Turn on the power with Agile ECM

Accelerate IT's Transition from Simply Support to Strategic Contributor

2010-05-04T12:17:00.000-04:00

Is your current ECM system a “golden oldie?” Resistant to change? Resource guzzling? Not providing the business insight and flexibility required for your enterprise to compete and succeed in today’s hyper-competitive business climate?

If so, agility is your answer. Not old thinking. Not archaic, costly and lethargic systems. You need insight – now – and the ability and flexibility to change. Can you? Or are you a prisoner to old systems or old leadership? Yes, you need to continue to cut costs, but at some point for your team to shine you need to improve the business processes that are foundational to strategic success. And you need to empower your team on the front lines to make improvements “on the fly” without compromising top-level data governance.

The bad news is: the world is moving much too fast to succeed being reactive. The good news is: you can shift your focus from cost reduction and consolidation to innovation and competitive advantage. You have aspired to this shift for years…but now Agile ECM makes it possible.

While recovery will not come to everyone at the same time, you can proceed with raising your enterprise productivity and creating the capabilities needed to lead today and be well positioned for tomorrow.

Contact Unity Business Systems today to discover how Agile ECM can transform your organization!

CMS Wire Names Laserfiche a True Agile ECM Contender

2010-04-30T15:28:00.001-04:00

CMS Wire had some great things to say about Laserfiche and Agile ECM in their blog post today. One of only four ECM vendors that actually deliver on their claims. Here is an excerpt of their post:

Laserfiche and Agile ECM

Lasefiche (news, site) has also developed an Agile ECM, which it demonstrated at last month’s Gartner Business Process Management Summit. It enables organizations to create custom workflows that offer localized flexibility in streamlining business processes while enhancing centralized control over content standards. These workflows automatically perform specific tasks based on activity occurring in Laserfiche as well as other applications such as GIS, ERP, CRM and others. However, with SharePoint 2010 on the way, interoperability with it should help Laserfiche make in-roads in a market that is dominated by IBM’s FileNet.

Laserfiche Combines with SharePoint for Agile ECM

The integration with SharePoint extends Laserfiche’s Agile abilities by offering support to developers who need to control content, extend collaboration and tailor specialized business processes to departmental needs. Capabilities include:

Access to content from SharePoint pages
Records center for storing SharePoint information in Laserfiche repository
Search of content stored in both Laserfiche and SharePoint repositories
Custom workflow activities, including SharePoint-specific activities

But it is the LaserFiche Workflow where features expected of an Agile ECM are really apparent. It enables organizations to automate standard, collaborative business processes, such as approvals or routing based on business conditions. Most importantly, it transforms static Laserfiche repositories into dynamic repositories that ensure business processes are performed consistently and efficiently.

Well said CMS Wire, and thanks for the positive plug! Contact Unity Business Systems today and we will show you how to transform your organization with Agile ECM.

Posted by Paul Neal.

Obama and Blagojevich - Can You Trust Your Redactions?

2010-04-28T15:19:00.000-04:00

Ouch! Sticks and stones can break your bones but redacted words will never hurt you! Maybe not...This past Thursday, the former Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich's attorneys issued a subpoena to President Obama requiring him to testify in the former Governor's "Senate Seat for Sale" trial. The court motion was filed with certain texts redacted, or "blacked out", but because of the manner in which the redaction was done, the "veil" was easily lifted leaving the motion's complete text open and exposed for the world to read and dissect.

Although the privacy breach was discovered shortly after the motion was posted on the court's website, the full subpoena text is now in the public domain - forever. Not only has this gaffe been a bonanza for news outlets and Tweeters, but it has also potentially created liability issues for the staff and organization that released such an unsecure document. Is ignorance a valid excuse? Just how does an organization ensure that its employees are in compliance with privacy laws?

The answer is to utilize an enterprise content management system like Laserfiche with extensive, built-in security controls which prevent this type of information voyeurism. Laserfiche allows authorized users to redact, either in black or white, portions of documents that are secure, or at a minimum not for public consumption. Not only is document-level access controlled by user roles and permissions, but the ability to redact, or to see through redactions, can even be limited to the select few with "need to see or know" clearance. In Laserfiche, documents can be exported to .pdf format for general distribution, but unlike the published Blagojevich motion, the redacted text does not even exist in the exported document - so with no text, no one has the ability to break the code and "see behind the curtain." Today, with FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests surging and the more open and "sharing" Web 2.0 culture, privacy is becoming much harder and much more costly to maintain - but the penalties of not doing so are real. Contact UBS today to discuss how a Laserfiche enterprise content management system can give you the centralized control over document security you need, while allowing local flexibility for more efficient and lower-cost business operations.

Posted by Paul Neal.

Sharepoint Implementation Spoiling Your Day?

