ECM Support Archives

Category Archives for "ECM Support"

Please Hold for 1 Hour…

Great support is a must for any business and Customer Service 101. Automated support is great if you want to pay a bill with a credit card or check the balance of an account, but when you have an actual issue you need assistance with, automated support is the LAST thing that I know I want. You call the number, have to start pressing buttons and then keep getting dumped into various queues, and then when you actually do reach someone, sometimes you explain your issue, and then you get transferred 10 times until you reach the right person. I honestly dread calling any company or organization where I know this happens, because I know it’s not just a quick 5-10 minute call. It always ends up being 30 minutes to an hour of my time at least!

That’s one of the things that I think is so awesome about the Support Team here at ImageSource. Our customer partners can put in a support ticket via the website with information about the issue they are having and a live human being from our Support Team will call them to help work through the issue. The team can chat with the customer over the phone or even set up a WebEx session to dial-in and see what’s going on. What’s even more wonderful about working with so many great organizations in the Olympia area, if the issue can’t be resolved over the phone and/or over a WebEx session, a technician can be onsite relatively shortly to assist. How cool is that?!

On top of all that, there is always someone from our Support Team on call 24/7. So if a customer partner has an issue in the middle of the night that needs immediate attention, someone is always on call if the need arises!

ImageSource’s Support Team is very knowledgeable on a number of different content management products, from capture software to eForms to records management and everything in between.

So if you’re having an issue, don’t be afraid to reach out. You’ll get to talk to a human and you won’t be put on hold for an hour…

Kristina Linehan
Account Executive
ImageSource, Inc.

Compliant Public Requests Start with Smart Records Retention

One message we consistently hear from government customers is how they need better solutions around records requests. With content growing at exponential rates, and huge implications around potential litigation, many organizations don’t feel that they have a good handle on it.

The ability to comply with public records request laws in any jurisdiction starts with good record-keeping, including disposition. Keeping a record past it’s retention period can be as big a problem as not keeping it long enough.

Here are some steps you can take to move toward better records practices:

Understand your organization’s unique requirements for retention and disposition
Certain records have to be kept longer than others, some records might need to be sealed, others may need redaction before they can be turned over, etc. Each organization, department, even business process may have different requirements. Determine and document what the requirements are so that when you start to do an inventory of content, you have a definitive plan regarding what needs to be kept and for how long. Click here for a link to the Washington State Records Retention Schedules.
Know what content constitutes a record
Records include more than paper and electronic documents. Email, photos, video, audio, text messages and form data that are generated or received as part of doing business can all be subject to records requests.
Identify where your records reside
They may be files on a network share or paper documents in a file cabinet. Regardless of where the documents are kept, regulations are rigid, regardless of the file format or how hard the collection process is.
Perform an analysis and inventory
A thorough inventory will help you manage duplicates and multiple versions of documents to mitigate litigation risk. This can be done internally, outsourced to a contractor, or a hybrid approach. Regardless of which path you choose, determine what content you have, what needs to be kept, and what can be disposed of before evaluating any new content management technology. Migrating content that is not retention-worthy into a new system is not time or cost effective.
Choose a solution that is flexible and easy
Two of the highest priorities of 95% of the organizations we work with are that their content management system be easy-to-use and flexible enough to adapt to changing requirements. Specifically, they want easy-to-set-up retention and disposition schedules, that can be quickly updated—without extensive IT resources—if laws or regulations change.
Automation can also ensure disposition on schedule. For examples, software can watch and take action on documents based on date-based metadata. Finding a system that can serve your entire enterprise with flexible disposition methods, like destruction, exporting to another system or leaving just metadata in its place is also important.
Find a technology partner with depth and breadth of experience
The success of your records initiative can depend greatly on where you go for help. With an astounding 68% failure rate for IT projects, its best to find a partner with time-tested methodology, from analysis to support. Experience in the following areas can make the difference between triumph and failure:

Expert consulting to determine your “as is” state and develop a plan to get you to your “desired” state using industry best practices
Assessment of your current technology and how it can be leveraged
Solution evaluation to perfectly match technology with your requirements
Solution deployment, configuration, training and rollout
Document collection, conversion, scanning, taxonomy definition and automated classification and metadata extraction
Data Migration
Ongoing partnership for system/process tuning, growth and support

If you’ve done the prep work correctly—analysis, inventory and technology partner and system selection—then what you’ve put in place will help you retain records exactly as long as required. If you’d like to learn more about ImageSource, our history, retention management and public records request solutions, please contact us today.

