Document Management

I just launched one of my client's brand new sites. Here is an excerpt from their press release:

Document Systems, an Oxnard, CA based document solutions provider, is pleased to announce the launch of their new website at www.documentsystems.com. The new website offers clients a comprehensive overview of the company’s new solutions offerings.

“We are excited to let our clients know about the new areas where we can help reduce costs and improve productivity,” said George Dauphine, CEO of Document Systems. “The new site gives our current and potential clients a true snapshot of the value that we can bring.”

Read the rest of the press release at Office Product News. continue reading...

Okay... so this is really a shameless plug, but I figure I have a large enough audience here that hopefully it will get some traction.

You may notice from my signature line that I maintain the news at OfficeProductNews.net. I have been maintaining this feed for a few months now... pretty tedious work because no one has standardized how this industry publishes information. My growing readership there shows that I am doing something right...

But, I need your help. continue reading...

I wonder if that sounds like an oxymoron. Sometimes I think of email management as a misnomer. I tend to think that my email manages me more than anything. It occurs to me the following possible scenario. You get a subpoena for all the emails that you exchanged with a customer, contractor or employee for the last 12 months. What do you do? Maybe not so hard if you have them in your sent and in boxes. What if you have a company of 20 employees (or more)? Can you get all the messages quickly and without too much difficulty? Does it take hours of hunting them down on backups? Can you provide proof that you have provided all the required information? Now, let's throw another twist to the scenario? What if the subpoena includes all attachments, phone messages and other correspondence related to that email? Can you fulfill the request. Look at the way you are storing your data. Are you prepared in the event that something like this comes up? If you are, I'd be curious to know your strategy. Corey Smith Co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free.

I have talked about not selling boxes (or "catch all" products) but instead selling solutions. I like to refer to selling solutions as problem-based selling because it requires us to solve a problem instead of calling our "box" a solution.

But, the first question is, "What is a box?"

Well, I don't think that a box is related to any one, specific industry. I think of a box as just about any commoditized product. It could be as un-technologically advanced as a toothbrush (although with the advertising, you'd think that all toothbrushes are "space age" technology, but I'll save that for another rant.) A box can be as technologically advanced as a server, MRI machine or jet. The box is simply anything that someone tries to sell as a fix-all or catch-all product for a given situation.

In my industry, the box tends to be a copier or printer. The company selling the product will advertise that they "have recently purchased a large number of 50 page per minute copiers and we're passing the savings on to you." Well, what if you need a 40 page per minute device or a 60 page per minute device? "That doesn't matter, we have this one "catch-all" product and we going to sell you this one box. Period." continue reading...

I hear so many people talking about document management system. I hear how document management systems are going to save people time and money. I hear that by getting our processes paperless, that we are going to suddenly see an extreme ROI for our efforts.

Baloney.

A document management system will not end all the woes of an organization. Just because you make changes in your office and start conducting business with electronic documents doesn't mean that you are suddenly going to see an incredible increase in productivity and a sudden decrease in cost of doing business. In my opinion, what businesses actually lack is an understanding of how to conduct business efficiently and effectively. continue reading...