Workflow Automation Software

Category: Millennia Group Blog

A Perfect Union Leads to More Sales and More Profit

  We are not talking about peanut butter and chocolate, marriage or the United States, but the union of document imaging and workflow. These two technologies are great partners and together can lead to more sales and profit. Imaging is a good input source for a workflow engine. Workflow takes a piece of paper and turns it into a decision or action with predictability and tracking. They can each survive on their own, but together, they are very powerful. How can that union result in more sales, more profit, less employee turnover and less customer turnover? Easily – get started! This perfect union can help any company achieve those lofty goals and here are some examples of how.
  1. More Sales The easier your sales process is on the customer, from ordering to delivery, the happier the customer is. Happy customers refer new customers and sales grow. Workflow can help make the customer onboarding process more streamlined and help make sure the customer gets exactly what they bargained for. That makes a happy customer. Workflow can assist with returns or contract changes, thus making that process less of a burden on the customer. That makes a happy customer and generates more sales.
  2. More Profit This one is easy. If the process is streamlined, the cost per transaction or task is less and therefore, profits rise. Of course, profit will rise as sales rise, which is the point of #1. Every company can find an internal process that is less than optimal and may still involve moving paper around. Look at those processes and transform them into an efficient workflow and start reaping the benefits.
  3. Less Employee Turnover This one could actually be part of #2 because employee turnover is expensive. With efficient and measurable processes, companies can better match employee skill sets to the tasks at hand. When an employee is appropriately matched to their skill level, they will excel. When they excel, they are happy. Workflow also helps to balance workload, which means employees are not over stressed at peak activity times. More stress means less happy employees.
  4. Less Customer Turnover Here is another one that could be part of #1 above. It is very expensive to continually have to go find new customers. Every business owner knows that it is far less expensive and more profitable to sell to existing customers. If your internal processes are efficient and customers experience fast response times for support or they speak with knowledgeable representatives on the phone, they will be happier customers. Why are response times fast? Because the processes are part of a workflow and data is captured in an organized fashion and stored electronically which means it is readily available to the customer service representative. Why are representatives so knowledgeable? Because they have fast access to all of this well organized information.
Too often imaging and workflow are looked at as technologies to help lower costs. The reality is that these technologies are front line sales and profit tools. Take advantage of the union between these tools to grow your sales and increase your profits. If your company has a less then optimal process or a paper based process, please contact us. We have helped many companies get the benefits of a perfect union.
For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

Ready for Digital Signatures?

  It has been five years since we first added digital signatures to one of our customer’s workflows. It is a bit surprising to me that this technology is still not mainstream in B2B transactions. That is especially so since we use digital signatures for many consumer transactions. Are we, as a business community, just not ready for digital signatures or has this technology’s time come? We currently use the digital signature tools from DocuSign and they work very well for some very complex documents with multiple signature requirements and multiple documents in a package. I thought it might be helpful to provide a list of digital signature providers. Check out the demos that each system provides. These demos may spark some thoughts about how you can retool an existing process to make it more efficient and less costly.
The list below is not exhaustive, but I did review each product enough to feel that these providers all satisfy the security and authenticity requirements needed by most companies. Depending on your situation, you will probably be able to find a good solution among this list.
  1. www.arx.com, Cosign
  2. www.docusign.com, DocuSign
  3. www.echosign.com, EchoSign by Adobe
  4. www.rightsignature.com, Rightsignature by Citrix
  5. www.signnow.com, SignNow
  6. www.silanis.com, eSignLive
If you would like to discuss digital signatures in a workflow, please contact me at mcipriano@mgdocs.com or (630) 279-0577 x122.
For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

