Unity ECM’s Chief Stewardship Officer Paul Neal is the founder and Chairman of the RunWalk for Kids, an event benefiting the Children’s Hospital of the Kings Daughters. Paul started the RunWalk for Kids after his infant daughter received outstanding care at CHKD several years ago. The event has since grown from a few hundred people to an anticipated participation of over 4000 people this year. Unity supports the event as a corporate sponsor and wants to recognize Paul’s continued success with this event. For those who are interested in participating in this worthy cause, registration information can be found on the RunWalk for Kids website. CHKD is a not-for-profit hospital that provides pediatric care for infants, children, and adolescents in the greater Tidewater area.
- Robert Frost via last.fm
Robert Frost‘s heart-stirring poem, The Road Less Traveled, expresses the idea that the sometimes seemingly small choices we make in life can truly impact our experience of it. And his tome, in particular, helps us to see that following the path of the “crowds” is not necessarily the best direction to follow. This may be true in life, and definitely is in many instances, but it is a real gamble when you are talking about implementing a department- or enterprise-wide systems change. The risks of failed implementation, or that the system does not live up to its billing, are very real, and they can be very painful.
The City of Norfolk, VA, Department of Human Services faced this decision point with its document management system some years ago. The Human Services Department is tasked with meeting the needs of the city’s thousands of residents with various assistance programs, such as Medicaid, Child Protective Services, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Workforce Development. As one of the top 2 highest “in-demand” Human Services departments in the Commonwealth of Virginia, they have no shortage of paper and they have stringent program and procedural requirements. Recognizing the need to move to a paperless environment some years ago, they adopted a document management system, EZ Filer, which had been adopted by several other Human Services departments in the Commonwealth. Even though many other Norfolk City departments had very successful implementations of Laserfiche Enterprise Content Management, and the fact that EZ Filer was relatively unknown and unproven, the city selected EZ Filer. Over time, the limitations of the EZ Filer system became apparent to the Norfolk department, and workarounds were created to compensate for some of the key limitations of the system such as: limited storage space, limited search capability, very slow response times and no records management rules. The final decision to move to a more robust enterprise content management system came when the company who developed the EZ Filer document management system filed for bankruptcy. According to Bonnie Spence, Programmer Analyst for the city, “we are no longer able to upgrade or modify the system.”
Norfolk DHS chose UnityECM to partner with to solve their daunting problem. Besides the EZ filer trainwreck, Norfolk identified 9 other key reasons to commission UnityECM to completely overhaul their records management and document management processes and workflows, including: automated scanning and indexing into their system and a records management system that was compliant with the Library of Virginia, and which runs completely in the background with no end-user training curve or intervention. (Get all Top 10 Reasons here)
According to Mark J. Formella, IT Application Development Supervisor for Norfolk, “Successful implementations do not happen by accident or luck. Planning, communication, training, dedication and hard work are all keys to making LaserFiche work for DHS. Everyone who is involved with this project deserves a huge thank you…Change is never easy, but all of our staff who were accustomed to EZ-Filer, made the leap to make LaserFiche work. In the weeks and months to come, we will take advantage of additional LaserFiche tools and implement improvements which will make many tasks easier and faster to accomplish. We will also be bringing other units onboard, so they can too can manage their documentation electronically.”
So thus goes the story. Sometimes, even Robert Frost I’m sure would agree, that the best road is the one that is well-worn for a reason. For more information, contact UnityECM.com today at 888-400-9064.
For over fifteen years, Unity Business Systems has established a reputation for providing quality enterprise content management solutions and support to its thousands of users. Our dedicated and experienced professionals deliver innovative solutions and a firm commitment to superior customer service, one customer at a time. Our clients include a large array of municipalities, federal agencies, international corporations and many private firms.
