Kofax White Paper

Seven Ways to Make the First Mile of Business SmarterThe First Mile Challenge of Business We’ve all had that customer service experience that was so

miserable you told everyone. What is going on with my

mortgage refinance? Why is it taking so long to get approved

for my loan? How quickly will I get reimbursed for damage to

my car? Why do I need to visit and talk to so many different

people and send in so much information in so many different

formats and through so many different channels? Why can’t

doing business with these companies be as simple as using my

mobile apps, or my social accounts?

With the rapid explosion in mobile devices, meeting customer

expectations can be difficult. How businesses engage

customers will determine who thrives and who gets left behind

in this global, online and competitive business environment

that blurs geographic borders and gives companies easier

access to customers and prospects. Today’s technology savvy

customers require ease-of-use, self-service, fast response

times, two-way collaboration and process visibility—from any

device, anywhere.

The internal challenges of meeting these high customer

expectations must be resolved to remain competitive.

Interactions such as filing a claim, applying for a mortgage or

patient admissions are often labor intensive, slow and prone

to error, and can adversely affect your customers’ perception

of your business. Inefficient, people intensive approaches that

rely upon the manual processing of issues, exceptions and

Executive Summary Today, customers are sophisticated and

connected…. with the power to leave you for

another company, with a simple swipe or click.

Things like loan applications, claims submissions,

new account openings—are they fast and easy,

or slow and painful? These information-intensive

“First Mile™” interactions are where the battle

for customer acquisition and retention is won

or lost, and the journey to lifetime brand loyalty

begins. Organizations who make the First Mile of

real-time interactions simpler and smarter for their

customers, suppliers, partners and employees

will be the ones to gain a competitive advantage,

reduce costs and grow their businesses.

White Paper • Seven Ways to Make the First MileTM of Business Smarter • Page 2

documents involved in customer transactions can delay

response times, generate errors, and increase operating

costs, all leading to lower customer satisfaction and the

risk of losing them to the competition. Customers and

employees find it difficult to collaborate with the right

people and systems to get the information they need to

complete processes. Speed, agility and business insight

are critical in this “First Mile” of information-intensive

customer interactions.

The Technology Barrier Unfortunately, the backbone systems that run most

businesses—systems of record—were never designed to

effectively meet the needs of today’s customer. ERP,

ECM, BPM, CRM and other such systems were primarily

designed for internal purposes and focused on running a

business efficiently. They were never meant to provide a

high level of interactive self-service, speed, awareness,

collaboration and adaptability.

Systems of record are typically large-scale, monolithic

enterprise applications that require experienced users,

are inflexible and do not extend outward to the customer,

where business is increasingly being initiated. Because

systems of record are usually expensive, time consuming

and frustrating to modify, line of business managers can

find it difficult to justify spending the time and money to

adapt or replace them in order to make the First Mile

smarter and accommodate today’s customer expectations.

As an alternative, in recent years visionary managers have

begun building point solutions for so-called “smart

process applications” that serve as an essential link

between systems of record and systems of engagement,

the ways in which customers interact with an

organization. Systems of engagement include traditional

face to face interactions in branch offices as well as web

portals, mobile apps, social media and other means.

Smart process applications are specially designed to

support business activities that are people intensive,

highly variable, loosely structured and subject to frequent

change. This approach helped make the First Mile

experience for customers better, but it required the

acquisition, integration, deployment and administration of

different capture, business process management (BPM),

dynamic case management (DCM), collaboration, mobile

and analytics software – making it difficult and costly to

realize the anticipated benefits.

Seven Ways to Make the First Mile Smarter With these First Mile challenges laid before us, here are

seven ways you can make the First Mile of business

smarter:

1. Leverage mobility to enhance the customer

experience and bolster loyalty. With mobile devices

and information capture technology, your customers,

agents and field workers already have enterprise class

scanners in their pockets. So why not empower them

to submit documents from mobile devices rather

than requiring them to mail or fax? They already use

your web portals—why not provide the ability to

scan documents into the portal, directly from their

desktop scanners or multi-function peripherals? People

want faster service, using their familiar devices and

applications. Once the information is captured, you can

communicate process status, exceptions, and changes

directly back via the mobile device, and empower

them to engage directly in the process to resolve any

issues or advance the process.

2. Reduce time between “engagement” and “action”

for better service. By combining the front-end

collection of customer information with the backend

processing of that information into a single integrated

and automated process, the process completes

White Paper • Seven Ways to Make the First MileTM of Business Smarter • Page 3

much sooner for the customer. Issues, exceptions,

and requests for additional customer information are

handled immediately, helping meet customer SLAs.

These SLAs are only getting shorter as customer

service expectations increase.

3. Empower customers and increase their visibility

and control over the process. Keep customers,

agents and field workers engaged and informed

via status updates in a web portal or text/email

communications, so they never have to wonder what’s

happening in the process, what’s been completed,

what’s next, and when it will ibe complete. And when

it’s time for them to act, enable them to control and

direct the process in a manner that suits them. For

example, give them the option to send in supporting

documentation via mobile phone, tablet, or all-in-one

device through a web portal.

