HersheyUK Blog

What Is Document Capture?

2012-01-20T03:03:00.000-08:00

Document Capture is just what it says: Capturing documentsand content that can be used in everyday business processes.

With adocument management system, document capture is the application employed tocreate a secure digitised document from information in various formats,including paper, that can be filed and routed electronically. When donecorrectly, these digital copies can be used as the legal original copy. Thiswill be covered in a future blog, (watch this space).

ScanningDocuments

There are a number of quite sophisticated scanning subsystemsthat can be employed to capture both documents and content. Typically, scanningdocuments creates an image of the document in a format that can be viewed on acomputer, a tablet or any other handheld device. Most people are familiar withPDF files. Other formats are used for document management too, such as TIF andPNG.

These scanning subsystems can also be configured to capturecontent that can be extracted using OCR, ICR or OMR technologies so that thecontent information can be used during the document life-cycle.

Importing Documents

Documentcapture is not just the process of scanning paper documents. Capture also takesinto account electronic documents. For example, you can create a PDF from anMS-Word file. Although the MS-Word document is already an electronic file, youmight want to have the original Word document or a PDF in your documentmanagement system for future reference depending on the business rules orprocess being undertaken.

Rememberthat the power of a document management system is the ability to tie all yourdocuments together so that you can search and retrieve the right information atthe right time when you most need it. Therefore, In addition to the filecabinets of paper documents, you have large numbers of important electronicdocuments created by various applications including emails and emailattachments. These electronic documents are just as important as the paperfiles, maybe even more important in many instances and need to be managedproperly

AnExample

Forexample: Records in your accounting system will probably not be imported intoyour document management system. Yet, these electronic records are critical tohaving a successful and efficient document management system.

Thereare two ways to accommodate these records with document management. One way isto link to the accounting system to pull in the data from these records. Thisis commonly used in indexing new documents providing accurate and consistentindex terms and reducing the amount of manual data entry at the point of input.The second way is to have the accounting system link to the document managementsystem and display the information needed right from the customer records. Inthis way the accounts payable team uses the accounting system for their workand when they need the supporting documentation they click on a customised linkand the accounting system requests the supporting information from the documentmanagement system resulting increased efficiency and productivity.

So whynot start managing your documents today?

Moreinformation is available from Hershey UK. Why not get in touch for an onlinedemonstration and discussion of your document needs.

What is Document Management?

2011-08-10T01:52:00.000-07:00

Let’s face it, talking about documents or document management is probably not a topic you would pick to be the life of the party at a social gathering. However, understanding document management can make a major impact for your organization. Here, we will cover the fundamentals of document indexing and retrieval all the way through business process management.

Document Management Basics

Document management is the capture, storage and retrieval of documents. With or without a document management solution, your organization already captures, stores and retrieves documents every day. For many organizations, this process is amazingly time consuming and too often ignored.

Documents Come in Many Forms

Documents come in the form of both paper and electronic. An invoice that comes in from a vendor in the mail is obviously a paper document that can be read and acted upon. However, that invoice probably started with an order from your business. That order might be an electronic record in the accounting system. Now we have two related documents that need to be kept together for reference, yet they are very different in how they are stored. This is a simple example.

We could have complicated the example by adding a delivery receipt, an acceptance document, or even a contract. Again, these other documents could be in different formats or different systems. Worse yet, they might be in different departments. A contract might be stored in a file cabinet in the legal department. The delivery receipt could be at a warehouse or on the loading dock. The acceptance could be at the functional department that finally received the order. Now we’ve added different groups of people who may be in different physical locations.

Here’s the question: What if something was wrong with the order? Where do we find all the documents so we can review the contract, look at the delivery ticket to make sure all the materials were delivered, look at an acceptance from the department, look at the invoice and determine if we paid it? Without all of the documents, it can be very time consuming to resolve an issue. Not only does this take away valuable time from multiple people in your organization, think of what was not being done while your staff is looking for documents.

How is a Document Management System Used?

A document management system can be used to capture and organize all of these documents into easy-to-find electronic documents. The paper documents could have been scanned into the document management system. The electronic records could be either stored in the system or pointed to from another system. A document management system has the power to tie these documents together.

The documents could be indexed by department, vendor, purchase order number or any other concept that makes business sense to your organization. Unlike folders in a file cabinet, document management systems store documents in electronic folders that can be indexed by multiple pieces of information. This gives users the ability to search and retrieve documents based upon different criteria.

