BACKGROUNDER: EnWise Power Solutions Inc.

EnWise Power Solutions Inc. (EnWise) is a privately-owned, Toronto-based environmental company built on the principles of sustainability and social responsibility. EnWise launched with the sole purpose of providing Canadian homeowners with a means to turn their environmentally proactive wishes into a carbon-reducing reality. The 80 person-strong company assists consumers who have the will but lack the know-how to radically improve the energy efficiency and comfort of their home, reduce their home’s ecological footprint, and save money on household utility bills in the process.

The company’s unique business model affords it an unrivalled entry into to the market. EnWise is the only Ontario company of its kind to go beyond merely advising homeowners about how their house is energy-inefficient, and what products they might need to improve it. The first step, known as a ‘home energy audit’ is where other companies stop, but with EnWise, this is just the beginning of their four-step, one-stop shop solution that ends with homeowners saving money and the environment, while improving the quality and comfort of their home.

Once a homeowner contacts EnWise, their Residential Energy Professionals (REPs) are certified by the Government of Canada to advise customers proactively on best-in-class solutions for their home’s environmental and energy use shortcomings. The process continues with the EnWise installation team making those improvements so the homeowner does not have to. The company also offers financing via EnWise Capital Corporation if of interest to the homeowners. Depending on the particulars of the home energy audit, the improvements implemented will offer guaranteed savings on the utility bills from the onset. Improvements may even result in positive cash flow as the energy savings may actually be greater than the monthly payment financed through EnWise Capital.

The company embodies a relaxed, altruistic corporate culture, reflective of its leaders Peter Hwang (president & CEO) and Phil Winters (chief sustainability officer). A small group of investors co-funded the company’s inception with a vision of creating a national culture of conservation and ultimately providing leadership in developing sustainable market driven environmental solutions.

The launch of EnWise is particularly auspicious as it catches a change in social attitudes towards the environment, and the federal government’s EcoEnergy Efficiency Initiative of April 2007. The latter is a $300 million program that entitles Canadian homeowners to receive rebates as high as $5,000 to make their homes or businesses more energy efficient. In June 2007, the Ontario government announced that it would match the Federal commitment therefore making homeowners eligible for up to $10,000 in grants and rebate incentives which offset the cost of energy conservation efforts. EnWise is a certified delivery agent of the ecoENERGY program and facilitates access to these rebates to their customers as part of its offering. EnWise guarantees its customers a significant reduction in home energy consumption if its recommendations are carried through to implementation.

EnWise’s initial target market is people who own houses that are 10 years or older within Southern Ontario, with plans to expand this service territory to other provinces and select US States during the coming months.

In the future, EnWise plans to grow into new home construction and commercial markets assisting both home developers and businesses to embrace a culture of energy conservation while minimizing their impact and highlighting their environmental benefits and improved comfort and reduced operating costs.

Further information on EnWise Power Solutions is available on the company’s website at www.enwisepower.com.

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FACT SHEET: Energy Conservation Statistics

• Ontario provincial government wants to create a “culture of energy conservation”.
• Conservation of energy is much easier and much cheaper than trying to increase the supply of energy - every $1 not spent on energy conservation costs $5 on new energy generation.
• Ontario residents use 15-35 per cent more energy per person than the average New York or California resident.
• The Ontario Government has set energy reduction targets of 20 per cent by 2007.
• In 2003, the residential sector accounted for 17 per cent of secondary energy use in Canada, and 16 per cent of related greenhouse gas emissions.
• Scandinavian countries enduring cold winters use less than half the energy per capita that Canadians do.
• Over 81 per cent of residential energy is used for space and water heating. Reducing the amount of energy for space and water heating can decrease energy-related greenhouse gas and air emissions, improve the health of Canadians, and save money.
• The largest growth in global Green House Gas emissions between 1970 and 2004 has come from the energy supply sector, an increase of 145 per cent.*
• About 85 per cent of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions are associated with energy production, distribution and consumption.*
• April 2007: Ontario Government announced province wide ban on the sale of incandescent lightbulbs by 2012.
• Canadians typically spend 90 per cent of their time indoors. According to Health Canada, indoor air quality has become an important environmental issue.
• Poor indoor air quality can be detrimental to one’s health and can cause headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, sinus congestions, coughing, sneezing, skin irritation, dizziness, nausea, and eye, nose and throat irritation.
• Through a combination of the federal government and Ontario provincial government, EnWise can help its customers claim up to $10,000 in rebates for environmentally-friendly and even profitable, home improvements.

SOURCES: Ontario Power Authority, December 2005 Report; Ontario Ministry of Energy; www.energyshop.com; Office of Energy Efficiency: The State of Energy Efficiency in Canada Report 2006; Kingston Whig Standard-“Canadians Urged to Get Green”, Monday, February 5, 2007, p.B1; Red Deer Express, “Retrofit $$$ for Homeowners”, Wednesday, January 31, 2007, p. 31; Health Canada Website; statistics taken from a wide variety of sources including: Zerofootprint.net, David Suzuki Foundation, Ministry of the Environment, Natural Resources Canada, Office of Energy Efficiency, Powerwise and Flick Off

FACT SHEET: Energy Conservation Tips

EnWise Power Solutions is an environmental company built on the principles of sustainability and social responsibility. The company is committed to creating a culture of energy conservation and was established to focus its attention on the indisputable need to reduce energy consumption and harmful emissions that result.

There are a number of things that homeowners can do to help reduce their ecological footprint and do their part for the environment. EnWise has collected a number of energy conservation facts and statistics to help put energy consumption into perspective. The following tips are intended to encourage people to conserve energy and thereby save money and the environment.

Cooling / Air Conditioning

• A room air conditioner adds about 1 KWh per hour to a home’s energy usage. If it is left running for 24 hours, that will total about 24 KWh, doubling the average residential energy consumption.
• The cost to run a room air conditioner for 24 hours will average from $2 to $3 per day.
• A ceiling fan will cost about 15¢ a day.
• A portable fan about 30¢ a day.
• A central conditioner adds about 3.5 kWh per hour to a home’s energy consumption.
• If the unit runs for 24 hours, it will consume about 85 KWh, more than tripling the average residential daily energy consumption. The cost to run a central air conditioning unit for 24 hours will average $8 to $12 a day.
• An air conditioning thermostat set at 25°C or higher will use three to five per cent more energy for each degree that is set below 24°C (75°F), so set the thermostat at 25°C (77°F) to provide the most comfort at the least cost. The less difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures, the lower one’s overall cooling bill.
• Replacing a ten year old air conditioner would amount to $60 to $80 in electrical savings per year.

