Technical FAQs

Question

We want to use one PAS instance for multiple customers while ensuring their calls and data are separated so that other customers cannot access them. Is there a way PrizmDoc can accomplish this?

Answer

How To:

Use the following steps to set up the multi-tenancy feature:

  1. Add a new line inside of /usr/share/prizm/pas/pcc.nix.yml (Linux) or C:\Prizm\pas\pcc.win.yml (Windows) in the following format:

undocumentedFeature.multiTenancy: “enabled”

  1. After enabling this feature, all requests to PAS must include the header accusoft-tenant-id. The following shows an example request for creating a new viewing session:
POST /ViewingSession HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:3000
Content-Type: application/json
accusoft-tenant-id: myUniqueTenantId
cache-control: no-cache
Postman-Token: 5edd698a-5e4f-46d2-b93a-42cc57371dce
  {
  "source": {
  "type": "document",
  "fileName": "1040ez.pdf"
   }
  }

NOTE: All Tenant Ids are converted to lowercase and must be unique between tenants. This means that in terms of the application both “MyTenant” and “mytenant” are equivalent and would be able to see the same files. Tenant Ids are not generated for the application and must be generated and handled by the integration components. Tenant Ids are also strictly alphanumeric at this time.

File storage including Documents, markupXml, formDefinitions and markupLayerRecords will now be appended with the
{tenantId} as shown in the above example with a Documents configuration of /usr/share/prizm/Samples/Documents. The request would attempt to create a viewing session from the following file: /usr/share/prizm/Samples/Documents/myuniquetenantid/1040ez.pdf

Viewing Package data stored in the database will have the tenantId included in the composite index as well as include an accusoftTenantId column.

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Question

When doing a text search in a document in PrizmDoc, the highlight color for the search results is a light blue background. Is there a way to change the highlight color for search results in the PrizmDoc Viewer?

Answer

You can change the highlight color specifically in the PrizmDoc Viewer file viewer.js file located in the viewer-assets\js folder of your project/application.

You will need to locate 2 instances of the search term “highlightColor: undefined” in the code block below located close to line 4400. The actual line number will vary depending on the version of viewer.js you are using. You can replace “undefined” with a hexadecimal color value which you can look up from the following site: https://htmlcolorcodes.com/

// This is a request for a new searchQuery triggered by the search input field.
// Generate new search terms, and save them globally.
prevMatchingOptions = _.clone(matchingOptions);

if (matchingOptions.exactPhrase) {
    // We need to match the exact string, as is
    if (queryString.length) {
        searchTerms.push({
            searchTerm: queryString,
            highlightColor: undefined,
            searchTermIsRegex: false,
            contextPadding: 25,
            matchingOptions: matchingOptions
        });
    }
} else {
    // Split up multiple words in the string into separate search term objects
    var queryArr = queryString.split(' ');
    queryArr = _.unique(queryArr);
    _.forEach(queryArr, function(query){
        if (query.length) {
            searchTerms.push({
                searchTerm: query,
                highlightColor: undefined,
                searchTermIsRegex: false,
                contextPadding: 25,
                matchingOptions: matchingOptions
            });
        }
    });
}
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As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting the LegalTech industry in its effort to transform the processes used by law firms and legal departments, Accusoft recently sponsored an educational webinar in conjunction with Law.com entitled “Build or Buy? Learning Which Is Best for Your Firm or Department.” Hosted by Zach Warren, editor-in-chief of Legaltech News, the webinar featured Neeraj Rajpal, CIO of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, and Kelly Wehbi, Head of Product at Gravity Stack, a subsidiary of the Reed Smith law firm. 

Together, the panelists brought two unique perspectives to the ongoing “build vs buy” debate, both from the software vendors who provide LegalTech solutions and the decision makers working at the legal firms who make difficult decisions regarding technology solutions.

Build vs Buy: The Choices Before the Decision

Both Rajpal and Wehbi agree that any decision involving building or buying technology solutions has to begin with defining the problem a firm needs to solve. Regardless of whether you’re working with an independent legal firm or a legal department within a larger organization, it’s critical to understand the business problem, existing pain points, and potential value of a solution.

“When you start asking the right questions,” Raijpal notes, “you sometimes come across a situation where the requirements are not very clearly defined and that is a big red flag to me because when requirements are not defined, you’re not solving anything.”

Wehbi shares that concern about the requirements gathering process, pointing out that things tend to go wrong when firms fail to consider both the scope and magnitude of the challenge they’re trying to overcome. “Organizations can struggle a lot when they jump a little too quickly to a solution or to thinking about just what the return would be on a potential new product or service offered.”

It’s also critical to make sure that the firm is willing to accept some degree of change. If existing business processes are unclear or if no one is willing to consider changing how they work, then no amount of technology is going to make a difference. Understanding the culture of the firm and securing the buy-in from leadership is absolutely critical to making any technology integration succeed whether you’re buying a solution or building one from scratch. 

The Pros and Cons of Building LegalTech Solutions

For an organization that has the resources, methodologies, and skill sets necessary to develop a solution that’s specifically designed to meet its unique requirements, building can be a great decision. The key advantage here is that it focuses specifically on the firm’s processes and user pain points, allowing developers to design a solution that is much more targeted than an “off-the-shelf” product.

Benefits of Building

  • Applications can be customized to your exact specifications, allowing them to better address your specific business needs.
  • Since you manage the solution from end to end, you retain much more control in terms of application features and functionality, how data is managed, and access security.
  • Developing a specialized solution creates room for innovative technology that can provide a competitive edge.
  • A custom-built solution presents fewer integration challenges, especially when it comes to interfacing with legacy systems used by many legal organizations.

Risks of Building

  • Building a new solution from the ground up requires a great deal of time and resources that might be better spent elsewhere.
  • Investing in custom software creates substantial technical debt that must be maintained over time and could create integration problems in the future when additional upgrades are required.
  • If the new solution doesn’t contribute enough to the bottom line to justify the cost of operations, it could lead to negative economies of scale that make it difficult for the firm to grow its business.

