Frequently asked questions
Decipher IDP
Decipher Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) provides a data extraction platform which extends the scope of what can be achieved by Blue Prism. Blue Prism Digital Workers are able to provide scanned or electronic documents to Decipher which applies classification and categorization before extracting the key information. It provides a user interface to allow end users to validate and annotate the extracted data before making it available for further processing by Blue Prism Digital Workers.
Decipher can be used with versions 6.6 and above and can only be used with Enterprise versions of Blue Prism.
The earliest version that Decipher will work with is Blue Prism 6.6 and can only be used with Enterprise versions of Blue Prism.
The Decipher Licensing server is not currently compatible with Azure SQL, although we plan to address this in a future release. Please note that as per our Decipher installation instructions Decipher only supports SQL server 2012 onwards.
The Decipher Licensing server is not currently compatible with Oracle, although we plan to address this in a future release. Please note that as per our Decipher installation instructions Decipher only supports SQL server 2012 onwards.
As announced at Blue Prism World on 23rd June 2020 – Decipher is now available as part of a controlled release to a select number of customers and partners. The customers and partners involved in the first wave of availability are being contacted directly by their Blue Prism representative.
Decipher is provided pre-configured for invoices but it can be configured to process a range of structured and semi-structured document types
Decipher is currently only available via a controlled release program to nominated customers who have paid-for premium support package, this is to ensure successful deployment and adoption.
We expect to make a further announcement about expanding the availability of Decipher as Wave one draws to a close at the end of August 2020.
Active members of the Decipher program should contact their Blue Prism product team or enablement representative for more information.
Yes. Decipher will only function when there is a specific Decipher license key present, and when used in conjunction with a licensed Blue Prism Enterprise deployment.
After Blue Prism World, information about Decipher can be found here: https://portal.blueprism.com/products/decipher
Decipher IDP is currently subject to a fair use policy which entitles each production deployment to 4,000 pages processed per month per licensed Digital Worker (concurrent session), subject to Decipher environment configuration. Therefore, if a customer has 10 Digital Workers, they are entitled to process 40,000 pages per month.
Customers and partners who are involved in the controlled release are being contacted directly. If you would like to register your interest in being considered, please contact your Blue Prism account manager or customer success representative.
Customers and partners who have been issued with a Decipher license key will be provided with a download link.
The user interface is available in English, French, German and Spanish.
Decipher IDP supports 26 languages for OCR extraction. These are: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Latvian. Slovak, Croatian, and Afrikaans. The language to use for data extraction is defined in Batch Types > General Settings.
Decipher IPD has a number of hardware and software prerequisites that must be provided – see the Install Guide on the portal for more information.
Ideas and suggestions can be raised and voted on via the ideas community.
Product
Requirements
Decipher IDP is released as a commercial software product that includes all relevant licensing within the main product. Refer to Decipher IDP Install and Configure for details.
Yes, Blue Prism version 6.6 or above is required to use Decipher IDP.
Decipher IDP integrates with Blue Prism via processes using a Decipher VBO. The recommendation is to install the software on separate hardware to support modular scaling.
Firstly, on the PC of the user that will review invoices, make sure that the necessary firewall rules are in place to the server on port 80 (http) or 443 (https).
Secondly, as with all Blue Prism installations, access to a SQL database is required. Decipher IDP introduces two more SQL databases so ensure the server can access a SQL server and that you have credentials with permissions to create databases on that server. As this is a proof of concept, SQL Express or similar is efficient.
There are three primary roles for Decipher IDP:
- System Administrator to install Decipher IDP – a typical systems administrator role.
- Decipher Administrator to setup new document form definitions and define batch types.
- Decipher User to manage the batches and content being validated.
If you have already installed the beta version of Decipher IDP use Windows Add or Remove Programs to uninstall the following Decipher IDP components:
- Decipher Licensing Service
- Decipher Server
- Decipher Web Client
- Decipher Automated Clients
-
Decipher Server Plugin
Your existing Blue Prism database for Decipher will be compatible with the GA version of Decipher IDP and must be specified when installing the Decipher Licensing Service. Any existing data will also be retained.
Product information
Yes. While Decipher IDP is a separate product, it is designed to integrate with the Blue Prism RPA product.
Yes. Decipher IDP allows custom documents to be defined. This means that customers will be able to use Decipher IDP to process a wide range of standardized document formats with a high degree of accuracy. These definitions can also include validation data, such as checking date of birth format. Validation rules can also be applied to the data values, e.g. checking the age given is relevant to the application type.
