Happ New Year from Portford!

Portford to Speak at OCARMA on Return On Investment (ROI)

Portford will be speaking at the OCARMA on Return On Investment (ROI).

Location:  Orange County Sanitation District
Board Room – Administration Building
10844 Ellis Avenue, Fountain Valley, California 92708-7108

Time:  11:30 AM – 1:00 PM

Topics for the session are:

• What is ROI?
• Types of ROI – Value vs Cost Savings
• Methodology for Achieving ROI
• Building the Business Case
• Measuring the Value

Click on the link below to register:

http://ocarma.org/wordpress/

Create a Central Document Management Repository through Migration

	Document management is becoming a commodity, which can create a problem for companies who are looking to centralize their documents into one repository. Commoditization helps make document management solutions accessible, allowing them to quickly spring up in different departments, divisions and locations. With the cloud providing more and more online solutions, a department looking for document management does not have to rely on IT for hardware. Internally, many organizations have Microsoft SharePoint and/or another document management system such as Documentum, OpenText or FileNET to manage documents. In addition to these controlled document management systems, there are network file-shares, cloud storage, and FTP sites that can also store and provide access documents.
The more content each solution stores the bigger the problem becomes, compounding the challenge of centralized document management. Each individual solution provides it own value, but does not allow a unified approach to managing documents and associated data.
Two BIG Reasons to Migrate
	Save on Maintenance and Resource Costs. Multiple document management solutions mean multiple annual maintenance bills that can mount up. Consolidating in one repository can allow you to retire solutions to save on maintenance and reduce hardware. Multiple systems also require resources with multiple skill sets, and possibly require more consulting time to support and maintain.
	Realizing the Value of One Central System. One repository provides a global view of documents that facilitates better searching, allows better data integration, and also creates a foundation to facilitate initiatives that are not possible when documents are split between repositories. These initiatives include workflow, retention management and information discovery that can work on the complete scope of documents rather than just a smaller subset.

How Can We Help?
DocuNECT is a solution to manage the capture and migration of documents from a number of different sources and document management systems. DocuNECT works in conjunction with our Idea to Implementation (i2i) methodology that has a complete reconciliation process that can help satisfy quality organizations that the documents have been moved from one system to another without the “chain of custody” being broken.

Ten Features of DocuNECT for Migration
1	DocuNECT can migrate documents and meta-data to and from popular document management systems.
2	DocuNECT can also interrogate file-shares, FTP/sFTP sites, user’s machines and cloud storage for documents to migrate.
3	Users can also manually migrate documents from their email, their file systems, or use the Virtual Print Driver to print documents directly into the new document management system.
4	Business rules can be applied to automatically classify documents and extract meta-data to allow it to be correctly placed into the target document management system.
5	Users can verify/change information using a web-based application before it is finally distributed.
6	Documents can be converted to and from a number of different formats.
7	Documents can be appended together, or broken apart, to better represent their classification and associated meta-data.
8	Data can be distributed to, or accessed from, business applications.
9	Duplicate documents can be identified and either ignored or reviewed before being distributed to their final location.
10	If the "out of the box" features are not enough, DocuNECT has a powerful Microsoft .NET API to allow documents and data to be exported or distributed to "home grown" solutions.
Want to see a complete features list?
Take the First Step Towards a Centralized Solution
Contact one of our consultant that specializes in migrations to understand how you can take the first step towards a centralized solution. The consultant will work with you to understand the scope of your migration project and suggest the right approach to get your migration on the right path.
Email: sales@portfordsolutions.com
Telephone: 909 484 9929

DocuNECT Feature List

Check out the list of features currently in DocuNECT (v4.6). There are only two editions of DocuNECT, one for document capture and one for document management. We want to reduce the number of modules people have to purchase to make it easy to plan your document management implementation.

Although DocuNECT is already rich with features, we have a solid roadmap that will continue to address your document management needs.  