2010-04-15T17:12:00.004-04:00

I am excited to share that Unity Business Systems has been accepted into Microsoft’s SharePoint Deployment Planning Services (SDPS) program. This means that we can now provide you SharePoint consulting and implementation services as part of your current SharePoint software assurance plan. You can now have the same quality of ECM services we provide for Laserfiche for your SharePoint system. Laserfiche plus SharePoint equals Agile ECM. Please contact me today at Carl.Long@UnitySystems.biz to learn more about our services and what Agile ECM can do for your organization.

Posted by Carl Long.

Twitter and Library of Congress - History Making 140 Characters at a Time

2010-04-15T10:46:00.017-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

Attorneys of the world – rejoice! Today has to be a field day for lawyers the globe over…Twitter announced yesterday that it was releasing its entire database of “tweets” – that’s every single tweet ever, numbering in the billions, to the Library of Congress for public archival. That’s right – anything you EVER tweeted, whether you meant it or not, whether it was good or not, whether you meant it for public digestion or not, will now be an official record in the public domain. Big “Twitter” brother is watching…

What are the implications of this move? I’m not sure we completely understand them quite yet as the “Law of Unintended Consequences” tends to sneak up and surprise us whenever such sweeping and unexpected changes occur. “I’m no Ph.D., but it boggles my mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data. And I’m certain we’ll learn things that none of us now can even possibly conceive” says Matt Raymond of the Library of Congress. I can think of a few possible outcomes:

We now have incredible opportunity to study trends in concepts, ideas and behaviors, and the ability to capitalize on that historical record, much like Google does with search terms. The big differences here, though, are these: with Google, the data is anonymous, and the search terms are limited. With this Twitter release to the Library, not only is the data tied to a specific person, but 140 characters of information represent a much deeper picture of one’s thoughts and ideas than a 2 or 3 word search term ever could.
There now exist tremendous legal liabilities for tweeters and possibly for their organizations – such as the impact of declassifying operational memos might have. Questions like: “does Tweeting while on the job represent the official position of the employer?” become paramount. For example, could certain historical employee “tweets” be correlated with their company’s stock movement and a case for insider trading be established? How would this impact not only the employee and his company, but also everyone who was a “follower” of this employee’s tweets and happened to benefit from the “public” information?

In the past, those responsible for creating content typically knew what would become an organizational record. And the lifecycle of a record was as follows:

Prior to Web 2.0, this process was much easier to manage as the “creation of content” stage was cleared defined and controlled in most organizations. Now, however, with the continual, ongoing (and many times mobile…) conversation that is Twitter, Facebook, etc., Records Managers and Information Governance Advocates are in a tailspin. Their worlds have been completely upended. Everyone in your organization who uses any social platform (or has in the past) has become an unregulated, potentially harmful, record creator. Welcome to the Brave New World!

The new Web 2.0 record lifecycle reality becomes:

Where everyone is now creating organizational (and public) content, it is delivered immediately, preserved indefinitely, and NEVER destroyed. The national motto during World War II, “Loose Lips Sink Ships,” brought to the forefront of ones consciousness the importance of information discretion, and leaking the wrong kind of information was detrimental to the war effort. Could inadvertently “tweeting” the “wrong” kind of information, like a certain customer relationship issue that is not ready for “prime-time,” cause damage to the enterprise? The answer is undoubtedly yes. The question looms, knowing the “new information reality” that we all face, is just how do you address the challenge without stifling the upside opportunities that openness can foster? I believe the key is to “manage” the process before it begins.

There are three critical steps required to achieve this:

1. Create a behavioral policy that defines the “rules of the road” regarding social media for all organizational members

2. Develop an education plan that teaches, creates awareness of, and reinforces the long-term implications of content creation

3. Implement an enterprise-wide content management system to enforce company policies and disciplines, and monitor not only what is being created internally to your organization, but also what is being said about your company in the Web 2.0 space

With these safeguards in place, the record lifecycle now becomes:

For help solving your challenges presented by today’s new “record reality,” contact Unity Business Systems, who has been empowering enterprises to leverage their organizational data assets for over 15 years.

Posted by Paul Neal.

Thank You Phil Mickelson!

2010-04-12T09:26:00.009-04:00

After sinking his historic putt on the 18th at August National yesterday, Phil Mickelson once again earned my respect. It was not for his amazing talent and focus on the golf course - as I have seen time and again very talented people, and athletes in particular, perform extremely well in their chosen field of endeavor - only to lead pitiful lives dreadfully lacking character off of the field of play. Phil's loving and passionate embrace of his wife Amy Mickelson was a terrific reminder to me of the power of character and core values that made our nation great. Amy has been struggling with breast cancer for some time, which can bring any family to its knees, but through their struggle I sensed a commitment, a passion and a dedication to each other that is truly heartwarming in an age of almost expected rebellion to the institution. Phil dedicated his victory to her, and watching him play it was almost as if the family struggle actually empowered him to victory. The ability to overcome in the face of life's challenges is the epitome of success. I think Phil's behavior and victory was what golf needed yesterday. And it is the kind of thing we all need.