4. Reduce complexity and effort at touch points to

drive costs down. By empowering your customers

with the ability to self-serve in the manner they

choose, you not only give them the control they desire,

but you also move work from your knowledge workers

and drive costs out of your process. For the internal

work that remains, process it “straight-through” or

present it to knowledge workers in an integrated,

streamlined way.

5. Respond to changes quickly and easily for better

customer service. Many customer and supplier facing

processes are varied and unpredictable – for example,

servicing healthcare or government benefits claims

or managing supplier payments and cash flow. What

if you could dynamically increase priority of various

customer responses, or the priority of an invoice to

qualify for early payment discounts? Or, what if you

could dynamically re-assign tasks to other resources to

accelerate the process; or in the middle of the process,

decide to immediately initiate a new one if fraud or

another unanticipated situation occurred?

6. Gain insight into, and continually optimize and

improve processes. BI has been leveraged for years

for structured data. New systems of engagement

require more than BI – they require real-time, in-process,

adjustable views of all types of information used

during the process, combined with information from

other internal and third party systems. Armed with this

information all in one place, knowledge workers can

make better decisions, faster. Process bottlenecks can

be quickly identified and addressed and processes can

be continually optimized for better running business and

more positive customer experience.

7. Make it easy to connect systems of record with

systems of engagement. Bridging the gap between

systems of record and systems of engagement is

the key to realizing all these benefits. But it needs

to be simpler, less costly and less time consuming

than replacing or modifying existing systems of

record. Creating a link between these two worlds

requires a service oriented architecture that leverages

web services and removes the need for custom

integrations. Inputs and outputs should require no

API level programming and be easy to configure and

use. This “essential link” should integrate with mobile

technologies and use a single underlying architecture

that extends backend processes and business rules

out to the mobile device.

White Paper • Seven Ways to Make the First MileTM of Business Smarter • Page 4

Kofax TotalAgility 7.0 – the Platform to Make the First Mile of Business Smarter How do you implement these seven steps in order to make

your First Mile of business smarter? The answer is to

implement a single, unified platform that easily connects

your sytems of engagement to your systems of record,

avoids integration pitfalls and minimizes total cost of

ownership.

Kofax TotalAgilityTM 7.0 is the world’s first unified smart

process application development and deployment

platform, and is uniquely suited to solving the First Mile

challenges of business. The platform combines Kofax

market-leading capture, process management, analytics

and mobile capabilities to create the essential link

between systems of engagement and systems of record.

In doing so, it dramatically simplifies and transforms the

real-time, information-intensive interactions with your

customers. You gain the ability to significantly increase

responsiveness and improve service levels while

simultaneously reducing operating costs. The result is a

significant competitive advantage, and a way to better

manage and grow your business.

Optimize the Customer Experience

With TotalAgility 7.0, you can dramatically transform and

simply the business critical First Mile by engaging your

customers, suppliers and employees more effectively,

when, where and how they want and provide visibility,

empowerment and control over the process. This

improves their experience and increases loyalty. You can

engage customers on their mobile devices for sales and

service with mobile app content that is unique to them—

for both information capture as well as for process status,

confirmations, approvals, exception resolutions, obtaining

trailing documents, and changes requiring their attention.

Building these mobile apps has never been easier: just

design your process, develop the app to be used within

the process, and deploy—all on a single platform for low

TCO and fast time to market. TotalAgility 7.0 provides

unlimited and easy customization to extend capture

capabilities, HTML5 interfaces, and smart processes to

Capture Process Analytics Mobile

Single Platform for Smart Process Applications

ECM &Records

Management

Transform & Simplify the

Business Critical“First Mile”of CustomerInteractions

Resulting in anOptimized Customer

Experience &Greatly ReducedOperating Costs

“Systems of Record”

are enterprise applicationsdesigned for internal use

“Systems of Engagement”

generate real time, information intensive

communications

Kofaxprovides an

essential connection to

Kofax’s Smart Process Applications

ERP / CRM / LOB

Databases& Other

Archives

IT & Telecom Infrastructure

Paper

Faxes

Digital ScannersMFPs/MFDs

Portals

MobileDevices

MS Office / PDFTIFF /JPEG files

Emails

XML/EDIData Streams

White Paper • Seven Ways to Make the First MileTM of Business Smarter • Page 5

any mobile device, for First Mile capture and collaboration

capabilities and reduced process latency. With TotalAgility

analytics, knowledge workers can make informed,

effective decisions during the process, such as prioritizing

a key customer’s case or re-assigning a task to a more

appropriate person, improving customer service levels.

Greatly Reduce Operating Costs

With TotalAgility 7.0, you can reduce manual processing,

latency and operating costs while improving customer

satisfaction, your competitive position, and overall

profitability. By moving work from your knowledge workers

to your customers and suppliers in a self-service model,

you not only give them the control they desire, but also

reduce costs. For the internal work that remains to

advance and complete the process, TotalAgility optimizes

the connection between your systems of engagement and

your systems of record as information collected from the

customer or supplier, third party services, and internal

systems can be “straight-through” processed accurately

and automatically, or presented to knowledge workers in

an integrated way to streamline human decision making.