DocuNECT Capture Feature List 
DocuNECT DM Feature List

Portford is Interviewed on Correlsense Blog

Click on the link below to view Bruce Bolton's answers to a series of Documentum architecture and monitoring questions: 

http://www.correlsense.com/blog/an-interview-with-documentum-expert-bruce-bolton/

Scanning with DocuNECT Desktop Capture

	Portford has always maintained that DocuNECT is a solution for capturing electronic documents and therefore we have opted not provide the functionality of actually driving the scanner with our Desktop Capture application. Instead we opted to integrate the Desktop Capture application with software that is already provided by the scanner manufacturers which has significantly improved. This makes DocuNECT's Desktop Capture an affordable and easily deployable solution for distributed capture, whether you are using a desktop scanner, or a network based scanner or scanner/copier.
In order to demonstrate this we have produced two movies that show both the desktop and network scanning scenarios.
Desktop Scanning
DocuNECT is designed to easily integrate with a number of desktop scanning software applications that you can either download from the internet or are provide with your scanner. The following movie shows how DocuNECT's Desktop Capture works seamlessly with ScanSnap Manager with drives the following scanners from Fujitsu.
Network Scanning
The following movie shows how to use DocuNECT with a network scanner. As long as the network scanner can send the scanned image to a file location, FTP site or send it via email then the following scenario will work.
Visit our page on the ScanSnap web site: http://scansnapcommunity.com/features/7546-using-docunect-and-scansnap/

Documentum D2 - EMC's next generation interface

EMC have released their new interface called D2, which essentially is long-term strategic replacement to the current WebTop technology and provides the user with a Web 2.0 experience. One major advantage of D2 is the ease of configuration. Although Documentum is an extremely powerful platform, developing applications has been down to technical consultants with Java or web services experience. D2 brings a number of common pieces of functionality into the realm of "point and click" configuration.

Click on the link below to find out more information.

http://www.emc.com/enterprise-content-management/documentum-d2.htm

What's new with Documentum ApplicationXtender?

ApplicationXtender Connector
EMC ApplicationXtender Connector enables the seamless integration of business applications to ApplicationXtender—without requiring initial programming or on-going maintenance. With ApplicationXtender Connector, employees can access information quickly and easily from virtually any business application, including Microsoft Office products, mainframe terminal emulators, and browser-based applications, to make better decisions faster and deliver higher levels of customer service.

EMC ApplicationXtender Connector delivers:

• Point-and-click document access
- Enable knowledge workers to retrieve documents and information from the ApplicationXtender repository without leaving their line-of-business applications.
• Maximized investments
- Eliminate wasteful redundancies by seamlessly integrating existing applications via ApplicationXtender Integration Module.
• No required programming
- Easily integrate with applications such as Microsoft Office products, mainframe terminal emulators, and browser-based solutions.
• Floating icon "drop target" - Enable users to capture any value, even from within a web page, to retrieve linked information from the repository.

ApplicationXtender Secure Store
Encrypted secure connection and compatibility with Microsoft's Encrypted File Serice (EFS) to ensure seamless encryption capabilities for Documentum ApplicationXtender. Secure Store for EMC ApplicationXtender is a secure storage tier for EMC ApplicationXtender. Secure Store is a Microsoft Windows Service with a Web based Administration Interface. The combination of Secure Store and Microsoft EFS makes the deployment of a secure storage tier simple and a affordable. The secure store application provides ApplicationXtender with an encrypted secure connection to Microsoft File Server volumes. Secure Store is a Windows Service that is administered via a web application (simple browser administration). The application is also compatible with Microsoft Encrypted File Service (EFS) that provides seamless at rest encryption.

ApplicationXtender Web Based Administration
User Administration provides a web based User and Group management utility for EMC ApplicationXtender. It utilizes the EMC AppXtender Web CDK technology to seamlessly add user administration functionality.
Supported functionality includes:

• User Management
• Group Management
• AX Native and Windows Security Support
• Permissions
• Alternate Security settings
• Document Level Security
• User password assignment
• Delegated Security support
• Process Id Management

Documentum Problems Solved: Strategies for Successful Integrations, Migrations and Performance Improvements

EMC’s Documentum platform is arguably one of the most complex, highly customized and challenging environments for IT professionals to manage. Gaining visibility into the performance of the various servers across the Documentum environment is challenging but crucial; and maintaining performance monitoring thresholds during customization projects is a severe headache.

Furthermore, how do you ensure you are getting the true performance picture inside Documentum’s infrastructure? And how could you possible plan for complex integration and migration projects without it?