The Pros and Cons of Buying LegalTech Solutions

Not every organization has the development resources to build a customized solution from the ground up. If they’re not ready to make that capital investment, a cloud-based offering may be better suited to their needs. Leveraging a proven, ready-to-launch SaaS solution offers a number of advantages, but could impact how the company makes technology decisions in the future.

Benefits of Buying

  • Since SaaS services are usually cheaper and easier to implement, they are often the best option for companies with limited IT resources.
  • Cloud solutions are good for solving common technology problems that smaller firms face.
  • Already-live functionality means SaaS solutions can be implemented on a faster time frame.
  • The cloud vendor handles all building and maintenance costs associated with the platform.
  • Since the vendor sets up workflows and integrations as well as troubleshooting, your internal team is freed up to focus on other tasks.

Risks of Buying

  • Off-the-shelf solutions offer less customization and control over infrastructure and data.
  • Even industry-specific SaaS solutions are built for a general market in mind, so their features may not solve your firm’s unique requirements.
  • Since the vendor manages security, customers have less oversight over how their sensitive data is managed.
  • Working with a SaaS provider exposes firms to market risk. If the vendor goes out of business or sunsets a product, it may be difficult to repatriate data or transition to another provider.

When to Build

For firms with the development resources that are already using in-house document management solutions to streamline processes, SDK and API integrations are often the best way to enhance functionality. Accusoft’s PrizmDoc Suite leverages REST APIs and advanced HTML controls to provide powerful document viewing, conversion, editing, and assembly capabilities to web-based applications. Our SDK integrations also allow developers to build the functionality they need directly into their software at the code level.

Document Assembly

Law firms need automation solutions that allow them to easily create and manage multi-part, multi-stage contracts. Thanks to Accusoft’s PrizmDoc Editor, legal teams can rapidly identify and assemble sections of pre-existing text into new content that is both editable and searchable. PrizmDoc Editor integrates securely into existing applications and delivers in-browser support to help lawyers assemble assets without resorting to risky external dependencies.

Case Management

LegalTech applications can manage and review cases much more efficiently by integrating data capture, file conversion, and optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities. The ImageGear SDK helps legal teams access case data in a variety of formats without the need for downloading additional files or relying on third-party viewing applications. It can also convert multiple file types into secure and searchable PDF/A documents, making it easy to tag files with client numbers, names, and other identifiable information. Thanks to PDF/A functionality, ImageGear ensures that firms can stay on the right side of federal regulations.

eDiscovery

The rapid transition to predominantly digital documents has fundamentally altered the way legal organizations approach the discovery process. Innovative eDiscovery processes can streamline case management while also protecting client interests. In order to implement these strategies effectively, firms need applications that provide extensive file format support and search functionality as well as redaction and digital rights management (DRM) tools capable of protecting client privacy. PrizmDoc Viewer delivers these features along with scalable annotation capabilities that make it easier for collaborators to proofread, review, and make comments to case files without creating version confusion. As an end-to-end eDiscovery toolkit, our HTML5 viewer also includes whitelabeling support so it can be fully integrated into your application’s branding.

When to Buy

For smaller legal teams looking for broad functionality without development hassles or a new firm taking its first steps toward document automation, it often makes more sense to implement a bundled, buy-in solution like Accusoft’s Docubee SaaS platform.

Document Completion

Docubee makes document management easy with drag and drop data routing. Users can quickly create legal contracts, route the appropriate data to documents, deliver contracts for approval, and facilitate signing with secure eSignature technology. 

Customized Templates

With Docubee, legal teams can create customized document templates and manage them on a section-by-section basis. Individual clauses can be added or removed as needed, allowing attorneys to repurpose document templates instead of creating them from scratch for every client. 

End-to-End Support

Two-way communication support helps firms to build better dockets and negotiate more effectively. Documents can be updated automatically and version controls ensure that everyone is always looking at the most up-to-date version of a contract. Docubee also allows users to prioritize key tasks with collaborative redlining and notification tools.

Long-Term Storage and Security

Docubee stores data for up to six years to meet eDiscovery requirements. To better protect client privacy and meet changing compliance requirements, firms can also set destruction dates for contracts, templates, and case files. Docubee is SOC2 compliant, featuring multi-layer encryption to keep data under tight lock and key.

Hear the Full Conversation

To hear the full webinar and learn more about how legal firms make the difficult choice between building or buying their next technology solution, sign up now to get access to an on-demand recording of the event. If you’re ready to learn more about how Accusoft technology is helping to power innovation in the legal industry by delivering the latest in content processing, conversion, and automation solutions, visit our legal industry solutions page or contact us today to speak to one of our product experts.

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As speed and efficiency have become increasingly vital for business success, it’s hardly a surprise that organizations across many industries have turned to white labeling as a way of retaining their competitive edge. While white labeling can be found in every industry, it’s proved to be incredibly important in the technology sector, where many independent software vendors rely upon white label software to build better applications and solutions.

How Does White Labeling Work?

In many instances, organizations need to launch a product quickly and may not have expertise in some aspect of their business. A software developer that specializes in FinTech solutions for processing loan applications, for example, may have the machine learning tools to sift through documents quickly but lack the viewing and editing features that would allow users to collaborate securely and effectively.

White labeling is a process where one company purchases a product from another company and then rebrands it for their own use. For physical products, this usually means repackaging and reselling something, but with digital products, the rebranding typically involves customizing the user experience (UI) to incorporate it into an existing application. 

In the previous example, the FinTech developer might turn to a product like PrizmDoc Viewer to integrate secure viewing capabilities into their platform. Using PrizmDoc Viewer’s white label software features, the company could rebrand the UI with its own logo and terminology. The average user, then, would never know that some aspects of their FinTech solution incorporates products made by another software manufacturer.

4 Benefits of Using White Label Software

Companies of all sizes turn to white label solutions when building their applications. Here are some of the reasons why they they choose this option instead of building everything they need from scratch:

1. Rapid Deployment

One of the obvious advantages to adopting a white label software solution is the speed of deployment. Building new features within an application takes both time and developer resources. If everything needs to be coded and deployed from scratch, production timelines can quickly extend indefinitely. As deadlines are pushed back, developers may even be pulled away from working on more innovative software features to build basic functionality into their applications. This vicious cycle makes it bring a product to market in time to capitalize on opportunities.

