When I was very young, I was always abuzz with the latest and greatest. Now I look forward and backward in terms of decades and centuries. As professional document archivers, our customers rely on us to provide sound solutions from which their records may be recalled over the life of the document. How long that is depends on the document. Here are a few quick examples:
Personal Accounts Payable - 7 years
Personal Checks - 7 years
Business Accounts Payable - 10 years
Business Checks - 10 years
Student Records - 50 years (some states - 100 years)
Retirement Account Deposits - 100 years
Structural Plans - the life of the structure (100 - 1,000 years?)
We are upgrading our computer operating systems to Windows 7. This has been available for awhile, though like many of our clients, we continued using the Microsoft XP operating system. This caused me to recall the days of DOS, Wordstar, LOTUS 123, and Flight Simulator.
Here now, is the 7th major operating system since Windows 95, a mere 15 years ago.
Paper does not last forever, but it cannot change and it can last quite awhile and there are many examples over 1,000 years old.
As you move your organization away from paper to an electronic document platform for efficiency purposes, it is important to understand digital is temporary by nature. There are many examples from NASA to the Whitehouse, where records either were not able to be read, or the emails disappeared. As a senior officer in your company, you want to know what is being done to ensure the records will be available for its full legal and useful life.
There are a few electronic solutions for standard files like MS WORD, or MS EXCEL -
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13880_3-20026801-68.html While this is helpful for personal files, corporate records cannot be filed in a manner that allows them to be changed. Doing so risks violation of a bevy of laws whose penalties range from fines to incarceration.
We have found a simple method to archive electronic files onto archival microfilm. The solution is very high concept, simple, low cost, and reliable. Once stored in this format, the image may be scanned back to life at anytime, using any operating system.
We are FreeDoc. We manage documents from Live to Archive....and back again!
http://www.freedoc.com
The Redhawks recently served up a road win at Virginia,
Seattle 59, Virginia 53.
This was followed by a road loss to Pepperdine 84, Seattle 64.
For the balance of this year SU Redhawks will host several great games at Key Arena:
Eastern Washington University, 1/06
http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=5
University of Portland, 2/05
http://northwest.fsninsider.com/
University of Washington, 2/22
http://northwest.fsninsider.com/
Portland State, 3/10
http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=5
SU Men's Division One Website:
http://www.goseattleu.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=18200&SPID=10773&SPSID=89901
SU Men's Division One Schedule:
http://www.goseattleu.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=18200&SPID=10773&SPSID=89893
FreeDoc, we support SU Men's Basketball.
http://www.freedoc.com
The term "laser" is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The light emitted by a laser is notable for its high degree of spatial and temporal coherence, or focus, that is unattainable using other technologies.
I really love this week, for it has very few interruptions. This is the one week of the year when a large percent of the population is either doing what I am doing, or they are away from work, and on vacation from school. Woo Whoo!
I can use this time at FreeDoc
http://www.freedoc.com to focus on 4 or 5 tasks with laser-accuracy and precision.
There is great value in clearing up items that might otherwise distract my focus in the new month. My energy increases as I await each new day.
This is my hope for you: to be ready, to be prepared, to be productive, to serve others, to be valuable to others, to honorably pursue and meet all of your objectives.
Here is a brief distraction, after which I resume my relentless pursuit of the task! Seize the week!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMVvmKtmKTM
Seattle University has joined NCAA Division One for Men's Men's Basketball, with Key Arena as their home court.
This year, FreeDoc purchased season tickets for the 2010-2011 the schedule. We enjoy having quality time with co-workers and customers who attend the games with us.
http://www.freedoc.com
This is a young team with a good record and most players returning next year with their Coach Cameron Dollar and a strong cheer squad! This weekend we watched an exciting game against San Jose.
A business manages its resources to produce a saleable good. The management process determines the competitiveness of the business, and it's ability to sustain operations.
Digging deeper, suppose a company with a 20% profit margin made a $500 sale. That same company would retain $100 in margin as profit, after $400 in expenses. From a different perspective, were this same company to lose $500 in sales, it 'might' need to reduce expenses by $100 to maintain profitability and sustain its operations.
While some expenses move directly with sales, others are 'less' variable. Generally speaking, facility maintenance and energy expenses fall in this category, being influenced mainly by weather and operating hours.
Above is the graph of energy expenses for our facility in Bellevue. From 2007 to 2010, the operating hours doubled (by 220%), while energy expenses dropped (by 70%). In this same time, our server storage capacity greatly increased (by 1500%) to 10 TB of RAID6 storage.
How did this happen?
Here are the steps we took:
#1 - Installed larger servers managed by EMC's VM Ware. We are an EMC reseller so I plug their stuff when appropriate. This cool software lets one operating system run on one hardware device, while hosting multiple operating systems, as 'guest operating systems', running on 'virtual servers' on that same hardware device. Today, we have 5 servers running on one device. The server room is much cooler today than it was one year ago.
#2 - We use both FileBound and EMC ApplicationXtender document management software. Our affinity toward document management determined it was no longer necessary for us to duplicate paper to share documents. So the copiers were unplugged and moved out of the building. Now, only one person spends time to file a document, yet all have access to it.
#3A - One of the HVAC compressors was replaced.
#3B - Unnecessary use of HVAC is avoided by exhausting hot air in the summer, and recycling hot air in the winter.
These efforts dramatically reduced our energy usage, which, in a small way reduces market pressure on the local utility to increase energy prices. This helps our customers. If all businesses made adjustments similar to ours, imagine the difference it would make in our markets.