Thanks for being a great example to us all!

Visit us today at www.UnitySystems.biz.

Posted by Paul Neal.

Can Sharepoint Hinder Your Productivity?

2010-04-08T09:58:00.006-04:00

Everyone needs Microsoft Sharepoint, right? It’s all the rage…but just WHAT do you actually do with it? This is the critical first decision you must make to enjoy a successful Sharepoint implementation. Most people have a basic understanding of what it is “supposed” to do, i.e. collaboration, business intelligence, document management, workflow, etc. But where do you start? How can you quickly deploy a solution and realize the value that Sharepoint can bring to your organization? What we typically see is this: an organization has heard the buzz, wants to join the party, and has purchased MOSS with the high hopes of it immediately solving their content management struggles. Then reality strikes. Various Sharepoint sites are thrown up for different business units, document libraries are created where users can store their digital assets, duplication occurs, information sharing is compromised, workflows are created that optimized certain processes, but fail to satisfy most scenarios. Using Sharepoint actually starts to hinder productivity and users begin to wonder why it was implemented to begin with.

A successful implementation begins with the correct mindset of what Sharepoint really is. It is not a solution in itself. I like to think of Sharepoint as a platform on which you can build and integrate solutions to most of your business problems that aren’t already addressed by your Line of Business application (EPR, MRP, Finance, etc). Sharepoint has its obvious strengths, but also has some not-so-obvious weaknesses. For instance, it can greatly enhance a knowledge worker’s productivity by providing a dashboard to manage and execute most of the tasks or projects that they work on throughout the day. It provides an enterprise search tool that allows the worker to easily find the information they need to do their job, no matter where that information is stored. It can also be used to centralize all of the unstructured databases that an organization typically has: spreadsheets, access files, and word document lists. However, there are areas where Sharepoint doesn’t measure up that could cause a deployment to suffer. Document/Records management is one of these areas. Yes, Sharepoint is a fine storage location for the Microsoft Office documents that you create, but what about all the paper records that need to be stored and archived electronically? How do you plan to get them into Sharepoint? When you have scanned a majority of those unstructured documents into Sharepoint your overall system performance can suffer due to the terabyte of files stored and binary objects in the database itself. Then, what is your recourse?

Prior to Sharepoint going mainstream, the document management industry was already mature, with many great products available that do all these things and do them WELL. Sharepoint has all but ignored these major obstacles and still billed itself as a document management system. Don’t get me wrong, the more I know about Sharepoint, the more I love it. It has opened up new doors to organizational efficiency by providing a common space for people to USE the content once its been created. The main point I have today is that when it comes to document management, you don’t have to make the choice between Sharepoint and a traditional ECM system such as Laserfiche (see Agile ECM). The best solutions integrate both, using each system’s strengths along with their shared technologies to create a completely holistic, end-to-end solution. And the add-on benefit is that these integrated solutions drastically reduce deployment time because you no longer have to customize Sharepoint with code to overcome its shortcomings.

Be sure to check back next month, where I will discuss a few concrete examples of where the marriage of Sharepoint and Laserfiche clearly is a synergistic combination with virtually limitless potential.

Does Your Business have Untapped Intelligence?

2010-03-31T09:35:00.012-04:00

Ignorance is bliss, right? One of my favorite television shows growing up was "Hogan's Heros." The central theme was how Hogan and his team of "POWs" were not only truly running the prison camp, but were in reality coordinating an entire allied POW extraction organization. All under the noses of the bumbling, out of touch, Colonel Klink and his right hand man, "I know nothing!" Sergeant Schulz. The key to Hogan's success was his intelligence network...which empowered him to always stay at least two steps ahead of Klink. He understood the value of intelligence, and leveraged it to his and his country's advantage.

Today, with business moving literally at the speed of light, everyone is looking for an advantage. And the advantage, many times today, is locked directly under our noses - in our organizational data silos. "Data, data everywhere, but what does it all mean?" The problem for most is connecting the dots, or correlating the data, but harnessed properly and it can become the greatest of all opportunities. Probably the best known modern-day exploitation (and I don't mean that derogatorily) or leveraging of business data is Google. We all know the story, so I won't bore you with it. But Google is constantly introducing new tools and applications which are the direct result of analyzing the interactions and behaviors of its massive cloud of users. "Creating new economic value from unthinkably large amounts of information is its lifeblood" says the Economist magazine. And while the tendency is to think that "we cannot do that..." the reality is that everyone can take a page from the Google playbook. Every organization that has existed for any amount of time has data assets which can be intelligently leveraged. The key is, gaining the ability to correlate and learn from its own historical experiences...both good and bad. Visit our website today, www.UnitySystems.biz/businessintelligence for an overview of how Agile ECM can help you gain that precious competitive advantage.

