Managing your data

Pro

It may seem contradictory to suggest that autumn is a good time for a spring clean, but it’s true.

In fact, come to think of it, any time of the year is right for getting things in order, particularly in a busy office where things can easily slide if you’re not careful. But let’s be honest here — good housekeeping is something that we all know we should do regularly, yet somehow it seems as though there’s never enough time to do it.
Despite this there’s been a growing realisation that failing to keep track of your all-important business data is something that few companies can afford to do. You needn’t be running a major
conglomerate to know that your data is the life source of your firm. Therefore, shouldn’t you be considering better ways to store and protect it?

Data dangers
Traditionally, the solution to keeping hold of data has been to just store it away in a filing cabinet. However there are a number of problems with this method. Firstly, such information can easily be
lost — if an employee files a delivery docket away in the wrong place, for example, you could find yourself not being paid until/unless you locate that valuable scrap of paper. Secondly, most modern companies receive information in numerous formats these days and filing cabinets just aren’t suitable for filing non-paper based data. The obvious thing to do in this situation is to go
electronic — that way you’ll be able to file, access and retrieve any essential data at the push of a button. Moreover, there’s the added safeguard of being able to recover your data should disaster
strike and a fire, theft or flood occur at your premises.

Electronic business management is something that is usually associated with big firms; however that’s beginning to change as smaller businesses begin to take advantage of technology to look
after important data. ‘Data management is something that a lot of large enterprises have been using for sometime now but we’re beginning to see a growth in the number of small and medium-
sized firms that are starting to use it,’ says Dave Feenan, managing director of Datastore Ireland, a firm that offers a number of data management options.

According to Feenan, there are three main reasons why companies of all sizes are considering better management of their business data.  ‘The first reason is legal and regulatory requirements that force companies to hold on to data for a certain period of time,’ he explains. ‘Firms are required to hold on to typical invoice note and credit statement documents, to take just one example, for seven years. However a lot of firms tend to keep them for far longer than that just in case, because there’s no knowing if they’ll need that data some time in the future. Secondly, for some firms with little or no office space, there are health and safety issues that arise from leaving piles of documents around, let alone the expense of paying rent for space used just to stockpile data. Thirdly, for those firms that are currently using their PCs to store data there’s a technology issue that leads them to consider a better management method, and that is simply that many of these companies don’t have the media or devices to archive large amounts of data.’

Super strategies
Whatever the reasons, there’s no doubting the fact that in this day and age it’s essential to have some kind of document management strategy in place. Now that might be as basic as deciding that every document received goes in to the right drawer in the filing cabinet or — even better — it might be by letting technology do the job more efficiently.

If you’ve been wondering how to go about managing your business data better, there are two approaches to take. The first is to do it yourself; the second is to outsource the whole process to an outside agency. The former approach is fine if you’ve only small amounts of paper documentation to deal with — you just get hold of some document management software and start scanning. In
fact, you’ll probably not even have to go hunting for the software because most scanner manufacturers offer these tools as part of a scanner bundle. However, this software isn’t perfect if you’re likely to be dealing with large amounts of data (especially non-paper data) because as well as having to invest extra for storage products on which to store the information, there’s also the problem of whether you want to have your staff tied up scanning and indexing dockets all day when they could be spending their time doing the job they’re meant to do.

The second approach is to ship out the whole data backup side of your business to a specialist firm.
‘Outsourcing is probably the best way for small firms to manage their data,’ says Chris Smartt, sales director with SoftCo. ‘We find that a major barrier to small firms wanting to mange their data more efficiently is that many don’t have the skills in-house to manage the servers needed for storage. A lot of smaller organisations do want to turn to electronic document management but sometimes it’s hard to get them to invest in the people to manage the server properly so
outsourcing is a way around this problem. With SoftCo Secure, our outsourcing service, we typically send a van round to a company’s premises, either on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, pick up the documents, scan them and the either put them on a CD and send them back to the firm or alternatively host them on our servers and allow the client access to their data via a web browser. This method negates the need for an IT manager and a set of dedicated in-house servers.’

Paper pushers
Usually, firms like SoftCo and Datastore Ireland deal predominantly with paper documentation. Typical processes submitted for management are high volumes of fairly generic documents such as delivery dockets, invoices, customer and client files etc. A recent growth area for these companies is also imaging of maintenance and training manuals into PDF formats for individual
firms.

National house building guarantee company HomeBond, which employs around 40 people at its headquarters in Ranelagh, uses SoftCo’s service for storage and dissemination of all documentation relation to insurance claims that are levied against them. Homebond have thousands of builders as clients, who in turn have many housekeepers as their clients and so they have a large number of properties on their books. Builders take 10-year polices on newly-built houses with HomeBond and if homeowners find any major structural damage to houses during that time period, they can contact the organisation to rectify the problem. The organisation uses the SoftCo system for scanning in all of the correspondence they receive regarding claims – this typically includes both paper and image documentation.

