The Anspach Effort, a medical device manufacturer of high-speed power tools used in neurosurgery, spinal, and ENT surgery, recently deployed document control software and it turns out they are already seeing the value: A marked improvement in their ability to manage quality, engineering and manufacturing records while at the same time reducing costs. The gains were clearly demonstrated during a recent FDA audit. 

Bruce Hays, Vice President of Operations at Anspach said, “I’ve been very pleased with our implementation and the support we’ve received from the team at ColumbiaSoft.  The ROI to date has far exceeded our expectations.”

A new case study highlighting the details the Anspach story can be found online at: http://www.documentlocator.com/resources/casestudies/anspach.htm

Truth and accuracy in document control is the message that ColumbiaSoft’s Quality Superhero will be bringing to world’s largest gathering of biotechnology leaders in Washington D.C. at the Bio International conference.

Although he’s more a concept than a real caped comic-book character, Quality Superhero does illustrate ways firms in the highly-regulated biotech and pharmaceutical industries can improve quality management with effective document control. ColumbiaSoft will present its expertise in booth 2259. If you are heading to the event, please stop by.

Automated workflows and precise versioning replace paper and manual processes in document control software. Everything from ECO’s, SOP’s, CAPA’s, NCR’s, Work Instructions… basically any process can be automated with workflows. Even better is the fact that detailed audit logs are captured, and it’s possible to reference version histories with ECO numbers.

This short 2-minute video is a quick overview of how it works:

Companies are increasingly relying upon remote employees driving their sales and customer service efforts.  Embracing a geographically disbursed workforce makes perfect sense for both the employee and the employer because it promotes greater access to customers while reducing the costs of business real estate and travel expenditures.  In addition, studies indicate that companies benefit from increased employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention as a result of allowing their employees to work outside of the office.

Providing a fast, scalable, and secure network infrastructure for remote employees requires that IT departments rethink their existing architectures.  Historically corporate networks minimize their exposure to the outside world of hackers and malware by limiting entry points into the system from outside of the company’s firewall.  However with the increased demand to support remote employees, IT departments are researching new technologies that improve how they control and manage information flow from offsite resources.

To that end, ColumbiaSoft is engaged in developing solutions for a handful of Fortune 500 companies that provide simple, secure online access to their enterprise document management systems.  The user interfaces are tailored to specific roles in the organization in order to align the application functionality with the user’s specific job function.  This customized design provides a quick and efficient means for looking up account information and uploading company critical documents in seconds.

The online portal solutions provided by ColumbiaSoft support interactive searching against a company’s backend database system including CRM, ERP, or Accounting application.  By interfacing the document management system with other mission critical systems, the web interface design promotes minimal data entry along with accurate spelling and auto-populated supporting fields.  ColumbiaSoft also provides web-based drag/drop functionality allowing users to quickly drag multiple attachment files from Microsoft Outlook or Windows Desktop environments directly into the clients’ document management system.

Storing corporate records in a document management system provides numerous benefits enterprise wide that support both management and IT functions within an organization.  This includes fast searching on metadata and file content, records management capabilities, email archive, routing documents for digital signature and approval, compliance audit trails, version control, and much more. By providing simple, efficient solutions for external resources to share corporate documents, companies operate smarter and allow their workforce to focus on their core job functions.

Im not sure what surprised me most in this video by CBS News: Copy Machines, a Security Risk? That so many people are not aware that MFP’s (multi-function printers) keep a copy of what you copy; Or, the fact that someone paid just a few hundred dollars for a copier that looks similar to a white elephant we lease for a princely sum.

Well, it’s the first point that is important: There are hard drives in those MFP’s. CBS did a good job explaining the security risk and their segment is worth watching. Especially if you are concerned about sensitive or regulated information like files that might fall under compliance requirements.

Part 5 – A Viable Solution

Realizing the benefits of effectively organizing and indexing documents is only the tip of the iceberg when you consider the possibilities provided by a fully-featured document management system.  I have witnessed how companies have successfully refocused their employees from performing unproductive roles like constantly searching lost documents into roles that directly derive revenue for the organization.

Here are a few ways that document management helps your organization:

• Workflow – Eliminates manually routing documents for approval and physical signature.  Through automated workflow solutions documents are automatically routed to individuals for approval and digital signatures.  This includes an electronic audit trail and provides remote users easy access to approve documents.

• eDiscovery – The threat of litigation against companies and the associated subpoena of documents is a nightmare scenario for many companies.  If your company employs document management policies and tools for document indexing, records retention management, and document distribution, inquires for information can be handled quickly and efficiently.

• Document Scanning – By digitally scanning and archiving paper documents in your organization you gain great efficiencies searching on documents while providing a simple means of business continuity through disaster recovery.

• Version Control – When creating documents using a version control system, the author can record snapshots of their document at any point in the document lifecycle. This permits the author to lock in a version of the document for historical purposes that can be referenced later in the development cycle.

• Subscriptions – Receive automatic email messages notifying you when documents are modified or added into the system. 

ColumbiaSoft Document Locator is one such system with a proven track record of helping companies organize their documents.  ColumbiaSoft Document Locator provides a document management system that is integrated directly into Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Office.  The ingenious design creates a user interface that appears in Windows like a shared map drive and appears in Microsoft Office applications as its own ribbon in the toolbar.  By embedding document management functionality directly into the applications that are used everyday, employees can seamlessly transition to using powerful document management functionality without significant investment in training and changing their regular work routines.

In these uncertain economic times, most companies are faced with the challenge of how to maximize returns on tighter margins. It’s a do-more-with-less strategy that requires business operations be optimized now to meet current economic realities.

