Ten to 15 years ago, the document management world started to feel an itch. The major DM players couldn’t quite figure out where it was coming from at the time. But then corporate users started to talk about how they were just dropping files into this online folder system and how easy it was. Box, DropBox, ShareFile and others have since created very successful businesses with simple online storage.
The expectation for how a document management system should work took on a whole new meaning from the perspective of the users. This is true not only of document management but of most corporate software platforms. This great new experience arrives and the expectation pendulum swings way over to one side. Then reality starts to set in.
Unfortunately, this ease of use perspective didn’t exactly fit the overall…
We recently attended and exhibited at a technology trade show for the commercial real estate industry. The technologies that were in the spotlight were wide ranging from remotely monitored and controlled water values to AI solutions for recurring administrative tasks. Less “hot” technologies were also represented like accounting, lease management and of course workflow and document management systems.
It seems simple to envision the tools required by a mobile worker. The basics quickly jump to mind including a phone, a laptop, chargers of course and a Starbucks or Panera card. Then you need a location, which could include a home office, an office suites membership or the aforementioned coffee shop.
For over 20 years our company has been providing services and solutions to the commercial real estate industry. It’s a very large industry. Depending on which stats you read, the U.S. commercial real estate industry is valued at over $15 Trillion dollars and growing by almost $70 Billion a year. That is the size of the U.S. stock market. 
The typical mobile phone these days has a 2 ¼” x 4 ¼” screen and a pop up keyboard. Most cost something close to $500-$750 and will soon move up to $1,000 – not counting cellular service. A very competent Windows laptop can be acquired for the same price and a powerful tablet computer can easily be obtained for a lot less.
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.
For the past 15 years or so the standard process for transaction due diligence is to upload information and documentation into cloud based digital war rooms. These secure, online document management systems have been beneficial to buyers and sellers and especially lawyers and financial analysts. Reduced travel and less time spent in windowless rooms reviewing and copying documents by the thousands are just two of the many benefits.
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.
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.