The Three Laws of Agile ECM

2010-03-09T10:07:00.004-05:00

In today’s rapidly changing business environment, the ability to be constantly proactive with limited resources is critical to long-term organizational viability. You have to be agile. And at the same time you have to be coordinated. Many companies are discovering that although central control of information assets enables compliance, business units need flexibility in order to deliver services in the most proficient, cost-effective way. Enter Agile ECM.

Agile ECM is scalable, responsive and easily–modifiable content management technology that enables this organizational nimbleness. An agile organization, of course, has the ability to react quickly, flexibly and intelligently to changing business conditions—all without breaking the bank. To be successful in their implementations, organizations must heed the Three Laws of Agile ECM (as defined by Kimberly Samuelson, Laserfiche), each of which applies at a different phase of the implementation:

The Law of Probability (Adoption): The business world today is changing at an incredibly rapid pace. This law reminds us that as the rate of change in the business environment accelerates, the probability of an organization’s success gets smaller. To succeed, organizations must match—or ideally anticipate—the constant evolution of the market. The adoption of ECM as an infrastructural technology that provides information, auditing and business process management supplies the vital feedback an organization needs to be agile in its environment.
The Law of Simplicity (Deployment). This law reminds us that even the most complex problems often have simple solutions. Unfortunately, what is simple for one group may not be simple for another. Practitioners of Agile ECM reject the “one size fits all” mentality. They have learned to size up the complex information management challenges of different groups and find simple and repeatable solutions for each of them. Standardizing on an agile ECM system enables organizations to quickly and easily solve various groups’ information management challenges because it provides central control (enterprise–wide content standards and security) alongside local flexibility (the ability to store information and configure business processes according to specialized needs).
The Law of Innovation (Ongoing Implementation): Doing the same thing over and over yields less and less benefit, so constant innovation is key. And yet it is difficult and expensive to modify many traditional ECM systems to suit evolving business needs. An agile ECM system, however, grants business units, departments and other groups the flexibility to make controlled changes when necessary. Furthermore, it emphasizes the configuration of standardized solutions and leverages existing administration platforms to minimize the need for costly and time–consuming consulting or professional services. This allows organizations to react quickly and innovatively to changing conditions in order to drive increasing—rather than decreasing—business results.

How agile is your ECM?

Social Media and the Government

2010-03-01T14:08:00.007-05:00

The exponential explosion of social media is beginning to shake the foundations of large organizations and governments. Social media represents the ultimate in decentralization. In times past, organizations and nations could largely control their workforces and citizens from the top down, creating a sense of group-think, and enforcing a contrived "unity." Decisions from the ivory tower were for the best interest of the whole, or at least were purported to be. And even in many instances the media has propagandized the interests of the government. But with the internet, and now particularly social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, that power is shifting distinctly to the masses. Is this good? And should there be limits to this new-found freedom of expression?

Our founding fathers did recognize that a pure democracy can be bad, and instead elected to establish our country as a representative republic. The idea that majority rules exclusively is destructive of liberty because there is no law to prevent the majority from trampling on individual rights. In the world of social media, we can point to many extreme examples of this, on both poles, that make the case for some boundary definition versus the purely laissez-faire approach.

The state of California has recently thrown its hat in the ring regarding this issue - and of course California is no slouch when it comes to regulation of any kind - by releasing this past Friday its "Social Media Standard." According to the Statewide Information Management Manual, Section 66B: Tweeting and Facebooking can hamper employee productivity, strain Internet connections, cause "reputational risk to personnel, the agency, and the state," resulting in the leak of sensitive materials and more. (Read the article )

But the real question becomes, is creating a policy to prohibit this new behemoth of creative expression the best course of action? Is it possible, instead, to enable individual creativity and input and at the same time keep them from driving off the cliff? Could a collaborative enterprise content management system be commissioned that would allow central boundary definition, but at the same time foster local creativity and empowerment?

Posted by Paul Neal.

Getting Back to our Economic Roots

2010-03-01T09:35:00.002-05:00

America’s economic roots are based on Capitalism and ‘The Protestant Work Ethic’. Here is what I believe to be an accurate definition of Capitalism. “Capitalism is a form of economic change that can never be stationary; less effective firms, products, and methods must constantly be eliminated.”

Joseph Schumpeter

The only reason a company should exist is to create value. If that is not being done, it is better that another company have the opportunity. Everyone will be better off. As Ricky Bobby said in the movie ‘Talladega Nights’, “If you’re not first you’re last.” On the flip side when we create value it makes the world a better place. Charles Koch said it this way, “If you spend your life striving to profit by creating real value for customers and society you are in fact making people’s lives better...” How much value have you created for your customers and other stakeholders lately? If you haven’t done so are you ready to be replaced by someone who will?

