Electronic Document Management System

Final rule on meaningful use finally released

2010-07-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

Less than three months before the start of fiscal 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has finally released its final rule on “meaningful use,” which will drive the health IT industry’s installation of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) under last year’s HITECH Act.

(To the right, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius, from the department’s Web site.)

The release was done at a Webcast and included Donald Berwick, now director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

A summary of the rule has also been published at the New England Journal of Medicine, but the main change from the initial proposal, released in December, is that requirements have been split between a “core” group of required objectives and a “menu set” of procedures so clinics can get partial credit.

The first vendor press release on the new rules came from Allscripts, whose CEO, Glen Tullman, was an Obama adviser on health care in 2008 and served on the advisory committee that helped come up with the rule. More reaction is expected to follow, and we will cover it at ZDNet.

Along with the meaningful use rule a final rule on certification of systems was also published. The companies which will do the certifying have yet to be chosen, after which vendors will have to line up to assure customers of stimulus cash.

Now that the rules for getting that cash are in place, vendors and customers are in a race against time. The first set of deadlines will be based on six months of use during fiscal 2011, which means software or gear needs to be in place by next April 1 to meet the deadline.

And we don’t even know who will certify whether the gear meets requirements. But at least we know the rules under which both certification and use will be measured.

Source: - http://www.zdnet.com/blog/healthcare/final-rule-on-meaningful-use-finally-released/3814

CMS: We'll publish our 'Meaningful Use' final rule by July 14

2010-07-01T21:02:00.000-07:00

CMS: We'll publish our 'Meaningful Use' final rule by July 14
July 1, 2010 — 12:49pm ET | By Wendy Johnson

Many dates have been thrown around regarding when CMS plans to publish its final rule for meaningful use. This highly anticipated regulation, of course, will spell out how providers and organizations can become eligible for HITECH's electronic health record incentive payments.

Some news outlets have reported that July 13 is the magic date. That sounds about right, give or take a few days. FierceEMR spoke with a CMS official directly involved in writing and publishing the final regulation, and she assures us that although there's no "official" publication date (CMS missed its own self-imposed June 30 deadline), "I would be very surprised if it's published any later than July 14."

"We hoped to have it out by the end of June, but it's looking more like mid-July," the official told us this week. "There are so many moving parts and so many people are involved. This is a long regulation." No doubt! The proposed rule was thicker than many novels. We expect nothing less from the final reg.

CMS also plans to unveil its plan for aligning its Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) with the EHR incentive program in mid-July. "We propose to include many ARRA core clinical quality measures in the PQRI program, to demonstrate meaningful use of EHR and quality of care furnished to individuals," CMS states in an advanced copy of the proposed reg, CMIO magazine reports. "We propose the selection of these measures to meet the requirements of planning the integration of PQRI and EHR reporting."

Source: - http://www.fierceemr.com/story/cms-well-publish-our-meaningful-use-final-rule-july-14/2010-07-01?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Document Management Systems make your paper work very fast

2010-06-19T04:12:00.000-07:00

Doctors are always looking for an intelligent way with the burdensome administrative process and to focus on the health of their patients. You want to keep track on the medical history of their patients, not juggling documents. document management software provides this service to collect, store and assimilate to financial and other scanned documents are instantly and easily accessible by simple click.

document management software has some specialties. It is designed in a user mode and allows a person to arrange graphic according to their practices. The user can simply create folders and store documents with names, then he can find. The software is also considered for the efficient and proper functioning. The burden of proof to the fax storage and stacks of bills to reduce considerably, because the trial made by automation and other applications, including EMR.

The document management software is now strongly preferred by the pros. It reduces stress and keeps a good track of important data that can be viewed later without any problem. Doctors consider the software as one of the fastest document management solutions in the health care profession. The software allows users to draw online and offline by storing the maps on a local server that makes it safer to believe it can be seen both offline and online. The image storage reduces the risk of data loss. The software also provides the condition to find a simple and fast.

The software also allows premium users to share and gather information easily and at the drop of a hat. The user can also send, print and e-mail scanned documents as required (hospitals, doctors, colleagues, pharmacies), adding simple.

Document storage is easy as pie. Collect one or more cards and analyzed using a scanner. That is, it suffices to say that the document management system, it includes the patient and it will automatically save. The document management software also allowed to import Adobe PDF and an impressive number of different types of documents in a single click.

UK based Whiz Solutions is very excellent in services like Document Storage London & Graphics Designer Middlesex

Source: - http://articleresource.org/computers-and-technology/software/document-management-systems-make-your-paper-work-very-fast-30752

Document Management Roll-up: Google Adds Docs Functionality, Oracle Updates BPM Suite 11g

2010-06-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

This week, with the general release of Office 2010, Google challenges with updates to Docs, and gets some added support from other companies like OpenDrop. On the BPM front, Oracle followed its ECM Suite 11g release with an upgraded BPM 11g.

Google Adds Docs Functionality
Who would ever have thought it! The day before Microsoft (news, site) puts Office 2010 out on general release, Google adds new functionality to Google Docs.

According to the Google Docs official blog their new documents and spreadsheets editors have been released making both easier to use and manipulate, as well as adding some more sauce to draw users away from Office 2010 and its online version, Web Apps.

As of this week, all new documents will be created using the new documents editor. According to the blog, the new editor was built for faster real-time collaboration, better imports and more control over document’s layout.

Since the preview, they have also added new features including a table of contents, a special characters dialog, a dictionary, search as-you-type and re-sizable images.

A new version of spreadsheets is also available as the default to everyone starting this week too. New features here include formula highlighting, sheet dragging, sheet menu, faster scrolling, an editable formula bar, autocomplete in cells, copy sheet from one spreadsheet to another and range sorting.

These new editors will become the default editors for Google Apps users too. Google will begin activating the new editor for documents on June 21 and for spreadsheets on June 30.

Office 2010 Finally Available For All
And because you can’t have Google Docs without Microsoft Office a short word to say Office 2010 is finally on general release as of later today so that all those that haven’t been able to access it in work will finally be able to see what all the fuss is about.

There has been a lot of talk about Office 2010 here over the past few months so the features are probably familiar to most.

And the recommended pricing has also been released. Office Home and Student 2010, the most basic bundle of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, will cost US $150 and can be installed on as many as three computers.

A US $280 version includes the Outlook e-mail program while a US $500 bundle adds Publisher and Access. Along with the Office 2010 suite, users can now purchase Visio 2010 and Project 2010 both in stores and at the official Microsoft store online.

Computers will now be shipped pre-loaded with Office 2010 within the next 12 months. These pre-loaded Office 2010 suites can be activated by purchasing a product key card at a retail outlet or online.

OfficeDrop Puts Pressure On Microsoft
However, competition for Microsoft and Office 2010 is going to be stiff as other companies start getting in on the Google Docs act.

This week, for example, online document management company OfficeDrop has just launched a new product feature that will allow customers to automatically get their paper scanned and into Google Docs as text-searchable PDFs.

Using the new service, users can send paper documents to OfficeDrop in pre-paid envelopes and boxes. OfficeDrop then scans and uploads the files to a secure online document management portal that is both a search engine and organizational tool for paper and digital files.

When OfficeDrop folders or files are linked to Google Docs, the documents are automatically uploaded to Google Docs as text searchable PDFs.

This is a powerful collaboration tool for offices that struggle with the location and exchange of information, especially since the OfficeDrop system makes everything searchable by adding OCR (optical character recognition) to any document uploaded to the OfficeDrop document management system.

Currently, Google Docs does not provide OCR for non-text rich files, but OfficeDrop makes files text searchable, so any documents sent to Google Docs from OfficeDrop can then be searched effectively.

If you want to sign up for OfficeDrop you can do so through the Google Apps Marketplace or on OfficeDrop's website.

SAP Extends Open Text Agreement
An extended agreement between Open Text (news, site) and SAP (news, site) means that SAP is to start selling Open Text’s information management solution that includes file managements capabilities for personnel records and effectively streamlines their human resources operations.

This is not the first time the two have gotten together. SAP already sells Open Text solutions for document management including access and archiving as well as digital asset management.

This latest agreement will see Open Text’s solution for human resources management sold as SAP Employee File Management application by Open Text and will enable companies to create and complete digital records of all personnel-related documents natively integrated with the SAP ERP Human Capital Management platform.

The result is that all paper and electronic documents can be pulled from digital files relating to employees cutting the amount of time needed to administer human resources related tasks.

Oracle BPM Upgrade Follows Suite Upgrade
Last week Oracle (news, site) announced a major upgrade to its enterprise content management suite. This week it has announced it is upgrading its Business Process Management suite.