Heating / Furnaces

• Using a programmable thermostat is the first step to controlling your heating costs and use.
• Moving the thermostat down just two degrees in winter and up two degrees in summer could save about 2,000 pounds of CO2 a year.
• Few household items provide as significant an energy savings, and return on investment, than an energy-efficient furnace. An energy-efficient furnace can save homeowners up to 25 per cent from their home-heating costs in just one year and reduce household greenhouse gases (GHGs) at the same time.
• When buying an energy-efficient furnace, look for a model with an energy-efficient fan motor that can save 20 to 50 per cent of the electricity needed to power a continuously operating fan motor.
• Every 1°C a thermostat is turned down over an eight hour period can amount to two per cent in savings. Average saving is $84 per year.
• If one in 10 households purchased an Energy Star furnace, 17 billion pounds of pollution would be prevented.
• When a 20-year-old furnace is replaced by a high efficiency furnace with an electronically commutated motor (ECM), a homeowner can expect to save over 40 per cent in energy or $600 per year.
• If the average sized home replaces a 63 per cent AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency) furnace with a high efficiency furnace, the resulting savings would be over 93 per cent in energy or $480 per year.

Lighting

• Standard light bulbs lose 90 per cent of their energy as heat. New compact fluorescent (CFL) "spiral" bulbs are 75 per cent more efficient and fit in standard sockets.
• If everyone in Canada switched just one bulb in their home to a CFL, Canada would save over $73 million in energy costs that year alone.
• The average house has 27 lights:
• Each 60 watt light replaced by 15 watt CFL would amount to $13.14 per year in savings.
• Each 75 watt light replaced by 20 watt CFL would amount to $16.06 per year in savings.
• Each 100 watt light bulb replaced by 29 watt CFL would amount to $20.73 per year in savings.

Appliances and Electronics
Choose energy-efficient appliances. If one in 10 appliances were replaced by Energy Star appliances the resulting effect would be like planting 1.7 million acres of trees.

• Electronics:
• Using a power bar to turn off electronic equipment – televisions, DVD players, stereos and computers – when not in use will save thousands of pounds of CO2 a year.
• Refrigerators:
• Refrigerators are an energy-hogging home appliance. Replacing a 10-year-old refrigerator with a new Energy Star-approved model would save enough energy to light a home for more than three months and would save a homeowner an average of $120 per year.
• Beer Fridge. Don’t keep that old, inefficient refrigerator running in the basement for occasional refreshments. It could cost up to $150 or more per year in electricity.
• Washing Machines:
• A whopping 85 to 90 per cent of the energy used by washing machines is for heating the water. A lot of energy can be saved by lowering the water temperature.
• Energy Star clothes washers use one third less water, amounting to a savings of
• 50 per cent in energy and water consumption.
• Dishwashers:
• Today's dishwashers are about 95 per cent more energy efficient than those bought prior to 1972 - old dishwashers may be costing more money than buying a new one.
• Replacing a 10-year-old dishwasher would save an average of $30 per year in energy.
• Cooking:
• Using a microwave oven instead of a conventional oven can save up to 50 per cent of cooking energy costs.

Insulation, Caulking & Draft Proofing

• If all the “heat leaks” in an average Canadian home were combined, there would be a hole in the wall the size of a basketball. Proper weather stripping and caulking of doors and windows can reduce heating bills by 25 per cent.
• Home heating needs can be reduced by up to 20 per cent by eliminating drafts and leaks around the foundation, attic hatches, window air conditioners, doors, plumbing stacks, attic penetrations such as pot lights, and exterior penetrations such as the dryer exhaust, water pipes, and electrical and cable connections.
• Draft proofing the home will reduce energy bills by 15 to 20 per cent; just caulking windows and doors will save on the average of $60 per year.
• Up to 10 per cent or more can be saved on energy bills by reducing air leaks in the average home.
• Installing exterior or interior storm windows can reduce heat loss through windows by 25 or even 50 per cent.

Water
Showers:

• A low flow shower head saves as much as 60 per cent of the water used by a conventional fixture.
• Showers save hot water – a typical bath uses approximately 75 litres of hot water, while a five-minute shower with an efficient showerhead will use about half of that amount.

Toilets:

• A low-flow toilet uses six litres or less of water and can save up to 10 litres per flush.

Water Heater:

• On average, water heaters use the most energy in the home after heating. A 175-litre tank can use up to 5000 kWh per year, which amounts to almost $500 at today’s prices.
• Replacing a standard hot water tank with an instant hot water on demand system can reduce hot water heating by up to 50 per cent

Water Usage:

• Toilet flush: 6 to 30 litres per flush.
• Showering: 5.7 to 18.9 litres per minute.
• Bathtub: 115 to 190 litres per full tub.
• Washing machine: 170 to 190 litres per cycle.
• Dishwasher: 40 to 55 litres per cycle.
• Kitchen faucet: 7.6 to 11.3 litres per minute.
• Bathroom faucet: 7.6 to 11.3 litres per minute.

EnWise Power Solutions: Products & Services from A to Z

Part of the EnWise business model is its ongoing assessment of all home-related environmentally-friendly products and services from around the world. This assessment enables the company to deploy best-in-class solutions when improving the energy efficiency of its customers’ homes. The products themselves are measured according to environmental industry standards such as the EnergyStar rating and EnWise installation and services teams are the most qualified in the region.

Blower Door Test, The
An EnWise service where the residential energy professional (see overleaf) creates negative air pressure inside the customer’s house, drawing air in to detect any cracks and leaks. This also establishes the total air leakage rate of a home and highlights remedies.

Compact Fluorescent Bulbs - CFLs
CFLs are simply miniature versions of full-sized fluorescents. The compact design allows them to be used in place of incandescent light bulbs. CFLs are available in a variety of shapes and screw into standard sockets. A range of wattages is available and give off light that looks just like the common incandescent bulbs, not like the fluorescent lighting that is often associated with factories and schools. Standard light bulbs lose 90 per cent of their energy as heat. New compact fluorescent (CFL) “spiral” bulbs last ten times longer than ordinary light bulbs, are 75 per cent more efficient and fit in standard sockets.

Dual-flush Toilets
Of all the water consumed in modern-day homes, toilets account for 30 per cent. Dual flush toilets enable homeowners to use as little water as is necessary every time they flush. Homeowners are also eligible to receive subsidies from the government for installation.

EcoEnergy Initiative
The EcoEnergy Efficiency Initiative, officially launched by the federal government in January 2007, encourages the construction and retrofit of more energy-efficient buildings and homes to accelerate energy-saving investments separately. The first part of this initiative that began in April 2007 includes a budget of $220 million over four years and is designed to offer homeowners and smaller businesses support and information to retrofit buildings and make them more energy efficient. Under the initiative, homeowners are eligible to receive a grant of up to $5,000 depending on the energy efficient upgrades installed in the home, providing an incentive to homeowners for improvements that reduce their energy demands. In June 2007, the Ontario government announced its commitment to match the Federal program, making homeowners eligible for up to a total of $10,000 for their energy efficiency efforts.

