Turn on the Power with Agile ECM

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.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Laserfiche and Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Obtain Joint DoD 5015.2 Certification (eon.businesswire.com)
• Laserfiche Supports Launch of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 (eon.businesswire.com)

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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.

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:

1. No internal server hardware, server software or backups to administer;
2. Installed on Amazon data centers, assuring quality and continuity and compliance with multiple site requirements;
3. Option for no up-front server costs – simply a monthly fee for the service period;
4. No change to your Laserfiche licensing or VAR agreements;
5. Delivered by your trusted Laserfiche VAR, Unity Business Systems
6. Includes backup and multiple site redundant server instances;
7. Includes secure data transfer;
8. Maintains full Laserfiche administration and configuration rights;
9. Can have separate instances for Laserfiche and SQL Server;
10. 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!

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.

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.

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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, 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.”

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 about Laserfiche, enterprise content management, or Agile ECM, contact Unity Business Systems today.

FROM CMSWIRE.COM

Laserfiche has become the first Microsoft Partner to achieve joint DoD 5015.2 certification for its integration with SharePoint 2010.

SharePoint and DoD Certification

The US Department of Defense Records Management certification — DoD 5015.2 — is a standard used not only by the DoD, but also by many federal, state and local governments. This is why most Enterprise CMS vendors work hard to get the certification.

Microsoft has a bit of history with DoD certification and SharePoint. At one point SharePoint 2007 did have a DoD 5015.2 certification in the form of an Add-On Resource Kit. But that certification lapsed in May of 2009, probably because Microsoft had SharePoint 2010 in the works with much improved Records Management capability.

There are also a few enterprise cms vendors which have integrated solutions with SharePoint that extend DoD 5015.2 certification to the platform, Open Text being one.

But now that SharePoint 2010 is out, organization’s are likely looking for Microsoft to get its own certification and/or for ECM vendors to get certified with the new version.

Laserfiche and SharePoint

Laserfiche is one of these enterprise cms vendors that offer integrated records management capabilities with SharePoint. Built on Microsoft.NET and already tightly integrated with SharePoint 2007, Laserfiche will add the following capabilties to support the 2010 version:

• ADO.NET provider to enable access to Laserfiche data from Business Connectivity Services
• Federated Search
• Records Management document categorization using SharePoint’s BCS

According to Laserfiche, they are the first ECM vendor to partner with Microsoft for a DoD 5015.2 certification for SharePoint 2010. Testing for the integrated solution was completed last week (see the details here) and is the certification is valid through June 22, 2013.

The need for transparency and accountability continues to drive the adoption of DoD 5015.2-certified records management systems across all industries,” said Tom Wayman, vice president of product strategy at Laserfiche. “Our joint, DoD 5015.2-certified solution allows organizations and agencies to leverage the strengths of both Laserfiche and SharePoint Server 2010.”

 

I am the “instant” generation. I’ve got to have it now. No waiting…for anything. I’ve been weened on a system of me first and right now. The idea of writing a letter by hand, putting a stamp on it, and physically mailing it to someone is as foreign to me as popping popcorn on the stove. Email is the next shoe to drop. I would rather have instant messaging, instant Google results, instant book and music downloads, instant, real-time video collaboration, instant entertainment – whenever I want, on whatever device I want. Instant everything. It’s all about instant results. And this is how I want to work. I am the “Millennial” worker. Like it or not, here I come…

Sounds a little like a bad late night movie, doesn’t it? But it is the new reality. Our workforce is transitioning, and it is happening now. According to Accenture‘s research report, Global Research on Millennials’ Use of Technology, “To engage Millennial workers requires finding the right balance between boundaries and freedoms, as opposed to blanket control that will increasingly send them to more flexible competitors. And the balancing point will no doubt move every year, maybe every quarter.” Wow. Is your IT department prepared for this kind of change? Do you have the right foundation, the right infrastructure? And it’s not the Millennial workers’ fault – they are just a reflection of society and culture as a whole.

So, with the myriad of personal mobile devices exploding onto the market, and the Millennials’ growing sense of individual freedom and empowerment, how can a centralized IT department keep up? Do you mandate the technologies that all workers use, and limit the flexibility and ingenuity that freedom offers, or do you allow your people to make their own independent decisions on what technologies work best for them and their personalities and habits – within a loose framework of controls?

The answer is that we must develop and cultivate a philosophy of agility.  The ability to adapt our enterprise within the framework of our core values and mission – our organizational ‘constitution.’  When our Founding Fathers penned the Constitution of the United States on July 4th, 1776, they realized that times would change and that their foundational document would need to outline the framework of the their most-cherished ideas and beliefs, yet at the same time allow for modernization, in order to stay relevant. Today, like the Founding Fathers, we need organizational governance, but we must have the tools, i.e. technology, to allow not only implementation, but also our ongoing future relevance. We need an integrative ‘middleware’ that ties together various technologies and systems; that not only manages the organizational data assets and policies, but seamlessly ties together our disparate line of business applications. A ‘middleware’ with the flexibility to allow specific groups or departments to manage their own processes effectively and efficiently within the context of the whole. That ‘middleware’ is here – it’s called Agile ECM.

For more info on Agile ECM, please contact us @ 888-400-9064, or visit our website.