With TotalAgility Analytics, managers can gain insight into

process and content data and use this insight to make

better decisions sooner.

Leverage a Single Platform

You develop these smart process applications using a

single, unified platform to provide the essential connection

from systems of engagement to systems of record –

helping you realize a lower TCO and faster ROI while

avoiding the need to change your systems of record.

TotalAgility 7.0 also incorporates multi-channel capture, so

you can implement batch or transaction based information

capture applications across centralized and distributed

sites, and at the Point of Origination™ when and where

customer facing interactions occur — eliminating the need

to integrate disparate capture products.

MobilityImage Capture & Enhancement

Forms InputTrailing DocumentsCollaboration AlertsException Resolution

CaptureScanners & MFPsMobile Devices

Web PortalsFaxes/Emails Electronic Files

XML / EDI Data streams

TransformationImage Enhancement

ClassificationSeparation,

Content ExtractionExtraction Learning

Data ValidationStructured & Unstructured

CollaborationProcess Monitoring

Process OptimizationEmail Integration

IM/SMS Integration

BI & AnalyticsNear real-time analytics

of process and content data.

Data IntegrationConnectors to 3rd Party Apps (ECM,

ERP, LOB, etc.)Web Services

Interface

Smart ProcessApplications

ProcessManagement

Services

SystemManagement

Customer Onboarding Mortgage Automation AP Automation Mailroom Automation

Design Studio Administration MS SQL Database

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Predictable & Dynamic Workflows

The Kofax TotalAgility 7.0 Platform

White Paper • Seven Ways to Make the First MileTM of Business Smarter • Page 6

With a single platform for information-intensive processes,

customers gain greater visibility and responsiveness.

Capturing information at any stage within a single end-to-

end business process provides clear benefits over

capturing information and then sending it to a separate

downstream business process.

Smart Process Applications TotalAgility is an ideal platform for developing smart process

applications for information-intensive processes, including:

• Financial Services: Customer onboarding or account

openings, investment account transfers, mortgage &

loan applications, capturing trailing documents

• Insurance: Customer onboarding or new account

applications, new policy quotes, claim submissions,

capturing trailing documents

• Healthcare: New patient onboarding, claim submissions,

explanation of benefits, capturing trailing documents

• Government: Citizen benefit enrollments, claim

submissions, license & permit applications & renewals,

capturing trailing documents

• Supply Chain: Accounts payable automation (invoices,

purchase requisitions & receiving documents), orders,

proof of delivery, waybills & airbills

• Other Verticals:

Construction – stage of completion for loan funding

Energy – real time production site reports

Telecom – new customer onboarding or account openings

Smart Mobile Apps As a system of engagement, mobile apps are natural

entry points for Smart Process Applications. Smart

mobile apps extend the processes, forms, and rules in

TotalAgility 7.0 all the way to the customer’s hands, for

optimal customer experience—that’s what makes these

mobile apps “smart.” “Smart Mobile Apps” include:

• Mobile Onboarding

• Mobile Mortgage

• Mobile Quote

• Mobile Capture

• Mobile Pre-Registration

work hand in hand with Smart Process Applications such as:

• Customer Onboarding

• Mortgage Automation

• AP Automation

• Mailroom Automation

• Claims Processing

• Underwriting

• Patient Onboarding

With TotalAgility 7.0, you make the information-rich

interactions you have with your customers smarter by

giving them what they want: an easy, empowered, and

efficient experience on their device of choice. At the

same time, you reduce operating costs by connecting

your systems of engagement and your systems of record.

Significantly increase your responsiveness to customers,

improve service levels and gain competitive advantage—in

short, make the First Mile of business smarter.

Other Multi-Channel Capture Products

TotalAgility 7.0

Act and React – traditional capture TO process; capture information and send downstream

Act and Interact – Smart Process Applications capture information IN process for maximum visibility and responsiveness

White Paper • Seven Ways to Make the First MileTM of Business Smarter • Page 7

© 2013 Kofax, Inc. All rights reserved. Kofax, the Kofax logo, First Mile, Kofax TotalAgility and Point of Origination are trademarks or registered trademarks of Kofax, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. (09.2013)

About Kofax Kofax® plc (LSE: KFX) is a leading provider of smart

process applications for the business critical First Mile of

customer interactions. These begin with an organization’s

systems of engagement, which generate real time,

information intensive communications from customers,

and provide an essential connection to their systems of

record, which are typically large scale, rigid enterprise

applications and repositories not easily adapted to more

contemporary technology. Success in the First Mile

can dramatically improve an organization’s customer

experience and greatly reduce operating costs, thus

driving increased competitiveness, growth and profitability.

Kofax software and solutions provide a rapid return on

investment to more than 20,000 customers in banking,

insurance, government, healthcare, business process

outsourcing and other markets. Kofax delivers these

through its own sales and service organization, and a

global network of more than 800 authorized partners in

more than 75 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA

and Asia Pacific.

For more information, visit www.kofax.com.