Energy Audit
Typically, the term energy audit is used to describe a broad spectrum of energy studies which stem from a thorough walk-through of a residence, identifying major problem areas and detailing a study of all systems and appliances that use energy in the home. The audit is intended to demonstrate where energy is being lost and where there are opportunities to increase efficiency.

EnergyStar Rating
EnergyStar is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. Energy efficient choices can save families about a third on their energy bill with similar savings of greenhouse gas emissions, without sacrificing features, style or comfort. EnergyStar helps consumers make the energy efficient choice.

EnWise Building Science (EBS)
EnWise Building Science (EBS) offers a comprehensive home energy audit service developed by the Government of Canada, ensuring that our customers receive the highest quality unbiased home energy efficiency assessment using the most up to date and comprehensive systems of evaluation.

EnWise Capital Corporation (ECC)
EnWise Capital Corporation is the sister company of EnWise Power Solutions, providing EnWise customers with access to financing, if so desired.

EnWise Consumer Finance Program
Financing program designed specifically by EnWise to make the completion of environmentally beneficial changes to the home as affordable as possible. EnWise has the capability to qualify homeowners on the spot for up to $50,000 in financing towards the EnWise Basic Suite, at a competitive APR and repayable over three, five, seven, or 10 years. The program is facilitated by EnWise Capital Corporation.

EnWise First Step, The
The EnWise First Step is the basic suite of products from which any home can see significant benefits in reducing their energy consumption to become energy efficient. The First Step includes the following products: a tankless hot water heater, a programmable thermostat, weatherization (weather stripping, draft proofing, caulking and insulation), an Intellidyne controller and compact fluorescent light bulbs. The average cost for the EnWise First Step is approximately $5,000 or $60/month based on bundle discounted pricing. The average consumer can save approximately $80/month on their energy bill which translates into a positive net-cash flow of approximately $20. (Results will vary for different homes).

EnWise One-Stop Shop Process
The EnWise one-stop shop solution is an easy four-step process: First, Registered Energy Professionals (REPs) conduct a home energy audit and provide a customized home energy report with recommendations of the most energy efficient suite of products and services that make sense for the homeowner and the home. Second, the EnWise Installation Team performs a certified and reliable installation on all recommended products and services. Third, if required, EnWise provides the most affordable end-to-end financing through EnWise Capital Corporation. Finally, with upgrades complete, the homeowner will start saving money on their home energy costs and reduce their impact on the environment.

Furnaces
These are another common area for energy inefficiency in the home, with the root of the problem being a poor conversion ratio of fuel to heat in below-par furnaces. This ratio is known as the annual fuel utilization efficiency or “AFUE” rating, and the Ontario Energy Efficiency Act specifies that furnaces should normally have an AFUE of between 65 per cent and 80 per cent or better, depending on the type of furnace in question. This means that between 65 and 80 per cent of the fuel entering the furnace is converted to heat and the remainder is lost through the chimney. EnWise only carries Energy Star rated furnaces that have AFUE ratings of 92 per cent or better.

Geothermal
A geothermal system consists of a geothermal unit, generally located in the basement of a house, which is connected to a Ground Loop that is buried in the earth. Water circulating through the loop pipe absorbs the heat from the ground and takes it back into the house. The geothermal unit transfers the heat to the air that is drawn through the unit and blows the warm air around the house using standard air ducts. In the summer, the constant temperature of the ground is also used for cooling the house.

Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC)
EnWise assesses all furnaces, appliances, air conditioning units, gas and electrical loads to determine where homeowners are unnecessarily wasting money and energy.

Heat Loss/Gain Test, The
EnWise calculations made using seasonal temperatures that assess windows and the building structure for their relative energy efficiency.

Home Energy Audit
Term for the service by which EnWise determines: how much energy a home consumes; where the home is energy-inefficient; e.g. insulation, heating, cooling, lighting; where the homeowners can make improvements to increase the home’s energy efficiency and reduce utility costs. This ecoENERGY certified service takes approximately 2 hours to complete and is the first step in the EnWise four-step process.

In-Floor Heating
This is a form of “hydronic” heating where water is used as the medium for transferring heat. Hydronic systems tend to be more energy efficient than conventional forced air heating systems because the entire floor radiates heat evenly across the rooms of the home. They also negate any problems associated with drafts, or the distribution of dust etc. through ducts in the home.

Insulation
Poor insulation is a common cause of energy efficiency in the home. EnWise assesses windows, doors, air ducts and other areas during the home energy audit to identify where improvements can be made, and currently employs the ‘Zerodraft’ product line of draft proofing, weather stripping, and sprayed insulation to the benefit of its customers. In some cases EnWise will recommend replacement of the entire door or window, in which case EnWise relies on Pollard Energy Star doors and windows.

Light Bulbs
Possibly the best-known and easiest method of improving energy efficiency. Compact Fluorescent, energy-efficient light bulbs last ten times longer than ordinary light bulbs and use 75 per cent less energy.

Residential Energy Professionals (REPs)
EnWise’s in-house professionals, who are trained and certified by Natural Resources Canada to conduct the ecoENERGY home energy audit, deploy the four-step process (see previous). They make recommendations for fixes, develop an implementation schedule as well as coordinate with the government for a potential energy savings rebate, and coordinate with EnWise Capital Corporation if financing is required.

Smart Programmable Thermostats
The basic thermostat will only switch on the furnace to heat a home when the temperature in that home drops below a point specified by the homeowner. The settings are static; however, smart thermostats can also be set on timers to warm the house in advance of the homeowners waking up in the morning or arriving home in the evening. This ensures that energy is not wasted heating the house in the winter when there is no one there, or – similarly – cooling the house with air conditioning unnecessarily in the summer. EnWise employs Intellidyne Smart Controls for furnaces, air conditioning systems, and boilers in order to improve energy efficiency.

Solar* Power
Once perceived as science fiction, solar is now the fastest growing source of energy in the world. Solar energy has become mainstream for creating electricity, heating air or water in homes. As an energy source, solar is plentiful, free, and very environmentally friendly. The photovoltaic (PV) cells that act as semiconductors in the panels contain no liquids, corrosive chemicals, or moving parts, and the panels have zero emissions and require very little upkeep once installed. EnWise carries a range of solar pool kits, solar PV systems, solar roof tiles, and solar thermal systems.

Tankless Hot Water Heaters
Older or poorly functioning water heaters use a significant amount of energy as the tank endlessly heats and cools even when not in use. EnWise uses replacement ‘tankless’ or “hot water on demand” water heaters from Rinnai to improve energy efficiency in its customers’ homes.

Wind Turbines*
Wind energy systems are one of the most cost-effective, non-polluting home-based renewable energy systems. Depending on the available wind resource, a small wind energy system can reduce electricity bills by up to 100 per cent.

