Workflow Automation Software

Millennia Group Blog

It’s not so simple

At some point every business probably feels a bit undervalued or unappreciated by customers or maybe by the markets.  This may or may not be justified, but we’ve all been there.  Over the years we have gained a deep understanding and appreciation for one group of businesses in particular that might feel this way – manufacturers. There is tremendous complexity in the manufacturing business model of sourcing parts, labor and materials, making something out of that and then selling and servicing that product.  Then there are also government regulations and customer compliance requirements to factor in.  There are highly complex software applications that help keep the cost of that seemingly simple widget at $2.00.  It’s really not so simple.
It starts with design, which generates drawings and a parts list.  Bids for the parts are generated. The parts and materials all need to be ordered and tracked to the manufacturing facility from sources all over the world.  Proof of non-toxic materials, approved points of origin and other documentation all need to be collected on every component and every source.  Then it all must be assembled or made using labor and machines that need to be scheduled and prepared.  Finally, the product is packaged, shipped and invoiced. While this is the simplified version of a very complex process, you can get a little appreciation of what it takes to create that $2.00 widget and how many they need to sell to recoup the costs.  To help manufacturers manage this process there are enterprise resource planning tools or ERP’s.  These are complex software applications to keep track of the materials, process and labor.  These are data driven applications geared towards smart planning and processing. Despite having a software application to help manage the data, the volume of supporting documentation is astounding.  Drawings, bills of lading, shipping receipts, customs documentation, parts lists, content certifications and many other forms of documentation are in paper form, faxes, emails and downloads.  In addition to the ERP, a workflow and document management solution is needed to help this complex process run smoothly and to ensure all participants have the complete picture. Current technology has certainly made the ERP and document management solutions better, easier to use and more affordable.  These tools allow manufacturers and their employees to keep up with the business complexities and stay competitive.  Business owners of all types, especially manufacturers, congratulate yourselves on a not so simple job well done!

Do you have a complete picture?

It happens every day in our professional lives, we need information to make decisions or to complete tasks.  To assist us in this effort we try to use our memory, the internet and information stored away in filing cabinets, desk drawers and computers. Sometimes decisions or tasks are completed quickly from a single source of information.  For instance, “was customer order 12345 invoiced?” – you can easily look it up in “the system”.  This becomes more complex if the question simply expands to “and was it correct?”.  Just like that you need much more information to come to the correct decision.  It would be nice if there was only one place to get the complete picture.
The task of confirming the invoice can be a challenge.  A manufacturing business or a service business will likely mean that there are several inputs and therefore, a more complex task.  A few items that might be needed include; the contract and amendments, the quote, the actual order, parts list and materials order form, shipping documentation, tax documentation, time cards, etc. In many businesses, some portion of the supporting information is a document, whether paper or digital.  In most businesses, the true source of the supporting information is a document that was used to enter data into “the system”.  The issue isn’t just about having access to the supporting information, but it also includes trust in that information because the data may have been entered incorrectly. Information access and business processes need to incorporate the entire package of supporting data, including documents, to be optimal.  When supporting documentation is actually paper, it invariably includes notes in the margin, notes that may never have been entered into “the system”, but provide valuable information.  Contracts, even those that are electronic with digital signatures, almost always contain rights and obligations that aren’t entered as data but may prove crucial. The bottom line is that “the system” either needs to include supporting documents or provide integrated access in order to give users the complete picture.  Armed with the complete picture, users will accomplish great things like making better decisions, making customers happy and eliminating problems.  That complete picture is powerful. Millennia Group has been providing workflow and document management solutions since 1996.  www.mgdocs.com, (630) 279-0577, info@mgdocs.com.

What work will work on my $1,000 phone?

