april 2005 headlines newsletter
TRANSCRIPT
AIIM Golden Gate Chapter Headlines
April 2005 - 1
Welcome Welcome to the first issue of Headlines – a quarterly newsletter for AIIM Golden Gate Chapter members.
Headlines will bring you news and information about our industry and help you to keep in touch with the Golden Gate Chapter.
Enjoy, and please don’t be shy about asking questions that we will try to answer. If you have suggestions for additional content or for chapter activities, let us know.
Letter from John Mancini, AIIM International President What a Year!
It’s been quite a year. Once again, the Association was profitable in 2004—no small accomplishment when many associations are facing significant budget shortfalls. More importantly, with support from all of you, we made major progress on one of our key objectives for the year: Educating senior management within user organizations about the compliance risks related to improper handling of electronic documents and records.
The track record of AIIM was particularly strong in this area in 2004, and we’d like to share a few of the major accomplishments with you. We’ve also provided a few links so that you can get more information on items of interest:
Information Nation: Seven Keys to Information Management Compliance—published by AIIM. www.aiim.org/infonation.
Winning With Electronic Records Management—produced in cooperation with Cohasset Associates, this highly acclaimed wall poster was distributed to over 30,000 executives. If you do not have a copy, send me an email—[email protected] with your name and address.
The Emperor’s New Clothes: The Current State of Information Management Compliance—results of a survey of 400 end users conducted by AIIM and Kahn Consulting on current trends related to IMC http://www.aiim.org/documents/currentstateofimc.pdf.
AIIM Standards Project to Create an Archive Capable Version of PDF (PDF/A)—this landmark
standards project, a cooperative project with NPES, The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies, is nearing completion. http://www.aiim.org/standards.asp?ID=25013.
ECM Toolkit: In response to the need identified by many AIIM Professional Members for impartial and practical information about key trends, best practices, and methodologies for applying ECM technologies to achieve business results, AIIM created a special ECM Toolkit as a benefit for members. It contains—in one place—all the best material AIIM has produced. The ECM Toolkit contains nearly $500 in publications if purchased separately and contain the following elements:
The ECM Primer Industry Benchmarking Kit Regulatory Roadmap Records Management for IT Professionals Taking the First Step
This industry is clearly headed for the mainstream of the IT world. There has never been a better time to be a professional in the ECM industry.
AIIM is the only organization where the three worlds critical to developing an effective document and content strategy meet—document and records professionals, IT executives and system architects, and line-of-business and senior executives. We will be building on this success and introducing a number of exciting new initiatives in 2005.
AIIM will publish Information Warrior, a follow-up to Information Nation—the definitive book on the legal and business issues surrounding the deployment of
Table of Contents Letter from John Mancini ..............................................1 Document Management Evolves into Content Management ..................................................................2 Chapter News .................................................................3 Did You Know?..............................................................3 Book Rack ......................................................................3 Questions ........................................................................4 Calendar..........................................................................4
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information management systems and the compliance issues that surround their use.
We will expand our Fundamentals of ECM certificate program, adding a second level track specifically focused on compliance.
We will conduct “version 2.0” of our landmark study of e-mail management practices and policies.
AIIM, Cohasset Associates, and ARMA will conduct a follow-up survey to our highly successful 2003 survey on electronic records.
We will launch a series of vertical industry-specific solution centers and products.
Thank you to all of you who support AIIM with your time and your resources. If there is any way we can be of assistance, just drop me an e-mail — [email protected].
John Mancini
Featured Article
Document Management Evolves into Content Management
Do you know where the documents that you are looking for should be located? Do you know what information is contained in the documents you are looking for? Do you have any idea what information is being sent into or out of your company via e-mail each day?
Are you still wondering what happened to the so-called “paperless office”, and then try to reconcile this misnomer with your corporate expenditures for more computers, more printers, and more paper?
If all of this rings true at your company, please don’t feel alone. There’s another evolution taking place and this time we are going to call it content management. Over the past decade we have gone from information management to document management and from document management to knowledge management. We have now evolved from knowledge management to the new mantra of content management.
Over the last two decades many of these same companies also downplayed the role of the Records Manager because they believed that all problems would be resolved once they got everything into their
computers. That thought was soon crushed under the weight of the responsibility that followed the trail of electronic records, digital data, and scanned images that now reside in networks and computer infrastructures worldwide.
Never has the importance of records, whether they are paper or electronic, been more in the spotlight than right now. With this increased awareness of the penalties associated with poor record keeping, many companies are now rethinking their strategy of records management and talking about it in the same sentence as information technology and management systems. Today, it is vitally important that the Records Manager determine what must be kept and for how long, and the information systems professionals must determine in what format (paper, film, electronic) during each stage of the document life cycle, from conception to destruction. It can not be done in a vacuum.
While many companies have started down the path that will bring them into compliance and realize the operational efficiencies that change will bring, others struggle with a basic understanding of records management, content management, document life cycles and the various technologies that can be applied to solve their business problems.
Service companies provide a unique perspective for potential prospects that will need to understand just where software, hardware and document conversion services fit into their overall strategy for success. Technology will also be a factor in the final configuration and acquisition of problem solving solutions to meet their needs. No single technology and no single company will have all the answers. Solutions can range from simply putting records in an off-site storage facility, capturing large volumes of information on microfilm, or converting important legacy documents and data for use in an enterprise wide content management solution.