As a part of Oracle’s Fusion Middleware 11g, the new BPM Suite 11g is said to support all kinds of processes with a new process foundation, user-centric design, as well as new social BPM abilities.
Oracle Business Process Management Suite 11g includes a native implementation of BPMN 2.0 with new components including:

•Oracle UCM for document-centric processes
•Unified management and monitoring of business processes
•Role-based modeling and design using BPM studio
•Process Composer: for web-based process modeling and deployment.
•Business visibility, process status and operational reporting through business reporting
The new social abilities also enable enhanced collaboration by including wikis and blogs as well as customized team spaces through all phases of the business lifecycle.

Source: - http://www.cmswire.com/cms/document-management/document-management-rollup-google-adds-docs-functionality-oracle-updates-bpm-suite-11g-007811.php

The Rise of "Intelligent" Enterprise Content Management

2010-06-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

Despite the pessimism from some corners, the impending death of Enterprise Content Management is overstated. Rather, from what I see, the intelligent content race is on.
The Commoditization of Content Management

One of the things that you hear quite a bit in the Content Management circles these days is how the management and storage of content is becoming a commodity. With the rapid spread of SharePoint and the emergence of cloud-based document sharing services like Box.net, Google Docs and Dropbox, it is a trend that is becoming hard to ignore.

While the basic storage and sharing of content slowly becomes a commodity out in the mystical cloud and in the depths of SharePoint sites, the vendors have been leaning on the advanced features that they offer in their platforms today. The challenge is that the "commodity" systems can easily see those needs and add them to their platforms. As this occurs, the reach of the commodity factor extends.

Why We Need Intelligent Content Management

At the recent EMC World in Boston, Alexandra Larsson of the Swedish Armed Forces discussed how their system uses TIBCO’s Spotfire to stream actions occurring within the Documentum repository live to a screen. The tool is used to spot trends among users, allowing HQ staff to respond to situations more quickly and efficiently. This example generated quite a lot of buzz from attendees and those remote participants tracking the show via Twitter and the blogosphere.

In most organizations, content never stands alone. It may be part of a transaction, an employee record, a website, a creative project, a medical case, or any number of things. The ability to bring the content and all of the information (context) that went into the creation and use of that content is becoming more critical as organizations realize that simple access to content is simply not enough.

Governments want to know who might have ever looked at, or searched for, one particular file out of millions. Web managers need to know which pieces of content are driving traffic. Customer service reps need all relevant content and data for every client available and readily digested. The need to know how content is used extends across all industries.

Thus enters Intelligent Content Management.
Three Forms of Enterprise CMS Intelligence

The concept of Intelligent Content Management is the idea of deriving more value from existing Content Management systems. There are a few ways that the vendors are looking to deliver that value to their customers.

1. Content Analytics
The first part of the story is Content Analytics. The proposition behind Content Analytics is to mine the content already resident in the repository and identify trends and exceptions.

The search engines that are being embedded are offering improved algorithms and allowing the display of results in ways that go beyond the simple list. Faceted search capabilities are allowing users to look at their results from different angles, providing instant filtering on several dimensions of your content.

2. Business Intelligence Tools
The second effort at enhancing the value of existing information is focused on the application of Business Intelligence tools to better visualize what is happening at any given moment. This goes beyond just placing all of the metadata into a data warehouse for analysis — it involves constant monitoring of key components within the repositories themselves. The value, potential, and interest for this capability was evident in the response to the Swedish Military system.

This is likely, and hopefully, part of the logic behind the new partnership between EMC and Informatica. While it appears on the surface to be a resale agreement, you get the sense talking to the EMC people that they want to build solutions using tools from Informatica that will allow users to access more precise information from their repositories, not just the hoards of data that they can get today.

As always, the devil/implementation is in the details. IBM and Oracle already own BI tools, so they can also have the potential to provide a one-stop-shop for this functionality.

The blending of all that metadata, audit logs, and Content Analytics should offer people a new way of looking at their content. Context is the key here, and this is just the beginning.

3. Content Management Interoperability (CMIS)
Most content is not just content. Starting with documents which contain “unstructured” information, you then add metadata and presentation, creating content. When you provide that content in context, it becomes information.

This is where integration and federation comes into play. With CMIS, the ability to pull content into other applications is much easier, but the information also needs to flow in reverse. The most successful systems that I have seen have information from all systems come into a single, purpose-built dashboard.

The ability to talk to other systems is going to become more important to the Content Management vendors. Historically, they have worked hard to integrate with systems, but integration only works within an organization. The necessary context for content is becoming more likely to reside outside of the control of IT, where those old integration efforts fail.

Being able to interact with the same piece of content from within both SalesForce and SharePoint, while sharing it with external partners, is becoming the common scenario and not the exception.
Moving into the Future

There are a lot of things that will make this all easier, and those are hurdles that the Enterprise CMS vendors must master in order to bring their vision of Intelligent Content to fruition.

The key will be to create an approach that unifies the traditional business intelligence field with the next generation of content management systems. Once that happens, we won’t need Intelligent Content Management because we’ll have true Information Management

Source: - http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-cms/the-rise-of-intelligent-enterprise-content-management-007682.php

State of the ECM Industry 2010: Enterprises Still Battling Content Chaos

2010-05-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

While figures from AIIM’s State of the ECM Industry 2010 report indicate that the management of content across enterprises is still, to a large extent, chaotic and disorganized, they also show that there has been a considerable improvement on last year, and that many enterprises have finally seen the writing on the repository walls.

In the last year alone, for example, the research found that 12% of organizations have completed the deployment of an enterprise–wide enterprise content management system, a further 28% are still in the process of doing so and 15% are integrating projects across different sections of the enterprise.

However, the flip side of that is 21% have still to start an ECM project — although the report doesn’t say whether that means they haven’t started, or they haven’t started to plan — while 17% are only implementing a system for the first time. Let’s look at some of the key areas.

ECM Drivers

The massive increase in the amount of information arriving in enterprises appears to be the main driver for companies to deploy ECMs. While many have put it off until now, 60% of companies cite “content chaos” as being the principal driver in deploying an ECM.

Document management

Not surprisingly, if “content chaos” is the principal theme running through this year’s report, then document management issues are also going to be a major problem too.

Taking document management and records management together, the highest current priorities for ECM activity are implementing electronic records management and managing emails as records, followed by the integration of multiple repositories.

This is not altogether surprising given that 41% are not confident that their electronic information (excluding emails) is accurate, accessible and trustworthy.

In addition, 56% of those surveyed said that there were not confident that the emails documenting staff commitments and obligations are recorded, complete and retrievable.
SaaS Document Management

Moving from document management on-premise to document management as a SaaS is also an emerging trend with the numbers of enterprises taking this route in the next 18 months set to double from 6% to 12%.

Records management as SaaS is also set to rise from 2% to 6% over the same period, and email management from 4% to 6%.

SharePoint

On the SharePoint front things are looking good, even if they could be better. Over half of those surveyed had either deployed SharePoint 2007 or were currently implementing it, breaking down into 32% and 21% respectively. This is a proportionate increase of 26% on last year’s user base.

Another interesting figure is that in terms of a SharePoint strategy, while 46% recognized the need for a formal plan for using SharePoint with other ECM investments, they don't have one, and 12% don’t even know where to start. This is particularly telling considering:

* 11% cite SharePoint as their sole ECM
* 20% say they are integrating it with existing systems,
* 23% say it is working in parallel to their other systems
* 5% say it is competition with their other systems.

Social Media

Regarding social media and enterprise 2.0, 29% of respondents view internal E2.0 as imperative or significant to their organization’s business goals, citing knowledge sharing, team collaboration and project coordination as the main drivers

Open Source

Open source solutions are being used by 6% of organizations for ECM. This is set for growth, with a further 9% planning to adopt open source for ECM, WCM (Web Content Management) or portals within the next 2 years.
ECM Still Going Strong

The report concludes by saying that while there is still work to be done, the ECM industry entering a new decade is actually in quite a healthy state despite its many failings.

In particular, it notes, good information governance is now accepted as essential to good business, and ECMs are key in this respect, bringing the added advantages of collaboration, knowledge sharing, better business processes and ultimately cost savings.

The report can be downloaded from the AIIM website after you register for free.

Source: - http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-cms/state-of-the-ecm-industry-2010-enterprises-still-battling-content-chaos-007576.php

Specialized Document Management Products Challenging ECM Mega-Suites

2010-05-01T00:19:00.000-07:00

Real Story Group 2010 Market Analysis Reveal Tech Buyer Risks

The divide between "Enterprise Content Management Suite" platform vendors and more specialized Document Management product suppliers is becoming more pronounced, giving buyers more choices to address a broad range of content management challenges, according to new research by The Real Story Group (formerly CMS Watch).

