Helios Ed Achieves Cross-Browser, Cross-OS Scanning by Using Dynamsoft's SDK in its HR Web Application for Education

INDUSTRY:

Education

logo helios

QUOTE

When using a document scan SDK, compatibility across different browsers and operating systems is very important for web applications such as our Helios solution for HR compliance in the education market," said Yash Sharman, Product Developer at Helios Ed. "Simply put, the Dynamsoft SDK we used ensured the robust cross-browser and cross-OS support we needed."

QUICK TAKEAWAY

Helios Ed solves compliance issues for schools with its Helios application that provides HR analytics and reporting designed specifically for education. The company's application serves 350 schools, has processed 38,000 employee records and has generated nearly 100,000 reports for administrators. Helios Ed estimates it has saved schools 526,000 hours of work compared to traditional processes to ensure HR-compliance. To more quickly upgrade the application with scanning capabilities, Helios Ed decided to use a software development kit (SDK). A quick web search led the developer team to finding and using Dynamsoft's Dynamic Web TWAIN SDK. In addition to providing simple APIs for quick integration of online scanning, it also met their main requirement of cross-browser and cross-operating system support. Dynamsoft's technical support team proved helpful too. As a result, the Helios Ed team was able to finish the document module in a month. Today, Helios users can log into the application and go to the document management module to easily scan and upload a document. This is done right from their web browser of choice, on Windows or macOS, and with no additional installs.

COMPANY BACKGROUND

Twitter: @Helios_Ed
Helios Ed solves compliance issues for schools with its Helios application that provides HR analytics and reporting designed specifically for education. Schools spend $11.7 billion every year on general administration and compliance alone. Helios helps save time and cost in this process and helps keep schools in HR-compliance.

The Helios application offers a myriad of features leveraged by many of California's largest school districts. with built-in reports. Time and costs can be reduced up to 75 percent by leveraging more than 100 reports. As a result, compliance risk and HR problems are more easily avoided. The reports and other features help streamline credentialing problems, provide automated email reminders, and more. Payroll and personnel requisitioning is also made easy with automatic tracking of accrued earned leave with real-time display of leave balances and absences. Paperless efforts include routing electronic forms for approval with email notifications at each step.

The company's application serves 350 schools, 38,000 employee records and has generated nearly 100,000 reports for administrators. Helios Ed estimates it has saved schools 526,000 hours of work compared to traditional processes to ensure HR-compliance.

ADDING DOCUMENT SCANNING CAPABILITIES

To help further improve the productivity of its users, the Helios application needed a document scanning component to capture various documents into the system. This would include resumes and test scores, contracts and transcripts, and more. But, just building a scanning component alone would take several months. It would also require comprehensive understanding of related standards, such as TWAIN. So, software developer shops often turn to software development kits (SDK) to buy ready-made components instead of building them. Helios Ed made this decision too. It would not only save a lot of development time, but also kept them focused on the main task.

Using an SDK from a reliable vendor also helps in that the scanning component is supported by the vendor long-term. For example, the Helios application runs via common modern web browsers. There are many browsers and they're constantly being updated. Helios Ed would need to patch for such updates as they happen had it built its own scanning module. Using an SDK from a good vendor puts this task on them. So, the time and cost savings are also long-term.

FINDING A DOCUMENT CAPTURE SDK

Two people from the development team were tasked with adding document scan capabilities for Helios. A quick web search led them to Dynamsoft's Dynamic Web TWAIN SDK. The SDK provides simple JavaScript APIs for quick integration of document scanning. It also ensured one important requirement for cross-platform and cross-browser support. Online scanning from within the Helios web application can now occur using different browsers and operating systems (OS). Dynamsoft's SDK being cross-browser and cross-OS friendly was a key deciding factor to using the SDK.

About Dynamic Web TWAIN
Dynamic Web TWAIN provides developers with tools to create immediate cross-browser and cross-platform document scanning capabilities. Users can scan documents from TWAIN and SANE-compatible scanners using a variety of browsers - Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Internet Explorer (IE), Safari, and others – across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android operating systems. Images can be saved in various file formats – JPEG, TIFF, PDF, and more – or transferred and stored across varying protocols, local or remote file systems, database and document repositories.

Dynamic Web TWAIN provides programmers with simple built-in interfaces to access local imaging devices from web pages. They need only write a handful of lines of JavaScript code to enable cross-browser document scanning, uploading, and processing. It saves on costs by eliminating months of work coding from scratch to create comprehensive scanning and image capture functions. Development teams also realize long-term time and cost savings with better application robustness and faster time to market.

Dynamsoft also offers SDKs for barcode reading, webcam image capture, PDF rasterizing, and optical character recognition (OCR). In addition, it has a SaaS document capture cloud service for users to leverage OCR in near real time.

GAINED ADVANTAGES

Beyond some slight modifications during testing, implementing the SDK was straightforward. The SDK had to be integrated with the Helios web application, which is .NET and SQL server based. Once integrated, tests were done using different scanners, browsers, and operating systems to prove good compatibility. Dynamsoft's technical support team proved helpful too. The Helios Ed team consulted with them along the way to ensure seamless development and implementation.

Today, Helios users can easily click the "Scan Document" option to conveniently scan and upload a document. This is done right from their web browser with no additional installs required. The scan user interface lets them select the scanner and the apply any quick image fixes too, such as crop, resize, brightness and more. Users can also enter relevant meta tags and information about their document to allow for smart retrieval later. Once saved, the document is stored in PDF format on the server. The scan feature has become an important process to the efficiency and productivity the Helios application offers its users.