FAQs

Optimum Solutions Corp. (OSC) has been conducting images/scanning business since our inception in 1991.

Our corporate office is located at 266 Merrick Road, Lynbrook, New York 11563.

OSC employs thirty-five full time employees. The majority of our staff works directly for the service bureau. The balance of the staff is made up of management, technical support and development staff. We also have a network of temporary and home workers. Temporary staff is used to assist in the mailroom when large volumes of incoming surveys arrive. Home workers aid in the data entry and coding process when we have high volumes of data entry work.

More than half of our staff has been with us for more than 5 years. Many of our supervisors and higher level managers are nearing 10 years of service. Our turnover rate is extremely low with no more than one or two employees leaving each year.

We utilize our patented and in-house developed FAQSS (Fast and Accurate Questionnaire Scanning System) software system. FAQSS was designed to replace its antiquated predecessors: hardware based OMR systems and software solutions that mimicked their functionality. FAQSS was not only designed to streamline data capture procedures associated with questionnaires and forms by automating many of the data entry functions, but also to eliminate the restrictions and errors inherent in the previous technologies. Through the use of high-speed bi-tonal image scanners and state-of-the-art proprietary hardware and software, fewer personnel than previously required in a manual key-entry environment can process documents faster and more accurately then ever before.

The maturation of the Internet has made global processing and distribution of work a common practice. Experience in dealing with a worldwide customer base has led to many improvements in our business and products. Companies license our software for use in Singapore and Beijing. We have setup a scanning facility for a client in San Juan, Puerto Rico, who transmits scanned images to our processing center for data extraction. In order to improve turn around time and reduce cost for our European clients, we setup up a scanning center in the United Kingdom thereby eliminating the freight cost associated with shipping the forms. We also transmit scanned images and snippets to offshore partners to utilize their data entry services.

We have no offshore facilities, only partnerships with offshore companies to utilize their data entry services. Some of these companies have representation in the U.S.

We utilize our patented and in-house developed FAQSS (Fast and Accurate Questionnaire Scanning System) software system. FAQSS was designed to replace its antiquated predecessors: hardware based OMR systems and software solutions that mimicked their functionality. FAQSS was not only designed to streamline data capture procedures associated with questionnaires and forms by automating many of the data entry functions, but also to eliminate the restrictions and errors inherent in the previous technologies. Through the use of high-speed bi-tonal image scanners and state-of-the-art proprietary hardware and software, fewer personnel than previously required in a manual key-entry environment can process documents faster and more accurately then ever before.

By incorporating the use of bi-tonal scanners that can scan virtually any size and any type of paper, the printing restrictions and costly print issues were immediately eliminated. Scanned images are now be analyzed in detail. Utilizing more than 10 algorithms, a respondent mark’s shape, position and density (among other details) are calculated to determine its “realness”. FAQSS’ algorithms then discriminate erasures and cross-outs from the real marks, providing highly accurate data with very little manual intervention. Any mark that is not read at confidence is prompted to an operator for validation. This validation is accomplished through FAQSS’ data entry module, which has been designed for maximum throughput and minimum operator error.

FAQSS incorporates an OCR/ICR system from Mitek Systems for the reading of pre-printed or hand written responses. We also have designed and developed a verification module, an on-line verbatim coding and keying system, and a fully functional heads down keypunch module. An image/data review module is available for data examination and image printing. An in-house developed and fully interfaced workflow module and a statistical database module are included for prioritizing jobs, assigning work to operators, quick activity synopsis, and production/operator statistics.

• ASCII
• EBCDIC
• IBM 360 Binary
• IBM 1130 Binary
• PC Binary
• Quantum ASCII
• Delimited (comma, pipe, etc.)

Any color paper can be scanned. Dark colors should not be used, as they tend to inhibit the scanners ability to “see” respondent marks. There are virtually no restrictions on paper size, spacing or writing utensil as we’ve incorporated dozens of selectable options to handle these issues.

The FAQSS software has multiple algorithms that make it extremely flexible in handling different marking patterns. Each page of a survey is searched for new marks and a model of the “average” mark is built. This model accounts for density, intersections, segmentations and a few other characteristics. Each individual mark on the page is then compared to the model to determine a level of confidence. High confidence marks are output as real. Lower confidence marks such as erasures and crosscuts are prompted to an operator for validation.