Service companies are also well equipped to deal with the multitude of documents that are found in legacy applications that were once totally paper-based before ever being microfilmed or digitally scanned. Today’s scanning technology can accommodate everything from a business card to a 3’ X 4’ engineering drawing, black & white or color, single-sided or dual-sided. There are also upright book scanners that can capture information
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April 2005 - 3
in bound volumes with black & white, grayscale or color imaging. Engineering aperture cards, normally associated with large manufacturing drawings or facilities management applications, can be scanned to industry standard file formats and easily incorporated into a content management system.
Another advantage of working with a service company on the selection of various software and hardware components of a total system is the ability to see the actual working environment before purchasing anything. Most of the service companies use the products they sell in their production image capture operations and will gladly provide samples of your documentation in several different formats and will be able to demonstrate the capture and indexing process that would be utilized when working with your documents.
Although outsourcing has become a tainted word in many conversations, it is actually a logical choice for many companies who want to focus on their core competency and allow a professional service organization to do what they do well, and that is to show companies how to capture, index, store, manage, retrieve and distribute critical business information across the enterprise.
Companies must understand that their problems have been building for many years and will not be resolved overnight. There should be a strategic plan established for a logical phased-in approach to reach the ultimate objective established in advance of any purchases being made.
Content is everything in your company that has importance associated with it. From the unsuspecting e-mail that can put the CEO in jail, to the proof of delivery that your customer received what they purchased. From the video news clips to the instant messaging that makes an illegal transaction. From the financials associated with the general ledger to the contracts that dictate the way you do business everyday.
How you manage content and records will be the most important decision you will make this year. Investigate all your options and focus first on the business problems you want to solve. There are plenty of hardware, software and document conversion solutions to help you reach your objectives once you have determined the direction you will establish to move forward with the solution.
Bob Zagami Northeast Regional Sales Vice President ImageMax, Inc. Reprinted with permission from: Business Management Magazine ImageMax Editorial Content
Golden Gate Chapter News
This year is drawing to a close for the current AIIM Chapter board members. Elections will be held in May for new and returning board members. If you are considering running for a board position, contact Rakesh or Paul. For a list of the board positions, see the existing board at the end of this newsletter.
The Chapter is always looking for help and ideas for programs and educational events. If you have an idea, let us know. One of the more popular meetings is a tour of an established EDMS or RM implementation. We all learn best by seeing what others have done well - and not so well. If you have a good document management or records management system and would like to share it, give us a call.
Did You Know? 1 scanned page (8 1/2 by 11 inches, A4) = 50 Kilobytes (on average, black & white, CCITT G4 compressed)
1 box (in inches: 15 1/2 long x 12 wide x 10 deep) (400 x 300 x 250 mm) (2,500 pages) = 1 file drawer = 125 Megabytes
1 file cabinet (4 drawer) (10,000 pages on average) = 500 Megabytes = 1 CD (Compact Disc) (ROM or WORM)
Book Rack If you are interested in how paper functions within your office environment, get this book. It is dense and packed with case study information.
the myth of the paperless office
Abigail J. Sellen Richard H. R. Harper The MIT Press Paperback 2003, ISBN 0-262-19464-3 If you have a book recommendation, let us know.
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The Question “What is the difference between electronic document management and electronic content management?” Asked Horace Hopewell (a fictional AIIM Chapter member at large.) Horace, excellent question as these terms are confused by many.
Document management refers to the complete document be it a document image or an electronic document (and it can be one to many pages long.) Content management, on the other hand, refers to a “piece” of information that could be a sentence, a paragraph, or a complete document.
“So, how does this difference help me? Or, So What?” Well Horace, if you were simply managing complete documents that are being created by your office workers, you may want to go with a document management system for both imaged and electronic documents. If you were interested in controlling the content of those documents, or pieces of content for a changing web page for example, you may be more interested in a content management system. Think of “documents” as complete items while “content” is a piece of an item.
Calendar May 17 – 19 AIIM Conference & Exposition Philadelphia, PA http://www.aiimexpo.com
May 22 – 25 Managing Electronic Records (MER) Conference. Chicago, IL http://www.merconference.com
Note: This is an excellent conference centered on legal issues with “records” not so much technology. It has a small vendor section with many providing individual demonstrations in their suites. The conference is well organized and the sessions are very much “experienced based, “ not sales pitches.
---------------------------------------------------------- If there is a topic you would like to see addressed in a future newsletter, or you would like to provide a “user experience” as part of a newsletter, or you have a question that can be answered in the newsletter, please contact me at:
[email protected] or call me at 415-381-6217 to discuss your idea. Or, contact one of our Chapter Officers:
President Rakesh Shah 510-795-7222 [email protected]
Vice President Paul Brighton 707-745-8658 [email protected]
Treasurer Tom Hughes 925-376-7365 [email protected]
Secretary Laurel McAdams 510-477-3490 [email protected]
Membership Chair Peter Goodrich 925-673-1475 [email protected]
Programs Chair Bud Porter-Roth 415-381-6217 [email protected]
AIIM/ARMA CHAPTER LIASON Christopher Cowger 650-380-6960 [email protected]
You may also navigate to our chapter web page:
http://www.aiim.org/chapters/goldengate.asp?ID=26297
© 2005 AIIM Golden Gate Chapter All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems without the written permission.