Join Correlsense and Portford Solutions Group for an online seminar which will offer solutions to these key issues. During this session we will discuss:

• Best practices for successful Documentum integration projects
• Managing migration projects successfully with the right data
• The best tools to gain visibility across the entire Documentum environment

Register today by clicking on the link below:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/956882001

Read about the product:
http://www.correlsense.com/solutions/business-need/sharepath-for-documentum/

Cloud Storage and Document Management

The world of document management is made a little more confusing with the advent of the new cloud storage services that have sprung up. There are a number of online cloud storage services including Dropbox, Box.com, and iCloud among others. The strength of these solutions is in their simplicity as they are easy to download install on multiple devices.

They are, however, solutions for sharing files and do not have some of the deeper document management functionality that helps maintain security and compliance.

DocuNECT blends these two worlds by easily integrating its powerful document management features with these services. For example, our Dropbox integration allows documents to be easily copied to your cloud storage environment, and then synchs the documents once there to make sure any updates are versioned back into the repository.

Planning a Document Migration

This article helps you plan a document migration from another document management system or network based file-share into a business application or a document management application (e.g. Microsoft SharePoint, Documentum or DocuNECT). Technology plays a big part in any migration, however, migrating large volumes of documents and data requires a process to insure the integrity of data. It is recommended to develop a procedure that can help guide you through the migration. In putting together this procedure you should consider the following points:

1. Establish the Chain of CustodyIn migrating files from one location to another it is important to manage the "chain of custody" to understand what happens to the documents at every stage of the process.
2. Identify the Document Set. Identify the documents you wish to migrate, including the number and location of the documents before they are migrated. Portford has developed an application to help you inventory documents stored on a local or network based file-share to assist with this process. This application can be downloaded free from CNET Downloads.
3. Determine the Migration Rules. Once you have identified the set of documents you wish to import then the migration rules need to be determined. All business and document management systems have a structured way to store different document types, attributes (data about documents), security and location of documents. The rules define what information needs to be updated and how it is assigned. Portford's DocuNECT solution can be used to extract this information from the content of the documents, or an external database to help automate this stage. There may be some situations where this information cannot automatically be assigned, especially when migrating from a network based file-share. DocuNECT's web based indexing module can be used to index and confirm information before it is distributed to the business and/or document management system. As part of the "chain of custody" the original document path, file name, and a document signature (such as an MD5 hash) should be stored.
4. Validating the Migration. Once the migration is complete, it needs to be validated. This can be as simple as counting the source and target documents, however, it is recommended to also confirm that the migration rules were applied correctly. A sampling algorithm can determine the appropriate sample set of documents to check out of the total. The sample should be applied to each unique set of data, such as different document types or applications.

Portford Solutions has significant experience in migrating large amounts of documents and data to third party business and document management systems. In addition to DocuNECT, our migration technology platform, we have also developed a robust migration approach as part of our Idea to Implement (i2i) delivery methodology.

DocuNECT helps one of the largest home builders in the US move towards electronic document capture at the desktop

Company Profile

The company profiled in this case study is one of the largest home builders in the United States. Like many organizations today, this home builder was faced with the challenge of trying to get away from managing paper which was labor intensive and time consuming. They embarked on a project to see what solutions were available to capture documents electronically from the desktop, index them and then distribute them to both Microsoft SharePoint and EMC’s Documentum D6 document management systems.

After a detailed software evaluation the company selected DocuNECT, developed by Portford Solutions Group, Inc. The I.T. manager said “This just seemed to provide a different set of tools than the other products. We really wanted to move electronic document capture to the desktop.”

A proof of concept confirmed that DocuNECT met all their desktop capture requirements and worked well with both Documentum and SharePoint. Although the initial need was to implement the Virtual Print Driver, the company’s technical team was impressed with the capabilities offered and quickly began brainstorming other document challenges the platform could be applied to.

The Solution
The company first implemented DocuNECT’s Virtual Print Driver to digitize desktop document capture, which immediately reduced the amount of paper the company was moving between departments. Rather than printing the documents to paper, and then scanning them into Documentum, the documents were printed directly into Documentum using the Virtual Printer Driver. This made the documents quickly available to other users who needed access to them to make business decisions.

The Benefits

The Virtual Print Driver solution had two main benefits:

1)     Quickly reduced the amount of paper being managed by the business

2)     The documents were available more quickly in the Documentum system for other users to access

DocuNECT v4.6 Released - Making Document Management Easy!

