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Millennia Group Newsletter – July 2009
Welcome to the midsummer edition of our newsletter. We intend to keep these short, while providing you with useful information on topics relevant to the content and document management industry. We have provided three articles in this issue: 1. Filestar-Walk before you run to SharePoint or other ECM’s 2. Loan processing and servicing; taking the paper silos out of the process 3. Realcomm 2009: a recap of a glimpse into the future Thank you, Michael Cipriano President Millennia Group provides comprehensive document imaging and management services to help companies better utilize their documents and data. We offer a suite of cost-effective solutions designed to work alone or together to meet your specific needs: Managed Imaging Services, Hosted Document Applications and Consulting Services. We have the experience, technology and flexibility to meet your specific needs, working on-site or off-site, with your staff or ours. And we convert your documents into secure, digital formats that integrate with a choice of document management applications, including our own intuitive FileStar Image Warehouse.
Have a suggestion on a topic or feature? info@mgdocs.com FileStar – Walk before you run to SharePoint or other ECM’s By Michael Cipriano, President of Millennia Group, LLC FileStar is the name of our popular web-based image warehouse that enables clients to store, share and retrieve their digital documents. But did you know it also serves as a basic Electronic Content Management (ECM) system that can work alone or feed into other ECM systems? We have designed FileStar to be powerful and flexible: its foundation is an industry-leading SQL database with a variety of different front ends, the latest .Net 3.5. Programming options. Our clients have used FileStar systems with basic search and browse features based on simple organizational hierarchies, while others have used systems with complex structures offering customizable search queries, basic workflow components, and integration with core business applications. Call it an incubator, a prototype, or a “walk before you run” ECM application. FileStar is a cost-effective storage solution that provides immediate and long-term content management (ECM) benefits. There are a variety of approaches to implementing ECM, like any software application. These include the traditional full development cycle, out of the box installs, and the experimental/incremental approach. However, unlike many applications, some ECM systems are based on very complex or inflexible database structures. Once data goes in, it can be difficult to change the data structure to meet your changing business needs. This difficulty adds up to cost and frustration for users, and it may ultimately kill a project. We have witnessed this inflexibility and complexity in a number of applications like Microsoft/SharePoint, Computer Associates/Filesurf, Oracle/Stellent and EMC/Documentum. It is not that these applications are bad, quite the contrary: these are all good enterprise-wide ECM platforms that serve their customers well. The issue is more about time, cost and ultimate user satisfaction. Our advice? Walk with FileStar first, learn the true specs of your project, and then consider moving the data and structure into an enterprise-wide ECM. FileStar will make conversion to another ECM easier. You may even find FileStar meets your organization’s ECM needs without having to invest in a new ECM system or tying into a complicated enterprise-wide system that doesn’t meet your needs. FileStar can be up and running in days, providing tangible user and company benefits immediately. FileStar is also expandable and flexible, so as your users help to clarify their true search, taxonomy and storage needs, you are able to react quickly to provide the needed features. Since the data is all kept in a secure SQL database and the frontend is .Net, changes and additions can be made quickly and cost effectively. And given that we have been building these systems for almost 14 years, we will provide professional guidance before any development begins. Our consultants and developers have worked with many different organizations, files structures, document types, and workflows and we will bring that experience to each new assignment to ensure a successful project. Millennia Group provides basic web-hosted ECM solutions starting at just $175/mo., so you can spend many months affordably and effectively utilizing FileStar’s features before going through budget review meetings to purchase and deploy an Enterprise ECM system. We have helped many of our clients gain efficiency while saving money with our FileStar ECM solutions. Give us a call, so we may discuss your organization’s ECM needs and determine the best solution for you. To learn more about FileStar, visit our website at http://www.mgdocs.com/solutions or contact our New York Office at (212) 631-0490 x 23 or the Chicago office at (630) 279-0577 x 122. Loan processing and servicing: taking the paper silos out of the process Author: Donato Mallano, Director-Business Development During the past ten years, with historically low interest rates and a strong secondary market, the demand for and volume of loan products exploded in more ways than one. Unfortunately, many financial institutions had focused their attention on loan production—not on the back-office operations and processing for business loans, residential mortgages and commercial mortgages. Consequently, over the life span of these transactions, these financial institutions were left with silos of collateral, credit and application documents. The longer the term of a loan, the more correspondence, loan service requests and other documents that accumulated. As a result, many financial institutions began to experience serious business challenges from managing disparate paper-based files:
Banking systems come in many flavors and may be geared to specific banking services. Some of the leading systems on the market are solutions like FISERV, which provides an integrated, end-to-end bank platform. This platform supports new account and transaction processing, document management and imaging, online banking, business intelligence, and risk management. It can be deployed either in-house or as an outsourced solution. Other solutions, like Laserfiche and OnBase, are geared purely for document processing. These solutions provide a full range of ECM functionality, including workflow automation, web-based document management, audit trail tracking, and DoD 5015.2-certified records management. New technologies—like capture, collaboration, web services, open source, cloud computing, and FISERV’s online banking service built on Facebook—are being deployed to capture market share from institutions that are no longer around. They have also been instrumental in increasing transaction profitability, reducing operating costs from legacy systems, and improving worker productivity. By utilizing the right technologies, savvy financial institutions can take advantage of either a protracted recession (e.g. delinquencies, non-performing, bankruptcy) or the next wave of financial innovation and lending. Technology and processes need to be agile and scalable to utilize newer financial products. They also need to be cost-effective, so institutions can provide competitive pricing advantages, reach new customers, and take advantage of the labor differential around the world. Managing loan files electronically reduces the costs of housing paperwork and enables financial organization to efficiently manage each loan—from receipt of the application to purging the customer's file. Imaging technology is a key component of any cost effective straight-through loan processing and servicing platform. If you need help with your current imaging strategy, or wish to discuss other document management solutions to help your company stay competitive, give Millennia Group a call. We have provided effective document imaging and management solutions to clients in the financial, commercial real estate, and other industries for nearly 14 years, and we would be happy to meet with you to discuss your needs. Realcomm 2009: a recap of a glimpse into the future. By Michael Cipriano, President of Millennia Group, LLC Realcomm was a smaller, more concentrated event this year, but it still provided a great glimpse into the future of commercial real estate. I am glad that Millennia Group had a presence at the show and that we were able to make some very meaningful connections both with attendees and other vendors. There was a high concentration of CIOs and other senior-level real estate professionals who wanted to meet others in their field. As well, there was a heavy emphasis on learning, made evident by the packed house during opening session each day. This may be my naïve view of Realcomm, but as I sat in the opening session, I realized that Realcomm was about to change. When I was at the very first Realcomm, the show was all about technology—any technology, all technologies. It seemed that there was a technology solution for every aspect of the commercial real estate industry. But looking back, those technology solutions had fairly specific benefactors, such as property management, asset management or brokerage. They wanted to use technology to become more efficient. Realcomm 2009 seemed to be about a larger issue, namely how environmental issues might impact the industry. There were discussions on building design that could lower the carbon footprint, technology to monitor and minimize energy usage, and government regulation targeting energy efficiency. The show emphasized the fact that environmental awareness is a central concern for everyone in the industry: owners, lenders, managers, brokers and tenants. It also helped prove the fact that technology provides solutions for those seeking new and better ways to run their business. Technology solutions have helped the commercial real estate industry become more efficient, but efficiency is just a part of the story. Each year, new concerns arise, and companies need to stay efficient while also adapting to change. Environmental issues will be a major consideration for many years to come, but who knows what other issues we will face three years or five years from now? There could be a severe shortage of building materials or new tax considerations. Either way, technology will continue to be at the heart of most commercial real estate solutions, and Realcomm will continue to be the place to connect and learn. To learn more about Realcomm, visit the website at http://www.realcomm.com To learn more about green building initiatives, visit the US Green Building Council website at http://www.usgbc.org To learn more about reducing paper waste with an efficient document scanning, storage and retrieval solution, visit Millennia Group’s website at http://www.mgdocs.com | ||||||||||||||||||
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