There are many benefits to using electronic documents versus paper. One of those benefits is being able to do a search to quickly locate the one document that you are looking for. This takes only a matter of a few seconds in most any document management system.
But what if you are looking for more than one document? What if you need a collection of documents, like all of the contracts for customers with model number 123abc? What if you aren’t exactly sure what documents you need and only have a few pieces of information to go on? This is where you will get your money’s worth when properly configuring your document management solution.
The main approach to good document management is having good meta data or good descriptions of the documents. For instance,… Blockchain vs Digital Signatures
Bitcoin continues to make news and inroads into the world of finance. Two of the basic technologies that drive Bitcoin include blockchain and peer to peer computing. These two concepts are relatively understandable. Blockchain uses a distributed ledger, which is essentially a list that is shared across many computers (peer to peer). Because many computers contain a time-stamped replica of the data, it is very difficult, and expensive to hack or change the data in a fraudulent way – and its encrypted.
These concepts are moving into other areas such as smart contracts. However, these contracts are not documents as that term is generally understood. The smart contract is essentially a perfectly known set of conditions and data, that when met, results in a payment or action. The contract is essentially data points;…
To Purge or Not to Purge
Based on my observation the world consists of two types of people, purge people and non-purge people. We all know which category we fall into, but as a reminder: Purge people frequently empty out desk drawers, closets and the garage of useless documents, old clothes and stuff. Non-Purge people don’t. And yet, we all co-exist.
There is a business practice that you may be familiar with called Legal Hold. If a company is aware of or suspects litigation, that company should place all records and information related to the litigation on legal hold – don’t let the purge people get to it. Of course, nobody is happy when there is litigation, but how is it possible to lock down (or not over accumulate ) information in this day and age?
This is the… I need a little wiggle room to be productive
The security of the information that our clients have entrusted us to host in our document management system is paramount. Clients demand that their information remain private and confidential and we absolutely understand and abide by that. The SEC, auditors and sound business practices demand it too.
Our clients concern certainly includes stopping bad actors, but it also includes the people that they set up as valid users – they should only see and share what they are allowed to see and share. However, as far as sharing goes, some flexibility is needed so that users can be productive. Here are some thoughts on why wiggle room is needed and how sharing information can be protected.
Generally, people don’t work in a vacuum, they need to communicate and work with others, both inside and… My PDFs are Dazed and Confused
One of the core principles that Millennia Group advocates and adheres to is that the official copy of a digital document should be a singular unit. What this means is that the digital version, a PDF in most cases, should contain only one document. What our users encounter, and sometimes want, is a different story.
A user may receive a single PDF from an external party that contains many documents. The other situation is where the user receives multiple PDFs that together comprise a single document. In one case the file needs to be split and in the other case, the files need to be merged. Here are some examples of why this principle of a singular unit makes sense when your PDFs are dazed and confused.
Many users will receive a single, giant PDF that contains upwards of 1,000…
Active vs Final – Revisited
The good thing about this blog is that I don’t really need to have answers. That is especially good since I am re-visiting the discussion about working documents versus final documents. It comes up in most every discussion about effective document management – how do I have one system that provides the functionality that I need for both working documents and final documents.
Recall from our earlier post about how creators of working documents tend to like fast and simple – a system where the user can create any collection of folders and subfolders to suit their needs and drag and drop files at will. A user of final documents requires structure and certainty because having quick access to the right documents gets the job done. However, at some point the documents…
Keeping it simple is not always the answer
Recently we helped a client convert a small amount of paper documents related to a one time transaction into PDFs. The PDFs would simply be in a folder and viewed or emailed as needed. To keep it simple the files could be named in a structured format, ie. “ABCCo-Contract-060116-Brazil-Engine-D-JF.pdf”. Most of that short hand is clear except the “D” is for diesel engines and that the Sales Rep was John Franklin? Seemed simple enough and so we proceeded based on the clients requirements.
In this case, the volume of documents was small, but the documents had a significant amount of descriptive information that could be captured. Each piece of information could be captured in a document management system database and ready for user searches. For example, find all contracts for Brazil or all…
Make my day – delete those records
Records retention and records management are very important principles in dealing with corporate information. Records management being the overall guide book for employees on to how to store and classify information. It is also about proper management of that information including legal holds (don’t destroy if litigation is in process), access to information and records retention.
