Data Capture Solution Accelerates Tax Processing, Lowers Costs

In 2002, the Kansas Department of Revenue (KDOR) needed to process more tax forms without increasing resources and costs. Its Automated State and Tax Revenue Administration (ASTRA) system was originally installed in 1997, and was in need of enhancement to support the growing number of forms and taxes to be managed. In addition, the agency's existing method of processing forms required numerous temporary employees to be hired during tax season to manually enter much of the data. This slow process delayed tax collections and refund payments.

KDOR selected Pyramid Solutions, Inc. (Troy, MI), a software development and systems integration company, to update its system. Pyramid evaluated several data capture solutions and selected FormWare from Captiva Software (San Diego). FormWare is input management software that manages information from forms, documents, and electronic data streams into an enterprise. This information can then be exported to database, content, and other informational systems. In addition, FormWare could easily adapt to the existing components of the ASTRA system.

Pyramid's solution combined FormWare with its own content and data processing applications, ASTRA, and a FileNet Image Repository. The combination of imaging and document management allowed scanned images and other relevant data to be exported to ASTRA and the FileNet system. This accomplished the majority of the tax forms processing procedure by simultaneously capturing the original document, "reading" the data on the form via OCR (optical character recognition), extracting data, and exporting it into the FileNet system.

KDOR has enjoyed several benefits as a result of its new data capture solution. In 2003, the agency processed more than 1,350,000 tax forms - 25% more than the previous year. Furthermore, the agency was able to eliminate seven temporary employees, saving $100,000 in 2003. Finally, the Pyramid solution helped KDOR complete its tax processing season 15 days earlier than the previous record season.