Imaging Office Systems

More Confessions of a Salesaholic

2012-02-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

By Beth Schrader

In both our personal and professional lives, we all have pet peeves. Sometimes, we find they duplicate themselves in each world, like when someone interrupts or leaves the toilet seat up. Clearly, manners should be paramount in any environment. Likewise, when someone uses a cliché – one that the listener rolls their eyes mid-sentence as it is being spit out in the form of an unintentional insult – the pet peeve list grows longer.

“We’ll go from there” is a classic line that, if I’m being honest, both sides in a sales process utter way too frequently. The client/prospect will say this to a Sales rep to get them off the phone or out of their office STAT; the Sales rep will say this to a client/prospect when they either don’t know what to do next or don’t want to put the time in to do it. Why, when we know we are being blown off, do we allow it? If we truly care, why can’t we call a “cliché foul” on the other person right then and there?

Typically, I find my prospects will try to tell me “we’ll go from there” because they do not want to be burdened by another project. They do not have the time, energy, staff, or desire at that point in time to investigate an ECM, conversion, or backlog scanning initiative. Not in any particular order, but here’s what comes to mind when I hear this:

Where exactly is “there?”
Why don’t you want to make your process easier and save money doing it?
You realize that I realize you’re blowing me off, but because I care and believe (actually know but immodesty is also a pet peeve of mine…as is hypocrisy) we can help, I will do whatever it is you have deemed “there” and remind you when it is done so that we can laugh about the cliché foul later.

The statement is really one of timing since the subtext of “we’ll go from there” is… I know I need this, I would like to look into it but can’t do it presently, and I would like to not feel badly about it so I need to be done talking to you now. I have many customers that have in fact purchased an ECM after years (as in 10 – you know who you are) of waiting on the perfect time to “go from there.” Resoundingly, the question after implementation is always, “Why in the world did we wait this long? We can’t even remember how we used to do it.”

The problem is, much like when we try to map out the perfect time in our adult lives to have children, there isn’t one. There will always be another project, another goal, another idea, another cliché. Yet, as those are occurring, so is the creation of more content. The same manual process is still occurring. Company growth is (hopefully) still occurring.

Instead of habitually using the “we’ll go from there” cliché the next time a Salesperson calls, I think it wise to remember what Confucius first said, “No matter where you go, there you are.” It’s how you get from here to there that matters. And we can help.

The Sheer Luxury of Paper

2012-02-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

By Angela Childs

There’s nothing quite like the sweet fresh smell when you open a new ream of paper. The white sheets of limitless possibility ready for ink and staples, file folders and cabinets. How could we not want to print our emails and file them away in a drawer? What kind of heartless monster could resist the allure of sharing a paper invoice? Who doesn’t want to look important in a meeting when everyone has to wait while you run to your office to get a document? The power is irresistible.

Can you imagine an audit without the thrill of digging through boxes? That exhilarating feeling you get from the danger of paper cuts. Oh how you and the auditor share a laugh when documents are missing. Good times.

Paper a little too exciting? We get that and we can help. Need to go cold turkey and have someone scan documents for you? We can be with you every step of the way. You don’t have to do it alone.

IOS partners with AllShred Services for Document Destruction

2012-01-30T14:42:00.002-05:00

Columbia City, IN – Jan, 25, 2012 – Imaging Office Systems, Inc. (IOS), a leading provider of content management systems, scanning and data capture, systems integration, custom software development, and records management services, announced today that it has partnered with Allshred Services of Maumee OH, to expand its Records Management Services division and begin offering secure document and data destruction services.

Allshred will manage and provide fulfillment services for both bulk and scheduled shredding services across IOS’s entire customer network. IOS customers will receive full NAID (National Association of Information Destruction) certified services regardless of their location and each customer will receive a certified document destruction notice after each shredding event.

IOS hires Records Management Specialist

2012-01-23T08:49:00.002-05:00

Columbia City, IN – Jan, 20, 2011 – Imaging Office Systems, Inc. (IOS), a leading provider of content management systems, scanning and data capture, systems integration, and custom software development, announced today that it has created a specialist program to promote Box Storage, Document Destruction, Scan on Demand, and Records Management Consulting Services.

Andrew Myers is IOS's new Records Management Specialist. Andy will based in Indianapolis out of the Emco office and will support all central Indiana businesses.

