Storage firm EMC has released its Captiva tool as a web service, offering added personalisation capabilities and a claimed improvement in performance.

Captiva allows the capture of information from paper and web-based documents. The new service oriented architecture means that the tool can easily integrate with other application systems and business processes, EMC said, and can be managed centrally.

EMC's InputAccel 6, the part of Captiva that captures information from front-end devices such as scanners and fax machines, picks out key facts and sends them to other applications.

The tool will perform faster than previous editions, according to EMC, and features an interface that can be configured to meet user requirements.

Captiva Dispatcher 6, which sits on top of the InputAccel product and classifies documents, has also been speeded up, EMC said.

Whitney Tidmarsh, content management and archiving division marketing vice president at EMC, said: "Our new solutions allow customers to accelerate the adoption of capture throughout the enterprise, thereby maximising the efficiency and service delivery across the organisation."