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By C. Roy Payne
We wish you a joyous holiday season and a prosperous new year! Thank you for your support this year! We look forward to working with you in 2010 and achieving much success together.
As we look ahead to 2010, the need for Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Records Management (RM) solutions isn’t going away. In fact, businesses continue to face increased pressures related to effectively managing their documents, content and records. In 2010, all businesses will want to emerge from the economic downturn of 2009 as stronger, more agile, more secure organizations. As such, productivity and compliance – with SOX, HIPAA and other government regulations – continue to be top of mind for many executives as we enter the new year.
This issue of The AccuView focuses on the topic of compliance, and you’ll find articles and tips about how ECM and RM systems play a role in ensuring compliance with internal and external governance.
We can show you how to turn compliance directives into productivity-enhancing initiatives. In fact, with full integration of all documents, records and forms into one, enterprise-wide solution, you can do much more than just ensure regulatory compliance. You can improve data management, streamline business processes, protect information assets, improve customer service, and much more. These are the benefits that are going to positively impact your bottom line in 2010. I invite you to call me at 615.242.7226 to learn more.
All the best from us to you this holiday season!
C. Roy Payne
roy.payne@accuimagellc.com
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This Month’s Topic: Compliance
Compliance: The Art of Being Prepared
If you were audited or subpoenaed tomorrow, could you respond without interrupting services or core operations? Would you find yourself frenetically pulling reports and comparing information from disparate applications and paper files? If you don’t have ECM, now is the time to get prepared by leveraging the technologies you own and bringing scattered business information under one umbrella where it’s accessible, searchable and easy to manage. Don’t let compliance demands bring your business down like a house of cards. In this article, learn how to face the challenge with confidence.
Compliance and Improved Document Handling
There’s more to streamlined document capture and handling than an improved compliance posture – though that is certainly important. Compliance should be viewed not merely as a way to protect the company brand or avoid fines and penalties. Compliance is an opportunity to improve business outcomes and standardize business processes. It delivers business benefits through streamlined operations, faster transactions, lower costs, and more consistent and higher quality results. In this article, learn how you can turn compliance into a key enabler for a more efficient organization.
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Scanner Maintenance
We service and maintain scanners from Canon, Fujitsu, Kodak and other leading manufacturers.
Even if you didn’t purchase your scanner from us, we can service it for you. Our scanner services include phone and onsite support, preventative maintenance, routine cleaning, parts and supplies, upgrades, and more. Our service team can help you ensure the longevity of your scanners.
We are committed to providing the very best customer service and technical support available to all of our customers, regardless of where you purchased your technology. We welcome the opportunity to provide you with a competitive quote, based on your specific needs. Please call 615.242.7226 or e-mail ps@accuimagellc.com.
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Jeff Williams, Sales and Operations
Jeff Williams has been with the AccuImage family for over three years. In addition to providing hands-on service for a number of clients, Jeff also manages the day-to-day operations of our Printing Solutions division. Jeff is a Nashville native with over 20 years of experience in the printing industry.
Jeff and his wife Michelle have two children, Colin and Anna Grace. Jeff and Michelle enjoy playing heavy roles in their children’s sports activities, such as coaching football, wrestling and girls’ softball.
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What We’ve Seen and Heard
Compliance is not a series of unnecessary and burdensome processes under threat of penalty. Instead, it is a key enabler for a more efficient organization – that’s the underlying opportunity in document‐centric compliance initiatives.
“The world changed after Enron and Sarbanes-Oxley,” said Jeffrey Riffer, a compliance expert and partner with Los Angeles law firm Jeffer, Mangels, Butler and Marmaro. “The government has been prosecuting more cases. The number of financial restatements is way up. Criminal sentences are very high for white-collar crimes.”
In the digital age, where enforcement is commonplace and penalties are severe, there are fewer valid excuses for noncompliance. And no, saving everything does not constitute compliance.
The consistent management of all records – active and inactive, physical and digital, wherever they reside – is the key to compliance and cost savings.
A strong technology foundation is an essential element to facilitate an organization’s journey toward compliance. However – ultimately, compliance is a way of doing business that must be integrated into the daily operations of the business.