Imaging Office Systems, Inc.
Deriving 100% of its revenue from content management, IOS has installed over 600 imaging systems in the Midwest. In addition to its records storage and destruction services, it provides document management solutions from its partners Hyland, PSIGen, Canon, FileBound, and Fujitsu, plus IOS has an in-house Professional Services Group that performs system integrations and conversion, workflow and custom programming. With its multiple facilities IOS is also one of the largest document conversion service bureaus in the United States converting more than 5 million pages a month.

Click here to learn more about IOS's Records Management services.

Using Tablets for Employee Onboarding

2012-01-18T13:46:00.000-05:00

By Angela Childs

I love a good process improvement story and we recently had a customer approach us with a great idea for just that for their employee onboarding process.   This customer has stores across the US and their existing process was paper intensive, labor intensive, and error prone. With all the technology options we have today they were sure they could do better and came up with a great concept.

For their onboarding process, when they hire a new employee for a store, they have the employee go to that store to fill out all their paperwork. That paper is then sent to corporate where someone keys all the information into their HR system, follows up on anything that’s missing, and files the documents. Their new idea – how about instead of filling out a bunch of paper forms, they’re handed a tablet PC. The tablet then walks them through the process of reading and completing all their paperwork.   As long as it was developed with a super simple interface that guided the employee through each step, they could add technology without piling tech support and software trainer to their store managers work load.

With this idea, in one step, your new employee is giving you all their data, electronically, ready for import into your HR and content management systems.

You eliminate multiple people touching the same documents.
You eliminate paper shuffling and lost documents.
You eliminate the delay between when the employee gives you information and when it’s ready to use.
You add error proofing to your process.
You eliminate keying and filing tasks freeing your staff to focus on what’s really important.

This type of project is one of the main reasons Imaging Office Systems created their Professional Services Group, to take a customer’s idea and turn it into something real.

In this case, we got to design a solution that could be molded to match different needs with automation like on the fly conversion of handwriting to text, pushing common data elements to all forms, and output to multiple systems.

Have your own ideas? Let us help you develop a solution.

Four IT Security Lessons to Learn from Anonymous' Stratfor Hack

2012-01-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

By Kaitlin McCready, Hyland Software

On Christmas Eve, while most of us were immersed in the holiday spirit, others were immersed in the sensitive information of Stratfor Global Intelligence Service’s client list.

A group of hackers, associated with the collective known as Anonymous, breached Stratfor’s systems, obtaining the credit card numbers, passwords and home addresses of the company’s customers. The group has already used this stolen information to make donations to charities, such as the American Red Cross.

Breaches like this are happening so frequently (just follow the medical community for the evidence) that they’re becoming ho-hum. But that’s even more reason to question how they can happen in the first place. This is 2011, after all, and technology in organizations should, in almost every case, protect against something like this.

To help you ensure you don’t become the next Stratfor, here are four lessons in IT security that you can take to your organization.

1. To protect against data breaches, it’s not just the database that needs to be protected – it’s the documents.

The full picture of exactly what content was compromised from Stratfor is still unclear. But we do know that it went beyond the database to things like emails.

The reality is that sometimes, documents like PDFs and Word files have sensitive information like credit card numbers on them. To make sure they’re securely managed, an enterprise content management system should be able to provide granular levels of security down to the single document level, and can store them in an encrypted format.

2. An email might be a communication tool first. But when it contains sensitive information, it needs to be treated as a record.
We’re in a world where the amount of information is exploding, making it more complicated to determine which needs to be deemed necessary to manage within an organization’s content management system.

Hopefully, the Stratfor situation will put the focus back on the need to better manage sensitive emails and the way they’re archived, a piece of the IT security puzzle that’s often overlooked. Typically emails kept in Exchange or an email archive solution aren’t archived in an encrypted format. To create a complete solution, you should be able to configure an enterprise content management system to delete emails in the respective mail client once the email is archived in that system.

3. Encryption should be built into your software.

Storage and data archiving vendors, like EMC or IBM, provide a lot of security and data integrity controls in their systems. But you shouldn’t rely solely on your hardware to administer security on where your documents are residing.

ECM software should be able to encrypt documents and images at the physical storage level, protecting the data from unauthorized access to the physical drives. Documents that are archived in this way then can only be opened and viewed with ECM software interface, ensuring that the security controls imposed by the software are respected at all times, regardless of what happens to the hardware.