With a document management system, gone are the days of lost documents because they are all in one secure central electronic repository. Also gone are the days of wasted time because multiple people are retrieving documents from various locations and multiple file cabinets. With a document management system, the documents are immediately retrieved for the person looking for information. This not only makes them more productive for that one task, it shifts the focus from the document retrieval to solving the original issue.

Source: DocuVantage www.docuvantage.com

Document Management Benefit: Seamless Integration

2011-06-10T04:24:00.000-07:00

Can I integrate my existing systems with an OnDemand document management system?

It is a fact that for applications to work for us there needs to be a crosspollination of data from disparate systems such as ERP, CRM and HR to name but a few. Any document management system that does not integrate seamlessly and at an affordable cost is dead in the water, and that includes OnDemand solutions.

True cloud applications have been built from the ground up with the objective of lowering the cost, reducing the time and mitigating the risk of integrating with existing applications whether they are on-premise or OnDemand. As a result an OnDemand application provider will be able to share the burden of integration because the infrastructure and the tools already exist.

What are the benefits? Firstly it adds value to existing systems, it reduces cost and aids efficiency in processing orders and and other business related enquiries. It also means that customers have control of their data and that in turn will give them a competitive edge.

Document Management Benefit - Improved Security.

2011-06-03T03:27:00.000-07:00

How secure is my data? This is a common question that people ask when introduced to OnDemand document management and it is a justified one. In general terms, there is no doubt that all of us are more security conscious today than we have ever have been in the past, some are even obsessive about it.

When it comes to data security in the cloud however, we have to be particularly concerned. Directors of companies are culpable if they do not take this aspect of their business seriously and can be prosecuted if they are found wanting. Such concern have also been compounded by the recent collapse of the Amazon cloud that affected hundreds, possibly even thousands, of web sites and services, probably costing companies a substantial amount in lost revenue.

So, how secure is my data? Especially when companies like mine are promoting the use of cloud technology to provide business critical services such as OnDemand document management. It has to be said that opinion differs greatly on this subject depending on who you talk to and there are many articles and websites that discuss the security of public and private cloud offerings for business critical applications, along with their advantages and disadvantages. However from the perspective of security and reliability Hershey UK promotes the use of the private cloud for their services. What is the difference? Put simply it comes down to control of your data. In the private cloud you have the peace of mind of knowing where your data is, IE which data centre information is being stored in and that it is secure and being managed by a trusted organization that meets all the necessary compliance standards when it comes to handling customer data.

DocuVantage OnDemand, provided by Hershey UK, have partnered with Opsource to provide this service because they are a tier 4 data centre which is the most stringent level, designed to host mission critical applications, with full failover subsystems guaranteeing 99% uptime. Other security issues are addressed by the OnDemand application itself. For example who should have access to documents and files? What access should they have? Are confidential documents and files secure? These questions are resolved by the built in security that is provided by modern document management systems. Not only that but customised management reporting using either Crystal or Jasper reports can provide audit trails on the history of any given piece of information within the system.

Improved security is one of a number of advantages that are provided by OnDemand document management that are not provided by their physical counterpart. If this is one of your concerns then it is worth while finding out more.

Failsafe Archives and Effective Disaster Recovery.

2011-05-12T08:13:00.000-07:00

What would we do in the event of a disaster? This is something that we don’t think about on a daily basis. Maybe it’s the, “it will never happen to me” syndrome. The fact of the matter though is quite different. Disaster Recovery, or DR, is big business and corporate organisations today are certainly taking it seriously spending hundreds of thousands of pounds if not millions on disaster recovery strategies so that they can ensure business continuity.

The small business however, also needs to take disaster recovery seriously as the threat of a disaster, like a fire or a flood is not discriminatory. Disasters will affect the large business as well as the small, so having a disaster recovery plan is vital. This may be as simple as backing up our mission critical data. Today there is a plethora of online backup organisations that will handle this for you. But is an online or offline backup enough to maintain business continuity? What about the paper trail, the hardcopy information that may also be lost? Companies remain paper driven and in the event of a disaster it is the paper trail that is lost and it is a well documented fact that 80% of companies who lose their data, paper, electronic or both, will go out of business within eighteen months. Having a sound disaster recovery strategy therefore is vital.

The problem is that small businesses cannot afford to spend the kind of money that large corporates do when it comes to DR. So what can they do? Is there a way for SME’s to work from any computer with an internet connection so that company records can be accessed, bills can be paid and invoices raised. Where employees could continue collaborating on projects and carrying general day to day tasks? To answer these questions we need to consider the 7^th benefit of an online document management system: Failsafe Archives and Effective Disaster Recovery.