The typical mobile phone these days has a 2 ¼” x 4 ¼” screen and a pop up keyboard.  Most cost something close to $500-$750 and will soon move up to $1,000 – not counting cellular service.  A very competent Windows laptop can be acquired for the same price and a powerful tablet computer can easily be obtained for a lot less. For many of us a laptop or tablet, possibly with a supplemental monitor and keyboard, is our primary workstation.  Most of us also accomplish much of our daily tasks using some type of cloud based solution, such as a CRM, financial system, document management system or email.  So when we need to be mobile AND get work done, it’s no problem.  But, how much of that work can we actually complete using only the ultimate mobile workstation, our expensive new phone?
Email, for starters, has been formatted appropriately for the phone so it is fairly convenient to read and respond.  Long emails are not always easy to read if you have to scroll through a lot of backstory.  CRM’s on a phone are also pretty good for basic information lookup and adding notes.  Running contact reports and sending mass communication, not so much.  Financial systems on a phone have limited utility, but some lookup and data entry is possible. Document management at first glance seems like a long shot on a phone.  Who wants to read an 80 page document on a tiny phone screen?  As it turns out, actually reading the document end to end may not be the main use case or limiting factor.  Typically, access to the document is for specific clarification or reference from just a page or two.  Actually getting to the document is a far bigger challenge. A useable mobile interface for efficient searching or browsing through folders is the real problem.  In order to have enough context to know which document to open, sufficient meta data must be presented.  If the results only show a long list of documents called “Contract” or “Sales Order”, it’s a problem.  Contract must be further defined by information such as the vendor name and date of the document.  Sales order needs to be accompanied by sales order number and customer name and so on. Mobile solutions that want to provide users the ability to accomplish work on their phone starts with a well thought out interface.  Like a mobile CRM, a mobile document management system can provide opportunities to get work done using a phone, but the use cases may be limited.  Possibly immediate access to the exact terms of a customer contract are needed.  Another use case would be workflow, where the user needs access to data and documents to make and submit a decision. Workflow normally will incorporate an email notice and access to a review and approve interface.  A well designed mobile solution will be able to provide that access so that your workforce in the field can be very efficient.  The bottom line is that there is some work that can be accomplished on a phone.  It is not likely to cover the entire job description, but work can get done.

In documents we trust, data not so much

Some day in the future it is plausible that paper documents in the business world will disappear.  Electronic documents, however, in the form of PDF’s, Word files or Excel spreadsheets, will continue to exist.  In fact, it will be a very long time before documents, and the content of the documents, cease to be important in the business world. Technology has enabled simple processes or transactions to occur entirely with online forms and direct data entry.  But there are still many instances where the content in a complex document becomes the data for accounting or ERP systems or documents.  It is easy to see what was keyed in, but In Documents we trust.
Some business processes are being converted to an entirely form based process where the concept of a document doesn’t pertain.  Take for example the process of setting up a new account with a water delivery service.  The entire process involves entering information into online forms to set up the account and start delivery.  No documents. There are also processes where the document is created and then the document is used as the basis for inputting data into a business system.  And try as we might, we don’t always enter it correctly.  This has resulted in a lack of trust in some systems and a reliance on a quick peak at the original document to confirm the data before responding to the customer or to your boss. There are also situations where the document may contain information that is not capable of being entered as data, like a photograph or a drawing or a long legal description. This is supporting documentation that may provide some clarity or understanding not found in data fields.  All systems should require the attachment of the supporting documents so that users can quickly verify the information. We used to call this “image enabling” a system – getting the images attached to the system.  There is no doubt that attaching the support after the transaction is entered is good practice and produces positive results.  But there is also the option of capturing the documents as the process occurs, thereby ensuring that supporting information is present and potentially reducing errors in the first place. Capturing documents as the process occurs is document management based workflow.  It is workflow that tracks in parallel with the ERP or accounting data entry process.  As the data moves along, the supporting documents come with, all in once nice neat package that can be referenced quickly at the time of the transaction and long after.  When users can have instant access to both the data and the documents, they can trust the information and provide fast and accurate responses to customers or vendors. Millennia Group, LLC has been providing workflow and document management solutions since 1996.  www.mgdocs.com, 630-279-0577, info@mgdocs.com

