Hyland Software's Document Management Blog

I’m listening … Learning more about the information management needs in higher education

// April 12th, 2013 // No Comments » // Document Management, Enterprise content management, Higher Education, Workflow // Laurel Stiller

I have an enviable job. For the next 100 days, my first priority is to listen to the voices of our current and prospective customers. I’m listening in on phone calls, watching video testimonials, reading case studies  and attending sessions that Hyland customers are presenting at conferences. And I’m hearing a lot.

Let’s start with the bad. In prospect calls, I’m learning that, on average, students are showing up with three transcripts that need to be evaluated and reconciled.  I’m hearing that institutions continue to struggle just to keep up with the volume. Many are experiencing their longest turnaround times ever for transcript evaluation. In fact, just this week I heard one institution say they’ve hit a four-week turnaround. Another institution shared they’re at an eight-week turnaround.

But, here’s the one thing I heard that really scares me: On separate occasions multiple institutions admitted that their school’s course articulation database is “stored” in the head of one person.

One person!?

Someone please hand me the bubble wrap, because whoever that one person is needs to start walking around wearing that – or a suit of armor.

I’m risk averse – I admit it.  But these conversations lately leave me downright squeamish about the amount of risk institutions are assuming, what, with one person keeping course equivalencies in his or her head and transcript evaluations taking longer and longer. Meanwhile, students wait. They wait to learn if they’ve been accepted to an institution. They wait to find out what credits transferred. They wait to register for classes.  That’s a lot of waiting.

Okay, time for some good news.  I’m hearing about the ways OnBase is helping our customers. OnBase customers are telling me how they’ve eliminated risk and reduced their turnaround times for transcript equivalencies by implementing our Transfer Course Evaluation.

Some processing times have shrunk to just three business days! I’m hearing that institutions are using fast transcript evaluation as a recruiting tool for the applicant pool.  I love that idea. (Full disclosure here: I’m the parent of a high school senior who has leveraged Ohio’s PSEOP program. He’ll go off to college this fall having taken courses at Kent State University for dual credit this past year. He’ll arrive with a transcript that needs to be evaluated and I’d like to know before he chooses a school what credits will transfer.)

One institution is crediting OnBase for helping them meet the aggressive  goal of expanding their out-of-state student population by 40 percent. Another institution is able to easily change their OnBase workflows to roll out a smart process around Curriculum Management.

And, by the way, these stories are coming from customers who use Colleague and Banner and PeopleSoft as their ERPs. It’s great to know they’re extending the value of their ERP.

Oh, I like what I am hearing. You can hear it, too. If we didn’t cross paths at Ellucian Live, I’ll be at AACRAO where our clients are presenting. Email me at Laurel.Stiller@hyland.com for details. It’s worth a listen.

‘Trick out’ your core with ECM: Give your core processing system the enhancements it needs

// March 21st, 2013 // No Comments » // Document Management, Enterprise content management, Financial Services, Workflow // Michelle Harbinak Shapiro

Core banking providers have been taking over the headlines lately. It reminds me of how the geniuses at Cornerstone Advisors effectively used pop culture to urge financial institutions to overhaul their cores in their infamous “Pimp My Core” GonzoBanker article.

For those of you who gave up on MTV when it stopped playing videos, “Pimp My Ride” was a show that would, during each episode, take a car in poor condition, restore it and customize it. Really trick it out, so to speak.

With document management – also called enterprise content management (ECM) – you can do much the same with your core.

To remain competitive and provide better service, you need to enhance your core processing system with instant access to documents and information. This is at the heart of what document management does from a transactional content processing perspective.

When it comes to “tricking out your core” and selecting the right ancillary applications for your organization – document imaging, electronic workflow, electronic signatures, etc. – the focus should be on efficiency and execution.

Make information flow through your organization
The lifeblood of every financial institution is its information. Using a document management system gives you one single reference point to consult across departments, locations and processes. This makes it easier and more satisfying for customers and members to do business with you, because information is instantly available to employees from a central location with a few mouse-clicks.