*Note: It is important to note that renewable energy products such as solar panels or wind turbines have the additional environmental benefit of reducing the strain on traditional energy sources that have a much worse impact on the environment, such as oil, natural gas, and coal.

About EnWise Power Solutions
Privately owned EnWise Power Solutions was created to meet the need for greater energy management efforts. EnWise is committed to fostering a culture of energy conservation by providing straightforward ways – a one-stop-shop approach – for homeowners to protect the environment, lower home energy bills and therefore save money, collect government administered energy saving rebates and improve the value, comfort and re-sale value of their home – all at the same time. The company is funded by 30 private investors, employs 80 people, and is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The Free* EnWise Home Energy Audit is available to homeowners in the GTA and parts of southern Ontario. Further information on EnWise Power Solutions is available on the company’s website at www.enwisepower.com.

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Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE): Media Backgrounder (Work Practice Research Area)

Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE) is structured into four complementary research areas: content analysis; document structure; image processing; and work practice technology.

The work practice technology area develops a deep understanding of the use of technology in the work setting. This understanding is used to help develop new technologies and ways of working more productively with them. It is a multi-disciplined group, consisting of field workers and computer scientists and one where the research is based primarily upon ethnographic methods of study and analysis. Field studies cover numerous work domains, with the office being the primary focus of interest.

The research in this area is closely linked to the Xerox Global Services (XGS) business group and Xerox Office Group (XOG). The research provides a much greater understanding to both XGS and all Xerox’s business groups of the structure of its customers’ work which in turn feeds back into Xerox consultancy offerings which are better adapted to customer requirements and their work processes.

The observations in the workplace also enable XRCE to be more innovative with the appropriate technologies in order to help Xerox customers. It is through this observation of customers at work that problems are identified, and the need for such technologies as CopyFinder . For example, portable document camera (PDC) technology was created to solve a common issue in the law business. Lawyers often need to access sections of hard copy text that are too lengthy to re-type, but too short to warrant the time and resources involved in professional scanning and Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

The work practice research group applies a specific and unique methodology to understanding how its customers work. It firstly observes the details by ‘living the work’ themselves. This is known as ethnography, and is significantly different from attempting to analyse customers’ work by merely describing it from the outside.

Xerox is currently the only organisation to take ethnography to its next stage of evolution, namely analytical ethnography. In addition to observing and noting what each customer member of staff does, Xerox then analyses exactly the reasons behind each task, and how it fits in with the overall work processes.

Using the example of a print shop, a scheduler might be described as someone who merely organises what is printed and when. He or she ensures that no printing machines are left idle and, equally, that the print shop is not overrun with work. Using ethnography alone, they might be described as someone who processes certain jobs, completes certain tasks, and meets with certain people.

Making such ethnography analytical takes the process one step further by identifying how the scheduler is able to make the decisions they make. This means it takes into account all the other factors the scheduler assesses: knowledge of the different speeds of each printing machine; knowledge of the individual productivity of each member of personnel in the print shop; knowledge of the quirks of each customer; knowledge of how damp weather conditions might affect the paper; how a late delivery of stock might affect the schedule of print jobs and so on.

Related documentation:

• Work Practice consultancy Toolkit
• Portable Document Camera
• CopyFinder

Separate, individual fact sheets are available on all of these technologies and the business issues they solve (see below).

For more information, please refer to www.xrce.xerox.com or contact...

Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE): Media Backgrounder (Image Processing Research Area)

Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE) is structured into four complementary research areas: content analysis; document structure; image processing; and work practice technology.

At XRCE, the image processing research area specialises in images captured by digital cameras, and continually builds on developments made in capturing images in hostile environments. ‘Hostile’ refers to an environment where poor lighting, shadows, skewed documents, smudges, or any other factor may reduce image quality. In short, this technology makes it possible for a standard digital camera to provide similar results to a dedicated, office-based desktop scanner.

The software is so advanced that it can capture a snapshot of a document taken with glare, reflections and other detrimental factors, but still provide a high quality, optical character recognition (OCR)-enabled document automatically. Technically, this work has produced new methods giving state-of-the-art performance for correcting lighting variations and perspective distortions, for reconstructing and normalising colour camera images, for automatic zoom control, as well as camera optimisations of techniques for text and embedded data decoding.

The technology has been designed to be compatible with shop-standard digital cameras, or even mobile telephones with camera facilities. As such, it has the capability to turn a standard, competitively priced mobile phone into a portable image scanner. Software held on a PC or network enables an image to be downloaded so that all Xerox’s other technologies can be applied e.g. categorisation, classification and storage.

The next step for this avenue of research is enabling the technology to recognise objects as well as text. Recognising objects can enable many associated services for the user. For example, this technology could allow a car rental firm to record and store images of bumps or dents in car bodywork, and identify similar cases when a new one arises. The technology could even be applied to the recording and categorisation of anything animal, vegetable, or mineral, for fast reference and retrieval in the field of science or conservation.

The image processing research at XRCE generates technologies with practical business applications to solve genuine business issues. Individual technologies that have been guided by XRCE from R&D concept to commercialisation - either through a Xerox business group or via a third-party organisation - are:

• Technology: PageCam
• Technology: Portable Document Camera

Separate, individual fact sheets are available on all of these technologies and the business issues they solve (see below).

For more information, please refer to www.xrce.xerox.com or contact...

Xerox Global Services: Media Backgrounder (Document Outsourcing Line of Business)

Xerox Global Services is split into three lines of business: Xerox Office Services (XOS); Business Process Services (BPS) and Document Outsourcing. Document Outsourcing comprises seven services: Creative Services; Document Advisor Office; eprintsourcing; Document Production and Publishing; Transactional Document Production; Mailroom Services; and Customer Communication Services.

Documents cost a lot of money: Every organisation in the current climate is trying to increase revenues whilst reducing costs and enhancing productivity. There is one area of spend which is not under control and is not measured. It is Xerox’s experience, endorsed by consultants, that document costs are significant and, more importantly, often not measured in an organisation. Document costs are between 5-15 per cent of an organisation’s revenue with 17-25 per cent of that cost directly related to document output.

Many organisations do not know the cost of documents in their organisations: This means, therefore, that they cannot even begin to reduce and control their document cost. Whilst each service offer delivers its own unique value, the delivery of significant cost savings is common to all offers.

1/7 Creative Services
Xerox provides a whole range of creative services including presentation services; desktop publishing; multimedia; internet and intranet; localisation; and translation. Using expert creative talent, the latest technology, and proven business processes, this service addresses two key issues that face anyone with responsibility for document creation: control and brand integrity. Xerox is able to significantly reduce and control costs associated with creative activity by streamlining processes, optimising work schedules and carrying out activities that normally attract high agency mark-ups as well as through the use of leading-edge technology.