How Apple Keeps from Losing its Way

2010-02-22T12:05:00.002-05:00

Successful companies are not product innovators but those that develop innovative business models. Take breakthroughs and figure out new ways to manufacture, distribute, and market them. Be customer centric, shape technology to meet the customer’s needs. Looks for small well articulated ideas. Focus on products, the end goal that guides and informs innovation. Don’t try to solve problems that don’t exist. Become a product oriented culture. Don’t let product oriented approach be replaced by a sales approach.

ITAIPU and Agile ECM

2010-01-26T10:04:00.012-05:00

What does the largest operational hydroelectric powerplant in the world have in common with Agile ECM? Started in 1971, construction of the dam between Paraguay and Brazil took almost 12 years to complete. The dam's reservoir began its formation on October 13, 1982, when the dam works were completed and the water rose a staggering 100 meters (330 ft) reaching the gates of the spillway by October 27th. The amount of potential energy, or energy assets, sitting behind the dam wall was hard to comprehend. People could enjoy the many benefits of the reservoir lake...fishing, boating, irrigation, and more. But was there more tangible benefit to be had?

Over the last several years, many organizations have successfully implemented some form of document management system or content management system. Millions and millions of documents have been digitized, indexed and added to these systems - what we would call digital assets. These organizational assets, now being present in the repository (or reservoir...), have improved business operations and efficiencies for a host of reasons including: faster search and retrieval, reduced costs, improved storage, disaster recovery, etc. But could there be even more benefit for your group? What if those digital assets could be leveraged into a true power source for your organization? Could that be transformational? That is what we call Agile ECM...combining Business Process Management (BPM) with Enterprise Content Managment (ECM) to truly empower your team and generate real productivity gains. When they installed generators at Itaipu, they leveraged the power of their liquid assets and created more power than 10 nuclear power stations, which provides 19% of the electrical power for Brazil, and 90% for Paraguay. Wow!

What could turning on the generators of Agile ECM do for you?

Contact Unity Business Systems for more information.

Laserfiche Institute Rocks!

2010-01-12T15:49:00.005-05:00

Yesterday morning, Laserfiche kicked off its “Empower 2010” Conference with a keynote address from company President and CEO Nien-Ling Wacker. A record 1,200 attendees turned out for the event, reflecting the accelerating growth of the Laserfiche community even in the face of recession.

“2009 was a watershed year that separated the truly great companies from the rest of the pack,” said Wacker. “Laserfiche is committed to helping great companies succeed, and we worked relentlessly throughout 2009 to make our agile ECM system the clear winner for the new decade.”

Despite the economic downturn and heightened security for air travel, end user attendance at the Conference is up 52% over last year. A healthy number of industry analysts, consultants, partners, journalists and resellers are also in attendance.

One of the highlights of the event so far was to see Unity Business Systems' very own Alondo McClees, of the City of Norfolk, presented his RunSmarter award! Way to go Alondo! Stay posted for more to come...

And take a minute and view the world-class video that Laserfiche presented on the software's global reach, and how we are truly part of a positive revolution.

http://www.laserfiche.com/conference/Video%20Highlights/Opening%20Video-Empower%202010.aspx

Congratulations to Norfolk, VA!

2009-12-23T09:39:00.003-05:00

The Center for Digital Government and Digital Communities Magazine named the City of Norfolk, VA, the "Top Digital City in America" in 2009. The survey, which has been run for 9 years now, examines how municipalities incorporate information technology into operations which better serve citizens. Norfolk has been a long-time client of Unity Business Systems, and was one of the first adopters of the Laserfiche Document Management System in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

"This year's winners demonstrate how cities have faced economic challenges with creativity and innovation in the use of information technology," said Cathilea Robinett, executive director for the Center for Digital Government.

Other Unity Business Systems local government clients that placed in the Top Ten (based upon their respective sizes) are: the City of Virginia Beach (6th with population over 250,000), the City of Alexandria (4th with population between 125k and 249k), the City of Hampton (8th with population between 125k and 249k).

For the complete article, please visit the Center for Digital Government or Unity Business Systems.

Online Christmas Shopping

2009-12-22T15:29:00.008-05:00

Snow! And piles and piles of it! This is the 'stuff' that kept millions of Eastern Seaboarders away from the malls this past weekend, just at the peak of the Christmas shopping season. But we Americans, being ever resourceful, were still able to secure that proverbial Old Spice gift set for dad, it's just that we did it online.