With easy-to-integrate white label software, companies can rapidly integrate the functionality they need into their applications and dedicate more resources to the novel features that will set them apart in a crowded marketplace. The ability to deploy core capabilities quickly means that teams can get to a minimum viable product faster and bring their software to market. Since white labeling allows them to rebrand and customize their integration to match the rest of the application interface, end users still enjoy a seamless experience.

2. Proven Functionality

When production deadlines are tight, it usually doesn’t make sense to have developers spending their time building a solution that already exists as a ready-made integration. Although open-source tools can be quite attractive, they don’t always provide the robust features expected of modern applications. In many cases, development teams have to spend valuable time building upon open-source solutions just to get them to work properly within an application framework.

White label software provides proven functionality right out of the box, allowing developers to quickly integrate the features they need and get back to working on other priorities. They also offer a more specialized approach to application needs. Rather than trying to build something new or adapt a similar solution, developers can select the exact features they need, implement them, and know that they’ll work as promised. Since they’re supported products, white label software also provides more peace of mind when it comes to updates and patching vulnerabilities. 

3. Budget Friendly

Developing new software features is an expensive undertaking. It requires companies to hire developers with the right expertise, dedicate hardware and processing capabilities, and multiple rounds of testing just to get to a viable state, but the costs don’t stop there. Once new functionality is built, it will require ongoing maintenance and support to ensure that it continues to work as intended and stays secure against potential threats. Those additional costs can quickly become burdensome for a software company that simply wants to incorporate common features into their application.

With white label software, companies can have all the benefits of third party support without compromising their user experience. White label API solutions integrate seamlessly into an application and the company can turn to the vendor for support when something goes wrong or when new features are needed. Eliminating ongoing maintenance from the budget means that teams can spend more of their resources on delivering a better overall product to their customers. 

4. Flexible Scalability

Software applications often change significantly throughout their lifecycle. What begins as a small program with only a few features can scale very quickly into an enterprise-grade workhorse that must meet the needs of multiple departments. Having a solution in place that can grow and change along with business needs is vital for organizations looking to retain their flexibility.

Customizable white label software makes it easy for companies to grow their applications along with their business. They can begin with a modest feature set and then implement additional tools as needed as user needs change over time. This versatility also frees up developers to build innovative solutions that may require features that are not being used in an existing application, but could easily be enabled when the time comes. Having flexible, scalable white-label technology built into a platform early on opens up a wide range of possibilities for future development.

The Behind-the-Scenes Ingredient to Your Application’s Success

As a software manufacturer specializing in API technologies for document processing, conversion, and automation, Accusoft has spent many years building solutions that work “under the hood” to enhance our customers’ applications. That’s why the PrizmDoc Suite of products incorporates white label software features to help them blend seamlessly into your existing platform. Whether you’re looking to add new capabilities or need to incorporate functionality quickly to get your products to market faster, our flexible integrations can help solve your document management challenges on your terms. Talk to our team today to find out which solution is right for you.

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Implementing any technology solution within an established organization can be a monumental challenge for a developer. Doing so for a legal firm that has a strong culture and longstanding processes can be even more difficult. That’s why LegalTech developers need to take a few key factors into consideration as they work on applications for the legal industry.

Build vs. Buy

One of the first questions any firm needs to ask is whether it wants to build a specialized solution or turn to an existing LegalTech application. In many cases, this comes down to a question of resources. For larger “big law” firms or legal departments within an enterprise business, internal developers may be available to build a customized application that caters to specific organizational needs. 

If the resources and development skills are on hand, building a dedicated solution can be an effective strategy. Developers can focus narrowly on the established processes used at the firm and design technology that targets clear pain points more effectively than an “off-the-shelf” product.

More importantly, as Kelly Wehbi, Head of Product for Gravity Stack, points out, building doesn’t necessarily mean starting from nothing: 

“I think a lot about how to leverage the platforms we have or could potentially purchase, but then add our own expertise and strengths on top of it. That doesn’t have to mean you have to build some entirely new interface or have to invent some new technology. It could be there’s a tool that’s out there that does exactly what you need and maybe you have to build a few customizations on top of that.”

Of course, building a solution also presents a number of challenges, especially if the project’s requirements are not well defined from the beginning. There’s a great deal of overhead involved with building new technology in terms of maintenance and ongoing support. It’s easy to fall into the trap of focusing on technology at the expense of services. But legal firms are not product companies; they need to focus instead on finding ways they can use technology to leverage their core services.

It’s that emphasis on services that drives many firms to buy the technology solutions they need rather than to build them. Existing software integrations are typically better positioned to maintain security and don’t need to be maintained as extensively. Deploying proven software integrations also helps organizations to maximize their on-premises resources and enhance their flexibility in the long-term. 

“I tend to default toward leveraging an existing platform when possible,” Wehbi admits. “Security ends up being a huge part of this and when you can leverage a company that’s solved that really well, that goes a long, long way. It offers you a bunch of options you wouldn’t have if you had to build it yourself,” Wehbi says. “That’s a pretty big undertaking to start from scratch.”

Getting Buy-In for LegalTech Solutions

Once the build or buy decision is finally made, there’s still the critical matter of executing and putting the new solution into practice. Getting feedback throughout the development and integration process is important, whether it’s gathered from anecdotal observations or some form of usage analytics. 

Neeraj Raijpal, CIO at Schroock & Schroock & Lavan, finds that implementations tend to go smoother when the development team is able to get rapid feedback from key decision makers: “The faster you get the feedback, the faster you know you’re down the right path or not. It is very frightening when the stakeholder…looks at something and says ‘This is exactly the opposite of what I expected.’ You don’t want to be in that situation.”

Ultimately, a LegalTech application’s success depends largely upon whether or not the firm as a whole embraces it. When developers are seeking to implement a solution, they need to be especially careful to take the culture of the firm into consideration. Without buy-in at the top, it will be difficult to convince anyone in the organization to commit to change. 

“If you’re trying to solve a problem because you have a deficiency in a current business process, but you’re not willing to change the process…that’s (a) disaster,” Raijpal warns. Although LegalTech solutions are designed to enhance efficiency and reduce errors, they often require people to learn how to use them or to abandon existing technology solutions.

