You will find the answers to some of the frequently asked questions about different features and functionalities of Newgen Products here.You can refer to this section to see if you can find answers to your queries. If you feel that your query is not addressed here, please visit our Resource or contact us. We would be delighted to assist you.
OmniDocs: DMS Product – FAQs OmniFlow: BPM Product – FAQs OmniExtract: Data Extraction – FAQs OmniScan: Scanning & Indexing – FAQs OmniCompliance – FAQs CTS – FAQs
OmniDocs: DMS Product – FAQs
What is Document Management?
Document Management provides central repository for enterprise documents and supports rights-based archival .It is used to manage documents through various stages of their lifecycle – creation, review, storage, distribution, archival and destruction.
Imaging is a method for converting paper documentation into an electronic format, using scanners and associated techniques such as Optical Character Recognition, etc. Through Imaging, paper-based documents are converted to electronic format for introducing in a Document Management System environment. This is in contrast to documents created in the electronic format such as Word, PDF, etc.
No. The document on the screen looks exactly like the original document, including all images, handwritten notes, signatures, etc. However, the quality of the digital document depends on the scanning quality. If you print a well-scanned document, the print copy will look "exactly" the same as original document.
Knowledge Management (KM) System refers to a system for managing knowledge in organizations, that supportings creation, capture, storage and dissemination of information.
Workflow is a sequence of actions or work-steps in a business process, involving human and system inputs to achieve a defined outcome.
OmniDocs is an Enterprise Document Management (EDM) platform for creating, capturing, managing, delivering and archiving large volume of documents. OmniDocs provides highly scalable, unified repository for securely storing and managing enterprise content. It provides access to enterprise content directly and through integration with business applications.
OmniDocs requires the following minimum hardware requirements * Server: Pentium IV, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD * Client: Pentium III, 256 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD * Scanner: Any TWAIN or ISIS compliant scanner
OmniDocs is a mature product that has been developed and refined through more than 15 years. During this period, OmniDocs has been implemented worldwide in a number of organizations across different industries. OmniDocs meets the high standards of robustness, cost efficiency, scalability, security and user friendliness.
You can view more than 200 different file formats using OmniDocs. These include Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, HTML, PDF, Tiff, Gif, JPEG, etc.
OmniDocs compresses the document using CCIT G4 technology. Paper-based documents are digitized and saved in TIFF format.
The following is an indicative list of scanners that can be used: High End ScannersKodak 1500 Ricoh IS-450 S Kodak 2500Medium End Scanners Kodak i50 Ricoh IS-330 DC Low End Scanners Avision AV 600U AV 820 C
The scanning speed depends on the rated speed of the scanner, the configuration of the machine, and regular maintenance of the scanner. Any high-end scanner can efficiently handle bulk scanning and backlog conversion. Document separators can be used to identify a new document while scanning. This eliminates manual intervention.
There is no limit to the creation of folders and sub-folders. A Windows-Explorer-like interface lets you create and display as many folders and sub-folders as you like.
You can perform the following operations: * Merge, split and divide documents * Zoom in and Zoom Out * Rotate* Flip (horizontal and vertical)* Negate * De-skew for skewed images
Every time a Document is checked out or checked in, a new version is created and it is set as default version. System maintains the version history and you can revert to any older version.
Workflow is the process of routing and tracking of documents within the workgroup by initiating them as work items. Work item automates the process and gives the facility of marking notes and taking actions on the documents.
Audit Trail is an account of the operations that are performed on the cabinet by various users. It helps to establish accountability and estimate the effort of users. The actions for which an audit trail can be viewed are classified as user actions, folder actions and document actions. The details for the specified criteria are displayed for the specified period.
OmniDocs is secure system in which each user is assigned unique user ID and password. Users are assigned rights and privileges on cabinets, folders and documents. Privileges enable the user to perform administrative functions, whereas access rights are the permissions to access modify and delete folders and documents. Support for SSL/HTTPS ensures secure transmission of data.
Audit trails and digital signatures can be used to ensure the integrity of a document. Audit trail: Audit Trail is an account of the operations that are performed on the document by various users. Digital Signatures: Adopting a strategic implementation of the PKI (digital signatures) can strengthen image encryption at the database level. This scheme of security ensures that all your documents are decrypted with your public key and no tampering has happened since it was last saved.