4. You can’t fully control your employees’ actions. But you can protect against it.

Every company has disgruntled employees, even a few willing to give up their login information to your enterprise systems - or more commonly, employees who mean well, but are fooled by hackers from time to time. Here’s how you can combat these situations (to a degree).

When it comes to documents, most ECM systems offer the capabilities to either automatically or on an ad-hoc basis do redactions on sensitive information that the majority of users in the organization don’t need to do their jobs. So, authorized users can still get access to the physical documents, but only certain people can see the actual information on the document, like a credit card number. This level of security is becoming more talked about with PCI compliance regulations.

The IT tools are out there to protect organizations. Hopefully this incident (and these tips) lights a fire under the IT departments who aren’t yet taking advantage.

Mobile ECM: Your Content In Your Pocket

2011-12-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

By Glenn Gibson, Hyland Software

The world of computing has changed. Forever.

These days it seems archaic to have to wait until you get home or to the office just to check your email, because now your email is in your pocket. The idea of printing off maps before heading out on a journey seems crazy because GPS on our phone gives us turn-by-turn directions. Lively pop-culture debates over a pint are now a thing of the past, because we can look up the answers on the internet immediately.

Yes, mobile computing devices have changed the world and changed us. We expect instant access to information from wherever we are. The iPhone and the iPad, Android, Windows Phone 7 and the Blackberry give us this access like never before.

So what does the explosion in mobile computing have to do with ECM? Everything.

Think about it. What is one of the primary driving factors behind an organization developing an ECM strategy? The need to get critical business information into the hands of the right people at the right time. That’s what ECM is all about.

But what if the right people are in the wrong place at the wrong time? What I mean is, what if the people who are responsible for making important decisions, from approving a critical business expense to agreeing to hire the perfect candidate, can’t physically get access to the information and systems they need in order to execute business decisions, simply because they are traveling or not in the office?

The reality is that these individuals spend a lot of time on the road and out of the office. This lack of real-time access causes bottlenecks in your processes as the decisions have to wait until they get back online. This causes on-the-fly workarounds with emails and phone calls to get someone, anyone, with authority to make the decision. And once that decision has finally been made, it is very difficult to track all the activity that supports it.

Yup, bottlenecks and workarounds caused when people who play a critical role in business decisions are out of the office have come to be expected as a normal part of business because, until recently, that’s just how it was. There was no other choice.

But, the world of computing has changed. If the ability to access email from anywhere in the world is not only a reality, but expected in today’s world, why is it any different when thinking about your other important business content and processes?

It shouldn’t be. And when you partner with an ECM vendor who understands this, it is not.

Today you can put your ECM content in your pocket. With mobile ECM applications you are able to not only able access your important content, but also participate in business processes, reviewing, approving and denying requests from wherever you are, directly from your mobile device.

Now it is likely, for many good reasons that you may not want to make ALL your business information available via mobile devices. If mobile access to your information is part of your requirements when you are choosing an ECM vendor, you should look for a vendor which allows you to control what type of content and processes to make available via these mobile devices. You should choose an ECM system that can truly deliver on the promise to get critical business information into the hands of the right people at the right time, wherever they happen to be.

For your business this is both simple and profound. No more waiting to get back to the office. No more driving to coffee shops just to get access to your system to approve a request. No more bottlenecks caused by business travel. No more un-documented workarounds.

It is that simple. It is that revolutionary. Because now your content is right there in your pocket.

Lessons Learned from Apple, 3M and Johnson & Johnson

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

ByAngela Childs

Three companies that changed the conversation.

Whatdo these three companies have in common? They all have invented products that dominate the space. When you have a cut, do you ask for an adhesive bandage? If you did, you'd probably hear "you want a what?" I know I'd ask for aband-aid. Their brand name is now what we call bandages regardless of who makes them. Another example - there has been some progressmade by all those other companies to get us to call adhesive notes “stickynotes” but they’re post-it notes and they will always be post-it notes. I could go on with other examples, but we get it and this is already a long post.

Applehas created a similar phenomenon...twice. In the MP3 player space there are iPods or…everything else. For tablets, you have the iPad and…everything else. Whichever side of the Apple argument you fall on, love them or hate them, no other manufacturerhas been able to rise above the noise of a competitive marketplace.