Take, for example, a legal firm that needs to redact documents during the discovery process. The existing process likely involves printing out documents and then laboriously redacting them by hand with marker. Once that process is finished, they are scanned and saved as image-based PDFs. An HTML5 viewer with redaction capabilities could easily streamline this process to make it faster, more flexible, and more secure. Unfortunately, if the firm’s attorneys aren’t willing to adopt the new process, all of the potential efficiency benefits go to waste.

The Importance of Communication

Communication and ongoing support are critical to ensuring a successful LegalTech implementation. Developers can begin this important conversation right from the beginning when they’re designing application features. Whether they’re building everything from scratch or turning to software integrations, they need to have honest and thorough discussions to determine what specific features are needed to support legal processes. Implementing a LegalTech solution is more likely to be successful if that solution is closely aligned with the firm’s existing needs and future goals.

But the conversation doesn’t stop once the application goes live. Ongoing support and education is often necessary to help firms adopt new technology and make the most of its potential. Developers may even need to adjust some features over time as needs change. If they utilized third party software integrations to add key functionality, they need to know they can count on those vendors to support them as the LegalTech application evolves.

Make Your LegalTech Implementation a Success with Accusoft

Accusoft’s family of software integrations allow LegalTech developers to quickly add the features their clients need to modernize workflows and improve efficiency. Whether it’s PrizmDoc’s extensive document redaction capabilities that make it easier to protect privacy during eDiscovery or the automated document assembly features of PrizmDoc, developers can lean on our 30 years of document processing expertise so they can focus on building the tools legal teams require

As part of our ongoing work with the LegalTech industry, Accusoft recently sponsored a Law.com webinar on the subject of building vs buying technology solutions for legal firms. You can listen to some of the highlights with contributors Kelly Wehbi and Neeraj Rajpal along with host Zach Warren, editor-in-chief of LegalTech News, on the Law.com Perspectives podcast.

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Today’s organizations gather information from a variety of sources. Structured forms remain one of the most popular tools for collecting and processing data, and anyone who has filled out such a form recently has likely encountered the familiar bubbles or squares used to indicate some form of information. Whether these marks are used to identify marital status, health conditions, education level, or some other parameter, optical mark recognition plays an important role in streamlining forms processing and data capture.

What is Optical Mark Recognition?

Optical mark recognition (OMR) reads and captures data marked on a special type of document form. In most instances, this form consists of a bubble or a square that is filled in as part of a test or survey. After the form is marked, it can either be read by dedicated OMR software or fed into a physical scanner device that shines a beam of light onto the paper and then detects answers based on how much light is reflected back to an optical sensor. Older OMR scanners detected answers by measuring how much light passed through the paper itself using phototubes on the other side. Since the phototubes were very sensitive, #2 pencils often had to be used when filling out forms to ensure an accurate reading.

Today’s OMR scanners are much more accurate and versatile, capable of reading marks regardless of how they’re filled out (although they struggle if the mark is made with the same color as the printed form). More importantly, OMR software has made it possible to capture data from OMR forms without the need for any special equipment. This is especially helpful for processing forms information that exists in digital format, such as PDF files or JPEG images. 

The History of Optical Mark Recognition

One of the oldest versions of forms processing technology, OMR dates back to the use of punch cards, which were first developed in the late 1800s for use with crude “tabulating” machines. The cards typically provided simple “yes/no” information based on whether or not a hole was punched out. When fed through the tabulating machine, a hole would be registered and counted. This same basic principle would allow more complex machines to perform basic arithmetic in the early 1900s before serving as the foundation for early computer programming by mid-century. Entire computer programs were stored on stacks of punch cards, which would remain in use until well into the 1970s when more powerful machines made them obsolete.

Although OMR operates on the same principle as a punch card, it instead uses scanning technology to detect the presence of a mark made by a pencil or a pen. This form of identification was first popularized by IBM’s electrographic “mark sense” technology in the 1930s and 1940s. The concept itself was first developed by a schoolteacher named Reynold Johnson, who wanted to streamline test grading. He designed a machine that could read pencil marks on a special test paper and then tabulate the marks to generate a final score. After joining IBM in 1934, Johnson spearheaded the development of the Type 805 Test Scoring Machine, which debuted in 1938 and revolutionized test scoring in the education sector. In production until 1963, the 805 could score 800 sheets per hour when run by an experienced operator.

The 805 registered marks by using metal brushes to sense the electrical conductivity of graphite from the pencil lead. While effective, it had limitations in terms of reading speed and flexibility. When Everett Franklin Lindquist, best known as the creator of the ACT, needed a machine that could keep up with Iowa’s widespread adoption of standardized testing in the 1950s, he developed the first true optical mark reader. Patented in 1962, Lindquist’s machine detected marks by measuring how much light passed through a scoring sheet and was capable of scoring 4,000 tests per hour.

Throughout the 1960s, OMR scanning technology continued to improve and spread to a variety of industries looking for ways to rapidly process data. In education, however, the OMR market would soon be dominated by the Scantron Corporation, which was founded in 1972 to market smaller, less expensive scanners to K-12 schools and universities. After placing the scanners in educational institutions, Scantron then sold large quantities of proprietary test sheets that could be used for a variety of testing purposes. Scantron was so successful that their distinctive green and white sheets have become synonymous with OMR scanning for generations of US college students.

The next major innovation in OMR technology arrived in the early 1990s with dedicated OMR software that could replicate the drop-out capabilities of commercial scanners. Part of the reason why scanners used proprietary, pre-printed forms was so they could use colors and watermarks that would not register during scanning for more accurate reading. Thanks to OMR software, it became possible to create templated forms and then remove the form image during the reading process to ensure that only marked information remained.

Take Control of OMR Forms with Accusoft SDKs

Accusoft’s FormFix forms processing SDK features powerful production-level OMR capabilities. It not only detects the presence of check or bubble marks, but can also detect markings in form fields, which is particularly useful for determining whether or not a signature is present on a document. Capable of reading single or multiple marks at 0, 90, 180, and 270 degree orientations, FormFix can also recognize checkboxes and be programmed to accommodate a variety of bubble shapes. Its form drop-out and image cleanup features also help to ensure the highest level of accuracy during OMR reading.

