Technical FAQs

Today’s customers expect more of software applications than ever before. Piecemeal solutions that provide only a few noteworthy features are quickly being overtaken by more comprehensive platforms that deliver an end-to-end experience for users. This has prompted developers to incorporate more capabilities, while also building innovative features that set their solutions apart from the competition. Thanks to third-party software integrations, they’re able to meet both demands.

What is Third-Party Software Integration?

Third-party software integrations typically come in the form of SDKs or APIs that provide applications with specialized capabilities. Rather than building complex features like optical character recognition (OCR), PDF features, or image cleanup from scratch, developers can instead incorporate the necessary features directly into their software via an SDK or use an API call to access capabilities without expanding their application’s footprint.

From a user experience standpoint, third-party software integrations allow developers to build more cohesive software solutions that provide all the essential features a customer may require. Instead of pushing them into a separate application to interact with documents, provide a signature, or fill out a digital form, they can instead deliver an unbroken experience that’s easier to navigate and manage from start to finish.  

4 Key Third-Party Software Benefits

There are a number of important benefits organizations can gain from using third-party software integrations, but four stand out in particular:

1. Reduce Development Costs

When evaluating whether it makes sense to build functionality for an application in-house or buy a third-party software integration, cost is frequently one of the key considerations. There is often a tendency to think that it would be more cost-effective to have developers already working on the project simply build the capabilities they need on their own. After all, there’s no shortage of open-source SDKs and other tools that are available without having to pay licensing or product fees.

In practice, however, this approach usually ends up being more expensive in the long run. That’s because the developers working on the project often lack the experience needed to build those capabilities quickly. A software engineer hired to help build AI software, for instance, probably doesn’t know a lot about file conversion or annotation. While they might be able to find an open-source tool to build those features, they still need to do quite a bit of development work and on-the-job learning to get the new capabilities stood up and thoroughly tested. 

Focusing on these features means they’re not focusing on the more innovative aspects of their application. From a cost standpoint, that means they’re being paid to build something that’s already readily available in the market. When these internal development costs are taken into account, it’s almost always more cost effective to buy ready-to-implement software features built by an experienced third party. As the saying goes, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. 

2. Get to Market Faster

Software developers are always working against the clock. With new applications hitting the market faster than ever, there’s tremendous pressure to keep development timelines on track and avoid missing important deadlines. This helps projects stay within their expected budgets and prevents potential competitors from getting to market faster. Any steps that can be taken to accelerate development and potentially shorten the timeline to releasing a product could mean the difference between becoming an industry innovator or being labeled as an also-ran.

Third-party software integrations allow developers to quickly and seamlessly integrate essential capabilities into applications without compromising their project timeline. Rather than building features like forms processing, document annotation, and image conversion from scratch, teams can instead use third-party SDKs and APIs to add proven, reliable, and secure features in a fraction of the time. By keeping projects on or ahead of schedule, they can focus on delivering a better, more robust product that exceeds customer expectations. 

3. Expand Application Features & Functionality

Software development teams typically possess the experience and expertise needed to build the core architecture and innovative features of a new application. In many cases, they’re designing something novel that will provide a point of differentiation in the market. The more time they can spend on refining and expanding those capabilities, the more likely the application is to make an impact and win over customers.

What these developers often lack, however, are the skills needed to implement a variety of other features that will enhance the application’s functionality. Features like document conversion, OCR, PDF support, digital forms, eSignature, and image compression are complex and difficult to build from scratch. By integrating third-party software, developers can leverage proven, feature-rich technology to expand their application’s capabilities. This not only allows them to improve their solution’s versatility but also enhance the overall user experience by eliminating the need for external programs or troublesome plug-ins. 

4. Access Specialized Engineering Support

Incorporating features like PDF support, image conversion, and document redaction into an application poses several challenges. Some of those challenges don’t show up right away, instead, they become evident long after a software product launches. If the developers don’t have a lot of experience with the technology behind those features, minor issues can quickly escalate into serious problems that leave customers unhappy and willing to look elsewhere for alternatives. No organization wants to be caught in a situation where a bug embedded in an open-source tool renders a client’s valuable assets unusable.