Wheream I going with this? Would you believeit’s to that old build vs. buy conversation? Yep, I’m going there.

When youthink "Should we just do it ourselves?" what should you consider?

Whenthe topic is developing software, my mind always jumps to the futurefirst. I start thinking day-forward,after implementation. You might thinkI’m wondering what the burden of end user support will be on the IT staff, butthat’s not number one on my list. The firstthing I think about is on-going development and not just enhancements and the inevitablechanges required to stay in step with changes in business over time, but thepure technical development required. Ifthere were never any enhancements and you never had to make changes to the corerequirements, you’d still need to update what you built to stay compatible withchanging operating systems, databases, browsers, etc.

Afterweighing the risk of day forward compatibility development, I leap back to thebeginning. To develop something properlyyou need to analyze the business requirements, develop a scope of work,estimate the time requirements, assign costs, then get agreement internally oncost and scope. This front end workrequires a set of skills that is different from that of a developer – moreoften than not. Now we’re developing ateam, ideally an experienced team, all working on this project.

NextI’m on to the development itself. Youhave development tasks, project management, change control, risk mitigation,testing, documentation, implementation, and training. If this is development on something that’snot directly related to your core business – do you know enough to know whatyou should be worried about in terms of risk? I haven’t even gotten to IT resources for day to day end user support.

Whenwe really start to break down the concept of build vs. buy, we go from thequestion “Could we develop thisourselves?” to “Do we want to developthis ourselves?”

It’sa similar discussion when it comes to whether or not a backlog scanning projectshould be done internally or outsourced. Like with a software development project, it boils down to resources,time, cost and risk. You need to havepeople that can do it, the hardware and software required, enough timeavailable, a person or persons that can manage the people and the process, anda quality control mechanism. What youget back from the effort is related to what you put in to the effort so youneed to make sure you have a good process and good controls.

Sowhat does this have to do with the beginning of this post? Commit to what you do and do it reallywell. We need focus and we need to bethoughtful. We need to look at everything that wecould do and then pick what we should do. Weneed to set ourselves up to succeed, not sprinkle the path with pitfalls. We won’t all cause a paradigm shift, ordevelop a product that becomes the next genericized trademark, but we can haveproducts and services that are competitive and highly regarded; and we canenjoy that success.

Sowhat’s the answer - should you build or buy? Seriously? Are you joking? Did I not just blather on for almost 700words explaining that this is not an easy yes/no.

Having your own build vs. buy dilemma? Contact us and we'll help you weigh the pros and cons.

Imaging Office Systems Extends Commitment to Records Management Services

2011-12-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

Columbia City, IN – Dec 1, 2011 – Imaging Office Systems, Inc. (IOS) a leading provider of content management systems and records storage announced today that it has joined the PRISM (Professional Records and Information Services Management) association.

Participation in PRISM will ensure that IOS customer records are provided with the highest level of security, confidentiality, and protection following industry recognized practices and procedures.

PRISM International was founded in 1980 as ACRC (The Association for Commercial Records Centers) and 1981 as NASDV (National Association for Secured Data Vaults). The two organizations shared many common members and merged in 1996 to form PRISM (Professional Records and Information Services Management) International. PRISM International is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit trade association based in North Carolina. The association maintains a secretariat in Brussels, Belgium. PRISM International members operate in more than 60 countries around the world.

PRISM International’s primary goal is to serve members of the industry in the following ways: PRISM International provides industry advocacy services in order to improve the operating environment of the industry and represents the interests of the industry before regulatory bodies and governmental entities; PRISM International creates educational programming, guidelines, studies and other industry specific information to benefit members; PRISM International provides virtual and face to face opportunities for networking among members of the association in order to foster mentoring, strengthen business relationships and improve friendships within the industry.

In addition to these critical areas, PRISM International also offers industry information to potential customers seeking information management services from PRISM International members. For more information, visit www.prismintl.org.

Contact us to talk about your specific needs and we’ll get started tailoring a records management solution just for you.

