Netcontrol logo
By Ed Avis
Editor’s Note: NetControl is a German company seeking to expand in the United States. The company’s product is StarFinder®, an advanced document management system. APDSP Managing Editor Ed Avis met the founder, Harald Hensle, at the MOTIO convention in Germany last year, and this year Hensle is bringing his company to Dallas to exhibit during the Opening Reception of the 2019 APDSP Convention. (If you haven’t registered for the convention yet, click here). In this interview, Hensle describes StarFinder®.
Avis: Who uses StarFinder®? Do some members of MOTIO use it?
Hensle: Currently six members of the MOTIO Network use StarFinder® for paperless storage of tax documents and all the other documents that reach a company daily or are produced by it. About 500 + companies – mostly smaller ones with 1 up to 50 information workers – are using StarFinder® currently. They represent a great variety of businesses, from trading to construction.
Do reprographics shops typically use StarFinder® to manage clients' documents? Or do they sell StarFinder® to their clients?
Both happens: StarFinder® offers a “multi company mode” so that an unlimited number of clients could be managed by a repro shop. A completely new business of “managed services” can be offered to smaller companies who are not willing to manage their own servers. Selling StarFinder® is another possibility but - although StarFinder® is extremely easy to handle - I recommend it only to repro shops that have deeper technical capabilities.
Explain StarFinder®'s "digital workflow." What are the steps in a digital workflow?
Well in the analog times – and we still have them nowadays – companies use circulars for processing documents. On top of every circulated document you find a circulation list that has to be signed by the appropriate participant. We transformed this system to a digital level. Most workflows can be depicted by using StarFinder® Workflow editor. And the best: You don’t need a programming specialist -- it is as easy as writing a circulation list on a sheet of paper. After you have done it once you can use every created circulation list as a template. Changes in the template are easy, and special workflows can be started automatically after storing a file or e-mail into any StarFinder® document category.
Explain how "scan and forget" works. Is this as accurate as manually indexing a document?
Considering that 99 percent of all documents after processing are never used again, indexing every single document just to find 1 out of 100 is an immense waste of time. OCR is for the 1 out of 100 case (that you need the document again) the best solution of all. We are using NUANCE® - in my opinion the world’s best OCR engine with a close to 100 percent detection rate. In special cases indexing may still be the right instrument, but for these cases StarFinder® offers a variety of alternatives, such as Categories, Sub Categories, Tagging, Workflows, Reminders, etc.
How is StarFinder® better than other digital document management software?
The reason is “simplicity.” Lead by the 20:80 principal, we invest a lot of time to keep things as easy as possible. Our deeper understanding of simplicity is that processes need to be kept as easy as possible and that software often supports the opposite side. StarFinder’s turnover in training and consulting is only about 5 percent. In my opinion this shows very clear the benefit for companies and users of StarFinder®.
Will StarFinder® work in the United States as well as it does in Germany?
I’m absolutely convinced that StarFinder® will work in the United States. U.S. market participants have told me that pragmatic, cost-sensitive and easy-to-use products are highly appreciated. Moreover StarFinder® is fully web based, built with Microsoft technology and is operated in Microsoft’s AZURE data center.
Is StarFinder® available in the United States?
StarFinder® is web based and available all over the world. Presently we do not have a data storage in the U.S.; that will come within weeks after we find a partner for reselling and/or enough users for StarFinder®. Test accounts can be provided from our European Microsoft AZURE datacenter in Ireland.
Be sure to visit the StarFinder® table at the Opening Reception at the 2019 APDSP Convention in Dallas. The reception will be from 5 to 7 on Friday, October 25, in the Anchor Pool Area of the Doubletree by Hilton – Market Center. Click here to register for the convention.