Artificial Intelligence – Getting to Know You

How will artificial intelligence (“AI”) impact our world?  There are knowledgeable people talking up the potential positive uses of AI and there are knowledgeable people voicing concern over the potential problems.  On the positive side are articles generally oriented towards business efficiency gains, of which IBM’s Watson is a widely seen example. Many companies are looking for a better way to help manage the explosive growth files and documents and they are hoping that AI and Watson can benefit them.  The rate of growth is exponential and that is creating increased user search times and poor results accuracy – inefficient.  AI might help users find the information that they are looking for, but Watson is going to have to get to know each user and know each user very well first.
Finding the right information has become very difficult as not everyone stores files with the same identifying tags.  Sometimes the tags are incorrectly applied or not provided at all.  That process, generally known as indexing, meta data tagging or applying file attributes, is predominantly a manual, human process today.  Using AI, when documents are created or received, they will be placed into one big folder where the AI engine can figure out what the document is and automatically apply the identifying tags. The AI engine interprets the contents of the file, such as a subject, section titles, word combinations and patterns, etc.  This is probably pretty straight forward for most files, but there are a few exceptions.  Scanned documents have to be converted back into readable text, which doesn’t always produce 100% accurate results.  Maps, charts, CAD drawings and photographs may pose some problems as well given the lack of text in the file.  Therefore, some files could be successfully tagged, while others may need human input. A more difficult hurdle is getting the AI engine to understand the intent of the provider, which can determine how the file is stored and who should have access to it.  We have all seen that the same file can end up in many different “folders”.  The file may initially have been intended as support for a specific client and stored in the client folder.  However, that same file might later become support for a special project and therefore a copy stored in a project folder.  Same file, different user intent. Another example of intent deals with applying the appropriate security.  Two documents might have almost identical content, but one is meant for review by the finance department and one is the final and is to be sent to investors. The AI engine can determine who provided the document and the security rights of that provider.  But the AI engine would need to know user intent to set the proper security and access rights. The AI engine might be able to determine appropriate tagging at a high accuracy level but, with a little human intervention, it can be almost perfect.  AI is coming and we will figure out how to use it to make work more efficient and make user’s lives easier.  Watson will need to know the users to make it all work, like understanding that some users always put the mustard in the fruit drawer????. Millennia Group provides workflow and document management solutions and will continue to explore ways to help its clients get more organized and more efficient. www.mgdocs.com, 630-279-0577, info@mgdocs.com

Folders and paperclips, the original workflow tools

I don’t think I would like to be in the folder, inter-office envelope, paper clip or staple businesses.  They had a great run.  They served a very good purpose.  But it’s time to move on to new forms of workflow.  Yes, that’s right, paper clips, folders and envelopes were the first workflow tools. Paper clips and staples separated documents into relevant parts.  Folders and envelopes kept the collection of information together as it moved through the company for decision making purposes.  Plenty of business decisions still rely on a collection of data and documents.  So where have all the folders and paper clips gone? To digital workflow packages, which are the new tools for business process.
Some business processes can be very simple and decisions can easily be made with limited information.  For instance, maybe it’s a help desk situation and a user entered information into a form that indicated they needed help re-setting their password.  The help desk worker (workflow participant) receives that notice, reads the information on the form and sends a response.  Decision made, workflow complete. There are many business processes that require far more information to permit a participant to make a decision.  Calculations might be necessary and result in the creation of a spreadsheet.  Historical documents may need to be reviewed.  Other live data may need to be considered.  This is not so simple. The good news is that current tools can accomplish all that the folders and paper clips did, and much more to ensure better AND faster decisions. Document management based workflow systems can create or assemble collections of documents, both new and historical and also display data, all in one decision making package.  This lowers the friction for a user to access the necessary information to make the most informed decision possible.  And with the benefit of database logic that can be included, the right information gets to the right people at the right time.  For instance, the package doesn’t hit the VP’s desk unless the project exceeds $500,000. It’s not to say that the inter-office envelope didn’t contain good information.  But let’s face it, it wasn’t always sufficient to hold everything so maybe a few pages or documents were left out.  The envelope couldn’t carry real time information or electronic data.  And only one person ever knew where that envelope was.  If there are complex processes in your company that are reliant on a folder or envelope of information, look into a document management centric workflow tool.  You won’t miss the office supplies and you will really appreciate better, more timely decisions. Millennia Group has been providing workflow and document management solutions since 1996.  www.mgdocs.com, (630) 279-0577, info@mgdocs.com

Why is the mustard in the fruit drawer?