One area to consider for improving the bottom line is to look at how information is managed in the organization. This includes all the content, things like documents, invoices, etc.; all the actions, things like reviews, and approvals; and all the processes, these are the repeatable steps that drive the flow of information. Improving how information is managed, the content, actions, and processes, will improve efficiency, reduce risk, and lead to cost savings.

There is another upside to consider with this as well… and it’s a silver lining. With any change comes opportunity, and the right kind of change now can position an organization for even greater success long term.

There are least seven ways that improvements in how information is managed can have an impact on the bottom line in terms of efficiency, risk and cost savings. These were outlined in a document control webinar we held recently, and are also highlighted in an ePaper.

Number 1: Find information, Instantly
Number 2: Automate business processes
Number 3: Improve collaboration
Number 4: Capture a record of every change.
Number 5: Reduce the risk of email.
Number 6: Maintain compliance with regulations
Number 7: Eliminate paper storage costs and go Paperless.

Check out our document control webinar and request a copy of our Silver Lining ePaper to get more details on each.

In our regulated world today, there is no avoiding the need for better document control. Anyone familiar with the bite of Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel II, SEC, HIPAA, and FRCP eDiscovery can quickly attest to this. One of our customers said it best in his comment about regulatory risk, “Every piece of paper is a liability waiting to happen if it gets misfiled or lost.”

But implementing a document control system offers even more than “being compliant” with the regulation du jour.

The usefulness of placing controls on information – regulating access, logging changes, managing distribution, automating actions in business processes – has operational and productivity benefits that extend well beyond the realm of regulatory compliance.

Consider this: How much time is spent by typical knowledge workers simply looking for lost documents, trying to locate documents they know exist but were created by others, or recreating versions that can’t be found? In an office where files are saved on personal drives, shared folders, and filing cabinets, versus one where documents are maintained in easily-accessible repositories with versioning and indexed searching, the time differences can be quantified in real terms by worker productivity.

This simplest of examples barely sheds light on the extent to which information accessibility, or its inaccessibility, influences productivity.

Even greater benefits are realized through process automation. Document control can automate repetitive business process that generate a paper trail. This includes virtually any process that has a review, notification, approval, or a multitude of other actions. Document control removes the user dependence from the process to make the process flow automatically. People focus on decisions, leaving technology to drive the process forward.

Time and time again, we are approached by prospective customers who want nothing more than to escape the shackles of their existing system and find a better document management system.  They’re frustrated with their legacy system’s functionality, interface design, and the “customer-no-service”. Having experienced the drawbacks of their existing systems, they are easily attracted to one with a user-oriented design, broad range of solutions, and that is backed by the helpfulness of everyone in the organization, most notably the support department.

Unfortunately making the transition to a new document management system is not always a straightforward process.  Many document management or document imaging systems on the market today are engineered to support bulk import of documents while completely ignoring support for exporting files and supporting data.

There are a number of reasons why companies need the capability to convert from a document management system – aside from simply being dissatisfied with the application.  Several of these other examples that have impacted our customers (some converting to Document Locator, others away from) include company mergers, document turnover at the end of a project, permanent archival to other media formats, selling a business line, and more.

Having flexibility in the document management system to allow for bulk export is important. For prospects and customers with issues converting from their proprietary legacy systems, this warning comes too late.  However for anyone in the document management market researching solutions, I have some telltale warning signs to watch for that could lead to difficulties down the road:

• Storing documents with file extensions that differ from their source application
• Backend database requirements outside of the mainstream relational database products such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, and MySQL
• Stores data in a flat-file database “like” system
• Proprietary compression or encryption techniques are used
• Product does not offer an API (Application Programming Interface) or SDK (Software Developer Toolkit)
• Built-in viewer technology that displays the images using non-standard file formats
• Bulk export tools are not built into the base product

Awareness of these warning signs upfront can safeguard that your data will not be held captive in a document management system.  We have worked with some not-so-lucky customers whose only option for converting from their legacy document management system is to manually print each document (to paper or PDF) and then to re-key in the index information.  Other customers have provided us with samples of their encrypted files or their database that no one remembers the password to asking that our professional services team run decryption cracker technologies in hopes they can free their data.  Please do not let this happen to you.

Investing in document management can help your company meet the challenges of today and tomorrow as the following story illustrates.

One of ColumbiaSoft’s real estate investment customers recently expanded their use of Document Locator to meet additional compliance regulations.  The customer originally deployed document management to provide their Real Estate Development group with the tools to track and manage engineering contracts and drawings.  That implementation proved successful and laid the ground work for expanding their use of Document Locator in other areas of the company.

Shortly after rolling out Document Locator in the development group, the organization was acquired by a multinational investment firm headquartered in Japan.  As a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Japanese corporation, the company’s internal and external communications became subject to the regulatory guidelines of Japanese law.  Most notably, they were required to comply with J-SOX.  J-SOX (Japanese Sarbanes Oxley), which became law in 2006, requires internal controls over financial reporting as mandated by the Japanese Financial Instruments and Exchange Law.

After meeting with auditors and reviewing the features included with the latest version of Document Locator, the company realized that they already possessed the tools and knowledge required to fulfill J-SOX’s compliance regulations.  A  repository for Document Locator was developed that mapped J-SOX procedures to Document Locator features including workflow, security, scan processes, and document audit logs.  The model implementation was then audited by internal and external compliance officers who found that the policies and procedures implemented by Document Locator met J-SOX requirements.

The company is now in the process of deploying the solution enterprise wide.  Partnering with ColumbiaSoft has enabled this real estate investment customer to spend less time dealing with compliance issues and more time focusing on their core business – developing and managing commercial real estate.