ptix Document Management and Workflow Systems Celebrating 20 Years of Excellence

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1 Welcome Optix Welcome mindwrap mindwrap mindwrap mindwrap mindwrap mindwrap ptix Document Management and Workflow Systems Celebrating 20 Years of Excellence

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3 Products 1 Focused Access to your Documents 2 A Revolutionary User Interface 3 An Advanced Scanning Architecture 5 Boost Productivity with Workflow 7 Include your Web-based Users 9 Secure your Document Assets 10 Exceptional Design Tools 11 Services 12 Unmatched Technical Support 13 Onsite Installation and Training 14 Custom Development 15 Topics 16 5 Reasons you need a Document Management System 16 5 Reasons you need to Scan your Paper Documents 18 5 Reasons you need Workflow 20 Indexing Methods vs Search Time 22 The Legality of Scanned and Digital Documents 24 Succeed by Involving your Users 25 Managing System Goals and Expectations 26 Calculating Return On Investment (ROI) 28 Company 29

4 Products Design custom document and workflow applications in minutes using our drag-and-drop editors. Deploy new applications instantly - our server automatically creates the database tables that power your design. Discover the hidden information in your organization and new efficiencies in your operations. Highly Integrated Totally Flexible Extremely Powerful You ve seen those toolkit vendors that promise document management and workflow systems but make you build your own - or even worse - they want to sell you expensive services to build it for you. And more services to deploy it. And still more services to maintain it. They ll tell you that this is how document management and workflow systems are done. Don t believe it. With Optix, you get a totally integrated and operational system from day one - not just a bunch of libraries and third party add-ons that eat up your time and budget to deploy. Optix lets you hit the ground running and gives you total control over all aspects of your applications - look and feel, indexing, security, and storage - with no programming required. Optix offers applications that work effortlessly with your chosen DBMS vendor in a cross-platform environment that can include both Mac and PC workstations and a wide variety of servers. We consider Optix to be far and away the best document imaging and management system on the market because of it s cross-platform nature, easy scalability, best-of-class web interface and ease of use at all levels. John DeMillion Director of IT, CCIU 1

5 Focused Access to your Documents Try a browser based search for Workflow vendors on the web and you get over 2.5 million hits. This is because the web represents a vast unfocused and unorganized repository, indexed using all available content. Wading through this sea of data to find the information you need is a time-consuming and frustrating exercise. With Optix, you decide how best to organize and index your documents, with results that are fast, focused and productive. Optix provides the tools to create and deploy as many repositories and focused indexing screens as you need. The Optix Server automatically creates the database tables that drive the screens. [Note: Illustrations in this booklet use screenshots from our Mac, PC, and thin clients] 2

6 A Revolutionary User Interface We packed over 22 years of user interface expertise into our latest version of Optix to define the state of the art in multipage document management. Unlike older imaging only vendors that display one scanned image at a time, our focus is on empowering the user to view and manage modern document standards such as PDF, containing both formatted text and images. In addition to also supporting traditional multipage TIFF, our Collections can contain an ordered array of mixed document types such as MS Word, Excel, or even multimedia. Of course we also support traditional single page images such as JPEG, BMP, PNG, and GIF, among others. Scan to any of our supported document formats or import documents from the desktop simply by dragging and dropping them into the thumbnail area of the document display. Need to assemble a custom document? No problem - simply drag page thumbnails from one document to another. Delete or rearrange pages within a document to meet your needs. We provide a wide variety of methods to zoom, scroll, pan, rotate, crop, erase, and redact your documents - and we know the difference between really redacting a PDF document and simply masking the text, allowing you to convert redacted PDF pages to unhackable raster bitmaps to ensure your documents are truly protected. Express yourself with our full range of annotation tools, allowing you to mark up PDF, Collection, or any image-based document using graphics tools, colors, text, and font styles. Create custom image or textbased stamps, to quickly mark documents as received, invoices as paid, or documents signed with the image of your actual signature. And because our annotations are stored as overlays, they never modify the sensitive document itself. Link documents together logically using our hyperlink tool. Retrieve one and access the other with a single click when needed. Copy selected areas from existing documents using our marquee selection and edit tools and paste them into custom reports in MS Word or other document processing software. Use our PDF in-document search tools to search text-based PDF documents to locate exactly the information you need. View documents your way, selecting from single page, single page continuous, side-by-side, or side-by-side continuous as best suits your needs. Our selectable page interpolation ensures the highest quality display. 3