10 Reasons Microsoft's SharePoint is like Gravity

2011-11-15T08:30:00.000-05:00

By John Trimble

According to Microsoft there are 125,000,000 SharePoint licenses sold so it is as pervasive as gravity. It is everywhere and like gravity it is not going anywhere soon.
In the right application (such as keeping things secured on terra firma) gravity is incredibly useful, as is SharePoint.
There are times however; high jumping, running, accidentally falling from a window when gravity is not exactly your best friend, ditto SharePoint.
If gravity is asked to do too much, more than it should like, say, safely landing an airplane all by itself it will gladly agree and go all in despite the somewhat dicey – crash site outcome. Same for SharePoint. Neither will offer up “no, this is not a good idea”.
Gravity is a force and the strength of the force due to gravity depends on the mass of the object it acts upon. SharePoint’s “force” or effectiveness is also based on the mass of information it is trying to control. The more information, the less buoyancy, speed and exactitude.
Bigger and heavier with both gravity and SharePoint equals slower. With SharePoint bigger in this sense is not the amount of users but the amount of information and images it has been forced to digest. Foie Gras comes to mind, don’t ask me why…
String theory calculations and equations posit that gravity should be way stronger than it actually is, that gravity is somehow “leaking”. Too many images stored in SharePoint when used inappropriately as a repository can also be viewed as “information leakage” because some are simply going to get away.
Physicists understand that Gravity is not the only force acting on the molecules of our atmosphere. Gravity is not the strongest force, either. Microsoft also now understands that SharePoint is not the ideal imaging ECM “force” or solution and have now completely backed away from that. This is why they have helped Certified Gold partners such as Hyland create such tight integration between SharePoint and OnBase.
If Gravity did not exist SharePoint wouldn’t either.
Gravity and SharePoint can be your best friend or your worst enemy depending on your need at any point in time for seeing eye to eye and collaborating on a project versus controlling a large (informational) mass while trying to avoid falling to the ground in a tussle with physics doing the gravity two step with too many documents on your back.

Need help optimizing SharePoint for your documents? You have a lot of options. Let us help you weigh the pros and cons.

Black Holes, Acid Wash Jeans, and AP more than AR - 3 Things I Don't Really Understand

2011-11-01T11:00:00.000-04:00

By Angela Childs

I work with a lot of companies implementing content management and workflow. More often than not, we’re working with Accounts Payable. We might be helping them implement paperless invoice approvals, shrink the timeline to take more discounts, or sometimes even tracking vendor behavior to turn vendor invoicing errors into rebates.

None of this surprises me. It doesn’t make sense to have AP clerks key invoices when you don’t have to, or to shuffle paper invoices all over the organization. And, if at the same time you can turn a vendor’s bad habit of sending duplicate invoices or invoicing the wrong quantities/prices into a bigger discount or longer payment terms, even better – what are we waiting for, right?

Of course those things should all be on our to-do list, no mystery there. What I always find odd though, is that we don’t spend as much time talking about AR. I find it odd because it’s a lot more fun to talk about AR. It's how much quicker can I get paid vs. how much more efficiently can I pay. Cash in vs. cash out. The first half of that is definitely more appealing.

So why AP? Okay, truth time, I know the answer to this question. The AP process touches a lot of people. It’s not just accounting but every approver and purchasing, add the vendors calling with questions regarding when their invoices will be paid, and you have a crowd. With all the players, fixing the AP process becomes a shear necessity – unless you have unlimited time and money, in which case we should still talk.

Clearly, AP automation/workflow is something we want to do but we are starting to see a real uptick in the areas of AR and sales order processing. This is a natural progression and it’s nice to see.

We’re working with two companies now that are automating sales order processing. The premise is how they, with the least amount of manual intervention, can get a sales order from receipt to the production floor. Adding to that base premise, we’re also working to error proof the process by automating data validation, checking available stock, confirming schedules, and verifying pricing. The same things we do for AP – capture as soon as the document comes in, automatically extract the data, and route – all apply to orders.

That’s the order to invoice side of the equation. What about invoice to pay? If I talk to any CFO about their DSO they all want it reduced and why wouldn’t they? The quicker you have your money, well, the quicker you have your money.

When we start to look at the reasons customers give for a delayed payment it’s often that they don’t have proof of delivery, they need another copy of the invoice, or they need to confirm agreed to terms (quantity, pricing, etc.). If you capture documents throughout the process, then wrap them all up together with the invoice you generate to the customer that information will be at the fingertips of your Collections group. Contact the customer at 25 days, perhaps, and ask about payment. If Collections hears any of those objections, the detail that gets the money in your hands is a mouse click away from being emailed to that customer. They can even ask – “I just emailed you proof of delivery. Did you get it? Is it what you needed?”

