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Don’t Let Complexity make you Complacent

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With all the complexities in the world, how do you determine what to focus on in 2022?  HR and employee issues concerning remote work and wellness?  Office or retail space utilization?  Supply chain issues?  Inflation and pandemics?  World events that could cause disruption?  Blockchain, artificial intelligence, green energy and on and on?  And don’t forget the needs of your customers.

What’s needed is a simple How To Guide to manage this overwhelming challenge to your resources.  There is an old saying paraphrased as “don’t build a house on sand”.  In other words, use your resources to build a solid foundation.  Then you will have the ability to manage a myriad of risks and harness amazing opportunities when they come.  Here are four tasks…

On the surface it may look simple

Autonomous vehicles will make driving simple.  Get in, tell the car where to go, sit back and relax.  Artificial intelligence is going to read our minds and do our work for us.  The same goes for robots.  High speed data via 5G wireless will transform our lives by making these and other advancements possible. There are hundreds of steps and parts just to make a simple pencil. The fact of the matter is that behind the scenes lots of hard work is happening to make something seem simple for the end users.  For example, what if artificial intelligence changes its mind or futuristic fabrics confuse the autonomous vehicle system so it doesn’t recognize a person in the street?  To keep it simple requires ongoing work by the engineers and tech teams.

It isn’t…

Where isn’t that file?

First, please take note that we used the word “file” and not “document” in this blog title.  It’s true that less orders, correspondence, contracts, etc. are being memorialized on paper or a “document”.  However, there is still a “file” being created that looks just like the paper document only its PDF or JPG.  That PDF receipt is a document and is the buyer’s proof of the transaction so they want it. The receipt gets emailed to you (system #1) but then you forward it to an accounts payable system for processing (system #2).  Later, that same file is sent to a co-worker who had a question about it.  Maybe that was sent as an attachment in an instant messenger system like Slack (system #3).  Or that file was pushed out to Box as…

Should power users drive the bus?

Without a doubt you have come across business or personal applications that are not easy to use.  Business applications in particular can be less intuitive because of the complexity of the tasks required.  But that complexity may be due to over-engineering.  We have all heard of the less is more concept.  But in software, less isn’t really less, its just essential. There are always situations where one user wants another function or feature.  The trick is to identify the essential functions and help power users understand approaches to solving unique tasks.  When the tasks are performed frequently but by a few users or less frequently but by many users, the solution should support those tasks very well.  Here are some things to think about to select a solution that nails the essential functions…

Security shaming is working

Okay, maybe security shaming is not the proper way to describe security awareness training.  No matter how its labeled, it’s working.  We don’t receive emails with employee or patient lists attached.  We aren’t given access to a Box account where we can see all company information instead of only the one folder we should see. More and more we recognize the need to share information in a secure manner.  Nobody wants to be the one who accidently released a million names and social security numbers.  Security awareness training, a standard ritual now at most companies, is effective at helping to prevent accidental releases, but ensuring that information is securely shared could be a lot easier.
Its already commonplace to ask Siri and Alexa to answer a question, and they do quite accurately.  Cars can…

Training to Overcome Failure

There are many examples of human endeavors that would not have ended well without training.  Moon shots, marathon running, heart surgery and triple axles (not 100% sure what that is) are just a few that come to mind.  But don’t just think of training as necessary only to achieve super human feats.

Training is one concrete way to maximize the value of your software investments, a more mundane but very worthwhile goal.  It doesn’t matter what type of software it is, if users don’t use it (out of fear) or use it incorrectly, the investment will not pay off – aka, Failure.  That failure can be avoided with well thought out training.

There is a possibility that software was purchased and there was no real need.  No amount of training will fix that.  But if there was…

We are all different

It’s no surprise that no two businesses are exactly alike and certainly no two employees are either.  Our differences, along with the options provided by technology and changing circumstances, create a tremendous number of possible outcomes as it relates to information creation.  This is especially true of information in the form of documents. Every day in every business, employees are creating documents, searching for documents, receiving new documents and sharing documents with others.  It’s imperative that the information makes sense, otherwise errors are made and time is wasted.  But since we are all different, don’t be surprised at how someone else defines what a document is and in what form it’s delivered.
Document management systems (“DMS”) have to be about more than just finding documents, they have to be tools to help organize 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…