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8 An Advanced Scanning Architecture Our latest version of Optix introduces the most advanced cross-platform scanning architecture available anywhere. Our Mac and PC drivers support entire families of scanners, allowing us to easily keep pace with the latest hardware offerings from major vendors. Create custom scanner settings to produce the best results across all of your document types. Scan in black and white, grayscale, and color using any supported resolution, deploying sophisticated post-scan filters to perform rotation, noise removal, margin cleanup, auto crop, deskew, and blank page removal - even when not supported in the scanner hardware. Setups are stored in ultra-reliable XML files, selectable with a single click. Define the perfect scanner settings once and use them again and again - even across different model scanners. Scan on Mac or PC. 5

9 Automate complicated production using Optix Scan Tasks. Drag and drop Scanner Setups into a task along with Destination specifications that describe how and where the document should be saved. Insert barcoded Patch Cards to separate documents in batches or perform exceptional scan-time processing such as page rotation. Automate your document distribution using Destinations - encapsulated instructions that specify the ultimate target and desired format for your documents. Automatically save documents to indexed server repositories, server work queues, workflows, , FTP locations, fax, printers, or simply save to a desktop folder. And for those special applications that call for something really complex, Optix fully supports scripting using Applescript on the Mac and VBScript, JScript, COM and OLE on Windows. 6

10 Boost Productivity with Workflow An insurance company that processes claims. A university that accepts student applications. A small office that must pay vendor invoices. Large or small, all organizations have defined business processes for accomplishing routine - often complicated - tasks. Tasks that often involve several departments and decision-making steps. Because a large portion of the processing involves paper documents provided by clients, manual methods tend to evolve over time, becoming complex, time-consuming, labor-intensive impediments to throughput. Digitizing incoming paper documents and expressing a business process in Optix Workflow dramatically boosts productivity. Scanned paper documents may be combined with desktop electronic documents in a folder that flows effortlessly through the processing steps you define, using rules that you control. Route a package from user to user or from a user to a group. Once an item is ready for a final decision, route it to all decision-makers at once and have your workflow wait for their input before moving to the next step. You can also include complex computer-only steps in a workflow, passing information to third party applications to update external databases, create letter drafts, or perform any type of automated action. A Workflow defines all of the paths a document may take during its processing lifecycle. Based on the rules you specify, a document might be sent to a person responsible for writing an acceptance letter, to the Financial Aid group, or to an automated step awaiting input from a legacy system. Users can open an item in their inbasket and view any of the documents they need to see to complete their task. They may add new documents to the package or may annotate documents using any of our built-in graphical, text, or stamp annotation tools. Users complete items by simply choosing one of the actions specified in the workflow for their processing step. This can be an Accept or Reject decision, a selection from a list of actions that you define, or simply an indication that the package has been read and should move to the next step. Create as many Workflows as you need using the included Optix Application Generator. 7

11 Workflow items appear in a user worklist. Users can quickly open, view, and complete tasks, speeding the item along to the next step. See exactly where an item is in the process flow or get a graphical overview of the steps. Using Optix Document Management and Workflow, we decreased the turnaround time for processing an application from four weeks to 72 hours Dave Alderson, Project Manager Office of Information Technology University of Maryland 8

12 Include your Web-based Users Do you have employees on the road that need access to the corporate repository? Or perhaps you need to provide clients or business partners access to limited and secure document sets. Maybe your sales force is equipped only with Linux-based netbooks. Optix Web effortlessly provides secure repository access to web-based users. Our thin client runs on a variety of platforms and provides query, view, store, and indexing capabilities - users can even participate in your workflow processes. Integrate Optix Web with your existing website or deploy it as a protected internal resource, customized to meet your needs. Provide web-based access to casual users and business partners. 9

13 Secure your Document Assets The Optix Server secures and manages document repositories. Available on platforms as diverse as Sun, Linux, AIX, Windows, and Mac OS X, the server is equipped with advanced libraries that allow it to interact with the underlying database of your choice - Oracle, Sybase, Informix, MS SQL Server, and the open source Firebird RDBMS. When your system administrator designs a new indexing screen or workflow route, the Optix Server automatically interacts with your RDBMS to create the required tables that drive the application. Server management tools allow you configure your RAID or other filesystem-compatible storage to specify the volumes to be used to store your scanned images or desktop files - and to specify exactly who is authorized to access your documents. The server controls access to each document and provides checkin/check-out controls over their modification. And when documents are updated, records on each new version are maintained. Authorized users can retrieve prior versions of documents or perform roll-back operations. Batch processes assist in repository maintenance, allowing you to set end-of-life dates for selected classes of documents, automatically marking those ready to be moved to off-line archives. The Optix Server is typically a single-server solution for most installations, easily running on the same server as the database with which it interacts, providing a convenient central backup location. Larger enterprise deployments supporting thousands of users can easily factor functionality between several servers to balance and distribute the processing load. Optix Server provides secure, managed document repositories using your database. 10