Like a car with flat tires, your financial services organization should also consider implementing electronic workflow to speed processes. Within the industry, there is growing demand for workflow technology to automate the manual tasks that take employees’ attention away from your main focus – customers and members. Workflow solutions allow you to slash back office operations tasks like managing loan refinances and account changes, increasing your speed and accuracy while decreasing costs. They also enforce business processes to keep records management consistent and stay in compliance.

When making any technology selection, it’s important to take a close look at the viability of the vendor you select, especially for document
management. Is the vendor core agnostic? Can it work with any loan origination system? Does the solution integrate with your accounting software? Will the solution provide you with capabilities and services that will enable you to continue to evolve for the years to come?

As you take a closer look at enhancing your core, remember it’s not about being flashy. It’s about staying competitive and providing the service your customers and members deserve while partnering with a vendor who will remain stable and independent regardless of acquisitions in the core banking space. That’s the trick.

Top 3 New Year’s Resolutions for Government Agencies

// January 7th, 2013 // No Comments » // Government, IT, Mobile, State and Local Government, Workflow // Terri Jones

For the time being, we have averted the fiscal cliff. However, as local governments return from the holidays, they continue to face the same struggles with budget, smaller staffs and continued expectations from their constituents. As cities and counties face the new year, how can they simplify their approach to IT and feel good about selecting the right trends to follow?

Here are three resolutions that will launch local government onto a path for better constituent service and more efficient government:

1. Go digital: By eliminating paper and moving to electronic forms, document management and workflow automation, you save time associated with filing, printing and copying information – a very good thing if you have had to reduce staff. Paperless processes eliminate lost documents and speed up processes, making constituents happy as well as supporting green initiatives.

Automating paper processes also makes it easier for government to collaborate between departments that may be serving the same constituents, whether it’s a case management approach to permitting inquiries, human services or economic development. Eliminating duplication of efforts and tasks that are simply the burden of paper will immediately increase government efficiency. Now is the time to capture some of those savings!

2. Go mobile: If going digital is transforming the core of traditional government, going mobile is the recognition that having the right IT hardware to do our jobs in government is no longer a luxury. Children are using smartphones and will grow up thinking of them as necessities. As a result, it’s essential for government to harness this extreme mobility. Doing so allows staff to do more work in the field. With the prices of handsets and tablets so low, it’s also cheaper than buying a desktop, not to mention the fact that field staff are seldom in the office to work on that desktop.

The additional time available to field staff by avoiding the drive to the office, collecting and re-filing paper documents and the ability to know about an emergency situation instantly will change the backlog of work and the perception of your service. As you move to a paperless world, going mobile gets easier. As a result, it makes sense to couple your paper elimination with departments who need access to documents in the field so you can increase the impact of these two resolutions by making them work together.

3. Go self-service: Some time ago, I wrote that I believed one of the things we dislike about government is waiting – waiting in line, waiting on the phone, waiting for things to happen. Coupled with the availability of so many self-service options through services like online shopping and banking, pressure has been put on local government to offer the same experience. Self-service opportunities are no longer “nice to have.” The availability of the Internet, the smartphone  and the “always connected citizen” have simply changed the game.

Today, constituents expect everyone to have a website with services – not just static text. The good news for strapped government is that this trend has positive benefits in so many areas that it must be prioritized as you look at your IT investment for the coming year. If your most popular paper-based forms were available online, people could conduct their business at their convenience.

And, if they could see how this process is moving forward by visiting a portal, receiving a text message or an email, they would enjoy this convenience rather than waiting for one of your overworked staff members to answer the phone during business hours. Imagine if this could happen automatically so you didn’t have to worry about an application languishing in a backlog or even getting lost in the mountain of paper on a desk.

The advantage of a self-service government process is that it moves faster, keeps constituents informed AND relieves your staff of tasks AT THE SAME TIME. And it all starts with going paperless and being aware of the tremendous opportunity offered by affordable mobile technologies that are now in the hands of many of our constituents.

Technology is always touting the next big thing, and it can be difficult to select or to risk scarce dollars on a trend you aren’t sure about. However, these trends are proven to save money and time while embracing something that our constituents expect. Going paperless, mobile and self-service are the essence of faster, cheaper, better government and will serve your community well if you resolve to make this your IT road map for the new year.