Our processing system has an embedded coding module. Responses may be coded from a client-supplied list or the list can be constructed during the processing of surveys. Each open-ended response can have a different “dictionary” of associated codes. Our coding module is one of the most sophisticated in the world and is used for medical, automotive and many other projects.

Yes, verification is available on any field at an extra cost. Cost depends on the specific field and amount of characters verified.

Optimum Solutions provides state of the art imaging and data extraction solutions. We provide solutions via our in-house service bureau to a broad assortment of clients in the market research field, consumer products, automobiles/trucks, banks, retail stores, apparel and many others. In addition we license FAQSS to many of the largest market research companies and data entry houses in the U.S. and abroad.

OSC insists on an initial delivery of test data for every job that must receive client approval before a job goes into full production. Test data is typically available 5 days after receipt of blank forms, final column allocations, and test forms or first live deliverables (if live deliverables are to be used as test forms).

Once test data approval is given, OSC can delivery weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly data deliveries as per an agreed to schedule. OSC can also deliver daily data at an additional cost. The volume for processing daily deliverables is dependent upon form size and data entry/verification requirements and must be discussed and agreed upon by OSC at time of final proposal.

Data delivery has a standard 5-day turnaround time after the last shipment is received. If faster turnaround time is required, it must be discussed and agreed upon by OSC prior to final shipment or cut-off date.

FAQSS is an automated system. The FAQSS software has multiple algorithms that make it extremely flexible in handling different marking patterns. Each page of a survey is searched for new marks and a model of the “average” mark is built. This model accounts for density, intersections, segmentations and a few other characteristics. Each individual mark on the page is then compared to the model to determine a level of confidence. High confidence marks are output as real. Lower confidence marks such as erasures and crosscuts are prompted to an operator for validation. Anything that doesn’t get read by the system at confidence gets prompted to an operator.

Surveys that are 98% open-ends are sent offshore for lower data entry costs. We send snippet images off-shore to our facility and merge the data back in the final process. We use secure FTP sites to transmit data. If you prefer only to use our domestic facility please contact us for pricing.

Current jobs are stored in the library area of the mailroom for access. After a job is completed, it is boxed, logged, and stored in our long-term storage area, shipped back to client, or destroyed as per client specifications.

Tabs are available at an additional cost. Further discussion will be needed to go over other topics.

We run daily incremental backups and weekly full backups of our data on LTO media. If there is a system failure our worst-case loss are those images and data worked on since the last daily incremental. The lost work could be recaptured with 1 or 2 extra shifts. Typically work would be caught up by the following weekend.

Our mail receipt procedures are outlined below.

• Incoming mail is picked up daily at our local post office, or delivered to us by messenger or shipping company.
• Envelopes are put through one of our high-speed envelope slicers, then manually extracted
• Questionnaires are sorted by job/survey type. White mail and attachments are dealt with as per the specification of each specific job/client.
• Undeliverable mail is reported as per job/client.
• Returned incentives are sorted out and returned to the client.
• Jobs with pre-defined multiple versions that are designated on the forms are sorted by form size to be sorted by software during scanning.
• Questionnaires or forms are prepared for scanning. They are unfolded, destapled and flattened as necessary.
• All shipments, quantities, envelopes, etc. are logged daily into a database accessible by the client service representatives. Any client reporting is emailed or posted on the web for password protected remote access.

Our scanning procedures are outlined below.

• Questionnaires are scanned into batches sorted by form type. Scanning is done on a priority basis with quick turnaround or high priority jobs scanned early in the day.
• Each scanned page is endorsed with a unique identifier. With a pre-sorted stack of documents this identifier identifies the batch number, document number and page number being scanned. When multiple document types are in the stack (routing software will break the stack into unique batches), the identifier denotes the physical stack name and the index within the stack.
• When routing is required, the routing software will read a barcode or OCR a form ID. The read result is compared against a database to determine its validity and uniqueness.
  
  • If the ID cannot be automatically validated, or the form ID cannot be located, the page is prompted for manual routing. If attached mail is being scanned these attachments are flagged and added as additional pages to the proper document. An attachment flag in the data provides the ability to report and deliver the images of the attachments along with the survey.
  • When all IDs have been validated, the surveys are automatically routed to the correct survey type and system batches are created.

