July 25, 2001 - Reading time: 2 minutes

What is DMS EXPO?
DMS EXPO is a info chainment aptly (at Essen, Germany) describes the entire information chain:

• Information Production (Creation and Layout)
• Information Acquisition (Search, Retrieval and Data Mining)
• Information Processing (Entry and Scanning)
• Information Management (Engineering & Product Data Management, Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing)
• Information Storage (Data, Document and Information Data Warehousing)
• Information Development (Knoledge-Management and Customer Relationship Management)
• Information Logistics (Workflow, Supply Chain Management, Output Management, Messaging, Groupware, Networks and Telecomunication)
• Information Archiving (Micrography,Analogue and Digital Archiving)
• Information Security (IT Security and Digital Signatures)
• Information Output (Digital Print On Demand)

Who will be visiting DMS EXPO?
Each September around 20,000 senior business and IT professionals know that DMS EXPO is a MUST ATTEND event. Experts from both home an abroad have partecipated in numerous forums, conferences and presentations.

Visitor pre-registration project
The idea of DMS EXPO was to realize a cgi application where the visitor can per-register himself. This application has to store the data and send on the fly to the email of the visitor his PDF ticket.
This project was developed with few days of work with using the SANFACE Software knowledge and  product.

July 19, 2001 - Reading time: ~1 minute

I-control is providing marketing solutions and web-2-print solutions to several markets.
One of the projects is a vertical market solution for real estate agencies.
Agents can upload text and images to the i-control webserver, our systems then compile a new pdf containing their local information in their own unique lay-out.

I-control is an ASP for companies like Versatel, VNU and Azlan.
We use jpg2pdf PRO to convert the uploaded images to a pdf file, this way we are able to use them within the generated pdf.

June 19, 2001 - Reading time: 6 minutes

About OK Tedi Mining Limited
OK Tedi Mining Limited ("OTML") is a Copper and Gold mining operation in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. OTML revenues last year accounted for approximately 10% of Papua New Guinea GDP.

The problem
The following document is a synopsis of a project OTML commenced in November 2000 and identifies the very positive outcomes for the company and our Vendors.
The project scope was best described as "...a need to develop a more effective method of communicating with our Vendor Base..."
Our active Vendor database numbered over 1500 for the 14 months to February 2001. They accounted for some 56000 Purchase Orders and numerous Requests for Quotation and other facsmile expediting activity in excess of 100,000 transmissions each year. Our success rate in communicating with Vendors was less than acceptable. Our commercial documentation needed to be simplified and made more readable. Communication appeared to be all one way. The cost of our facsimile service was prohibitive.
We've used facsimile as our primary means of communicating with Vendors for some time. The facsimile process is labour intensive and requires paper documents to be handled many times by both parties. Just Imagine the cost in making 100,000 telephone calls each year, most of them metered STD/ISD and multiply that by the number of pages to be transmitted.
Our primary focus at OTML is Mining. We wished to implement a solution that would move us down the "e" path, based on software generally available both within OTML and at the Vendors' place of business. We also wanted a solution that was simple, easy to manage, provided a platform for all of our Vendors, and added value.
The biggest single hurdle was to make the solution flexible. If Vendors did not have email, Commercial documents are sent via facsimile. If Vendors had email then we wanted to send them email with the commercial documents attached.

Why txt2pdf PRO?
We wrote a piece of code (perl) that MIMS (our ERP) treats as a printer. Whenever a document is created in MIMS and that document is directed to a fax device, the perl script applies logic gathered from the ERP and determines the manner in which each document is sent. The document is included as an email attachment. The attachment is generally fixed in its format and content and secure to a point where someone would need to make a conscious effort to interfere with it.
SANFACE Software provided their software called txt2pdf that produces the PDF attachments. We originally installed the shareware version but later procured the Professional Edition to remove some advertising and enable more elaborate formatting features. The txt2pdf resides on our UNIX server. The perl script when it discovers an email message, calls the txt2pdf, includes information on the format the document should take, watermarks, font, text styles, etc., and creates a PDF attachment.
PDF was the chosen format for the attachments as ADOBE Acrobat Readers are very cheap to obtain and install. PDF documents are not readily changeable. PDF will support XML formatting in the near future that we think will provide a future development path should we choose to go that route.
One excellent spin off is that we now use the same technology (email and the SANFACE Software txt2pdf) to run our internal reports. In the past we have run periodic and ad-hoc reports to printers. We now send them to whoever initiated the request via email and in the PDF format. We now make better use of available printing resources and provide a practical and economic means of distributing information company wide or indeed globally.
The cost of the project in total amounted to 10 days of programming and system testing plus the cost of the txt2pdf application. Pay back was inside the first few weeks.

Summary
In the first three months since its introduction we have achieved the following:

• Vendors, representing 80% of our Purchase Order, RFQ and Expediting load are receiving their orders and other commercial documents by email.
• The next 75 Vendors representing up to 90% of the transactional load will be switched over to email by the end of June.
• Success rate on Vendors receiving orders has gone from 95% to 99%. The additional 1% being identified as problems we have yet to resolve internally.
• A significant reduction in our phone account based on the reduction in the number of phones calls made by the facsimile system.
• Order acknowledgments have tripled due to the ease in which email messages are able to be returned. This in itself has created a document management problem we've yet to address.
• Purchase Order duplications have reduced.
• Immediate feedback of non-receipt by the email server which uses better queuing facilities than the facsimile service.
• Vendor acceptance is high.
• We have reduced printed paper consumption both externally and internally by reducing our reliance on printed reports and making better use of the email system.