Thoughts on the Government IT Roadmap – Three Roads to Consider

// November 27th, 2012 // No Comments » // Document Management, Enterprise content management, Government, IT, Mobile, Software as a Service, Workflow // Terri Jones

In government, we struggle to develop a consistent, multi-year roadmap. Sometimes, we’re too busy, but often, it’s because our mission and initiatives change with every election cycle. One of the things I love about enterprise content management (ECM) solutions is that no matter who’s in office, they support the heart of government – the documents that record and drive our processes.

To be successful, it’s important to analyze your political environment and select a path for your ECM solution that is appropriate and sustainable through multiple elections. Despite political changes, an ECM solution will always improve government. However, since documents are a key component of every department and process, how do you select what to do next? If you are not sure where to start, consider the following ideas to begin the quest for faster, cheaper and better government:

1. Be strategic. Always think of how you can leverage your ECM solution to:

• Increase transparency – Provide constituents and vendors with visibility into transactions to offer insight to decisions. Give staff visibility into processes to see the progress of the work they do.
• Create more self-service options – Reduce pressure on staff to complete these tasks and meet the growing expectation of a connected constituency.
• Share services with other government entities – Share technology licensing, hosting and expertise to save money and provide a way to procure critical solutions, even with a reduced budget.
• Use mobile devices – Not only do constituents expect mobile apps, staff also benefit because mobile devices reduce response times while enhancing their capabilities in the field.

2. Use ECM to develop a roadmap. Things to consider include:

• Adoption and buy-in rates for an investment – If you can pick technology and processes to impact, why not choose the ones that will impact the greatest number of people or processes first?
• Lowering your total cost of ownership (TCO) and enhancing your return on investment (ROI) –What projects will reduce the TCO while enhancing your ROI? In bad budget times, every dollar counts.
• Prioritizing projects and available funding – Some funding streams survive or increase – even today. Perhaps your roadmap should start in a department with available funding. Those investments can then be leveraged over time by other departments.

3. Meet the needs and challenges of your organization. These issues include:

• Reduced staff – Reductions in government rarely come with less work. With ECM, you can manage the same amount of work with less staff.
• Funding cuts – Losing funding may mean that you must change the way you run a program. ECM reduces administrative burdens by eliminating slow, paper-based processes that consume time and budget.
• Constituent demands – The relationship between constituents and government can be a key reason for implementing projects, especially for things like transparency, online services and faster/easier processes.
• Compliance problems – When documents are lost or processes don’t follow required procedures, your agency may perform poorly on audits. If this has happened, a starting point could be an ECM solution – it’s a signal to your auditors that you’ve taken their findings seriously and are addressing their concerns using workflow automation and document management.

In each of these cases, technology like ECM or document management can help government craft a roadmap for upcoming IT projects. And with that roadmap, a new type of government can be created – one that is digital, automated and paperless.

What type of ECM is OnBase? Hyland Software takes a lesson from U2

// October 26th, 2012 // No Comments » // Document Management, Enterprise content management, IT, Workflow // Glenn Gibson

There are many types of ECM out there: transactional ECM, foundational ECM, persuasive ECM, collaborative ECM, web content management, social ECM…it’s enough to give you vertigo.

So what type of ECM is OnBase?  I like to say that Hyland Software, the creator of OnBase, is the U2 of the ECM World.

Personal tastes aside, there is no denying that U2’s music resonates with people all around the globe.  With 150 million records sold and still making chart-topping music, there are not many bands around in 1976 that are still as relevant as U2 is today.

What type of music does U2 make?  Typically, you’ll find U2 under the “Rock” section.  You’ll also find them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  While they make some excellent rock music (in my opinion), if you delve into their catalog, you’ll quickly find that that’s not all they make.

Their roots came from the punk-music generation.  They have collaborated with the famous Blues guitarist B.B. King.  They have an album called “Pop.”  There is a song called “Miss Sarajevo” featuring Luciano Pavarotti. They even had a hit on the European club circuit with a dance remix of their song “Lemon,” and let’s not overlook the gospel rendition of “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for” on the Rattle and Hum album.