Have you ever found a jar of mustard in the fruit drawer of your refrigerator?  How about the Penske file in the folder labeled Clients D-E?  Let’s face it, there are those of us that are very organized and there are others that aren’t.  This could be at home or at the office and it can be both frustrating and in the case of the office, costly. We were recently asked if there is an optimal company size that dictates when it’s time to use an electronic document management system (EDMS) rather than a file storage solution like a network drive?  I would say as soon as you find the mustard in the fruit drawer, it’s time.  However, there are several factors that should be taken into consideration when considering the need for an EDMS and two stand out, number of employees and industry the business operates in.
The number of employees or users is certainly a very important factor.  With a large number of employees, the quantity of files can grow so large that it becomes impossible to find documents.  All or most of the employees may be well intentioned, but there are going to be some that just don’t have the organization gene.  Every company has experienced the all-hands-on-deck search for a file and every company knows that is costly.  But it’s also costly when every document search takes even 30 seconds longer than it should and you multiply that by 500 or 1,000 employees searching every day. When you have a small company, it’s much easier to overcome a lost file.  Everyone knows that Jake is prone to put things in the fruit drawer so look there first.  But when employees are spread out over multiple office locations or there are thousands, it‘s not practical to function based on guidelines or tendencies alone.  An EDMS with automated rules that force users to provide some basic information for new files will significantly reduce the instances of lost files and speed up the every-day search as well. The other factor that can drive the need for an EDMS is the industry that the business operates in.  Even a small company with only 50 or 100 employees may find that they need to have detailed file access logs and strict file sharing permissions enforced to meet industry standards.  It’s even possible that the industry has specific solutions that are standard or solutions that must meet certifications like department of defense (DOD) or Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS).  Windows explorer does not meet either. There are other reasons that companies want to use and should use an EDMS.  Just the fact that an EDMS makes finding, sharing and collaborating on documents easier is a good reason as those things lead to a more efficient company.  Smaller companies can use that solid, EDMS enabled foundation to become larger companies.  There is no doubt that large companies with hundreds of employees need EDMS.  Do some math on time saved and lost document costs.  Then throw in other efficiency gains from available workflow and collaboration.  You might find that the optimal size company is much smaller than you thought.

Search for the needle OR the haystack

There are many benefits to using electronic documents versus paper.  One of those benefits is being able to do a search to quickly locate the one document that you are looking for.  This takes only a matter of a few seconds in most any document management system. But what if you are looking for more than one document?  What if you need a collection of documents, like all of the contracts for customers with model number 123abc?  What if you aren’t exactly sure what documents you need and only have a few pieces of information to go on?  This is where you will get your money’s worth when properly configuring your document management solution.
The main approach to good document management is having good meta data or good descriptions of the documents.  For instance, when you create a new contract for a customer, you want to be sure to include the customer name, that the document is “a contract” and you might want to include the model number.  This is all meta data that relates to that document and this will help other users find that document. You can get a sense of how powerful this meta data concept is by looking at the car shopping experience.  Go to any online car buying site and you can specify that you want a 2017, Mustang, red, six cylinders, with leather seats.  Bam! – all the cars within 50 miles that match that “meta data” will show up in the results.  Best of all, you can quickly change the parameters (meta data) to look for blue or V8. As a car shopper, you want more than just the one result.  You want sufficient results so that you can research what might be best.  This is also true of your documents.  You want to be able to see results that include more than just documents that have the word “contract” in the title.  You want to have other meta data to help filter the results and help you gather or collect the information that is most useful to you. You want meta data. To get there with your document management system you need to follow a few simple steps.  First, make sure that users are required to enter in a basic set of meta data for each document.  Second, specify the type of meta data that is required by document type.  For instance, invoices require vendor name, dollar amount and invoice number, while contracts require customer name, date and model number.  Third, configure the search results to include all of the meta data in filterable fields so that users can find exactly the information they are looking for, whether it’s a needle or a haystack. Millennia Group has been providing document management and workflow solutions since 1996.  www.mgdocs.com, info@mgdocs.com, (630) 279-0577

Looking well beyond the next quarter

Millennia Group just wrapped up being a sponsor and participant in the 19th annual Realcomm IBCON tradeshow in San Diego.  This is a show dedicated to the understanding and use of technology in the commercial real estate industry.  As one might expect for a technology show, there were some familiar topics including robotics, artificial intelligence, blockchain, virtual reality and renewable energy.

The current news touches on these topics, but from a different angle; the death of the retail industry, the reshaping of office workers and their environments and Amazon warehouses – they’re popping up everywhere.  After 19 years of participating in this industry trade show, it is still very clear, there is a long term focus in this industry, well beyond how these external forces will impact the next quarter.

Based on the content of the breakout sessions at the show, it appears that approximately half was dedicated to how technology could make the use or management of real estate more efficient.  The other half was dedicated to how technology could impact the business today and in the future. 

