Workflow Automation Software

Millennia Group Blog

The pendulum is back in the middle

Via flickr - Rob Young

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…

Piece of Cake

via Flickr - Shyn Darkly

Not many companies have the resources to operate on a global basis.  It can take a large team of lawyers, experienced financial professionals and local facilities or representatives.  To go global for a product or service also requires understanding the local custom so you don’t accidently insult the community.

Operating a business, locally or globally, will involve customer contracts, vendor contracts, financial reports, etc.  The business processes and document content might be vastly different from Bavaria to Bali and Caracas to Quebec.  However, we see four key characteristics of document management on a global basis and if you focus on getting these four correct, it will be a piece of cake.

The four universal document management requirements are:  The files must be organized in a logical way, the files must…

Going to the grocery store is a teaching moment

via Flickr - Brian, Thin MintsWe have all encountered the situation on our way into the grocery store where a young girl in uniform is selling cookies.  Or maybe it’s someone dressed as Santa ringing a bell.  In both cases, the story doesn’t end there because you have a second encounter when you exit the store.  So the issue is, which do you prefer, addressing the situation on the way in or dealing with it on the way out?

This post is not really about the Girl Scouts or the Salvation Army of course.  This is an analogy for how your company deals with its critical business information.  Either your company has a well-defined process and structure to identify information as it enters or it relies on advanced search capabilities to find information where-ever it may hide.  Or, oh…

On the surface it may look simple

via Flickr - Cookieater2009Autonomous 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 really…

Blockchain vs AI vs Bob

Via Flickr - by Bovee and ThillRegardless of the industry, at every trade show, in every webinar and at every lunch and learn the use of artificial intelligence or blockchain has been a topic.  It’s been stated and debated about how these technologies are going to revolutionize industries and change our lives.  That can be a bit unnerving.

However, there is hope for us, AKA Bob.  Blockchain might give us smart contracts built from nothing but data points.  No need to also enter the data into another system, the contract is the system.  AI will take the document (Word, PDF, etc) and it will interpret the information and populate the system automatically.  Poor Bob, who previously found, interpreted and entered the data, gets left out of the process.  But wait….

Blockchain will have some utility in some specific…

Where isn’t that file?

Via Flickr by Tim GreenFirst, 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…

Optimism sends a good message

via Flickr, by Sergio AquirreWe recently sponsored and exhibited at two technology focused trade shows.  As most companies participating in these shows know, it’s a good way to see existing clients and to meet new prospects.  But its also a good way to stay informed about industry advancements and news, however optimistic.  There can be lots of very optimistic talk and presentations in the tech community.

Here’s the thing, however optimistic some people or companies might be, some of those plans and ideas probably make good sense and will someday become the standard.  Of the current crop of hot technology topics, such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, bots and robots, we are optimistic about…

Yes, we are optimistic about some of these technologies, namely AI and bots.  A bot is essentially a digital assistant.  You’ve…

Don’t forget to lock the front door

via Flickr - Paul FlintInformation security continues to be an important topic even if there haven’t been any newsworthy breaches recently.  That could be due to the nature of proper security, which involves continual effort and therefore top of mind.  Annual penetration tests, monthly vulnerability scans, scheduled password resets and authentication of new devices are a few recommended policies to stay secure.

Security was much easier when the ability to share was more difficult and the potential for inadvertent release was much lower.  Back when paper documents ruled the world, locked file cabinets or a managed file room with in/out tracking satisfied the requirements.  With digital documents, your systems need to be hardened and so do your users.  Data can leak through the back door or the front door.

System hardening, as mentioned above, involves policies and procedures that help…

Tag and push is not a playground game

via Flickr - Mineola MinnesotaCompanies, large and small, have procedures or rules that employees are supposed to follow to complete certain tasks.  Each company determines the most efficient methods or methods that meet regulatory or compliance requirements.  These rules can be written in a manual, part of a checklist or built into software applications.

Rules incorporated into the code of software applications are relatively easy to build and highly effective.  One of the most difficult procedures to successfully implement, however, is document archiving.  When is a document the final final version and where should it be archived?  Making this decision and process easy should be every companies goal, but where to begin?

The first step is to make sure you simplify and standardize the archive hierarchy.  Consolidate the silos of documents into one, organized repository.  This should be separate and…

I admit, machines are smarter than me

Image via www.vpnsrus.comMachines are smarter than me, at least after some smart people have told it what to think and since it is continually trained to get smarter.  Maybe that computer really isn’t smarter than me, but it certainly has a better memory.  In the context of our current lives, that translates into not forgetting passwords and never forgetting where I saved that file on the network.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are all the rage in most industries, including the document management industry.  There is a convergence of systems offering auto-classification and indexing of your files.  Tagging the file with information that someone can use to find it later and dropping the file in some deep folder structure and forgetting where that was might go away.  That seems like a smart approach…