Imaging hardware: How to get the best bang for your buck

Why price is not the most important factor when purchasing imaging hardware

When shopping for new imaging hardware, many customers look at their budget and let that dictate their purchase. Now I understand that budget is an important factor, however over the last 9 years working with imaging customers, many have purchased equipment based mainly on price – only to discover that it did not meet their long term growth needs.

So in light of these discussions, here are a few bits of wisdom that can be used as a checklist when considering new purchases:

What scanner features are essential to you?

Color or Black & White (B & W) scanning?
The majority of scanners automatically come with color option but can also provide B & W scanning for smaller document size files.
How fast do you need the scanner to scan?
Scanners are classed by Pages per Minute (PPM).
How much volume are you expecting to scan per day, week or month?
Volume and speed is determined by the manufacturer when they develop the scanner.
Manufacturers group their scanners into categories based on PPM and the Daily Duty Cycle (DDC).
DDC is how many images the scanner can handle on a daily basis. So if you have a large volume of scanning to be completed on a daily basis, a small desktop workgroup scanner will not be sufficient for the volume – it would break down all the time. Here are the general groupings that manufacturers use:

Workgroup/ Low Volume
Slower, smaller desktop scanners generally under 90PPM and DDC of approximately 500 to 20,000 documents per day, depending on model purchased.
Departmental/ Mid Volume
Scanning speeds ranging 90-125PPM and DDC of approximately 30,000 to 125,000 documents per day, depending on model purchased.
High Volume
Scanning speeds ranging 140-210PPM and DDC of approximately 150,000 to unlimited documents per day, depending on model purchased.
Network
When scanning directly to a network, without the need of additional hardware or software. Scanning speeds tend to be slower for these scanners, generally under 60PPM and DDC of 6,000 per day, depending on model purchased.

What are the characteristics of your document?

How big are your batches of documents that you want to scan at one time?
Scanners come with different Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) sizes, ranging from 10 pages at a time to scan, up to 750 pages. If you have a large production scanning environment, the more the ADF holds the quicker the scan operator can scan documents. Generally scanners that have higher ADF also have higher PPM and DDC.
You need to determine the general sizes of your documents.
What is the maximum and minimum sizes, what length are the documents? Larger or longer documents (11 x 17” or 12 x 34”) do require a flatbed scanner or scanner that can handle longer documents.
Are they delicate documents that cannot be run through a scanner? This would also indicate you may need a flatbed scanner or a flatbed attachment to the scanner.
Do you require pre-scan or post-scan imprinting?
Is the scanner easy to clean every day by the user?
Are the consumables (rollers etc.) easy to replace by the end user? This can save money and time on the maintenance of the scanner and ensure optimum image clarity and scanning performance.

What value-add does the vendor/manufacturer offer?

Does the manufacturer offer evaluation or demo scanners for you to test before the purchase?
This is important when purchasing larger production scanners, it will help determine which scanner is the best fit for your scanning needs.
What type of scanner hardware maintenance contracts does the manufacturer offer?
Some include 1 year or multiple years in with the scanner purchase price and will save you money.
Will shipping be included in the initial purchase or is it an additional cost?

Many customers work with ImageSource to help them select the best fit, or to evaluate scanners side by side to determine what is the best bang for their buck. As you can see from the information above, sometimes price is not the only factor to consider with your new purchase.Let us help you!

To learn more about ImageSource, and all of the content management services we provide, visit us here.

Why Courts Need Document Management AND Case Management Systems

Document Management System (DMS) needs should be identified holistically, not just for the needs of the courtroom processes. A successful implementation will be gained through a well thought out plan and a DMS solution that can not only integrate with a courts Case Management System (CMS), but also with Fiscal, HR, Procurement, and other department’s line-of-business systems.

To accomplish a successful implementation of an electronic environment there has to be an overall vision and buy-in from all the key individuals of the court system.

Culture and vision which incorporates technology as part of the business strategy
Identify areas to integrate technology with the courts business strategies
Implementation of an electronic DMS to be used by all departments
Integration of the DMS with CMS and other line-of-business systems
Provide public access to documents via a web portal (e-Access)

Converging Mobility with Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

In a recent report, IDC predicts 87% of connected devices by 2017 will be tablets and smartphones. In the same report, it is predicted that the purchase and use of PCs will drop from 28.7% to 13% by 2017.

What does this trend data really mean? Well, for starters, it might mean that more people will be playing Angry Birds than ever before. From a business point-of-view, tablets and smartphones are both disruptive and viewed like a Swiss Army Knife: a single device that can do many things. However, with these mobile devices, there is both the opportunity for rewards and the potential for risks. It makes no difference if the mobile device is provided by your employer or is a BYOD situation. On the whole, the same rules apply; however, there are some nuances about BYOD that invite additional risks to be mitigated.Continue reading

1 2 3 … 5 Next »