Here’s an example: During Hurricane Katrina, a Hershey client was given warning to evacuate his office. Taking quick stock of what he could save, he picked up the document management server, put it in his car and drove off. Once at a secure location he was able to retrieve all paper documents that had been scanned as part of a daily process and save his business. Obviously this was before the advent of the cloud technology that we have now, but this customer recognised that the device he took had all the information on that was required for him to continue to work.

Similarly an online document management system running in the private cloud, at a reputable tier 4 data centre, where the archives are backed up and where there is a guaranteed server up time is surely something to consider as part of an effective and affordable disaster recovery strategy.

Contact Hershey UK for more information

Controlled & Improved Document Distribution

2011-05-10T08:56:00.001-07:00

The old British Gas advert with Larry Hagman as JR saying “Don’t you Just love being in Control” may be a distant television memory for a lot of us but the sentiment is still very true, we do like to be in control, not in an extreme “control freak” kind of way, but in a way that makes us feel confident and sure about the decisions that we make, the relationships we form and the work that we do.

The truth of this can be seen when we lose control of something, take as an example losing our car keys, I am renowned for doing this much to my families annoyance and over the years have probably lost hours just looking for keys that should be where you’ve left them but never are. What is the result? Frustration, irritation, impatience, anger, blaming everyone else and not yourself and a lot of time wasted all of which could easily have been avoided if we had just maintained control and put our keys on the key hook that was bought specifically for that purpose.

The same can be true when working with documents that we have to refer to during the course of our daily work. In our 10 benefits of using a document management system, benefit number 6 is: Controlled and Improved document distribution. Any document management system today that is worth its salt will have a routing or workflow mechanism that can be employed to help improve document control and distribution. Not all documents have the same classification so the system must be flexible and robust enough to handle many workflows at the same time. Some documents are collaborative and therefore rely on the input of more than one person before they are complete. This may involve collecting information from a variety of sources, updating or modifying it before it is collated into a file that is deemed complete. Other processes are purely transactional like accounts payable for example where an invoice has to be routed to certain individuals for approval and payment. Whatever the situation, we like to maintain an element of control. Knowing where a document is in a given process and being able to track who has actioned a task during a documents lifecycle is important. Such data helps managers identify bottle necks in the process that may need adjusting, eliminate waste and improve overall business efficiency. It helps them to maintain control and helps the rest of us have the confidence and assurance that we are doing our job well.

Dont Ignore the Cloud

2011-05-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

Just following on from the need to share information with employees, wherever they are, in order for them to do a better job and increase their value to the company they work for, reminded me of the time that I was discussing the benefits of document management with the General Secretary of a large trade union that has been a long term customer of ours for a number of years. They were due to attend the annual TUC conference, and preparations were well under way. Having the right information to hand at such an event is vital as new policies are made and existing ones are either modified or updated.

In order to make their contribution and represent their member’s rights, large amounts of files have to be gathered and boxed so that they can be transported to the conference venue. It transpires that every time the union had to attend these events whether it was the TUC or the Labour Party conference, a lorry load of files have to be transported to the venue just in case they need to be referred to. Obviously this is an expensive exercise not to mention the logistics required to accomplish the task and the resulting risks in transporting large amounts of corporate information. My argument was that if the documents were held electronically, this expense and the resulting security risk could quite easily be circumvented by accessing their document management system remotely and viewing, and if necessary printing the information they required in order to achieve their objectives.

Since that time and with the advent of Cloud technologies such a change in working procedures would be even easier and viable. True many may feel that a cloud based solution is still in its infancy and that there many questions yet to be answered however, as I read recently, like a toddler, it may not be fully stable but it has bags of potential, and that’s the point, interest in using the cloud and SaaS is rapidly gaining momentum and it is and will have a massive impact on IT, IT support and the way that we work and do business. So the answer is, in my mind, don’t ignore it. Keep abreast of the developments and test the water to feel the benefits for yourself.

Share Information Between Remote Offices and Employees Wherever They Are.