The Real Story Group just released its annual Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Document Management Marketplace overviews earlier this week, including "Cross-Check" charts for both sets of vendors. The overviews assess changes that have occurred in the previous 12 months, as well as trends emerging in today's marketplace. This research differs from other market analyses by focusing on needs and impact for the buyers and users of technology, not the sellers.

"It's a risk mitigation report," notes Real Story Group analyst Alan Pelz-Sharpe, "giving you an inside look at what is really going on among the vendors and what you need to know to make the right procurement decisions." Given the divide between the more focused Document Management market and ECM suites, The Real Story Group has created two Cross-Checks.

Note that there are no "leading" vendors or "magic" segments here. A vendor's suitability may depend on the enterprise customers' risk profile, as well as the "fit" of the technology itself, which The Real Story Group evaluates in its subscription-based research.

Other key takeaways from this analysis conclude that:

•There is continued consolidation at the top end of the market
•More focused Document Management vendors continue to thrive
•International and non-traditional options (open source/cloud) continue to disrupt both markets
•SharePoint 2010 will be remain a strong contender and competitor — but typically not a replacement system

Just as importantly, the ECM market is strong and continues to grow, with dozens of viable supplier options targeting specific business problems. "When it comes to selecting the best technology for your enterprise, you must look beyond ‘the top right quadrant,’" argues Real Story Group founder Tony Byrne. "Otherwise you'll blind yourself to many other great options."

The complete research can be found at http://www.eiwatch.com/Research/Channel/ECM/.

Source: - http://www.ebizq.net/news/12544.html?grss

“Content” technology predictions for 2010

2010-02-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

When Hugh McKellar (KMWorld editor in chief) collared me at the KMWorld conference in November, and asked if I would like to write a piece on the CMS Watch predictions, I said without any hesitation, “Yes, of course!” Little did I know at the time that I would subsequently be spending a couple of weeks in the cold and darkness of a deep Finland winter, with little appetite to wake up each morning, let alone write a 1,250-word article on my day off. However, life plays tricks and the semi-somnambulant, dark Nordic environment oddly enough proved to be an ideal location to consider prophecies and predictions for the New Year.

First, a little background: CMS Watch has a tradition (four years is long enough to establish tradition in the Internet age, I believe) of publishing a top-10 list of predictions concerning what we might broadly consider the “content” technology sector. So for content technology, think enterprise content management (ECM), knowledge management (KM), Web content management (WCM), search, etc. As it so happens, our top 10 consists of 12 predictions, and nobody here seems to have the slightest idea why, but, hey, that’s tradition for you! The predictions themselves have usually generated a fairly large amount of debate so by the time you read this, it is quite possible you might have already seen the list. With that in mind, I shall not do you the disservice of simply republishing the entire list; rather, I thought I would take three of the predictions and dive into them a little deeper, share with you the thought process that led there and open them up for further consideration.

One last thing before diving in: I want to be clear that these predictions are the work of the entire analyst team at CMS Watch and not just mine. After many weeks of arguing, sulking and insulting one another, we came grudgingly to an agreed set of predictions. If you like, though, you can consider the more likely ones to be mine and the wilder ones to be the work of my colleagues. So without further delay, let’s look a little deeper at a few predictions.

Internal and external social and collaboration technologies will diverge.

Many collaboration and social networking vendors are struggling to support internal (behind the firewall) and external community scenarios off the same codebase. In 2010, most will give up the struggle and acknowledge that those business scenarios have fundamentally diverged. We will see more separate offerings from the same vendor, with increasingly different user experiences, security models, performance goals and so on. At the same time, vendors will add and promote integration hooks as more customers seek to “move” discussions and collaboration across enterprise boundaries.That particular prediction was one we could have made and postdated a few years ago when social media/Web 2.0/networking first emerged. The reality is that supporting and managing social interactions in a public environment is a very different thing from doing so within the walls of the enterprise. As any KM pro knows, the dynamics of interaction between a closed and controlled culture vs. an essentially anarchic one are dissimilar. Bottom line, we have been waiting for this one to happen.

Multilingual requirements will rise to the fore.

Many firms are now recognizing the need to localize applications and content across cultural and geographic boundaries. Though the technology has been around for a while to enable that, a mindset shift is propelling the requirement forward. For some firms, it is the perceived or actual threat of competition from countries such as India and China. For others, it is the recognition that employees and partners operate more effectively in their native language rather than using English as a second language. For still others, it is the potential to sell outside of the saturated English language market. Many collaboration and social computing vendors in particular will get caught flat-footed in their assumption that application interfaces need only support English.Of all the trends I have observed in 2009, that is the strongest by far. Put simply, the need and desire to support and develop multilingual Web sites, in tandem with the growth in managing multilingual enterprise content (sometimes to support needs such as English/Spanish, Spanish/French, sometimes to integrate foreign acquisitions) are widespread. The fact is the world has thrown off the idea of English being a universal language. The Internet era, rather than push us toward the goal of English as the lingua franca, has given us the tools to revitalize and re-recognize native tongues. (See related article, “Finding Your Language Wallah,” on page 1.) I think that is a good thing, but for KM professionals it opens a whole new set of challenges. Certainly our experience working with global organizations suggests that KM is very low on people’s priorities. Simply getting their head around managing multilingual versions of the same content and the horrors of localization are dominating the agenda.

Mobile will come of age for document management and enterprise search.

Does your ECM package come with its own mobile app store? In 2010, it might. Smarter phones, more bandwidth and an increasingly mobile workplace will push the traditionally more staid document management and search vendors to develop richer mobile interfaces. Meanwhile, major enterprises (and vendors) will need to adapt their search and information access strategies in the face of mobile application search, with a new emphasis on precision over recall, and a fresh look at faceted results.Of course, nobody wants to check in a hundred documents on his or her iPhone, but surely in this day and age, information access should be independent of device. And although that reasonable expectation may be difficult to fulfill for an array of technical reasons, workers are using mobile devices such as smartphones and PDAs far more pervasively then they ever have in the past. Vendors are getting wise to that, so giving knowledge workers mobile search access to their corporate information repositories can be a highly visible win. How many people will actually use such applications is debatable, but nevertheless it is something we expect to become common, at least as an option in 2010.

So in summary, there is really no rocket science behind these predictions. We are big believers at CMS Watch that the future is driven by good old-fashioned user requirements, not vendor and pundit hype cycles. However, even with close observation of what is happening in the user community, predictions are tenuous and flaky. Sometimes you get the subject of the prediction right, but the timing wrong, and sometimes you just get it plain wrong. In the latter half of 2009, I worked intensively with our global clients, and the one thing I can say for sure is that the industry continues to grow. Incompetence is rampant, skills are scarce and technology solutions are a little like warm ice cream on a cold day (better in theory than in practice). In short, 2010 will not be that much different than 2009, and likely not that much different from 2011. In fact, the differences are usually slight, often irrelevant, but occasionally profound.

We hope that our predictions are somewhat a reflection of the reality we face today. In some cases, they may be more like goals and aspirations than actual predictions, but we throw them out partly for a bit of end-of-year fun, but also in the hope that they help guide debate in the right direction—a direction that leads back to the needs and desires of those who are impacted by information technology, rather than those who simply wish to sell it.

Here is the link to the CMS Watch’s predictions for 2010: cmswatch.com/Trends/1760-2010-Technology-Predictions

Source: - http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/Editorial/Feature/e2809cContente2809d-technology-predictions-for-2010-60765.aspx

6 Ways Document Management and Records Management Differ

2010-01-31T03:58:00.000-08:00

With the growing importance of compliance and eDiscovery issues for many companies, it might be time to consider deploying a records management system. Chances are that your company already uses some kind of document management system. The question is, will your document management system also support records management?

At the core of this question is what is the differences between document management and records management. Let's examine six differences.

1. Documents v Records
What are documents?

Documents consist of information or data that can be structured or unstructured and accessed by people in an organization.
What are records?

Records provide evidence of the activities of a given organization’s functioning and policies. Records often have strict compliance requirements regarding their retention, access and destruction, and generally have to be kept unchanged. There are often very stiff penalties for not doing so.

By some estimates, and depending on the company, 90% or more of all documents are records (meaning a portion of them are not!). Conversely, all records are documents.

2. DMS v RMS
Document Management Software (DMS)

Document management software was developed to make it easier for users with a shared purpose, usually within an enterprise, to access and manage documents. Another important ability is that it also allows them collaborate on those documents.

Common access to the documents is enabled by existence of a library and/or a repository within the system.
Records Management Software (RMS)

RMS software is more concerned with identifying, storing, maintaining and managing data that is used to describe events in an organization’s work cycle that are related to statutory, regulatory, fiscal or operational activities within the organization.