For expanded forms functionality, including optical character recognition (OCR) and intelligent character recognition (ICR), developers can also turn to FormSuite for Structured Forms. Featuring a comprehensive set of forms template creation tools and data capture capabilities, FormSuite can streamline forms processing workflows and significantly reduce the costs and errors associated with manual data entry and extraction.

Find out what flexible OMR functionality can do for your application with a fully-featured trial of the FormSuite SDK. Get started with some functional sample code and explore FormFix’s features to start planning your integration.

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spreadsheet security

Few document formats are more common than XLSX spreadsheet files. Although many alternatives are available, most enterprises continue to rely on the broad (and familiar) functionality of Microsoft Excel when it comes to their spreadsheet needs. However, few organizations take the appropriate steps to ensure Excel spreadsheet security, which could leave their private data and formula assets exposed to substantial risk.

As a third party dependency, Excel represents an obvious security gap that could easily be exploited. Any time a file travels outside a secure application environment, there is a potential risk of data theft and version confusion. In any situation where files are travelling between separate applications, there is also an opportunity for malicious files to slip into unsuspecting workflows. By focusing on ways to shore up their Excel spreadsheet security, organizations can minimize risk and protect their sensitive data.

Excel Spreadsheet Security Risk #1: Malicious File Extensions

Most organizations are aware that opening a file attached to an email is one of the most common ways to introduce malware into a system. What they may not realize, however, is just how pervasive the problem is or how well those files are masked. It’s easy to identify a malicious email attachment when its name is a jumble of letters and it has an unfamiliar file extension. The real threat comes when it actually resembles something familiar and potentially legitimate.

Unfortunately, XLSX spreadsheet files are frequently used to distribute malware. According to a comprehensive cybersecurity study conducted by Cisco in 2018, Microsoft Office file extensions (such as DOCX and XLSX) were used by 38 percent of malicious email attachments, higher than any other format. These extensions are attractive to cybercriminals precisely because they’re so widely used. Someone working in a financial services organization, for instance, is usually quite accustomed to sending and receiving spreadsheets via email, so they are more likely to open an XLSX file out of curiosity.

Of course, this raises a separate question about basic cybersecurity. No organization today should be relying on poorly secured channels like email to share sensitive documents in the first place. By integrating native XLSX viewing and editing capabilities directly into their web applications, developers can provide the tools necessary to share spreadsheets without the risk of exposing collaborators to malicious file extensions. Embedding spreadsheet files into the application allows for easy access, but also keeps the file safely within a secure environment. Once users become accustomed to accessing spreadsheets this way, they’ll be less likely to fall prey to a malicious XLSX extension in their email. 

Excel Spreadsheet Security Risk #2: Insufficient Access Control

Spreadsheets can contain a great deal of information. Not only do they make it easy to reference data and carry out complex calculations in seconds, there’s a lot happening behind the scenes that may not be immediately obvious to the average user. Spreadsheet cells typically incorporate highly detailed (and often proprietary) formulas that help organizations to estimate costs, assess risk, and adjust revenue forecasts. For many industries, there’s simply no software that can compete with the extensive capabilities of spreadsheets.

But that versatility comes with a cost. Any user with a rudimentary knowledge of spreadsheets can easily reveal hidden information and examine the formulas behind the document’s calculations. And once they’ve downloaded their own copy of the spreadsheet, there’s nothing to prevent them from using it elsewhere, which can be a serious problem for any organization that depends upon its proprietary formulas to drive business success.

The root problem in this case comes down to who has control over the spreadsheet. When an XLSX file is shared, it can then be copied or even altered without the knowledge or permission of its original owner. The best way to maintain control over spreadsheets is to integrate native XLSX viewing capabilities directly into a web application. This allows developers to control which elements of the spreadsheet are being shared and prevents anyone from downloading a copy without permission. Since users can only interact with the spreadsheet on the terms set by the file’s owner, they can’t peek “under the hood” to obtain proprietary assets like cell formulas.

Secure Your Spreadsheets with PrizmDoc Cells

Accusoft’s PrizmDoc Cells is a powerful API integration that allows developers to provide dynamic spreadsheet viewing and editing capabilities within their web application environment. Far more versatile than traditional viewer integrations that offer only a static “print preview” image of a spreadsheet, PrizmDoc Cells makes it possible to scroll both vertically and horizontally and even enter information into cells to perform calculations. It’s the most secure way to provide access to spreadsheet resources without sacrificing control over editing permissions. And since the XLSX file never has to travel beyond a secure application environment, there’s no need to worry about malicious file extensions when sharing spreadsheets.

Developers can use PrizmDoc Cells’s whitelabeling features to customize its look and functionality within their application. From editing cell content and format to embedding graphics, they retain complete control over the way viewers interact with spreadsheet files to maximize security and protect vital proprietary information. To learn more about how PrizmDoc Cells can enhance Excel spreadsheet security within your application, visit our product page to explore this powerful integration’s features.

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Seventy-six percent of companies surveyed plan to prioritize machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) deployments in 2021. Despite increased uptake, however, there is still a great deal of confusion surrounding these advanced concepts. In order to understand how organizations hope to leverage ML and AI in their technology initiatives, it’s helpful to take a step back and examine how they work and how they differ from each other.

What Is Machine Learning?

Machine learning uses statistics-driven algorithms to find patterns in massive amounts of data. These algorithms are designed to improve over time as they process more data to enable more accurate outputs. Machine learning is widely used to produce predictive recommendations — companies such as Google, Netflix, and Facebook collect data about user behaviors and feed it into machine learning algorithms which then produce targeted search results, movie recommendations, or advertisements. 

The key to machine learning success is data. The more data available to ML algorithms — and the higher-quality this data — the better they’ll be able to identify patterns in current datasets and apply them to new data sources.

Most machine learning methodologies fall under one of two broad categories:

  • Supervised Learning: Developers classify and label data to guide the algorithm’s inputs and outputs to ensure specific patterns are recognized. This method is time and resource intensive because it requires data scientists to capture, control, and curate data sources.
  • Unsupervised Learning: This approach provides ML algorithms with unlabeled and unclassified data and allows them to identify patterns based on unique data characteristics. Developers don’t interfere with the learning and pattern recognition process, instead evaluating the outputs for accuracy and modifying code as needed.

