What is our primary use case?
I have worked on many projects at this company. The first project was primarily web services. They have a separate service, so we need to validate the account number. Datacap is a scanning tool. If a person enters their account number, that will be validated by a separate server, and we use web services to validate that. Once validated, it'll connect to another server to fetch that account number based on the customer's name. We do all the validations via web services.
We are slowly moving into the cloud, but they are still using some mainframe technology. We plan to move all applications into the cloud in 2022. First, we'll do all our development on-premises then move to the cloud. IBM has its container environment called CP4BA, so we'll use that to migrate our development applications.
How has it helped my organization?
Datacap's main advantage for the user is the validation part and its ability to implement any kind of page. Say, for example, we have a scenario where a financial company is processing many loan documents. When they scan a page through our application, it'll automatically detect based on the page identification. Datacap matches the text according to the application settings, and it works quickly.
What is most valuable?
I like Datacap's integration with FileNet because financial companies use that export. The second part is web services integration, which is effortless to implement.
We don't have any issues with web services integration or any email format, whether it's tape images, PDF, or even Excel, so we can implement those in our applications. Recently, we've been using XML files to validate the account number through web service. We can edit and implement those XML files in our application.
What needs improvement?
IBM could improve Datacap's navigator. The company implemented Taskmaster starting in version 8.0. We're using the Taskmaster web interface, and our main issue is the navigators, especially in the new CP4BA environment. The application is slow, so we face issues with the navigator and the new plugin.
There are also some bugs in the features they added in 9.1.7, and the fixes they applied are still not working, so IBM still hasn't rectified some issues. The navigator plugin makes the application a little heavier. That needs to be improved.
The financial team I'm working with always compares their old application with our new one. They have been using that application for the last 15 to 20 years, and they're not happy with the UI. They think the layout isn't user-friendly. From a user perspective, I would like all the buttons to be easily labeled.
I've been working on Datacap for the last 11 years, and I haven't seen any massive changes aside from the navigator plugin and the mobile application. However, IBM needs to make many small changes to keep this scanning solution up to date.
We have page requirements where some values must be copied on each page. For example, say I need to scan a bunch of documents, and the name will be a field on every page. We don't have a default functionality in Datacap to copy the field value on the first page to all the pages. That feature would make the documents easy to prepare.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working on IBM tools for the last 11 years. Mostly, I work on the enterprise management tool for FileNet called Enterprise Content Management. In terms of scanning solutions, I worked on Datacap and GoFax. One of my current clients is a financial services company from the United States, so I'm working in the financial sector using IBM tools. I mainly handle the IBM Datacap part.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Datacap's navigator is a little heavy. We have two configurations: one on the Taskmaster web interface and another on the navigator site. I feel the Taskmaster web configurations are more straightforward than the navigator. Sometimes the changes are not refreshed, it's slow, or it requires a user-ready password to log in. Many configurations are necessary, but Taskmaster web is a simple, easy, lightweight application where you can make all the changes.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
You can have a stable environment with different roles on a server and many Taskmaster servers, so Datacap is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
IBM's Problem Management Report team isn't that effective. Sometimes we don't know stuff, or the end-users ask for more information about whether something is possible or not. We expect a high level of information from the PMR team, and I feel they don't have it. They're not helpful at all in some cases.
They take a lot of time for new things, too. For example, if I ask for a change, they have to check with the support team to see if it is required. It can take two to three weeks to escalate to a higher PMR level.
How was the initial setup?
There are two ways to deploy Datacap. If you have multiple servers, we can use the Datacap deployment server, a new service IBM provides. You can also deploy it the traditional way, where we zip the file, add it to the main server, map it with our application manager, and update the XML file where all the application names are listed.
Once we successfully authenticate with the database—Oracle, Access DB, etc.—we connect with the Datacap studio to test that the application is working fine. We later map the application inside the Datacap navigator.
After that, we add a repository with Datacap that includes all the details using the LDAP authentication or a normal username and ID, and we create a new desktop. If there's an existing desktop, we export and import the desktop on the same server, add the repository inside the desktop's menu, configure all the menus. Finally, we can start with our application.
What about the implementation team?
I work with an onsite architect, but I'm the only developer here, so I'm primarily handling the deployment process.
What other advice do I have?
I rate IBM Datacap seven out of 10. This tool can be easily integrated with the Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or IBM cloud. In addition, they have a mobile app you can use from iPhone or Android to scan your documents and upload them to your repository without any user intervention. This is all straightforward from a user perspective. Also, there is less need for customization from a technical point of view. It has all these out-of-the-box actions that can be used in your applications to make them more mature.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.