To continue the mission of providing quality delivery of innovative services that maximize the productivity of our customers, we are excited to announce the formation of a dedicated new division: UnityECM. Our vision has always been to have mutually beneficial and lasting relationships with all of our stakeholders, and this new division will better enable us to accomplish this. As a top Laserfiche Value-Added Reseller for over 10 years, and now a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with special emphasis on SharePoint deployment, we believe that UnityECM is uniquely positioned to help our clients tackle their ECM challenges with robust agility well into the future.
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“You can pay me now, or you can pay me later®” was the way the old Fram® oil filter commercial went in 1971. Remember that? Whether it was true or not with Fram® (they still seem to be thriving as a company…), the concept is axiomatic. Like getting regular excercise. Or eating a good, healthy, balanced diet. The “today” price of establishing healthy, disciplined habits is much smaller than the “tomorrow” price of terrible health and the dis-ease that stagnation and bad diet engenders. And so it goes with compliance and e-discovery…
It stands to reason that investing some organizational resources now in prevention is definitely better than spending millions of dollars muddling through a non-compliant audit or e-discovery request gone awry later. Kind of like, if your kid sits in the beanbag everyday playing Xbox® and eating HoHo’s® he is going to be fat and out of shape (and possibly get Type II diabetes – but I digress…) No responsible adult would ever allow that to happen if they care about their child. And along the same lines, we know that in today’s litigious society, the registered letter will arrive. Your organization will face a lawsuit. Do you just “hope” that things will work out well? If there is one thing that I have learned in 23 years of business, it is this: “hope” is NOT a strategy. So what do you do?
You don’t focus on the audit or the e-discovery problem. You build the right foundation today, before the issue attacks. And you do that by focusing on getting the right people involved in drafting and adopting the right policies which are managed and enforced transparently (more or less on autopilot) via the right technology; and all done consistently across your enterprise and business processes. And the natural result is proper preparation. No worries. Your framework is in place. Time for a HoHo!
For more information on how to achieve this Information Governance “Nirvana,” visit us today at UnityECM.com.
The only thing worse than having to pay to convert (scan) your documents from paper to electronic images is when you have to do it twice. This summer a customer decided to save some money and hire a couple of college students to scan their case files during the 
summer. A noble thought and a practical way to put interns to work. Just plug the machines in, point to the cabinets and let them “have at it”. Afterall, the cost of a couple scanners and 2-3 hungry college students would be certainly less than paying a firm that specializes in this service, right?
However, a recent query of the files (all with “Scanned” boldly stamped in red on each case file jacket) found that a 7 page document (with 3 pages that were double sided) only had 7 images and not the 10 (7+3) it should have. Other files were double in size as the “blank page drop out” feature was not activated on the scanner. Several documents still had staples in them: meaning a second page of the document (possibly) was not scanned and a metal staple was pulled through the machine which leads to damaged parts, paper jams and scratched glass surfaces on the scanner. Scanning appears to be easy, but without proper knowledge, training, supervision, quality checks and experience it can make a difficult task even more difficult to fix. Remember the old addage, “Garbage in, Garbage out”?
In today’s economy everyone should be looking for the most economical way to accomplish their goal, but not at the cost of quality, especially when it comes to mission critical, historical, or personal data. We are now re-scanning the entire project.
Work with a vendor to find the best solution, do business with a creative firm that can think outside the box and create a budget friendly solution (i.e. maybe you don’t need to scan everything right away and a hybrid storage “scan on demand” solution may be able to meet your needs?) Look for a vendor that has more than 3-5 years of hands on experience and can give you specific references (my company has been scanning since 2000 and can provide an active list of at least 10 customers we are currently working with).
Hungry college kids are great (I have two of them) and can perform many tasks very well, but there is more to scanning than dropping documents into a feeder and hitting the start button. The care of your mission critical, historical and personal records are your responsibility, if you have a ”back file” of information you need scanned make sure you have have the expertise and are able to put into place the quality checks, procedures necessary for a great job… or hire a great company (like mine) that offers you a money back guarantee so you will never have to pay twice!
