Hyland Software's Document Management Blog

ACORD LOMA is Over, So What’s Next? 4 Steps to Help You Keep the Momentum Going

// May 15th, 2013 // No Comments » // Document Management, Enterprise content management, Insurance // Ruth Fisk

Now that we’re about a week away from the end of the annual ACORD conference – and as we get back to the daily grind – how do you put into motion all the knowledge and innovative ideas you learned at the show?

This is one case where “what happens in Vegas” should not “stay in Vegas.” I’ve learned over the years that setting a strategic after-show plan is an important step to keep the momentum moving. Here are some tips I’ve found useful:

1. Review your notes

You had a reason for attending the show. Whether it was to gain better insight into where the industry is going or doing a bit of “window shopping to find the right technology solution to support your organizational needs, take time to reflect on the conversations you had and share that information with your team/ managers/ C-suite. Better yet, put together a few recommended next steps for them to consider. See step No. 2.

2. Show the ROI of that conference pass

Provide ideas on how to implement what you learned and apply it to your business processes. Share the research you gathered about ways to impact customer service and save operating costs by becoming more efficient.

3. Shout it from the rooftops

Now that you’ve shown why the idea/solution is valuable, start building consensus to help you bring it to fruition. Loop in other leaders and other departments to create a plan and decide next steps to get the idea/solution implemented.

4. Keep the momentum going

Don’t wait until the next ACORD conference to find your next big idea. Keep learning about emerging technologies and solutions to help your organization stay competitive. Continue to think of how you can evolve processes to make improvements throughout the organization.

What were your biggest takeaways from the show? How do you plan on implementing those ideas? We want to know about your ECM needs and how we can deliver a better product with the kind of functionality insurers need. Share your thoughts with us on our social channels (@Hyland Software or our Facebook page).

Until we meet again at next year’s ACORD LOMA,  keep your eyes peeled for our new software release in June!

ACORD LOMA 2013: Let’s Talk Mobile

// May 8th, 2013 // No Comments » // Document Management, Enterprise content management, Insurance, IT, Mobile // Julie Rees

As day three begins and ACORD LOMA draws to an end here in Las Vegas, it’s hard to believe the conference is almost over. It’s been a great show. We’ve had good traffic at the booth, reconnected with friends and had lively conversations with industry experts.

Perhaps most importantly, the sessions this year were great, too. Charlene Li’s social innovation presenation was particularly interesting, as well as a few others that talked about analytics, e-policy delivery models and emerging technology. But, if there’s one topic at this year’s show that kept coming up in conversations, it was mobile solutions.

We’ve had a focus on mobile ECM strategies for a few years now, and while it interests many in the industry, insurers have been slow to adopt mobile technologies. We asked around to see why something that is so widely discussed among insurers still causes hesitation. It seems that the only thing holding the industry back is a fear of change. On the bright side, during our conversations with analysts, it’s clear that the adoption of mobile solutions will increase because they’re quickly becoming the go-to tools to grow business.

After all, business decisions shouldn’t have to wait until your staff return to the office. Now, decisions can be made in the field so that processes keep moving, quickly. We’re hearing about the impact mobile is having on productivity and profit from our insurance customers who are among the early adopters of mobile technology. By implementing mobile ECM applications to empower their employees in the field, they’re moving at the speed of business – not the other way around.

If you’re attending ACORD and wish to learn more about our mobile apps for field adjusters, new business or life, we’d love to talk to you. Stop by booth #558 to see a live demo and experience the benefits of a mobile ECM strategy.  If you weren’t able to attend the show, feel free to contact me to hear more about our mobile solutions.

Three ways to make ACORD LOMA the best experience it can be

// May 7th, 2013 // No Comments » // Cloud Computing, Document Management, Enterprise content management, Insurance // Ruth Fisk

It’s hard to believe ACORD LOMA is already here. Where has the time gone?

For us, it’s been filled with researching the needs of the insurance industry and working with customers to develop solutions to solve those needs. What about you? What have you done over the last 12 months to prepare for this year’s conference?

The ACORD conference promises to deliver information that your business needs to stay competitive and go further, faster.  So if you are still reviewing your to-do list for this year’s show, we’ve put one together to help you make the most of your experience.

If it’s your first time at ACORD, here’s a brief overview. The annual conference brings together many of the industry’s best and brightest to discuss new and changing ways to transform business. Topics revolve around a number of trends: analytics, business strategy, cloud computing, enterprise architecture, mobile technology, operational efficiency, regulatory issues, social media tools and system development, to name a few.