14 Exceptional Design Tools Our Optix Application Generator provides you everything needed to quickly design and deploy new applications. From simple indexing and query screens to master-detail relationships to sophisticated workflow routes, our unique tools make it easy to bring your vision to life. Drag-and-drop items onto a screen layout to add exactly the indexing fields you want, with full control over their appearance. When complete, immediately deploy the screen to the server with custom security that you select. The Optix Server automatically builds the database tables that power your design. The resulting repository is immediately available to Mac, PC, and thin clients at the same time. Automate your business practices with new Workflow designs. Easily create new workflow nodes representing users, groups and automated steps, then link them together with rules you specify. Create a routing slip containing all the database index information you want. When deployed, your users can create folders of mixed scanned and electronic documents that move along the steps you have specified. And best of all - you did it all yourself. No programming required, no costly consulting services, and no additional fees. With Optix, we put the power in your hands, where it belongs. Easily design and deploy new applications - no programming required. 11

15 Services When you select an Optix system, you gain the benefit of our decades of experience in the Document Management and Workflow industry. Our experienced in-house technical support and customer service staff will work with you to schedule your installation and on-site training which typically require a week or less, depending on system size. And after your system is installed? Answers to any questions you may have is just a phone call or away. We are seriously committed to making your Optix system work for you. The Optix technical support team is there when you need them. No matter how small or great the problem, Optix technical support has been exceptional. Robert Alum, Stockton Unified School District 12

16 Unmatched Technical Support When you contact our Optix Help Desk, your interaction will be with an Optix expert with years of hands-on experience with our products. You might even recall that you met them when they installed your system and trained your users. What you will not get is a faceless language-challenged robot, located half a world away, that is only authorized to read from a troubleshooting script. A Document Management and Workflow system represents a capital investment by your organization, and an investment of our time to develop. We feel strongly that these investments should be nurtured and protected, and not allowed to wither over time. When you call us with a question or a problem, it benefits us to provide you with a complete and accurate response so that your system can continue to run smoothly. By providing you with great technical support, our hope is that when your IT buddies down the block ask you which Document Management and Workflow system to buy, you will know exactly who to recommend. Our personnel regularly provide support via telephone and . If your problem is really tough, we can also work right alongside you using WebEx on a shared desktop. Conceptual representation of a technical support person. Actual Optix Customer Support personnel dress more casually, have years of hands-on experience, and may have a few worry lines from answering your questions. 13

17 Onsite Installation and Training Our Customer Support staff works closely with you on all details of your installation and training. Prior to our on-site visit, we contact you to discuss scheduling, equipment preparation, and training facilities. We typically work one-on-one alongside your system administrator when performing Optix Server installation, configuration, and setup, to ensure that they know exactly how Optix and your database work together. We train your administrator in the use of the Optix Application Generator to create your initial repositories, indexing screens, and workflows. Once your server is up and running, we move to hands-on training of your users and scan operators with the Optix Workstation, interacting with the actual system. Our goal is to empower you to manage your Optix system to get the maximum benefit from your investment. It is in our best interests to ensure that you and your users are properly trained, since a knowledgeable client means a productive client and less help desk calls for us. Training Topics - Administrator Optix Server Installation Storage Configuration Establishing Backups Database Configuration Optix Administration Tools Optix Application Generator Establishing Users and Groups Security Configuration Training Topics - Scan Operators Optix Workstation Basic features Optix Workstation Advanced features Scan Operations Scan and Index Scan to Queues and Workflow Creation and use of Patch Cards Training Topics - Users Optix Workstation Basic features Save and Index Desktop Files Save to Queues and Workflow Query and Hit Lists Workflow Document Viewing and Annotation Check-in/Check-out Conceptual training classroom. We have never actually seen a classroom this organized. 14