Easy Isn’t Always Nirvana

I am going to go out on a limb and say that most companies, outside of highly regulated industries, use a combination of shared network folders and individual user folders on the network to store and manage files like spreadsheets, Word files, scanned documents, reports and presentations. The companies that have moved away from that approach may have adopted SharePoint, Google Documents or Box. The beauty of all of these approaches to file management is that it is easy to create a filing structure and it is easy to add new files. Users can copy, paste, add and cut their way to nirvana. For a while, it is nirvana. But at some point, it turns into a confusing mess that is impacting efficiency and potentially putting the company at risk.
You may have noticed that in your company or possibly in your own family, not everyone has the same idea about organizational structure. This fact of life inherently results in a filing system that doesn’t look anything like the original plan. Throw into the mix a continuous stream of new employees bringing methods from other companies or no method at all. Don’t forget users that make copies of shared folders and files for their own use and then they tuck those folders away for safe keeping. Add into the challenges the ingesting of a filing structure from an acquisition. These circumstances generally do not result in an optimal structure and it is certainly not nirvana. So while the accumulation of all these files may have been easy, using and finding the right file and the correct information when you need it is now harder than ever and maybe even impossible. The solution? The solution actually involves two parts. First, the existing collection of files needs to be cleaned up, re-organized and possibly migrated to a document system. Yes, that is correct and yes that will require an initial investment in time, money and effort. The second step is to implement some controls to prevent the situation from occurring again. These controls can be a combination of documented rules and procedures, digital workflow tools that force rules to be followed and a document management and imaging system that imposes a minimum set of required information for all new files added or generated. The rules don’t have to be draconian and the required information per file can be relatively minimal and you will still have a significant improvement. These steps will improve employee efficiency and company profitability as employees no longer have to spend hours trying to find the right file. When the right information is accessible quickly, decision making is better and the risk of mistakes or decisions based on incomplete information is reduced. That is starting to sound like nirvana. If your company has a shared drive that is only sharing headaches, please contact us. We have helped many companies get to a better place.
For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

To Destroy or Not To Destroy, That is the Real Question

  The destruction that I am referring to is not sinister or borne out of a desire to blow things up. I am simply referring to the difficult decision that many companies agonize over when considering destroying their documents after those documents have been scanned. Fear not, there are answers available to help make the best decision, one way or another. We have seen situations where documents come out of storage, get scanned and then go back into storage. The reason for scanning was to improve access to the documents. The reason not to destroy might be fear or possibly a valid Federal, State or industry requirement.
Not destroying the documents after scanning increases the cost of the scanning effort and it increases the cost of storing the documents into the future. Destroying documents does cost some money, but it is much less expensive then storing the documents. Making an informed decision to destroy or not destroy can save money or ensure compliance, both important issues. So where are these answers so that you can make an intelligent decision. Start with the Federal Rules of Evidence, Rules 1001-1008. States all have their own rules but many are modeled after the Federal rules. In fact, for Illinois the State Rules of Evidence that cover “copies” are also rules 1001-1008. Other places to look for answers would be governing bodies, associations or membership requirements. For instance, the SEC or FDIC may have specific rules for retaining originals of some agreements. Local school districts may have rules for maintaining employment records in original format for all teachers. If you cannot locate the rules specific for your situation or industry there are many good records management consultants and lawyers that will do the digging for you. If you do find that you can destroy the documents after scanning, the value of your digital evidence (the scanned versions) will increase with some simple steps. First, make sure that access to the digital documents is fully logged so that you know exactly who has accessed the documents. This will let you prove to the court that the document has not been tampered with. Second, think about using a hosted document management system. Since the documents are not on your server, the ability to access them is even more remote. Lastly, document exactly how the imaging process was performed so that there is a chain of custody from paper to digital, which helps to prove that tampering was not possible. We are happy to refer you to some records management experts if you have questions. One other piece of advice, don’t run out and buy a giant shredder. Let a professional help you – and get a destruction certificate too.