By leveraging proven, tested, and secure third-party software integrations, developers gain access to support from experienced engineering teams with deep knowledge of their solutions. In addition to documentation and code samples, they can also speak directly with developers who can provide guidance on how to best integrate features and resolve issues when they emerge. The best integration providers will even work with organizations to customize their solutions to meet specific application needs, which helps create even smoother user experiences and enhances reliability.

Integrating Third-Party Software with Accusoft

For over 30 years, Accusoft has helped organizations add essential features like barcode recognition, file conversion, document assembly, and image compression to their applications through an innovative line of SDKs and APIs. Our document lifecycle technologies are backed by multiple patents and have been incorporated successfully into a wide range of applications. Our dedicated engineers provide ongoing support and work closely with customers to implement their specific use cases, ensuring that their software platform is delivering the best possible experience.

To learn more about integrating third-party software with Accusoft SDKs and APIs, talk to one of our solutions experts today.

The infamous cloud and its capabilities has quickly gained popularity in the average household as tech giants like Google, Apple and Amazon have created an expectation that cloud storage services are standard features.  But while cloud storage may be convenient and cost-effective for personal use, there are many business cases where on-premise servers and storage remain the primary choice. 

Today, the debate for ‘cloud storage vs. on-premise’ seems like it would be similar to ‘tablet vs. desktop,’ but many would be surprised to find that in a survey done by IDG Communications and referenced in an article by EnterpriseCIO.com, 56% of respondents, say their on-premises applications are here to stay.  Cloud storage and viewing have many benefits that appeal to today’s mass-market: simple set-up, easily accessible, cost-saving – but when it comes to the most highly regulated industries in the world the benefits of on-premise provide are second to none. 

The same goes for document viewing.  In a world where the average person sends and receives 121 business emails per day, according to a report by DMR, we can imagine the number of attachments shared between colleagues and professionals in a year. Secure document viewing has become a necessity for several industries, but particularly those highly regulated. While companies may find it a tall order to create an on-premise environment with secure document viewing capabilities, Accusoft’s HTML5 document viewer can be deployed on your own infrastructure to create security and compliant-friendly document viewing.

Integrating a document and image viewer on your own server allows an organization to have confidence that even their most sensitive information is protected at all times. The top 4 benefits of on-premise viewing include:

• Control
  Maintain complete control over your data using on-premise servers and increase the functionality within documents.  By integrating  HTML5 viewing capabilities into an application, it ensures that documents never have to leave a secure environment, even when they’re being shared with people outside your organization. Highly regulated industries and organizations can’t afford a data breach, so the added benefit of physical security of servers weighs heavily on the decision between on-premise vs. cloud.
• Security
  A document viewer API integration into the on-premise server adds multi-level data protection with 256-bit AES encryption and configurable user permissions for privacy and protection. Companies are able to use in-house security features and systems that allow them to deploy firewalls, anti-malware, etc. when their data is stored on-premise infrastructure.
• Compliance
  Instead of adding risk by bouncing off third-party servers, integrating an HTML5 viewer into your current application provides added flexible across  many platforms.  The self-hosted version resides on any organization’s servers. The key features of Accusoft’s HTML 5 viewer support secure, GDPR compliant efforts.
• Speed & Accessibility
  Since the data is stored on the local network and not reliant on an internet connection, if network problems occur, data can still be accessed. The local server also allows for faster file transfer and seamless document sharing. Adding a image and document viewer API empowers developers to provide users with responsive filing viewing without the need to download plugins or open any other applications.

Get Started Today
To learn more about PrizmDoc, Accusoft’s HTML 5 image and document viewing API and the on-premise server integration, click on the resources below or, contact us today.

FinTech companies may be on the cutting edge of software innovation, but even their most sophisticated applications need the ability to accommodate a variety of document-heavy processes used in the financial services industry. That’s why 94 percent of them leverage some form of digital document management solution, whether it’s one they built in-house (43 percent) or a platform developed by a third party provider (51 percent). By using these tools and other integrations to implement document automation across their business, FinTechs can revolutionize the way they manage the document lifecycle.