2011-05-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

So far I have covered the advantages of document management in order to (1) reclaim office space and reduce paper files, (2) to eliminate misplaced and lost files, (3) to reduce the business risk by keeping and working from just one copy of files (eliminating the need for file duplication), and in my last blog (4) how document management can help businesses comply with the freedom of information and data protection acts. Benefit number 5 relates to the changing trends in the way that we work and how we can continue to do so efficiently and effectively from wherever we are. Benefit No5:

It seems that having a 9 to 5 job and being able to put your feet up at the end of the day and not worry about things until tomorrow is, for a growing number of employees, a thing of the past. Many more people are opting to work from home or need access to information from a variety of locations and using a variety of devices including handhelds at any time of the day or night. Whilst not wanting to be tagged as workaholics, many want to strike the right work/life balance and still do a good job for their employer.

Information empowers people, it gives them control and confidence in what they do. If employers can provide or share the information that their employees need, when they need it, then that will give them the control and the confidence to become more efficient and productive. It will give them job satisfaction and will promote a unified and consistent workforce that is able to collaborate and work together to fulfil projects and other work assignments. It will help everyone achieve the right work/life balance that so many strive for. So everyone benefits. For example, the cost savings to companies, in retaining talented members of staff alone, who know that they are doing a good job and being rewarded for it, could be immense and the business would experience increased profitability as a result. Hence the need to take a serious look at online document management systems which, whilst not the panacea to all business solutions, can provide a vehicle to share appropriate information with employees or push information through a given business process to achieve predefined goals and objectives.

Document Management - Benefit 5

2011-04-26T03:53:00.000-07:00

What a great Easter weekend, and for once the weather got it right. I hope you all made the most of it. Anyway, back to business. Benefit number 4 of an online document management system is: Easier compliance with the freedom of information act.

Heavy stuff to reflect on especially when most of us have just enjoyed four days off work. Now, I don’t claim to be an expert on the freedom of information act but since the bill was passed in November 2000 and came into force in January 2005, I do know that companies have been more conscious of how they store information and individuals have become more conscious of who holds information on them and the kind of information that they have. The FOI act works in conjunction with the Data Protection Act which states that if you handle personal information about individuals, you have a number of legal obligations to protect that information.

Storing information in an unstructured manner is fraught with problems when it comes to the FOI and data protection legislation. Who can remember the case, in Nov 2007 when 25m child benefit records were lost in the post? The records contained the names, addresses, dates of birth and National Insurance numbers of the entire HMRC child benefit database, which also included the bank account details of more than seven million parents, guardians and carers. And of course there have been other instances; top secret files being left on trains, laptops being stolen from the back seat of government minister’s cars. It beggars belief with the technology we have today that companies, including central government, have not thought of a more effective way of handling the sensitive data that they are entrusted with

Whilst there are still elements of risk with an online document management system, the risks are considerably less than sharing information on CD as discussed earlier. Tracking who accessed what and when, identifying what changes or updates were made to a specific document and who made those changes makes people and in turn companies more responsible for the personal information that they hold and helps them to comply with the outlined principles of the FOI and data protection acts.

Benefits of Document Management - 3

2011-04-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

Today we come to benefit number 3 of an Online Document Management system: Reduce the business risk of keeping just one copy of files.

I mentioned yesterday the problems that multiple copies of the same file can cause: Which copy is correct and up to date? How do we know? In this blog I just wanted to emphasize the business risks that can ensue if there is no control of documents where duplications are concerned and in not implementing a structured database in which to keep critical business information, sometimes referred to as Business Intelligence.

I am sure that everyone will agree that risk is inherent in every decision made within an organization; when things are going well allowances can be made for misjudgment but when things aren’t so good we tend to be a little more exacting. That’s why, in the leaner times such as many of us are experiencing now, reducing risk becomes more of a necessity.

One of the biggest risks to any organization is an incident that exposes them to loss, whether of data, service, knowledge or any combination of the three. This presents not just the obvious risks to security it also affects the ability to recover, to a lesser or greater degree.

Often information is fundamental to a project so no organization can afford data loss; the job of having to recreate documents or databases is an inefficient use of resources and can have serious knock on effects for our business. An Online Document Management solution can help reduce that risk and meet government and industry compliance standards that it seems are being imposed on us from all directions.

Document Management can also help reduce the risk of data loss by managing information that is deemed unstructured, that is information that is not part of a database but nonetheless is crucial to the daily running of the organization. Obviously that includes hard copies of files, files that are stored on our servers and workstations in the windows file system, files that we copy to CD or memory sticks, files that we print and take home to read etc etc. In these situations duplication and/or loss poses a real risk. If information is confidential, reducing this risk is paramount. An online document management system allows you to Capture, store and preserve data in a scalable, secure environment and significantly lessen the risks of data loss and the need for duplication, I.E. keeping just one copy of business critical files.