For more information, contact Unity Scanning Systems today!
- Image by ecastro via Flickr
It’s not surprising to me that during harder economic times people tend to look for bargains when they buy goods and services. It just makes sense. In fact, it should be axiomatic that we always look for the best deal…it’s just good stewardship of our resources. But, as experience tells us, if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is – right? Times like this should focus our efforts on determination of the best value, not the best price. I mean, the Maytag washing machine that my parent’s bought 25 years ago still works, while we have been through 2 washer “deals” in just the past 8 years. Who really got the best deal? (Maybe our parents actually do know something, huh?!) And inherent in the definition of value is not only the actual lifetime cost of the item, but the qualitative aspects as well. Like, the actual performance of the product or service. Like its ease of use. Like the service after the sale. I see more and more (particularly government…) “Invitations to Bid” on projects, where the absolutely ONLY factor they are considering for their buying decision is the lowest price. What a terrible, short-term benchmark to base a decision on. There seems to be a general disconnect from the product or service end-users and the folks signing the purchase order. Maybe the real answer is that we don’t expect quality anymore. Perhaps this is a result of living in an “Priceline” world. (Is that why the domestic air travel experience is so horid today?) Or maybe it’s a result of living in a Twitter-Focused, Headline-Selling culture that bombards us continually and where depth of research is replaced by 20 second sound-bites…
So I guess I am calling out here for a return to a higher expectation…let’s start looking “beneath the surface” again. Let’s start looking long-term again. Contact UnityECM to have that discussion today.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could always be running the most recent release of your Laserfiche software? I mean, you have paid your annual maintenance fees, so you do qualify for the latest and greatest with no additional charges…but the rub is, your IT department (who is typically already overworked and understaffed) still has to budget the time and energy to make the upgrade work. At least they did in the past…
Laserfiche in the Cloud
Welcome to the new Laserfiche in the Cloud solution! Not only will you be running the latest and greatest Laserfiche versions as they are released, but there are some other big-time advantages for your organization going forward:
- No internal server hardware, server software or backups to administer;
- Installed on Amazon data centers, assuring quality and continuity and compliance with multiple site requirements;
- Option for no up-front server costs – simply a monthly fee for the service period;
- No change to your Laserfiche licensing or VAR agreements;
- Delivered by your trusted Laserfiche VAR, Unity Business Systems
- Includes backup and multiple site redundant server instances;
- Includes secure data transfer;
- Maintains full Laserfiche administration and configuration rights;
- Can have separate instances for Laserfiche and SQL Server;
- Transferrable, can always be moved back to an on-premise server, if desired.
Laserfiche clients connect by simply registering their server with its unique name (e.g. mydocs.docsonthecloud.com ) Server instances can be created in minutes. Existing on-premise Laserfiche servers can be migrated easily, or may be extended in a hybrid private cloud as an overflow or backup.
So, a new day has definitely arrived. The most up to date software running on the most current and most powerful server technology available…So maybe now your IT folks will have the time to tackle that ERP project that noone wants! Maximize your productivity now with Agile ECM.
Contact Unity Business Systems today for more information on the Laserfiche in the Cloud solution!
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Don’t you just love “Jack-in-the-box” pricing?! You know, all of those hidden fees that spring up when you buy a home or a car? Or when you get a credit card with “0% annual interest”? Or how about this – when you store your business documents with most of the national brand names? That’s right…easy in the front door, but it’s going to “COST YOU” to ever see them again. Yes, they do tell you in the fine print…there is nothing illegal about it. But do you like the idea of not really knowing what it is going to cost you in the end?
I mean, you know the reasons why you need to store your documents offsite:
- Your office is expensive real estate
- The mountains of boxes can be in the way
- You have better use for the space – so there is a big opportunity cost
- The logistics of access and holding – and retrieval – time, energy and money
- It’s unhealthy – mites and mold – and bugs love them
- It’s a potential fire hazard
- And many more…
But up until now you had to either settle for some rinky-dink storage shed next to somebody’s old furniture or get into a “we’ll let you in…he he he…but it’s going to cost you to get out!” contract with a large, national “mountain” of a company. But no longer!
