by C. Roy Payne

As we usher in 2006, we are excited to announce a new product. In this issue of The AccuView, we are introducing the AX Universal Integrator, a tool that simplifies the integration of EMC Documentum ApplicationXtender and WebXtender with legacy business applications.

We are also pleased to announce that one of our customers, American HomePatient, is a recipient of Kinetic Information's 9th Annual Process Innovation Award for their real-time revenue qualification system.

And in the spirit of the holidays, we've dedicated a section of this issue to New Year's trivia and a special New Year's tasty treat.

I hope you are enjoying a safe and pleasant holiday season. We look forward to working with you in 2006 and celebrating AccuImage's tenth anniversary!

Happy Holidays!
Roy Payne
roy.payne@accuimagellc.com

AccuImage has years of experience integrating EMC Documentum ApplicationXtender (AX) and WebXtender (WX) with legacy business applications. We've been searching for an intuitive tool to assist in the integration, and we're pleased to announce that we now offer the AX Universal Integrator (AXUI).

AXUI is the most comprehensive AX and WX integration toolbar on the market. With no programming experience, a virtually seamless integration can be established between almost any legacy application and the Documentum products.

The Universal Integrator utilizes multiple methods of capture to ensure the greatest range of compatibility with the legacy applications. The use of data filters ensure that only the data desired will be captured, allowing for greater user productivity. AXUI's features include support for full-text searches and cross-application queries. This allows the user to take advantage of the powerful query features available in the Documentum products. Another feature is the ability to secure the configuration with a password once it is set. Other features include database lookup so you can use one key field to populate other AX fields and concurrent licensing, enabling you to get the most out of your investment.

We think AXUI's best feature is its easy-to-use interface. The interface allows you to configure all the options of AXUI and create a tight integration between AX or WX and a legacy application without programming. You can also create multiple specifications to integrate with multiple applications on a single workstation. Best of all, AXUI is backed by AccuImage's experienced and knowledgeable technical staff. With years of experience in the industry and with EMC Documentum products, our team is dedicated to finding solutions to your critical business requirements.

Key Features

• Integration provided for both AX and WX.
• Provides for central configuration and central licensing.
• Several methods for capturing index information from host applications.
• Support for WINHLLAPI-compliant terminal emulators.
• Easy to configure - no programming required.
• Pass index values and initiate scan operation within AX.
• Pass index values to perform batch indexing.
• Perform table lookups and pass multiple index values to AX.
• Perform cross-application queries.
• Perform full-text queries.
• Perform point-and-shoot screen OCR.
• Define Hot Keys to initiate query or scan operations.
• Support for multiple AX data sources.

Integration made easy with the AX Universal Integrator. Contact us today to learn more.

American HomePatient, an AccuImage and Verity customer, is one of the second place winners of Kinetic Information's 9th Annual Process Innovation Award. Winners were selected based on process improvements that lead to gains in at least one of the following areas: productivity, profitability, ability to adapt to market conditions, or competitive standing/market share.

Judging was performed by an independent panel of industry analysts that included Bryant Duhon of AIIM International; Tom Elliott of Strategy Analytics; Don Post and Arthur Gingrande of IMERGE Consulting; and John Parker of Kinetic Information.

Congratulations, American HomePatient!

What's Changed? Everything!

Everything keeps changing until pretty soon, no one knows what has changed. But ignorance and apathy are not excuses. You might think of it this way: your old records management program is like a steam engine - slower than the latest bullet train, maybe lacking all the bells and whistles, but it moves forward. It does the job. Wrong! Until you get on board with the new reality of records management, your old program is only going to derail you.

Technology - Take a memo? No thanks. We've come a long way from the days of carbon copies and central filing systems. Today's business communication walks on the wild side thanks to innovations like the Internet, e-mail, instant messaging and PDAs.

Business Processes - Doing business is like catching a train. You don't buy a ticket for Los Angeles if you're headed for New York; you don't board before you get to the station. In other words, things have to happen in a certain order, and as business goals and circumstances evolve, businesses will have to change their processes in order to keep pace.

Regulations - The law won. With the post-boom bust in consumer confidence came a drastic drop in profits, a pink-slip frenzy and a lot of financial faux pas. The end result: government stepped in and build a new set of laws to teach businesses how to play by the rules.

Punishments - As regulations grow in number and complexity, the consequences for noncompliance are more severe. If you do your job wrong, go to jail. Just because there are new laws for records management, doesn't mean that people abide by them. But it's true - whether you're a clerk or a CEO - you now face the threat of big fines and prison time.

Costs - Money, money, money. Yesterday's records management programs haven't delivered what they promised. You're the one paying the price. The deeper you dig yourself into noncompliance, the more expensive it becomes to get out of the hole.

Capture. Store. Dispose. Repeat.

All this talk about records lets us realize something pretty basic: who knows what a record really is these days? Generally speaking, a record is some form of information that documents some aspect of business that someone might, at some point, need to remember someday. Specifically speaking, however, records are trustworthy documents with lifecycles. That is, they are born, they live somewhere and then they die. While they are alive, they can't be altered from their preserved states - they might serve as evidence if the need ever arises.

Yet most IT organizations these days don't think about the lifecycles of critical records - particularly electronic ones. Users and even administrators delete some records way too soon and keep others far too long. Too often, they tend to base the supposed importance of a record on its size, on where it's stored or on the type of media rather than on the content. That's not smart. Today's records come from such a hodgepodge of applications that there's no way to tell if an instant message is more important than a financial spreadsheet without looking at the content first. There's also no way to determine whether or not you might need to access those records conveniently again and again at some point before they die, unless you know what those records have to say.

