Paper Retention-Mystery of our Age
By Kirk Tracy/ Owner of Mountain Scanners
I do not understand the process of putting a closed file in a file cabinet, then a box, then a storage area as many people do at the end of the year. You are essentially saving the paper but trapping or hiding the data into storage limbo, highlighted by slow and inaccurate retrieval.
Using paper as a medium to manage records is still the prevailing tool, despite our transformation to a “digital media” society. The paper file exists along with digital and other types of disparate content, e-mails, digital documents from Word or Excel, videos, Adobe files and so forth.
We sell Filebound ECM software that addresses this area of concern, but the point of this memorandum is to encourage paper file users to scan the files when closed instead of just filing the paper away.
So, the first step is scan the paper when the transaction is closed. Call up an Imaging Service Bureau, like Mountain Scanners, and have us pick up the paper, scan the file, and then return/destroy the paper. At the initial level, we return word searchable, indexed and Book Marked .PDF (Adobe) digital files. Every piece of information in closed files becomes available on your PC with a couple of clicks. All the time and effort spent in creating the file and data is now worth it.. Save the paper file if you want, but the key is freeing the data on those pages for easy accessibility at any point in the future.
· You have a digital copy for disaster protection
· You can research or even do data mining over all your closed files with a free reader
· You have eliminated risk. Retention schedules are no longer important, you always have the file
· As your business process goes from analog to digital, you can assimilate your archives into the system because you had the foresight to replace the paper with digital documents.
· You have eliminated the weakest link in records management, paper files.
In today’s business environment, we need instant access to the content of closed files and transactions…I think the first step in ECM is scanning Archival records and using OCR to free the information into a digital repository.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
ECM I get it! I think.?
Enterprise Content Management
Jon Zalinski
In my previous life, I was a Vice President of a company that had several facets to its income stream. I understand the challenge of trying to optimize those streams as they are being calculated in the planning of the company’s movement. There are several factors to the planning and the direction of movement of a company.
Our company was small enough that our available tools we implemented for monitoring and managing data were solutions to specific challenges. The data from these solutions was analyzed and the company’s direction was set on course. That path was based on the data that we gathered from all of the tools we had. Each tool was cycling within its own solution. This put the officers in a position to interpret the data and come up with their own conclusion on where the company’s direction should go. Most times the data that was available was not accurate. Here is one example. The information we used for today really was the information we needed to have a month ago. By this I mean, every department had a business process. This process took time. Different business processes took longer than others. For this example accounts payable had to open the mail and enter in invoices to be paid. This process took about a week. It took a week because price verification took up a lot of time, and if there were price discrepancies this would stall the process sometimes longer than a week. This would delay the accurate information of our cash flow. The cash flow data we used in our meeting was inaccurate because several invoices were not entered and had a deadline to be paid that none of the officers were aware of. This made our directional decisions at meetings moot. Our data and our business processes were so inaccurate that no one really knew where the company was and where it was about to go. This is NOT a position an officer should be in. The company could quickly find itself in a position that is very unfavorable.
So getting back to the point, Enterprise Content Management is a descriptive term that defines an industry of solution based management tools. These tools assist in the business process and assist in the management of data. The assistance in both of these areas is crucial in your company’s future. If you could optimize your company’s business processes and manage the data to the point where the data is up-to-date and accurate, the company is positioned to make better decisions for the company’s direction into the future.
The next question is, “How does enterprise content management help me and my company?” Enterprise Content Management solutions umbrella the whole company or enterprise. Your company may have several solutions running in several different departments. For example there may be accounting software being used for accounts payable and different software being used for accounts receivable. A software solution could be used for inventory that is separate from accounts payable or receivable and a separate software package for each department like human resources, manufacturing, service, reservations, research and discovery, and depending on the company there are solutions for each and every department. Enterprise content management provides a data backbone to the entire company or enterprise. Yes, it manages your company’s data and business processes. It also integrates with all of your independent solutions and coordinates all of the data in one location. Now that this data is in one central location and is easily managed and accessed the data that is available is very useful for analysis and much more accurate for making directional decisions for your company.