Please contact us for more information or to get started today

For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

Getting it Done – Integration 101

  There are usually a few applications within every company that are core to the business but maybe focused on a limited set of capabilities or tasks. When those applications were implemented they may have been the be all end all. But with the passage of time, new capabilities are needed so additional, complimentary applications are put into production. So now the direction is centered on integrating the applications or at the very least creating a dashboard on top of a data warehouse.
There are a number of ways to integrate third party applications including API’s, web services, scheduled data extraction to name a few. Likely one or two methods will provide the right mix of effectiveness and efficiency while preserving security. There are one-way integration’s and two-way integration’s. One-way means data comes out of one application and into another and data in the latter is updated as necessary. In a two-way integration, data passes back and forth so each application can update the other. Two-way is more difficult but is generally more effective. The desire to integrate is usually tied to a need for additional data in one of the applications for better decision making or the integration eliminates duplicate steps such as data entry. Either reason typically enjoys a strong return on investment. There is one note of caution besides the technical aspects and that is, be mindful of what you will find when you pull back the covers. We have been involved in many integration’s of document management systems to line of business applications (documents plus data equals nirvana) and many times the core data is not optimal for integration. This can be the result of bad data, missing data or data anomalies at implementation. Data anomalies are related to non-standard business processes that had to be jerry rigged in the core application to get them to work. Therefore, that data doesn’t look like the other data and consequently is not easily integrated with other applications. So why is this a blog post you ask? Because better decision making and the elimination of unnecessary work is worth some effort and Millennia Group is in the business of helping our clients do both. Of course, we are generally helping to integrate digital documents with line of business applications.

Please contact us for more information or to get started today

For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

Training, Overlooked and Under Appreciated

I am a firm believer in the benefits of training. A few of my reasons are as follows:

  • Training leads to more consistent results
  • Training leads to a shorter learning curve
  • Training reduces the incidence of bad hires

These are all positives for any company and for all employees. So why is training neglected or avoided? I can think of a few negatives to training also, such as:

  • Training takes time and time is money
  • Training is boring and nobody pays attention
  • Training is difficult in a fast changing business world

These may have some merit but they do not outweigh the benefits noted above. So what does this have to do with document workflow or imaging? As it turns out, document workflow and imaging can be somewhat complex and the output or outcomes can contain mission critical information. Therefore, training should be an important component.

Technology has provided us with some great tools to make training easier and make it appealing to more employees. For instance, training videos can be very useful and are on-demand and available anywhere. Those characteristics make videos appealing to many employees. There are also hands on training applications to give users the feel and experience of using the actual application, but the application is not live. This lets users get over the fear that they may “break” something in the application. Training sometimes is about trying things. “I wonder what would happen if I did this” or “What if I click on this button here”. These applications can be interactive and provide instant feedback.

This is not to say that you don’t need to create a training manual. Some employees will feel more comfortable with a manual that they can flip through to find answers. Pretty soon that need may go away and all users will “flip” through the online help. In-person training is of course still a popular and effective method. And in-person may mean remote using GoToMeeting or WebEx or Link.

The bottom line is that training can be done and should be offered in a variety of formats to effectively reach the greatest percentage of employees. Training is also continuous. Applications and hardware are changing all the time. New releases of software or changes in workflow should always be accompanied by follow up training, even if it is only 15 minutes.

Selfishly from an application providers perspective, I know that the value of an application increases as the level and quality of training increases. The good news is that it is a win win situation because the value to the client also increases with greater productivity.

So talk to your vendors about training.

Please contact us for more information on training on FileStar or CollectDocs

For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

Digital Document Organization – Got Folders?