AccuImage End of Support Schedule
www.accuimagellc.com/eos.html
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AccuImage Represented at Joy of Giving Event
On December 4th, John Bybee, account executive, represented AccuImage at the Nashville Junior Chamber’s “Joy of Giving” event at Kirkpatrick Elementary School. Event volunteers provided arts and crafts, food, a visit from Santa and an afternoon of mentoring and fun at Kirkpatrick Enhanced Option School’s after-school program.
Kirkpatrick was selected for a second year for the annual “Joy of Giving” event because they truly are a school in need. During Kirkpatrick’s 2007-2008 school year, 74% of the students lived in the James E. Cayce homes where the annual median household income is $8,140. Kirkpatrick had 368 students and 84% of them lived in single-parent households. Of those students, 19 were officially homeless. Most of the children participate in the free and reduced price lunch program.
“The spirit of holiday giving was alive and well at Kirkpatrick today,” said John Bybee of AccuImage. “It was an honor to work alongside a team of volunteers who made the holidays memorable for Kirkpatrick students at the Joy of Giving event.”
www.accuimagellc.com/eos.html
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Compliance Solutions: ECM and RM
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Records Management (RM) systems are often at the heart of most businesses’ efforts to become compliant with internal and external governance. There are some similarities between these systems. Both ECM and RM systems are designed to manage information efficiently throughout an organization. And they do have some common features, such as document routing, security, imaging, version control, audit trails and the ability to handle different electronic file types. However, ECM and RM systems each bring a selection of core features to the table, and it’s important to understand the differences between them.
ECM systems were originally based on document management systems, which originated in the 1980s. They were created in the vision of the “paperless office” as imaging and database technologies enhanced the capabilities and met the demands of organizations beyond “shared drives.” However, as the variety of content, documents, files and application output expanded through new technologies to include more formats and types, ECM systems were designed to manage the full spectrum. Typically used for document collaboration, information dissemination and organization information-sharing on a shared platform attached to a repository, ECM systems allow content to be created in an ordered framework. ECM systems are at their most beneficial when creating, storing and modifying content, and accessing the data within that content for re-tasking or provisioning other applications.
RM systems are designed to manage documents and other content as well. The primary mission of RM systems is to manage the lifecycle of records, which need to be preserved in their original form, secure and unchanged. Records frequently have a lifecycle (for example, tax returns have a typical lifecycle of seven years and are processed through that life as needed) as well as specific requirements related to the retention, disposition, audit and destruction of any given record. The RM system must also accommodate exceptions, such as legal holds in instances of litigation or audit. RM systems are designed to manage all of those requirements with a goal of ensuring that organizations achieve records compliance.
Most businesses will find true information governance and records compliance with RM systems or modules within ECM systems, like the ApplicationXtender Retention Module described in this issue of The AccuView. When evaluating products to meet your compliance needs, consider whether they meet both your physical and electronic records management needs in an integrated fashion. The ideal RM system maintains the connection between paper and electronic records, integrating both electronic and physical records management in one system with a common user interface. The ideal system also coexists with ECM and/or other systems so that documents and records can be made available for online workflow processes and collaboration, while still maintaining the lifecycle management requirements of the official record. In fact, the best solution for effectively managing all business content and records often combines EMC and RM tools in one robust, easy-to-use solution.
AccuImage can help you determine the ECM and RM technologies and solutions that are best for supporting your business’ compliance goals. Call AccuImage at 615.242.7226 for a consultation.
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EMC ApplicationXtender Retention Module
ApplicationXtender electronically stores, organizes and manages virtually any kind of business content. ApplicationXtender is easy to implement, integrate and manage, providing instant, role-based access to content from either a desktop interface or web browser. As a result, you gain better decision-making, improved service levels and increased productivity, while reducing the amount of physical paper documents used throughout your enterprise.
ApplicationXtender extends the value of Enterprise Content Management with robust records management features. An advanced Retention Module in ApplicationXtender provides tools for automated regulatory compliance. Centralized management of records ensures regulatory compliance that is transparent to users. In this way, ApplicationXtender with the Retention Module provides an all-in-one ECM and RM system.