Due to the huge amount of data that it deals with, HomeBond has its own dedicated in-house servers, but for those planning to outsource all of their data management requirements, it’s worth noting the fact that there’s no capital outlay involved. Typically, clients pay either by the hour or by volume of documentation — bear in mind that if documents are in a bad conditions, processing
costs more.

Data lifecycle management
For those businesses that do have their own servers for data management, or who have a large number of non-paper based files to store, another process worth considering is data lifecycle
management (DLM). If one considers document management as a logical way to electronically store and manage documents, then data lifecycle management takes the process one step further
by ensuring that the data you’re storing is needed.

DLM is about managing the flow of data through its lifecycle, from creation and initial storage to the time when it becomes obsolete and can be deleted. People have a tendency to treat all data the same, which adds to the cost of managing backups and recovery, but DLM helps ensure that you’re not wasting time continually backing up data that is no longer needed. Companies may
invest large sums of money in storage devices but this only encourages people to save even more data. Moreover, much of this data may not be work-related at all. Many firm’s storage issues are
caused in part by employees storing music and image files on company servers, in addition to the usual data.

‘Data lifecycle management is more about file grooming and good housekeeping of file servers,’ says Tim McAlpin, technical sales director with Servaplex. ‘It’s basically about weeding out old stuff so that you’re not having to back-up your data everyday. It also works to ensure that you don’t have to use expensive frontline storage for keeping old files that could be archived on to CD or tape.’

According to McAlpin there are a number of reasons to consider DLM. ‘People invest in DLM because it’s expensive if they don’t. If your firm’s system goes down and you need to recover important files, the last thing you need is to waste time and resources on recovering things that aren’t really essential.’  McAlpin is the first to admit that DLM is primarily for large enterprises at the moment but he suggests that it is something that is going to increasingly affect smaller firms as well. SMEs that do have their own servers are probably storing lots of data that hasn’t been accessed in a long time and if they don’t have a dedicated IT manager to look after it, it can become overwhelming.

‘Small firms need to consider better ways to manage their data — it’s all about good housekeeping.,’ he concludes. ‘At home, people go into their wardrobes and clean them out every now and then so that everything they need is to hand. Well, data management is very similar.’

Typical applications for document management
– Invoices, credit notes, statements
– Proof of delivery documents
– Accounts receivable and accounts payable
– Contracts and application forms
– Banking and financial reports
– Payroll and HR records
– Legal and regulatory documentation
– Inventory reports and price lists
– Word, Excel, e-mail archive

Source: Datastore Ireland

Scan the light fantastic
Converting printed pages into digital documents can be a grind, but if you are planning to do-it-yourself, here’s some basic tips that will make the process easier.

– Use clean source documents. Optical character recognition (OCR)  programs do their best work with pages printed on a laser printer and created with simple typefaces. Scan a crinkled fax or a page that makes use of fancy fonts and you’ll spend a lot of time using your OCR application’s spelling checker and retyping material.
– Keep you scanner clean. Smudges and dirt add artefacts to scans
– Even if you can control skew with your application, you’ll get a more accurate scan if you line up your pages correctly against the scanner’s guides.
– Scan at 300 dpi or better for optimum accuracy
– Whenever possible, scan pages in black-and-white because OCR programs read these better
– Edit out unnecessary page elements (such as headers, footers and logos) in your OCR program before exporting the file. Otherwise, important text may get bumped off the page.
– Proofread the resulting documents

Document management in action
Transport provider Kingsley Transport relies on providing authentication signatures of ‘Proof of Delivery’ for clients and for internal purposes recording the history of driver’s movements. Prior
to using Adest Integrated Document Management software, the majority of administration time was spent recording, retaining and representing physical documentation of up to three years for
client and internal purposes. The document management software enables all data to be captured, scanned and retained electronically allowing the firm to manage, control, distribute and retrieve
all information within seconds. The company also provides the same ‘ease of access’ to this information via a web portal for their clients using Adest Web.

Document management in action
Insurance brokers O’Driscoll O’Neil needed a simple document management system that would replicate their existing administrative process but reduce the volume of paper being used. They opted for Adest Document Manager, a solution that integrates with their broker management system. The solution gives customer service staff immediate access on their desktop to all documentation relating to clients, policies and claims. Enquiries that used to take 15 minutes now only take three. The system can process over 300 mails per day. Previously these were not even handled until the next day. Now it is opened on receipt and at lunchtime each document is
scanned and electronically routed to the appropriate recipient, there it appears attached to the relevant client file in the broker management system. The paper version does not even leave the
post room. Simultaneously, Adest Document Manager informs the recipient that the correspondence has arrived for processing. The tracking and reporting capabilities mean that no document is ever overlooked or mislaid.

Key Benefits:
– Reduced filing means a saving in salary costs
– Dramatic reduction in paper usage
– No more filing cabinets saves office space
– Time saved retrieving documents
– No mislaid documents

29/11/04

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