Other benefits of enterprise content management are that your company is now in a position to take advantage of this digital data. Some companies have automated several processes with their work-flow module. To pass information through several departments electronically saves several processing steps and speeds up the travel of information throughout the company. This transfer of data is also controlled by an administrator. The administrator sets the course of who should and should not see certain information. Enterprise content management solutions also manages the company’s resources of money spent, the paper that had to have been copied and passed along, the human resource time and payroll of having someone make copies and deliver them to each department, and space because someone would have to file the documents and store them for as long as the retention schedule dictates. By not producing the paper document, the digital data is now more secure and compliant. Having the data managed in one location, also allows the company’s data to be backed up from one central database adding a disaster recovery plan to you company.
These benefits change as your company evolves with the understanding of the possibilities of content management and business process evolution within your company. Some examples of this could be the management of digital pictures or email. Videos or mp3s can now be a part of the data to be used in business decisions. Saved webinars for training linked to the tracking of, who looked at the webinar and for how long, changes the information used by HR for hiring or promotions. Process steps are now automated speeding up the process, but also allowing the steps to be spelled out so there isn’t any missing forms or information. How about capturing email addresses from your "complaint department" and organizing a direct email campaign to win back your customer. The possibilities are endless on what you can do from here and what other tools will help you get there.We feel that the benefits of implementing an enterprise content management solution will not only pay for itself, but will also save money to your company in a short amount of time. If you are in the “C” suite CEO, CIO, CFO, COO, etc. and are asking yourself,” Where do we go from here?” I would look “inside the box” inside your company, and consider implementing an Enterprise Content Management solution to see a future with better direction.
Jon Zalinski
In my previous life, I was a Vice President of a company that had several facets to its income stream. I understand the challenge of trying to optimize those streams as they are being calculated in the planning of the company’s movement. There are several factors to the planning and the direction of movement of a company.
Our company was small enough that our available tools we implemented for monitoring and managing data were solutions to specific challenges. The data from these solutions was analyzed and the company’s direction was set on course. That path was based on the data that we gathered from all of the tools we had. Each tool was cycling within its own solution. This put the officers in a position to interpret the data and come up with their own conclusion on where the company’s direction should go. Most times the data that was available was not accurate. Here is one example. The information we used for today really was the information we needed to have a month ago. By this I mean, every department had a business process. This process took time. Different business processes took longer than others. For this example accounts payable had to open the mail and enter in invoices to be paid. This process took about a week. It took a week because price verification took up a lot of time, and if there were price discrepancies this would stall the process sometimes longer than a week. This would delay the accurate information of our cash flow. The cash flow data we used in our meeting was inaccurate because several invoices were not entered and had a deadline to be paid that none of the officers were aware of. This made our directional decisions at meetings moot. Our data and our business processes were so inaccurate that no one really knew where the company was and where it was about to go. This is NOT a position an officer should be in. The company could quickly find itself in a position that is very unfavorable.
So getting back to the point, Enterprise Content Management is a descriptive term that defines an industry of solution based management tools. These tools assist in the business process and assist in the management of data. The assistance in both of these areas is crucial in your company’s future. If you could optimize your company’s business processes and manage the data to the point where the data is up-to-date and accurate, the company is positioned to make better decisions for the company’s direction into the future.
The next question is, “How does enterprise content management help me and my company?” Enterprise Content Management solutions umbrella the whole company or enterprise. Your company may have several solutions running in several different departments. For example there may be accounting software being used for accounts payable and different software being used for accounts receivable. A software solution could be used for inventory that is separate from accounts payable or receivable and a separate software package for each department like human resources, manufacturing, service, reservations, research and discovery, and depending on the company there are solutions for each and every department. Enterprise content management provides a data backbone to the entire company or enterprise. Yes, it manages your company’s data and business processes. It also integrates with all of your independent solutions and coordinates all of the data in one location. Now that this data is in one central location and is easily managed and accessed the data that is available is very useful for analysis and much more accurate for making directional decisions for your company.
Other benefits of enterprise content management are that your company is now in a position to take advantage of this digital data. Some companies have automated several processes with their work-flow module. To pass information through several departments electronically saves several processing steps and speeds up the travel of information throughout the company. This transfer of data is also controlled by an administrator. The administrator sets the course of who should and should not see certain information. Enterprise content management solutions also manages the company’s resources of money spent, the paper that had to have been copied and passed along, the human resource time and payroll of having someone make copies and deliver them to each department, and space because someone would have to file the documents and store them for as long as the retention schedule dictates. By not producing the paper document, the digital data is now more secure and compliant. Having the data managed in one location, also allows the company’s data to be backed up from one central database adding a disaster recovery plan to you company.