Brand assets (such as collaterals and presentations) are dispersed amongst agencies, designers, printers, employees; all may hold assets locally that, at best, are hard to find and, at worst, are lost as relationships change. Xerox Global Services uses its expertise and digital asset management software to control and catalogue customers’ brand assets centrally. The assets are made available via the web to the customer’s employees, and externally to any agencies, designers, or printers the customer uses. This ensures all the necessary publics are using the most up-to-date and, crucially, the same branding.
Brand integrity ensures that customers are able to communicate consistent, undiluted branding in every market they operate in. The integrity of the brand is protected and costs are therefore reduced through re-use.

2/7 Document Advisor Office (DAO)
DAO saves Xerox Global Services customers thousands of Euros in hidden document costs, and in the case of Lloyds TSB in the UK, saves the bank £3.8 million in costs every year on an annual spend of £28 million. In short, DAO is a service that expedites an organisation’s use, management, and storage of documents.

DAO works by establishing a single point of reference for all documents in an organisation. Part of the reason why so many organisations are unaware of the cost of documents is because of the sheer quantity and variety generated. An example DAO customer organisation might have three facilities, namely an office, a factory, and a warehouse, and each of these three facilities will generate and use documents necessary for its own objectives.

Typically the office might house the finance department, creating invoices and statements, a marketing department that produces collaterals, point of sale materials and direct mail, and a human resources department that uses or produces application forms or training and policy manuals. Meanwhile, the most often used documents in the factory might be production schedules and pick lists, and in the warehouse, documents aiding inventory management are likely to be the most common. In addition, the warehouse is likely to be used to store stocks of hard copy documents for the other two sites. Xerox classifies all these different documents according to their type and spend: commercial print; warehousing and distribution; central reprographics; print on demand; transaction printing; forms; and office output.

Likely document issues will be overstocks of certain documents that require storage and all the costs that come with it, multiple document users or owners, and a myriad of different suppliers associated with the production of every different document.

DAO counters the issues by offering customers control in the form of a sole point of contact for all documents, and all supplier liaison. It ensures consistency in the organisation’s documents, ensures that branding guidelines are maintained in every extremity of the organisation, and gives the customer information on document spend regularly or on request to enable close monitoring and management. DAO also offers better cost efficiency than the organisation can itself, and allows customer personnel to concentrate on their core business.

Finally, DAO helps the organisation in the long run by reducing the time-to-market of critical business documents, boosting brand image, and reducing the need for document storage facilities by facilitating print on demand.

3/7 eprintsourcing (XEPS)
XEPS tackles the issues caused when an organisation outsources work to multiple external print companies, but without any method of organisation-wide control or management. Research through its existing European customer base has proved that organisations can spend at least 5 per cent of turnover on external print jobs. This includes not only the cost of the physical printing itself, but also the personnel time and administration involved in finding the right supplier, of finding the cheapest supplier, and managing them through the job.

An organisation reaps a number of benefits when it uses XEPS. For the individual managing the job, XEPS will automatically:

• shortlist relevant suppliers according to the extent to which they match the brief, and the budget;
• provide an online method of managing the supplier and the job itself;
• facilitate the invoicing and payment process for that job.

For the organisation as a whole, XEPS ensures that:

• printing is consolidated across the business with only the most cost-effective, reliable, high-quality suppliers;
• organisational printing costs can be monitored and managed as a whole;
• the latest technologies are used automatically to expedite cost-effective printing wherever possible.

Overall, XEPS keeps personnel connected online to suppliers and Xerox printing experts at all times, and those same trained and experienced experts can be brought into the customer organisation to oversee and advise on particular jobs. It is flexible enough to be used for anything from complex direct mail or marketing and point of sale collateral, to company stationery such as compliments slips and business cards.

4/7 Document Production and Publishing (DPPS)
The basic task of print production and publishing, finishing, fulfilment and distribution of internal or customer-facing documents can prove costly, time-consuming, or both. In some cases, organisations may not even have the expertise in-house and therefore need to outsource anyway. Xerox Global Services’ DPPS solution caters to this need.

DPPS can expedite the processing of internal documents, external documents, or both. For internal documents such as memos, presentations, or reports, DPPS becomes an in-house print room. Requests for any internal documents are fulfilled by the print room for anyone within the organisation. For external documents e.g. a mobile phone manual for a phone manufacturer, DPPS can still produce the documents faster and more cost effectively than the organisation can itself; producing the right document in the right place at the right time. DPPS allows the organisation to concentrate on its core competencies without having to staff or manage a peripheral function such as printing. In addition, the customer organisation has the opportunity to access Xerox Global Services’ expertise in document printing and publishing, saving more money by reducing the size of its inventory (and the accompanying physical storage space), reducing the lead time on document production, and feel reassured that corporate branding guidelines will be upheld across the business.

5/7 Transactional Document Production (TDP)
TDP’s key differentiation from other Xerox services is in the ‘transactional’ part of the description, though TDP covers not only the production of invoices, payroll, financial reports, statements, invoices, ‘accounts payable’, but also insurance policies, claims documents, utility bills, direct mail pieces and other one-to-one personalised customer communications. Via TDP, Xerox Global Services offers organisations a one-stop-shop managed service for the engineering, design, production, and presentation of any transactional document used in correspondence with customers, suppliers, or other parties. TDP is also flexible enough to accommodate template and branding changes at any time without the integrated, back-office part of the service requiring overhaul. In addition to automating transactional document processes, TDP can also be harnessed to drive e-mail dialogue with customers, create an online archive of transactional information, or interact with an organisation’s database of optional content in order to personalise communications to specific individuals.

6/7 Mailroom Services
The mailroom is one of the areas in an organisation where growing pains are felt most acutely. As an organisation grows, simple tasks such as mail outs, distribution of company reports, or even seasonal financial communications to personnel can become unwieldy. The mailroom is also an area where significant cost can be saved by the automation of administration.

When Xerox Global Services offers its mailroom service it assesses an organisation’s current and likely future demand on all mailroom facilities. Xerox mailroom services fall into three broad areas; firstly, the mailroom completes basic functions such as the delivery of incoming mail to pigeonholes or individual recipient’s desks, or the organisation of couriers to transport documents externally from the organisation. Secondly, the mailroom can deliver an electronic scan-to-mail service, where incoming hard copy communications are received, opened, and scanned into soft copy so they can be stored in a central repository or network. Individual recipients are notified when documents arrive and where on the network they can be found. Thirdly, the mailroom can perform as a production facility to the organisation. For example, the mailroom could receive documents printed by TDP (see 5/7 above), or with an organisation’s customer relationship management system, and deal with the mail-out of bank statements, credit card statements, or other documents in a speedy and cost effective automated process.

Regardless of the particular functionality chosen, the mailroom service is designed to be flexible and responsive, avoiding issues caused by unplanned or short notice print runs or mail outs.

