With over a decade of experience
in highly-competitive government-sponsored research and commercial product
development projects, BCL Technologies is the expert in creating applications
with unusual document processing requirements. Whether you need to create,
manipulate, extract data, or convert a document format to SEC or other formats,
our project teams can solve most of your document processing problems.
Some of the companies that use our document conversion solutions are:
Developed by BCL Technologies for Donnelley Financial Group, a leading financial printer of SEC compliant documents in EDGAR II HTML and EDGAR ASCII format.
Headquartered in Chicago Illinois, with regional offices throughout the world. R.R. Donnelley Financial (RRFD) provides premier information management and printing services to the worldwide business community. State-of-the-art technology combined with process expertise, results in total solutions for the document management and distribution needs of their customers. Using the latest in digital communication to link their worldwide network of production facilities. This, plus the capability to implement solutions in both paper and electronic formats, helps them communicate effectively and efficiently with their customers.
RRDF was faced with the challenge of reducing turnaround time for conversion of native Desktop (DTP) documents to the appropriate EDGAR II HTML and EDGAR ASCII formats for filing with the SEC. The challenge was to utilize Adobe® Acrobat®'s PDF capabilities while also allowing for extraction and conversion of content into editable HTML 3.2 and ASCII file formats, with or without graphics.
In November 1999, RRDF's Integration Engineering Team awarded a contract to Santa Clara-based BCL Technologies (BCL) for the development of a software solution. Together, RRDF and BCL developed Donnelley Jade.
Donnelley Jade is designed to maximize efficiency in the data conversion process. It converts PDF files into SEC-compliant EDGAR II HTML and RTF for RRDF's EDGAR ASCII filing purposes. In addition, it is capable of converting PDF documents into standard Web HTML and RTF files, giving it the potential to serve as a powerful data conversion tool for other R.R. Donnelley work groups.
Donnelley Jade converts PDF files (or any native or postscript file format that can be converted into PDF) into SEC-compliant EDGAR II HTML 3.2. Using a unique "zoning" technology patented by BCL, it takes graphically complex SEC-related financial documents and automatically separates their structures into zones. (Each zone consists of a single element -- a graphic, piece of text, list or table.) The software can then either automatically sequence the zones into a natural reading order or allow users to fine tune or re-sequence (or both) them using a zone editor before outputting them to searchable, downloadable, SEC-compliant HTML 3.2.
"Donnelley Jade already has proven itself," says Joe Raza, Project Manager for Donnelley Jade. "We have reduced our turnaround times for SEC filing of non-proprietary (CFS and ProFile) documents by 75 percent." RRDF accomplishes this by writing native DTP documents into PDF format, then using Donnelley Jade to do the final conversion. In addition to converting PDF files to EDGAR II HTML 3.2, it can be used to extract text, tables and graphics from PDF files into RTF in order to recreate the documents in DTP or proprietary applications. It can also be used as an intermediate process file conversion tool for converting client-supplied DTP (or PDF) files to Web HTML via RTF.
Because users can employ the zone editor to either fine tune or re-sequence (or both) the zones before a document is converted, Donnelley Jade allows for a great degree of control over the output without having to resort to an HTML editor to refine the document's final appearance. "This software prevents complex PDF documents from becoming publishing 'dead ends,'" says Raza. "Donnelley Jade lets users bring documents back to the desktop for multipurpose use."
Developed by BCL Technologies for IBM, a leading company in hardware and software technology.
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) uses advanced information technologies to provide solutions for their customers. The Company offers a variety of solutions, including systems, products, services, software and financing. IBM's three hardware product segments are comprised of Technology, Personal Systems and Enterprise Systems. Other major operations consist of a Global Services segment, a Software segment, a Global Financing segment and an Enterprise Investments segment.
IBM regularly receives PDF documents of a particular kind. Although accurate and precise in displaying the document, these PDF files are not compatible with IBM's existing document management systems. In order to archive and index the PDF document in the system, they needed a solution that could systematically and automatically extract image and textual informations from these documents and import it into a database.
Since IBM required an automated process, BCL first developed an "intelligent" solution that analyzed each PDF document automatically. The software would identify and break down the document content into 3 categories: text, tables and graphics. A converter was developed to output the processed PDF content into ASCII. With careful planning and precise algorithms, the output was produced with over 98% accuracy, recorded by extensive testing from both IBM and BCL. With BCL's PDF to ASCII Converter, IBM was able to catalog thousands of these specialized PDF documents in their document management system on a daily basis.
The Dreyfus Corporation leads mutual fund industry by improving operational efficiency for EDGAR (SEC Filings) using SEC Publisher™ from BCL Technologies.