This post expands on a previous post, but the topic is important, so here you go. Does your company store all of its digital documents in folders on a shared network drive or in static SharePoint folders? If the filing method is by folder, how was that folder structure designed? What are the rules for creating new folders or changing the names of existing folders? Are there any requirements before a file can be saved to a particular folder? How is security managed across the folders? Why all the questions?
These are important questions when your company is trying to figure out how to be profitable and grow based on a critical business asset – Information. After all, if your employees cannot find the information that they are looking for, the business is likely in serious trouble. Given those goals and the explosion of digital documents, how are companies designing these file storing structures? Is a folder based method the preferred method? Designing the structure can involve the assistance of a records manager or library sciences professional that have a background in taxonomy (a scheme of organization) and records management. These professionals can help look at the types of documents and information being used and generate a logical storing and naming scheme. Some common high level organization methods use a structure based on department, functional area or document type. Other methods involve storage by project, job, employee, property, patient, etc. Most likely the end result will involve some mixture of these methods. A document management professional can also help look at the current filing methods to see what is working and what is not working. Interviews with all of the departments will usually dig up the problems. Sometimes the problems are plainly obvious when looking at the randomness of the folders on the network. Sometimes the issues aren’t problems as much as lost opportunities. Keep in mind that a nice neat filing structure is not the ultimate success. The ability to have information provided dynamically or proactively is just as important. That ability requires intelligent folders or no folders at all, as in the case of database driven document management system. It is more effort to classify a document before it is approved for filing, but the end result far outweighs that effort. Think of it this way. The extra time for one person to properly classify one document is far outweighed by the value of that same document being instantly available to many users across multiple departments. As an example, think of the new customer contract, it is used by sales, accounting, customer service, audit and the legal department. Storing documents in network folders is not optimal due to the limitations mentioned above. Look at a database driven document management system for superior information access or at least use intelligent folders. The end result of the effort to convert will be quickly realized and very likely lead to an explosion of opportunities to improve your business.

Please contact us for more information or to get started today

For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

A Little Out There

  Here are a few thoughts that might be a little out there but they do have some merit.

A National Digital Document Recorders Office

Many, many years ago a great idea came about to have local governments keep “recorded” copies of real estate documents. The purpose was generally to ensure that ownership could be proven and the legal relationship was recorded and recognized. Each local government runs its own recording office for properties in its jurisdiction, but there isn’t a statewide or national “Recorder”. This is also primarily a paper based process with actual document stamps.
With digital signature technology, endless online storage and internet access, it is easy to see how one entity could be the “Recorder” of all real estate transaction documents. That would save governments countless billions of dollars on labor, storage and systems maintenance as well as user’s time and money for submitting and finding documents. Take that one step further and conceive of a document escrow for medical documents, mortgage documents, car loan documents or commercial leases. Pieces of this concept already exist with Docusign, Dropbox, Tapestry, eRecorder, but they only serve groups of users that have volunteered to share documents in that way. This may need some government intervention and some deep pockets, but it makes a lot of sense.

Location Services to Connect You With Your Files and Data

If you own a smart phone or tablet device you are aware of the feature that allows your current location to be known to various applications. For instance, if you use Yelp, the food rating app, just open the app and search for pizza. Yelp will find all pizza joints near your current location, whether that is at home or in another city. So is it possible that all documents and files related to the customer that I am visiting will be on my tablet as soon as I enter their office? Can all of this information pop up on my screen as soon as the phone system sees an incoming call from a recognized phone number? How about if you are a construction manager on the 30th floor of a building under construction? It would be great if the plans and specifications related to that floor were waiting on your tablet as you walked off the elevator. Just some thoughts, but some of it sure sounds nice, and my guess is, not too far into the future.

Please contact us for more information or to get started today

For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

Taking Inventory of Your Digital Folders

  There used to be a frequent occurrence at retail stores called “taking inventory”, an all-night process with an army of workers. It was a process of manually counting each unit of every product on the shelves to confirm the actual inventory with the inventory on the books. Together with other data like deliveries this helped confirm sales numbers, but that was about all the data was good for. This process has come a long way with the use of purchasing systems, UPC codes and registers with barcode reading, all feeding the same database. Inventory is now up to the minute and able to generate automated workflows that send out restocking orders to the vendors.
So where is this going relative to document imaging and digital document management? The analogy is the same when comparing the use of a static file folder method of document storage with the use of a database driven document management application. A well designed file folder system on a network drive or in the cloud should allow you to find a document quickly if you know where to look. If you need more that, you should use a database driven system. Document files stored in a folder hierarchy, no matter how well designed, will always have serious limitations. Here is a short list:
  • Folders on a network drive will not alert you when documents are added, changed or deleted
  • Folders need to be manually updated for every change, such as customer name change, otherwise files will be lost to some users
  • Tracking folder activity on a shared network drive is almost impossible
  • Folder based systems never know that a file is missing; for instance, it is required that each employee have a signed I-9
  • Full text search or advanced searches are impossible – ie; all invoices between two dates
  • Folder based systems don’t require a user to follow any naming convention or add any specific information to a file
Cloud based, folder type storage applications fail on most of those issues and basic SharePoint setups fail on some. But most of all, folder based systems fail to provide access to information in ways that are truly productive to users, such as reporting, information assembly and workflow. We see many companies that have very costly, manual methods to assemble groups of documents for reporting purposes. These can be monthly or quarterly financial reports, tenant common area maintenance packages, construction loan draws, collections of documents for audit purposes and supporting documentation for medical review, just to name a few. A database driven system can breeze through all of those tasks and more. Workflows are easily initiated with a database driven system. Workflows can be initiated based on information that is entered with the document, information that is missing or a comparison of multiple pieces of data. Just as the retailers have benefited greatly from the use of database driven systems, so too will your business when you replace the folder based document storage method.