Here are a few pre-show tips to set you up for a successful conference:

1. Attend sessions based on knowledge/business needs

The conference has nearly 50 different educational sessions! Everything from the digital business transformation to social innovation in P&C to compliance surrounding e-signature. Ask yourself which sessions will be of the most benefit to you or your organization and be prepared to listen, take notes and ask questions.

1. Review your homework

If your organization is seeking a specific solution, such as enterprise content management (ECM) for example, do some research  before you leave so that your  meetings with  vendors are productive you leave with the answers to all of your questions. A few questions to keep in mind include

• Is the solution flexible, supporting your needs now and into the future?
• Does the product road map continue to add new capabilities and functionality?
• If a problem arises, how responsive will the vendor be?
• Arriving to the show armed with the right questions will help you drive vendor meetings and best assess each vendor’s responses.

1. Think outside the box  

The ACORD conference is the perfect place to spark creativity and innovation. At the show, don’t be afraid to think outside the box. The best ideas often come from those who weren’t afraid to dream big.

As for me, my team and I will be implementing these tips at the show as well. If you’d like to stop by the Hyland Software booth #558, we’d love to meet you!

More and more, business leaders turning to mobile to stay connected; make decisions

// April 8th, 2013 // No Comments » // Cloud Computing, Document Management, Enterprise content management, Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Higher Education, Insurance, IT, Mobile // Gabriel Baird

Put mobile in the pocket of your decision makers

What do business leaders and their teenage children have in common? In most cases, it’s not the belief that the greatest singer of all time is Justin Bieber.Both young people and decision makers, however, are together in leading the Internet migration from the desktop to mobile devices.The Washington Post reported recently that a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found about 25  percent of the nation’s youth connect to the Internet primarily using mobile devices.The study doesn’t provide data on adults. However, social contact manager Gist, which Research in Motion acquired in 2011, has an excellent infographic about “The Mobile Workstyle.” The graphic shows that 87 percent of IT managers have handed out mobile devices and that mobile access climbed 36 percent between 2009 and 2010.The number of workers going mobile continues to climb. That’s obvious in any airport where business travelers are glued to their handheld devices, answering emails and making business decisions from the concourse.

Critical business information needs to get into the hands of the right people at the right time. In today’s global marketplace, the right people are often on the road. This often creates bottlenecks in workflows until those road warriors can take action. Your ECM vendor provides access to documents from anywhere allowing decision makers to – for instance – review, approve or deny requests.

At Hyland, we’ve seen the trend accelerate since leading the ECM industry into the mobile frontier. Hundreds of our customers are using mobile modules for OnBase to access and act on key documents using their Android phones, Blackberries, Windows phones, iPads and iPhones.

“We’re constantly extending OnBase features so our customers can evolve their solutions in lockstep with the latest devices and get even more and better results,” said Bill Filion, vice president of development for Hyland Software.

The Pew report has prompted talking heads on TV to raise concerns about teens connecting to the Internet without adult supervision. Certainly, music snobs are just as concerned about adults using the Internet to watch performances by Bieber.

Live at OTTC 2012: 5 Ways OnBase Makes Your Life Easier

// September 20th, 2012 // No Comments » // Back Office, Document Management, Enterprise content management, Financial Services, Food and Beverage, Government, Healthcare, Higher Education, Insurance, IT, Mobile, OTTC, Workflow // Tom Tennant

Before we say goodbye to another OnBase Training and Technology Conference (OTTC) and start planning for OTTC 2013, let’s take a moment to check-in with some friends, our OnBase users and administrators. They’ve spent the week learning from and networking with industry peers and OnBase experts from all walks of life. And they’ve had a chance to share their experience with our enterprise content management (ECM) software solution.

What we wanted to know, though, is how OnBase has made our customers’ lives easier. So we asked. And we got five great answers.

1. “It’s helped our company reduce and, in some cases, eliminate paper.” – John Anderson, senior software application developer, Noridian

We hear this one a lot. After all, paper, by way of applications, resumes, receipts, work orders, invoices, bills, and more, consumes time across an organization because of the way the company interacts with it. Human resources, accounts payable and receivable, facilities management – even the holy grail of all business, customer service – are all affected by the way paper is handled. Slow processing, difficulty retrieving files, incomplete information, duplicate work – all are productivity killers and customer service nightmares for a business just trying to stay competitive. A smart, easy-to-use document management solution can seamlessly collect, organize, and index the multitude of documents and content into a single 360-degree view for smart decision making a streamline process.