These benefits change as your company evolves with the understanding of the possibilities of content management and business process evolution within your company. Some examples of this could be the management of digital pictures or email. Videos or mp3s can now be a part of the data to be used in business decisions. Saved webinars for training linked to the tracking of, who looked at the webinar and for how long, changes the information used by HR for hiring or promotions. Process steps are now automated speeding up the process, but also allowing the steps to be spelled out so there isn’t any missing forms or information. How about capturing email addresses from your "complaint department" and organizing a direct email campaign to win back your customer. The possibilities are endless on what you can do from here and what other tools will help you get there.We feel that the benefits of implementing an enterprise content management solution will not only pay for itself, but will also save money to your company in a short amount of time. If you are in the “C” suite CEO, CIO, CFO, COO, etc. and are asking yourself,” Where do we go from here?” I would look “inside the box” inside your company, and consider implementing an Enterprise Content Management solution to see a future with better direction.
Acronyms
Acronyms Executive Officiers Use:
As an officer of your company, you may find yourself trying not only to keep up with the information that is available each day, but also the acronyms. In 2009 the acronyms that keep entering into the vocabulary of the upper level management are BPM, ECM, CRM, BI, SaaS, and I am sure there are a few more. Why is there such an emergence of these? When was the last time we saw something like this?I think this is a result of the slow down or recession. A lot of these acronyms have been around but now they roll off the tongues on executives as if they have researched these in the past and have been waiting for the right time to do something. The problem is that they don't have a hard deadline. The last time I saw something like this was at the end of 1999 and the computers that ran their company were about to change their internal clock. Everyone knows this today as Y2K. at that time there was heightened awareness of their company's hardware and software AND there was a deadline. Executives learned a lot at that time because were forced to.Today there seems to be a need for companies to re-asses their companies internally. How do we do it now and how can we do it better. That is were the acronyms listed above come into place. These are tools, when used correctly, help drive a company to be more efficient, to make better decisions with more information, to improve communication throughout the company, to manage all of their corporate data in a compliant manner, and to position themselves for growth.Today the measurements of a company have changed. EBIDTA and measurement like that are no longer the key measurements of a company and its health. Today it is all about the bottom line. Cash Flow is the key. Cash is king. So, to the executives who lived through Y2K and are now faced with the responsibility of forging through 2009, I would suggest to you to set your own deadline and take action that will help drive your business through 2009. Now is the time! Formulate a game plan for 2010. Make an investment in your company internally, amortize your investments, and reap the benefits of your due diligence. This investment has a quick ROI and will affect your bottom line in 2010.I see growth in your future!http://www.mountain-scanners.com
Jon Zalinski
Mountain Scanners/ VAR of FileBound ECM
As an officer of your company, you may find yourself trying not only to keep up with the information that is available each day, but also the acronyms. In 2009 the acronyms that keep entering into the vocabulary of the upper level management are BPM, ECM, CRM, BI, SaaS, and I am sure there are a few more. Why is there such an emergence of these? When was the last time we saw something like this?I think this is a result of the slow down or recession. A lot of these acronyms have been around but now they roll off the tongues on executives as if they have researched these in the past and have been waiting for the right time to do something. The problem is that they don't have a hard deadline. The last time I saw something like this was at the end of 1999 and the computers that ran their company were about to change their internal clock. Everyone knows this today as Y2K. at that time there was heightened awareness of their company's hardware and software AND there was a deadline. Executives learned a lot at that time because were forced to.Today there seems to be a need for companies to re-asses their companies internally. How do we do it now and how can we do it better. That is were the acronyms listed above come into place. These are tools, when used correctly, help drive a company to be more efficient, to make better decisions with more information, to improve communication throughout the company, to manage all of their corporate data in a compliant manner, and to position themselves for growth.Today the measurements of a company have changed. EBIDTA and measurement like that are no longer the key measurements of a company and its health. Today it is all about the bottom line. Cash Flow is the key. Cash is king. So, to the executives who lived through Y2K and are now faced with the responsibility of forging through 2009, I would suggest to you to set your own deadline and take action that will help drive your business through 2009. Now is the time! Formulate a game plan for 2010. Make an investment in your company internally, amortize your investments, and reap the benefits of your due diligence. This investment has a quick ROI and will affect your bottom line in 2010.I see growth in your future!http://www.mountain-scanners.com
Jon Zalinski
Mountain Scanners/ VAR of FileBound ECM
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