Please contact us for more information or to get started today

For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

Ready, Set, Start that BPA Project (but only after reading this first)

  The effort to improve a business process seems easy enough. Map out the required information flow. Create a list of the parties involved. Understand the security and legal requirements. Crank up the visual workflow tool and get started. Sometimes it does work that way, but sometimes each of these steps reveals deeper issues, missing data, incorrect data or inaccessible data. Don’t be discouraged, these issues can be solved and you can achieve the ROI that you desire. Read on for a few ideas on how to succeed.
Like any good construction project, the key to success is a strong foundation. BPA, business process automation, invariably depends on connections to one or more company systems. For instance, you probably should not approve a customer loan extension without having reviewed their payment history. In the world of BPA this requires integration to the loan management system so that the online request programmatically includes a payment history report (matched based on loan number). Always confirm the ability of existing systems to be accessed (API’s) or to push data to other applications. These connections and interrelationships also mean that the underlying data must be clean and in a format that you can work with. A simple example that highlights this issue is of course paper based data. If the automated process will rely on a review of historical information, but your historical information is all in paper, your process is not going to be very automated. Likewise, if an approval step requires that you compare the loan request to all others from the same NAICS or SIC code, you are out of luck if you were not historically capturing that data. Understand where the information resides and make a plan for what is missing and needs to be gathered before proceeding. The bottom line is that you need advanced planning when looking at automating a process. We have many examples of information that is needed only being available in the original documents and that data was never captured. When entering information about a new customer, new vendor, new employee, etc. into your core systems, remember that you need to capture the right information. Focus on the needs of management, but also sales, engineering and all other departments. Even consider the needs of business partners and your accountants or consultants. Think about the data needed to understand customer behavior, data needed for financial and taxes reporting and regulatory requirements, even data needed for managing employees. The upfront effort is far less expensive and it opens up the possibility for powerful and productive BPA. The data is only one piece of the process. You will still need to set security, map out flow and find the right workflow tool, but that will all be easier when your data is present and clean. Millennia Group would be happy to work with you to get your foundation solid and to help you achieve significant ROI on business process improvement efforts.

Please contact us for more information or to get started today

For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

Gym Shoes Required

  I would love to talk about how electronic document management could supercharge your company sales or revenue, but it always seems like it is too hard to connect all the dots. Instead most prospects and customers think “what will this cost me?” We are always looking at what it costs to create, store, share, ship and scan documents. This calculation is more challenging than ever since there is now both paper and digital storage, cloud and on premise storage, off-site storage and yes, some day, unmanned vehicles delivering documents to your door.
Millennia Group has it’s own hosted document management system called FileStar. It would be considered a private cloud application. FileStar is used for workflow, imaging, compliance, reporting and digital file archive and retrieval. We have analyzed the cost of FileStar for our customers and there are many impressive stats, but one in particular stands out – cost per view. Our heavy use customers have a cost per document viewed of less than $0.10 with many customers at $0.50 or less. Think about that, less than $0.10 per view. Compare that to the cost of simply going to a file cabinet to pull a document for viewing. For an employee earning $40,000 per year, they would have ten seconds to get to the file cabinet and ten seconds to get back to their desk. I hope your dress code allows gym shoes. And if your cost per view is higher, factor in the disaster recovery benefits, the absence of lost documents, the avoidance of copying and shipping costs and of course the compliance benefits of user tracking. Lastly, factor in the positive customer experience as a result of getting an answer quickly and you can see why electronic document management shouldn’t be looked at as a cost but as a real opportunity.