Unlike document management systems, record management repositories are generally focused on keeping only what is necessary for a specified length of time.

3. Storage

One of the critical differences between document and records management relates to the reason and approach each takes to storing documents.
Document Management And Storage

The principal reason for storing the documents in a document management system is so users who need to access the information stored in those documents can do so quickly and easily.

In general, these generalized electronic document repositories provide for the checking-in and out of documents that can be revised and unlocked for future revision, with version tracking and histories.
Records Management And Storage

Records management requires that records be kept in their original format in case they are needed for compliance or legal reasons.

Good records management needs to place records in their proper context so that generally they are kept in series, or in indexes determined not by internal, enterprise-dictated rules, but by external rules.

In fact, record keeping has become such an issue that in addition to on-site records storage, many organizations operate an off-site records center too.

4. Automated processes

While all companies in the regulatory or compliance zone have to spend a lot of time ensuring that their records and document management do exactly what they’re supposed to do, many of the processes involved are now automated.
Document Management

Automated processes are one of the elements that make document management attractive to companies whether that means the mass capture of documents and placement of that information in the repository, or its placement in a records management system.

In fact, automated process are a core function of these systems controlling the document’s life cycle, security access controls and other key features like version control and short-term storage.

These processes automate workflows so that the right actions are carried out on the right documents by the right people at the right time.
Records Management

Records management uses automated processes to manage records in a consistent manner no matter what format those records happen to be in.

Electronic record keeping systems must be able to preserve not only the content of those records, but also the context and structure they came from and often for long period of times. The final records should be auditable in their original form long after they have been put in the records repository.

5. Security

There is no getting away from the security and integrity of documents in either system. The difference between the two, though, is that with document management software security is desirable, with records management essential.
Document Management

With document management, security has to be placed in the context of document accessibility for users. Authorized users have to have quick access to information with comprehensive document management security controlling access to the repository.

While all systems will have means of tracking who has been using a document, when it was checked it out and when they put it back in the repository, and any changes that were made to the document — including new versions — the security standards are not necessarily as stringent as those required for keeping records.
Records Management

At the moment, the standard to which records security and records security within records management software is judged is the US Department of Defense 5015.2 regulations.

If a system is compliant with the DoD 5015.2 standard or equivalent it sets the standard for management of records that will be eventually transferred to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

These include government personnel records, manuals, standards, directives and documents that are scheduled for declassification or redacted items. In Europe, MoReq 2 is the standard applied across the entire EU as a standard.

6. Disposal
Document Management

The disposal of documents in a document management system occurs when the life cycle of the document has been complete and is no longer needed in the business process. While this can mean destruction it can also means turning them into records.

The decision to turn a document into a record depends on the need of the company and whether there are legal requirements to hold onto the documents.
Records Management

The destruction of records is generally regulated by law with strict procedures so that the information contained in them will not be disclosed. Records management software plays a significant role in this by implementing retention and destruction schedules that are compliant with regulations.

However, with public bodies, the records will not be physically destroyed, but converted into a format that is acceptable to U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), or National Archives of the country you reside in.
Final Thoughts

Document management software was created to make it easier to use store, manage and collaborate on electronic information. Records management software was designed to manage the life cycle of records so that organizations can easily comply with regulations and support the eDiscovery process.

It's very likely that you require both document and records management capabilities within your organization. Depending on your needs, a document management system may be able to support most of your requirements. Understanding the difference between document and records management and the software that supports each, should help you decide your next steps.

Source: - http://www.cmswire.com/cms/document-management/6-ways-document-management-and-records-management-differ-006454.php

Document management is one of the top ten technology priorities for CIOs in 2010 says Gartner

2010-01-26T20:38:00.000-08:00

Document management and data storage is one of the top ten technology strategies for CIOs in 2010, says analyst Gartner.

A Gartner survey of 1,600 CIOs around the world reveals the top ten business and technology strategies for the CIO this year, with cloud computing and virtualisation heading the technology priorities.

The analyst says IT budgets will essentially be flat in 2010, increasing by a weighted global average of 1.3%, when compared with 2009 levels when IT budgets declined 8.1%. Gartner said this year CIOs are basically working with the same level of resources as they were in 2005.

“Last year was the most challenging year for CIOs in the corporate and public sectors as they faced multiple budget cuts, delayed spending and increased demand for services with reduced resources,” said Gartner analyst Mark McDonald. “This is set to change in 2010, as the economy turns from recession to recovery and enterprises transition their strategies from cost-cutting efficiency to value-creating productivity.”

McDonald said that while technologies are transitioning from “heavy” owner-operated solutions to “lighter-weight” services (like cloud computing), CIOs are, in turn, transitioning IT beyond merely managing resources to taking responsibility for managing results.

“Transition gives the enterprise and IT the opportunity to reposition themselves and exploit the tough corrective actions taken during the recession,” he said.
Gartner's Top 10 Business and Technology Priorities in 2010

Top 10 Business Priorities Ranking

1. Business process improvement
2. Reducing enterprise costs
3. Increasing the use of information/analytics
4. Improving enterprise workforce effectiveness
5. Attracting and retaining new customers
6. Managing change initiatives
7. Creating new products or services (innovation)
8. Targeting customers and markets more effectively
9. Consolidating business operations
10. Expanding current customer relationships

Top 10 Technology Priorities Ranking

1. Virtualisation
2. Cloud computing
3. Web 2.0
4. Networking, voice and data communications
5. Business Intelligence
6. Mobile technologies
7. Data/document management and storage
8. Service-oriented applications and architecture
9. Security technologies
10. IT Management

Source: - http://www.documentmanagementnews.com/the-news/general-news/41-general-news/330-document-management-is-one-of-the-top-ten-technology-priorities-for-cios-in-2010-says-gartner.html

Businesses wasting time looking for documents?

2010-01-21T09:41:00.000-08:00

You probably can't read too much into a survey of just 60 "information governance professionals", if only because a majority of Australian businesses are unlikely to employ that kind of specialist.

After all, the most recent figures provided by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research state that 96 percent of all Australian businesses are small businesses, ie those with fewer than 20 employees.

So a study where only one-third of respondents work in organisations with fewer than 200 employees is hardly representative.

It seems plausible that very small businesses are likely to to a better job of document management, if only because just one or two people are likely to be responsible for storing and using the business documents and therefore can keep track of them relatively easily.

As more people get involved, there are more opportunities for documents to go astray.

Despite my implied criticism, that's actually consistent with the results of a recent survey of information governance professionals conducted for EMC Australia.

The headline finding was that Australian businesses spend more than 20 hours per week on average looking for difficult-to-find records, and that mid-sized organisations spend almost twice this amount of time.

Presumably small businesses probably don't have so much of a problem in the first place as they have fewer documents to manage and fewer people to misplace them, while larger businesses can afford to employ specialist staff and the systems needed to keep things under control.

But Hydrasight, the company that analysed the results [corrected 19/01/10] for EMC, thinks respondents are likely to be underestimating the effort needed to locate difficult-to-find or misplaced records inside their own organisations because they have a narrow view of business records and are confident of their own classification and retrieval capabilities.

Furthermore, John Brand, Research Director at Hydrasight, said "organisations may also be underestimating the potential impact that remote and mobile computing may be having on their information governance policies and practices."

Even though more than 50% of documents are created or saved electronically by the organisations surveyed, only 10% of respondents were very confident that documents related to commitments and obligations made by themselves and their staff were recorded, complete and retrievable.

Source: - http://www.itwire.com/content/view/30548/1151/

Web Content Management, simplifying technology

2009-12-16T20:40:00.000-08:00

Web content management system also reckoned as WCMS is basically a software, which is generally applied as a web application for the greater purpose of creating as well as managing HTML content.

Typically a software system WCMS is used in controlling as well as managing a whole range of web material, consisting the varied types of HTML documents, images and other diverse forms of media. Web content management is all about editing, controlling, auditing and above all a timeline management of content. Thanks to the technology, as content creation, controlling content, editing the content and other hundred other essential web maintenance functions are now being easily done with the web content management facility.

Available in almost all shapes and sizes web content management system has simplified the robust technology of web access while making it simpler for the content owners. Mostly, the Web Developers do not write the content for the web pages and instead they put the content in a typical format that is ‘web ready’. With a web content manager, the content owner can actually access the various parts of the site and can publish on their own, directly to the website without the interference of a programmer.

Web content management is all about faster updates. Technology as if simplified, the WCMS offers solution to your entire content updation needs.