What is the Document Lifecycle?

Document lifecycle refers to the many stages a document goes through as it moves through an organization’s processes. The lifecycle usually begins with the document’s creation or entry into a system, where it’s then reviewed, has its information extracted, and then routed to a database for storage. From there, it can be retrieved and distributed until it’s finally deleted, marking the end of its lifecycle.

For FinTech organizations that prioritize efficiency and speed, automation technology allows them to streamline their document lifecycle management and eliminate tedious manual processes that make it hard for them to adapt to rapidly changing market conditions. This greatly enhances their ability to scale operations and deliver a better overall customer experience. 

4 Revolutionary Document Automation Benefits

1. Faster Data Capture

When documents and forms are submitted through a FinTech application, their information needs to be gathered and transferred to a separate system of record. In most cases, this system is a database of some sort. Once information is deposited there, it can be readily accessed by other systems whenever it’s needed. Document automation technology can deploy capabilities like optical character recognition (OCR) to read and extract text from submitted documents and forms. 

Relying on manual processes to capture data is both slow and inefficient. Human employees are limited by how many keystrokes they can enter each hour, and that’s even before considering how fatigue and distraction could impact their performance. Rather than reviewing information by hand and laboriously keying it into the database manually, FinTechs can collect more data from more places faster and put it to use right away by using automated data capture. Loan decisions, for instance, can be processed much more quickly when customers don’t have to wait for their application to be entered into the system manually.

2. Reduced Errors

Any process that’s completed manually is highly prone to human error. Even the most highly trained and experienced professionals can make mistakes when entering data into a computer system. While some errors are little more than minor inconveniences, others can lead to serious problems over time. An empirical study from 2015, for instance, found that 28 percent of participants committed at least one error during data entry, many of which could distort future data analysis. Errors can also be made when creating documents, leading to unnecessary rounds of revisions and costly delays.

By automating data capture and document generation, FinTech applications can eliminate keystroke errors and other mistakes related to fatigue, inattention, and inexperience. This translates into more accurate datasets, fewer document revisions, and less time spent tracking down and remediating errors.

3. Streamlined Contract Management

As financial organizations, FinTechs need to manage a lot of contracts. For each one, they must gather information about the parties involved, determine what language needs to go into the contract, draft the actual document, and then send it out for review and signatures. Managing that process can be a challenge without the right automation tools in place. Whether it’s a copy and paste error, a clause being left out of a contract, or a missing signature, there are many problems that could slow down the process when it’s being done manually.

Document automation technology can streamline contract management by assembling documents programmatically and routing them for review and signature. Rather than tasking someone with building a contract from scratch, software can simply be pointed in the direction of a searchable database to plug the correct information into a contract’s fields. This allows organizations to generate and share contracts much faster and minimize the amount of revisions needed due to typographical errors.

4. Increased Visibility

For an organization that relies heavily upon manual processes, submitting or requesting a document can feel like casting something into a deep, dark hole. That’s because documents can easily be lost or overlooked when they’re being passed around by email and reviewed by hand. It’s hard to know exactly who is responsible for taking the next action or what steps have already been completed. Document automation platforms use a workflow structure to enhance visibility and efficiency, ensuring that nothing gets lost in the shuffle.

Search capabilities that can quickly locate documents or text also help to improve visibility within a document management system. Rather than laboriously pouring through folder after folder in search of the right document, FinTech teams can save time and avoid frustration while also keeping projects on track. Better visibility also means less confusion, which helps improve version control. Since it’s easier to identify which document someone should be working on, they’re less likely to create or distribute alternate versions that may not be fully updated.

Expanding Document Automation with Accusoft Integrations

With more than 30 years of experience working with digital documents, Accusoft provides a broad range of document automation solutions that can help FinTechs improve efficiency, reduce errors, and deliver a better overall user experience. Whether you need to extract data from structured forms, view and convert multiple file types, or build a dedicated workflow solution from scratch, our collection of SDKs, APIs, and cloud solutions make it easy for FinTechs to incorporate the functionality they need without having to rethink their tech stack.