You see, although tagged as “rock” music, this does not confine the music that they make. They’re not committed to making rock music, they‘re committed to entertaining people, and that’s why they hold the ranking as one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

So let’s revisit the question, what type of ECM is OnBase? 

While typically categorized as “transactional ECM,” and recognized as an industry leader in this space, Hyland Software is not confined to this label. We are not committed to creating “transactional ECM,” we are committed to developing relevant software solutions, which allow organizations to run more efficiently and effectively. 

So what does this mean?  If you’re looking for solutions to help you work with and manage your content more effectively, to improve your business processes, and drive more success from within your organization, look beyond the labels! If you take a look at what OnBase can offer, you will find that not only does OnBase streamline the standardized, predictable and transactional parts of a process, you will discover that it also facilitates all the surrounding tasks, activities, conversations and case work.  OnBase provides relevant solutions beyond the traditional scope of transactional ECM, created for today’s climate, all built upon one product.

Here’s what else Hyland Software and U2 have in common.  In the year 2009, U2 was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Just one year later in 2010, Hyland Software was recognized as an ECM industry “Leader” in the Gartner Magic Quadrant and that’s pretty rock and roll. The fact that we are there for a third year in a row demonstrates that Hyland Software continues to create software which meets the demands of today’s workplace and remains as relevant as ever.

Still haven’t found what you are looking for?  Download the Gartner Magic Quadrant for 2012 today and learn why OnBase is a market-leading product.

Achieve Straight-through Processing to Increase Customer and Member Satisfaction with Electronic Signatures

// October 12th, 2012 // No Comments » // Credit Unions, Document Management, Enterprise content management, Financial Services, IT, Lending, Workflow // Michelle Harbinak Shapiro

Consumers are becoming more and more tech-savvy. To win or keep their business, you need to offer the cutting-edge services they expect, like e-signatures. 

When a co-signer for a loan is offsite, e-signatures offer a way to complete the transaction from wherever they are, as long as they have access to a computer. Using e-signatures also ensures that you take care of every initial and signature in one meeting, so customers and members don’t have to do things like make repeat trips to your credit union or bank to complete a single transaction. 

Enable straight-through processing for increased speed and accuracy
Because they ensure authenticity, integrity and accuracy, e-signatures have been legal in the United States since 2000. When compliance requirements mandate a handwritten signature, you can capture and apply signatures electronically to documents and forms with a signature pad. It’s that simple.

While using e-signatures is a giant step in the right direction, to be the most effective, they need to be a seamless part of your processes. For example, with e-signatures and ECM capturing signatures and documents electronically, you practice straight-through processing, so your employees don’t have to manually print and scan copies into your line-of-business systems. In addition, employees won’t have to comb through documents to make sure they’re 100 percent accurate and complete, further improving productivity.

Using e-signature solutions that integrate with an ECM system also gives you the ability to sign documents and then store, access and manage them electronically. Once you’ve obtained a member or customer’s signature, documents don’t have to be printed, mailed or emailed. Instead, they immediately go into an electronic document workflow that automatically forwards them through processes, alerting key stakeholders along the way.

The increased speed and accuracy of your processes gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace, as your staff is empowered to give answers like loan approvals to prospective customers or members quicker than competitors who rely on paper-based processes.

Use ECM to unleash the power of e-signatures
Although e-signatures are an important piece that helps you deliver exceptional service, to achieve maximum efficiency, you need ECM. Using ECM, you connect primary applications like your core banking system or LOS with your documents. Without ECM, you don’t have classification, structure or retention for your documents – all important elements that help your employees immediately find the information they’re looking for.

Combining the speed of e-signatures with the power of ECM:

• Decreases your reliance on paper to save money, costs and time
• Increases the speed and accuracy of your processes
• Allows you to stop printing contracts just to obtain a physical signature

Using e-signatures and ECM, you also eliminate the risk of fraudulent document alteration and guarantee your signed documents remain protected and unaltered. And you efficiently track electronic acknowledgements of documents. That helps you proactively comply with evolving local, state and federal regulations. It also makes it easy to prepare for audits. With e-signatures and ECM, you shorten the revenue cycle and reduce the cost and risk of paper-driven processes.