18 Custom Development Over time, your organization has acquired a number of specialized systems and applications to meet specific needs. We understand that an Optix Document Management and Workflow system must often interact with legacy systems to best leverage your organizational knowledge and information. For decades, our highly experienced development staff has been performing state-of-the-art systems integration for government and business on all types of client and server platforms, using the most advanced languages and tools. If it is possible to achieve your vision, we can get the job done. From the design stage through testing and deployment, we can advise on what can be achieved with off-the-shelf tools as well as build custom applications to meet your exacting requirements. Examples of previous custom client work Integration of legacy systems and Optix to build an updatable aircraft maintenance documentation system accessed via the web by mechanics worldwide. Integration of legacy publishing systems and Optix to build a print ad processing and workflow system for a major Washington D.C. newspaper. Integration of legacy systems and Optix to support a 1,000 person creative design staff at a major greeting card manufacturer. Conceptual developer. Ours are just as attractive, but more focused and experienced. We have no idea why she is writing on her computer screen. 15

19 Topics 5 Reasons you need a Document Management System 1. You haven t got a clue where your documents really are or how to get to them quickly. Perhaps you have 20 computer users all busy creating documents that drive your business. Each one is naming files to suit their own tastes and storing them in folders organized to meet their own individual needs. Sure, you could go ask Tom to give you a copy of the 2009 Annual Report, and if he is well-organized, he can probably find it and you a copy in a few minutes. If he can t find it or he deleted it to make space for other stuff, you have to hope that someone else can turn up a copy. With a Document Management System, all critical files are stored on a secure, central server in well-organized repositories. Each document is represented by a database index record, using meaningful values and field types that you assign. By performing a quick search on your Corporate documents repository for Annual Report 2009, you can retrieve and be viewing the exact document you need in a few seconds - and you didn t have to interrupt Tom. 2. Your sensitive documents are vulnerable to being corrupted, deleted, or stolen. Like all your employees, Tom sometimes needs a break and hops on the internet while having a cup of coffee. Oops, he just got infected by that malware package you heard about yesterday. You know - that really bad one that deletes all files starting with the letter A - as in Annual Report Or perhaps you are patting yourself on the back for installing that super firewall, but forgot about how your janitor was the low bidder. The one with the thumb drive in his pocket. With a Document Management System, critical files are managed in a secure central location - typically on a server that is much better protected than your desktops against both malicious malware and casual access by unauthorized personnel. It is far easier to secure a single server than 50 desktops. 3. Your documents are disappearing. Three facts of computing life combine to ensure that your employees are losing documents: (1) Individuals are notoriously bad at backing up their own systems; (2) hard drives fail; and (3) desktop systems are prone to corruption, often requiring a system wipe and reinstall. Because a centralized Document Management system is backed up on a rigorous (often automated) schedule, the mission-critical information employees store there is protected. Backup management is easier and less costly than attempting to manage backup of desktops. 16

20 4. Your database administration costs appear endless. Just when you are ready to roll out the new mortgage client database, you are hit with new management directives that force you to add new fields, so that when sales representatives are speaking with your clients they have all the info they need. Repeat endlessly. Now imagine that you have deployed a Document Management system around a repository that is indexed using a solid but minimal set of client data fields, and that every document related to this client is indexed with these values. Your database - the structured information you maintain on your clients - remains constant with little change over time, while the vast amount of unstructured document-based information for each client can easily grow without expensive efforts. Your sales representatives can find and view any of those documents in seconds. When you find yourself in an endless database redesign, it signals that you are trying to jam too much information into your structured records, and should move towards using records pointing to the vast store of information in unstructured documents. 5. You know the document you need exists. You can t find it. You are a government contractor and constantly generate proposals. You know you covered a topic before in an especially well-written section of a prior submission and you would like to include it in the document you are writing now, but you can t remember which proposal it was in - and it s driving you nuts. With a Document Management system, you are no longer limited to file and folder names - you can design your repository indexing scheme to include all relevant data by which you may need to find the document later. Instead of hunting for the filename USAF Labor Prop, you designed your system so you could also find the document by searching on a location such as Ft. Bragg, the contracting officer such as MSgt Susan Jones, CO, or the purpose of the labor proposal such as Vulture UAV Drone. Bonus Reason: Your employees can be happier and work more efficiently. Each time an employee cannot meet your request to find a document, or cannot answer a client inquiry, or does not close a sale because they don t have current information - it feels like failure, even if the reasons are not within their control. Each time an employee fulfills their tasks faster or smarter or better because the information they need is readily available in seconds - it feels like success, even if it was you that made it all possible. Deploying a Document Management system gives your employees the tools they need to succeed, and that is perhaps the best reason of all. 17

