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Document Management Inside and Outside of the Cloud

Your organization produces lots of data—in many different forms—every day. Your employees (both onsite and remote) collaborate on multiple projects a day, sharing resources and information. In this environment, how can you best manage your documents in an efficient and effective way?

Until the advent of cloud-based resources, document management systems (DMS) were expensive for the small-to-mid-sized business; only organizations for which documents served as the work product (i.e., law firms) could afford to invest in onsite document management solutions. And then came the cloud, bringing with it many enterprise-level solutions at a lower price point, including document management.  But cheaper isn’t always better and there are still several items to consider before deciding on a cloud-based or onsite document management solution. There are several players in the industry; below we discuss the top onsite and cloud-based solutions—and their pros and cons—to inform your decision.

 

Onsite/Outside of the Cloud

Pros

  • Security: With an onsite DMS, your data exists within your own network and you know exactly where all of your documents are being stored—and what security you have.  

  • Passive Saving: Saving your documents is no longer an active process; you simply fill in a few fields and the documents are saved in the appropriate places for you.

  • Ease of Search: Searching for any document is easy—and fast—translating to increased productivity.

  • Our Recommendation and Why: Although there are many players in this field (OpenText, Worldox, Documentum, to name a few), we most often recommend iManage for clients who require an onsite document management solution. They are a trusted leader in the document management arena, and have the majority of the market share and a multi-million dollar research budget which means ongoing improvements to subsequent releases. In addition, iManage offers a software suite that integrates easily with their DMS; this makes integrating accounting software and other business-critical applications seamless. Plus, iManage interfaces very fluidly with Outlook (a big plus for law firms). You can quickly search within your email for documents and vice versa. 

Cons

  • Cost:The biggest advantage to any onsite DMS is the cost.  Hardware costs (1-3 dedicated onsite servers) to support a system like iManage onsite are in the tens of thousands of dollars, not to mention software and support costs.

  • Support:You need either an internal or external IT resource that is an iManage–Certified Engineer. These professionals aren’t cheap.

  • Time To Implement:iManage and other onsite document management systems take longer to implement because they involve adding to your existing network infrastructure.  With cloud-based DMS, there is no infrastructure.

Inside the Cloud
Pros

  • Cost: With cloud technology, instead of buying, installing, managing, and paying for the upkeep of an individual onsite system, companies have the option of subscribing to a full-service system based in the cloud.  Organizations usually pay per user so that the service is easily scalable, too.  

  • Administration: All upkeep and troubleshooting is performed by the service provider, freeing up time and labor costs for companies that either don't want, or can't afford, to deal with them.

  • Built-in Disaster Recovery: Most cloud providers include a disaster recovery service because of the nature of the cloud.  Your data is stored in multiple locations and comprehensively backed up at regular intervals.  

  • Our Recommendations and Why:Although many companies are struggling to differentiate themselves in this market space, we most often recommend NetDocuments for client organizations that do not require an onsite DMS.  One of the first Software As a Service (SaaS) providers, NetDocuments offers a feature rich product that is gaining traction among law firms.

Cons

  • Security: With cloud-based document management systems, your data is in the hands of another company, in a server you have no control over outside of the ability to manage your own files. This dispersal of information over a wide network of devices, is perfect for document backup and recovery, but raises concerns regarding document privacy. With private cloud-based document management systems, like NetDocuments, this is less of a concern because they can afford to implement much greater security measures in their private clouds than you may be able to in your private network.

  • Search Limitation: With NetDocuments and other cloud-based DMS, there is no “universal search”. Although a cloud document management provider may have the resources for a faster search engine, your search is still limited to the documents on the cloud and could not incorporate data stored on your network in other places (like email).
  • Integration/Compatibility: Because cloud-based document management systems are fairly new, integrations with multiple applications (like your records management system, etc.) are still being developed. iManage has more integration options than NetDocuments, but this is more a reflection of longevity in the marketplace than on capabilities. As cloud-based DMS gain additional market share, we expect more integration options to surface.