This is an example of OTML purchase order

Authors
This synopsis was compiled jointly by:

May 30, 2001 - Reading time: 5 minutes

Motorcharge project

About Motorcharge
Motorcharge is a leading provider of fuel cards to small and medium businesses throughout Australia.
Motorcharge's success in operating over 120,000 vehicle cards has resulted in the company being a leading player in the development and management of co-branded cards, third party cards and an electronic point-of-sale network within the retail motor industry. Over the past 20 years, the range of services has expanded beyond just fuel purchases, encompassing the charging of all vehicle related expense items, including fuel, service, repairs and maintenance as well as accommodation. The Motorcharge system also offers a comprehensive range of management and taxation reports to its cardholders.
Motorcharge first began providing a fuel charge card service in 1981. Motorcharge was the first to electronically capture transactions from service stations in Australia, and its point-of-sale terminal network was amongst the first of its kind in the world.
The more successful Motorcharge becomes, the greater the benefits to members in the form of improved merchant services. Another Motorcharge initiative to benefit members is the introduction of the United 241 (now ReD) EFTPOS terminal. The ReD terminal offers merchants one terminal that can cater for both the Motorcharge card as well as all major bank credit and debit cards. Due to significant buying power, Motorcharge is able to negotiate significantly lower bank merchant service fees on behalf of participating merchants than individuals could achieve on their own. The Motorcharge point-of-sale network now numbers in the excess of 5,000 terminals throughout the country.
Retail Decisions (ReD) is a publicly listed UK company with expanding operations in the United Kingdom, Australia, Europe, the United States and South Africa.
ReD's acquisition of Motorcharge Ltd and Australian Card Services Pty Ltd (Motorpass), specialist card based transaction processing businesses, marked the group's consolidation of their entrance into the Asia Pacific market. Through Motorcharge and ACS, ReD have advanced towards realising its aim of becoming a global provider of e-commerce fraud prevention services and card transaction support services.
With the support of ReD's unparalleled expertise in the development of fully integrated on-line systems, customers benefit from additional card functionality and powerful customer relationship management tools. By use of constantly evolving technologies, ReD is also able to not only detect payment card fraud, but to predict and prevent its occurrence.
This infrastructure provides a platform for a full range of quality card based services, including the development of proprietary label cards. ReD is committed to the delivery of a range of sophisticated, customised solutions designed to suit the changing needs of Australian businesses and an increasingly high level of service.
Whether your business is seeking a vehicle charge card, co-branding arrangement, a card management system or an electronic point-of-sale network, ReD has the ability to provide you with a turn-key solution.

The problem
Motorcharge generates approximately 50,000 invoices per month. These invoices are sent to a mailing house for printing, insertion and mailing to customers.
This method of invoice distribution was considered expensive and time consuming, with some customers complaining of late delivery of invoices due to postal delays.
An alternative was sought to reduce the number of printed invoices and to minimise unnecessary postal delays.
The problem centred around the fact that the main database is sitting in a UniData environment on a COMPAQ Alpha. This meant that using a solution such as Acrobat Distiller was not suitable. However, by using txt2pdf PRO we were able to integrate the Unix portion of the server from within the UniData environment to create a PDF file which could then be forwarded via standard email methods.

Why txt2pdf PRO?
The original specifications of the project involved providing an electronic invoice that closely resembled the existing paper version, while adding elements for electronic integration. Txt2pdf provided the perfect solution - being able to create the invoices on a fly, utilizing already existent PICK code while providing an extensive background file creation to build the first and subsequent pages. We were also able to integrate some small graphics to add a touch of pizzazz to the page.
The e-invoice also features hyperlinks to allow our customers to make online payments through our website. We have gone on to produce specific "watermarks" in the PDF render, allowing us to bring important information such as "Payment Overdue", to our customer's attention.
This is an example of our old invoices
This is an example of our new invoices made by a new version of data2pdf with the possibility to have in the same document pages in landscape and portrait format.
Motorcharge also manage a number of co-branded cards on behalf of third party clients, and we are currently working on being able to offer PDF invoices to our co-branded cardholders.
SANFACE Software have played a vital role in the implementation and roll-out of this project. Their service and support has been exceptional, with minimal turn around times in providing solutions to all problems posed.

May 25, 2001 - Reading time: ~1 minute

Pixco is specialized in digital high-resolution image retouching and was one of the pioneers in europe in the eighties.
Current clients include Toyota Europe, Lexus, Levi Strauss & Co. and many advertising companies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, VVL/BBDO, Lowe Lintas, Leo Burnett, Ogilvy and many others.
Aside from the image retouching, Pixco also features a multimedia departement which focuses on digital images and more specifically storage and distribution solutions for high-res imagary. Pixco is currently developping image databases for Toyota Europe, Lexus and Levi Strauss & Co. in ColdFusion and ASP.
jpg2pdf is part of an automated system that enables client's to upload images and different resolutions and will be created automatically on the server without user intervention.