21 5 Reasons you need to Scan your Paper Documents 1. Office space is not free. The longer you are in business, the more paper you generate and the more file cabinets you need to store the paper. File cabinets eat floor space, and floor space means money - money that could be better spent on room for additional employees. By scanning and digitizing your paper documents, you can get rid of those space-wasting file cabinets (even if you also box the paper and send it to a warehouse). 2. Librarians are not free. Storing all your paper documents in folders creates artificial librarian positions in your company, so that Sue s Human Resource folder or Bob s Academic Records are properly accounted for and never go missing. If your company is large, you likely not only have librarians to manage folders but have involved sets of rules about checking out the folders - and people who maintain the rules, etc. Scanning and indexing your critical paper documents into a secure, centralized Document Management system allows the server to assume the librarian function and your employee s time is freed up to perform more meaningful work. 3. Paper documents grow legs. Paper documents always seem to get lost. Perhaps Bob s transcript is missing from his academic records. Was Jean looking at it last? A glance at a typical employee desktop and the mounds of paper that reside there illustrate how hopeless it can be to find a missing paper document. By scanning and digitizing your paper documents into a central Document Management system, all documents are available in seconds, avoiding the paper chase. 4. Data entry is not free. Your business involves a number of forms submitted by clients - forms that are manually completed. In order to capture this critical information, you employ data entry clerks to enter the information into your database. With a Document Management system, you can create a database of client records containing a relatively static and minimal number of fields. The handwritten forms submitted by your clients can then be scanned and stored using this minimal indexing scheme. Employees can retrieve every form submitted by a client with a single query and view the forms containing the information they need - all in a matter of seconds. This eliminates the need for extensive form-to-database data entry operations and saves you money. 18

22 5. Paper is a serial medium. When a document only exists in paper form, only one person can access it at the same time. This limitation can result in bizarre processing scenarios in your organization whereby a new incoming paper document is copied and distributed to everyone that needs rapid access. And if you don t make copies, Sue still has to pass that document on to Bob, who passes it to Joe, who eventually sends it to the librarian for filing. A digitally scanned document is a parallel medium, accessible by everyone at the same time. No expensive copies, no waiting on Bob to finish his work, no chance of a misplaced page. Bonus Reason: Your new pay raise. As a division head, you have identified a number of places money could be saved simply by scanning your paper documents. Let s add it up: - Money could be saved if you were able to free up floor space used by file cabinets. - Money could be saved if your employees were not drafted into being librarians. - Money could be saved if your employees weren t wasting time looking for documents. - Money could be saved if data entry could be reduced or eliminated. - Money could be saved if you didn t have to make copies or wait on serial processing. Would the ability to save this kind of money look good on your resume, enhance your standing in your organization, or improve your chances of obtaining that raise you want? Optix allows us to quickly respond to user needs. We can design and deploy a new custom indexed application in only a few hours. Stefanie Elsea, System Administrator, IT Applications Department, BWXT Pantex 19

23 5 Reasons you need Workflow 1. Your manual processing methods are inefficient. You are a major university and several times a year you must deal with a huge number of student applications. Students submit transcripts, forms, financial aid documents and other materials that must be arranged into a package for later evaluation by an admissions department. Applicants complain about the amount of time it takes to get a response, and you suspect that if you could just get that acceptance letter to the applicant faster, they might not need to apply to your competition. A Document Management and Workflow system enables you to quickly digitize and index incoming student applications and related documents into folders. Automating your evaluation process in a custom, easily designed workflow enables the student folder to speedily flow through the admission steps required. The decisions made by each participant control the flow of the package based on rules you specify. The result is a speedy response to the student applicant. 2. Paper-based business processes are slow. You are a bank that receives credit applications that must go through an approval process before a loan is made. Each person that looks at the application adds another day as the paper moves from their Out basket to the next person s In basket. Digitizing the application when it is received and defining a workflow that specifies the individuals or groups that must make a decision moves the application quickly through the organization. As each person completes their action, the package (which can consist of a folder of documents if needed) is automatically placed into the inbasket of the next person or group in the process flow, depending on the rules you specify (an approval can go to one person, denials to another, for example). Processing that previously took several days is now easily accomplished in a few hours or less. 3. Paper-based processes can be halted when critical people are on vacation or off-site. Credit applications you process must be ultimately authorized by the Loan Department VP. When she is off-site at a meeting or on vacation, applications can begin to stack up. Documents are available via secure thin clients on the web, allowing your critical VP to view and approve applications remotely. This ensures that your most critical clients receive the credit they need in a timely fashion and do not search elsewhere for alternatives. 20