In fact, online retail sales rose 22.4 percent for the weekend compared with last year, Web research company Coremetrics said. On Saturday, sales were up 24.8 percent alone. The firm also showed the average shopper spending and ordering more on Saturday, when the weather’s effects were deepest, than Friday. Even online sales Monday morning were strong as shoppers raced to make purchases so they could be delivered by Christmas. “This teaches consumers that maybe those of us that procrastinate, we still have time to go online very close to Christmas,” said John Squire, Coremetrics’ chief strategy officer.

Today we are all busy. And we are being asked to do more with less all of the time. Most Americans are now quite comfortable shopping online, as we have been doing this now for 10 years. The IRS even recognizes this as they allow, and even prefer, that most people file their tax returns online. Wouldn't 2010 be a great year for local governments to adopt the same thought process? Why not automate all incoming forms so constituents, who don't like filing forms like business renewals or garage sale permit requests, can do so with the "click" of the mouse? And make it easy for the employees to process the required documents, and save the taxpayers time and money... For more information on electronic forms or other Business Process Management solutions, contact Unity Business Systems.

Take a Picture

2009-12-08T13:40:00.002-05:00

I am going to buy a camera, a good camera with a telephoto lens that will let me get close to wildlife and shy people. Pictures are great and they tell a story for years after they are taken. This is a picture of my kids fifteen years ago. My old Polish aunt knitted hats and mittens for them and I wanted to send her a picture. The picture tells the story.

Saving business records is like saving pictures. It’s an important thing to do and the records tell a story. Like digital cameras have made saving, organizing, sharing and keeping safe your pictures…document imaging does the same thing for your business records. Use Laserfiche and make your business records management as easy as taking a picture.

From Vision to Reality

2009-12-02T10:04:00.005-05:00

One of the true joys of life is to have a dream realized. Something that begins as a germ of an idea, a simple, fragile seed that, given enough attention and care, can begin to grow and ultimately manifest itself before our very eyes. Thus was the case with the first annual Laserfiche Statewide Users Group Seminar that was held yesterday in Chesterfield, Virginia. Flying in the face of budgetary cutbacks and limited to non-existent travel and training funds, User Group Leaders Alondo McClees, Rosalind Collins, Debbie Wolff, Mike Wells and Amy Johnson banded together to craft an event that was simply terrific. Their vision of empowering the Statewide Laserfiche user community to do "more with less" was enthusiastically received and greatly appreciated. The education sessions were focused, the networking and community activities were invaluable, and the vendor giveaways were terrific! (And timely with Christmas around the corner...)

We, at Unity Business Systems, consider it an honor and a privilege to serve and be associated with such a forward thinking and creative "team" of people. Kudos to you, and we look forward to assisting in any way possible next year!

Are you like Noah?

2009-11-12T09:37:00.011-05:00

As I sit here here this morning with hot coffee in hand, gazing out the window at my wind- and flood-stricken yard resulting from the "NorEaster of 2009," I cannot help but to reflect on the idea of disaster preparedness. Having personally experienced many such storms, including two major hurricanes, I am still amazed at how life can become so completely discombobulated in such a short order. I am reminded yet once again how we take our everyday routines and conveniences for granted. The simple act of getting out of my neighborhood, for instance, is normally very simple, and very quick. But with today's storm, all bridges in and out of my hamlet of Great Bridge are closed, and so egress is extremely arduous. Not only that, the question looms: what happens when we lose power? How long will it be out? How disruptive will that be?

After 40 years of life, I have come to a very simple conclusion: these things happen. Accidents happen. Natural disasters happen. Major life disruptions happen. And all of them are beyond our control, or we would prevent them, right? And typically we say "It won't happen to me!" I've said that myself many times in the past, just to be reminded yet again this past Thursday when I set my own kitchen on fire. It was a total accident, but it happened. I never would have expected to start a fire in my kitchen, but thank God I was sensible enough to listen to the experts when they said to keep fire extinguishers in your house - just in case. Because of that, I was able to greatly limit our damage, and prevent the house from burning down.

I think also about Noah of the Bible who God told to build an ark because the flood was coming. Noah could have easily said "Why should I do that? It has never rained before, so why in the world would I waste my time and resources building an ark?" But he did. He prepared. He listened to God - saved his family - and the rest is history.

So I guess the question is this: we know that disasters affect each and everyone of our lives - both personally and professionally - but have we adequately prepared? What if you or your team could not get into the office for an extended period of time? Could they still access your critical business systems and be productive? If you had a fire or flood in your building, would mission-critical business data be lost forever? Is it securely and remotely backed up? Or do you still have the preponderance of your documents and files in paper or non-digital format? If it were digitized, not only could you back it up redundantly across multiple states, but your team could access the data remotely. Or they could telecommute from "higher ground" for an extended period if necessary, with minimal business interruptions, and in some cases, in safer environments.