7/7 Customer Communication Services (CCS)
CCS uses both the document heritage of Xerox overall and the technological developments of Xerox Global Services and Xerox Research Centre Europe to counter the issues faced by organisations attempting to correspond with customers on an individual basis. Despite the investment in customer relationship management, internet, and corporate branding, 58 per cent of business leaders believe their customer-focused documents need to be improved1. CCS is a suite of solutions that help the customer leverage the potential for personalised customer communications. The services include a thorough document and marketing assessment that takes into account the current organisation, infrastructure, and future plans, and delivers a recommendation for specific solutions that will help execute a successful customer communication strategy. In addition, a document workflow analysis can help the organisation to deliver the document more effectively to a diverse range of media, platforms and channels including printers, faxes, email, internet and mobile technology devices.

CCS can handle enormous quantities of customer data productively and turn transactional documents into powerful marketing tools, increasing response rates and lowering costs per lead. CCS reengineers the customer’s process, which Xerox can then manage using either Document Production and Publishing (DPPS) or Transactional Document Production (TDP) Services.

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1 Source: Document, People and Technology: A European Perspective 2002 MORI survey conducted on behalf of Xerox Global Services

Xerox Global Services: Media Backgrounder (Xerox Office Services (XOS) Line of Business)

Xerox Global Services is split into three lines of business: Document Outsourcing; Business Process Services (BPS) and Xerox Office Services (XOS). The XOS line of business specifically resolves issues experienced by large organisations that are often unaware of the real cost of producing documents in the office.

Organisations research, study and manage their costs closely - company cars, marketing, new business development are all allocated budgets and measured against them. However, few organisations monitor or are even aware of the cost of producing documents, whether financially or in terms of their effect on staff productivity. Typically, organisations perceive the cost of printing as the cost of purchasing printing, photocopying or faxing devices, but this is only a fraction of the overall cost.

XOS begins by analysing the total cost of ownership of a company’s office output infrastructure. The results of this assessment are crystallised into a simple ‘per page’ printing cost. This cost is influenced by the quantity of different device manufacturers and types of consumables, multiple forms of contracts, service level agreements and billing process for each supplier, and the ability of staff to maintain the organisation’s devices among other factors.

In December 2003, analyst house IDC remarked, “Xerox is believed to be the most experienced vendor when it comes to paid office assessments, having done at least 400 covering more than 30,000 personnel. Xerox provides a consultative assessment to reveal opportunities for cost reductions…boasts the use of six sigma, with the ability to focus on improving business processes and document workflow - in addition to the more classic components of an assessment…”

Armed with all these facts and figures, Xerox’s experienced consultants advise the organisation on how to drive down its costs. Once the organisation has decided on the course of action to take, Xerox then takes over responsibility to meet these objectives by managing the organisation’s fleet of devices, throughout the IMACD (Install, Move, Add, Change, Dispose) process and the rationalisation of the devices over a period of time. Rationalisation allows the customer to reach an optimised state where there is the right number of devices to fully support the business and drive cost and productivity gains.

The customer decides with Xerox the optimised state but Xerox then owns the execution. Installation of new devices is controlled by XOS, and existing devices are tagged and monitored physically and on the network. These initial steps in the XOS implementation alone usually save the customer organisation up to 25 per cent in costs, and regular detailed management reports confirm how well the new arrangement is performing.

XOS also improves productivity and adds value to the organisation’s print production by assuming responsibility for the upkeep of the customer organisation’s devices, whether it is a Xerox product or otherwise. This means that the customer doesn’t compromise its existing investment but, by managing all existing contracts, Xerox provides the customer with a single point of contact for billing, administration, and problem resolution for all devices. Xerox manages all of the assets on behalf of the customer, negotiates service level agreements with device suppliers, and ensures they keep to them. Over time, Xerox itself assumes responsibility for the management of repairs, technology upgrades, and every other IMACD possibility. Xerox also reaps economies of scale that the customer organisation cannot, by purchasing consumables in bulk and therefore at a discount.

All processes required to support the output fleet are managed from a dedicated customer help desk facility at Xerox Global Services’ site in Ballycoolin, Ireland. Xerox personnel can deal with queries such as how to install new printer drivers onto PCs or the network, or general maintenance and repair queries. This ensures that personnel in the customer organisation are able to make full use of every device’s functionality, and can concentrate on what they do best: their jobs.

XOS offers the customer very significant cost savings. Xerox Global Services is confident enough to sign a contract committing to save the organisation around 25 per cent of their total costs of ownership annually from the bottom line.

This market is a growth opportunity for Xerox, and one where Xerox Global Services has a proven track record.

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Xerox Global Services: Media Backgrounder

Xerox Global Services is one of three business groups within Xerox Europe, and is the closest of these groups to traditional consultancy, concentrating more on services than products or technologies per se. The other groups are the Production Systems Group (PSG) and Xerox Office Group (XOG).

Xerox is the global leader in document management, offering the widest array of products, services and solutions in the industry. The Xerox Global Services vision is to be the world’s leading innovator in the outsourcing of document activity, and in the transformation of organisations’ document-intensive business processes. Xerox Global Services works with its customers to deliver cost savings and efficiency, by managing and improving their document intensive business processes - everyday processes such as customer communications, billing, training, or records management.

Xerox Global Services was created at the beginning of 2004 via the merger of Xerox Business Services (XBS) and Business Innovation Services (formerly XISS). This enables Xerox to have one services business for Europe with a single, stronger value proposition for its customers. Xerox Global Services is also better able to meet the demands of large and complex deals, to defend Xerox from competitors, and to consolidate all the necessary resources and expertise required to succeed.

Xerox Global Services now operates in 17 European countries. It works closely with its fellow business groups, adapting new technology from Xerox Research Centre Europe (Xerox’s sole European R&D facility) for use ‘in the field’, and sourcing the most appropriate devices and functionality from the XOG and PSG business groups to suit the needs of its customers. Its heritage in documents has made it the market leader in document outsourcing. In addition, Xerox Global Services is one of the best suppliers at delivering against its service level agreements (SLAs) - a statement corroborated by analyst house IDC .

Using these attributes, Xerox Global Services intends to grow its client base in 2004, as well as contributing to the success of XOG and PSG by promoting sales through its outsourcing and consultancy projects. Xerox Global Services will continue to grow in numbers and expertise through the transfer of personnel from customer organisations in large outsourcing contracts.

Ultimately, Xerox Global Services’ “raison d’être” is to help organisations make their document processes more efficient and effective. Even today, many European companies still perceive documents as something made of paper and with four corners (established by the IDC study commissioned by Xerox Global Services in 2003, “Documents – The Life Blood of Your Business?”)