Records retention is basically an information destruction plan based on business or legal requirements. A business doesn’t necessarily want the burden of securing confidential, but outdated information for ever – ie. former patient records. Creating a records management policy and records retention schedule requires a lot of effort and yet the actual deletion of records is a very difficult step to take. Here are some thoughts on how to feel better about pulling the trigger.
First, you need… Clutter of a different kind
The existence of duplicate documents and files is commonplace in companies of all sizes. There is the email with a document attachment that was sent to five people, each of whom downloaded the file. There is a file on someone’s desktop that they copied from the network. There is a copy in the cloud. You get the picture and you probably live this picture daily.
What can prevent this from happening? Does it really even matter? Companies seem to be surviving just fine, so what would be the cost benefit for an actual solution? Unless your company is a company of one, you will likely not find a perfect solution, but a combination of tactics will lower the frustration. And yes, it does matter and it will be worth it.
Companies can use de-duplication… Collaboration – Group Chat vs Workflow
The past five or so years have been filled with plenty of talk about and some success in the area of collaboration. Collaboration being defined as multiple people fully engaged and involved in a single work effort. The end goal of any collaboration is that the combined effort produces superior results, ie. a better decision, a better product, a better presentation.
Much of the success in the field of collaboration has come in the area of communication, such as messaging applications like Slack or AIM. These applications improve the communication and are instant and flexible including group chats. Other areas of collaboration, like co-creating documents, such as a live spreadsheet or text document, have not been adopted as quickly. But this form of collaboration has historically been linear, passing from person to person….
How to prevent that sinking feeling
In an old paper based world, notification of new information meant extra copies of the document were placed on the desks of teammates. Otherwise, it required a hunch and a trip to the file cabinet or the random perusing of co-worker’s desks. In fact, it was probably not known that something new was available until it was a surprise – learned from a customer or worse yet, from the boss who somehow knew the facts.
Today, documents are digital and some might think that has solved all the problems. Not exactly, not even close. The only problem that has been solved is now there are less paper copies distributed. Information, including documents, can still go undetected and unknown. Surprises still happen and decisions based on incomplete information are still made, but it doesn’t…
Please, not another username and password!
Form Follows Function. This is a quote from famed Chicago architect Louis Sullivan. Sullivan designed buildings to be functional first and then worked on building aesthetics. For software implementation, you might say Function Follows Security.
For any software, especially document management software, it is extremely important to understand the capabilities of the software’s security model before you begin to work out the configuration and hierarchy of your data. That is unless you don’t mind having users who need multiple user names and passwords to create the access they need?
While going through the analysis phase of the implementation, list out the types of information that will be managed in the system. Then list out all the different groups of users that will need access to the system and what parts of the information or… Vision Influences the Purchase Decision
Speaking strictly from the standpoint of workflow and document management, there are factors that support a purchase and issues that can lead to a “Don’t Need it” response. Ifyou can’t determine need, then cost, as a factor, is irrelevant. If there is need, it is clear that cost impacts the decision and the expected return must outweigh the cost. It is a fairly simple concept but establishing need is not so simple.
How can you uncover the factors that determine need and create opportunities in the buyer’s mind? This is where the technology really must shine. There has to be enough Wow factor to override the fear of change, the expected implementation effort or simple doubt. But is it really Wow that makes someone think they need a solution or is it something…
Captains of Industry are Building Conglomerations
I heard a story about how there is a push to bring the “Hipster” crowd to Eau Claire Wisconsin, a family oriented, affordable, city of 150,000+ in Northern Wisconsin. My first response was that with current technology, people can choose to live wherever they want, so why not Eau Claire. Having this opportunity is not a new concept and in fact, people working remotely is very commonplace already.
However, what it brought to mind was that it’s not just your remote employees that you need to plan for these days. Today some portion of your business process may be outsourced and you need to plan for those workers as well. Where are those workers and how will they be included in the process? How does your technology support this new conglomeration?
Who is part… Want better software ROI? Hug a risk taker.
When it comes to software, it is important to have the right features, but you also need good functionality and some risk takers to get the most out of the investment. Features are the capabilities of the software. Functionality is all about how easy it is to use those features and apply them to real world tasks.
Most if not all users will discover the basic features and will become functional once they are trained. Only super users will play around with the application enough to figure out all the features. But how quickly will they translate the discovered features into functional solutions? That depends on how many risk takers there are in the company.
I heard someone say the other day that they would try the new application – “why not, I can’t… 