Many companies today, particularly smaller companies, are reluctant to make the necessary investment required to "go digital" and protect their business assets. The perceived costs involved, and the attitude that "It won't happen to us" can stymie common sense and good judgment. But the truth is that the loss of time, money and opportunity to rebuild a damaged infrastructure is substantially greater than the managed cost of adequate preparation. Remember, things DO happen. Just ask the folks who went through hurricane Katrina. Will you be ready?

Renew Virginia!

2009-10-14T10:33:00.005-04:00

In December, 2008, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, launched Renew Virginia, a year-long series of legislative and administrative actions promoting renewable energy, creating green jobs, and encouraging preservation of the environment. A noble goal, indeed, and as many such initiatives are, typically more challenging to realize than decree. Environment preservation is on everyone's mind today, and rightfully so. As we consider that the world is now home to over 6 Billion people, we must all be mindful of shared resources.

One of the key environmental areas that governmental agencies, in particular, can focus on is the reduction of paper in their processes. Over the past 10 years, many of these organizations have embraced the idea of moving away from paper, and have implemented document management systems, which allow paper to be stored in electronic format for ease of retrieval and sharing without the creation of additional paper. Many have even taken the additional step of 'digitizing' or converting their older, historical paper and microfilm records to digital formats, and have been able to 'recycle' the vastly expensive space they were previously using to store these documents.

One of the most overlooked areas of significant improvement, however, is the point at which citizens actually interact or interface with these agencies. Currently, many of the Commonwealth's municipalities have gaggles of necessary forms posted on their respective websites for citizens to find, print and complete on their own with no employee interaction. This is a step in the right direction, but somewhat limited in it's efficiency and 'green' power. For instance, if I want to have a garage sale in my hometown of Chesapeake, I can go to the city website, pull up the permit form, fill in the required fields (all good so far...) but THEN, I have to print the form (waste of paper and ink), write a check (waste of expensive paper and ink), and either drive to the Commissioner of Revenue's office (waste of gas and time) or mail it the the COR's office (waste of envelope, stamp and post office gas and time). Once the Commissioner's office receives my permit request and check, the paper form (which started out as an electronic document) now has to be digitized and entered into their document management system for approval and archiving. The check also has to be deposited (and someone must verify that it clears...) The inefficiencies are monumental!

Doesn't it make much more sense to eliminate the waste that occurs between the original electronic form on the website and the completed electronic form and deposit in the Commissioner's system? A cursory review of the City of Chesapeake's online forms page shows over 140 forms! How much paper, gasoline and manpower could be saved by eliminating the 'waste' in this process? Multiplied by the number of municipalities across the Commonwealth?

So, congratulations to many of the Virginia Governmental agencies that have adopted electronic content management systems...you are halfway there. You've 'greened' the back-end of your process. Let's begin to focus on the front-end going forward, and a "Renewed Virginia" reality can be much closer for all of us. For more information on this idea, visit our website at http://www.unitysystems.biz

Laserfiche 8.1 Scores BLI Solutions Report’s First-Ever 5-Star Rating

2009-10-02T15:13:00.002-04:00

The Laserfiche 8 product suite has just received the highest-possible Five-Star rating from Buyers Laboratory, Inc. (BLI). The report focused exclusively on our current Laserfiche 8.1 product suite, and highlighted Laserfiche 8.1’s ease of use and administration, scalability, intuitive interface and possibilities for integration

“Laserfiche 8.1 is a robust, scalable document management solution that offers a broad range of functionality, along with impressive ease of use and ease of administration,” said BLI Assignments Editor George Mikolay in the report. “The platform’s modular capabilities make it suitable for companies of any size, as it can scale easily from just a few users in a single workgroup to thousands of users across an enterprise.”

“Laserfiche’s open architecture allows for easy integration with both software and hardware manufacturers,” the report said, adding that “the intuitive Workflow module features an easy-to-use [graphical user] interface that allows administrators to build complex workflows for users.”

Click here to download the entire report.

Unity Business Systems has been a top 10 Laserfiche Reseller for over 10 years. Please contact use to receive more information on the Laserfiche suite of products at 757-223-5908 or visit our web site for more information on Unity Business Systems.

Saving Student Records

2009-09-24T21:32:00.002-04:00

Attention all school systems in America! Where are your STUDENT RECORDS? Are they in a dank basement or storage facility decomposing from the environment? Are they safe from fire or flood? Are they scattered amongst the various schools in your district? Can you get to them easily?

It is amazing where I have actually seen student records stored….

In a utility closet stored next to flammable cleaning liquids with no fire suppression in the room.
An old school building that is no longer maintained… in a room with broken windows – did I mention there are no locks on the door?
On moldy microfilm.
An old classroom trailer with no environmental controls.