Last Word

In an increasingly digitized and collaborative world, document management systems look more attractive every year. Onsite systems, while secure, can be costly, and many businesses may not be document-intensive enough to justify the expense. For these smaller businesses, cloud-based systems offer customized subscriptions to the same software so that users pay for what they need, along with enhanced accessibility and decreased administration costs.  Before making a decision, consider your organization’s level of collaboration, the sensitivity of your data, your industry’s security and confidentiality requirements, the size of your files, your remote worker population, and your budget. As always, before investing in a new technology, evaluate your options to identify the solution that will best align your technology with organizational goals.

Optimal Networks has taken hundreds of clients through the decision-making process surrounding document management systems. We can help in these initial stages and also through implementing your system and training your users. 

 

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Choosing the Right IT Services Provider

With business processes outsourcing growing year after year, organizational leaders are spending an increasing amount of time vetting, selecting, and managing vendors, consultants, and service providers. And, with IT services becoming a core facet of project-specific and overall organizational success, some leaders are wondering how to vet such an important part of the team. While there are many things to look for when selecting an IT service provider, the most important questions to ask yourself are: What do we need? Why do we need it? How can they help?

 

What do we need?

Identifying the need for an external IT services provider is essential. Is your need project or initiative-based? Is your need on-going and consultative in nature? Do your needs encompass both? As with other third-party professional services support (e.g., accounting, marketing, legal), selecting the right IT vendor involves knowing what help you need; separating the strategic providers from the non-strategic ones depending on your desired results; inviting the most qualified candidates to the table; and asking the right interview questions. 

 

Why do we need it?

You may know what you need, but do you know why you need it? What business process or goal will this firm help you to achieve? This conversation begins with in-depth discussions involving the short-listed IT firms and key members of the internal team to develop a mutual understanding of the projects at-hand and the scopes of each. This is a great way to continue the interview process and gauge if the candidates are easy to talk to, while also getting some additional information regarding the project(s) at hand.

 

How can they help?

Once you’ve whittled the list down to two candidates, you need to ask more in-depth, qualifying questions.

  • Does the provider have strong business acumen to anchor their technical advice?
  • Has the provider implemented similar solutions in our industry?
  • Does the provider’s technical ability match up with my organization’s needs?
  • What is their technical project implementation experience?
  • What is their technology consultancy experience?
  • Is the provider only well-versed in the products they sell?
  • Can the provider give an example of a time when they recommended a solution that was best for the client over a solution that would have provided greater financial returns for them?
  • Some providers bundle services, but does my organization need all of those services?
  • Some providers are focused on implementing the latest and greatest technologies, but are traditional technologies more appropriate for my organization’s needs?
  • What processes do they have in place to facilitate, manage, and grow our relationship?
  • What sort of a grievance channel do they create for me if I’m unhappy?

 

Asking questions like these can help prevent those tragic realizations down the road that you’ve selected the wrong firm and have lost valuable time and scarce financial resources.

 

Last Word

The bottom line is that IT consultants should not be focused on selling the flashiest package or getting the best margin on products.  As with any successful merger or partnership, there must be a laser focus on determining how two organizations can work together in a shared, mutually-beneficial relationship focused on the same business outcome.

 

It can be a complex process but, if done right, IT outsourcing can prevent headaches and financial losses while helping to support organizational efficiency, productivity, and growth. 

 

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Bringing IT to the Table

Traditionally, IT hasn’t had a presence at the proverbial “Table” where C-level executives gather to discuss and plan their business strategies. This is because, until recently, most IT people weren’t seen as business savvy—they saw the world through technology—as opposed to business—lenses. Their thoughts were welcomed on practical matters, but not strategic ones.

A couple of things have happened to change this, however. First, technology has become more than just the plumbing of making the business work; it has become a strategic business driver. People have realized that the proper implementation of technology can be a valuable, often necessary, way to achieve business goals. And second, there is now a small population of technical people who, through traditional and experiential education, have become more skilled in business; and therefore more able to deliver on the promise of strategic technology.