OmniDocs provides easy way to backup documents for offline storage. The backup of both metadata (indexes) and image data is required. It supports both full backup as well as incremental backup. OmniFlow: BPM Product – FAQs
Business Process Management (BPM) is a disciplined approach to design, execute, monitor, measure and control business processes for consistent achievement of required results, which align with organization's strategic goals. BPM provides technology-oriented, end-to-end business processes that drive business results, create value and enable an organization to meet its business objectives with more agility.
OmniFlow is a highly scalable, platform-independent BPM solution that enables companies across the industries to automate, streamline and optimize their business processes.
Workstep is a logical unit of work in a business process, where a manual user or the system performs the intended task/operation.
In an OmniFlow process, work-item is the unit or basic component of task which flows from one work-step to another where work or operations are performed on it.
Major components of OmniFlow are: Process Modeler, Process Manager, Process Client, Simulator, Dashboard and Business Activity Monitoring (BAM).
Process Modeler is a module for designing business processes, by business users. Usage of standard notations, drag-and-drop facility with user-friendly, advanced graphical interface, the module makes process designing very easy.
Process Manager is a web administration console for business/users to administer and manage their business processes by detailed and customised analysis of their business processes.
Process Client is the OmniFlow module into which a user logs in to process work-items. Process Client gives the user a list view of all the work-items that are to be processed by her.
A company policy, which determines the execution of a business process, is called the business rule for that process.(eg: In scenario 1, the work gets routed to person A while in scenario 2, it gets routed to person B.)
Parallel workflow is supported through the concept of conditional distribution and collection. Through this concept, multiple instances of the same work-item is sent for parallel processing and are later collected or accumulated as per the business rules. Dynamic splitting facility enables creation of dynamic instances of same work-item, which can be distributed among various users based upon dynamic rules for parallel processing.
Sub-process is a complete process, which can be used in another process as a component.This can be better explained using an example. Let’s say, the process of issuing a credit or debit card is already deployed or designed. An appropriate card needs to be shared with the customer for Savings account/ Current account/ Joint Account. In the processes for opening accounts, one can initiate a process instance in card issuance process, thereby decreasing the complexity of the processes designed.
Any business would involve some actions to be done on occurrence of a business event. Event triggers in OmniFlow are the tools that help Process Designer define the business actions on occurrence of events.
Every business user has a definite set of operations to perform. To-do list is a check-list of mandatory actions that enforces the user to complete his work before sending it further in the process.
Business data is vital for every organization, and sharing of this data in a proper way is required among applications. Apart from the integration-centric standard methods, OmniFlow has Export Utility, which exposes the business data captured by OmniFlow in the form of standard Excel sheets with customized formatting. This feature is useful for integration with Business Intelligence or CRM tools.
Any business involves documents like applications, notices, invoices, etc. Business actions and decisions are taken on the basis of the data contained in these documents. Business users, therefore, require these documents to perform business operations. True advantage of a BPM solution would be acquired only if the business users are able to see the business documents on the screen along with their concerned forms.
OmniFlow is a queue based BPM solution, making it easy for both the business owner and user to work on the solution. Users can be allocated to various work queues for easy updation and assignment of work-items.
Yes. With dynamically changing business environment, companies need to revise their business rules at run time to be abreast with the competition and to capture markets. OmniFlow allows business owners to change the business rules on-the-fly through the concept of dynamic constants. By changing the underlying values in dynamic constants, business rules can be changed on-the-fly.
BPMN stands for Business Process Modelling Notation. It is an accepted standard for modeling business pocesses. Owing to its easy comprehensibility, the standard has become widely accepted.
OmniFlow supports BPMN standard by allowing the business process designer to view or design the process in BPMN mode. Business process designer can design the process in Newgen proprietary designing standard and view it in BPMN mode also.
BPEL stands for Business Process Execution Language. BPEL is an XML-based standard for defining business processes that exclusively uses web services for integration. As this standard helps organizations become SOA compliant, organizations are increasingly looking forward for compliance of BPM solution with this standard.
OmniFlow supports BPEL 2.0 by allowing users to import any BPEL2.0 compliant process for web services into OmniFlow. The imported process can be further worked upon as if the process is designed in OmniFlow itself for any further modifications.