In reality, documents are hard or soft copies including faxes, e-mails, presentations, web pages, and even music or still/moving picture files. The study revealed that most organisations are unaware of the actual costs associated with these various types of documents - only 10 per cent of the 956 organisations interviewed could estimate how much they actually spent on documentation, yet 82 per cent state that documents are ‘crucial to the successful operation of their organisation’. With the average cost of documents to a company running at up to 15 per cent of its revenue, there is a significant market for Xerox Global Services to help organisations identify these costs and help manage and reduce them. As an example, Xerox Global Services can save a €100 million revenue organisation with a document spend of €2.1M over €420,000 in document costs alone. Xerox Global Services counts Lloyds TSB, Siemens, EDS, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Bouygues Telecom amongst its European customers.

Xerox Global Services delivers its services to customers via 180 sales personnel and 250 document consultants based in Europe, and employs approximately 4,000 people in total. All services can be delivered to customers on their own sites, but Xerox Global Services also has facilities around Europe where large projects can be completed away from the customer premises if preferred. Xerox Global Services is split into three lines of business: Document Outsourcing, Xerox Office Services (XOS), and Business Process Services (BPS).

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Xerox Global Services: Media Backgrounder (Business Process Services (BPS) Line of Business)

Xerox Global Services is split into three lines of business: Document Outsourcing; Xerox Office Services (XOS) and Business Process Services (BPS). The mission of Business Process Services is to help customers improve and manage their key document-related processes.

The definition of a document has changed. Research sponsored by Xerox and carried out by IDC in late 2003 shows that the definition of a “document” now encompasses far more than just paper. Increasingly faxes (83 per cent), e-mail (78 per cent), electronic files such as Word or PowerPoint (76 per cent), web pages (48 per cent), or multimedia files (46 per cent) are now considered as “documents.” Documents and the information they contain, in whatever format, play a critical role in how organisations manage their business; for many organisations, documents are the product (e.g. insurance policy), support the product (e.g. user manual) or support critical business processes (e.g. invoices in accounts payable). Hence the effectiveness of how documents are used is intrinsically connected to business success. BPS’s focus is on streamlining and automating clients’ document intensive business processes, based on the ‘new’ definitions of ‘the document.’

This is often achieved by converting paper to digital information, and BPS’s services are designed with this in mind, to resolve a specific customer issue, and deliver a clear return on investment. BPS works towards offering its five services as complete managed, outsourced, or hosted services to the client.

1/5 Imaging & Archive Services
Many businesses have a requirement to manage increasingly large volumes of document archives, particularly in industry sectors such as finance or pharmaceuticals - that have significant legislative compliance requirements. This service enables customers to capture documents as digital images and manage them within a business critical process, helps them to meet legislative and codes of conduct requirements, and improves the longevity and security of documents. It allows organisations to make critical documents widely available to all who need them, as well as to those who need to integrate them into other systems. Imaging and Archive Services also saves organisations significant amounts of money in physical storage, rent, heating, and lighting, as documents are stored electronically rather than physically.

2/5 Finance & Administration Services
Businesses depend on their “back-office” finance functions to optimise cashflow, both in and out of the company, and manage the cash required to deliver bottom line financial performance. For accounts payable, the speed at which invoices are paid and cash flow is managed can reduce the quantity of ‘late’ fees incurred. In accounts receivable, invoice disputes must be resolved rapidly to reduce the time wasted in collecting payment. In the logistics function, they need to effectively track and confirm goods deliveries, speeding up the invoicing process, and reducing the cash collection cycle. This service focuses on providing an outsourced service that supports accounts payable, accounts receivable, and logistics functions within an organisation. It manages the electronic capture, indexing, and storage of documents such as invoices, weigh bills, bills of loading and proof of delivery, to optimise back office performance.

3/5 Client Account Lifecycle Management
Businesses that depend on processing incoming customer documentation such as mortgage, insurance and credit card applications, contracts and correspondence, need to process those documents as quickly as possible in today’s competitive environment. At the same time, these businesses may need to comply with legislation that enforces transparency and accountability such as Sarbanes-Oxley and EU Directives on Corporate Compliance and Industry Regulations. This service enables organisations to process these types of documents digitally, therefore improving compliance, responsiveness to customer demands and reducing the complexity of processing client transactions.

4/5 Localisation Services
Many organisations experience the ongoing issue of having to translate crucial documents into multiple foreign languages quickly and accurately. This service uses high levels of automation to translate and validate up to 40 different languages at once. It provides customers with advice on authoring documents in those cases where technology cannot yet automate local variations, such as colloquialisms.

The service also improves translation accuracy and cost-effectiveness through translation memory and terminology management, ensuring that clients realise substantial cost reduction through content re-use, while increased translator efficiency means delivery times are substantially reduced. Localisation Services is a good example of where technology invented by Xerox Research Centre Europe is applied to a real-life business issue and become part of the expertise offered by Xerox Global Services.

5/5 Product Lifecycle Services
This service is targeted at organisations that have to produce documents or manuals to accompany their product, anything from a mobile phone to a car. It involves improving the organisation’s entire document supply chain by managing the content authoring and creation, localisation and translation, production and distribution of accompanying documents to wherever the product is being sold in multiple markets.

Up to 40 per cent reduction can be achieved in the time it takes to get a product manual from the point of creation to mass-production, including all validation, changes, review, pre-production and printing itself. This service can reduce wasted documentation, remove warehousing costs and make it quick and easy for customers to publish documents in different media on demand i.e. in hard copy, on the internet or via mobile devices.

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Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE): Media Backgrounder (Content Analysis Research Area)

Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE) is structured into four complementary research areas: content analysis; document structure; image processing; and work practice technology.

The content analysis research area consists of four core linguistic technologies that are used to build different content management software applications. These core technologies are: finite state technology (FST); machine learning; parsing; and semantics.

FST in simple terms is the use of devices to increase time and space efficiencies when creating language-processing tools. It is a well-established technology used extensively in many areas of natural language processing. FST is particularly well-adapted for multilingual tools as relevant local language phenomena can be easily and intuitively expressed as finite-state devices.

The theoretical foundations of finite state technologies have been developed to a high level of sophistication in the past two decades. It is now regarded as an established fact, for example, that finite state models are suitable for modelling broad areas of syntax, particularly in spoken language. To expand the range of applications a new weighted version of the technology (WFSC) is currently being developed with results which promise to confirm Xerox’s position as world leader in the field.

Machine learning can be described as the study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience. In other words, through examples a system will learn by itself to perform tasks automatically, in particular ones that have traditionally been performed manually by humans. At XRCE, machine learning is applied in textual information access to new options in processing document collections. The XRCE Categorizer is an example of such an application whereby, given a few manually classified files, the system quickly learns by itself how to classify documents hierarchically in existing categories. It can also learn entirely new categories on its own by detecting emerging topics of incoming documents and suggesting new categories to the user.

More information specifically on Categorizer is available in a Xerox press release, issued in February 2004 (refer to contact details below).