Bottom line: For a business to operate at its most effective, some understanding of how technology contributes to strategic direction is essential. Below are some of the advantages from including a competent IT professional in your organization’s strategy discussions:

  1. Your Finance Department Benefits. Big money IT expenses are usually the result of not including IT as a strategic function. Working directly with IT can keep a CFO better informed about technological expenses (a consistent, monthly spend vs. short-term savings and long-term overhauls, for example). This reduces time and middle men; the financial department has a better idea of where its tech money is going and why, while the IT department has a better idea of what they have to work with to accomplish what and when. Plus, technology can work hand-in-hand with the finance department to deliver relevant information to the right people at the right time. It can also serve as a monitoring tool to assess if the company’s strategy is being executed from a financial perspective. As online business continues to grow and technology advances to more areas of operation within an organization, an organization’s technology and financial strategies become increasingly intertwined.
  2. Your Marketing Department Benefits. As the amount of business conducted online increases, so too does the importance of a company’s online image, both in social media networks and on the company’s own website. Marketing departments now need to continually monitor their online presence in order to discover how prospects are receiving and responding to organizational messaging and marketing campaigns. The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) needs to know what boundaries and possibilities technology can offer in order to better plan these digital marketing strategies—and IT needs to know what the CMO’s vision is in order to better advise about using technology as a marketing advantage.
  3. Your Operations Benefit.  There is no part of any person’s workday anymore that isn’t touched by technology; the daily operations of every organization require technology. If part of your organization’s long-term strategy includes productivity improvement, some of that improvement will likely need to be delivered via technology. To gain a better insight into the ways in which technology could be hindering—or used to enhance—organizational productivity, the COO needs to gain a better insight into the technology being used to produce. To keep operations running smoothly, the technology ingrained in those operations needs to be kept running smoothly. All of this calls for a close working relationship between the COO and IT.
  4. Your Leadership Benefits. Putting an IT executive who understands and can contribute to business strategy at the Table means one more key voice of the business being heard;  this means a more complete picture of what’s going on in the company. Plus it provides a unique strategy perspective. Traditional strategy discussions usually revolve around a SWOT analysis; these strategic elements can also be technology. For example, you can have technology that provides your organization with a specific competitive advantage—or weakness. Who better to analyze these strategic elements using both a technological and business lens?   The results will be more informed Table discussions and executive decisions.
  5. Your Human Resources Department Benefits. As technology evolves, so do the lives of the people using it. For businesses, this means that employees at every level in the company are working with company-issued technology and must have corporate equipment and social media policies and contracts in place. In addition, the recruitment and candidate vetting processes are becoming increasingly digital; the ability to streamline HR processes is a competitive advantage. To keep up with these changes, collaboration between HR and IT departments is a must.

 

Last Word

Without technology, many businesses would not exist. After all, for most organizations, data is both their greatest asset and vulnerability. People might create the data, but it is transmitted, communicated, stored, protected, and backed-up by technology. As such, no company can afford to leave IT out of the strategic planning equation. 

 

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Consumerization of IT

Within the last five years, internal and external IT support professionals across the country have witnessed a new trend: the consumerization of IT. And, it is no coincidence that this trend surfaced just as tablets, notebooks, and smarter smart phones became everyone’s must-haves. But, what is it? In plain-speak, the consumerization of IT is the name industry experts have applied to the phenomenon in which consumers buy tech toys, like iPads, and  then bring these technology platforms to their workplaces and demand that IT departments integrate the devices with company networks and support them.

So, who has the final say? The high-ranking official who walks into the IT department confident that this new device will make him/her more productive? Or, the IT department professionals whose job it is to contain technology scatter and maintain data integrity and security? The answer can be found by considering the following:

  • Culture of the Organization: Is your organization comprised of technophiles? Are you trying to attract a younger employee base?
  • Sensitivity of Data: Are you a HIPAA or Sarbanes-Oxley compliant organization that exchanges sensitive data in every email? Or is your data regularly available for public consumption?
  • IT Resources: Do you have the internal or external IT resources to support the consumerization of IT? Will your training budget allow for new platform education? Or is your IT department a one-person shop?

After evaluating these three things, an organization-wide decision must be made. Will employees be allowed to bring in devices they have personally bought for organizational IT support and work purposes? If so, which of the popular consumer platforms/devices is your organization willing to support?  Before making your decision, consider that supporting multiple IT platforms is associated with both increased IT costs and security vulnerabilities. Oppositely, the fewer IT platforms your organization supports, the more predictable your IT costs and security levels.

But that doesn’t mean that the business community should only use Blackberrys forever. In fact, we encourage clients to make their decisions based on their business needs. What would adding iPhone support do for the organization? If, strategically speaking, the answer is nothing, then there is probably no need to start supporting that device. Oppositely, if almost everyone in the organization has an iPad and uses them to portably check and respond to emails at lunch, then incorporating iPad support could increase productivity across the organization.

