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June 24, 2008

What should you watch out for when purchasing a Document Management solution? 4. Best of Breed

This should be a good one. Are you buying a dog or a document management solution? I have heard many of the BIG INTEGRATORS and even some of the smaller ones talk about their solutions being made up of the "Best of Breed" components. As if that meant that the overall solution would be the best. If you mix a champion Great Dane with a champion Yorkie, is the result going to be a champion dog? Is it even going to be a dog? You just never know. What they are really saying is that they took a bunch of parts and painted them all the same color and called it an integrated system. It may work well for you, but you also may find that it is just too complex to keep running.

In most situations that I have seen, the customer does not really need the "Best", they just need something that works and provides them a reasonable return on their investment. Since document management and workflow are typically complex solutions, how do you really define the best? Cheapest? Most expensive? Most sales? Prettiest brochures? Best booth bunnies? Best scanning? Best Workflow? There are so many ways to define the best that it does not really matter. What matters is whether or not it effectively and efficiently solves the problem. Anything beyond that is wasted money. Think about it like this, if you are buying a fleet of cars for your outside sales team, you're not going to put them in a '73 Lime Green Pinto, it won't do, but you are also not going to put them in a Bentley (Best of Breed), you are going to put them in a leased Ford Taurus, good enough.

The best approach is to define the problem you are trying to solve and then find the solution that you can afford that solves that problem. You will never use all of the bells and whistles that come with the best of breed. You are running a business, not a fashion show.

June 24, 2008 | Comments (0)
Posted by Dave

June 19, 2008

Big Sur Technologies and Document Advantage Corporation, (DocuVantage) Partner to Provide Document Management and Managed IT Services to Better Serve their Clients

Tampa, Florida (June 18, 2008)

Two of Florida's top technology firms announced their unique new partnering agreement today. Big Sur Technologies and Document Advantage Corporation, (DocuVantage) have joined forces to better serve their client base. Big Sur, a leading information technology outsourcing organization, will offer DocuVantage On Demand® to their more than 350 customers throughout Florida.

DocuVantage OnDemand® is an electronic document management application that provides document capture, text search, business process automation and records management compliance. "Electronic Document management is a key need for many of our customers in our medical and local government accounts. DocuVantage is a leader in the document management solution space and presents a great option for organizations who are trying to reduce costs, improve efficiency and remain competitive in a tightening economy", said Sam Sandusky, president and CEO of Big Sur. "We're excited to offer another solution for our clients that continue to round out our managed services offering and help them continue to grow."

As a reciprocating benefit, Big Sur will provide the professional services for DocuVantage and receive all network support leads generated from their day to day activities.

DocuVantage recently completed their transformation to offering their solution in the SaaS model, or Software as a Service. "Clients can now take advantage of our feature rich document management solution at a fraction of the original cost. Using our technology and application delivery model eliminates capital costs and the traditional long implementation period. Clients can now subscribe and begin experiencing a return on investment the same day", said Jana Wiggins, CEO of DocuVantage, "We've experienced fantastic growth in 2008. We thrive on creating technology that save our customers money while enabling them to improve processes and manage compliance; the SaaS subscription model does just that. Our solution is perfect for individual clients with 5 to 50 users, or departments of the same size, which is identical to Big Sur's Managed Services client base so we're thrilled to be partnered with them. This partnership allows DocuVantage to focus more on creating technology that solves our client's business problems, and allows Big Sur to handle the day-to-day IT management of the account. Big Sur's stellar reputation of providing proactive network and IT support solutions gives us all the confidence in the world that our clients will be well taken care of."

The two companies plan to cross train each other's sales force over the next two to four weeks, and will offer special discounts to their clients who are early adopters of their services. The complimentary nature of their organizations makes for a perfect match. Sam Sandusky and Jana Wiggins are both active members of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum CEO Network for more than three years and are excited about the potential this new partnership creates. "I can't believe we didn't make this happen before now. We're extremely impressed with how Jana runs her organization, which is with the utmost integrity and ingenuity", said Sandusky.

Both companies serve clients within the Banking, Environmental, Government, Healthcare, Education, Manufacturing and Transportation industries.

About Big Sur Technologies
Big Sur Technologies, established in 1999 and based out of Tampa, conducts business throughout the state of Florida. Big Sur Technologies offers IT solutions to SMB and Enterprise businesses. They provide managed services, enterprise server and storage configurations, enterprise e-mail, network support, back-up, and enterprise software licensing solutions.
For more information please visit www.bigsurtech.com or contact 813.269.9145

About Document Advantage Corporation,
Document Advantage Corporation, (DocuVantage®), founded in 1999 is a leader in document, information and business process management solutions. DocuVantage OnDemand® delivers a secure, integrated document management and compliance application that includes document capture, collaboration, business process automation, remote storage and records management technologies delivered as a subscription service.
For more information please visit www.docuvantage.com or contact 863.326.6360 ext.1

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June 19, 2008 | Comments (0)
Posted by DocuVantage

June 18, 2008

What should you watch out for when purchasing a Document Management solution? 3. BIG INTEGRATORS

Many people believe that the BIG INTEGRATORS are the best at implementing solutions because they have done them before. It seems logical, if you have done something before you will be better at it. What is often ignored is the fact that companies don't implement solutions, employees do. With turnover rates averaging 25% or more, what are the odds that the team that implemented the last project is still at the company?