We are now working in harmony with our professional mandate, to be a better business and sustain our operations for the benefit of our customer.
As such, our efforts produced $12,000 of savings annually, which has increased our competitiveness and business sustainability.
http://www.freedoc.com
Getting to the heart of a matter is an important, yet very simple success principle. In business, this means having a goal, then supplying the resources able to deliver.
In today's business world, this simple principal is being challenged daily. Managing the sheer volume of documents and data arriving each day becomes labor intensive, forcing us to hold customer service, or stop innovation until we know what information we have. For some companies to grow, and for others to maintain an even pace, it becomes necessary to hire additional people to divide the work of handling new information.
Information workers of successful companies need to be consistent with our success principle above. They need methods that can bypass time sucking vaccumms (majoring on the minor activities) and focus on the major areas where their knowledge is more effectively used.
Examples of minor accounting activities are the entering claims, payable invoices, expense re-imbursements, then forwarding these for approval, and entering the data into the accounting system. To complete the business process, both the parent and child documents are filed for internal and external audits. These minor steps, while necessary, do not interact with external customers, yet they consume energy and value. Fortunately, these steps can be automated, with laser accuracy.
The major accounting activities are assigning GL codes, validating the payment amount, making payment and interacting with internal and external customers to answer questions that might come up.
At FreeDoc, we automate the minor steps, so you are free to focus on the major areas of your business. This compounding accrual of workforce energy appears in the bottom line as increased operating margin.
Above is the ten year graph of our internal information automation efforts.
We complete our internal production work with 100% accuracy, using a US workforce we are accountable for, so we can focus on the major part of our business, which is helping yours.
http://www.freedoc.com
With the help of Pacific Software Publishing, the website message of 3 companies owned by Frix Technologies LLC is now published at a single location
http://www.freedoc.com
This website will be in development for the next few weeks.
Above is a picture of the PSP campus before Thanksgiving 2010.
The people at Pacific Software Publishing are knowledgeable about internet software, search engine optimization, and they are very experienced in website management. After being in business for over 20 years, PSP hosts and manages the domain names and email for 40,000 websites. They also host and support our blog site at bloguru.com. I just recently learned that PSP was named the area's 8th largest web developer by Puget Sound Business Journal - congratulations! (
http://en.bloguru.com/nano/b9981581/8th-largest-web-developer-in-psbj-list)
I recommend them for their knowledge and experience, and their concern for our success.
The Thanksgiving break may have arrived a little early this year. At 19 degrees with area roads covered in packed snow and ice, both Seattle area offices of FreeDoc were closed Tuesday.
Even so, many employees made it to work today. Thank you for coming.
I hope everyone has power at home and has already completed their grocery shopping for the holiday. Stay tune for news of Wednesday operating hours.
http://www.freedoc.com
Even before we were creating vast amounts of information, it was essential to structure the way documents were filed. Today, Document Management has evolved into a critical technology that provides a systematic way to scan and store information, for less expense then doing it manually.
Efficient management of information is important to the success of an organization. Document Management allows one to make better decisions by having better information. Document Management also helps control expenses, stay compliant with government regulations, and reduce risk of loss of information.
Document Management helps financially by reducing days sales outstanding and capturing early pay discounts.
Document Management provides a way to collaborate and share paper documents, pictures, graphs, faxes, podcasts, even SharePoint databases, from one location.
A good Document Management solution has become the key to managing our business.
With Document Management you can get more done in less time and do more of what you really want to do.
(
http://www.freedoc.com)
Did you know?
Gross Operating Margin is defined as Total Revenue minus Cost of Goods Sold, then on average, the cost to manually handle documents and information is 15% of a company's Gross Operating Margin.
Did you know?
An average company has a 20% profit margin. That same company must produce 5 dollars in sales for every 1 dollar spent to manage its information.
Did you know?
Document Management boosts internal productivity 30%. This improves customer service and better positions a company against external market forces like competitors and time to market.
Did you know?
Highly productive companies more easily control their market and are able to take advantage of new opportunities.
Names help us look-up places and locate people. It's how others find us, and know what we do.
For 3 years I've managed 3 document management companies under the name of a 4th company, Frix Technologies.
http://www.imajnet.com/home/news.html
1999 ImajNet was founded as a document management company in Bothell, WA.
http://www.imajnet.com/home.html
2006 I became interested in FreeDoc, a successful document scanning company founded in Redmond, Wa in 1998
http://www.freedoc.com
I acquired the company assets in 2006.
2007 I became interested in Western Micro, a document scanning company founded in Bellevue, Wa in 1977
http://www.wmsinc.com
I acquired the company assets in 2007. This company produced mostly microfilm so it was re-named WesternMICROFILM. By the way, microfilm remains undisturbed as computer operating systems change, so it is a good way to store information for a long time.
From 2007 to 2010, we were 3 document management companies managed by a 4th company. We worked very well, but we had 4 names. Also, another document scanning company decided to change their name to one that sounded exactly like one of ours. All of this was confusing to be sure.
So, to make it easier for new customers to find us and know what we do, I simplified our name to FreeDoc in July of this year.
We are FreeDoc. We automate your information, which frees your people to do more work. This frees up your time so you can do more of what you want to do.
(Trivia: In the 1990's, Western Micro scanned 22 million pages of litigation case files for (then) Attorney General Christine Gregoire in her case against the tobacco companies. We converted semi-truck loads of documents into computer searchable text and helped her win the case.)
(Footnote: With 50 years of combined company history, many people still call us by the company name they first did business with, so all of our names have been trademarked to protect our image.)