So content management and workflow clearly can make a huge impact in both AP and AR. Does it make sense to start with AP? For companies with a high invoice volume, a lot of approvers, or a distributed workforce, it probably does. What I want is to not stop there. Let’s take everything we learn about automating and using workflow tools while working with AP to make a real impact in AR.

Want to take a look at your AP or AR processes? At Imaging Office Systems we specialize in process mapping and re-engineering, automation, workflow, and content management. Take a look at our results and contact us. We can help.

Confessions of a Salesaholic

2011-10-26T09:37:00.000-04:00

By Beth Schrader

“Bad Selling” is like a blind date going awry; we know it when we see it. But good selling or effective selling – the kind where people actually fulfill on their promises and create real improvement - that is harder to define. Why? I believe it is because good selling is not a separate “thing” in and of itself. Good selling is not removed from what logically needs to be happening at every point in the process for the client. Ideally then, good selling does not stand out. It is not a technique; it is not a “close,” it is not “manipulation.” Honestly, in today’s world I am not sure we can successfully manipulate a cross walk sign.

In placing complex document imaging systems, in creating process improvement, in automating manual tasks and paper, IOS knows this is challenging enough for both sides without inserting a layer of obsolete, time consuming “sales role playing.” Selecting the best provider for the application is hard enough for the client, selecting the best solution and proving it is the best solution is hard enough for the provider - it’s all hard enough already without an inauthentic sales layer. That is why we don’t do it.

It’s not that IOS is being altruistic, we are just being pragmatic. If there is an elephant in the room, we think the client is more than astute enough to know that, so let’s just clear that air before it becomes unnecessarily polluted…

This industry has become so upside down that IOS is regularly thanked by clients for being direct and clear, essentially being thanked for telling the truth whatever that truth happens to be. That a thing like candor has become such a big differentiator for us is just crazy. Will “Truth Telling as a Sales Technique” become the next big thing?

As a Company, we know what we do if our vendors do not fulfill on their promises, or do not call back when they say, or if they obscure deficiencies in a less than forthright way…we move on. Quickly. Yet, we are continually surprised when companies seem willing to put up with similar bad behavior from their prospective providers allowing them to still participate, to still quote, and to even secure the business. As if customer sensitivity or provider capabilities will improve after the sale. Not bloody likely.

Whether consciously or subconsciously, we are all guilty of critiquing others who do what we do. I’ve often wondered what it was like for a Doctor who finds an abnormality, a hairstylist who finds some gray, or a lawyer who finds him/herself subpoenaed. Do they become hyper-critical or do they immediately melt with gratitude upon receiving counsel with another member of their profession who shows them that they are equally competent and authentic? Yes and yes.

I’ve been a salesperson for the last 17 years of my life, so I find it very intriguing to watch others sell, particularly when I am the customer. Judgmental? I prefer to call it observant…

Let’s start with the obvious. Do what you say you’re going to do. If you tell me you will get back to me with answers to questions that I have (undoubtedly) asked, then get back to me. It’s already on my calendar. And if you do not get back to me by the time my reminder goes off, I’m going elsewhere. If I can’t count on you to do what you say you are going to do before I buy something – why in the world would I assume you will do what you promise to do after I buy it? So: If you say you are going to do something there is only one rule: DO IT. And if you cannot do it, then please tell me why ahead of time. In all likelihood we can get past it, but ignorance is not bliss and no - I will not have forgotten your committing to it in the first place.

Secondly, I detest insincerity when making a purchase. Please don’t be smarmy with me. Please don’t be disingenuous with me. I think the kid slang these days is, “keep it real.” I am too old to say that to a salesperson as I shop, but I am certainly thinking it and can smell it a mile away if it’s not. Please do not tell me you know something if you don’t, but conversely, know what you should know.

Next, pay attention. If I have already stated my reasoning for something, before you try and convince me otherwise, think about why I might have said it. There are some things that no matter how many times you say, “but,” I will not waiver on.

And lastly, please, please, p-l-e-a-s-e…if you have failed at any or all of the above, do not ask me “And how will you be paying for this today?” or, “When do you think you’ll be ready to buy?” I won’t be.

