Millennia Group Newsletter – November 2009

Welcome to Fall and the home stretch for 2009. We hope our newsletter will provide you with some useful information to close out the year and help you plan ahead for 2010.

Topics:

1. News Updates and Tidbits
2. Project Planning and Imaging System Optimization
3. Records Management in the Commercial Real Estate Industry


News Updates and Tidbits

Please join us in welcoming Courtlandt Harris to our technical and programming team. Court is a graduate of DeVry University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems. Court will be part of our FileStar application development team and will be critical in providing other database and technical help to all of Millennia Group’s clients.

Millennia Group has been awarded a contract by Mesirow Financial to convert two million pages of investor account documents to digital image. This project will provide a significant efficiency gain to Mesirow’s account managers and will simplify the move to their new headquarters building.

Michael Cipriano was invited to be the guest speaker at ARMA Chicago’s (American Records Management Association) event on September 8th held at the East Bank Club. Michael provided a detailed and interactive cost benefit case study on imaging vs. paper storage.

FileStar Version 4.0 will be released in January, 2010. This version will add some significant new features, i.e., a plug-in for digital signatures, multi-file uploads, auto OCR for imported documents, improved user tracking reports, versioning history and an overall updated user interface.

Millennia Group has been awarded a contract by First National Bank to convert their loan files and customer account documents to digital image. The image files and document information will be loaded into iDentifi.web, a browser based document management application by Integra Business Systems, Inc. Integra created the iDentifi.net suite of ECM products for the Financial Services and other industries.

Below, you will find a link to an article authored by John Mancini, the President of AIIM (Association for Imaging and Information Management) highlighting eight reasons why you need a strategy for managing information. We highly recommend that you take a few minutes to read this. In addition, we have also provided a link to a digital book called 8 Things with similar topics.

http://aiim.typepad.com/aiim_blog/2009/09/8-reasons-you-need-a-strategy-for-managing-information-before-its-too-late.html

http://www.aiim.org/8things


Project Planning and Imaging System Optimization

Our business is centered on your business and how you can use imaging for process improvement and cost savings. With each new assignment, we dig deeply to gain a thorough understanding of the purpose of the project and the existing workflows. From this information, we create a project plan for you that will provide a successful, quality outcome at the lowest possible cost, and with the highest possible value.

With the proliferation of digital copiers and quality scanners at reasonable costs, some companies have recently embarked on imaging projects using their own internal resources. Other companies, over time, have established in-house imaging departments with significant investments in hardware and software. No matter what equipment or processes your company employs, our experience with Project Planning and Process Improvement can be a valuable resource to you. We enable companies to make the best use of their resources, while also helping to lower costs, increase efficiency and improve decision-making processes.

Project planning is a key ingredient in making any imaging project successful. With experienced planning, you will ensure that you have the right resources and that you can achieve the expected outcome within an approved budget. Proper resources include not only the hardware and software, but also the labor and management. If you have a high concentration of labor and a poorly designed process, you may experience costs that far exceed the value of converting documents into a digital format.

Millennia Group can prepare a cost benefit analysis to help you make smarter business decisions from the very beginning. When we plan your project, we create a process design that will permit us to estimate the labor resources necessary for prep and scanning, data entry, re-assembly, quality control and output generation. The design will also provide an in-depth look at the equipment requirements and software. High-volume projects may justify sophisticated scanners, bar-code reading software and a database for output and integration. Low-volume projects may be accomplished with a simple digital copier and a software update for PDF that provides Searchable Text. Our experience will ensure that there are no unforeseen issues that can cause short-term or long-term headaches. We have helped companies that embarked on imaging projects without proper planning and, in each case, they spent well in excess of $100,000 before scrapping all the prior work and starting over. If you are thinking about starting an imaging project, give us a call, and we will make sure your efforts won’t be wasted.

If your company has an imaging system and process that is more than five years old, a review of that system and the imaging workflow may highlight areas for significant cost savings and increased efficiency. You might find that new business requirements are not being met by your existing imaging system, simply because your image files and data are stored inefficiently. Or, you may have an outdated process that needs to be adjusted. Oftentimes, little fixes like tweaking existing software and hardware can allow you to regain the full value of your existing investment. Conversely, You may decide to invest in newer scanners and software, which can improve throughput by 50% or more—which means 50% less scanning time and cost.

Of course, the most significant reason to do project planning and to optimize your imaging system is not always a hard dollar issue. Many forward-thinking companies are creating tremendous long-term value by addressing soft dollar issues, like better decision-making and client service. Companies use image files to support essential transactions and to maintain effective customer relationships—so by improving access to these files, you will build a more efficient process. You can provide reliable and fast access to essential information and create ways to search the documents for information that is not in your CRM, accounting or other line of business applications. Tying the image files to the associated business data can be a simple task that provides information capabilities that never existed before.

Give us a call if you are planning an imaging project or if you are not getting the full value out of your existing imaging process. We will provide a thorough review and analysis of your current situation and make recommendations for improvements that will provide valuable benefits.


Records Management in the Commercial Real Estate Industry

Earlier in 2009, Millennia Group conducted a targeted peer review as part of a document imaging and records management project planning engagement for a large commercial real estate owner. The questionnaires sent to four peer companies—large property owners with billions of dollars in assets— included a variety of questions about their document imaging and records management. Not surprisingly, all of the respondents were employing document imaging in different areas of their companies, including lease management, payables and other departments. However, it was surprising that three of the companies, plus the client on the engagement, had Records Management policies and some form of Retention Schedules in place. It is typically very rare to have any client or prospect openly talk about their Records Management policy and how the document imaging work should fit in. This tells us that document imaging and Records Management are not coordinated yet at large commercial real estate companies, which creates a potential hole in the policy.

Records Management is the process of defining and classifying documents as various types of records—Legal, Administrative, Archival or Transactional (Fiscal)—and then managing those records based on their value to the company. The commercial real estate industry, like many other industries, generates a tremendous amount of paper-based and digital records that they use for long periods of time. A vital part of Records Management is to establish a Retention Schedule, which spells out how long to retain records based on the value to the company. For instance, it is a fairly common practice to keep lease documents for seven years past the expiration date of the lease or the sale date of the property, whichever is sooner. Lease documents have both Legal Value and Transactional Value to the company and may have Archival Value, as well (e.g., the first lease signed by Google or the first lease signed for a new building).

So why does a commercial real estate company need a Records Management policy and Retention Schedule? First of all, by having a policy or going through the process of creating one, companies gain a clearer understanding of what records are important and which are not. This understanding permits a company to streamline operational workflows to cut out wasted effort and cost in creating and processing transactions. Second, it provides faster and more efficient access to documents and information due to better organization of the data (defining and classifying documents). Third, it prepares the organization for potential litigation, governmental review or M&A activity. The cost of litigation and going through an eDiscovery process is very high. You could save significant money by preparing in advance with an effective Records Management policy and Retention Schedule.

As companies grapple with more government regulation and greater investor expectations, it is essential they develop solid Records Management and Document Retention policies and procedures. Our experienced and certified Records Management professionals will help you create a policy and Records Retention schedule that meets your company’s specific business, compliance and legal needs. Our services include records inventory, identification of vital records, review of inactive records storage, filing and retrieval requirements and, of course, the creation of a Retention Schedule.

If you are already scanning documents into a document management system, the data should also be covered under the Records Policy and Retention Schedules. Millennia can help you evaluate the effectiveness of that policy and ensure internal compliance with the program.

For more information about how you can establish or enhance your Records Management system and Retention Schedule, please contact Michael Cipriano at (630) 279-0577 x122 Or visit our website at MGdocs.com.