Unity Scanning Systems has developed an innovative approach to solve this problem. We call it, Access-Plus Records Storage, giving you for the first time: Predictable storage. Predictable access. And most importantly, predictable budget. Access-Plus Records Storage is an innovative solution designed for organizations who recognize the benefits of moving bulky business records offsite but who are not comfortable committing themselves to risky, hard-to-decode pricing models and records “hostage” fees. Its hallmark is its simple, all-inclusive pricing model. You simply pay one flat monthly fee per box of records stored – regardless of whether you need to access 20% of your files, or none at all. It makes budgeting a breeze.
Visit our Access-Plus Records Storage website today, or contact us and we’ll show you how our innovative solution will save you money and give you the clear-cut budget you deserve.
My daughter ,Carla Mei, a future mechanical engineer attends Summit Christian Academy in Yorktown, Virginia. Kohl’s department store is currenty awarding $500,000 to each school that gets enough votes to put them in the top 20. All of the voting is being done through Facebook. Each person is alloted 20 votes and can vote for the same school up to five tmes. So I am asking for your help to make it into the top 20. Please follow the link below and vote for Carla’s school. The addtional funds will give us the ability to improve our facilities and buy new computer and lab equipment for the school. Please vote and tell your friends about it. By voting you will also be entered into a drawing to win an iPad. Thank you. Vote4sca.com
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According to CIO magazine, “Business agility, not cost savings, is the leading reason U.S. companies are interested in cloud computing, according to a survey of 500 senior-level IT and business-unit managers Sand Hill released in March.” What an interesting concept! It’s about business agility…which gets to the core of why IT exists in the first place, right? I mean, whoever went into business with the goal of having an efficient, effective IT department? That’s closely akin to the idea that the goal of business is to employ people. No, the goal of business (at least one that intends to stay in business) is to make a profit. And businesses make profits through service. Those businesses that can serve their customers the best, over a protracted period of time, are typically the most profitable. They understand that customers, especially today, have many options, and that loyalty is something that is won everyday. It’s not as the grumpy old guy told his wife, “I told you I loved you when we got married 30 years ago…” – thinking that was it. No, it is about a long-term relationship with your customers. And to do this effectively, the bulk of your organizational efforts need to be focused on delivering those solutions. Resources and energy wasted because of bloated, slow and potentially bureaucratically inflated systems and processes that actually inhibit the main objective represent an opportunity cost of doing business that is just not acceptable – particularly when those precious resources are strained as they are today.
Cloud computing may just be the solution to this craggy dilemma. For the first time in years, business leaders are getting a glimpse of how they can tame the technology gorilla. And finally giving rise to the opportunity for IT leaders themselves to focus on adding true value to their own (internal) customers, not just being a cost center focused on duct-taping the multitudinous legacy systems and applications together. According to the National Institute of Standards and Testing (NIST), cloud computing is defined as:
Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.
The NIST goes on to identify the five key characteristics of cloud computing as:
- on-demand self service, which allows business units to get the computing resources they need without having to go through IT for equipment.
- broad network access, which enables applications to be built in ways that align with how businesses operate today – mobile, multi-device, etc.
- resource pooling, which allows for pooling of computing resources to serve multiple consumers.
- rapid elasticity, which allows for quick scalability or downsizing of resources depending on demand.
- measured service, which means that business units only pay for the computational resources they use.
Cloud computing represents the future of business empowerment – and isn’t that what technology is supposed to do in the first place? Leave the IT stuff to the companies with core competencies in those areas, and the economies of scale to manage it effectively. More functionality in more hands on more devices all at less cost. Cloud computing sets the business free to focus on its absolute core mission – serving its customers better than anyone else.
For more information on cloud computing or agile ecm, visit our website.