Please contact us for more information or to get started today

For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

Business Process Automation – How is your Company Doing?

According to Wikipedia, Business Process Automation (BPA) is “the strategy a business uses to automate processes in order to contain costs. It consists of integrating applications, restructuring labor resources and using software applications throughout the organization.”

BPA, as you can see, is a broad definition and sounds like a massive undertaking. Yet companies successfully complete “BPA projects” – knowingly or unknowingly – all the time.

Examples of simple BPA projects include:

  • Accepting orders via online form (replacing the use of a fax machine or order clerk answering the phone)
  • Replacing monthly sales reports created manually in Excel with automated reports and dashboards created by CRM software like Salesforce
  • Using Mail Merge to deliver customized marketing materials to customers and prospects

On the other extreme are highly sophisticated BPA tools that have completely automated an entire industry – Netflix being a prime case study. Netflix was a game changer that radically altered the movie distribution landscape and generated billions in revenues for the company.

Not every BPA tool or process in your business will have results like Netflix. But you can expect well designed ones to have an ROI of 100% or more within a year.

Here are three other examples of processes that typically have a very high ROI:

  1. Accounts Payable Process – Converting a paper and labor intensive process with a digital workflow. This process typically involves scanning of the invoices at the moment of receipt, capturing enough information from the invoice to ensure proper routing to the responsible party. The end result of this process is that invoices are in the system faster and discounts can be taken, invoices don’t get lost or incur late payments, invoices are now digital and easily searchable.
  2. Contract management – Many companies use a contract management system to manage the critical dates and compliance issues for each customer contract. These systems can be a simple database of the critical dates all the way to a full workflow from initial contact creation with the prospect all the way to final execution of the contract. Many contract management systems will now incorporate digital signature capabilities, templates for new agreements and even clause libraries for very sophisticated contract creation and delivery.
  3. Vendor Onboarding – Every company has vendors and many larger companies have thousands if not tens of thousands of vendors. With so many new financial regulations and industry regulations it is now almost impossible for a large company to not have an onboarding process in place. These systems ensure that all required documents are collected, government mandates for minority or special class hiring are met and optimally the most qualified vendor is hired. Achieving compliance in this global business world is almost impossible with a paper based process.

Talk to Millennia. Tell us about your most cumbersome, paper-intensive, human capital consuming processes. We’ll bring our best ideas and technologies to help you turn those high risk, high cost situations into productivity and cash.

For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

Organize, Consolidate and Share

Most businesses that we see operate with multiple information silos. From paper documents in file cabinets and files in shared directories on a server to files loaded in cloud storage and of course files on each employee’s computer.

It should be every company’s goal to consolidate all those silos into an efficient repository of critical business information that lets the company operate at peak performance.

Although most companies would claim they are accomplishing that goal by using data warehouses (CRM, Accounting and ERP systems), the real problem still looms below the surface.

The challenge arises when information needs to be sourced from documents (contracts, invoices, drawings, manuals, reports, legal documents, employee documents) and the myriad of documents that still represent an important part of a business.

When information is difficult to find, two things happen. First, immense time is burned up searching. Second, poor decisions get made for lack of information.

This need for information can be a recurring event in an ongoing business process like contract management, project management or financial reporting. This can become a very costly situation since it is happening on a daily basis.

There are also event-driven needs for data – such as when there is an audit or special project. In these situations, it is not uncommon for the entire office to shut down while the hunt for information ensues. Since such a search typically involves everyone from staff to executives, the costs become astronomical.

When all else fail, decisions are made in a vacuum of information – and risks increase. This risk is magnified when there is a merger or acquisition of another company. Not only is it likely that the acquired company had multiple silos of information, but the nomenclature and filing structure may be very different than that of the acquiring company.