OmniFlow helps organizations become SOA compliant by supporting the following integration Methodologies:Web Service: Integration with web services for synchronous, asynchronous and fire-&-forget mode of communication. Now, business processes designed in OmniFlow can also be exposed as web services.Support of JMS: OmniFlow supports Java Messaging Services (JMS) for integration supporting both queue and topic modes of communication.
Simulator is a component of OmniFlow that helps the process owner derisk the investment or business decision, by allowing the business user to create scenarios based on production-data, and anticipating potential bottlenecks even before implementing the process in a live environment. It acts as a window to future using which business owner can make better amendments. Simulator aids the business owner to take better decision through exhaustive reports and multiple-scenario comparision.
Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) is an augmenting concept in BPM, allowing real time reporting on the process participants. Business Activity Monitor is a module that allows the business or process owner to have the complete perspective of the current situation of business processes. It enables the process owner to take timely actions as per the resource allocation for streamlining the business operations.
As part of BAM, custom reports allow the business owner to design and define the user interfaces of various reports as per his roles, responsibilities and convenience. Customized reports help the business owner have a 360-degree view of the current business situation. OmniExtract: Data Extraction – FAQs What is Newgen® OmniExtract?
Newgen® OmniExtract processes virtually any kind of form and captures all possible kinds of information, viz. Hand-printed/ Handwritten Characters, Optical Marks (Ticked, Crossed or Filled Ovals/ Checkboxes), Barcode Symbologies, Machine-printed Characters and MICR Fonts.
Newgen® OmniExtract currently supports the following automatic data extraction methodologies: ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition) OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) BCR (Barcode Recognition) MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
Newgen® OmniExtract requires the following: Newgen® OmniExtract Server Intel® Pentium® IV-based processor running at 1.2GHz or higher Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server; 2000 Server or NT Server 1 GB free hard-drive space for complete installation (200 MB required) 512 MB of RAM Newgen® OmniExtract Workstations Intel® Pentium® II-based processor running at 450MHz or higher Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional; NT 4.0 Workstation; 98; 95 400 MB free hard-drive space for complete installation (200 MB required) 128 MB of RAM
Minimum requirements for both server & client as follows Server: 1 GB RAM Client: P IV & above
Newgen® OmniExtract supports Tiff 6.0 file format with 1-bit, 4-bit, 8-bit and 24-bit pixel depth support in industry standard compression schemes.
There is bound to be some difference between the scanned images and the template that was defined. Technically these artifacts are known as trapezoids, pincushions, barrels, etc. and have the potential of misleading image content search for registration. These problems are taken care of by exhaustively researched algorithms on Image Analysis that have been developed in house by engineers solely dedicated to this cause. (Some of the work can be found in publications/ journals of international repute). Therefore, Newgen® OmniExtract has a very powerful feature of registering and recognizing natural as well as artificially manifested object content of the images for very accurate results and low rejection rates.
Data is organized in batches. And each batch is associated with a Form, where a Form can be a single page or multi page document.
There is no limit on number of pages/ documents in a batch but for ease of processing, it is always recommended to have small batches.
Which operating systems does Newgen® OmniExtract support?
Newgen® OmniExtract Server Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server; 2000 Server or NT Server ; 2003 Advanced server; Newgen® OmniExtract Workstations Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional; NT 4.0 Workstation;
Documents scanned using some external scanning software can be submitted for extraction through the Newgen® OmniExtract interface.
This product has a full-fledged Form Definition Module. The user defines the form template containing the information about the zone and the recognition action to be performed on the zone and also attaches the fields, which are to be populated with the extracted data from the forms.
Accuracy: The in-house OMR engine allows multiple differentials passes at varied settings over the same data zone on the form and gives the most-conforming output, thereby ensuring 100% accuracy. Speed: Also it works very fast, typically taking about less than 1 second time for say PIII, 650MHz-128 MB workstation, for extracting full-page data from a standard A4 sized form.
It works at any practical resolution, but the best results are achieved at 200 DPI resolution.
Following symbologies are supported for Barcodes: USS39/Code39 UPC-A UPC-E EAN13 EAN8 Code 93 Code 128 CODABAR I2OF5 These Barcodes can be used for coding information or as quality parameters.