Within a system, the content management tool comes with a lot of promise:
Content management tool offers web access to the web page content owners directly without the interference of any programmer.
Faster updates of the web pages and an easy to use interface make web content management tool a choice of the era.
Simplified technology allows the web content owner to publish/edit content on his own without much knowledge of HTML
Web content management tool creates accountability. This further supports the content manager to track back logins and also helps them to make changes in the different pages within the site
The system preserves standardization rules. This is indeed a great aspect of the tool as it bars the content owner from changing or altering some of the content templates, which needs a technical hand for alteration.

Web content management tool has simplified the idea of web access. A great tool to bank upon, the system has to a great extent put an end to your HTML horror. Fret no more if you do not have any knowledge on HTML as web content management tool is there to take care of your entire need, no matter if you are even ignorant about HTML.

Source: - http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/web-content-management-simplifying-technology-1584272.html

Independent Research Firm Recognizes Oracle as a Leader in Enterprise Content Management

2009-12-09T20:36:00.000-08:00

News Facts

* Oracle has been named a Leader in the November 2009 report, "The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Content Management Suites, Q4 2009."
* The report notes that, "Leveraging its 2007 acquisition of Stellent, Oracle provides an extensive, robust ECM suite."
* To achieve its position as a Leader, Oracle® Enterprise Content Management Suite was evaluated against 70 criteria in three categories: current offering, strategy and market presence.

About Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite

* A component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite is a manageable, usable and hot-pluggable enterprise content management solution on a single platform that includes:
o Oracle Universal Content Management - a unified enterprise content management platform that enables organizations to leverage market-leading document management, Web content management, digital asset management, and records retention functionality to build and complement their business applications;
o Oracle Imaging and Process Management - an integrated imaging system that automates document routing and approvals and enables business applications, such as enterprise resource planning, human capital management and claims processing to automatically access and display imaged content;
o Oracle Universal Records Management - a scalable, 5015.2 Chapter 2 and Chapter 4 certified electronic and physical records management solution that enables application of records management policies and practices on content in remote repositories such as file systems, content management systems, and email archives.

Supporting Quote

* "The continuing growth of both structured and unstructured content presents complex information management challenges for organizations as they seek to reduce costs, increase productivity and minimize risk by aligning content with enterprise applications," said Andy MacMillan, vice president, Product Management, Oracle. "We believe our position as a Leader in this Forrester Wave is an acknowledgment of our commitment to providing a unified content management platform to address these challenges and support business applications."

Complete article published on http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0565965.htm

Three reasons to list CMIS in your Document Management RFP

2009-12-05T01:15:00.000-08:00

First off let me state boldly and clearly CMIS is an important document management (a.k.a., ECM) standard, the most important standard. But if your world is solely one of HTML and CSS then you can stop reading right here...

CMIS (Content Management Interoperability Standard) was recently ratified by OASIS and is already appearing in many RFPs. Nevertheless, it is a little misunderstood by some, and at times gets overlooked or misplaced. So here are three concise and valid reasons for putting CMIS on your list of RFP requirements.

1) If you have legacy document repositories, add CMIS to your list of requirements.

Almost every large organization has a collection of legacy DM and ECM repositories, closing those down or migrating content out of them can be tortuous and expensive, sometimes near impossible. Building a CMIS interface and federating access and viewing (no matter how basic) may well be your best option.

2) If the system you buy has a CMIS API, then you go some way to avoiding vendor lock-in at a future point.

CMIS in and off itself cannot resolve all the issues of vendor lock tricks, but its a great step in the right direction.

3) (And don't underestimate the value of this one) You demonstrate to the vendors on your shortlist your intentions and industry savvy.

When a vendor sees a specification or standard such as CMIS or XAM on an RFP they know you have done your homework, they know you are aware that committing to a vendors proprietary system can be difficult and costly, and that you intend to do what you can to mitigate against that risk.

Let's be clear about this, CMIS is important for the sole fact that it is simple (today) and should actually work. It does have the support of all the major vendors in the sector, but their enthusiasm can wane at the drop of a hat. Particularly as CMIS is a standard that empowers buyers and users of the technology, but not the vendors so much -- so the only way to ensure its success is for buyers to demand compliance from product vendors.

We work with buyers and users of document management and ECM technology every day. We help them construct RFPs, we shortlist and hand-hold our advisory clients and subscribers all the way from initial strategy through to the conclusion of the selection process. Our world is not one of expensive dinners at the vendors' expense and optimistic market forecasting. It is a world spent at the coalface. The global organizations we are working with are dealing with the dull and grinding issues that relate to legacy, integration, migration, and implementation. For them, CMIS is no silver bullet, but it's far better than nothing. And nothing is exactly what we had prior to CMIS.

Above article published on http://www.cmswatch.com/Trends/1751-CMIS-and-your-RFP

Good news for content management vendors: IDC

2009-12-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

Many enterprises in the Asia Pacific intend to invest more in document management software, according to Research house IDC, which is good news for content management software vendors.

Many enterprises in the Asia Pacific intend to invest more in document management software, according to Research house IDC, which is good news for content management software vendors.

IDC has released the findings of its research in a report entitled "Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) content management pulse check, adoption drivers, and barriers in 2009: what are buyers prioritizing?"

The research - conducted in the first half of 2009 - found that record management software is the next priority for APEJ enterprises among all other content management (CM) software.
Ridhi Sawhney, market analyst of Asia/Pacific software research at IDC noted that the most important function for CM software is to manage content published on the Web.

The research firm expects CM market in the APEJ region to grow steadily at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.42 per cent. At this rate, this market will reach US$ 308.42 million by 2013.

A bright CM future
The future looks good for most respondents as they intend to increase their investment on CM software currently deployed. Both India and the People's Republic of China are currently using maximum records and document management amongst the countries surveyed. Enterprises in these nations intend to increase their spending in the next 18 months, said IDC.

The top slot for this market is taken by IBM, EMC, HP, Oracle and Interwoven. Collectively, these five vendors represent approximately 58 per cent of the CM market in the APEJ region.

Although this market is currently ruled by US based companies, local vendors, like Newgen Software and Cyberdime, are catching up fast and are counted among the top 10 players in the region.

IDC says information that has to be managed is increasing each day and is accompanied by mounting regulatory pressure. The situation has further been complicated with disparate applications with isolated data repositories, and IT managers must seek ways to deal with the situation.
Sawhney said these factors have driven the demand for content management software. Legacy businesses and developing countries require these types of applications as organizations strive to transition from manual overlay systems to automated systems.
More investment in coming months

Records management is used for regulatory requirements and business processes while Web CM is used for various purposes such as enhancing and reinforcing brand and building customer loyalty. Web CM also helps in the acceleration of delivery of new products and services and creation of competitive advantage.
IDC is a global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets

Originally published on http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=46922D94-1A64-6A71-CE5EBB3A8D0340CB

Open Source Changing Face of Content Management Market: Report

2009-10-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

The content management market is seeing dramatic change because open source software has significantly changed the process of selecting a content management solution, according to a new report from Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.

The 150-page report, called “The Definitive Guide to Today's Content Management Systems and Vendors, is based on the survey conducted on 32 key content management vendors and 43 platforms and provides in-depth analysis including market trends, drivers, and barriers to guide decision makers in the selection process.

The report said that the U.S. market for content management was $4.1 billion in 2008 and is expected to reach $10 billion by 2014. Open source content management is gaining traction in some circles and the overall open source software market is growing rapidly.

"The good news is that companies today can find a wide range of content management systems at varying price points," said Jonathan B. Spira, chief analyst at Basex and a co-author of the report, in a statement. "The bad news is that selecting the RIGHT platform is more critical than ever to a company's future and most companies don't have the resources to thoroughly investigate their options. Managers have to understand the total cost of ownership, support options and functionality when making that decision."

The report series includes an industry survey, Content Management Systems: The New Math for Selecting Your Platform, and 16 Vendor Profiles of key content management providers and their offerings.

The vendor profiles provide a comprehensive analysis of content management offerings from Autonomy (News - Alert), Acquia, Alfresco, Bluenog, Day Software, EMC, EpiServer CMS, FatWire, Hippo, IBM, Microsoft, Mindtouch, Nuxeo, Oracle, Open Text and Xerox.

The Content Management Systems report found that choosing the right content management system is not so easy and requires an in-depth understanding of both the organization's needs and what the market has to offer. The report also found that companies need to be prepared to manage multiple forms of content including wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, social networks, podcasts and video.

Also, it was estimated that companies that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for content management systems might do equally well with platforms that cost one-tenth that amount.

