The software as a service (SAAS) model affords us some benefits not least of which are that territorial boundaries become less relevant. Our customers rely on inSTREAM™ all over the world but where staff are required to make decisions inSTREAM™ enables this to be outsourced or out-tasked to any authorised users anywhere who can participate as part of a distributed virtual workforce regardless of their computing device or geographical location.

Whilst the implications of the US Patriot Act might impact where and how your information is managed, software as a service has created new opportunities and made our global aspirations possible. Currently, all our international customers have their headquarters in the UK. Today however, we deployed inSTREAM™ for an international customer to serve their international customers. Not a mega milestone you might say but nevertheless a milestone it is.

It might have been easier to take a short step across the Channel within Europe or to another English speaking territory like USA but no, our 1st international office and our 1st international customer is in the Middle East.

At this point, it might have been easier for inSTREAM™ to start with something really simple like Accounts Payable Automation processing invoices but no, our 1st international deployment to our 1st international customer through our 1st international office is to automate the handling of Global Travel Visa Applications in the Middle East.

The fact is, inSTREAM™ is designed to handle hugely complex environments. Be that customer correspondence, financial, HR, legal and insurance documents (received by post, paper, email, fax, mobile and electronic data streams). That’s all the stuff that takes lots of your resources to receive and process it.  I like the way that Mike Lynch, CEO of Autonomy describes this as human friendly communication because it’s the media that we all like to use and feel comfortable with. The problem is, computers don’t like it. Try forcing your customers to work the best way for a computer and you’ll loose your customers. The solution is to do the work for your customers and don’t expect them to do the work for you. Adding more staff is not the answer and neither is just scanning. Scanning of documents is just a tool and it only moves the problem from one place to another. Don’t rely on Optical Character Recognition (OCR) or Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) either. Real automation is achieved by focusing on the outcome and that is different to each and every customer, department and individual.

Passport and photo images and visa applications from every country that requires a visa to Dubai; I can’t think of a better way to demonstrate how good inSTREAM™ is at handling a complex environment and that’s why the Middle East is our 1st.