Vendors are promoting and owners/occupants are evaluating options for reducing energy consumption, improving customer engagement, eliminating friction to onboard new tenants and streamlining the valuation of properties and getting those things done now.  Both vendors and owners/occupants are simultaneously factoring in the potential impact from disruptive technologies and how to deal with that for tomorrow. 

There were robots wondering the show floor – will that mean office or industrial jobs will be eliminated and will that mean no more need for lunch rooms or restrooms?  People were testing virtual reality – will that mean no more trips to the store to touch and feel a product?  There were sessions on how blockchain will impact transactions and discussions of Teslas dropping off people and product – where will that lead?

Every industry is dealing with the impact of these issues.  It is good to see that the commercial real estate industry is looking technology in the eye to see how it can benefit.  How can cloud based workflow make my operation more efficient?  How can technology help me track and lower energy consumption?  How will people and businesses need and use real estate in the future?  That is not an evaluation for the next quarter, that’s a long term, full time effort and that is a professional approach.

Technology goggles make work flow

The first thing that comes to mind when you hear about workflow is most likely order and process.  There is validity in that thought.  Workflow is intended to deliver efficiency and cost saving by using defined order and automated process. Defining what the process should be is the tricky but necessary part and it’s the fun part.  Yes, fun.  When you dig in and people realize how many time wasting tasks can be eliminated, you can feel the joy.  So how do you re-connect the dots to create an effective digital workflow and really make work flow?  Put on your technology goggles and look at the process.
The first step is to have the people involved in the process document how the process works.  This will initially result in a small number of simple steps.  The process of writing down those simple steps will produce some ah ha moments and more steps will be added.  Then with a business analyst or consultant doing some question and answer sessions, the truth will come out and now the number of steps is doubled or tripled. The next step involves analyzing the process to understand what the actual goal of the process is and how it impacts the business and possibly other processes.  With all of this information gathered, it’s time to engage the software partner or your technology team to match the goals and process with the digital solution.  They are the ones best equipped to connect what needs to get done with how technology can get it done. Technology will allow you to eliminate steps or enhance a process.  For instance, you might be able to eliminate a verification step by using technology to do a comparison – ensure the required documents are attached before approval can be given.  Let technology automatically create a new workflow based on conditions in another workflow – like when one new capital improvement project results in three new vendors.  That’s four workflows. Workflows can be all data inputs or a package of documents and data.  Workflows can be sequential where a process is one step at a time or parallel so you can do multiple steps simultaneously.  To make work flow, accurately define the process and have someone look at the process through a technology googles.  The end result will be a vastly better process that will have you looking for other areas where you can have some fun. Millennia Group has been providing workflow and document management solutions since 1996.  www.mgdocs.com, info@mgdocs.com, (630) 279-0577.

Blockchain vs Digital Signatures

Bitcoin continues to make news and inroads into the world of finance.  Two of the basic technologies that drive Bitcoin include blockchain and peer to peer computing.  These two concepts are relatively understandable.  Blockchain uses a distributed ledger, which is essentially a list that is shared across many computers (peer to peer).  Because many computers contain a time-stamped replica of the data, it is very difficult, and expensive to hack or change the data in a fraudulent way – and its encrypted. These concepts are moving into other areas such as smart contracts.  However, these contracts are not documents as that term is generally understood.  The smart contract is essentially a perfectly known set of conditions and data, that when met, results in a payment or action.  The contract is essentially data points; house address, meter number and usage, bank account or Bitcoin account, electricity rate, dates.  All immutable data that can be kept in a ledger.
As an example of a smart contract, the distributed ledger could record exactly how much electricity your house is using and it can be scripted to automatically send the electric utility money based on the set rates and dates.  However, this is not much different than the current situation of a smart electric meter and autopay.  The smart contract method may never involve a bank or fiat currency as we know it.  It involves bitcoin or “ether”, the digital currency of Ethereum, a smart contract platform. The concept of smart contracts can strike fear into lawyers and document management specialists because on the surface it sounds like an end to documents, digital or paper.  But the reality is that the world is not comprised of a perfect set of conditions that can be scripted and that is why contracts and lawyers exist now and will for a long time.  Maybe smart transaction is a better description and digital signatures should be associated with smart contracts. A clue to the potential adoption time frame of smart contracts would be digital signatures.  Digital signatures have been around since approximately 2003 and are still used predominantly in applications such as vendor contracts, apartment and car rentals because the contracts are standardized.  Digital signatures still affix to a digital document and have a secure private ledger to ensure authenticity.  More efficient than paper and easy to do. These new technologies that are based on blockchain and peer to peer have the potential to radically change some back office parts of the current financial infrastructure, but not necessarily the way business gets done.  So for the time being, we need to focus on how to efficiently create, store, protect and share our documents, with digital signatures or not, to keep business running smoothly. Since 1996 Millennia Group, LLC has been providing workflow and document management solutions.  www.mgdocs.com, info@mgdocs.com, (630) 279-0577    