Perhaps I am guilty of putting salespeople through the proverbial wringer, but only because I live in that wringer every day. I have high expectations, and if a salesperson has done a good job and responds to me in a timely manner, then I am not offended when they ask if I am ready to make the purchase. I am actually relieved that I have found exactly what I was looking for from a knowledgeable person I trust, it is exactly what I need, and I know I’ll be happy with the purchase and decision long-term.

What you have to do vs. what you want to do

2011-10-02T13:27:00.000-04:00

By Angela Childs

Is value all in the eye of the beholder? The answer is no. At least not when it comes to what adds value in a business.

I was asked to be the speaker at a monthly meeting of the Fort Wayne chapter of Project Management Professionals. As I thought about the possible topics, I decided to talk about what I spend more and more time helping our clients with which is streamlining their business processes.

That phrase “streamlining business processes” is so overused that we don’t pay attention to it anymore. It has become sales speak but the concept is very real and critical in today’s business climate. For the presentation, I challenged the project managers to look at business processes the way they would look at manufacturing when implementing Lean.

With Lean, one of the areas of study is value-added vs. non value-added activities. Non value-added activities are classified as waste. The concept is this – value-added activities are those your customer wants, needs, and is willing to pay for. This is how your revenue is generated. Non value-added activities are those that don’t generate revenue. Things that fall into this category are handling, walking, filing, inspecting, waiting, packaging, searching, sorting, stacking, reading, etc.

This is a tricky concept. When I say to a client, “Walking an order over to production is not a value added activity”, I hear back “It is because that’s how the order starts. We can’t start work without a copy of the order.” Okay, true, but this is not the only option. I suggest that the “walking” is waste and can be eliminated. I also suggest that the walking is probably not the only waste going on here. I bet there are also copies being made, and that those copies being filed in multiple places by multiple people, that some of them are stapling on backup documents. I could go on, but you get the picture.

Non-value added activities are a huge opportunity for every business. Let’s look at it this way – there are three ways to become more profitable – find a way to charge higher prices despite the competition (Blue Ocean Strategy), create something no one else has (eliminate competition, for a while at least), or reduce costs. The first two are the most dramatic but they are also the hardest to do. The third one, reducing costs, we can and should do, every day.

With our clients, I encourage them to look at every area of their business that is not revenue generating. With HR, AP, Shipping/Receiving, Purchasing, etc., there are a lot of opportunities and most of the time, they find that they can not only reduce costs but they can free up valuable employees for other tasks.

I was listening to CNN shortly after I gave the presentation and they were talking about what we, human workers, excel at that can’t be automated. They were talking about critical thinking skills and how finding people that are good at wearing a lot of hats, good at inventing, then reinventing, then reinventing again are hard to find. These key people who can maximize profits and drive growth are hard to find because once a company finds one, they don’t want to let them go. We don’t want to let them go and we certainly don’t want them walking an order over to production.

Want to find out what you could reinvent? Our Professional Services Group can help.

“The future is actually here it just doesn’t arrive all at once”

2011-09-15T13:14:00.000-04:00

By John Trimble

Novelist William Gibson is credited with the line “The future is actually here it just doesn’t arrive all at once” It’s both catchy and inarguable. I doubt that he was thinking of the state of process automation and document management when he said it but he might as well have been.

That thought was further driven home this week for me as I just got back from a National Hyland OnBase Users Conference in Las Vegas. (Hide your envy, it rained for two entire days, I don’t gamble, so Las Vegas to me is like Des Moines with better restaurants) But what struck me were the companies who had won the Hyland Software “Creative Awards’ for improving their processes with document imaging and workflow. Company after company spoke in almost revival meeting fervor and pride about how they have sped up, modernized and workflowed their information, allowing in some cases the public to see information on the web that previously required a trip to the County office or greatly increased customer satisfaction or even improved law enforcement. The Las Vegas Police Dept. now handles Homeland security cases at five times their prior rate because they have automated with fewer people.

On and on…the Kool Aid definitely knocked back and rightfully so. Unpaid, gleeful testimony.

So for these and many more companies and institutions the future has arrived. Why then is there still such a lag and a divide between the haves and have nots in document imaging? How can some still afford to or even want to accept being old-world-manual and slow when they know what is available, what their peers are doing, what their competitors are doing?