The Retention Module facilitates control of the entire corporate record lifecycle – creation, safeguard, access and destruction – according to a broad range of system-enforced policies. This electronic records management tool helps you comply with the recordkeeping requirements of regulations and leverage uniform policies across all formats. Records Management features include:
Duration/Conditional Retention Policies
Align retention criteria to simple or complex regulations or business processes.
Automatic Protections
Set policies that are automatically applied to files at the container level or by business process.
Lifecycle Controls
Protect documents with the appropriate retention policy, based on their lifecycle phase.
Federated Records Management
Centrally manage records across repositories, including third-party repositories, legacy repositories and home-grown solutions.
Hold Application and Management
Temporarily suspend disposition of content related to a current investigation and provide an intuitive interface for the legal team along with comprehensive audit trails for all records.
Automatic Disposal
Configure automatic deletion at the end of a retention policy or set mandatory conditions and approvals prior to disposal.
Notifications
Automatically alert designated records owners when content is eligible for disposition, tracking and reporting on content destruction.
Expiration Dates
Ensure the systematic disposal of non-records content unless a retention policy or litigation hold has been applied.
For more information about EMC’s content and records management solutions, call 615.242.7226.
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Using ECM and RM to Achieve Compliance
Regardless of your industry, there are specific areas where ECM and RM can provide significant improvements to your compliance efforts as well as to your business processes. These include:
Ensuring Privacy
A transition to electronic processes demonstrates that you are taking steps to ensure the privacy of both your customer base and your employees. By definition, an ECM or RM system gives you a degree of built-in security that you just can’t achieve with paper. Under a system that is paper-based, it is impossible to guarantee that records are not accessed by unauthorized viewers. Even the most secure system is prone to sabotage.
ECM and RM systems allow you to establish exactly who has permission to access, view and annotate a document. Furthermore, strict monitoring capabilities support customized reporting. You have verifiable evidence that shows who has accessed your documents (and when). If your company is audited for any reason, ECM and RM provide you with the tools to demonstrate that you have taken every effort to enact privacy measures and secure your information.
Demonstrating Accountability
Information transparency is at the heart of SOX and other compliance measures. Your organization should be able to demonstrate that you are enacting governance and accountability measures. This starts with the implementation of controls that foster strict adherence to industry standards for the collection, management and distribution of your company records and other sensitive documents.
A robust ECM or RM system provides you with specialized tools that help you to better control the flow of your information throughout your enterprise. In addition to improving your processing turnaround, these tools allow you to designate which staff will process specific work. Automation removes the potential for human error from much of your processing, and provides you with auditing tools to establish accountability.
Managing Records
Organizations report that one of their biggest compliance challenges is maintaining control of records. Archival information, e-mail messages, electronic documents, JPEGs, voice files, PDA correspondence – all of these have to be managed. Difficulties can be compounded if you have multiple storage repositories or legacy software systems. You can address these difficulties by using ECM and RM software to integrate your entire operation, consolidating your information and simplifying your management strategy.
There is far more to records management than simply digitizing your information, however. A high-performance RM system allows you to automate the retention and disposition of your records. This ensures that records are not kept beyond the time period that is mandated by law. It also prevents records from being destroyed prematurely. And it provides your organization with disaster recovery options that are unavailable to organizations whose processes are paper-driven.
Producing Information on Demand
No matter what your size, there is a great likelihood that you will at some point be required to produce information on demand. Audits, assessments, subpoenas, eDiscovery requests, and right-to-know laws mandate strict financial penalties if organizations are unable to provide records when they are requested. Under a paper-based system, such requests can bankrupt a company. You need to know what information you have, and you need to know how to locate it.
The right ECM or RM system gives you the ability to develop an indexing scheme that is meaningful to operations across your enterprise. This ensures that records retrieval is effortless, regardless of which department is looking for information. The checks and balances that are associated with ECM and RM can provide you with a system that allows your administrators – as opposed to your users – to configure records management policies.
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