To learn more about how Accusoft integrations can revolutionize the way you manage the document lifecycle, talk to one of our solutions experts today.

The lifeblood of transportation companies is the ability for clients to check their shipping order status. For Manitoulin, they enhanced their web portal for customers to retrieve and view scanned documents including, bills of lading, proofs of delivery, and invoices. Shortly after its launch, the portal was accommodating over 35,000 visits per month, and challenges with viewing speed arose. Learn how Manitoulin solved this problem with Accusoft’s PrizmDoc^® for Java, formerly VirtualViewer^®.

Hampden County is one the most industrialized counties of western Massachusetts, with a population of 462,718 residents living in 197,318 households. Whenever any of those houses or plots of land change hands, documents must be created to record the transaction and it’s the job of the county registrar to keep it all straight. With hundreds of thousands of documents being processed every year, their system finally started to slow down.  Hampden County was looking for a better document processing solution.  Learn how PrizmDoc^® for Java, formerly VirtualViewer^®, from Accusoft was able to speed up viewing times as well as improve viewing quality.

Of the many eDiscovery trends we’re seeing in the Legal Tech world, one stands out as particularly crucial. The eDiscovery services market is exploding. The market is estimated to grow 8.7% annually, reaching more than $17B by 2027. 

The rapid growth of eDiscovery presents exciting opportunities for the Legal Tech world. However, for independent software vendors (ISVs) to capitalize on those opportunities, they must also stay vigilant about associated concerns such as the use of AI, data privacy, and effective document management.

Amidst the remarkable expansion of eDiscovery services, a host of trends have emerged that hold significant relevance for ISVs. Below, we outline key eDiscovery trends and offer tangible ways to navigate the landscape successfully.

Three eDiscovery Trends You Need to Know

#1: A Cautious Embrace of AI is Critical

One of the most prevalent eDiscovery trends is the need for cautious use of AI. It’s no secret that AI, or Legal AI, generative AI tools trained on legal processes, is revolutionizing eDiscovery. Law firms are already reaping the benefits, as 70% of large firms agree that generative AI adds value.

Legal AI makes teams more productive by automating rote tasks such as document review, memo drafting, and initial contract creation. For example, a recent study found that AI-powered due diligence document review can cut review time by up to 70% compared to traditional methods. 

What does this data tell us? That lawyers will be turning to Legal Tech ISV professionals to help them better use, scale, and mitigate the risks of AI.

As the eDiscovery market grows, more sophisticated use cases for Legal AI will be developed. For instance, a Legal AI tool could generate textual content, such as policies or communications, based on input examples. Additionally, a tool could assign a tag to a given input and help professionals create a searchable database of documents to streamline due diligence.

In other words, the possibilities of Legal AI are endless. However, generative AI tools, especially when used in highly regulated fields, must be implemented with caution. That’s where ISVs can bring unique value.

Risks of Legal AI that ISVs can Help Mitigate

• Tools that are available publicly have been trained on vast amounts of historical data, which could result in outputs that are outdated, biased, or irrelevant to your clients’ needs.
• The misuse of AI is common within and outside of organizations, which could result in “deep fake” images and videos, along with generated data that are hard to verify.
• Inputs that include personally identifiable information (PII) can be accidentally exposed to other users of the tool. That’s where Accusoft’s PII detection and redaction feature in PrizmDoc can be helpful.

These are just a few risks that accompany all of the benefits Legal AI tools offer. It’s critical to spend plenty of time experimenting with various tools to see which ones pose the least amount of risk and work best for your application. Part of a cautious embrace of AI also includes forming a team to research, test, and launch tools safely. That’s why 38% of American Law 200 firms are expected to hire more technologists to support generative AI initiatives.