Imagine having just one closet in your house – and no matter what you are searching for, it magically appears when you open the door. Whether it’s your coat, the car keys, your golf clubs or your running shoes. Whatever it is you are looking for – everything right where you want it. That would be a closet we’d all invest in owning.

At the office, we would all appreciate a similar scenario though wouldn’t we? A “folder” on our desktop – and no matter what it was we needed to find, it was always in that folder. This utopia may not be exactly possible – but at Millennia Group, we’ve come pretty close.

We start by cleaning up and consolidating the existing silos of information you have (shared drives, cloud storage, paper documents) into something more meaningful and effective. We even create rules and procedures for going forward (commonly known as Information Governance). Once we’re done, every piece of information you need will be instantly available – and you’ll have the confidence to know the information is complete and actionable.

Millennia Group has the tools and experience to help you organize, consolidate and share the information so that the information is where you expect it, when you need it. Whether your issue is ongoing or due to an acquisition, we can help. We can also help you design and implement an information governance strategy to keep your company operating at peak profitability and efficiency.

Talk to us today about your biggest data access headache – and let us bring that “magic closet” concept into your company – just like we have for some of the biggest companies in America.

Talk to us today about your biggest data access headache – and let us bring that “magic closet” concept into your company – just like we have for some of the biggest companies in America.

For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

We Have Seen the Light, and We Want You to See it Too

We have been busy searching for the meaning of Scanning so to speak. Millennia Group has been a scanning service bureau or scanning services company for 17 years now. We have always put customer first and that has meant providing our valued customers with scanning services that they wanted and were willing to fund. There is no question that when the economy was really good, the willingness to fund scanning projects was far greater than it is today. The underlying reasons to scan have not changed, but the willingness to fund them has, shall we say, tightened up a bit. And we understand that. This has caused us and our clients to look deeply at the reasons for a scanning project. The results of that look are really not surprising.

What we have come to fully embrace and advocate is that scanning needs to be looked at as part of business process improvement. Scanning is not a means to empty a basement full of boxes or to Go Paperless. Scanning is also not just a means to satisfy the disaster recovery team or to eliminate some file cabinets. While it is true that those things can be the result of scanning, scanning must be tied to business process improvement to get past the justifiable financial scrutiny.

For this reason, over the past year, we have been starting the conversation with companies that call and want us to “scan all of their documents” with this simple question – Why? What is this project going to do to improve your business? Will it turn a paper based routing and approval process into a paperless process with tracking, notices and an audit trail? Yes, we are on board and we can help you with that. Will it give your dispersed and mobile workforce better access to customer and project documentation and let those remote users upload new documents? Yes, we are on board with this too and we can definitely help.

Be willing to have a thick skin and maybe look hard at some internal processes that may not be optimal or in fact broken. Embrace some well thought out change. Now scanning is really going to improve your business. Will a centralized, trusted, online repository of your business documents empower your mobile or dispersed workforce? Yes, we can help get your there.

Contact us today for more information or to get started today

For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com

Checklist Length Doesn’t Matter

We have been very busy meeting with people in a variety of companies and disciplines but one area that has taken great interest in our online document checklist continues to rise to the top and that is human resources. When we meet with someone in the human resources world and we start to describe the concept of an online checklist that helps you track and gather a set of required documents, we have been surprised by a simple response – we need to collect one or two documents from many employees.

The concept of an online document gathering system seemed to us to mean a list of many documents that needed to be collected and because it may be a long list or at least a list used over and over again, some control, organization and automation would be really helpful. Turns out, it is very helpful in those situations but a short list sent to many people is also difficult to manage and our system can help with that too.

For instance, a company with a division of 300 employees in a state that changes insurance requirements means sending out new disclosure forms and beneficiary designation forms to all of those employees and gathering up all the signed copies. That is a lot of email and file attachments and a nightmare to monitor and manage. Well, not with CollectDocs. Load the list of employees and the blank forms and send out a batch Request and let the system tell you when all files are collected. Simple. Even simpler with digital signatures.

Contact us today for more information or to get started today

For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com