24 4. Documents used in paper-based processing are easily lost or misplaced. You are a large communications company that receives thousands of problem reports daily via fax. Dispatchers must review the problem, create a service request, and assign it to a technician based on location and availability. However, you periodically lose an incoming problem when a fax machine runs out of paper, resulting in an unhappy client. An Optix Fax Server receives incoming faxes electronically - avoiding paper losses - and automatically saves it to your Dispatch workflow. The workflow routes the new incoming faxes to your Dispatch group, and the next available dispatcher receives and views the fax. She creates a new trouble ticket, adding it to the package with the fax and enters the technician name and location to which the ticket is assigned. Upon completion, the package is directed to the supervisor at the proper substation for subsequent dispatch of the technician. Because the entire process is automated, no incoming faxes or outgoing trouble tickets are lost. Substation supervisors mark the workflow package as resolved when work is completed, and the package is archived for future reference. 5. Paper-based processes are prone to errors You maintain a large staff to process paper-based product orders. These are primarily entry-level positions and turnover is high. New employees cause delays when they do not follow the rules and orders are processed incorrectly. A workflow embodies the processing rules you specify. Orders are automatically sent to the proper people. This ensures a smooth and accurate processing flow, even when driven by newly trained employees. Bonus Reason: Your organization is more profitable By automating your critical business processes with Optix Workflow, you have improved the speed, efficiency, accuracy, and reliability of your transactions, resulting in a more profitable enterprise. Workflow has been a proven benefit in a wide range of applications. Could it help yours? Our creative teams rely on Optix Workflow to streamline the movement of media during the design process. Karen Lindhorst, Hallmark 21

25 Indexing Methods vs. Search Time In order to be productive, users of a Document Management system must be able to easily find and retrieve the documents they need. As the number of documents in a system grows, this task becomes more challenging. Historically there have been three indexing methods used to help organize documents and make locating them easier. These are: Database Records. Each document is associated with a database record in a traditional RDBMS such as Oracle or Sybase. Records may contain any number of structured fields of various types. To retrieve, users perform standard queries against the database. Keyword Tagging. Keywords are input and associated with each document, typically less than a dozen entered in a freeform fashion. To retrieve, users perform queries using one or a combination of keywords. Text Search. The contents of documents are indexed. To retrieve, users input words or phrases that are likely to appear in the content. Each of the above methods requires varying amounts of time and effort when the document is added to the system. As we will see, this up-front time is inversely proportional to the amount of time required to find and retrieve the document at a later date. Source: Craig Landrum, CTO, Mindwrap, Inc. 22

26 Database Records Because users must enter index information for each document stored, database records typically require the most time up-front. However, there are several subtle advantages to using this method: Users are prompted to enter data for each field and fields may be specified to be mandatory. This means that all documents in a repository have an excellent chance of receiving good, pertinent indexing data. Each field has a type such as text, number, or date allowing the data entered in a field to be typechecked for consistency, resulting in higher quality and more complete records. Because each field normally has a prompt (SSN, Name, etc) users know exactly the type of data to enter and where to enter it when searching for documents. Because users know exactly what data was recorded about a document at the time it was stored, they know exactly what they can use to search and can often find a single record in seconds. Keyword Tagging Keywords can be considered to be a freeform method of entering document attributes. For example, an environmental impact document might be assigned the keywords environment, wetlands, and Louisiana. Some of the characteristics of this method include: There is typically no enforcement of either the number or quality of keywords entered, and a user might simply enter environment without the additional qualifying keywords. This means that users searching for wetlands and Louisiana would miss the environment document. Therefore we can see that the usefulness of a keyword system depends on the procedural rigor with which users assign the keywords. When searching, users normally have no idea what keywords were assigned to documents in the repository. If a keywords used list is available from which users may select, it is normally presented with the most commonly used keywords first, selection of which would result in the retrieval of the most documents not normally what a user wants when trying to find just one document. It is only by combining several selections of common keywords that a user can typically narrow down a search a process that often occurs interactively, requiring many seconds. Contrast this with a database s ability to find a single record in a second or two based on the input of an SSN, for example. Text Search Text Search is attractive to clients because it appears to offer document organization for little to no up-front effort. While it is certainly true that the up-front effort involved is minimal, the back-end search time can be prohibitive. Characteristics of text search include: If documents are scanned, they must be processed through an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) step before the text will exist to be indexed. If a quality assurance step is added to correct OCR s inevitable mistakes, this up-front process can now be longer than user data entry for a database. Text Search suffers from many of the same drawbacks as keyword assignment if the content of a document does not contain the word(s) used in a search, a document will be missed and never found. Using more generic search terms results in more hits, but as anyone who has used Google knows, attempting to find the one document you need from a list of thousands is simply unrealistic. 23