The Intelligent Character Recognition technology is capable of interpreting handwritten / handprint characters. The Newgen® OmniExtract ICR System is designed to provide automatic data extraction from handwritten forms that have to be processed in large volumes on a regular basis.
The data extracted from the Newgen® OmniExtract System is stored as MS-Access data files, and this can be exported to any ODBC compliant database. This export can also be automated using tool-agents/connectors.
While various data extraction tools exist in the market today, the NEWGEN® OmniExtract System has an edge over all others in that it's high-end technology and in built intelligence virtually ensures 100% accurate results. The NEWGEN® OmniExtract System is intelligent enough to recognize incorrect/doubtful characters. Thus after data extraction the user is automatically notified of all characters that the system finds doubtful and the user need only review these selected characters. The system incorporates user friendly and ergonomically designed interfaces, which allow multiple users to review and verify the extracted data with the least amount of effort. Also the advanced image pre-processing algorithms that work on an image before it is fed as an input to the recognition engine ensure much higher accuracy than is attainable through the crude engine. During the verification stage, the verifier has the options of choosing to either verify the extracted data character by character or at a field level. Thus the user has sufficient flexibility to further increase accuracy of results, the system includes various dictionaries like those of names, addresses etc. The system if unsure of a field value that it is extracting, can compare it with a valid value from the dictionary and return the accurate result. The user has the freedom of associating self-defined dictionaries as well. This makes the application unique in the sense that it actually learns while in operation. Also various custom defined rules/ validations can also be built in the system alongwith the ease of integration with Workflow solutions for e.g. OmniFlow.
To achieve 100% results, one has to take care at each and every stage of processing of documents. Some of the precautions that can be taken are as follows: Filling stageAt the form filling stage itself, if some precautions are taken, the final results would be excellent. These are listed as follows: Fill in a way so that the characters don't touch the lines or the boxes. The characters that are filled should not lie outside the boxes. The forms should be filled in as neatly as possible. Scanning Stage The documents to be used for extraction should be scanned as carefully as possible. The scanner should be serviced periodically so that no noise is introduced at the time of scanning. Prevent unnecessary skew that might enter due to improper feeder adjustments. Verification stage The engine shows the doubtful characters through the verification screen. The verification stage is very critical to achieve 100% results. The user can first start with the Character mode for verification and move on to the field mode to get finally 100% results. (Character Mode and field mode of verification explained later).
The advantage of using the Newgen® OmniExtract System lies in its strong verification facilities. Three modes of verification are provided, the character mode, field mode and Page mode, which allow the users to verify extracted data for inconsistencies in the easiest manner possible, reducing the overall processing time drastically. The Newgen® OmniExtract solution ensures 100% accurate results through a strong Verification module. These verification modes are such that no doubtful characters are left unattended, thus, ensuring 100% accuracy. Character Verification Mode Field Verification Mode Page Verification Mode
The data entry operations are both time consuming and erroneous. However carefully the data entry is done there always remain some errors which have to be cross-checked through the data verifier. This takes a lot of time and also there remains an additional cost of maintaining the paper documents in the same order as the data entry had been done to minimize the effort for the Data Verifier. In spite of all these precautionary measures the data entry accuracy is only 90%.The Newgen® OmniExtract ICR Application maintains the image of the documents so that there is no need for maintaining the physical paper. Since a dedicated machine is being used for data extraction, the first level of data entry is being done by the machine itself, thus eliminating the need for data entry operators. The process of data extraction from these forms is much faster as compared to the data entry being done through data entry operators. With the strong verification and exhaustive dictionaries, Newgen® OmniExtract ICR System Guarantees 100% accuracy.
Being a totally hardware independent solution the user has complete freedom to design forms, the scanned images of which go as input to Newgen® OmniExtract. Forms can be designed using specialized packages such as Adobe® PageMaker® or simply use a word processing package like MS Word, MS-PowerPoint or any other multilingual package. While designing the form general guidelines, such as, keeping the area to be filled properly spaced and giving placeholders for each character separately should be kept in mind. Clear instructions for properly filling up the forms should be specifically printed on the form to remind the person filling up the forms. For increasing accuracy, registration marks may be drawn on the form. It is good practice to draw registration marks in parallel lines on the two vertical edges of the form sheet. Once the form has been designed and printed, a scanned copy of the same is taken to define the template using the comprehensive form Definition of Newgen® OmniExtract.
