Document management environments

In a busy global world such as the one we live in, enterprise business collaboration can be a tricky thing. Even in-house collaboration can be a chore when working in buildings that are 30 stories tall and half a city block wide. Bitrix, a developer of content management and portal solutions has announced the release of Bitrix Intranet Portal in an effort to help alleviate business collaboration headaches with social networking tools. Bitrix Intranet Portal allows businesses to build customized collaboration environments. These environments can aid in document management, allow for resource libraries to be built and managed, assist in managing collaboration to remove redundancy, or build a full-scale social network with instant messaging capabilities.

It seems like only yesterday when document imaging was such a niche technology that simply selling a document scanner and some image management software could earn a VAR a hefty margin. Those days are gone. Mainstream business adoption of document imaging has begun, and while this bodes well for the industry as a whole, this trend is changing the selling environment and margin opportunities available for VARs. Used with permission from Business Solutions magazine

Financial institutions, facing regulatory and competitive pressures, are focused more than ever on managing knowledge. By Kim Ann Zimmermann Because financial institutions must keep up with key regulations and ensure compliance, their document and knowledge management practices have to be beyond reproach. In addition, financial services companies must meet all of those challenges in a competitive environment. They're fighting for customers in a number of venues, most notably the Internet, which has enabled financial institutions to go beyond their local markets as they troll for new business.

Look at the business environments in most organizations today and you inevitably see several mission-critical applications. And if you look for a lifecycle management framework in those organizations, you'll likely find some semblance of one. Widespread regulations have made stronger document control an indispensable part of doing business today — but is it being done intelligently? Submitted by Open Text Corporation

Computhink's ViewWise solution provides comprehensive integrated document management across multiple operational environments - including MS Windows, Netware, and Linux. With ViewWise's latest 5.6 release, Computhink is aggressively pursuing new channel partners that areinterested in providing stand-alone or integrated solutions. ViewWise's new Software Development Kit (SDK) allows VARs to easily image- or document-enable industry vertical applications. For more details, please download the Computhink VAR Program document or contactsales@computhink.com.

As argued here, document management and compliance is one of the major challenges facing HCOs (HCO) in the new HIPAA environment. An important part of the HIPAA gap analysis process should involve examining the entire range of their printed reports, whether generated by legacy systems or newer applications, and evaluating how these reports are distributed and accessed against the new HIPAA "minimum necessary" standards.

It's likely that document management is an area where you can achieve significant potential cost reductionsand process improvements – whether you're in a corporate, industrial, educational or government environment. Kodak knows that you're constantly seeking more efficient, cost-effective, and streamlined ways of managing your documents and records. If you have data on microfilm, microfiche or aperture cards, you can achieve significant – even dramatic – new advantages by converting to digital format(s). And now you can obtain a complete range of professional proven conversion services through Kodak Service & Support.

Despite enormous strides toward replacing traditionally paper-based processes with electronic processes, the banking and finance industry continues to operate in an extremely paper-intensive business environment. However, with theadvent of numerous document management and document scanning technology solutions, these institutions now are taking advantage of a wealth of options available to help in reducing the paper burden. Submitted by Continental DataGraphics

Large Corp. Financials had installed an imaging solution in 1997 to make Mortgage documents available on-line. Many of the electronic versions were corrupted and need to be recovered. However, it had not provided a reliable source for storage and retrieval of imaged mortgage documentation as desired or expected. They needed a more efficient and productive environment.

Registering and filing these contracts and monitoring their status are extremely important tasks, particularly for complex and valuable materials contracts. In fact, materials contracts are so detailed and important that the legal department of Akzo Nobel dedicates 100 employees at 20 different locations just to register and manage these documents. Submitted by ZyLAB