Please contact Verna Goodloe at (949) 910-4422 or verna.goodloe@portfordsolutions.com to learn more about Portford's DocuNECT, or visit the DocuNECT web site.
	Document Management – An easy to use central, secure document repository. Perform different actions on documents, such as check out/in, view history, view indexes, view workflows, etc.
	Role Based Dashboards & Summary Reporting – Business information at your fingertips!
	Retention Schedules – Apply records retention policy requirements and retention schedules
	Powerful Search – DocuNECT’s search works either within the cabinet, or across cabinets, against the document indexes and the document content
	Workflow Automation – Automate existing document based processes inside DocuNECT to increase efficiency and tractability
	My Documents Feature – Easily access documents you frequently use
	Integration to Dropbox – Add your Dropbox account to DocuNECT to take your documents with you wherever you go!
	Desktop Scanning or Network Scanning – To complement the existing Virtual Print Driver and Desktop Capture you can now easily integrate with software that comes with your desktop or networked scanner

Portford on Twitter

Follow us on Twitter! Our blog articles are now be published to our Twitter account @PortfordSG (https://twitter.com/#!/PortfordSG)

DocuNECT Now Integrated with Dropbox

Portford Solutions Group, Inc. today announces the integration of their DocuNECT Capture and DM products with Dropbox (www.dropbox.com). Now you can use Dropbox to capture documents from your Dropbox account, or use your account to manage documents that are stored within the DocuNECT DM repository.
	Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Dropbox is supported on a number of different operating platforms  including Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX, and Linux. Dropbox also has powerful device support, providing users access to their documents on Apple (iPads and iPhone) and Android (smart phone and tablets) devices.
This integration allows DocuNECT users to manage their DocuNECT DM My Documents in their Dropbox account so they can work anywhere. This feature is contained in the DocuNECT v4.6 version.

Life Science Project Management

Portford Solutions' Experienced Life Science PM Team Provides You with Active, Engaged Project Leaders

 

With over 20 years of experience managing initiatives within Life Science, we are skilled at using technology to improve our partner's processes, and practiced at managing the process evolution, organization change, and management expectations that accompany these projects. We have advanced schedule and budget oversight controls in place, pre-configured to plug in to your R&D Organization.

 

Portford Consulting - Project Control

People People
We integrate into your existing team, forming productive work relationships quickly and easily. We're accustomed to matrixed reporting, and understand how to communicate at all levels in your life science organization

Experienced Project Managers
Our PMs bring years of life science specific project management background with them. We ramp up quickly, understand the pressures inherent with R&D, and help you achieve your initiative on time and on budget

Life Science Process and Technology Experts
Tempered in the crucible of enterprise clinical services projects, our PMs understand your R&D challenges. We can help you model a new process, deploy a new technology (our expertise ranges from Document Management to Core Site Research tools)

Power Up Documentum D6 with DocuNECT

 DocuNECT is an electronic document capture and migration solution that captures electronic documents from their source, extracts and organizes the necessary business data, and then distributes it to a third party business application to make the information readily available.

Visit our DocuNECT for D6 Solution Page

What is DocuNECT?

The following online presentation provides an overview of DocuNECT:

 












Access our library of demos by clicking on the icon below:

Key Functions

Desktop Capture Applications: Easily capture documents directly from the desktop, using the Virtual Print Driver, the Windows Explorer or Microsoft Outlook integration

Using Multi-Function Devices: Utilize multi-function or network based scanners to capture documents for indexing using DocuNECT's web based indexing application

Automating Document Import: Automate document imports from third party vendors, web sites, FTP/sFTP sites and more

Automating Indexing: DocuNECT can extract and apply business rules against the content of documents to automate the indexing process

File Share Migration: Migrate legacy file shares into D6, applying business rules to the folder structure and/or document content to populate the D6 index values

DocuNECT Document Analyzer v3.0 Releasd

Document Analyzer allows you to inventory documents that are stored on your local or network hard-drive. This is a free-application that is provided by Portford Solutions Group, Inc. that helps identify different types, duplicates and volume of documents. This application can be used to help organize documents as part of a migration to a document management system. The information about each file system analysis is stored in a local database.

What's new in this version: Version 3.0 provides the following new enhancements: - Duplicate and usage chart - Time Span analysis to display how frequently the documents have been accessed - Ability to import an analysis from another Document Analyzer - Export the folder structure and files (no content just the file stub).