Last Word

The proliferation of technological devices shows no sign of stopping and that makes the consumerization of IT a very real problem, or advantage, that organizations must consider. In addition to weighing security risks and IT resource bandwidth, be sure to make your decision on supporting or denying the consumerization of IT from a business perspective. There is a broad middle ground to this issue and organizations must decide where, on the continuum, they stand. Perhaps more importantly, once your corporate stance on this trend has been established, create a set of IT policies that reflects your decision and protects your organization—and its data.

 

 

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The Corporate Challenge: Technology Scatter

Remote workers, a 24-hour workday, satellite locations, different platform preferences, and distributed data and networks present an unavoidable problem to today’s organizations -- technology scatter.  With IT becoming an ever-increasing part of overall business strategy, it’s important to get a handle on this situation, before it becomes detrimental to your organization.  Before you can address the scatter, however, you need to understand how the scatter is affecting your organization.  The geographic technology scatter that occurs from remote workers and satellite offices; the platform scatter that is generated by Blackberry vs. Droid vs. iPhone preferences; and the data scatter that results from everyone working on documents from a variety of locations negatively affects your organization in four main areas:

  • ADMINISTRATION: With technology scatter comes an increase in the amount of time (and money) you must spend to properly manage and support these locations, platforms, devices, and data.  In an extremely scattered environment with a commitment to user support, IT administration costs can skyrocket.
  • PRODUCTIVITY: With multiple people working on multiple versions of files, and employees struggling to find what they need when they need it, productivity slows.  The greater the scatter, the greater the technological friction that people must overcome in order to work together on documents, files, and data.
  • SECURITY: Your sensitive data must be backed up and protected despite the fact that this data is not centralized. The risks of the data being stolen or corrupted are present at every location, within every platform.  This increases your security risks and can monumentally increase IT management costs.
  • LIABILITY: With more technology scatter, you open yourself up to litigation risk.  If you are court-ordered to produce electronic documents, you must produce them, at your cost—and fast.  That’s why your organization’s ability to enforce document management and other technology centralization policies across multiple locations and platforms is essential.

Now that you know the risks, you can begin to remediate.  Below is a four-step process we recommend to (and often implement for) C-level executives facing the corporate technology scatter challenge:

  1. EVALUATE. Is your technology the right technology?  Perhaps the root of your tech scatter is simply the fact that you’re not utilizing it efficiently.  Technology is a major asset, but like any other tool if it’s not used in a focused manner it becomes less of a solution and more of a problem.  Do your employees have too many devices to be effective?  Is your IT network up to date and capable of the demands you’re putting on it?  Maybe you’re spending too much time putting out small fires and keeping an unwieldy system running.  An honest evaluation of your needs and the technology that you’re using can go a long way.
  2. COMPARE. Is your technology up to industry standards?  While it’s not always best to follow the herd, it’s a good idea to keep up with what comparably-sized companies in your industry are doing.  Perhaps you’re a mid-sized company that’s trying to implement a system that has way too many moving parts for your needs.  Maybe your technology’s more suitable to a company in another industry.  Being aware of what’s helping others to run efficiently and configuring it to your specific needs can boost your efficiency and make life easier.
  3. REGULATE. Once you have the results of your network and systems analysis, and have compared your technology to that used in similarly-sized organizations in your industry, it is now time to set basic standards and parameters to organize the dispersion.  Figure out into which category the majority of your scatter falls (geographic, platform, or data) and then discuss your regulation options.  Will your organization be building custom software applications and intranets as collaboration platforms?  Or, will you be using software as a service over the web?  Will remote and telecommuting employees be sharing your network?  What about smart phones?  Servers?  Maybe a document management system is necessary.  Creating a plan, and clarifying and communicating that plan to employees helps to remediate your technology scatter problems.
  4. LEVERAGE. Video conferencing and other collaboration technologies (from Google Docs to Skype to Salesforce.com) can help to not only manage a remote workforce, but also to help reign in some technology scatter.  Leverage the technology that has been created for this purpose to help you in this effort.

Last Word

In today's world, business may never sleep, but by taking some basic steps to reduce your technology scatter and create an integrated, organization-wide technology management strategy, you might be able to rest easy.

 

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