In less than ten minutes, DocuWare, one of our Electronic Document Management Software business partners, reviews how document management works and why every company should have a document management system (DMS).

Each business process requires lots of documents; actions using those documents requires a lot of time and resources. A DMS offers clear advantages by electronically managing all documents, filing them correctly, enabling easy access, eliminating lost documents with document tracking and control, optimizing work flows, saving time and money. DMS can be integrated in any infrastructure and adapted into any company structure – work flows remain the same, they just run electronically.

Ten strong arguments for a DMS, simple.

The Net Promoter Score concept was introduced in Fred Reicheld’s 2006 book The Ultimate Question, which suggests that customer satisfaction is best measured by one simple question, “Would you recommend this business to a friend?” This question essentially asks your customer if they are willing to be your best marketing referral source.

Based on answers to this question on a scale of 0-10 (0 is least likely and 10 is most likely), customers are categorized into one of three groups: Promoters (9 or 10 rating), Passives (7 or 8 rating) or Detractors (6 or lower). Here is the formula.

%Promoters – %Detractors = Net Promoter Score

The percentage of Detractors is subtracted from the percentage of Promoters to obtain a Net Promoter score which can be as low as -100 (everybody is a detractor) or as high as +100 (everybody is a promoter).

Our results were in. Our Net Promoter Score was (drum roll starts)….59%….(drum roll comes to abrupt halt). I was never comfortable getting below a 90% in high school, so this score took me by surprise until I compared it to other industries. Apple recently boasted of a 72% Net Promoter Score, for example. Customer friendly Southwest claims a 59% as the top score for the airline industry.

Upon further analysis, I feel a little better about our score. While 74% of responders gave us a 9 or 10 in response to this question, 15% gave a response of 6 or below. Most interesting to me were the 11% of “Passive” responders, meaning they chose 7 or 8 in response to the question. If Passives take the time to give your business suggestions for improvement, those should absolutely be incorporated into future product or service improvements. Moving clients from Passives to Promoters is a key focus in improving a Net Promoter Score over time.

Customer feedback is truly a gift that we at FileSolve do not take for granted. We will keep asking the question in our journey to improve our clients’ experience.

You can learn more about the Net Promoter Score here:
• What is Net Promoter?
• Net Promoter on Wikipedia
• Net Promoter Score Video (four minute video describing the New Promoter score concept)

Philip Carter, President/CEO Marketplace Software, LLC, provided a fresh perspective to software programming. In our three days’ daze – in a darkened conference room with the IT team – I found Philip’s statements profound, in a simplistic, applicable way.

1. “You only have to do it right one time.” Accurate, effective programming positively impacts business every day.
2. “Automation is a form of control.” The right person makes the decision, it is implemented in the software, and then employees follow that direction when using the tool. Employees are not going to do their own thing when process is programmed into their software.
3. “You need to know what your software can do, not how to do it.” Understand the information available, customize reports for required analysis, manage your business more effectively. Get the software to give you what you need.
4. “Take out the trash every week so you are not living in trash.” Updating and cleaning up weekly assures clean, manageable information in your database.
5. “Spend an hour a week to make your business better.” Manage current information first, since manageable lists enable weekly management of business. See what is working and what is not working. Review – revise – refocus.

Makes sense to me. And guess what – no one had to spend additional money. Now that is something new!

Number 10 – You have too many vertical cabinets that waste space and hide information.
Number 9 – You have stacks of “in-process” or “to-be-scanned” documents that never seem to get any smaller.
Number 8 – There is no accurate inventory of your records that are in use.
Number 7 – You are confused about the best ways to manage electronic and physical information.
Number 6 – There is a lack of control over your information.
Number 5 – You’ve lost track of the items stored off-site.
Number 4 – You’re facing pressures from auditors.
Number 3 – You find yourself short staffed.
Number 2 – You just can’t seem to ever get caught up.

And the Number One sign you are ready for a records management upgrade – (Insert your biggest records management challenge here)

Quest is an organization that strives to provide jobs for people with various disabilities. For the past 50 years, Quest has transformed the lives of thousands of individuals. Enabling them to become more independent and reach their goals. Quest helps people with disabilities as young as 15 months to well over the age of 80. Assistance is given to enable going to school, having a job, living on their own, and experiencing summer camp. Quest has drawn support from some of the largest corporations in Florida, such as AAA and Disney World, as well as many smaller companies.