Supported file formats include: PDF, PNG, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, and BMP
We recommend that scans are a minimum of 300 DPI. Native PDFs are read directly from the underlying data and generally perform better than images.
An example invoice document form definition file is available and can be downloaded from the customer portal.
Decipher IDP is intended to support a broad range of document types and formats. Future releases will increase both the types of data that can be processed, as well as the level of validation and analysis that can be performed.
Any source that a digital worker has access to, i.e. any windows machine accessible file or directory.
Whilst the goal is to simplify this as much as possible and provide some pre-trained models, unless the fields and data extracted is exactly the same as the trained model the model will need to be rebuilt if new fields are required.
The default number of documents for creating the machine learning model is set to 1000. This can be changed in the settings.
The Decipher interface includes annotation capabilities. This is achieved using a web-based tool provided with Decipher.
Yes. Decipher includes several machine learning models these include:
- The classification engine analyses documents and sort them into the document types
- The data extraction engine analyses documents and extracts discrete data from them
The ML capabilities in Decipher IDP enables the product to learn new document types and understand their discrete data. This learning process requires a default number of 1000 of documents from which to train the machine learning algorithms – this figure can be changed in the settings. For post GA releases, it is planned that the DX Portal to host ‘pre-trained’ machine learning models, enabling customers to easily download and import them into their Decipher environments without having to ‘train’ the model. As the customer processes more forms, the machine learning algorithm will continue to learn and therefore improve its recognition accuracy.
It is possible to assign priorities to different batch types, allowing individual batch types to be prioritised.
Decipher can be installed on a single machine, or across four separate machines with each of the core components on a separate machine. This option provides the highest scalability. Further scalability improvements are on the roadmap.
The initial releases of Decipher IDP will be an on-premises product in line with the demands of the majority of our customers. However, a cloud-based and SaaS service is on the roadmap.
The default time for refreshing of DFD formulas is set to 1 hour. That means it can take up to 1 hour for changes made in the DFD setting to be fully reflected in the capture process. To change this settings you need to change the SsiDataCaptureClient.exe.config
file which by default is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Blue Prism\Decipher Automated Clients
Change the value from -1 (default 1 hour delay) – to “0” so it is immediate:
<add key="RefreshTemplatesInMinutes" value="-1" />
Set it to <add key="RefreshTemplatesInMinutes" value="0" />
We expect to have the ability to save the machine learning data in upcoming releases of Decipher IDP. In the meantime, the easiest way is to create a backup of the database used and restore it on the production system. If this does not work for the client, then use the following solution:
- Create a batch of the type that uses the ML model.
- When the batch is in data capture in the windows temp folder there should be a DataCaptureDir folder.
- In this folder or in some of its sub folders there should be a file with the name of the GUID corresponding to the ID of the model in the database. This is the needed file which later can be imported on other systems.
Security
Roles and permissions are currently separate to those in Blue Prism, with Decipher IDP having a separate identity solution. Our goal is to integrate these together in the roadmap.
Decipher IDP does not make any database changes. The core product is installed separately to the core Blue Prism product with connectivity being managed via a Decipher VBO.
Decipher IDP works with Microsoft’s underlying database technology – Transparent Data Encryption (TDE). Therefore, Decipher IDP uses the default encryption method configured by the user’s database administrator. Encryption can be enabled during the Decipher IDP installation. For example, if 256 bit AES encryption is the default method implemented in the SQL Server instance, Decipher IDP will use this for data at rest and encrypt configuration settings (if selected when installing Decipher server). These settings are not selected by default.
In-flight data encryption between the Decipher Server and SQL Server are configured as part of the Windows infrastructure deployment – this is Microsoft technology. Decipher IDP components utilize whatever encryption methods the environment has configured in Windows and SQL Server.
Roadmaps and future functionality
The Decipher Product Team has an ambitious long-term vision for Decipher that delivers significant innovation and value to Blue Prism customers. We welcome opportunities to discuss how new functionality in Decipher can support automation of paper processes.
The goal of Decipher IDP is to allow customers to easily process paper documents as part of an electronic process and integrate this into a Blue Prism solution. Decipher IDP is built on a modular architecture that will allow customers to integrate partner products into the solution to leverage their specialist capabilities and functions. Blue Prism partners have developed deep competencies in these areas which enhance the functionality of Decipher. Future releases will support integration with partner products and solutions.
The community is available for internal users and customers to request new features. Requests will be considered by the Product Manager and the engineering team. People who submit ideas and suggestions may be contacted by the Product Manager for further information or clarification. By using a community portal, Decipher IDP users can see the suggestions that have already been submitted—avoiding duplication, promoting discussion, and providing voting abilities.