Why Does Machine Learning Matter?

Machine learning helps organizations leverage the massive amounts of data they’ve accumulated. This information is drawn from a variety of sources, including disparate forms and documents, data produced through customer transactions and service calls, and the ongoing operational data produced by staff as they interact with IT resources.

Thanks to both the rapid uptake of cloud computing and availability of large-scale data collection and analysis tools, these data volumes are increasing exponentially. As a result, aggregate assessment is now critical — companies need a way to rapidly and reliably derive patterns from available data, and apply these patterns to predictive action.

This is the evolving role of machine learning. By creating, testing, and deploying ML algorithms capable of rapid pattern analysis and application it’s possible for companies to benefit from this continual data influx rather than being constrained by the bounds of traditional data evaluation. To facilitate this process, many next-generation software tools and services are either equipped with built-in ML frameworks or are capable of interfacing with them.

Key Machine Learning Applications

The applications of machine learning are vast, but they tend to produce the best results when paired with existing processes that supplement human efforts or automate low-value, but labor-intensive, functions in the workplace. In effect, it has the potential to do almost anything a human mind can do, given enough time. 

Improved Data Capture

Capturing data from internal documents and customer-submitted forms can be cumbersome and time-consuming. It can also lead to wasted time and effort if data is incorrectly entered, duplicated, or accidentally deleted. By pairing machine learning tools with forms processing solutions like Accusoft’s FormSuite for Structured Forms, developers can build applications that identify, collect, and capture key data more efficiently and accurately. For example, a robot process automation (RPA) bot can be set up to receive extracted form data from FormSuite and then populate that information into the appropriate fields within an application. This not only accelerates forms processing workflows, but also greatly reduces the risk of data entry error. Properly implemented, automated data capture can act as a springboard for improved data insight and decision-making thanks to improved accuracy and consistency. 

Streamlined Content Creation

By combining machine learning algorithms and data sources with document editing tools, it’s possible to streamline key processes such as the creation of complex, compliance-bound content. One in-practice example is the use of Accusoft’s PrizmDoc Editor within the LegalSifter contract review and creation platform. By pairing its AI technology with PrizmDoc Editor’s document assembly capabilities, LegalSifter was able to quickly locate repetitive clauses and suggest replacements to create an automated contract creation experience for end users. 

What Is AI, and How Does It Relate to Machine Learning?

The terms artificial intelligence and machine learning are closely related and often used interchangeably, but they’re not identical.

Artificial intelligence refers to technologies that are capable of performing tasks like photo recognition or data pattern analysis with similar (or better) outcomes than human beings. Machine learning refers to the creation, testing, and refinement of the algorithms needed to support AI tools. In many ways, then, ML functions as a distinct process that helps make AI possible.

As noted by Toward Data Science, it often helps to think of AI, machine learning, and deep learning like a set of concentric rings. The smallest, inner ring is deep learning, which helps inform the middle ring of machine learning by providing layered neural network structures that improve the process of pattern recognition. The final, outside ring is AI, which depends on both deep and machine learning to deliver real-world results. 

Artificial intelligence tools can be broken down into two basic types:

  • Generalized AI: These tools are capable of solving problems bounded by a clear set of rules. Using the ML algorithms that underpin the larger AI structure, general AI applications can act on stimuli — such as a security alert from an IT network — and respond appropriately by creating and logging reports or looping in human agents. 
  • Narrow AI: These solutions are designed to solve specific, small-scale tasks. Building on the security example from above, a narrow AI application might see tools responding to specific threat events such as DDoS or ransomware attacks by deploying targeted, defensive responses that close active sessions, capture attack data, and prevent future connections from the same IP address. 

In practice, narrow AI tools can outperform their human counterparts in completing specific tasks, but are unable to translate this expertise into applicable action at scale. General tools come closer to mimicking human intelligence but are still a long way from replicating the depth and breadth of human thinking.

Limitations of AI

Much has been made about the potential of AI technologies to take the place of human staff, leading to a generalized sense of worry about the future of these tools at scale. Recent research, however, found that substantial confusion remains around not only the deployment of AI but the definition itself. In fact, one study found that 40 percent of AI startups in Europe were not actually using AI. In some cases, increasing market interest in AI tools encouraged the use of this term to help startups capture attention, in much the same way that rapid cloud adoption spurred the creation of a host of “cloud” companies that offered nothing of the sort.

Uncertainty around AI itself, however, also plays a role in this disconnect. Given the massive potential of AI to help companies solve both specific and generalized problems, the term can be applied in almost any context and made to fit almost any description.

Unlocking the Future

After spending many years confined to research projects and future-focused technology articles, both machine learning and artificial intelligence are making their way into the applications and software companies are deploying every day. As developers look ahead to building the next generation of technology solutions, they must not only think about how they can better leverage ML and AI principles, but also how to implement features that take advantage of them.

Accusoft’s collection of versatile SDK and API integrations deliver powerful viewing and image processing capabilities that help applications streamline workflows and enhance productivity. To learn more about how Accusoft can help you enhance the workflow in your machine learning or artificial intelligence projects, contact us today.

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PDFs HTML embed

As digital processes become more commonplace, it’s more important than ever for organizations to have the tools in place to manage electronic documents effectively. The evolution of PDF viewing technology continues to provide new levels of flexibility for software applications. Now that HTML5 is capable of rendering PDF data within a conventional browser, developers are looking for new ways to make the viewing experience even more seamless. By embedding PDFs in HTML, they can continue to streamline document viewing and reduce the need for external software.

Why Embed a PDF in HTML?

Sharing a PDF online is far easier to do today than it was just a decade ago. For many years, the two most commonly used options were providing a link to download the file directly from a server or sending it as an attachment in an email. Once the file was downloaded, it could be opened and viewed with PDF reader software installed on a computer. This, of course, introduced numerous security risks that are associated with downloadable files and email attachments.

The widespread adoption of cloud storage has made it very convenient to share a PDF file and even manage who has access to it. And since most modern browsers can view PDFs without needing to download the file, providing a link is typically all that’s necessary to pass the file along.