2. “We wouldn’t always know where information was. It could have been on anyone’s desk. We had to track down paperwork. Now we scan it, send it to OnBase, and can see right where information is – and where it is in the process.” – Teresa Rayburn, materials coordinator, Flexco

That’s the other thing about paper. It gets lost. Easily. And when it gets lost, so does the information it carries. And information is the lifeblood of a company. A strategic ECM solution should bring clarity to all of your data, electronic and otherwise, and allow for easy tracking of critical documents. That solution should allow for complete document life cycle management, from input through destruction. Documents that are centralized, searchable and, with the right solution, automatically linked to the appropriate account, customer, patient, employee and so on.

3. “I like OnBase so much it’s hard to come up with one example. It’s made our AP process much more efficient. Not only has it streamlined our process, it’s streamlined other processes across the company at the same time.” – Sharon Ricci, finance manager, FM Global

Ricci further explains that the speed and efficiency, with which her office can capture, approve and process invoices extends to her internal clients who would otherwise be waiting for a slower, paper-based process. OnBase automates that business process so that files are shuttled from office-to-office. It’s all accessible with the click of button, and it’s easy to see where information is in that process.

4. “Hyland Software is so passionate about training its user base and is so transparent about the technology.” – Eric Lohr, senior programmer, Sharp Healthcare

Last year we talked a lot about how training and education might be the single most important software investment you can make. That’s why a robust training program, one that encourages customer involvement and customer connection, is vital to the longevity of any technology solution. It also allows companies to become vendor independent – even promotes it – so that a company can attack a solution on its own with confidence and expertise.

5. “OnBase makes my job harder because there’s so much it can do it makes my to-do list long!” – Kim Dale, senior project manager, Northwestern University

A surprising answer, we have to admit! But trust us when we say that Dale’s answer was given with good humor. What she’s talking about is how OnBase offers a wide range of functionality in one core product. Functionality that isn’t cobbled together from separate, disconnected products and doesn’t require custom coding and services costs to grow the solution. It’s tailored for departments but comprehensive for the enterprise, designed to give you what you need today and grow with you over time.

Live at OTTC 2012: Codeless Forms Creation? Yep, That’s Right

// September 20th, 2012 // No Comments » // Back Office, Document Management, Enterprise content management, Financial Services, Food and Beverage, Government, Healthcare, Higher Education, Insurance, IT, OTTC // Tom Tennant

One of the highlights of the 2012 OnBase Training and Technology Conference was Wednesday’s general session, during which Glenn Gibson, Hyland Software’s product marketing manager, and Colleen Alber, a Hyland Software product evangelist, squared off in a mock debate about the benefits of OnBase 12 to a packed house of Hyland customers, prospects, partners and employees. OTTC is Hyland Software’s annual user event, attracting OnBase users from around the globe to learn, talk and share experiences about all things OnBase.

The session generated scores of laughter – and not just at Gibson’s spectacular kilt. It also produced a fair amount of ohs and ahs, especially when Alber talked about Unity Forms.

Unity Forms in OnBase 12 simplifies the creation of electronic forms. Without any HTML or programming knowledge, you can create forms with advanced functionality in a matter of minutes that, previously, would have taken hours, days or weeks with custom programming. Features such as required fields, data validation, calculations with instant results (such as quantity multiplied by price), and the customization of the form’s look and feel can all be configured in an easy-to-use form designer.

“I’m not a developer and I can rapidly create full featured electronic forms that provide a positive user experience without programming,” Alber said. “It’s that simple.”

It’s not just about ease for the user, either. Those whose job it is to create forms – who have the skill set to code an e-form and do it regularly – benefit from the new functionality as well.

“For example, implementing a simple time-off request form, something with some field validation, field level security, dynamically added fields and calculations, would have easily taken a developer a full day or more to create in the original e-forms product,” explained Alber. “With the Unity Forms designer, he can do the same form in 15 to 20 minutes.” And with OnBase 12, as many as 80 percent of forms can be created in Unity Forms.

The information had folks clamoring to learn more. The Unity Forms session, held in one of the largest session rooms at the conference, was standing room only.