Newgen licenses reRecognition's Kadmos Engine for recongition of hand-written/machine-printed (ICR/OCR) data. About re Recognition GmbH: About re Recognition GmbH manufactures ICR/OCR software for the digtital interpretation of handwritten and machine printed characters. The Kadmos OCR/ICR (handwriting) recognition engine has multiple languages support and application development interfaces are available for C/C++/VB/Delphi, and Java. It also has isolated character (REC), isolated line (REL), and paragraph (REP) recognition modules. OmniScan: Scanning & Indexing – FAQs
OmniScanTM is a next generation scanning solution that allows users to scan documents in bulk, segregates them into appropriate records, automatically extracts data from digital images, provides support for manual data entry and exports them to document management system or workflow.
Organizations, using large number of physical documents across departments for their business processes, can reap huge benefits by using OmniScan™. Using digital images of physical documents with auto data-extraction facility helps achieve document-enabled, end-to-end workflow with minimal manual intervention.
OmniScanTM is built on .Net technology.
OmniScanTM uses TWAIN and ISIS protocols for scanning.
The following is an indicative list of scanners that can be used:
Kodak i40(25 PPM)
Kodak i50 (20 PPM)
Kodak i55(36 PPM)
Fujitsu Scan Partner 15C (15 PPM)
Fujitsu fi-M3097 (36 PPM)
Fujitsu 3096 (21 PPM)
Fujitsu fi-6130 (40 ppm at 200 dpi)
Fujitsu fi-5220C (25 PPM)
Fujitsu fi-5120C (25 PPM)
Avision 600U(12 PPM)
Avision 220 C2(35 PPM)
Avision 820C PLUS(20 PPM)
Avision 830CPLUS(30PPM)
HP 8290 (25 PPM)
HP 8350 (25 PPM)
Scanned images are stored as tiff files.
Yes. OmniScanTM supports preparation of clippings from source documents. A source document may contain photograph and signature. The signature and photograph can be saved separately by using the clipping services.
Yes. OmniScanTM can import images of different formats from remote locations. However, OmniScanTM saves all images as tiff files.
Along with the providing the confidence level and quality factor of the images, OmniScanTM supports operations such as rotate, deskew, despeckle, invert, noise-removal and autocrop of images that improves quality of digital documents.
OmniScanTM can extract OCR, MICR and Barcode information from scanned documents. Image-assisted data entry facility helps select zone on the scanned documents from where data has to be captured manually.
A template is a configuration file, which contains all the information regarding the way in which the scanning of the documents needs to be done. OmniScan™ user has to create a template:
Templates are saved as INI files. The INI file also contains information regarding the scanning protocol, export settings, folder settings, job settings, and so on.
A job corresponds to a template or INI file. Every new set of bulk scanning of documents corresponds to a new job. Every time a user does bulk scanning of documents, he/she needs to select a template INI file according to which the scanning needs to be done. The template assigns a unique identifier to the job according to the defined job settings. The protocol to be used for scanning, that is TWAIN or ISIS, and the operator of the job are also assigned according to the template. All these constitute the attributes of the job. No two jobs can have the same name.
OmniScanTM supports image-assisted data entry that helps select zone on the scanned documents from where data have to be captured manually.
A document may contain different types of data. All the data can be captured from a scanned document through OmniScan™ data extraction facility. OmniScan is a stand-alone system application. Therefore, the extracted data is stored in the local system.
Scanned images are stored in the local system of OmniScan™. OmniScan™ enables users to save images as tiff files on the local hard drive or as binary data in the local MDB file.
By default, OmniScanTM compresses black and white document using CCIT G4 compression, grey scale documents using LZW compression, and color documents using JPEG compression technique. However, users can change the compression technique as per requirements.
Data class is a term related to Newgen’s document management system, OmniDocsTM. It provides the concept of user-defined indexing and metadata association with documents and folders. Data classes are set of indexes that can be associated with a document or folder by providing a unique entity to them. These indexes store values associated with the data fields and are usually obtained from the document itself. These indexes or fields can be of different types. When a data class is associated with a document or folder, it becomes an integral part of the folder or document property. Data classes can be assigned, modified, and searched upon. For example, if you create a data class named “employee” containing fields such as emp_id, emp_name, emp_doj, and so on, it can be associated with all the employee records and provides a quick way of searching on any field.