Parsing is the deconstruction of text into its syntactic parts (noun phrases, verbs etc) to then be able to analyse and identify useful functional relations between them in large collections of text (e.g. web pages, document collections). Xerox is already at the stage of enabling machines to parse text for its meaning using its incremental parser (XIP) technology. XIP is designed to build robust analysers that tackle deeper linguistic aspects than those traditionally handled by the now widespread shallow parsing technologies. Parsing is an essential building block for natural language applications.

Semantics is closely linked to parsing at XRCE but it goes beyond the syntactic structure by looking at meaning and concepts. Concepts and the relations between them are identified and abstractions made so that a ‘knowledge representation’ is built for specific applications e.g. identifying “bank” as a financial institution vs. identifying it as the edge of a river. Semantic representations also lend themselves to inference, particularly the use of background knowledge to refine or extend the interpretation of a text.

The content analysis research area not only generates technologies with practical business applications to solve business issues on its own, but also with the other three XRCE research areas. Individual technologies that have been guided by XRCE from R&D concept to development and/or commercialisation - either through a Xerox business group or via a third-party organisation - are:

• Terminology Suite
• Inxight LinguistX
• XIP
• LIRIX
• BioTIP
• Categorizer
• CopyFinder

Separate, individual fact sheets are available on all of these technologies and the business issues they solve (see below).

For more information, please refer to www.xrce.xerox.com or contact...

Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE): Media Backgrounder (Document Structure Research Area)

Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE) is structured into four complementary research areas: content analysis; document structure; image processing; and work practice technology.

The document structure research area of XRCE research is aligned to the increased adoption of extensible mark-up language (XML) by the IT and internet industries, and the sheer potential of XML as a language of communication between disparate systems.

While the primary benefit of XML is in exchanging data, greater benefits can be gained in content and document management. First of all, XML is naturally suited to represent the logical structure of documents (e.g. titles, sections, chapters, paragraphs) independently of their visual rendering. More importantly it can represent the semantics or meaning of documents (i.e. varied elements such as authors, dates, organisation or product names, financial data, copyright statements, legal warnings). This provides the potential for advanced, semantic-enabled search and data mining, but also for smart processes throughout the document lifecycle including content reuse and repurposing, quality assurance and security. It is also a natural bridge between databases and content for document validation and updating .

However, the challenges of how to create new documents automatically in XML, and convert legacy documents to XML, remain. XRCE is developing and combining new methods for Legacy Document Conversion where the research addresses the three faces of a structural document: layout, logical structure and semantics. The second research theme in this area is XML Schema management where researchers are addressing ways to link together different XML stores, and to repurpose and reformulate XML documents in order to enable “Smart processes”.

The document structure research area not only generates technologies with practical business applications to solve business issues on its own, but also with the other three XRCE research areas.
It combines expertise in machine learning, document mining and clustering, querying and visualization and hybrid methods for document acquisition. One technology that has been guided by XRCE from R&D concept to development and commercialisation is the SmartTagger for which a separate individual fact sheet is available (see below).

For more information, please refer to www.xrce.xerox.com or contact...

Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE): Media Backgrounder

Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE) is based in Grenoble, France. It is the sole European part of the global Xerox Innovation Group (XIG) led by Hervé Gallaire, Chief Technology Officer, Xerox Corporation and created in 2001 to conduct exploratory research and invent next-generation technologies. XIG, and XRCE in turn, employs scientists who invent new technology, experts who obtain and protect the patents and intellectual property, and managers who deliver the technology to the three Xerox business groups: Xerox Global Services (XGS); Production Systems Group (PSG); and Xerox Office Group (XOG).

XRCE focuses on services that help people access and share documents and knowledge, regardless of device, format, platform or language, from the desktop or remotely. It coordinates research, engineering and the TeXnology Showroom, a customer showcase for Xerox research and a technology exchange forum. XRCE’s development team validates research technologies, ensuring that they meet scalability, reliability and other engineering criteria. XRCE technologists work directly with early adopters, feeding their input back to the researchers as they continue development.

Ultimately, XRCE technology will often be either transferred to Xerox Global Services to be used in Xerox’s consultancy offerings, to the Xerox Office Group for value added services, or licensed to a third party for commercialisation as an end-user application or system. XRCE is also in charge of developing connections within the wider European scientific community through collaborative projects and partnerships.

XRCE employs 100 personnel, led by Monica Beltrametti, vice president and centre director, XRCE. She is responsible for strengthening Xerox’s research programs in Europe and developing connections within the wider European scientific community while creating new business opportunities for Xerox in solutions and services. She also oversees the European technology showroom that each year hosts hundreds of customer visits.

Graham Button is director of the laboratory at XRCE, responsible for the coordination and implementation of research programmes from conception, to know-how and technology transfer. His studies of work practices have brought value to Xerox in a number of diverse fields, and he was a leader in the original XRCE “Office of the Future” project, some of whose concepts and technologies have been adopted by Xerox business groups.

Graham and Monica lead the XRCE team in its four R&D competencies: content analysis; document structures; image processing; and work practice. This also includes collaboration on a number of projects with the other Xerox research centres including Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) in California and the Imaging and Services Technology Centre in Webster, New York.

XRCE was established to explore future spaces, the same reason PARC was created in the 1970s, i.e. to invent the office of the future. By the early 1990s, Europe was rapidly becoming a creative and expanding R&D environment. Xerox therefore decided to open a European research centre in 1993 to contribute actively to the vision of helping people with their document intensive business processes. Document content analysis being recognised as an important requirement, it had an even stronger meaning in Europe with its diversity of languages and business processes.

XRCE is structured into four complementary research areas:

1/4 Content analysis consists of four core linguistic technologies that are used to build different content management software applications: finite state technology (FST); machine learning; parsing; and semantics. Further detail on this department can be found in the XRCE: Media Backgrounder - Content Analysis Research Area document (see contact details below).

2/4 Document structure is aligned to the increased adoption of extensible mark-up language (XML) by the IT and internet industries, and the sheer potential of XML as a language of communication between disparate systems. Further detail on this department can be found in the XRCE: Media Backgrounder – Document Structure Research Area document (see below).

3/4 Image processing specialises in images captured by digital cameras, and continually builds on developments made in capturing images in hostile environments. ‘Hostile’ refers to an environment where poor lighting, shadows, skewed documents, smudges or any other factor that causes the integrity of a document to be compromised may reduce image quality. Further detail on this department can be found in the XRCE: Media Backgrounder – Image Processing Research Area document (see below).

4/4 Work practice concentrates on: improving understanding of the way in which work is organised; and improving understanding of how a particular type of customer is working i.e. a specific vertical industry sector. Both of these areas link closely to the Xerox Global Services business group. Further detail on this department can be found in the XRCE: Media Backgrounder – Work Practice Research Area document (see below).

For more information, please refer to www.xrce.xerox.com or contact...