Source: - http://it.tmcnet.com/topics/it/articles/65760-open-source-changing-face-content-management-market-report.htm

Document Imaging To Create The Electronic Medical Record

2009-09-26T04:20:00.000-07:00

By Omtool

According to a Price Waterhouse Coopers study, 500 billion paper documents are created annually in healthcare and these paper documents account for 25% of every healthcare dollar spent. This equates to a total cost of $125 billion per year. Like many other healthcare organizations, Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital (180,000 patient visits/yr), located in Grass Valley, CA, faced the challenge of mounting costs associated with paper documents, their storage and accessibility.

SNMH's vision is best explained by Mark Freitas, Business Office and IT Director; "Our viewpoint was that a complete EMR solution for the hospital was necessary and we had been building towards that. There were very few hospitals that had an EMR solution. We found about 5-10% had implemented a solution and a number of hospitals that had abandoned that strategy because the return on investment was not there. We did not want to go down the same road. We started looking at how we could develop a sound strategy and look for early returns."

Creating the Paperless Environment
The first step in achieving their objective was to find a vendor who offered healthcare providers the ability to move towards a paperless work environment at their own pace, using an integrated family of document management and imaging solutions. Omtool, Ltd. was the partner SNMH selected to deliver these solutions, in a phased approach, to address their unique challenges. SNMH's first priority was to reduce costs associated with the patient registration process — with particular focus on preprinted forms and process inefficiencies associated with the scanning, routing and storage of patient documentation. This included insurance cards, condition of admission (consent), notice of privacy practices, physician order, payer eligibility, authorization documents and living wills.

Source: http://www.healthcaretechnologyonline.com/article.mvc/Document-Imaging-To-Create-The-Electronic-0002?VNETCOOKIE=NO

Document management ROI too difficult to measure

2009-08-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

Business are unable to calculate the return on investment of document management, electronic content management (ECM) and workflow software, the latest survey from NCC Research has found.

Of the 100 businesses surveyed, 27% said it was very difficult and 35% said it was difficult to measure ROI on these systems.

Organisations still have difficulty in retrieving and managing unstructured data, according to 73% of the businesses surveyed. Only 20% said this was relatively trouble free.

Only 18% of companies said their information was held corporately and was available to all who need it. This contrasts with 52% who conceded that vital corporate information was scattered around many different departmental systems and was hard to find.

Only a quarter of the companies believed their current systems were delivering all the expected business benefits, while a further 9% thought they had been partially successful.

Source: - http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/08/25/237446/document-management-roi-too-difficult-to-measure.htm

New AIIM Study Reveals Investments in Document Capture Produces Rapid and Considerable Cost Savings in Less Than 12 Months

2009-07-15T21:58:00.000-07:00

EMC-Sponsored Research Highlights the Value of Electronic Documents for Compliance, Improved Customer Service, Space-Saving and Speed of Information Access

HOPKINTON, Mass., July 15 /PRNewswire/ -- EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today unveiled the results of a document capture survey conducted by AIIM. Sponsored by EMC, the research study finds that document scanning and capture is a very risk-free investment compared to other types of IT projects and payback time of the initial investment frequently occurs in less than one year.

The survey polled 677 information and records management professionals, IT staff and line of business executives. Other key findings include:

* 42 percent of organizations have increased productivity by 50 percent from their scanning and capture investment.
* 43 percent have achieved payback within 12 months and two-thirds within 18 months.
* Nearly half have achieved savings of 40 percent or more in paper storage costs.

A significant number of respondents (41 percent) cited "improved access to information" as the most important driver for scanning and capture investments. This demonstrates that companies are achieving soft-dollar benefits in addition to hard-dollar ROI. Other business drivers include compliance, productivity and improved customer service.

The survey also found that while most organizations have already invested in capture technologies, two-thirds were only scanning 50 percent of possible documents. Respondents attributed the underutilization to the lack of capture facilities close to the business process as well as the existence of few enterprise applications that are captured-enabled.

"Document capture can no longer be thought of as a technology running in a silo but rather as an integral part of a business process," said Whitney Tidmarsh, Chief Marketing Officer, Content Management and Archiving Division at EMC. "In addition to being tightly integrated with the Documentum platform, the latest versions of EMC Captiva((R)) InputAccel((R)) and EMC Captiva Dispatcher provide a new service-oriented architecture that supports integration with other business applications to increase the adoption of capture throughout the enterprise. As a result, organizations experience higher return on their investments by reducing costs and risks, accelerating business processes and lowering total cost of ownership."

A free copy of the study, "Extending Capture Capabilities - Measuring the ROI" is available at www.emc.com/captureroi.

About EMC's Intelligent Capture Solutions

The EMC Captiva intelligent capture solutions enable organizations to create a "digital office" environment by delivering complete capture functionality for scanning and digitizing paper documents using scanners, fax machines, and multi-function peripherals (MFPs), and transforming these documents into electronic images and business data. By enabling capture solutions that support distributed scanning and integration with various repositories, Captiva solutions significantly reduce the costs associated with paper management, including paper storage, shipping, and document capture labor costs.

About AIIM

AIIM is the community that provides education, research and best practices to help organizations find, control and optimize their information. For over 60 years, AIIM has been the leading non-profit organization focused on helping users to understand the challenges associated with managing their business information and processes. Today, AIIM is international in scope, independent, implementation-focused, and, as the representative of the entire industry - including users, suppliers and the channel - acts as the industry's intermediary. Complete information about AIIM is available at www.aiim.org.

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.

EMC, Documentum and Captiva are registered trademarks of EMC Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE EMC Corporation

Article Source: http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-15-2009/0005060357&EDATE=

The Top 5 Ways ECM Can Help You Avoid an Annoying Co-worker

2009-06-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

The corporate workplace is not for the faint of heart. Any time you get a group of people together with different backgrounds and interests and isolate them into large fabric-covered boxes, chances are that you’ll find some personality clashes.

While not every office is subject to anecdotes about Dwight Schrute’s life on the beet farm or the ineptitude of Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss, there are probably some workplace idiosyncrasies that—given the opportunity—you would just as soon avoid. You know what I’m talking about. Maybe you’re getting a little too much information about your coworkers on casual day. Or maybe—now that the obsessive conversation over the American Idol results has died down—there are awkward silences near the water cooler. It could just be that you’d like to steer clear of that coworker who is so fanatical about her hobby that she can’t talk about anything else. (Seriously. We’re all concerned about the honeybee decline, but there are other things to talk about.)

Enterprise content management (ECM) won’t decrease your incidence of email lottery notifications or male enhancement-related spam, but it can help you retain your sanity in the workplace. For those days when you just want to get your work done without interruption— whether it comes in the form of a debate about the discrepancies in the most recent Star Trek movie or a one-sided conversation about why your coworker’s cats are the best pets in the entire history of domesticated animals—consider these benefits:

1. Business process management (BPM) eliminates the need to drop the paperwork off at your annoying coworker’s desk.

With BPM, you can distribute, receive, and access work and online files digitally. This means that all of the information that you need to process your work is available immediately, accessible with the click of a mouse. In addition to enabling you to increase your productivity and improve services to customers and partners, this means that you can also avoid overhearing that phone conversation that is so important that your coworker feels the need to broadcast it on speakerphone.

BPM gives you secure, immediate access to your work documents from any web browser. So if you are the employee who is unfortunate enough to have a cubicle next to the woman who insists on coming to work when she’s sick, it might be nice to have the option of working remotely during cold and flu season. In these days of potential global pandemics, you can’t be too careful.

2. Electronic access ensures that your records are available whenever you need them. Even if your coworkers are alphabetically challenged.

Under a paper-based system, it’s not uncommon for records to be duplicated, misfiled, or even lost. Without question, this can be a major cause of annoyance. The news is worse if you look at the big picture: in a compliance environment that grows continually more rigid, mismanagement of your records can result in expensive penalties. An enterprise content management system lets you scan and store those paper records in an electronic repository along with your business forms, faxes, images, documents (paper and electronic), personnel files, etc. The information that you need to process your work efficiently is only a mouse click away.

If your annoying coworkers are misplacing files, there may also be a chance that they’re not paying attention to document lifecycles. Are you holding on to records beyond their mandated retention times? Are you (or your annoying coworkers) shredding documents prior to their mandated destruction times? Mismanagement of records has repercussions that go well beyond annoyance in the workplace. It can lead to fines and stiff penalties—especially if you are required to produce specific information in cases of e-discovery.

3. ECM means never having to say you’re sorry.

Got an annoying coworker who tries to throw you under the proverbial bus when the work doesn’t get done on time? ECM provides businesses with tracking tools that can prove, irrefutably, who is doing what. Tracking allows organizations to better manage their processing loads. On the personal level, your annoying coworker can no longer take credit for work that was done by someone else. More importantly, consider what it means from an enterprise standpoint: work can be distributed according to standards that you set ahead of time, using parameters such as round robin, first in, first out (FIFO), lightest workload, and other criteria.