Tips for choosing an e-signature vendor
Today, most ECM vendors don’t develop their own e-signature solutions; they partner with companies that specialize in that technology. So it’s key to choose an e-signature vendor and solution that will easily integrate with your current or planned ECM solution.

When choosing an e-signature vendor, it’s important to make sure you choose one that upgrades its product on a regular basis and gives you choices. For example, does the vendor offer both a premises-based solution as well as a cloud offering? Additionally, you want to make sure to find a reputable vendor with a proven track record. Talk to your peers, send out requests for proposals (RFPs) and ask questions until you find a provider that can deliver exactly what you need.

By using e-signatures with ECM, your increased speed and accuracy will make you an easy choice for all those tech-savvy people looking for innovative banking alternatives.

Seven Signs You Need an ECM Makeover

// October 9th, 2012 // No Comments » // Cloud Computing, Document Management, Enterprise content management, Higher Education, IT, Mobile, Workflow // Tom von Gunden

As we head toward the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in early November, I’m pondering ways IT organizations can address item #4 on EDUCAUSE’s list of top IT trends for 2012: “Improving the institution’s operational efficiency through information technology.” Why this item? Frankly, I’m honing in on this one because operational efficiencies can be greatly impacted – for better or worse – by the range of capabilities (or lack thereof) provided by one critical component of an IT infrastructure: the enterprise content management (ECM) platform. That’s assuming, of course, there is one in place at your institution.

Unfortunately, many colleges and universities have neither a roadmap nor a solution for getting them to true enterprise-supporting ECM. Instead, the IT landscape is often dotted with departmentally disconnected bits and pieces of basic document imaging and basic workflow routing capabilities. Useful but extremely limited, these are the barest bones of an ECM framework. This non-governed, piecemeal approach blindly ignores a comprehensive ECM strategy – the kind that drives and supports operational efficiencies across a wide and complex range of cross-campus processes and needs.

And, even if an institution has deployed a centrally managed document management system used by various departments, a study of its functional area use and a look under its covers – from a design and administration standpoint – may reveal significant limitations to optimal, efficiency-driving utilization and to cross-enterprise expansion. What can an institution do when it finds itself backed into ECM-stifling corners? In a word, convert. Move to a single, comprehensive system that doesn’t force departments to bump their heads against a low ceiling of capabilities and doesn’t require a heavy reliance on central IT to administer, upgrade and expand.

How do you know when it’s time for a conversion? Look for these tell-tale signs – first from the perspective of functional area users, then from the perspective of IT.

Functional Areas:

1. Workflow – Business process workflows are limited to basic point-to-point document routing, with little or no capability for complex parallel or non-sequential processing. Want to send a notification from one process workflow to a user queue in an entirely different workflow? Want to do a sophisticated call-out to an external service? Forget it.
2. Mobility – Functionality is not available on a variety of (or any) mobile devices – smart phones, iPads and the like. Or, if it is, the functionality is limited to basic document retrieval. Think you can execute workflow actions from a mobile device? Think again.
3. SIS integration – At best, users are able to retrieve documents from student information system (SIS) screens. Wish you could automatically update the SIS document checklist as new documents enter the ECM system? Wish you could automatically update it with decisions users make in process workflows? Wish your document management system could get real-time updates from the SIS when key data values change? And, wish all those updates could occur in real-time, at the database level? Keep wishing.
4. Office applications – Users who are heads down in applications such as MS Office, SharePoint and Outlook can’t easily – if at all – interact with document management tools without leaving those application interfaces. Want to execute a workflow task while working in your Outlook inbox? Want to move SharePoint document libraries and list items to a permanent, secure archive while retaining links to those objects within the SharePoint interface? Yeah, right.