While this solution is usually sufficient for the personal needs of an individual user, it’s not a practical option for even a small-scale business when it comes to public-facing document management. Organizations want to retain control over their files with respect to how they’re accessed and displayed. By embedding PDFs in HTML, they can keep their documents within their secure application environment where they have full control over how they’re managed, shared, and viewed. For developers looking to provide a seamless user experience, building options for embedded PDFs into their software is critically important.

The Value of an Integrated PDF Viewer

Since most modern browsers can utilize HTML5 to render PDF files, developers could lean on those capabilities without building a dedicated PDF viewer for their application. That decision will very quickly lead to some unpleasant complications, however. In the first place, they are leaving a lot to chance in terms of the viewing experience. Not every browser renders PDF files the same way, so it’s very possible that two different users could have two very different experiences when viewing a document. In some cases, that could mean nothing more than a missing font that’s replaced with an alternative. But in other cases, it could mean that the document doesn’t open at all or is missing important graphical elements.

This approach also forces users to make do with whatever PDF functionality is incorporated into their browser’s viewer. In most cases, that will mean subpar search performance, a lack of responsive mobile controls, and no annotation features. The browser may also have trouble with some of the less common PDF specifications, making it impossible for some users to even view a document.

By embedding a JavaScript-based PDF viewer into their application, developers can ensure that documents will display the correct way every time. Since the viewing is handled through a viewer embedded into the web application by default, it will be the same no matter what kind of browser or operating system is being used. A customizable viewer also allows developers to adjust the interface to permit or hide certain features, such as downloading or markup tools.

The open-source PDF.js library is a popular choice for many web applications, but it comes with a number of well-documented shortcomings. In addition to lacking key features like annotation, it also doesn’t support the entire PDF standard and does not provide a responsive UI for mobile devices. For developers looking to add more robust features, working with PDF.js often entails quite a bit of additional coding and engineering to build those capabilities from the ground up.

Embed PDFs in HTML with Accusoft PDF Viewer

Accusoft PDF Viewer takes the foundation of PDF.js and provides robust enhancements to meet the viewing needs of today’s applications. In addition to incredibly fast text search, expanded PDF standard support, and optimization for high-resolution displays, this lightweight SDK is also equipped with a responsive UI that adapts automatically to mobile screens. Developers can integrate essential mobile features like pinch to zoom quickly and easy, with no additional integrations or engineering required.

With no external dependencies or complicated server configurations, Accusoft PDF Viewer integrates into a web-based application with less than 10 lines of code. Once the viewer is in place, developers can embed PDFs in HTML and easily render them to provide a state-of-the-art PDF viewing experience regardless of the browser or device users have at their disposal. And since the UI can be customized to your application’s needs, there’s no reason to sacrifice control for the sake of viewing convenience.

Accusoft PDF Viewer is a JavaScript SDK that you can incorporate into your application environment quickly and easily to provide much greater viewing control and functionality than is possible with a standard browser viewer or base PDF.js library. If you’re planning to embed PDFs in HTML as part of your software solution, taking just a few moments to integrate versatile and responsive viewing tools can ensure a high-quality viewing experience. Download Accusoft PDF Viewer Standard Version today at no cost to see how easily it can transform your application’s HTML5 viewing potential.

For additional features like annotation, eSignature, and UI customization, contact one of our solutions experts to upgrade to Professional Version.

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Enterprises are continuously engaged in a process of evaluating their operations to identify opportunities for improvement. When one of the world’s leading mortgage lenders took a closer look at how it was handling documents to process applications, it quickly recognized the need to implement a solution that would allow them to scale capacity and enable faster loan processing. The company’s diversified businesses included banking, capital markets, and insurance, all of which combined to handle more than $1 trillion in mortgages, with nearly $2 billion in new loans each day.

Overview

For many years, the lender had processed applications by hand, entering information from paper and electronic forms into a mortgage processing application. While users had to thumb through paper documents, electronic loan documents were made available through a content management system and a dual-monitor workstation. One screen contained the loan processing application and a list of electronic loan documents. The other screen displayed the selected document and allowed the user to browse its contents. 

In examining their loan purchasing process, the lender discovered that while it took 7-9 days to close a paper document loan, electronic documents closed in just 4-5 days. Unfortunately, the legacy content management system limited scalability and performance, and a grossly underpowered document viewing application further impacted user productivity. The potential revenue gain in expanding their use of electronic documents was enormous – in terms of enhanced efficiency alone. To retain their competitive edge in a challenging market, the lender made the decision to replace their legacy CMS with an enterprise solution.

Challenges

But in order to realize the full productivity potential of the new enterprise CMS system, the lender also needed to upgrade its client document viewing application. The new viewer needed to provide reliable viewing for various types of electronic forms, including scanned documents, faxes, and emails in TIFF, JPEG, and PDF formats. To meet productivity demands, the first page of each document had to be accessed within two seconds. The technology also had to be entirely web-based since no documents could be stored on a client’s desktop or hard drive due to compliance constraints. From a user experience standpoint, the viewing solution also needed to provide scalable thumbnail rendering, accommodate mouse and keyboard navigation with “hot keys,” and be able to meet rigorous load-testing requirements. 

After a thorough review of available options, the lender selected Accusoft’s PrizmDoc® for Java, formerly VirtualViewer®, HTML5 viewing technology to address its complex functionality and security requirements. Critically, PrizmDoc® for Java supported the lender’s required document set of PDF, TIFF, and JPEG, as well as AFP, PCL, MS Office, and many other important business document formats, which provided the growing lender with additional flexibility for future expansion. The viewer also delivered a variety of thumbnail features, including page rotation sync, full panel view, and adjustable size options. PrizmDoc® for Java’s configurable user interface would also make it easy to implement navigation options and hot keys that enhanced productivity. 

The lender had little time to dedicate to the integration with its new enterprise CMS solution, especially since much of the integration time would be taken up by the load-testing process. Fortunately, PrizmDoc® for Java’s intuitive API made it easy to incorporate the product seamlessly while leaving plenty of time for load testing. 