Everyone enjoyed Quest’s shredding demonstrations. Warehouse tours were conducted, where our guests met people of all abilities, performing the steps and demonstrating the chain of custody in the secure shredding process.

We are excited about this partnership and the opportunity to find more ways to tackle the problems that files create.

CHARLOTTE, NC April 2, 2013—Document management company FileSolve, a division of Patterson Pope, has joined forces with Quest Inc. to create a pilot jobs program for adults with disabilities in FileSolve’s Orlando, Florida facility.

Through the program, known as Quest Shreds, Quest Inc. will employ adults with disabilities to offer document shredding services to businesses in the greater Orlando area. Quest Shreds will initially employ up to 10 individuals on a part-time basis, with the goal of eight full-time employees and an ongoing number of part-time positions within 12 months.

The service will launch at an open house April 3 at the FileSolve facility in Orlando, located at 2729 Hansrob Road. Local businesses in Orlando are encouraged to contact FileSolve to learn more about the shredding services available.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for FileSolve, Quest and the individuals who will provide these services,” said Patterson Pope President Denny Hammack. “It is an ideal relationship for everyone involved, as we are able to give disabled adults valuable work experience while they help us serve our customers with new capabilities.”

“With the unemployment rate for people with disabilities reaching nearly 40 percent in the U.S., these individuals suffer the highest unemployment rate of any group in the nation,” said Quest Director of Development Janet Ginn. “Through programs like this, we offer workplace skills training and match people with jobs that are the right fit for them and their employer. Our vocational programs give employees the chance to experience real-world job prospects. Being employed enables these adults to earn an income and experience new opportunities they may not have otherwise had.”

About FileSolve

Headquartered in Charlotte, FileSolve is a division of Patterson Pope, a storage and records management company offering products including shelving, mailroom, modular casework, automated retrieval systems, and specialty storage products. FileSolve provides document management services including secure document scanning and shredding, imaging, tracking software and file moves/conversions.

FileSolve has operation centers in Charlotte, Roanoke and Orlando, and 10 sales offices across the Southeast. Patterson Pope is headquartered in Charlotte, with offices in Jacksonville, Orlando, Tallahassee, Miami, Tampa, Fort Myers and West Palm Beach, FL; Louisville and Lexington, KY; Raleigh and Greensboro, NC; Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo, OH; Charleston, and Greenville, SC; Knoxville and Nashville, TN; and Roanoke, VA.

For more information about FileSolve and Patterson Pope, visit www.filesolve.com and www.pattersonpope.com.

About Quest, Inc.

Quest helps people with disabilities achieve their dreams of going to school, having a job, living on their own, and experiencing summer camp. As Central Florida’s premier provider of these services, Quest makes a difference in the lives of more than 1,100 people every day. For more information, visit http://www.questinc.org.

I saw an interesting statistic based on one industry’s cost analysis surrounding the Request For Proposal (RFP) process. This industry typically spends 38 hours and $3,018 executing one RFP process using “modern” tools.

The goal of the RFP process is to promote competition among responders and lower the price, but does this study capture all associated costs to the issuer of the RFP? The $3018 figure includes hours spent developing, sending, collecting and evaluating the RFP responses. What it doesn’t take into account is the opportunity cost for what could be gained if these VP-level contributors had been given back an entire week’s productivity by eliminating the need for an RFP process altogether. Dilbert says it best below:

If the requestor spends 38 hours reviewing each RFP response, think how many more hours each vendor spends to create a formal proposal response. This labor adds to the cost that must be recouped in the proposed pricing, not lowering it as was the original intention for the RFP.
Where does this leave an organization required by law to submit RFPs? Federal and many state governments have a solution. They negotiate competitive pricing for key business services and establish Government Service Contracts.

Ask your vendor if they have a GSA contract that you can utilize to circumvent the costly RFP process. At Patterson Pope and FileSolve, we participate in several national and state GSA contracts. We love to make it as easy and efficient for our clients to use us!