Having work distributed electronically ensures that your annoying coworker—the one who is always complaining that “he’s bored”— constantly has work flowing into his inbox. Other workers whose positions might include repetitious, monotonous tasks can be transitioned to areas that allow them to use critical thinking. Processing efficiency is improved significantly, turnaround is improved, and your annoying coworker can move on to his next area of grievance.

4. Without ECM’s integration capabilities, you can’t get there from here.

Sometimes, even annoying coworkers have legitimate complaints. Take, for example, someone whose job it is to use information from a legacy system in order to process work. More often than not, data from legacy systems is—at best—difficult to retrieve. Software system incompatibility can make life difficult, and can result in the need to constantly re-key information. A system that doesn’t communicate well with other software can result in processing slowdowns and delays.

A high-performance ECM system has the capability to make information available quickly and easily throughout your entire enterprise. It should offer easy integration with your line of business applications, back-office system, website, portal, office environment, and the other systems that keep your business running smoothly. An ECM system that is underwritten in open standards will not limit you to proprietary software when choosing components to complement your technology infrastructure.

An ECM system is supposed to simplify your life. It shouldn’t require complicated programming if you want to call documents from within your storage repository. It should also integrate into your current line of business applications without the need for programming. Your annoying coworkers have enough to whine about. A system with robust integration may not alter their outlook on life, but it will make their lives easier.

5. An easy-to-use ECM system silences the chronic complainer.

You’ve heard the complaints. Her job is so hard. She has soooooooooo much work to do. How is she going to get everything done? She’s overworked, underappreciated, frazzled, and—as you might guess—feels the need to share the love. When the complaints dominate the workplace to the point where you just want to stick needles in your eyes, bang your head against the wall, and chew on tin foil, it’s definitely time to consider ECM. A system that is easy to use will bring order and efficiency to the workplace.

ECM will silence your coworkers’ complaints about not being able to find the right documents to process their work. Information will be available at the fingertips of authorized users—securely—from any web browser. There will no longer be any muttering about other staff hogging the files that your coworker needs in order to do her job. Files can be viewed simultaneously, from different locations. Complaints about rude customers become obsolete when you are able to provide immediate customer service.

Work is distributed to you and your coworkers at a manageable pace. You may not be able to have much of an impact on the social skills of people who tend to consistently see the glass as half-empty. But with ECM, you can eliminate the factors that contribute to complaints about work. You’re on your own when your coworkers start elaborating about their personal lives.

Source: - www.ecmconnection.com

How Effective Document Management Helps Pharmaceutical Companies Accelerate Time to Market

2009-06-20T02:45:00.000-07:00

Introduction
Translating a scientific idea into a safe medicine that benefits millions of people is a long, difficult, and expensive process. It takes 10 to 15 years at a cost of $800 million to $1 billion to bring a new drug from a laboratory to a pharmacy shelf, according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

Let’s take the hypothetical example of a young pharmaceutical company with one product so far. The company obtained a 20-year patent for its new drug at the start of the discovery process. Let’s say it took 11 years for the company to develop the drug and get it approved by the FDA. Taking out 11 years of development time from the 20-year period of exclusivity under the patent would leave the company only nine years to capture the full value of its product before generic competitors enter the market. A company loses 75 percent of its pre-generic sales in the first year that competition enters the market, according to Josef Bossart, founder and principal of Bossart4 Bioconsult, in an article in the July-August 2006 issue of Specialty Pharma. The loss is estimated to increase to 85 percent in the second year, and 90 percent beyond that.

Needless to say, the period of exclusivity for a new drug is critical. Any delay that cuts this period could cost the company a lot. In the drug development process, time is indeed money. So it only makes sense to try to reduce delays in every phase of the process. But how and where do you begin to save time?

The fact is, drug development requires document-intensive work. It behooves a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company or a contract research organization (CRO) to start with a basic activity that must be performed throughout the drug development cycle: document management. From the scientists leading the drug discovery process to the marketing specialists writing a new drug’s labeling — they all need to document their activities for a variety of reasons. More importantly, they need to control or manage their documents. So any delay caused by poor document management could affect overall time to market.

This white paper will discuss common challenges pertaining to document control encountered by most drug companies from the preclinical stage through the post-market phase, and how the MasterControl™ GxP process and document management software solution addresses such challenges.

Preclinical Phase
One could say that the years spent by chemists, biologists, pharmacologists, toxicologists, and other scientists “discovering” the right combination of chemical and biological substances that could be used for a drug are geared toward the submission an investigational new drug (IND) application. FDA approval of the IND is necessary to conduct clinical trials and to proceed with product development.

Discovery research scientists typically start with thousands of possible compounds. Through continuous testing, screening, and refining that could take several years, they would whittle down the thousands of compounds to hundreds, and then dozens, and then three to five drug “candidates.” This rigorous phase includes laboratory and animal studies that cover chemistry tests, biological tests, manufacturing tests, and pharmaceutical development studies. The overarching goal during this phase is to determine the safety of the candidates before they are tested in people.

The preclinical phase could easily generate thousands of documents. The IND submission alone requires the compilation of everything known about the new drug being developed: its chemical structure; how it might work in the human body; how it works in animals; any side effects in animals; and how the compound is manufactured. The IND also must include detailed information on how the company plans to test the drug on humans during clinical trials.

Pharmaceutical and biotech companies and the CROs that serve them need effective document control during this phase for two major reasons that directly affect time to market:

* Efficiency: Thousands of documents generated over a period of one to three or more years necessitate a formal document control process to ensure that documents are not lost, and that they can be tracked, retrieved, revised, and approved easily. Without an efficient system for managing documents, thousands of man-hours will be spent in even the simplest tasks.

* Compliance: FDA regulations such as 21 CFR Part 58 (Good Laboratory Practice for Nonclinical Laboratory Studies) and 21 CFR Part 312 (Investigational New Drug Application) require effective documentation. 21 CFR 58 has specific document control requirements pertaining to SOPs for animal care, lab tests, data handling, and equipment maintenance and calibration; protocols; and handling of records, reports, and raw data documentation. 21 CFR 312 has its own set of requirements pertaining to recordkeeping, record retention, and investigator reports. Management of IND documentation is particularly crucial because it serves as the basis for other information that will be submitted to the FDA later.

Clinical Phase
While preclinical work is directed toward the IND submission, the clinical phase is geared toward the submission of an equally important regulatory filing: the new drug application (NDA).

During this stage, doctors (called clinical investigators) carry out studies to find out if the drug is safe in people and whether it is effective in treating the targeted disease. There are three phases in every clinical trial: Phase I (the drug is tested in 20 to 100 healthy volunteers), Phase II (involving 100 to 500 volunteers who have the disease that the new drug is meant to treat), and Phase III (involving 1,000 to 5,000 volunteer patients).

Clinical trials could take up to 10 years, during which the sponsor will conduct parallel research on toxicity, dosage forms, and methods for full-scale manufacturing and packaging of the drug. Everything about the clinical phase is geared toward the NDA submission, which essentially summarizes 10 or more years of development work. The NDA dossier is complex and voluminous — anywhere from 100,000 to 600,000 pages of text that are meant to persuade the FDA to approve the new drug.

As in the preclinical phase, if not more so, the clinical stage requires effective document control to help achieve:

* Efficiency: Managing hundreds of thousands of documents generated by cross-functional teams during a period of 10 years or more is a daunting challenge. Bottlenecks abound during this phase because there are more people involved in the process and the data from clinical investigators grow exponentially from Phase I through Phase III.

* Compliance: In addition to GLP and GCP requirements that various teams must comply with, the sponsor also must manufacture the investigational new drug used for clinical trials in accordance with Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) requirements under 21 CFR Parts 210-211. GCP also includes guidances that call for effective documentation. Moreover, the sponsor must comply with 21 CFR Part 314 (Applications for FDA Approval to Market a New Drug) for its NDA submission.

Commercialization, Product Launch, and Post-Market Phase
While a sponsor is waiting for FDA approval, it is likely to be gearing up for mass production, or perhaps it is already manufacturing the drug. FDA approval takes 18 months on the average, according to PhRMA. As soon as the FDA approves the NDA, the company will be able to start selling the new drug. But even after the product is brought to the market, the company will continue to submit reports to the FDA, such as adverse reaction reports and quality-control records. In some cases, the FDA may require a sponsor to conduct Phase IV clinical trials to evaluate the drug’s long-term effects.

With the clock ticking in terms of market exclusivity, the company that has just launched a new drug needs effective document management to help achieve:

* Efficiency: Document control needs after FDA approval are especially great in the areas of quality control, manufacturing, marketing, and sales. Voluminous documents will be generated by quality-related processes that will handle corrective and preventive action (CAPA), electronic batch records (EBR), consumer complaints and adverse event reports, quality audit, deviations, and nonconformances, among others.