Our image processing procedures are outlined below.

• Patented algorithms and integrated software eliminate the need to print with drop out ink or scan with colored bulbs. Questionnaires filled out in light pencil or certain colored instruments do not have to be separated before scanning.
• Blank, out of date, incorrectly answered, etc. questionnaires are automatically detected and rejected in the processing phase and do not require manual intervention.
• The processing software can read and convert barcodes, pre-printed text, most constrained handprint, and mark sense responses.

Additional handling information.

• Rarely do data entry personnel need to handle the physical documents since every scanned image is available for review. When a physical document is needed, an internal tracking and reporting system easily identifies the location of the document within the physical batch.
• FAQSS can handle all size forms, eliminating the need for slicing or splitting. Forms do not need to be printed with perforations. The software can automatically split booklet images (11x17 or a tri-folded document) into their 8.5x11 equivalents. This aids the scanning process by minimizing the number of physical sheets to be scanned and sometimes simplifies manual entry processes by providing a smaller image to data entry personnel.
• Current jobs are stored in the library area of the mailroom for access. After a job is completed, it is boxed, logged, and stored in our long-term storage area, shipped back to client, or destroyed as per client specifications.

Our quality procedures begin with the initial test batch. 100% of the test batch, every question on every page of every survey is reviewed for accuracy. Any anomaly is noted and later reviewed to check if the error was caused by a template setup error, a software problem, or an operator interpretation. Corrections are made and the test batch is reviewed again before the job can go into production.

After production begins, 10% of all surveys are reviewed. This review process is identical to the way the test batch is reviewed: page by page and question by question.

The FAQSS system has a number of checks and balances built-in throughout each step of the process. Range checks are done at each processing and entry step to ensure the data being entered or automatically read is within range. Value tables can be defined for all fields to further check the validity of responses.

Our error rate for mark sense data is less than 0.01% after manual validation of questionable marks. Our error rate for other types of data is less than 0.5%.

• All OSC offices are protected by key pass entry.
• Storage areas have additional key pass access levels.
• Network security is maintained via a Windows Active Directory Domain.
• Additional FAQSS passwords and privileges limit operator access to features and modules within the data processing system.
• A firewall controls and limits outside access to the network.
• A monthly full backup is stored off-site for disaster recovery.
• Daily incremental backups are also performed.
• All survey images/final data are archived to DVD and stored indefinitely.

Data produced by FAQSS is 99.96+% accurate. Data from outside vendors is 99.5% accuracy guaranteed.

OSC can provide cost estimates on projects with complete or partial specifications. When exact specifications are not available, we approximate the cost using our past experiences and the details provided: number of questions, number of pages, etc. When a final form is available for costing, a final price is given and held firm for 120 days. Proposals generally require 2-3 business days, with additional time required for print/mail studies. The following information is required for preparation of a final proposal:

• A copy of the form to be scanned and processed. If a final form is not available the paper size, number of pages, and number and types of questions that will appear on the form are required. The breakdown of questions include:
• The number of check box questions and the breakdown of single and multi-punch responses.
• The number of numeric and/or alpha fields.
• Will any barcodes be printed on the form?
• Is there a pre-printed ID being used or will OSC assign one?
• If available, response rates of write-in questions.
• Verbatim handling: Coding, transcription or image capture.
• Number of versions or rotations that will be processed
• Will OSC be responsible for preparing the column allocation?
• How will the documents be received by OSC? BRM? Daily shipments from the client? Pre-sorted documents? Are clerical procedures required at OSC?
• What type of receipt handling and reporting is required? Daily/Weekly Tracking? How are undeliverables handled?
• What is the estimated volume of returns?
• What is the required data output format and frequency of data delivery?
• What is the required turn around time?
• Are there any tabulation or end of job reporting requirements?
• Storage and destruction instructions.
• End of job delivery requirements: Images on DVDs, etc.

A client service representative is dedicated to the client’s projects. A senior account manager supervises the full time client service representatives.

Price is based by piece. Prices are based on document structure and number of documents scanned, processed and keyed.