With good reason. Beyond ease-of-use and the time saved creating forms, the new functionality eases a customer’s upgrade path as well. Janet Jenkins, senior business analyst with Cobb County, Ga., noted that on Twitter. “Unity forms doesn’t involve programing. This will make upgrades easier! No need to test forms,” she wrote.

Live at OTTC 2012: CEO A.J. Hyland Shares His Thoughts on Maximizing Your IT Investment

// September 19th, 2012 // No Comments » // Back Office, Cloud Computing, Document Management, Enterprise content management, Financial Services, Food and Beverage, Government, Healthcare, Higher Education, Insurance, IT, Mobile, OTTC // Tom Tennant

One conversation that continues to pop up on the show floor at the 2012 OnBase Training & Technology Conference (OTTC) is how companies can maximize their technology investment. And not just their investment in enterprise content management (ECM), but their entire technology investment.

Earlier today, we had the chance to chat with Hyland Software President and CEO A.J. Hyland on the topic. Hyland shared his thoughts, as well as the importance of choosing the right product – and the right partner – to help enhance your tech investment and solve business issues.

“A lot of people invest in a technology that they think is going to get them 100 percent of the way there and realize that it gets them only 70 percent of the way there,” Hyland says. “What they need to do is look across their business applications and determine where those gaps are and if there is something that can make those systems work better together.”

In terms of finding that product, Hyland says it’s important to search for a solution that fits within your IT infrastructure and meets the standards that you’ve set for your company.

“It’s also important to look for a vendor or product that has open standards,” he says. “The more closed they are the more difficult it’s going to be to extend your solutions.”

When searching for a partner to help realize those business goals, partnership is where it’s at, says Hyland.

“Are you at a comfort level with the organization that you feel you’re going to be there with you shoulder-to-shoulder?” he says. “As things change in your organization, is this someone who’s going to grow and innovate with you?”

Hyland also says to reach out to a potential vendor’s customers to learn as much as you can about the company.

“Make sure they feel the same sense of partnership you’re looking for,” says Hyland.

OTTC 2012 Live: Three Choices to Consider when Investing in ECM

// September 19th, 2012 // No Comments » // Back Office, Cloud Computing, Document Management, Enterprise content management, Financial Services, Food and Beverage, Government, Healthcare, Higher Education, Insurance, IT, Mobile, OTTC // Kevin Flanagan

Choice is a crucial concept when considering an enterprise content management (ECM) solution. In order to make the most of your technology investment, you want an ECM solution that provides you with both a roadmap toward future growth – but a roadmap that delivers choices, or options, along the way. You need your solution to flexible and fluid, so that you can create solutions tailored to both your business challenges and opportunities.

Three choices you want to make – or three options you want to have – include deployment, user experience and solution growth.

• Deployment Choice: Depending on your business goals or technology budget or IT bandwidth, you want to have deployment choices so that you can make the most out of your ECM investment. You also want the flexibility to change the way you deploy your solution as your needs change over time. So ask any potential vendor if they will let you choose to deploy their ECM solution on-premises, in the cloud or through a hybrid of the two. Make sure you have the ability to easily migrate between deployment types based on what best aligns with your organization today and in the future. Make sure you have choices to fit your needs.
• User Experience Choice: Your employees fill many different roles, with varying responsibilities across a range of locations, devices and operating systems. And as smart devices – phones, tablets – become more prominent in people’s lives, your employees will look for the same choices they have in their personal life in their work life. So a smart ECM solution must allow your users to choose the way they work with their documents and information.  Whether it’s seamless integration with the business applications they use every day, allowing your employees to access the information they need while staying in those applications, or making that information instantly accessible and actionable on their tablet, you want to provide them with a robust, powerful user experience that best facilitates their role.
• Solution Growth Choice: Your business is dynamic, your needs will change and your processes will evolve. If you do not have options to grow your ECM solution, then it will never truly be a solution. So make sure your vendor offers a flexible and easy-to-use ECM solution, one that’s tailored for departments but comprehensive for the enterprise, designed to give you what you need today and grow with you over time. For Hyland Software, that means eliminating custom coding and providing users with configurable solutions by department and for the enterprise. By using simple checkboxes, menus and radio buttons, OnBase allows users to quickly create and expand solutions. In this way, your choices to build, maintain and grow your ECM solution are limitless.

These are just three simple – but critical – choices you must make as you discover your ECM options. But remember, even before you make these decisions, you want to make sure you have the choice to begin with.