Is this you? As a custodian of information you have an obligation to these student records. Converting them to a digital format is easier and less expensive than you think. Not only is there a moral obligation to maintain these student records….it’s the law! To find out more on how to digitize and save your student records please contact Unity Business Systems at 757-223-5908 or go to our website at www.unitysystems.biz

NCAA Football Top 10 and ECM?

2009-09-08T10:12:00.006-04:00

University of Florida, University of Oklahoma, USC, Ohio State, Virginia Tech...what do these schools have in common other than Top 10 ranked NCAA football teams?

They (and many more institutions of higher learning) have chosen Laserfiche Document Management software as a core piece of their overall Enterprise Content Management plans. Take USC, for example. When the Laserfiche adoption began in 2005, they had 3100 full-time and 1300 part-time faculty, which meant the Provost's Office was straddling a campus-wide legacy payroll system and individual colleges' respective personnel records. According to the institution, this generated inefficiency and confusion - and a mountain of paperwork that took up space and required constant copying and re-filing. Personnel files that might be housed centrally were used individually by schools spread out across USC's six-mile wide campus.

"The benefits (of the Laserfiche ECM solution) range from the simple (cutting down on inter-office mail and reducing storage and processing costs) to the critical (disaster recovery, transparency, and compliance)" said David Haughland, associate vice provost, and Desiree Brown, faculty services coordinator. (Read the entire story at http://budurl.com/cn8v )

Making content management easy is what we do at Unity Business Systems. And we are proud to say that we have been a Top 10 Laserfiche partner for over 10 years! Give us a call today to see how we can help your organization, like these major universities, be more efficient and productive.

Get Cash for your old Legacy ECM System!

2009-08-12T10:21:00.003-04:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The recent American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has created quite a few stimulus programs, but none so popular as the “Cash for Clunkers” program, which offers car buyers rebates to junk their old gas-guzzlers and purchase new, more efficient models. The program has had a huge impact on the marketplace, leading to a jump in car sales—and getting a lot of non-performing gas-guzzlers off the road.

Our primary Enterprise Content Management software partner, Laserfiche, has just announced an opportunity that aims to help organizations “Go Green.”

“From our experience, there are a lot of outdated ECM systems out there in the graveyard. Due to mergers and acquisitions, a lot of ECM companies may not exist anymore, so customers aren’t being looked after. New releases aren’t being supported. Or customers are stuck paying huge maintenance fees for systems that aren’t meeting their needs, but they can’t afford to replace,” explains Chris Wacker, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Laserfiche.

The Laserfiche “Cash for Clunkers” program offers significant financial credits to organizations for trading in these gas-guzzling ECMs for more efficient Laserfiche systems. In some cases, up to 50% off of the purchase price, as well as typically huge savings in annual maintenance over traditional “Gas-Guzzling” legacy ECM systems.

This program has led to several successful trade-ins already. Last week, the City of Long Beach, CA approved Laserfiche to replace three ‘clunker’ ECM systems: two FileNet systems in the Housing Department and City Hall, and one EMC Documentum system in the Police Department.

“We realize the City is facing some tough budget challenges right now and we are glad to be able to help the City save money. This is our version of the Federal Cash for Clunkers program,” Wacker told Long Beach City Council members last week. Wacker’s mention of the successful Federal stimulus program was greeted with both laughter and applause.

As a Laserfiche Top 5 Partner for over 10 years, we at Unity Business Systems are excited about the opportunity to offer such amazing value to the marketplace, and to do our part to get the American Economy back on it’s feet.

The Handshake

2009-08-10T14:42:00.008-04:00

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? We've heard that cliched expression our entire lives. And it is mostly true. But have you ever purchased a book because the picture (or title) on the cover conveyed a compelling message but the book itself was awful? Sometimes you discover in the first chapter that you wasted your money, and other times it takes a little longer. Or have you ever read an eye-catching newspaper headline that bore no resemblance to the drivel that followed?

Unfounded claims seem to be more of the norm today, than the exception, and they are inherently short-term in nature. People today are smarter than ever before, and much more sophisticated. One of the greatest advantages of Web 2.0 today is that it transfers the power from the advertiser to the consumer, and gives the "smart shopper" the tools he needs to make sound and intelligent decisions. No longer does she have to rely on unfounded claims, but instead on instant comparisons and reviews from other buyers who have walked before. Companies that are in business to serve their clients long-term and who look to develop mutually beneficial relationships over time are reaping the rewards.

At Unity Business Systems, we have over 15 years in the Content Management business and thousands of satisfied users, and have succeeded one relationship at a time. We are 100% committed to the performance of our solutions and to the quality of the relationships we have with you. This is our commitment to you, our handshake. Let us know how we can makeITeasy! for you today...

Click Here to learn more about the UBS Outrageous Guarantee.

Or visit our website at www.UnitySystems.biz