Benefits of Document Management - 2

2011-04-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I highlighted the first benefit of an online document management solution; reclaiming office space and reducing paper files. The second benefit that we will discuss today also contributes to a reduction in paper and therefore cost. Benefit number 2 is: A document Management system Eliminates Misfiled and Lost Documents, and we may as well add to that File Duplication.

The ideal of a “Paperless Office” has been around for decades. Will we ever achieve it? Maybe. However, in the meantime we can reduce the amount of paper documents and files that we use by having more control over them. Have you ever experienced the frustration of looking for a specific piece of information that is needed to complete a report, or a proposal, or any other document only to find that it’s not where you expected it to be or, that it has been misfiled in a different client’s folder or, heaven forbid, it has been lost completely. Everyone denies responsibility for last seeing it and you are left with task of trying to complete an important document without it. Frustration leads to anger as the deadline approaches and that can lead to mistakes and a lost opportunity.

Another scenario might be that you access a clients file to obtain specific information only to find multiple copies of the document that you need, notes have been written in the margins but how do you know which copy is the most recent and which of the notes are relevant. Again, frustration, anger, mistakes, missed opportunity.

This problem was highlighted to me quite dramatically when I undertook some consultancy work for an NHS trust in the north of England. Hershey was specifically tasked to look at the problems that were being experienced in one hospital where there was a poor turnaround in handling GP referrals. The bottom line was that once the letters had been received they were forwarded to the respective consultant where they seemed to get lost. Where was the frustration? One nurse, (yes a qualified nurse), admitted that sometimes it would take 2 to 3 days to locate a lost letter and if they didn’t find it they had to go back to the GP and request a copy .This may appear to be one of a number damning indictments on the state of our NHS service but the problem was resolved simply by implementing a document management solution where the letters were scanned at source and routed to the relevant consultant. Result: no lost letters, no duplications, efficient appointment turnaround time, happy patients, everyone a winner.

And that is the measure of control that a document management system can bring, it eliminates misfiled and lost documents. It reduces the need for document duplication because the same document can be accessed by many. Those documents can be routed to specific individuals for tasking and electronic annotations, notes and versioning can be added to assist with a collaborative effort that may be required to complete certain documents, ensuring that the information being accessed is the most up to date.

Benefits of Document Management - 1

2011-04-19T02:13:00.001-07:00

Recently I “tweeted” about 10 benefits of on demand, online document management. There are of course many more than just 10 benefits as long as the application is configured correctly so as to fulfil the business need and, that the customer is mentored during the initial stages of implementation in order to fine tune and adjust processes so that the full ROI on their investment can be achieved. However I thought it would be good to develop the 10 benefits that I highlighted a little more, providing some additional detail so that businesses, whatever the size, can evaluate more fully the advantages of this technology.

The first mistake that a lot of people make is that document management is purely a form of archiving, it isn’t. Document management involves managing documents and their content through their entire life cycle, from creation and processing through to storage, archiving and destruction. That is why the name has changed over the years and is now referred to as Enterprise Content Management or ECM. An online document management or ECM system is accessed via the internet and stores documents in many different formats, a scanned image, a word document, an excel spreadsheet, a PDF document in fact any document in any format can be indexed and stored. Classifying documents correctly means that once stored, they can be searched on and retrieved accurately and quickly (more about this later), which brings us to the first benefit: Reclaim office Space and reduce paper files.

Office space is an expensive commodity. In the past I have spoken to clients that have gone through the pain of looking for larger premises just so that they can have room to store more files that they need access to on a daily basis. On one occasion I spoke to a customer that was using their borad room to store files. It meant that when they wanted to have a meeting, they had to hire and travel to another venue. Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it, but this highlights the fact that many of our processes are still paper driven. However if you could reclaim that office space and use it for what your business does best then surely that will result in massive savings and increased profitability.

Welcome to the Hershey Blog

2011-04-14T05:06:00.000-07:00

I am a novice, and this is my first blog (do I hear a round of applause?) so please bear with me. I hope to provide readers with information and articles relating to Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions offered by Hershey Systems UK. ECM has evolved from what many know as Document Management, and with the advent of cloud technology (still a mystery to many), ECM can now be provided as Software as a Service (SaaS) which means that customers can access their business critical documents from anywhere where there is an internet connection. I will try and highlight some of the benefits of this technology as well as some of the pitfalls that should be avoided. I will include case studies where we have had success and areas where customers have experienced significant cost reductions and other benefits because of implementing ECM. So watch this space.