Workflow Automation Software

Millennia Group Blog

From Ethereum to Hadoop via Bitcoin. What?

Millennia Group is all about documents; document scanning, document workflow, document management systems, etc.  That means we are always interested in what is next and the future of the document management industry. 

So it was interesting to see AIIM.org having a conversation about Hadoop (a framework to support distributed data storage and analysis) and also hearing from one of our developers about Ethereum (a distributed computing model for digital currency and digital “smart contracts”).  Both of these models definitely look to the future. 

It was intentional that the word “distributed” is used to describe both models.  In fact, the distribution of data is part of the Cloud movement and it has some clear advantages like lower cost and higher security.  Most companies want lower cost and more secure applications.  Beyond the concept of distributed data, it is more difficult…

Lost Document Cost? – The Search & Wrong Answers

What is the cost of a lost document?  There are two components to the cost regardless of the document being either lost or just misplaced. One component is the potential cost that a decision is made or action taken with incomplete information and there are negative consequences.  For instance, if a contract is lost, one party to the agreement could take advantage of the other party.  This situation might occur even if a replacement document could be obtained, but maybe not in a timely manner.  Therefore, the employee makes a decision based on what they remembered.  We call this the “Oh Sh&#” cost because it usually doesn’t get noticed until it is a surprise, and its usually a bad surprise.
Another component is the cost to try to locate the document.  Some amount of…

Active vs Final Documents – Co-habitation?

A technology issue that companies deal with on a regular basis is using one application for managing active or working documents and a separate application for the archived or final documents. Active being defined as documents in the creation or working stage and final being final or executed. This situation exists because of how and why these documents are created, accessed and shared. Certain employees are document Creators and others are document Users and their needs are very different. The Holy Grail is one application to manage both. The reality is you need two applications. Let us explain why that is not a bad thing.
Speed and flexibility is demanded by the document Creators. The Creators just want to get their job done and get it done quickly. But that is inconsistent with the…

It’s Tax Day – Do you know where your Supporting Documents Are?

IRS Publication 4837, otherwise known as “Achieving Quality Examinations through Effective Planning, Execution and Resolution” published by the IRS Large Business and International Division, indicates that it would be wise to have supporting documents readily available when audited.  Because you want to defend your position and you really don’t want the cost of responding to the audit to be greater than the potential tax impact.

The IRS will make Information Document Requests (“IDRs”) to support claims made on any entities tax return involved in an audit.  Various types of documentation support revenue recognition and expense claims.  It is highly recommended that this documentation being organized, accessible and easily reproduced – sounds like a perfect scenario to justify an electronic document management system (“EDMS”).

Some types of documents that support revenue recognition are contracts, leases and licenses.  To support transactional events like…

Fear of change is okay, if it only lasts 5 minutes

In a past era processes were set in stone. Assembly lines were created and they ran for three shifts a day year after year. Big mainframes were programmed and some of those programs still run today. Change was slow and methodical for both consumers and businesses.

Today, manufacturers and businesses of all types are struggling to meet the new era’s requirements and challenges including personalization and on-demand. The only way to manage in this environment is to have a workforce and applications that embrace and smooth the way for change – in 5 minutes or less.

Unfortunately most employees, even younger ones, fear change. The fear comes not only from having to learn something new, but also from a break in routine or loss of time. With the crazy busy schedules that most employees have…

Do you need Sherlock Holmes or Martha Stewart?

We have heard it from nearly every company that we have come into contact with over the past 20 years – “the entire office was recently consumed by the search for the Pensky file”. Most likely 15 to 20 years ago they were absolutely referring to a paper file. Now this reference is to a digital file, which in some cases makes it even harder.

If finding documents in your document system (SharePoint, network folders, Box, etc.) is painful and time consuming, you could call Sherlock Holmes or try to reorganize the files with the help of Martha Stewart. Reorganizing is of course the better approach and therefore, you should take some time to learn about Taxonomy.

According to Webster’s, the definition of Taxonomy is “classification; especially: orderly classification of plants and animals according to…

Poor Man’s Business Intelligence

During a recent lunch conversation a comment was made about the great benefits of business intelligence (“BI”) – a tool used to connect lots of information dots to generate useful data. However, that was quickly followed by a second comment about the often failed attainment of those benefits. The culprit seems to be bad or incomplete historical data, ie data stuck in documents or inconsistently entered data.

Another discussion at this lunch centered on co-tenancy, a complicated topic that impacts the commercial real estate industry. As an example, a co-tenancy clause could allow one tenant to reduce its rent if another, typically significant, tenant exits the property. The significant tenant is a draw to the property that benefits other tenants. So how do these two topics…

Document Sharing – Why Overcomplicate it?

Documents used to be shared by photocopying and FedEx. That progressed to PDF and email, which has been replaced by free file sharing websites. There are also highly secure deal sites available for Wall Street transactions. The reality is that all of these methods are in use because each one meets somebody’s unique need for security, simplicity or both. In today’s world of massive amounts of information being available and demanded, many times the need is to share hundreds or thousands of documents. To share that quantity of documents is not practical with email or FedEx. Some type of organized, online access is required. But how do you make it both simple and secure?
What a great idea to use an online file storage system. Lots of companies use FTP sites or file sharing…

What is Normalization and Why is it Important?

Put another way – Quelle 弱形 normalization and Поче is it महत्वपूर्ण?  Think for a minute about trying to read your email but every email is in a different language?  What happens if you don’t know the language or the coworker you forwarded it to doesn’t know that language?  Then it becomes a real problem and very inefficient.  If you could always funnel those emails through a translator before they hit your inbox, the problem disappears.
Now think about document and electronic file storage for most companies; paper documents, files on a shared drive, files in the cloud, files everywhere.  There are probably many different paper filing methods, digital files in personal folders with a unique and less than intuitive structure by employee, one PDF file that actually contains 10 documents, or file…

A Life Lesson – Sharing is Good

What are the needs of your employees to share documents with people outside of your company? They might share documents with customers, business partners, vendors, lawyers, bankers, government agencies and many other outside parties. Your users want this to be easy – write an email, attach a document or two and hit send. Your executives want to make sure that the process is efficient, but also meets security and confidentiality requirements. The CIO doesn’t want the network to crash or the email system to bog down.
Companies that are using a shared network drive for document management can expect basic sharing to be easy for users (provided they can find the files they are looking for). Users will attach the files to an email, copy the files to a thumb drive or push the…