27 Search terms can appear multiple times in a document, causing the document to appear in the result set each time a word is repeated. The resulting list of hits can be quite large and require a significant amount of time to review. Conclusions Several conclusions can be drawn: Because documents can easily be missed using the keyword or text search methods, if your application requires that you absolutely be able to find all documents in your system, you should use the database record method. If you rarely retrieve documents and can afford to miss one on retrieval, the keyword or text search methods will likely save you up-front time. If speed of searching and retrieval is vital (perhaps in response to a phone call at a help desk for example), you should use the database record method. In short, the more time you spend up front, the faster and more accurate your searches on the back end. The Legality of Scanned and Digital Documents The legality of scanned and digital documents is a topic that may be of particular concern to you if your system will contain sensitive corporate information, patents, trademarks, or other documents that might at some time be called into play in a legal setting. Some document management vendors tend to step around this issue by configuring a form of optical media (CD, DVD, or WORM) as the document storage on the server, and informing clients that this solves the problem. This is an incorrect assumption, since the media on which documents are stored has little to do with their admissibility in court. Furthermore, by using slow CD, DVD, or WORM drives instead of much faster magnetic media (perhaps organized in a RAID configuration), you are heavily impacting the performance and potential throughput of your system. The alterability of the medium is not the central issue in terms of legality rather it is the trustworthiness of the records (index data and documents) themselves. If it can be shown that the records have been created and maintained in a diligent manner, they are normally acceptable to the court. The enactment of the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) in 1975 specifically recognized the advent of computerized business records and the need to govern their admissibility at the federal level. Most states have adopted rules based on the FRE as recommended by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. Section 803(6) of the FRE defines what constitutes an admissible business record: A memorandum, report, record or data compilation, in any form of acts, events, conditions, opinions or diagnosis, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make the memorandum, report, record or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or other qualified witness, unless the source of the information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness. The term business used in this paragraph includes business, institution, association, profession, occupation and call of every kind, whether or not conducted for profit. 24

28 In the above paragraph, it is the obvious intent that if a record can be shown to be trustworthy, it must be admissible. While the media on which a record is stored can contribute to its trustworthiness, it cannot be the sole or even most important factor. Over time, technology improves and advances and all electronic records must forever be migrated to the next generation of media in order to remain retrievable. Over time, all electronic media becomes obsolete. There are currently no national standards for the permanency of the medium on which electronic records are stored. To summarize, the legal admissibility of scanned documents stored on magnetic media is primarily determined by the level to which the data can be shown to be trustworthy, and that this trustworthiness is best enhanced with diligent procedures, proper security, and careful management by the custodian of the data. It is this custodian that will ultimately have to testify to the accuracy and trustworthiness of the information under their care. This section includes opinions of Mindwrap, Inc. and may not apply to your situation. You should consult legal counsel for advice on all evidentiary and regulatory issues related to your documents. Succeed by Involving your Users In the early days of Document Management, deploying a new system meant installing new desktop computers, scanners, and other high-tech equipment. Learning new digital work skills was often intimidating to users who had previously performed primarily paper-based tasks. As a result, the learning curve - and potential push-back from the user community - presented a deployment risk that required careful planning and preparation. Today, virtually all employees are familiar with computers to some extent and easily accept working in a digital medium. The primary risks incurred with modern deployments center around ensuring that critical business processes are not interrupted and that deployment goals are met. The best way to ensure a smooth transition is to understand your current business practices - and nobody understands these better than the users that must perform them daily. Employees faced with performing repetitive routine tasks learn over time the most efficient methods for accomplishing those tasks. This can include any aspect of the job at hand, from keyboard shortcuts used to speed data entry to the best way to fold transcript pages before they go into a folder. They know exactly which manager knows the most about a subject, who to go to when a problem occurs, and how best to dodge bureaucratic rules that impede their productivity. The way in which a task is performed often differs widely from the original implementation. In other words, employees often represent a subculture that smooths the way to efficient, productive operations within your organization. It is this productive subculture that you need to reach out to when making design and deployment decisions. One of the best ways to kick this off is to have a general meeting outlining the capabilities of the system to be deployed, i.e. how documents are stored, indexed, retrieved, placed into workflow, etc. Once users understand these capabilities (and limitations), they will eagerly offer suggestions on how best to translate their own daily tasks to new system tasks. For example, once they realize that all forms are being scanned - thus eliminating most data entry from forms - they can quickly tell you the fields they use on a daily basis to retrieve client records. This allows you to establish the minimum set of indexing fields for a particular application. 25