Action Items: How to embrace eDiscovery AI tools cautiously in your application

• Offer AI readiness assessments or audits to help law firm clients evaluate their current readiness, infrastructure, and data readiness for AI implementation.
• Facilitate knowledge-sharing among your clients by organizing learning sessions. Given that 90% of law firms reported that they expect their investment in generative AI to rise in the next five years, it’s clear that legal teams are using AI successfully. Consider arranging sessions where firms that have successfully implemented AI can share best practices with less experienced organizations. 
• Explore partnering with a trusted eDiscovery document processing vendor such as Accusoft to integrate carefully vetted AI tools into your application. 

#2 Data Privacy Restrictions Must be Top of Mind

Any list of 2024 eDiscovery trends must include a concern about data privacy. This year and beyond, restrictions on data privacy and protecting PII will become more rigid. Awareness of protecting client data has grown globally. Additionally, excitement about AI can inadvertently overshadow the data privacy concerns that come with using tools that are publicly available.

Increased data privacy restrictions within firms will look like stricter data retention policies and increased use of software designed to help teams identify and redact PII. Firms will need to conduct thorough research on the data privacy policies of their partners, as well as the data privacy laws of the geographic areas in which they conduct business.

Action items: How to keep data privacy top of mind in your application:

• Strengthen your software’s data security by implementing robust encryption protocols and security measures. Provide options for end-to-end encryption, secure file sharing, and secure document storage to safeguard PII and maintain client confidentiality.
• Provide tools for compliance auditing, monitoring, and reporting to assist legal teams in demonstrating regulatory compliance to clients and regulatory authorities. Features such as access logs, audit trails, and user activity monitoring ensure accountability and transparency in data handling practices.
• Ensure continuous improvement and responsiveness within your applications to evolving client needs and how PII could be exposed or inadvertently changed. Establish regular feedback loops with clients to gather insights, identify pain points, and prioritize feature enhancements. 
• Review your organization’s data privacy policy. How does your software protect client data, PII, and more? Keep your clients updated on your policy so that they know data privacy is a top priority for you. 

#3 Better Management of Collaborative Platforms is Needed

Another one of the most important eDiscovery trends of 2024 is the need for better management of collaborative platforms. The adoption of collaborative platforms, such as Slack, WhatsApp, MS Teams, and others, has surged due to the shift to remote work.

The use of collaborative applications offers advantages and poses challenges. For example, they enable legal teams to capture valuable information from communications across many platforms that strengthen court cases. However, they also create extremely large volumes of legal documents and the potential of large amounts of duplicate content that teams then have to review.

Why is the concern about collaborative platforms so great? Because the number and use of these platforms is only growing. From now until 2032, the collaboration software market is projected to grow 12% annually. 

This has had profound effects on legal firms performing eDiscovery, most of whom still depend on tools and review processes designed for standard digital documents (such as .doc, .xlxs, .ppt, etc), paper documents, and email. The process of collecting, viewing, searching, redacting, and collaborating across traditional documents and emails has pivoted, and firms are responsible for including the digitized content from these collaborative working social platforms in their eDiscovery.

Action items: How to help law firms better access to files created in document collaboration tools

• Embed advanced search and filtering capabilities into your Legal Tech software that are specifically tailored to collaborative platform communications. This includes the ability to search for keywords, filter by date range or user, and apply metadata tags to organize and categorize communications effectively. These features enable lawyers to quickly locate relevant information during eDiscovery proceedings.
• Create tools in your application that supports the collecting, viewing, searching, redacting, and collaborating across traditional documents and emails, and also the digitized content from these collaborative working social platforms.
• Consider integrating PrizmDoc into your solution to seamlessly search, identify, and redact information directly within your application, ensuring top-notch document security.

Solutions Built to Help You Capitalize on eDiscovery Trends

We’ve only begun to see how the explosion of the eDiscovery services market poses opportunities and potential downfalls to the Legal Tech world. With the right safeguards in place, ISVs can capitalize on these opportunities to enhance their services, maintain competitiveness, and above all, foster client trust.

Wondering how can Accusoft support your team in keeping up with the eDiscovery trends of 2024? Read our Legal Tech Fact Sheet.