Download now from CNET.com:
http://download.cnet.com/DocuNECT-Document-Analyzer/3000-10743_4-75328472.html

Personnel Concepts Accelerates Growth with Capture Driven Business Process Automation

The Challenge...
   
In 2008, , Steve Slezak, Director of Quality Management - Direct Marketing Americas at Personnel Concepts set out to modernize the company’s order entry process with an automated information capture solution. Slezak explained, “We wanted to use technology as a reliable platform going forward -- one that could easily handle peak volumes and resolve resource issues, and that would be sustainable if the company doubled or tripled in size.” Slezak sought the expertise of long-time Kofax partner, Portford Solutions, to help identify, build and implement the right capture-driven technology solution. .


The Solution...
 
Working with Bradley Grell and Bruce Bolton, founding partner of Portford Solutions, the Personnel Concepts team defined the following basic requirements for their new automated order capture/order entry solution:

• Speed and Capacity - Ability to handle 2500+ orders daily with a reduced headcount and no backlog
• Flexibility - Capable of processing varied forms without disrupting operations
• Accuracy - Proven ability to accurately read all document types including handwritten information, enabling fast and complete order verification
• Performance - An easy-to-use solution that improves efficiency and operates without problems – no IT skills required
• Scalability - A sustainable process and solution that would continue to be viable if the company expands rapidly

In August of 2008 when Slezak initially approached Portford Solutions, he had an aggressive goal in mind. He wanted a production solution in place, and his team trained, before the peak order cycle began in December. He also wanted assurance that the order entry volume that required 12 staffers in the past could be handled by no more than 1.5 full time employees with the new solution in place. Bolton, confident in Portford Solutions’ ability to define and customize a winning solution, provided Slezak with a “success clause” that included a money-back guarantee if his primary objectives weren’t met. The initial evaluation cycle was accelerated in order to achieve the timing objective Slezak set forth. Portford Solutions presented three potential platforms and Kofax quickly became the frontrunner for its proven capabilities. Post-evaluation, Portford Solutions recommended a customized solution based on the Kofax Capture software platform and Kofax Transformation Modules (KTM). According to Bolton, “Kofax was a more mature solution, well-proven with thousands of customers in production. We felt very comfortable recommending Kofax to Personnel Concepts.” Before the decision could be finalized, Portford Solutions demonstrated the Kofax solution to the Personnel Concepts team. Personnel Concepts’ head of IT evaluated the architecture on how well it fit within the company’s existing environment and operations team members assessed how usable the solution would be on the floor. “We all knew that because the solution would displace some staffers, it had a very high bar to clear. It had to work.” Because there was no room for error, the support for the Kofax solution over any other was unanimous. Portford Solutions immediately created a detailed implementation plan that Personnel Concepts signed off on. Included in that plan was some customization and the very important “success clause.” Within four months of their initial meetings with Portford Solutions, Personnel Concepts had a new, Kofax-based order entry solution in full production, just before their order volume increased by 130% during peak season. Additionally, Portford Solutions posted an engineer on site to ensure the Personnel Concepts staffers didn’t encounter any problems as they ramped up on their own. “From the outset, orders were processed same day in, same day out, with no carryover and no backlog,” said Slezak. “It was well executed.”
 

The Result...
 
Today, 1.5 full time employees are able to routinely handle the same peak volume that formerly required 12 staffers. The process now includes batching order cards into stacks of 50, then scanning them into the Kofax Capture system. The order entry staff then views and validates orders on the highly user-friendly, 25-field order screen which was customized for them by Portford Solutions.“The accuracy and reliability of our new solution is extremely high,” noted Slezak. Once an order is validated, it is released and a CSV file is created, which then automatically is uploaded into Personnel Concepts’ main system where the order is built. The Sales team then calls every customer to verify the information on their order. Because the outbound Sales team is now able to receive their orders sooner and view an image of the actual order card for accuracy, they are perceived as more responsive, improving customer satisfaction. “Kofax was the perfect solution at the right time for Personnel Concepts,” commented Slezak. “Teaming with Portford Solutions to customize and implement our Kofax solution resulted in such measurable process improvements and cost savings that our Ontario office has gained global exposure as a technology.

View the full case study on Kofax's Web Site:

http://www.kofax.com/case-studies/personnel-concepts-capture-driven-business-process-automation/