Kofax Upgrades Ascent Line With Enhanced Recognition and More Robust Distributed Capture Capabilities.

Business/Technology Editors

AIIM 2002

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 5, 2002

Kofax is now shipping Ascent Capture 5.5, a major upgrade to its flagship document and data capture application. Ascent Capture 5.5's enhanced capabilities include the addition of the powerful RecoStar character recognition engine from German-based Oce Printing Systems GmbH. RecoStar enhances Ascent Capture 5.5's forms processing capabilities and simplifies automated indexing in a variety of environments.

The company also is shipping Ascent Capture Internet Server (ACIS) 5.5, which enables distributed document scanning. The new version of the Internet server software provides administrators with greater control in managing batch downloads to remote locations.

"Ascent Capture 5.5 has been deployed to solve increasingly critical business problems and the addition of RecoStar ensures that Kofax users will benefit from the performance and scalability required to meet their current and evolving application requirements," said David Oldfield, Ascent Capture product manager at Kofax. "RecoStar extends the capabilities of Ascent Capture with accurate recognition for a wider range of data elements. This includes more fonts, such as MICR and OCR-A and OCR-B, as well as constrained and unconstrained handprint. This will allow our customers to improve their productivity through reduced keystrokes.

"Widely acclaimed for their speed and accuracy, RecoStar tools enhance Ascent's forms processing capabilities and make automated indexing feasible in more situations than ever," Oldfield said.

Ascent uses the powerful RecoStar and optional RecoStar Professional machine print (OCR) and hand print (ICR) engines. These Oce engines supplement, but do not replace, the current Ascent Capture OCR engine. The user decides which tool works best for their specific applications. With Ascent's Test Mode, users simply scan a sample document, define recognition zones onscreen and test accuracy with any or all of the recognition tools, including the optional RecoStar Professional. The Test Mode process enables users to view and select the most efficient recognition setup for their specific application.

First Ascent Voting Engine

RecoStar Professional combines two engines in a "voting" architecture. The "voting" feature compares the data produced by each engine and selects the best method to process and deliver the captured data. Customers have the option to upgrade to RecoStar Professional if it proves to be a better solution for a specific application.

New ACIS 5.5 Capabilities

ACIS 5.5 enhances the ability of administrators to manage a company's document capture operations. Downloaded batch classes from a central site can now be sent to specific remote locations, rather than sending all locations all batch classes. This new feature, called batch-class filtering, eliminates potential for batch class confusion at remote locations and provides greater security and confidentiality for service bureaus and large organizations.

Batch-class filtering enables administrators to set varying levels of data access. For example, users in the finance department can be blocked from accessing human resource data and captured documents from other departmental operations.

ACIS 5.5 also makes it easier for administrators to install and configure network systems. ACIS 5.5 enables remote locations to now be configured with a network of workstations, making it easier to scale remote locations grow with the workload. An installation and configuration wizard also is available to provide step-by-step instructions for installing a combination of central Ascent and Web components as well as the configuration of the Microsoft Internet Information (IIS) server.

Ascent Capture 5.5 Productivity Features

Ascent Capture 5.5 includes additional features designed to enhance the ability of users to more effectively capture and process data:

-- Latest Microsoft SQL Server (MSDE) database technology ensures the fastest,
most robust batch catalog management.

-- Extended Custom Module setup and Administrative API capabilities make it
possible for developers and integrators to achieve significantly tighter
integration between Ascent Capture and other applications.

-- Auto polling allows Ascent Capture 5.5 to automatically accept input from
other applications as XML data streams or in other forms. This capability can
now be run as a service rather than a script.

-- Enhancements to SmartGroups enables testing of more setup functions
including those associated with group optical mark recognition (OMR).

-- Ascent Capture's built-in mark-sense recognition strengthens its forms
processing capabilities with group OMR, intelligent zones and other
enhancements.

Availability and Pricing

Ascent Capture 5.5 is now available from more than 600 Ascent resellers worldwide. Ascent Capture 5.5 pricing is based on pages scanned per month.

About Kofax

Kofax Image Products (www.kofax.com), a division of the DICOM Group plc, is a leading developer of application software and image processing products for the Electronic Data and Document Capture (EDC) market. EDC is essential to helping paper-intensive organizations economically, reliably and securely incorporate paper-based information into their electronic business processes.

Ascent Capture and Kofax are registered trademarks of Kofax Image Products, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

AIIM is the Association for Information and Image Management.

For sales information contact: [e-mail]

For press photos and graphics go to: www.kofax.com/news/press/art.asp