Digital War Rooms – Avoid Casualties

For the past 15 years or so the standard process for transaction due diligence is to upload information and documentation into cloud based digital war rooms.  These secure, online document management systems have been beneficial to buyers and sellers and especially lawyers and financial analysts.  Reduced travel and less time spent in windowless rooms reviewing and copying documents by the thousands are just two of the many benefits. The information that is uploaded is driven to satisfy the seller’s requirement of disclosure but not optimized for the buyers post deal operations.  If the buyer leaves the information in the native structure, there will always be user frustration when searching.  Multiply one dis-organized silo by many transactions and now you have a whole lot of user frustration.  Here are some suggestions for tackling the transition so that operations is able to perform at peak levels.
First, if at all possible get an inventory of the war room contents, preferably in a spreadsheet format.  Built in Excel functionality will let you separate the data into columns by folder level.  This will usually provide a good method of sorting and analyzing the information to see how it can be incorporated into the acquiring company’s hierarchy or filing structure.  Focus on folder naming and how to match folder names to a source list like department, customers, vendors or contracts. Second, look at the files themselves, especially PDFs or scanned documents.  Very frequently for purposes of populating the war room, documents are scanned by folder or binder.  That is the easiest and lowest cost way to do it, but the least friendly when trying to locate a specific document later.  Will these “compound PDFs” need to be split up to make them user friendly? Lastly, consider whether there will be a need for de-duplication or any other type of file clean up before uploading to your system.  You may want to immediately archive some information as it may only have been useful for transaction purposes.  Are the file names cryptic and will they suffice as a document title in your system or does each file need to be renamed? Once this analysis is completed, then you can work with your IT team to assist with the download, mapping to the desired structure, clean up and the holy grail – a batch upload into your system.  A batch upload is far and away more efficient than trying to upload one document at a time.  Don’t let your users be the casualties of a digital war room, transition the information into your organized and efficient structure. Millennia Group has been providing document management and workflow solutions since 1996.  www.mgdocs.com, info@mgdocs.com, (630) 279-0577

To Purge or Not to Purge

Based on my observation the world consists of two types of people, purge people and non-purge people.  We all know which category we fall into, but as a reminder:  Purge people frequently empty out desk drawers, closets and the garage of useless documents, old clothes and stuff. Non-Purge people don’t.  And yet, we all co-exist. There is a business practice that you may be familiar with called Legal Hold.  If a company is aware of or suspects litigation, that company should place all records and information related to the litigation on legal hold – don’t let the purge people get to it.  Of course, nobody is happy when there is litigation, but how is it possible to lock down (or not over accumulate [non-purge people]) information in this day and age?
This is the balancing act that all companies have to deal with.  Digital information is duplicated and stored in many places; email, the cloud, local computer drives, network drives and the company document management system.  Paper documents, yes they still exist, are in off-site storage, desk drawers, filing cabinets and boxes in the basement. A non-purge person puts the company at risk because nothing is ever destroyed, even if the information is past its legal requirement for retention.  The purge person puts the company at risk because something may have been destroyed when it was on hold or before its legal retention requirement expired. Document management systems and records management systems to the rescue. Records management systems are primarily geared towards paper records and document management systems are for digital documents.  Both types of system can designate records as being on “Legal Hold”.  A search of the systems is conducted for information related to the litigation, for instance a product or customer name, and then all of those records are flagged.  A notice is also sent to all employees with the same information. Because paper records are separate from the records management database, accidental destruction can more easily occur – keep a close eye on the purge people.  Digital records are easier to lock down because a document management system can dis-able the “Delete” function for users for some or all records.  This still doesn’t solve the issue of duplicate records that are outside the company system – keep a close eye on the non-purge people to make sure they aren’t saving files all over the cloud as a safety net. It’s a complicated task to deal with a legal hold.  Having a records management system and a document management system will help control the process but make sure you know your purge and non-purge people and keep an eye on them. Millennia Group is a document management solution provider serving a national client base since 1996.  www.mgdocs.com, info@mgdocs.com, (630) 279-0577

