With thousands and, in some cases, millions of documents being despatched every day, it can be difficult to keep track of what's going where. More often than not, those files will need to be retrieved for reprinting. Therefore, to have the personalised data ready and waiting for marketing campaigns or transactional statements is a major benefit for the client, especially with so many time-sensitive markets.

PrintSoft Systems claims that it has developed the software to enable companies to do this at the click of a mouse. Déjar - its web-based electronic archiving and document management system - has been a hit in the financial sector, as well as in the print industry, according to managing director Mike Davies.

"Déjar is an archiving software product that has been significantly growing in the UK," adds PrintSoft business development manager for Déjar, Chris Buckle. "Our traditional base is the print bureau market. This product gives them an opportunity to sell an additional service."

Online archive
In the current climate, that might prove to be an attractive proposition, especially for those companies that print transactional statements and personalised direct mail. By offering an archiving service, printers will be able to save their clients time, as well as having a tool that might just help them to extract some extra margin. It's also a sign of the times that more organisations are keen to archive their documents online. Invoices, bank statements, letters and cheques are just some of the documents that users can trace with Déjar, in a matter of seconds.

Next year, PrintSoft, a division of Australia Post, will unveil the seventh iteration of the software, which has been on the market for more than 13 years. Version 1 came out in 1996 and, since then, there have been several interim releases each year. The next one is due to be unveiled next month and the major launch of Version 4 will take place in January 2010. However, September's interim version will include an updated interface and, according to Davies, it is already "a well established piece of software on the market".

Essentially, Déjar works by allowing a client to view an archived document in a matter of seconds. For example, a customer at a bank may request information about a document sent to them. An operator will then log into Déjar, locate the document and display it online.

That's the system at its simplest. What is likely to appeal to print firms is that the Déjar archiving software processes the original spool files - the kind of data that is sent to a printer. PrintSoft says that the software "behaves like a high-volume printer itself" by analysing data and storing individual components along with indexing information. It means that when the document is presented to the customer, it is a precise dot-for-dot copy of the original. "The beauty of Déjar is that it breaks the components of the document down," explains Buckle. When a customer wants to print off an old document, they simply retrieve it and send it across to the printer. The product has a powerful compression - according to PrintSoft, it is, on average, less than 1kb per full-colour A4 page. Déjar automatically reads the relevant information and then localises the documents for printing. The time it takes to recall the document is extremely fast - less than one second, adds Davies.
"It is a structured product," he says. "There are various modules a customer can add. In the case of a print bureau, Déjar can grow as its volumes grow." To start with, a customer can opt for a single server with one print stream, such as PDF. This can be pretty fast to deploy, according to Davies, and should only take a day or two, depending on how much user training is required. From there, customers can build on it with additional servers and processing power. "It is very scalable," claims Davies.

To get an idea of exactly how a product can be deployed, PrintSoft points to two examples in the banking sector. US e-commerce and payment systems company First Data incorporates Déjar at its Greek subsidiary. The company has two Déjar servers with identical configurations. The spool files of the main server are archived onto the second, resulting in both servers being synchronised at regular intervals. It means that if there is failure with the main server there is a an automatic back-up.

The system has speeded up First Data's productivity, according to PrintSoft. The division already prints transactional documents and, with the addition of the archiving software, files can be called up and printed in a shorter space of time. "This is how the product is able to keep the costs down," adds Buckle.

In the Czech Republic, Komercní Banka (KB) is the country's largest commercial bank, with more than 450 branches, producing more than 100m pages per year, meaning it has more than 1bn documents in its archives. It bought six servers in addition to its own database server. The system has been in place since 2003 and, since then, KB has been able to benefit from the various upgrades from PrintSoft. It recently incorporated cross-archive searching, where multiple archives can be merged, sorted and returned to the user as a single list with the most recent documents at the top.

Print appeal
Buckle says that the size of KB's archive provides a good example of Déjar working at its best; the level of detail that can be accessed is immense. In addition, he adds that customers can benefit from accessing more details about customers. "Déjar can even store and retrieve postal documents where a customer has signed for a package," he adds. "Invoices and post-it can also be added. You really can use it to drill down and have a lot of information to hand."

"In effect, you have an event history of each customer," adds Davies. "It improves customer handling all the time."
And it's this level of data that Déjar can hold that will be of interest to several print firms. With many now keen to push services beyond print, the idea of having greater and quicker access to data may appeal. PrintSoft says that it has several customers in the print sector that have moved their business model away from the traditional ink-on-paper set-up. Also, as you'd expect with a web-based product, anyone who has access to the system can trace the progress of a document, from retrieval to printing and despatch.

In terms of price, Buckle explains that "each build is unique to a set of client's specification". In effect, the price is on application and depends on what additional services the customer would require. However, Buckle adds that the starting price can be at around £25,000.

The web-based archiving market is surprisingly competitive at the moment. Davies believes that there is "no equal" product to go up against Déjar. "However, in a recent project we were pitching for, we found ourselves up against Pitney Bowes and IBM - they are very much the usual suspects in this market," he says. "But our product stands up against theirs and we won the pitch."

Having a system in place for archiving is now commonplace for major organisations. With so many documents flying around within a business, bringing some order to potential chaos makes a lot of sense. For print companies dealing with ever-more complex and highly targeted mailings, having a tool that can bring up a wealth of customer information could just be a godsend. It is for this reason that PrintSoft is hoping its Déjar software will be the first choice for printers and their customers.

SPECIFICATIONS
Description a web-based electronic archiving and document management system
Platforms PC and Mac
Price from £25,000
Contact  PrintSoft Systems 0161 368 2808 www.printsoft.co.uk

THE ALTERNATIVES

PITNEY BOWES P/I OFFICEMAIL
Pitney Bowes' workflow product is very much targeted at the mailing sector. The developer argues that the product can take out inefficiencies in office posting. A short-term archive incorporates all of the user's recent mailings; a log of when they were sent and to whom. Users can create documents on an office PC and submit jobs for printing, inserting and mailing. The product comprises three components: document creation, composition and production. Archiving, job tracking, auditing and reprinting fall under the production component.
Platforms PC
Price on application/dependent on use and volumes
Contact Pitney Bowes 08705 252525 www.pitneybowes.co.uk

IBM FILENET CONTENT MANAGER
IBM's Content Manager is a content, security and storage management engine for its FileNet P8 product. It streamlines document management and its latest version, 4.5, includes Workplace XT, as well as DITA and XML authoring. According to IBM, the product can save "35,000 man-hours every year by drastically reducing the time spent looking for information". It also cuts back operating costs and ensures information security.
Platforms PC and Mac
Price on application
Contact IBM 0870 5426426 www.ibm.com