Companies in Ohio and western Pennsylvania may have known about Team Office Technologies – a well-regarded printing and information technology company in the area, for some time. Now, we’re glad that we know them too. Team Office is our newest technology network member, and is already helping businesses in the Ohio region go paperless with Document Locator document management technology.

Team Office has been around for 30 years… all the way back since 1980. That’s a long time in technology years. They have the proven experience and gold-plated reputation for serving the needs of business clients.

Jumping the gun just a little on a news release going out in the morning, I’ll say now that we’re very excited to be working with Team Office!

Today marks the release of ColumbiaSoft Document Locator v6.  Version 6.0 enhances many of Document Locator’s greatest document management features including seamless integration into Microsoft Windows Explorer and Microsoft Office while expanding into new areas including business process management and real-time reporting analytics for all of ColumbiaSoft’s customers.  We are excited to see how our customers can transform and automate their business operations leveraging the workflow and dashboard style reporting now included with Document Locator.

Document Locator’s business process management components are in use today at a number of enterprises as well as government entities helping drive efficiencies and enforcing compliance.  Solutions built using ColumbiaSoft’s workflow automation include accounts payable processing, ISO/FDA continuous improvement processes, vendor submittals for AEC firms, routing mail to remote workers, expense reports, vacation request processing, and more.  These implementations were all designed around improving productivity, efficiency, and traceability enabling companies to focus on their core business operations.  In Document Locator v6 the workflow module is integrated as base production functionality providing enterprise level business process automation to all of our customers.

The reporting components added in Document Locator are entirely new and based on Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services.  Users can select from a variety of canned reports included with the upgrade package in addition to being able to produce custom reports using Microsoft’s easy-to-use WYSIWYG report generation tools (Report Builder 3.0).  Reports can be launched securely inside of Document Locator’s Windows Integrated client or from within Document Locator’s internet application WebTools.  The reports provide users unlimited real-time access to critical business information displayed in graphical and roll-up style dashboard reports.  Reports are available for records management statistics, user activity, workflow automation, SQL Server configuration, as well any business specific reports that our customers can dream up.

Document Locator v6 continues the tradition of providing well-designed, easy-to-use document management and business process automation software.  We are excited about this current release and look forward to helping companies transition to a more organized and automated organization that can easily report against their critical business operations. For more information click here.

There are many technologies to consider when implementing a virtuallization plan. Document Locator is mostly technology agnostic… our customers pretty much can choose to virtualize their document management system however best works for them and their circumstances. VMWare, however, is one of the choices. Just recently after the folks at VMWare realized that some of their customers were using their virtualization technology to virtualize our document management software, they asked us to join their network of ‘VMWare ready” partners. We did.

So it’s official now… the VMWare Ready mark is now a member of our partner logo family.

If you’re interested in finding out more about VMWare’s technologies and solutions, they have good assortment of recorded and live webcasts on virtualization.

As economic conditions improve nationwide, Fargo, North Dakota is one area of the country leading the way. Business there runs smartly, and Forbe’s recently recognized this fact in their 2010 report of “Best Places for Business and Careers”. Fargo placed in the top 10 on the list… in ninth place to be specific, of best small metros across the entire U.S.

Craig Whitney, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Fargo Moorhead stated, “As the labor department releases the news that the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless aid is soaring, Fargo Moorhead earns a national spotlight for its reasonable business costs, strong economic outlook and solid quality of life.”

Within the buzzing business ecosystem of the Fargo Moorhead area is a good friend of ours, Information Management Systems (IMS), who has been doing their part helping businesses in the region since 1995 with “precise-fit” technology solutions. One of those solutions, of course, is document management software. And in an area where business is buzzing, document management makes a perfect fit.

Here’s one reason why: Research has shown that, on average, one-half of information workers spend as much as 2 hours a day searching for the information they need. That amounts to $625,000 per year spent on “searching” in a company with 100 employees at an average cost $50,000 each. Reducing the time it takes to search and find information means that a portion of that $625,000 in time will instead be spent doing other more productive things that have a higher return on investment than thumbing through filing cabinets.

IMS will be at the Fargo Moorhead “Business After Hours” event this Thursday, April 22 with other leaders in the area. Stop by and visit with them to learn more about information management and how they can help you lead the way.

The average office worker uses a sheet of paper every 12 minutes, over 10,000 sheets of paper a year, and disposes of 100 to 200 pounds of paper annually. Document management helps businesses reduce the need for paper, and take a paperless approach. With paperless document management software, businesses store and share paper electronically so that the need for printing and shipping of paper documents is reduced.

While offering a positive impact on the environment through less paper production and transportation, reducing the use of paper also provides for cost savings by improving business efficiency. The cost of handling, storing and shipping a single sheet of paper can add up to as much as $30.00 over a document’s lifecycle. When managed electronically, the actual cost of paper, storage facilities, and mailing or shipping are eliminated.