I need a little wiggle room to be productive

The security of the information that our clients have entrusted us to host in our document management system is paramount.  Clients demand that their information remain private and confidential and we absolutely understand and abide by that.  The SEC, auditors and sound business practices demand it too. Our clients concern certainly includes stopping bad actors, but it also includes the people that they set up as valid users – they should only see and share what they are allowed to see and share.  However, as far as sharing goes, some flexibility is needed so that users can be productive.  Here are some thoughts on why wiggle room is needed and how sharing information can be protected.
Generally, people don’t work in a vacuum, they need to communicate and work with others, both inside and outside the organization.  The two most popular ways that people communicate and share information remain email and cloud based file sharing sites.  We use email when the quantity of documents is few or we upload to the cloud if there are many. The easiest way to share information is via email, just attach and send.  That makes email so efficient.  However, a user that is emailing a few documents outside the company doesn’t know how many times that email was forwarded on nor who the potential recipients were.  You want the users to have the flexibility that email provides, but you want some controls in place. For instance, if the files being emailed are PDF’s, you could watermark them as “Confidential”.  You could limit the number of files that can be emailed at one time or per day.  Your system might email links to the files and the links expire after a set number of days.  If your company doesn’t have a document management system, these suggestions may not be feasible. Bulk file transfers are a different story.  More files potentially means more trouble and therefore more caution is needed.  Users frequently need to provide large collections of files to outside parties for audits, transactions or other special projects.  Typically, much more control is required for these purposes. You could have a requirement that bulk downloads and sharing of files must be requested through the IT department.  You should restrict which users have the right to download in bulk.  You should also track all bulk downloads and ideally, if the system is capable of cloud or war room type sharing, the system should track all activity in the shared files.  Restrictions on the guest list is also recommended. There are more extreme methods for locking down files from inappropriate sharing.  There are also plenty of systems and companies that have very limited protections and instead rely on the integrity of the users to maintain control.  Look to find solutions that provide the right amount of protection but still allow the flexibility to keep your users efficient and productive. Millennia Group has been providing workflow and document management solutions since 1996.  www.mgdocs.com, info@mgdocs.com, (630) 279-0577

My PDFs are Dazed and Confused

One of the core principles that Millennia Group advocates and adheres to is that the official copy of a digital document should be a singular unit.  What this means is that the digital version, a PDF in most cases, should contain only one document.  What our users encounter, and sometimes want, is a different story.

A user may receive a single PDF from an external party that contains many documents.  The other situation is where the user receives multiple PDFs that together comprise a single document.  In one case the file needs to be split and in the other case, the files need to be merged.  Here are some examples of why this principle of a singular unit makes sense when your PDFs are dazed and confused.    

Many users will receive a single, giant PDF that contains upwards of 1,000 pages and 50 documents for a transaction closing.  Search is complicated because a user either needs to know the document exists in the PDF or they need to use the full text search capabilities to find it.  And then try sharing just one of those 50 documents with another user, it’s quite an effort to split the one document out of the whole PDF.

The other frequently encountered situation is that a document is so large that it could not all be scanned as one document.  We see that the document is then scanned as Part 1 and Part 2 or the main document as one PDF and each exhibit as PDFs.  It is not efficient to work with and have to open multiple documents to get the whole picture.  It is also imperative to keep all parts together so a user doesn’t mistakenly believe they have the whole story when they don’t.

On the flip side, we understand that the users of our document management system want to make it easy to send information to others.  Users want to gather up the documents they want and merge them into a single PDF that they can email out.  Or the users want to (gasp!) print out multiple documents all at once.

It’s all about making life easier for the users and giving them the flexibility that they want.  Of course, that means that your document management solution needs to have these split and merge functions.  Or the users need to be trained how to use the functionality in Adobe Acrobat so they can manage these tasks outside of the document management system.  Either way, the requirement is flexibility and the end result is optimal efficiency.

Millennia Group provides flexible workflow and document management solutions to optimize your users efficiency.  www.mgdocs.com, info@mgdocs.com, (630) 279-0577

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