What about all of those senior people that they have on staff just waiting to implement your project? Well, they aren't waiting for your project and there aren't that many of them. Those people need to bill out at $250 to $300 per hour to cover their costs. It's much more cost effective to have just a few of those senior people around mentoring the junior people. Guess who is working on your project! I have heard some customers even comment that when management selects one of those BIG INTEGRATORS for a project, they see the school buses in the parking lot dropping off the "Consultants" to tell them how to do their jobs. The teams are full of very smart people, they just typically don't have the experience. Once they have gained the experience, they get moved into management to make room for more junior people that cost less. Small companies tend to have more senior people doing the jobs they love. Since they typically pay less than the BIG companies, the people have to love what they are doing or they wouldn't stay.

BIG INTEGRATORS can deliver the BIG teams needed for Enterprise implementations. Yes, they can deliver big teams. Many times the team will consist of their sub contractors. Guess who the sub contractors are... you are exactly right, small companies that specialize in delivering a document management solution. Is it really a good idea to implement the entire enterprise all at once? It depends on the problem you are solving, but not usually. Most companies should start small and build on successes. Why sink $1M or more into a into a traditional, enterprise, license-based project before determining if it's going to work?

June 18, 2008 | Comments (0)
Posted by Dave

June 10, 2008

What should you watch out for when purchasing a Document Management solution? 2. Market Leaders

What does that mean? The one that sells the most? Usually. At least, that is according to some of the subjects of my last post. @#$@Mart probably sells the most bicycles in the US so they would be considered the Market Leader. Since we want our Olympic Cycling team to ride the best, they should probably get their bikes at @#$@Mart, right? Of course that's silly. Selling the most does not necessarily mean it is the best. When you buy a document management solution, do you want the one that sells the most or the one that is the best fit for you? I vote for the one that is the best fit for you.

I have heard people argue that since they sell the most, they must be the best solution. I think this is partially true. They probably have the best sales and marketing team. It says very little about the quality of the product or how well it will suit you. Which was the better technology BetaMax or VHS? Yes, I know, a bunch of you never heard of BetaMax. Who won? Which is better now, HD DVD or Blu-ray? Mac or PC?

Don't ignore the Market Leaders; just don't make that a decision point. Make your decision based on what you need and what you can afford.

June 10, 2008 | Comments (0)
Posted by Dave

June 04, 2008

What you should watch out for when purchasing an Electronic Document Management Solution

Where do I start? The list is so long!
Over the next few weeks or maybe months, I will reveal a list of potholes on the road to successful document management solutions.

Over the years, I have witnessed and been involved in many Electronic Document Management implementations ranging from 2 user systems to 5000+ user systems. Some went really well, some I would like to forget, and some were unbelievable. Believe it or not, I actually noticed a few things along the way. I probably missed a lot of things too. I am confident that this list is not complete so I would like to hear your war stories as we progress and I will add to the list of gotchas.

1. Industry Analysts

I am amazed at how many people pick a solution from a quadrant or list without asking the person or team that compiled the list, how many solutions have they actually implemented with the vendors on the list? What do you think the answer would be? I have my answer, please give me yours. Another question might be what criteria were used to determine the list?

Many lists are based on vendor sales volume. Does sales volume = a good solution? It could. But, it might just = a great sales and marketing team. Sometimes the list maker also takes into account the technology... based on the vendors website and brochures. Hmm... does that really count?

What should you do? Talk to several people that you know or someone they know that have implemented various solutions, spend time with them to learn about the following things at a minimum:

- What was the problem they were solving?
- What product did they buy and why?
- Who did they have perform the implementation and why?
- What problems were encountered during the implementation?
- How were the problems resolved?
- How many change orders were there?
- What were the skills of the implementation team?
- How long did the implementation take?
- What was their budget for the project?
- How much over budget did they go?

Once you have done that, define what you want accomplished in as much detail as possible. If you can not define it, your vendor will not be able to deliver it, unless you give them flexibility in the services component of the contract.

If you do not choose the right vendor and product you will have to work hard to ensure a successful implementation, it will not happen by itself and in most cases the vendor is probably not going to ensure you get everything you want.

Finally, be open to new ideas and methods of delivery that may save you time and money.

June 4, 2008 | Comments (0)
Posted by Dave