as archiving
that invoice to an intelligently contextual location (or locations!), which AutoDoc HSE can create on the fly, such as:
C:\Records\Invoices\ABC Automotive\23062007\Invoice2547.pdf
All PDF files produced by AutoDoc HSE can include letterheads and watermarks, and these are also configured on a form-by-form
basis, and can also be configured so that different letterheads are applied to first, subsequent, and final pages. Letterheads
can apply to email and fax transmissions, as well as hard copies and archive copies produced by AutoDoc HSE.
Faxes produced by AutoDoc HSE can also include variable-based information in subject headings. Customised cover pages can
also be used with faxes sent by AutoDoc HSE. AutoDoc HSE supports Microsoft® Fax for basic fax
transmission, as well as Streamline's own MessageSaver service, which provides a fax
gateway and
SMS gateway to allow significant cost reduction on transmissions.
The different versions of AutoDoc HSE cater for all manner of requirements, from the casual
user needing occasional deliveries, to demanding output levels, which can be handled comfortably by AutoDoc HSE's multithreading
capacity. See the list of features
and our online presentations for more details on the functionality AutoDoc HSE can
offer.