IT:

1. Configuration – Building out and altering business process workflows is a laborious, cumbersome process, characterized by a heavy reliance on scripting and custom coding. Want to hand off configuration tools for functional area technical leads and business analysts to tweak their own departmental workflows? Thinking about mapping and building your next five department workflows without relying on outsourced vendor services? Dream on.
2. Upgrades – The thought of moving to the latest version of the document management software (if there is a new release, which is rare) is an anxiety-inducing nightmare. Wondering how you’re going to unbuckle all those custom-coded workflows, workarounds and bolt-ons and then put it all back together after the version upgrade? Sure you are. But, forget about ease and speed. Instead, prepare yourself for months of head-scratching – and headaches, otherwise known as downtime, delay and user outrage.
3. Deployment options – Essentially, you have none. The document management system is designed for point deployment, department-by-department, and/or it has architectural limitations when it comes to scalability. Worse, your only deployment option is premises-based, on your campus – a campus already overloaded with applications to manage and administer. Hoping you can offload your ECM needs to a secure, proven and stable environment in the cloud? Sorry, but your head is the only thing currently in a cloud – your existing document management system can’t live there.

Face it. You’ve been in this neighborhood too long. It’s time to bring in the moving vans.

What to Do on November 7th – Driving Efficiency in Government

// October 5th, 2012 // No Comments » // Affordable Housing, Document Management, Enterprise content management, Finance & Administration, Government, Health & Human Services, IT, Justice & Public Safety, Mobile, Public Works, Software as a Service, State and Local Government, Uncategorized, Workflow // Terri Jones

During an election year, the phrase “improve government efficiency” is heard and promised, usually with little detail provided. That’s because until you work in an agency, it’s hard to really understand what efficiency is, let alone how it would improve your working environment. At the same time, there is wide acceptance that technology is essential for government transformation. However, at times there is little guidance regarding how technology can drive your government organization toward that misty and often elusive goal of “efficient government.”

As an IT director, what happens when you wake up on November 7^th to face new directors, commissioners, mayors or governors who were elected on a platform of improving government efficiency? When you’re asked to contribute to briefings for newly elected officials and you sense the opportunity to improve your organization and provide some direction, how do you explain efficiency in government?

Here are three ideas to keep in mind:

1. Time to retrieve – Addressing the time it takes to retrieve critical documents and the information they contain is one of the strongest and most basic ways to improve government processes. Consider how long it takes your staff to find the information needed to move the day-to-day tasks forward. How much time is spent searching for documents instead of focusing on more important tasks?
2. Time to process – One of the reasons improving efficiency is common during election years is because of the time it takes to complete government processes. However, current revenue struggles in government have led to even fewer staff members available to complete processes like human service eligibility, plan reviews and public records requests. Typically, it’s the speed – or lack of it – of government processes that lead to candidates running on an “improve government efficiency” ticket. As a result, targeting ways to speed up these processes despite staff cutbacks will be a winning strategy for efficiency-minded officials while also relieving the pressure on your overworked colleagues.
3. Time to take action – Decisions regarding courses of action define government. How can technology make sure these important decision points aren’t lost in the pile of work? When speaking with newly elected officials, it’s important to consider how long it takes your organization to address problems, issues and requests. Despite backlogs, government must address emergencies – such as child welfare and traffic accidents – in a timely manner.

Now, let’s say these ideas really resonate with your incoming elected officials. Next, you’ll be asked to propose ways to drive efficiency using technology. Consider the value an enterprise content management (ECM) solution offers. Typically, government has a split between data in department solutions and the documents that drive and record actions. Government must utilize ECM to contain costs and position itself to be the mobile, transparent and engaged force that constituents demand.

Here are two ways ECM can improve government processes:

1. Integration – An ECM solution connects all of your data systems and the documents that drive government. When you integrate systems, staff instantly access information, reducing the time spent retrieving information from days and hours to seconds. And, with codeless integration tools, government can implement it affordably across all departments as time and budget permit.
2. Automation – With ECM, government can use workflow automation to route critical work, notify staff of important tasks and digitize paper moving through agencies. Not only does this reduce the time needed to complete these processes, it also allows overwhelmed staff to focus on more important tasks like improving constituent services.

So, this election year, when you are asked to drive efficiency, think about how ECM can make government more efficient while also helping newly elected officials propose and support the technology investments government needs today and in the future.