First, let’s review the predominant reasons we have seen companies move from a hardcopy Document Management System (DMS) to an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS).

Digital Files:

1. Require less storage space

2. Are retrieved faster

3. Simultaneously shared

4. Last longer; paper can deteriorate

5. Are less likely to be misfiled and lost

6. Are easily recovered due to disaster

7. Are more portable than hardcopy

8. Are more secure and easier to track

There is a ninth reason EDMS’s are becoming popular and that is an organization’s embrace of a Green Initiative.  Within an organization’s green strategies, moving to an EDMS can have the most dramatic and visible impact. No matter what the reason(s) to move to an EDMS may be, they will help an organization do 1 of 3 things:

1. Produce & do more for the same cost

2. Produce & do the same for less cost

3. Produce & do more for a little more cost

Be it a back file, day-forward, or scan-on-demand conversion from  DMS to EDMS, the hardcopy will get from a scanner to the EDMS in one of 3 methods: scanning a file to a network destination and then dragging the file to its final resting place, using the scan tools that come with a prepackaged EDMS, or by using middleware and an EDMS.

The first method of getting hardcopy into an EDMS is to scan a file to one network destination and then drag it to another.  Here, scan-to-email is the most prolific process we encounter as it is easy to grasp and is one that that all of our clients are aware of.  However, once we bring to light the 10-13 steps this process involves, the time those steps take to complete, the inherent misfiling those steps foster, and that there are other methods out there, our clients are eager to explore the other two. 

The second method of getting hardcopy to an EDMS is using a vertical specific (VS) EDMS. Here, a scan device can be pointed to a hot folder established by the VSEDMS. Once the file lands in that hot folder, the VSEDMS comes with the tools needed to name the file (with industry appropriate tags) and place it correctly within itself for later retrieval.  VSEDMS’s are good to a point.  They can be easy to install and fairly intuitive to those within the vertical; however, our clients do get to a point at which the proprietary nature of these VSEDMS’s can be limiting.  This lays the foundation for a cardinal sin in business: bending business processes to meet the limitations of the tools being used and not the other way around.

Middleware is the third method of moving hardcopy from a scanning device to the EDMS.  Middleware is third party software that sits between the scanning device and the EDMS.  It can be customized to mimic and enhance existing business processes, leverage existing hardware, and via connectors, interface with any EDMS be it complex or as simple as a Windows folder system.  Further benefits of middleware are that from the scanning device:

1. Files will go directly to the EDMS

2. Destination folders can be created from the interface; scanned files placed there

3. Meta data files can be created and stored simultaneously

4. Images can be previewed, rotated, deskewed, and despeckled

5. Files can be encrypted and OCR’ed

6. Blank pages can be dropped out thus saving storage space

7. Search and redact operations can be performed

8. A variety of file types can be chosen  and a specific one made the default

By far, the greatest advantage middleware has  to offer is that it can be used to enforce strict, organization-wide naming & filing conventions.  Lack of this is the reason many clients have wanted to go to an EDMS. They see digital as the answer to locating lost files, etc.  It is  not!  Because of this, we make naming and filing conventions the first topic we cover with a client when we begin the process of piecing together a middleware/EDMS solution for them.  From our initial planning meetings, we will come away with either a need to create a new system or refine & mirror an existing one.  If clients must create a naming & filing  convention, the first thing we do is ask the client to start cataloging their visits to the existing DMS (digital or hard copy) and  log  answers to the following:

1. What caused me to come here?

2. What am I looking for?

3.  How am I going to look up information I need?

By the time we are ready to install a middleware/EDMS solution, the log will be the backbone for the indexing system we will use.  From creating the initial log to the finalizing of naming and filing conventions, it is crucial that the client’s end users are involved throughout.  Seriously, they do the majority of input and retrieval.  End user involvement has turned us onto hidden processes whose efficiencies we have incorporated in several middleware/EDMS solutions we have implemented.  Too, if end users are involved throughout, their buy-in and use of the new middleware/EMS solution is guaranteed.

However the conventions are arrived at, it is the middleware that enforces it.   Middleware can act as a gate keeper to and EDMS by providing drop down menus with select responses users must choose from, by requiring things like dates to be input in a specific way, etc.  These features have been an excellent cure for “fat finger” misfiles, staff turnover, etc. Depending on the vendor, middleware can also guarantee that files input do indeed land in the correct location.  For instance, suppose a file type needs to get to John Smith’s folder and his unique identifier is 123456.  A user can type 123456 into a middleware equipped scanner and hit query.  The middleware will ask the EDMS to confirm that 123456 is John Smith’s unique identifier and a “yea” or “nay” response is returned.  Once confirmed,  the  file is loaded into the ADF, named according to convention & then sent to the correct location. In comparison to VSEDM’s, a middleware/EDMS solution is more flexible and suitable to businesses that desire customization beyond the tools a VSEDM may provide. 

Ron DesMarais is an executive accounts manager whose certifications include CDIA+ for  Quality Business Systems (QBSI), a Xerox Company, while Marc Paskett’s experience includes MCSE certification for QBSI/Xerox.  Visit www.qbsi.com for further information.