{Dilbert Comic Strip Credit}

What are these principles of GARP ® , you ask? ARMA International breaks it down like this (definitions based on ARMA’s website):

The Principle of Accountability – An organization shall assign a senior executive who will oversee a recordkeeping program and delegate responsibility to appropriate individuals, adopt policies and procedures to guide personnel, and ensure auditability.

The Principle of Integrity – A records management program shall be constructed so the records and information generated or managed by or for the organization have a reasonable and suitable guarantee of authenticity and reliability.

The Principle of Protection – A recordkeeping program shall be constructed to ensure a reasonable level of protection to records and information that are private, confidential, privileged, secret, or essential to business continuity.

The Principle of Compliance – The recordkeeping program shall be constructed to comply with applicable laws and other binding authorities, as well as the organization’s policies.

The Principle of Availability – An organization shall maintain records in a manner that ensures timely, efficient, and accurate retrieval of needed information.

The Principle of Retention – An organization shall maintain its records and information for an appropriate time, taking into account legal, regulatory, fiscal, operational, and historical requirements.

The Principle of Disposition – An organization shall provide secure and appropriate disposition for records that are no longer required to be maintained by applicable laws and the organization’s policies.

The Principle of Transparency – The processes and activities of an organization’s records management program shall be documented in an understandable manner and be available to all personnel and appropriate interested parties.

When considering these elements, how does your Records Management program fare? Records retention schedules, regulatory compliance, protection of confidential information – do you regularly address these principles?

Every year, we help hundreds of organizations get closer to reaching these goals by conducting a thorough analysis of our clients’ records management policies and information challenges and by providing practical, scalable solutions that can be used in the real world . With a bowl of popcorn, you too could enjoy The World According to GARP ® .

About ARMA International and the Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles ®

ARMA International (www.arma.org) is a not-for-profit professional association and the authority on managing records and information. Formed in 1955, ARMA International is the oldest and largest association for the information management profession with a current international membership of more than 10,000. It provides education, publications, and information on the efficient maintenance, retrieval, and preservation of vital information created in public and private organizations in all sectors of the economy. It also publishes Information Management magazine, and the Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles ® (GARP ®). More information about GARP ® can be found at www.arma.org/garp.

How about Hoyt’s amazing stats!?
The associated cost of printing, copying, postage, storing, and recycling can be as much as 31 times the purchase price of paper.
Savings and efficiencies can be realized by simply improving the document management and workflow process in one specific department, such as Human Resources and accounting, or across an entire enterprise.

The average office worker uses around 10,000 sheets (of paper) in a year. Which, when stacked up, would be over 4 feet high! 
In areas where paper is king and multiple people need access to that paper, add the time and cost to converting physical documents into digital assets, and the savings increase exponentially. A proper document management strategy combined with a document scanning program can cut into that stack.

A 4-drawer filing cabinet costs about $25,000 to fill and $2,000 per year to maintain. 
Misfiles, lost files, costly office space, and lack of space cause enough aggravation that change is needed. Imagine the document management cost of all those filing cabinets. Sound familiar?

Want to get started on your own version of a paperless office? Hoyt suggests some good tools for going paperless at work or at home, but mostly, he encourages us to start. I agree – start small, but start. From scanning records in one department to a full scale document management system (or ECM), going paperless is a process. At FileSolve, we consider the entire problem that files create – from every angle – and solve it with the best means available.
Procrastinate no more – the paperless office could be in your future.

Also, according to DocuWare’s blog (found here) “Searching in DocuWare using this new tool is equally simple, offering significantly more search options than Outlook’s regular search functionality.”

As someone who has WAY too many emails in my Inbox, this is great news!

From the Press Release:
“Email is essential in business today. Not only must messages be instantly accessible, they are often subject to regulatory retention periods; storing them is therefore a necessity. DocuWare CONNECT to Outlook is designed to help you easily manage email. Users can archive email along with attachments directly out of the Microsoft application and into one central document pool. Depending on the configuration, email can then be automatically deleted or checked and left in a mailbox – with or without the attachment. Messages can be archived in DOC, RTF, PDF or PDF/A formats as well as in their original format (MSG), while attachments are stored in their original formats.”

You can find the entire press release here