Results

Replacing their legacy content management system and integrating Accusoft’s powerful PrizmDoc® for Java high-speed HTML5 viewer enabled the lender to achieve its desired performance standards. Because PrizmDoc® for Java is completely web-based and requires no software to be installed on the client’s desktop, the lender could easily roll out a scalable solution that met critical security and business continuity objectives within a single, high-speed viewing application. 

The viewer’s server component renders and delivers individual pages to the client quickly and seamlessly, well within the lender’s required sub-two-second access requirements, even when accessing large, multi-page loan documents in various geographical locations. PrizmDoc®for Java now helps to increase the mortgage lender’s productivity by allowing users to access, view, annotate, and manipulate loan documents on the fly without ever touching the client’s local hard drive.

As a result, the lender can now import daily peak loads of more than half a million documents and deliver them to users across the enterprise in under two seconds, improving their overall mortgage processing time by more than 40 percent.

About Accusoft

Founded in 1991, Accusoft is a software development company specializing in content processing, conversion, and automation solutions. From out-of-the-box and configurable applications to APIs built for developers, Accusoft software enables users to solve their most complex workflow challenges and gain insights from content in any format, on any device. Backed by 40 patents, the company’s flagship products, including Dcoubee, PrizmDoc Viewer, and ImageGear, are designed to improve productivity, provide actionable data, and deliver results that matter. The Accusoft team is dedicated to continuous innovation through customer-centric product development, new version release, and a passion for understanding industry trends that drive consumer demand. Visit us at www.accusoft.com. 

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The last twelve months have seen an unprecedented shift in the way organizations and customers are utilizing digital services. According to data gathered by McKinsey in 2020, digital adoption made roughly five years worth of progress in a span of eight weeks at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While this massive shift impacted almost every industry, the government sector in particular faced tremendous disruption as its legacy systems struggled to keep pace with demand.

Many of the changes in the way people access government services are likely to remain in place even after the threat of the pandemic recedes, which creates a huge opportunity for software developers specializing in GovTech applications. A closer look at GovTech trends for 2021 provides some insight into those opportunities.

5 Key GovTech Trends to Watch in 2021

1. Remote Functionality 

Government agencies had to fundamentally rethink the workplace in response to the pandemic. Non-essential personnel transitioned to working remotely whenever possible, but this move created a number of challenges in terms of collaboration and security. Employees still need to be able to view, edit, and share files without compromising privacy or creating version confusion. All too often, remote workers resort to ad hoc solutions involving third party programs and conventional email, all of which make it incredibly difficult for an organization to maintain control over its essential files. GovTech developers can address these challenges directly by building software that facilitates remote collaboration entirely within a secure application.

2. Doing More with Less

One of the downstream consequences of social distancing restrictions and stay at home orders has been the erosion of sales tax revenue at the state and local level. While the impacts have not been as catastrophic as originally feared, many states are still facing significant budget shortfalls despite making deep spending cuts. The pressure will be on to find GovTech solutions that are easy to implement, use, and maintain. Efficiency and flexibility will continue to be important considerations as state and municipal governments seek out platforms that can address multiple needs and allow them to eliminate costly redundancies.

3. Shift to Digital

When government offices were forced to shut their doors in the early days of the pandemic, they had to scramble to find ways to deliver services digitally. This was especially difficult for agencies relying on legacy infrastructure and outdated software, but the transition to digital is unlikely to slow down anytime soon now that it’s underway. According to a recent study, 61 percent of government officials surveyed believe that the pandemic has accelerated their digital transformation goals, while 75 percent claim that their agency is pushing to offer even more services digitally. That will mean plenty of opportunity for innovative GovTech developers that can provide the automation and data management tools governments need to bring their services into the 21st century.

4. Fight for Privacy

Government agencies sit upon massive amounts of private data that must be kept secure at all costs. From personally identifiable information like Social Security Numbers to contracts and applications that contain confidential business data and vital trade secrets, governments have a responsibility to protect sensitive data at all times. They need systems and software that not only keeps files safely within the secure confines of an application, but also provides the redaction capabilities that allow agencies to comply with information requests. By designing platforms that promote transparency while also protecting privacy, GovTech developers can play an important role in building trust between government and citizens. 

5. Citizen-Centric Experience

The combination of evolving public expectations and demographic change was rapidly reshaping the delivery of government services even before the pandemic. In a global survey conducted in late 2019, Accenture found that 50 percent of respondents believed that requests to an agency could be resolved faster with the use of AI assistants or chatbots and that a transition to 24/7 access to government services would be greatly beneficial. Respondents also wanted easier access to their personal information (74 percent), faster response times (73 percent), and greater visibility into the status of their queries and applications (64 percent). Younger citizens accustomed to customer-centric experiences are further shifting expectations of what services the government should be able to offer digitally. It will fall to GovTech developers to design applications that connect citizens to their government and streamline processes that have long relied upon inefficient manual practices and direct physical interactions.

Enhance Your GovTech Application with Accusoft Solutions

Working with the government sector presents a number of challenges to even seasoned developers. From meeting complex compliance and privacy requirements to managing a dizzying range of document types, building and implementing an effective solution takes a great deal of time and development resources.

One of the easiest ways to speed up that process is by incorporating proven functionality into an application with SDKs or APIs. Accusoft’s collection of software integrations helps GovTech developers get to market faster by providing reliable and government-ready content processing features.

  • PrizmDoc Viewer: A powerful HTML5 viewer with annotation and redaction capabilities, PrizmDoc Viewer makes it easy to view, edit, and manage public records, contracts, and even more sensitive documents all within a secure GovTech application.
  • ImageGear: With ImageGear’s extensive image processing, conversion, and compression features behind them, GovTech applications can easily improve document workflows, consolidate information, and meet government archiving standards (thanks to PDF/A support).
  • FormSuite: Processing government forms can quickly overwhelm an application if it doesn’t have the capabilities to handle multiple form types or clean up document images. FormSuite for Structured Forms is a collection of forms processing SDKs that helps GovTech applications quickly sort and extract data from structured forms for superior speed and accuracy.

As GovTech trends continue to accelerate in 2021, developers need partners they can trust to provide secure, reliable functionality to their applications so they can focus their efforts on building software that meets the exacting needs of the government sector. Learn more about how Accusoft can fulfill that role and elevate the potential of GovTech applications.

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