Yes. OmniScanTM enables user to export scanned documents to any document management system and workflow. Documents, exported to workflow, can search for a work item by using data field mapping facility or can initiate a work item in the workflow. To export the scanned documents to a folder in the document management system, user has to specify the intended folder name and also has to map the OmniScanTM data class fields with the index fields of document management system.
OmniScanTM supports document data field mapping facility. This enables user to specify a captured data field value or a group of captured data field values as an index to search workitems in the workflow. User has to further specify the workstep by the workstep id, where the search operation will be carried out. A successfully exported document will go to the specified work step and start search operation on specified index for the workitem. On finding a match, exported documents get attached with the respective workitem.
Yes. OmniScanTM supports creation of document types from source document. Documents are scanned in bulk. After scanning, bulk of documents create a single tiff file. Users can specify document identifiers that segregate scanned document into appropriate records.
OmniScanTM supports the followings as document type or record identifier:
Yes. OmniScan™ supports insertion and deletion of pages in scanned documents. Users can delete and add pages before or after the current page.
OmniScanTM can be integrated with any third party system by exposed APIs of third-party system. Through minimal customization, users can export scan documents to any document management system or workflow that exposes its API.
Yes. OmniScanTM allows user to specify the job flow. Users are enabled to define different stages. Job flows sequentially from one stage to another stage where different operations like scanning, quality control of scanned documents, modifications, exception handling and exporting of document can be done successfully.OmniCompliance – FAQs
1.What is compliance? In recent past, there have been a large number of cases of corporate fraud such as Enron. To ensure that all financial reporting is done properly and businesses remain aware of the health of their processes, risks and associated controls, regulatory acts have been framed. Compliance – generally covered under Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) – encompasses various aspects of corporate governance, risk assessment and mitigation by applying controls, and complying with the laws of the land including the guidelines laid down by various regulatory acts such as HIPAA, Sarbanes Oxley and Clause 49.
2.What is a compliance solution? A tool, which helps companies comply with mandatory guidelines of various regulatory acts, is a compliance solution. Essentially, a compliance solution should allow you to define, monitor and manage processes and internal controls; provide extensive reports and documentation facilities to have immediate data and status availability; and provide tools for auditing various processes and controls. A compliance solution should be easy to use for CEOs, CFOs and process owners. It helps organizations institutionalize risk management and helps in continuous compliance, instead of becoming one-off exercise
3.Why is compliance solution necessary for a business? Not only do the regulatory acts for compliance protect investors’ wealth but also help the business in running successfully with any potential risk being addressed in a timely and accurate manner. A compliance solution also monitors the effectiveness of various controls applied to mitigate risks.
Now, SEBI has made it mandatory for companies in India to comply with the Clause 49 regulations, which is a huge task if done manually. A compliance solution automates the entire process and makes it easier for companies to comply with the stipulated regulations. Further, it helps organizations institutionalize this process and facilitates continuous compliance quarter after quarter.
4.What are the various regulatory acts for compliance in India and abroad? In India, Clause 49 & Company’s Act form the major core of compliance act. Other popular and comprehensive compliance acts are Sarbanes Oxley (SOX), Basel II and HIPAA.
5.What should a compliance solution essentially contain? A compliance solution should essentially contain the following:
◦Process definition and management◦Risk and control definition and management ◦Exhaustive report generation capabilities for processes, risks and internal controls◦Auditing capabilities with the facility for raising challenges to non compliance
6.What is the role of Independent Directors regarding compliance? As per Clause 49, one of the mandatory requirements for companies to be recognized as fully compliant is to have at least 50% of board members as independent directors (dependent on the fact whether the chairman is executive or non executive). These independent directors should have absolutely no stake, financial or otherwise, in the company. Failure to employ requisite number of independent directors may result in heavy penalties for the companies. The idea of having independent directors on board is to have people who can rightly question the other non-independent members of the board regarding disclosure of information to protect investors’ capital and interests and ensure objectivity in decision-making.
7.What is OmniCompliance? OmniCompliance is a comprehensive tool designed to help enterprises effectively handle the implications arising out of the regulatory acts such as Sarbanes Oxley, Clause 49 from SEBI, etc.