Summary:
The Dreyfus Corporation has improved its operating efficiency for SEC required mutual fund filings by streamlining their processes using SEC Publisher™ from BCL Technologies.
Kamal Bhatia, First Vice President at Mellon Financial Corporation said “This new business process and effective implementation of technology improves the quality and shareholder friendliness of disclosure documents while intelligently automating the process required for SEC filings.”
Press Release Body:
Santa Clara, CA March 08, 2005 – To streamline the increasingly complex filing of information for mutual fund disclosure documents with the SEC via its EDGAR filing system, Kamal Bhatia, who is responsible for Strategic Projects and Business Process Improvement at The Dreyfus Corporation, reports that his organization now uses SEC Publisher™ from BCL Technologies. Based on BCL’s patented PDF conversion technology, SEC Publisher™ is the most proven and reliable way to convert Word/PDF documents and reports into the SEC EDGAR HTML format.
One of the important functions at mutual fund companies such as Dreyfus is to periodically file fund registration statements and reports with The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This information must be filed via the SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval System (EDGAR) system. This information is created in HTML format and directly updated on the SEC website.
Up to now, Dreyfus had been using a time consuming task to transform the word processing, typesetting, and spreadsheet data into an acceptable EDGAR format with appropriate “red-lining” to identify changes. With over 650 EDGAR filings made by Dreyfus each year, significant resources and costs were allocated to this requirement. Previously these transformations were made into ASCII but the ASCII format was not investor friendly (in terms of document readability). With increased disclosure requirements, information needs to managed and monitored more diligently.
Bhatia and his team at Dreyfus studied this situation and determined that the existing business process had potential for improvement. Opportunities focused on reducing manual steps, cutting back on error-prone processes, eliminating incompatible software tools and simplifying steps with a more efficient standardized process. His goal was to implement a new business process that used advances in technology combined with process engineering to get better use of resources and eliminate redundant tasks.
Dreyfus achieved significant cost savings and operating improvements when Bhatia’s team eliminated manual conversion of information (from Quark to ASCII). They further cut costs by eliminating software-licensing fees. Dreyfus quickly realized a return on the investment on the one-time outlay for SEC Publisher™ and its accompanying small support fee structure. Bhatia selected BCL Technologies and its SEC Publisher™ because of BCL’s ability to meet his needs most exactly with custom extensions to SEC Publisher™.
BCL SEC Publisher gives Dreyfus an efficient way to convert documents into the SEC EDGAR HTML format. For example, a mutual fund’s Annual Report to Shareholders and its Prospectus are both required to be filed with the SEC. The Annual Report generally serves as the principal document used by each Dreyfus fund to disclose financial information to shareholders. The prospectus is an offering document used to offer products for sale and assist investors in making educated investment decisions. Both are traditionally printed and mailed to shareholders and are available on financial web sites in addition to being filed with the SEC.
When asked about how SEC Publisher is engaging the ever-changing nature of SEC compliance regulation, BCL Technologies CEO Hassan Alam explains, "By working closely with and really listening to our customers, such as Dreyfus and major financial partners, BCL is able to gain deep insight into the most current trend in the regulatory filing industry. The result is a solution that helps customers improve their current filing process and produce more shareholders friendly EDGAR output, such as the increasing popular EDGAR HTML."
Bhatia’s final advice to anyone considering doing this type of project is thoroughly understand your current business practices, identify your new business goals, outline new tasks and deliverables, and then evaluates potential suppliers such as BCL Technologies for their expertise in helping you reach those new goals.
About The Dreyfus Corporation: The Dreyfus Corporation, established in 1951 and headquartered in New York City, is one of the nation's leading asset management companies, currently managing approximately $160 billion in mutual funds, separately managed accounts and institutional portfolios. Dreyfus Service Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dreyfus Corporation.
The Dreyfus Corporation is a subsidiary of Mellon Financial Corporation, a global financial services company. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Mellon is one of the world's leading providers of financial services for institutions, corporations and high net worth individuals, providing institutional asset management, mutual funds, private wealth management, asset servicing, human resources and investor solutions, and treasury services. Mellon has approximately $3.2 trillion in assets under management, administration or custody, including $625 billion under management. News and other information about Mellon is available at www.mellon.com.
With over a decade of experience in highly-competitive government-sponsored research and commercial product development projects, BCL Technologies is the expert on creating applications with unusual Document Processing requirements.
“This new business process and effective implementation of technology improves the quality and shareholder friendliness of disclosure documents while intelligently automating the process required for SEC filings.” - Kamal Bhatia, First Vice President at Mellon Financial Corporation