Business processes are improved using electronic collaboration tools that make sharing of documents easy with workflow routing, versioning, notifications, and approvals. Scanning tools capture paper documents and turn them into electronically searchable digital files, reducing the need for document storage and speeding document retrieval.

In addition to an all-around paperless office solution for managing electronic files, digitized paper documents, and email records, document management offers specific paperless business solutions in areas of: Accounts Payable routing and approval; electronic project collaboration; HR employee records management; compliance and regulatory document control; remote access for customers, vendors and partners; and more.

To learn more about growing a greener business, paperlessly, with electronic document management software visit ColumbiaSoft’s booth at the Energy Trust Better Living Show in Portland this weekend March 26th - 28th.

http://www.betterlivingshow.org/

A recent trend I am seeing with our customers is the desire to enhance their business infrastructure to support having employees work remote.  This arrangement benefits businesses in a number of ways including helping employee morale, allows for business continuity when weather strikes, saves space on real estate, and allows for increased productivity from their staff.

Creating an environment permitting employees to work remotely requires providing online access to critical information and documents.  At minimum, employers will need to enable remote access to their network environment and online computer systems.  However for most companies who are not paperless, acquiring information contained in filing cabinets and binders is simply not possible for remote employees.  A similar challenge is the capability of routing paper documents received in the mail to remote workers in a timely manner.

Document management systems with support for digitally scanning paper documents provide real-time access to information to your remote employees.  It is not uncommon for me to help companies create processes that involve scanning common mail items including applications, claims, and change of business forms and then assigning those items for processing (via workflow) to resources that work remotely.  I also work with companies to back-scan legacy documents from countless rows of filing cabinets, freeing up square footage and providing for online retrieval and manageable disaster recovery processes.

By implementing a paperless process, your organization will gain efficiencies, increase employee morale, free up office space resources, and provide for business continuity should disaster strike.

I read somewhere recently that the Environmental Paper Network (an organization with a “treatise that is meant to unify the efforts of environmental organizations in advancing environmental and social responsibility within the paper production and consumption cycle”) has calculated that if businesses were to cut their paper usage by 10%, it would reduce by 1.6 million tons the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States… an equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road.

There’s a lot of interesting facts about paper and paper consumption to chew on. For example, did you know that according to the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory the average office worker in the US uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper a year? That’s the equivalent of as much as a tree per worker person!

And, a bunch of sources, including the U.S. Department of Labor, say that one billion (yes, that is ‘billion’ with a ‘B’)… one billion photocopies are made EACH DAY!

A hopeful sign is that, by all appearances, the tide is starting to turn. Just ask the post office who’s seeing their first class mail volume drop so precipitously as people and business transition to electronic billing. Yes, once an ideal only considered in light of its impact on the environment… thinking paperlessly with tools like electronic document management has now become a stylish issue among the money-saving set too.

While the technology that drives document management marches forward (Windows 7, SQL Server, .NET), the business objectives of the clients are essentially unchanged.  Clients greatly need solutions for scanning paper documents, applying index information, routing documents through workflow processes, maintaining document retention policies, collaborating around documents, providing for disaster recovery, and easily searching for documents.

Whether companies are large or small, the sheer amount of documents and data that companies must store and manage outpaces their capabilities using paper filing systems or shared file servers.  With a modern document management system installed, users index documents as they are saved.  This in conjunction with power database tools provides the users with the capability to instantly retrieve or aggregate documents.  As an example, Document Locator is commonly deployed in an Accounts Payable process where documents are indexed with Company Name, Invoice Date, Check Number, and Amount.  By incorporating these index tags with document management, employees could easily retrieve all of the documents and approval notes for invoices received in the last 3 months that exceeded $20K via a web browser working from home.

In the economic downturn companies are struggling to maintain their business output while searching for ways to reduce costs.  Sadly this leads to layoffs and increased burden on those remaining in the organization.  While the natural tendency is to pull back spending, strategic investment in software that increase productivity can help maximize the resources you have remaining to drive your core business.

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.

Part 4 – Productivity with Document Management

Document management systems are designed to provide organizations with the tools necessary to capture and leverage their electronic content.  Modern document management systems will at minimum incorporate traditional indexing and searching functionality.  More advanced document management systems include integration with Microsoft Windows 7, workflow routing, digital signatures, records retention policies, event subscriptions, compliance audit logs, scanning interfaces, email archive features and more.

Historically companies have invested very little effort in managing their corporate documents.  Many companies throw away countless resource hours annually searching for documents, or they have given up finding documents altogether and simply reproduce work because of their inability to quickly locate business critical documents.

By not implementing corporate document policies and tools, document storage chaos evolves with users storing documents on their private network shares (or local computers), using their own naming standards, version identifiers, and folder structure design.  This results in information that is indefinitely siloed; useful only to the original author because of the storage conventions used, lack of records management policies applied, and the inability to include index information to facilitate searching. The problem is compounded when email archiving is brought into play.

Part 5 – up next, A Viable Solution