8.How is a compliance tool, for example, OmniCompliance, uniquely positioned to assist companies comply with Clause 49?OmniCompliance assists companies to comply with various requirements of Clause 49.
Section 4C of Clause 49 deals with putting in place elaborate risk management procedures while Section II D and Section 5 relates to certification, creation and evaluation of internal control mechanisms.
The Risk Assessment exercise is conducted by a dedicated team (external consultant or internal audit team). This is a humongous exercise and requires large resources in terms of skilled manpower and time. To maintain the currency of findings, the exercise needs to be revisited each quarter. Using a tool provides a substrate and basic platform where new efforts and incremental differences can be updated. This ensures that the latest version of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) with current risk and attendant controls is made available.
The mechanism for maintaining currency is done by auditing the business processes. Depending upon the criticality of the business process and its vulnerability to risks, one can define the audit cycle. This scheduling and monitoring helps the management to focus efforts towards lapses that have material significance.
Since the processes are charted in Newgen OmniCompliance, it allows the CEO/CFO to have complete visibility into the risks and controls that is not possible with Word documents and Excel sheets.
Further and more importantly, such a tool helps institutionalizing the risk management framework and helps the organization carry the baton long after the consultant has exited.
9.How does such a tool help attract Independent Directors? One of the requirements of complying with Clause 49 is having required number of independent directors.
However, in India, a single person as an independent director is allowed to be a member of multiple boards at the same time. Often it becomes difficult for him to keep track of all the processes within different companies. Therefore, during board meetings, independent director’s contribution gets limited.
By the usage of Newgen OmniCompliance, complete transparency is created by clearly defining the organization processes, the associated risks in those processes, along with controls that have been put in place to mitigate those risks. This way the responsibility shifts from an individual to the process.
This provides complete transparency to all directors, while simultaneously providing comfort to the independent directors to vouch for all the information and contribute significantly. This enables the organizations using OmniCompliance to easily bring on board the required number of independent directors.
Secondly, since the non-compliances are now brought out clearly, independent directors can provide focused inputs on processes that warrant their attention instead of devoting time to general well being of the organization.
10. What are the main issues addressed by OmniCompliance? Newgen OmniCompliance addresses the following main issues:
◦Risk management◦Compliance execution and assessment◦Process design ◦Testing of internal controls ◦Elaborate process documentation ◦Periodic monitoring ◦Roles & Responsibilities tracking with timelines
11.What are the components of OmniCompliance? The five core components of OmniCompliance:
Process Management: Process Management enables organization to manage the processes for which the risks have to be assessed and controls are to be applied.
Risk Assessment: Risk Assessment performs tasks like identifying risk attributes, associating risks with the established processes and continuously updating these risks.
Controls: Once the risks have been assessed and categorized, the need arises for applying appropriate controls to mitigate these risks. The Controls component enables organizations to do that by associating controls with the identified risks, calculating the mitigation cost, assessing the residual risk and determining the effectiveness of the controls.
Auditing: Auditing enables organization to set auditing responsibilities and schedules.