* Compliance: Document control is a CGMP requirement. In addition, the pharmaceutical or biotech company with a newly approved NDA must address post-market requirements found in 21 CFR Part 314, including the reporting of adverse drug experiences and the submission of NDA field alert report, annual report, distribution data, labeling, report on CMC changes, etc.

The MasterControl Solution

The MasterControl™ GxP process and document management software provides a solid foundation for effective document control that will help accelerate overall time to market by simplifying workflows, promoting efficiency, and making compliance easier. Below are some of the benefits of using MasterControl throughout the drug development process.

Increased Efficiency Through Automation. MasterControl reduces document cycle time and simplifies document management by automating routing, notification and follow-up, escalation, and approval. Its robust tracking feature identifies bottlenecks by showing when a document was sent and to whom. It shows the document’s history, including who has approved it and when. A document that has been rejected will automatically go back to the sender, so tasks don’t languish. MasterControl can handle all types of documents, regardless of the software used to create them.

Centralized Repository Makes Search and Retrieval Easier. You can store all records and documents from the discovery stage through the post-market phase in a centralized electronic repository, making it easier to update, and to search and retrieve them. Documents reside in secure virtual vaults that can be accessed only by authorized users. Access is limited by the extent of a user’s system rights. Although the system is centralized, every department can compile documents separately using the Organizer, a MasterControl tool similar to Windows Explorer, which helps users find documents quickly.

Web-Based Platform Provides Easy Access. A Web-based system will give employees in different locations and time zones easy access. Even CROs, suppliers, consultants, and other authorized users outside of the company can have system access based on the extent of their roles in any document-based process.

Automatic Revision Control Reduces User Mistakes. With a paper-based document control process, there is no mechanism that would stop a user from inadvertently using obsolete or unapproved documents. With MasterControl, revision control is automatic, so only approved documents are released. Any outdated documents are automatically archived, and documents in the process of revision are locked. The system provides a time-stamped audit trail of all changes made to a document.

Virtual Workspace Makes Collaboration Easier. Collaboration is possible regardless of location through a virtual workspace for cross-functional review and approval of documents. The system automates tasks pertaining to collaborative projects, including routing, follow-up, escalation, and approval.

Best Practices Help Streamline Workflows. To increase efficiency, MasterControl incorporates best practices in critical processes such as CAPA, nonconformance disposition, deviation handling, EBR management, quality audit, change control, or any document-based or forms-based process. Best-practice workflows can be used as is or customized.

Electronic Approval Fosters Efficiency. The capability to review and approve documents electronically speeds up the approval process significantly. Signature manifestation can be appended automatically to each document as required by 21 CFR Part 11. In addition to e-signature, the system provides a time-stamped audit trail that can be linked to the approval process.

Integrated Approach Connects Document Control with Other Processes. MasterControl connects the document control process with other processes, and it synchronizes changes in documents and documented processes. For example, document control can be integrated with customer complaints, CAPA, and training control processes. So a customer complaint serious enough to require a CAPA will be automatically escalated to the CAPA process. Any document change resulting from an approved CAPA will automatically trigger training on the revised document for all affected employees.

Integration Helps Optimize E-Submission Process. MasterControl can be integrated with leading e-submission tools to optimize and accelerate the electronic submission process. MasterControl provides a single repository for all regulatory submissions, as well as a virtual workspace where different teams can easily and quickly revise the dossier.

Integration Helps Leverage Existing Systems. You can leverage your existing systems, such as ERP, PDM, and PLM, by integrating them with robust MasterControl applications without expensive custom coding.

Risk-Based Software Validation Offerings Help Reduce Compliance Burden. MasterControl offers a line of products and services designed to dramatically reduce the time, pain, and cost involved in software validation. Companies may choose the appropriate products and services based on their own risk assessment.

Flexible Approach Makes System Ownership More Cost-Effective. While mature companies typically prefer to purchase a full MasterControl suite outright, many smaller companies choose the application server provider (ASP) service for a minimal upfront cost. This approach allows fast deployment, offers software validation services, and requires no technical maintenance or special equipment. Companies may select an ASP system that is purely document management and 100 percent preconfigured. Or, as their needs grow, they may want more customization and additional applications (CAPA, change control, training control, etc.) to fit their requirements.

Conclusion
Time is a precious commodity for everyone, but especially for people involved in drug development. You can maximize development time starting with the way you control document-based processes. As this white paper has shown you, a delay in time to market due to poor document management is largely preventable with the help of the right solution

Article Source http://www.ngpharma.com/article/Issue-10/Manufacturing/How-Effective-Document-Management-Helps-Pharmaceutical-Companies-Accelerate-Time-to-Market/

2009 Review of Document Storage Systems

2009-06-02T21:53:00.000-07:00

Document Storage Systems Offer Affordable Organization Tools

John Higgins, CPA.CITP

From the June 2009 Issue

Just like the white snow melting into green grass, our perennial review of document storage and document management solutions has become a key milestone in the transition from winter to spring and summer. What a great time of year! This also means we have completed yet another year of development efforts by the vendor community. The solutions they develop to help you take your accounting and tax practice “digital,” have become even more effective. So our mission in this review and the companion review of document management systems to be featured in the The CPA Technology Advisor in July, is to help you gain a better perspective of what many of the leading vendors have to offer and some of the enhancements they have made while you were busy laboring through another productive tax season.

In these reviews we continue to face the challenge of trying to appropriately categorize the solutions into comparable groups. That is much easier said than done because there are so many good solutions and the depth and breadth of functionality varies considerably. However, we have made our best attempt to provide meaningful comparisons by separating the reviews between document “storage” systems and document “management” systems. I’ll be the first to admit that the line that separates them is much grayer than it is black and white. So we’ll start by attempting to explain the differences between the two categories.

When we talk about document storage systems, think of these as software applications that are designed with the primary focus on managing the way you organize the storage of your electronic documents, as well as other application files from MS Office, Acrobat, etc. These systems are generally limited in their scope of features, which makes them very affordable for the small firm or sole practitioner, and better yet, quite easy to deploy and use.

In the July 2009 issue, we will review the more robust document management solutions that are designed to fulfill the needs of the entire firm. Document Management systems not only organize the storage of electronic documents and files; they also provide extended functionality to integrate with tax and accounting applications, and perhaps provide a portal component, workflow automation, document retention and more. We’ll provide an in-depth discussion of the features and functions of these systems next month. For now, our focus is on the more simplistic document storage tools.

Since these document storage systems tend to differ considerably in the nature of their functionality, we have rated them on four relatively broad attributes: user interface, file organization/management, integration with other software applications, and overall value based on the depth of functionality and pricing. We have almost a dozen products in this review, so let’s get started.

Article Source http://www.cpatechnologyadvisor.com/print/The-CPA-Technology-Advisor/2009-Review-of-Document-Storage-Systems/1$2354

What is Electronic Records Management?

2009-05-31T02:35:00.000-07:00

What is Electronic Records Management?

ISO standard 15489: 2001 defines Records Management (RM) as the field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records, including the processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records. AIIM expands this definition to include records of all types including those maintained in electronic format. Currently, most information is created “digitally”, by some sort of computer or system application and stored on personal computers, network drives and PDAs, reaching terabyte storage levels and beyond. It is vital that organizations understand that information and records are assets of the organization, not the individual and as such need to be managed actively and properly. The incorporation of Electronic Records Management Systems (ERMS) and practices provide structure, consistency, security, and control over these records. Electronic records management approaches are neither new nor unique. For decades, we have had centralized control of human resources (HR) and capital (Finance). Records management is the centralized control of the information assets of organizations. Establishment and enforcement of enterprise-wide records management explains the requirements, responsibilities, and accountability in managing an organization’s information assets. The need for accountability and policy enforcement is becoming clear to executives and managers and, as more information is generated in electronic form, opening the risk of non-compliance and information loss. An enterprise-wide classification scheme within an ERMS, allows us to establish and manage:

Retention and disposition rules
Security and access controls
Digital rights management
Information sharing
Findability

There is the absolute requirement for a central function of RM professionals and staff to carry out the many critical activities and responsibilities needed by the organization. RM is often expected to conduct legal research on the many statutes and regulations impacting records practices. RM professionals must team with legal staff and IT to ensure that information and records are properly managed and readily available in the event of litigation, request for records under Freedom of Information laws (FOIA), audits, and government investigation. AIIM has developed a comprehensive training program to help you focus and get control of the information and records in your organization. www.aiim.org/training

Above information published on http://www.aiim.org/erm/what-is-erm-electronic-records-management.aspx