Far from just another tech industry buzzword, artificial intelligence (AI) is fast becoming a mainstay of data collection and analysis for many organizations. According to research by Accenture, not only do 84 percent of executives think leveraging AI is critical to meeting growth objectives, but three out of four of them believe they will risk going out of business if they don’t scale those initiatives.

That fear of being left behind is why 88 percent of companies have already invested in AI or machine learning technology or plan to do so in the near future. With some 175 zettabytes of data expected to be created in 2025, organizations without the AI data processing tools necessary to analyze and make sense of that data will struggle to develop effective business strategies and deliver a competitive customer experience.

It’s a tremendous opportunity for independent software vendors building the next-generation of applications across various industries. In order to deliver on the promise of AI, however, these software solutions also need to provide the tools that allow users to leverage their capabilities to streamline business processes. After all, a powerful AI solution isn’t of much use if it can’t be integrated with existing workflows.

Getting the Most Out of AI Data Processing

The most successful developers understand that AI data processing is only one piece of the puzzle. Their innovative AI technology is driving the car, but they still need the frame and wheels around it if the application is going to take their customers anywhere. That means building the less glamorous, but equally essential technology that helps AI data processing solve everyday tasks.

Take, for instance, document or image management. Organizations that gather data from physical forms or scanned documents need some way of extracting information so it can be converted into a format AI data processing tools can utilize. Manual data entry is both time-consuming and prone to error, so requiring users to transfer information by hand is simply not viable. By building document and image processing capabilities into their applications, developers can greatly enhance the versatility of AI data processing by automating key aspects of the collection process.

There’s also the question of what can be done with all of that data once it’s been gathered. Legal organizations, for example, often need to apply that information to contract creation, while insurance agents turn to it when assessing risk. By combining AI data processing capabilities with document assembly tools and search functionality, organizations can further automate key business processes to improve efficiency. Why painstakingly draft legal contracts or master service agreements from scratch when applications can use automation tools in conjunction with AI to assemble documents with greater speed and accuracy?

Build vs. Buy?

This often presents a challenge for software developers with limited resources. On the one hand, they need to invest as much time and energy as possible into their innovative AI data processing capabilities in order to meet the collection and analysis needs of their customers. But without also providing some way of interacting with and using that data to improve other key tasks, they will struggle to persuade potential users to adopt their innovative platform.

One solution is to build that functionality in-house. For software developers with substantial resources, this might sound like a good option. Unfortunately, the reality often proves less than ideal. Even something as basic as viewing and converting documents can quickly become a massive undertaking that draws valuable developer resources away from the AI data processing capabilities that are supposed to help the product stand out in a crowded market. 

In many cases, the company ends up having to outsource the work or push back key deadlines. Even worse, it may also end up creating more problems than it solves by relying on open source toolkits and libraries. The biggest problem has to do with security vulnerabilities. A recent study found over 2,600 bugs reported in open source projects between 2015 and early 2020. Even worse, many of these vulnerabilities were not formally reported to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) until well after they were first exposed, giving hackers and other hostile actors time to exploit the security gaps.

The Integration Solution

Developers can avoid delays and security risks by turning to proven SDK and API integrations for their application needs. This is especially effective for complex, but essential functionality like viewing, conversion, compression, editing, and assembly. By relying on code-based integrations that are actively supported, they can ensure that users will be able to leverage their AI data processing solutions securely and effectively.

Rather than building features from the ground up and wasting valuable development resources, independent software vendors can devote more time and energy on the core competencies that will make their application more competitive. That allows them to build more powerful AI data processing capabilities and bring those features to market even faster.

Enhance Your AI Data Processing Application with Accusoft Integrations

Accusoft’s family of SDK and API integrations helps software developers realize the potential of their applications by delivering proven document and image processing functionality. Whether you need document assembly tools to get the most out of your legal AI sifters or powerful HTML5 viewing capabilities to harness the power of risk management automation, our easy-to-implement, code-based integrations can help you realize the full potential of your application’s AI data processing.

Find out more about how the Accusoft development team is incorporating machine learning into their processes or talk to one of our integration specialists today to learn how we can enhance your AI data processing application.