29 Your users are also aware of which processing rules cannot be bypassed. This is particularly useful in a workflow. For example, federal regulations might govern some steps in the process of insurance claims, and your employees can quickly spot when your proposed workflow has left out a critical step. Likewise, they can offer suggestions on how to streamline a process, eliminating needless bureaucracy. By involving your users is the design process, you get critical buy-in - the feeling among your users that they have been a part of the decision-making process, especially one that will directly impact their working lives. This buy-in is critical to the later deployment process - without it, your users will reject any new system as unneeded or ill-concieved, leading to it s ultimate failure (so that things can return to normal, i.e. the way it was done before). Your users should also be involved with deployment plans, since they will be responsible for ensuring its success. For example, prior to deploying a new system, it might be necessary to clear the decks of outstanding paper-based transactions, requiring extra work (or overtime) on the part of employees to make this happen. Your users will also need to be fully trained in the operation of the new system prior to its deployment so that they can hit the ground running and be productive from day one. You will need their cooperation when scheduling this training and you will want to consider various training strategies (such as train-the-trainer, whereby leading users or supervisors undergo full training and then train subordinates). A new system should improve the efficiency, security, or capabilities of your organization. By involving your users early in the system design and deployment tasks, you can help ensure that your goals will be achieved. Managing System Goals and Expectations The planned procurement of a Document Management and Workflow system can lead to unreasonable expectations on the part of management and users unfamiliar with the state of the art. A typical scenario is one of using unsupportable capability statements to justify the system procurement in the process of selling the capital expenditure to upper management. Unreasonable ( blue sky ) expectations often show up in formal Requests For Proposal (RFPs), causing vendors to increase system costs to cover the risk. Example 1 In the mid 1990 s we were invited to Singapore to consult with a bank on the possible deployment of a new forms capture system. Having read up on OCR and seen scanning operations in action, a management member of the bank determined that it should be possible to automate the capture of data from credit applications using scanning and OCR. Upon further discussions, it was determined that all of the forms were handwritten, there were fields that required capture, and the forms were submitted in several different languages. What made this a blue sky project: OCR is a limited technology. It examines scanned images and attempts to read the text that it finds. It does reasonably well on printed documents, although it is never without some degree of error. Recognition of handwriting is very limited, has high error rates when attempted, and is only moderately successful even when using specially designed and constrained forms. The multi-lingual nature of the project was not a large hurdle, but the amount of handwriting recognition and its OCR error rates placed this project out of reach. The project never came to fruition and was cancelled. 26

30 Example 2 A recent RFP from a well-known university contained a laundry list of requirements. Most had been marked as must meet or mandatory. Upon further examination, these requirements were a compendium of capabilities of products from most of the leading document management vendors. No single vendor could meet all requirements off the shelf. This meant that each vendor would need to fill in the blanks with third party software or hardware, depending on their own product s missing pieces. What made this a blue sky project: By gathering a list of favorite and exciting technologies from most current document management vendors and then requiring the winning bidder to meet them all, the university caused all vendors to bid extra third party software to meet the unreasonable expectations. This caused each vendor s bid to be priced out of the range the university could afford and the procurement was cancelled. The first example illustrates the result when lack of knowledge about the limitations of a technology causes unreasonable expectations, leading to disappointment. The second example illustrates the result when too much knowledge and high expectations become requirements that are virtually impossible for any vendor to meet, leading to the project never getting off the ground. When considering the procurement of a system, it is best not to assume how the solution will be embodied or to require that the vendors meet your preconceived expectation of how a problem should be solved. It is much better to list the functionality you need or the results you wish to achieve and allow the vendors to propose creative solutions. Most document management and workflow vendors have delivered hundreds to thousands of systems and have a vast knowledge of what works and what doesn t work in actual production. Most can tell you quickly whether your needs can be met off the shelf or will require additional development or integration. This allows you to balance potential benefits against cost and pick the vendor that best meets your functional requirements. Optix has truly become a core operational system at the University of St. Thomas. We have found Optix to be extremely flexible and customizable to address any of our document management and workflow challenges. Optix s ease of use, coupled with world class technical support, has made Optix one of our most relied-upon technologies. Tony Wilkinson, Manager University of St. Thomas 27