Document Management

by Corey Smith

How much paper do you use? Do you foresee getting rid of it in the near future?Industry analysts suggest that this will be the year that we’ll start to see the turn from paper to paperless. We have been talking about the paperless office for better than 30 years now. Can this really be the year that we will do away with paper?

Well, that is a lofty goal for this year. But, the analysts do think that the turn toward the reduction in paper will start this year. I think that no one is going to totally eliminate the use of paper, but more and more companies are realizing the benefits of converting an increasing amount of paper into digital files.

So, what is it going to take? I tend to think that document imaging is really about fundamentally changing the way you do business. Fundamentally changing the way you think about your business.

It is all about change. We have to be willing to change the way we do things. If we are not willing to change our strategies and approaches, it will never happen.

And, the only way that we will ever be willing to change our strategies and approaches is if we see a possibility of improvement. continue reading...

John Mancini, at AIIM, recently posted the 10 Steps to Building an Enterprise Content Management System. He posted a document that provides detail on the 10 steps you should take in building an ECM or EDMS (Electronic Document Management System) in your organization. Here is a summary of those steps.

1. Proposing an ECM
2. Project Charter
3. System Scope
4. System Requirements
5. ROI analysis
6. Statement of Work
7. Project plan
8. RFP
9. RFP evaluation
10. Execution and control

continue reading...

By Jon Reardon

The “green” wave is finally working its way into the daily conversation and consciousness of American business. Although this topic is complex, multi-faceted, and far too sophisticated to be covered adequately in a one time blog entry, I thought I might take this opportunity to focus on one tiny element of business sustainability: document capture and scanning.

Reducing the negative impact of a business on the environment has become an imperative strategic initiative for an ever increasing number of SMB and enterprise class organizations. The methods being used to achieve this goal range from reducing resource usage and implementing carbon offsets to recycling and engaging in many other green activities: this list goes on and on. continue reading...

If you want to improve your office efficiencies, especially in the area of managing content, you have likely consider implementing an electronic document or content management system. Steve Kass, the president of ChannelMarketPartners and an AIIM member has put together a good checklist for getting started with an ECM Project. Here is a summary of the steps he highlights:

1. Proposing an ECM system
2. Project charter
3. System scope
4. System requirements
5. ROI analysis
6. Statement of work
7. Project plan
8. RFP
9. RFP evaluation
10. Execution and control

continue reading...

The ScanGuru has an article about Gramm-Leach-Bliley and how it relates to Document Management  and Compliance. If you are looking to integrate an electronic document management solution into your organization, this is definitely a law that you must understand. It was put into place for the banking industry, but may have some implications in the way you do business. continue reading...

Data security and device security are two different things… sometimes we treat them as the same thing. When looking at document management… or any other content management for that matter, there are a few ways that we can keep our data secure.

For example. In a paper-based environment you might put your documents in a filing cabinet or on a shelf.

continue reading...

Your security is only as strong as the location you put them in. If you get too many documents to house, you might rent space at another facility and have them store the documents for you. If the documents are at your location, your building security keeps them safe. If they are off site, how do you know they are safe? How can you trust that your vendor will keep them as secure as you hope?

It is estimated that less than 20% of all records that have traditionally been paper-based have been converted to electronic formats. For example, according to AdvancedMD, only 10% - 15% of medical records are handled electronically.

This tells me that the paperless office is a myth and just a vision… we have a long way to go before we get there.

I found a case study on how a law office in Illinois is moving to a paperless environment. We have helped a few law offices here in town with the same type of conversion. Take a look at the case study titled Lawyers win document case.” continue reading...

If you are smart, you’ll prepare for the event that you might need to be ready for electronic data discovery. I read an intereting post at Computer World. Robin Harris wrote a post called the Two-minute guide to Electronic Data Discovery. There is some pretty interesting points in there that I believe everyone responisble for data in a business should understand.

continue reading...

I think that this is a prime example of how IT and business managers really need to work together to be ready for eventualities in business especially when it comes to document management policies. One thing that struck me was that it is not IT responsibility to define data retention or destruction strategies. She made three important points:

• Your company’s lawyers and record management folks are responsible for setting electronic data retention policy - not IT
• IT must take the lead, working with policy makers, in architecting an economic and effective infrastructure to ensure compliance
• IT needs a documented process whose ownership lies outside IT for unscheduled data destruction - such as when a VP wants all their emails to a client deleted - and staff must be trained on it.

You may think that your PDF or Excel Document is secure… but… I lost a password for a PDF file and had to have it to make a quick edit. I did a search on Google and in about three minutes found a a little application that simply removes the password. No password, no problem. I got to thinking a little about it and wondered if password protection on an Excel document is any better. Nope… same thing. I did a quick search on Google and found that I could crack that password just as free. What is the solution? Well, if document security is that important, you really need to look at a document management system that tracks versions and changes. Then, if the change occurs, you can track it. Moreover, users have to have access into the document management system in the first place to be able to even access the file in the first place. continue reading...

By Jim Murphy The enterprise content management (ECM) market is at a critical turning point where it must prove itself or be lost altogether. Over the last 20 years, widely disparate business demands for content management, the stubborn resistance of antiquated practices, widely different methods of handling content, technology growing pains, the slow maturation of standards, the whims of investment hype as money flits from document management to Web content management to Web 2.0, and conflicting definitions of what content management is, have led us to a rocky, complicated and still wildly dynamic vendor landscape. No matter how loudly the vendors tout the notion of a unified ECM system, no matter how many vendors consume each other, the ECM market has defied complete consolidation. Having covered the market for eight years, I’ve kept a simple list of every content management-related vendor that has crossed my desk, noting when they emerge, when they’re acquired or when they disappear. At 316 as I write this, the list grows daily. continue reading...