Some businesses are drowning in data, and it’s not just the sheer volume that’s a concern. When different business units have different and incompatible enterprise content management systems, information isn’t as easily shared. Mergers and acquisitions bring their own integration headaches, as do redundant systems, multiple vendors, and shifts from mainframes to distributed operating systems. More than ever, companies are looking for effective content conversion solutions that will help them migrate, store, manage and access large stores of information.
In exploring data conversion, managers tend to focus on five objectives. They want seamless migration. They want it to be fast. They want scalability. They want to improve customer service. And they want to lower their cost of ownership. Some ECM providers like to talk about cheaper, faster and better, but few can deliver all three in the same solution. To be truly effective, a conversion strategy must identify the most efficient ways to migrate documents to formats such as PDF or XML; and when required convert to the new platform quickly and seamlessly without downtime or disruption. [Read more…]
We joined 3,500 records managers and more than 200 top vendors from around the world in Washington, D.C., for ARMA International’s 56th Conference and Exposition. It was an exciting three days full of educational sessions discussing best practices as well as the opportunity to learn about the latest technologies in document and records management software, compliance solutions, electronic records storage systems, E-Discovery solutions, and much more.
Major themes of the conference included:
- Companies are expanding the role and responsibility of records managers to include information governance for all enterprise documents.
- Enterprises are struggling to manage vast information stores. They need to keep the important information and discard what they no longer need. Defensible disposition – the process of disposing of unneeded data in a way that will stand up in court as reasonable and consistent — is the latest development for all forms of information governance.
- Moving from a paper world to electronic records management presents a myriad of changes. Most companies use separate, non-integrated systems to manage paper and electronic records. They need a fully functioning records management system that can manage both types concurrently.
- Microsoft SharePoint requires third-party, robust, Department of Defense (DoD)-certified records management solution add-ons to meet the challenges of enterprise records management.
[Read more…]
Today, enterprises and organizations around the globe are charged with creating systems and processes that enable them to be in compliance with various regulations.
Whether it involves privacy in medical records or within the credit card industry, the need to comply has been a rude wake-up call for thousands of companies who believed their records were secure and safe from security breaches. Increasingly hefty fines and harsh penalties are imposed upon organizations that are shown to not be in compliance.
And if your company is like most, your mix of paper files and electronic files is chaotic. They’re scattered across servers, databases, desktops, filing cabinets and offsite warehouses.
Related records are here, there and everywhere, and extricating a specific file can be a journey into the unknown.
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In the financial services industry today, change sometimes seems to be the only constant. And yet, perhaps surprisingly, many financial institutions have yet to make a change that could have an enormous impact on their bottom line — the transition to paperless banking.
With rising demands from customers, government agencies and other constituencies, paper-based processes increasingly create costs that forward-looking banks simply can’t afford to bear. The accumulation of paper drives waste, inefficiencies and the risk of lost information.
[Read more…]
