Shadrach White // Happy Husband and devoted Daddy. Love snowsports, auto sports, technology and Will Ferrell movies
In a press release dated December 3, 2009, Governor Gregoire announces several significant reform measures to ensure Washington State delivers services more efficiently and effectively. One area of focus is information technology opportunities.
“Wide adoption of IT shared services allows agencies to concentrate on mission-critical needs while achieving savings through economies of scale and standardization,” said Tony Tortorice, state Chief Information Officer. “This is better for the agencies as they work with fewer resources to provide better service, and it’s better for Washingtonians who will receive better service at a lower cost.”
At Nexus 2009, the ECM solutions conference hosted by ImageSource, two government entities received ECM awards for improving services and creating efficiencies in their daily operations.
The recent ImageSource press release, dated November 10, 2009, highlights the two ECM solutions. Below are highlights from the press release.
The Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) received the award for Best Use of Complementary Technology for a solution that automates the routing, monitoring and management of imaged checks and supplementary documents received by DFI.
“This solution assures that all checks and supplemental documents are imaged almost immediately, facilitating the rapid deposit of checks received by DFI.” said Ron Seymour, CIO, Washington State Department of Financial Institutions. “Being recognized at the Nexus conference highlights DFI’s commitment to develop technology that benefits the State of Washington,”
The City of Richland received the award for the Largest Return on Investment for an ECM solution that streamlined their agenda process by creating electronic workflows.
“Technology is rapidly changing how cities in Washington can gain efficiencies, improve processes, network and share information. Our objective is to make Richland a leader in information management,” said Jon Amundson, Assistant City Manager, City of Richland. “We are honored to be recognized by this award which demonstrates the economic benefits this technology can bring to the City and its constituents.”
Fax machines are the Folgers Crystals of business equipment. Sure you can make a quick cup of coffee but it tastes like wet cardboard. Lower quality and lower price generally deliver lesser results. Most people would gladly choose a fresh ground Cup of Joe over freeze dried coffee crystals. If given the choice to watch the Super Bowl on a 19” Sony Trinitron with rabbit ears vs. a 50” flat screen with HighDef satellite, I am confident you would choose the latter.
Yet in 2010 people still considered faxing to be a standard business communication device. It reminds me of those old tape recording message machines everyone had in their homes, “wait for the beep”. Does anyone still use a modem, what happen to baud rate? Believe it or not there are still some old antiquated technologies like this in use today for various reasons. The old adage “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” definitely gets too much mileage, the fact is if it isn’t broken taking a baseball bat to it might be a good idea. Complacency is the Sith Lord of Innovation. Everyone from the Feds, to Big Banks, Insurance Companies and Automobile Manufacturers still rely on facsimile to conduct critical business communications in a 21st century business world. The image quality is poor, document security is questionable, there is no audit trail, the transmission speed is slow and the act of faxing is time consuming.
Last week my local gymnasium, The Valley Athletic Club (TVAC) sends me a snail mail (US Postal) letter asking me to update my billing records with their Accounting department. It was your standard 20th Century paper form, printed on pretty colored paper with nice little fill in the blanks for my name, credit card number, exp. date, etc. The minute I saw it I knew what it would say, “Please complete the above information…blah, blah” Then BAM there it was “Please fax it to 360.555.1111”. At least they asked for my email on this form, maybe there considering joining the Internet revolution that happened a decade ago. I have received these forms for the last 6 years about 4 times a year. That’s 20 forms that I have filled out with the same information, albeit changes in the CC# or exp. date.
So there I was sitting productively at my desk and what do I have to do, get up and walk down the hall to the ‘copy’ room and fax this form. Tic, Toc, Tic, Toc….my fingers wrapping on the edge of the fax machine waiting for that familiar ‘’eeeennnnhcrrrrrrwhhhhzhhheeee’, knowing now that my fax communications had ack’d and nack’d, I return to my desk with the paper form. I pick up the phone and call the accounting department at TVAC to make sure someone has received my fax containing my personal information on it. After confirming the receipt of my fax, I promptly shred the paper form.
Talk about Flintstones
the whole process took about 15 minutes of my time. This is the best case scenario, if it required a re-transmission or I got a voicemail then that time could be as long as 30 minutes to an hour of total time. That’s my time, what about the accounting department at TVAC, they now get to enter my updated information in their billing system and then probably file the paper form in a filing cabinet. Wow, efficient….NOT!
So we have 20 forms over my membership tenure at 15 minutes a pop, if I get paid $35 an hour that’s $175 worth of my time. I should get a month’s free membership next month. The real killer is for TVAC after all I’m only one member. They likely have to do this fax dance hundreds of times a month.
The example above is small, when you apply the same basic script to the Mortgage industry, Healthcare or the Federal Government, the lost productivity amounts to billions of dollars wasted every day. Fax machines suck.
Desktop scanners capable of capturing, connecting and sharing information digitally have been around for a decade, yet day after day faxing, always faxing. Smart internet forms can eliminate the need for the paper form all together. I have a hundred examples I could share of the complacency and waste that plague business today.
They all have the same common theme “Well, we have always done it this way”.
2005 - Nexus ECM Solutions Conference begins gaining momentum and puts in motion a whole new generation of ECM Professionals. I have long said that the Enterprise Content Management profession is long on possibilities but very short on talent.
2009 - Nexus 'economize your business process' by implementing, extending and integrating ECM platforms.
As 25 of us reflect on the success of the conference, one person stands up, takes charge and crystalizes leadership. John Linehan, Sr. Systems Engineer with ImageSource sets the stage for a company wide initiative to improve presentation skills and confidence in speech.
November 24, 2009 the first meeting of the ImageSource Speech Club has a big impact with all who participated. I was personally very impressed with the meeting's agenda, connectivity to remote employees and structure. John used Toastmasters International format to kick off a very well organized meeting. Enacting a movement towards betterment from the ranks is rare. It shows character and a passion for the ownership and direction of your career.
Thanks to Kristina Parma, Robert Gartner, Ryan Keller, Martin Waldron, Leigh Woody, Kathleen Fish, Scott Hamilton, Jeff Blissett, Jeff Martin, Debbie Horton, Al Senzamici and Ali.
I look forward to the next meeting to see how the ISSClub evolves.
#issclub #olympia @nexusecm