At heart, records management has to be about records, their lifecycles, their content and the people, processes and systems that connect with them daily. Any solution that attempts to manage records without addressing these issues is, quite frankly, useless.

A Shopping List

It's time to get organized. You need to put some sort of solution into play that makes managing records easy to do. At the core, here's what you need …

1. Easy to operate. An effective records management solution has to be user friendly - which pretty much means hands-free. You need some sort of technology to automate the entire records management lifecycles process without asking the user to lift a finger. Sure, at some junctures, administrators will attend to the software, but you want the kind of solution that lets them manage the process of records management - not all the pieces.

2. Easy to enforce. Stop expecting business users to understand the urgency of complying with government regulations. Stop thinking about ways to make them understand. Again, you need technology that goes behind the scenes, under the applications, within the network and the storage systems, and throughout the enterprise to apply policy and integrate business processes for you.

3. Easy to grasp. You aren't looking to create extra work for anyone in your organization, so you need your records management solution to hold hands with the technology you already have in play. You also want a solution that lets you get your arms around all the content in your enterprise, which distinguishes the records within that content and that lets you manage everything without moving it around first. Make sure that any technology you add is based on a strong, unified architecture that can grow like a weed if necessary.

4. Easy to justify. Oh yes. You can't forget about the money. You can justify the cost of your ideal records management solution because it makes everything else in your business more valuable, and makes your users more productive. In business, this is called lowering the total cost of ownership. What it really means, though, is that you end up looking like the hero.

5. Easy to trust. Believe in your records management solution with all your heart. You have to know for certain that when the time comes, your technology will help you make faster, more effective decisions. You have to be sure you can find the documents you need when you need them, and that they will be real and credible to auditors.

Source: docume.nt, Craig Rhinehart, December 2005

We wish you and yours good health and happiness in 2006!

New Year's Trivia ….

1. The Scottish tune Auld Lang Syne is a common song sang right after the stroke of midnight. What is the literal translation of Auld Lang Syne?

2. What is the oldest known holiday celebrated by mankind?

3. Who is mainly responsible for us celebrating New Year's Day on January 1st?

4. In which country do people who want to travel take a suitcase and carry it around the house on New Year's Eve?

5. The name January is derived from the Roman god Janus. What is he the god of?

New Year's Tasty Treat …

This New Year's Almond Log Cake sweetly celebrates the custom of burning a Yule log for good luck. (Source: Better Homes and Gardens)

Ingredients
5 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
5 egg yolks
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup ground toasted almonds
3/4 cup sifted cake flour
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
powdered sugar
1-3/4 cups whipping cream
1 8-ounce can almond paste
1/4 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons amaretto or 2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup toasted almond slices
marzipan pigs or assorted fruits (optional)

Directions

Grease a 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Line with waxed paper. Grease and flour waxed paper; set aside. Beat egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight).

Beat egg yolks in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes or until thick and pale. Gradually add granulated sugar, beating on high speed until sugar is almost dissolved. Stir in the 1 teaspoon vanilla and the ground almonds. Stir flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon together; gently stir into egg yolk mixture. Fold about one-fourth of the egg white mixture into the flour mixture to lighten. Fold remaining egg white mixture into flour mixture just until combined. Spread in the prepared pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until cake springs back. Do not allow to brown.

Immediately loosen cake from pan. Invert cake onto a towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Remove waxed paper. Roll up warm cake and towel together, jelly-roll style, starting from a short side. Cool completely on a wire rack.

For almond filling, beat the 1-3/4 cups whipping cream in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form (tips curl over); set aside. Finely crumble almond paste into a medium bowl. Add the 1/4 cup whipping cream and the amaretto or 2 teaspoons vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until nearly smooth. Fold about 1/4 of whipped cream into almost paste mixture to lighten. Fold remaining whipped cream into almond paste mixture.

Gently unroll cake. Spread half of the almond filling on cake to within 1 inch of the edges. Roll up cake, without towel, into a spiral, starting from a short side. Place on a serving plate. Lightly frost cake with remaining filling and sprinkle with toasted sliced almonds. Garnish with purchased marzipan pigs for luck or assorted fruits, if desired.

Makes 12 Servings.

New Year's Trivia Answers …

1. Old Long Ago. Written primarily by Robert Burns, the song was not published until 1796, well after Burns' death.

2. New Year's Day. It was first observed by the Babylonians about 4,000 years ago. They celebrated in March around the beginning of spring and the festivities lasted for eleven days. Babylon is located in modern-day Iraq.

3. Julius Caesar. In 153 B.C., the Roman senate voted to make January 1st the first day of the new year but over the years, Roman emperors kept tampering with the calendar. In 46 B.C., Julius Caesar officially established January 1st as the first day of the new year; however, he had to declare one year to be 445 days in order to be in synch with the sun.

4. Venezuela. Those with hopes of traveling in the new year carry a suitcase around the house at midnight.

5. Gates and Doors. The name of the month is derived from Janus, the Roman god of gates and doors, and hence of openings and beginnings.

AccuImage, LLC is a systems integrator that empowers their customers with solutions designed to gain the maximum value from their information at every point in the information lifecycle. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, AccuImage specializes in the design, installation and support of document and content management systems, forms processing solutions, and electronic workflow systems. The company offers hardware and software from leading companies - AnyDoc Software, Böwe Bell+Howell, Canon, Captaris, Captovation, EMC Documentum, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Kodak, Kofax, Panasonic, Plasmon and Verity - as well as consulting, document conversion and professional services.