Monitoring:
Dashboard enables the management track the compliance status of the processes, Health of internal controls & audit status through various reports like Pending Compliance Report, Audit and Risk Heat Map etc.What is Cheque Truncation System (CTS) or Image-based Clearing System (ICS)? Ans: Cheque Truncation System (CTS) or Image-based Clearing System (ICS) is a project undertaken by Central banks of many countries such as India (Reserve Bank of India – RBI), UAE (Central bank), Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia Monitoring Agency – SAMA) etc. for faster clearing of cheques.CTS / ICS promises to bring multiple benefits to customers by substantially reducing the time taken to clear the cheques as well as to the banks by enabling them to offer better customer services and increasing operational efficiency by cutting down on overheads involved in the physical cheque clearing process. In addition, CTS / ICS also offers better reconciliation and fraud prevention. CTS / ICS uses cheque image, instead of the physical cheque itself, for cheque clearance. The cheque image is truncated at the presenting bank. Subsequently, the cheque image moves through various steps in the cheque-clearing cycle and transactions are settled on the basis of the cheque images and electronic data. Why CTS? Ans: The Cheque Truncation System (CTS) enables the customers to perform the cheque(s) clearance process in a faster and effective way. It also facilitates the banks by offering better customer services and increasing operational efficiency. This is achieved by cutting down on the major overheads involved in the physical cheque clearance process. Moreover, CTS offers better reconciliation and fraud prevention functionalities. The cheque clearance process involves the cheque image instead of the physical cheque. Further, the cheque image is truncated at the presenting bank. Next, the cheque image moves through the various steps of the cheque-clearing cycle. Finally, the transactions are settled on the basis of the cheque images and electronic data. What are the major components of a CTS suite? Ans: A CTS suite must have robust and comprehensive Imaging , Workflow and Digitized Document Management capabilities. Some of the major components are: * A workflow engine * A Document management System * A distributed scanning tool supporting batch mode scanning application with MICR data display and Image quality analysis * Imaging Libraries – for image-quality analysis and verification How is the Integration Capability of CTS?Ans: * ATMs * Check Deposit Kiosk, etc. to provide multi-point capture capability * Seamless integration through APIs and/or hand-off file generation with existing * Core Banking System * Existing Bank Clearing systems * Automatic Signature Verification SystemsWhat are the Value-add components in CTS?Ans:OmniTransport: OmniTransport is a data transfer solution offering security, reliability, scalability and performance Image Archival with Document Management System: Electronic archival of images through a centralized repository not only reduces the storage costs but also enables faster tracing of the instruments.Record Management: The Record Manager manages the physical and electronic instrument records from their creation, usage, storage, and maintenance to eventual destruction or permanent preservation while retaining integrity, authenticity and accessibility of these corporate records. Aggregation and Distribution Service: The real benefit of Cheque Imaging comes into play when the banks are able to truncate the physical cheque at the point of deposit. Newgen CTS facilitates the banks to Image the cheques and upload to a central point for transmission to the Central bank for settlement. The Aggregation and Distribution service caters to the needs of distributed image capture and distributed clearing branches spread across the city/cities. Fraud Detection System: The Newgen CTS can be integrated with a host of Fraud Detection and control software. Using advanced Fraud Detection algorithms these filters identifies the questionable cheques and provides the operators with the on-screen images and other tools to effectively analyze the most suspicious items. Automatic Signature Verification: An intelligent tool to identify signatures based on more than 50 featuresWhat are the Technology being used?Ans: * J2EE based open and platform independent architecture * DOD & MoReq standards for record management * ANSI standards namely X9.37, X9.90 for exchange of images and data and creation of image replacement documents Are the various components/ modules in your Cheque Truncation System available as standalone packages?Ans:There are multiple components around the Cheque truncation system which are available as standalone packages. Partial list is as mentioned below:a) Signature Management System: Standalone application for scanning, storing the signatories’ images and associating them with single/multiple Accounts. Also, provision is available of storing a rule and mandate within the application.b) Cheque Deposit Kiosks Integration: Advanced level integration has been done with the Cheque Deposit Machines wherein, a cheque deposited by the customer is scanned and directly introduced in the Cheque Clearing process.c) Post Dated Cheque Management: This module facilitates the processing of the PDC items and ensures that on the date of its presentment it is automatically introduced in the respective day’s cheque clearing batch. It also provides the Bank the option for withdrawal, postponement, closure, re-conciliation etc. for any PDC instrument.d) Electronic Clearing System: This component facilitates the processing of items for which ECS mandates has been issued by the customer to the Bank. Integration with Core Banking System is done for retrieval and validation of the ECS mandatese) Foreign Currency Processing: This component facilitates processing of Forex instruments (USD, Euro, Pounds etc.) and also archiving the same (at central repository) for retrieval at later time.f) Lock Box Processing: This component facilitates the processing of the cheques/data related to utility bill payments wherein the stubs are scanned along with the cheques through the application. How a CTS suite can mitigate potential operational risks?Ans: Newgen’s Automatic Signature Verification (ASV) in CTS suite, extracts the signature from cheque and verifies it against reference signatures using more than 65 signature features. ASV handles the following challenges and issues in signature verification,• Variety of cheque formats• Duplicate Signatures (Same person signing more than once)• Multiple Persons Signature• Signature merging with Printed Text• Extra Handwritten Text in Proximity of Signature
