The ticket-imaging application processes traffic-violation tickets from various policing agencies primarily in the New York City and Buffalo/Rochester areas. Tickets are collected and mailed to the central office in Albany for processing. Prior to the new system, a time-intensive process included manual data entry of ticket information into a legacy mainframe system, then physical separation of tickets into batches of 50 to be sent to another unit for transfer onto microfiche. Now, through the use of Kofax technology and a redesign of the ticket that includes a barcode, the processing of tickets has been accelerated by more than two-thirds.
"Kofax has always had a strong track record in helping government agencies with automating paper-intensive business processes to reduce operational costs, better utilize resources and significantly lower the margin of human error during data input," said Rick Murphy, president and chief executive officer for Kofax. "In this case, our information capture technology has enabled faster revenue collection for the state, enhanced customer service through quicker access to ticket information and, ultimately, contributed to a stronger judicial system whereby judges and other constituents can have electronic access to tickets during a hearing to expedite rulings."
The New York State DMV processes 30,000 to 50,000 tickets per week. Ascent Capture speeds the ticket-imaging process by collecting various types of tickets; transforming them into accurate, retrievable information; and delivering the content into IBM Content Manager. From there, the data is transferred into the DMV's legacy mainframe system.
In addition, Kofax's INDICIUS advanced capture tools are being used with a new universal traffic ticket (UTT) that is being rolled out to policing agencies across the state for the purpose of standardizing the ticket form and even further accelerating the ticket-imaging process. Approximately 1,500 tickets per week currently use the UTT format.
The system also uses Kofax's patented VRS technology to improve both the quality of the scanned images and the automated capture of information from paper documents and forms. In the workflow, VRS resides at the scanning stage to help correct skewing, blurring, smudging and other types of degradation of image quality. A de facto industry standard, VRS has increased the accuracy rate in reading the ticket barcode, an essential step in automating the ticket-imaging process, to upwards of 99 percent, thus saving a great deal of time in manual processing.
Besides the ticket-imaging application, Kofax's technology was deployed in a separate system that encompasses title services, safety records and licensing fraud for junk and salvage vehicles. When vehicles are junked, "dismantlers" claim the spare parts, refurbish them, then either sell them to the public or place them into another vehicle for resale. Before junked vehicles can be resold, state investigators must view the parts to ensure that they are properly licensed. In the past, the licensing process would take nine to 12 weeks and entailed the submission of documentation that ranges from two to 30 pages to one of the nine statewide agencies that perform inspections.
Dismantlers were frustrated with the long turnaround from the DMV before they could sell their products. In addition, insurance companies that would pay for totaled vehicles were not able to place themselves as official title holders over those vehicles for liability purposes.
Kofax technology played a big part in streamlining DMV's junk-and-salvage operations, improving DMV's customer satisfaction levels both with dismantlers and insurance companies. With Kofax technology, the New York State DMV drastically quickened the processing of 500 to 900 junk-and-salvage documents per day, thereby decreasing the nine-month process down to two to three weeks. Salvage-oriented 907a insurance company forms for title-holding of totaled vehicles were processed much faster through the Kofax front end. The result was that the tremendous backlog of licensing applications was largely eliminated, as were the hundreds of daily calls into the nine statewide inspection sites from dismantlers inquiring about their licensing status.
The efforts of the DMV employees involved in implementing the new system were recognized in winning the agency's Commissioner's Award, which is given by DMV Commissioner Raymond P. Martinez for outstanding work performed for the betterment of the New York State DMV.