Technology is funny; if you could peer into every home on your block you would see everything from 12 inch black and white television sets to 65 inch high definition plasma and we would agree that is just personal taste. But if you walked into a company and applied for a job and realized as they started copying your application by hand that they did not own a copier you would quickly run for the parking lot. Business requirements transcend and trump personal choice. Or so you would think.
Apparently even in business change, technology and culture travel time can be on a seven second delay or it sometimes arrives by a team of oxen. Gee, Haw and all that. But it does come. Eventually.

Just not all at once.

Imaging Office Systems Expands Again, Adding Records Management Services

2011-09-01T14:42:00.000-04:00

COLUMBIA CITY, Ind., Sept. 1, 2011 Imaging Office Systems, Inc. (IOS) is a leading provider of content management systems, scanning and data capture, systems integration, and custom software development announced today that it purchased the assets of Document Management Solutions (DMS), a privately held local document storage company. DMS provides document and file management services including off-site records storage, expedited retrievals, and CRM consulting services.

This acquisition is consistent with IOS' strategy to complement their core business. Adding DMS's proven capabilities and 16 years' experience in hard copy storage elevates IOS to be considered uniquely qualified in allowing their clients to be truly paperless.

This complete solution loop is now possible as IOS combines its volume scanning and high end imaging software offerings and integrations for handling day forward documents with this new storage option for longer term retention requirements.

Using the unique DMS model, IOS will continue to provide clients with their own storage bays so their records stay together, separate and apart from any other clients. Russ Bassett cabinets, designed for archiving special formats, allow IOS to accommodate permanent storage for microfilm, microfiche, aperture cards, engineering drawings and roll or flat drawings.

Customers will continue to make file requests and even view them without ever leaving their desks via a secure internet interface. Requests for archived records that used to take days are completed in hours or less, if required. IOS is excited about these new services as they stay true to their focus on content management.

Imaging Office Systems, Inc. (IOS)
Deriving 100% of its revenue from content management, IOS has installed over 600 imaging systems in the Midwest. In addition to document management solutions from its partners Hyland, EMC, PSIGen, Canon, FileBound, and Fujitsu, IOS has an in-house Professional Services Group that performs system integrations and conversion, workflow and custom programming. With its multiple facilities IOS is also one of the largest document conversion service bureaus in the United States converting more than 5 million pages a month.

Document Management Solutions, Inc. (DMS)
DMS was originally opened by Tom Martin in Anderson Indiana in 1989 as the Midwest Microfilm Conversion Center for Bell & Howell. In 1995, Tom purchased the facility and created Document Management Solutions. Since then, Tom expanded the business to include paper and electronic document storage and retrieval, and scanning services. DMS used their vast industry experience to provide their clients with the best possible combination of storage, protection, and fast availability of documents. Like IOS, DMS had a single core competency and that was content management.

Celent report: Credit unions increase core system upgrades

2011-08-18T13:55:00.000-04:00

// August 18th, 2011 // Michelle Shapiro // Hyland Software // Financial Services

Ten percent of credit unions looked to upgrade their core banking system last year, according to a recent report by Celent. Historically, the average hovers between four or five percent.

I don’t have to tell you that changing a core isn’t exactly a small undertaking. Converting from an existing core banking platform, or even just upgrading, is a major project that impacts the entire enterprise. So why upgrade outdated legacy systems or consolidate platforms now? The market’s merger and acquisition activity has been really lively, resulting in a reevaluation of the core systems the credit unions have in place.

This report focuses just on the core, but what does this technology shifting mean for credit unions’ other systems.

The questions we’re getting from our customers are all along the same lines “if I change my core, can I still integrate ECM with the new system?” At this point in the ECM game, integrations seem like a basic thing to offer. But what’s causing many credit unions a lot of angst right now is just that – if they change their core, they have to rethink ECM, too.

But maybe that’s not such a bad thing. If credit unions don’t have a true ECM system, they’re probably up against a wall with a core provider’s document imaging component. If they decide to switch cores, or have to consolidate and share content from multiple acquired credit unions, it’s impossible to do so without getting an independent ECM solution.

So while all the acquisition in the credit union market is causing them to take another look at their core, long term it makes sense to also consider how to evolve their content management strategy. They’re growing and changing, and making sure they’re investing in an ECM solution that can grow and change with them is imperative. Credit unions can’t afford to have their content, especially member information, held in silos.