Document Management for Small and Medium sized Businesses.

During the past decade, document management was a solution targeted at big organizations. The leading document management software vendors were mostly US companies and their offering was designed to meet the needs of Global 5000 or Fortune 2000-like companies.

This usually meant:

• Big budgets (expensive software combined with a high number of (potential) users)
• Long implementation cycles (it has always struck us that big organizations buying high-end ECM-software solutions have an intriguing need to do heavy customizations, although this software applications mostly come with a rich set of features)

This explains why document management only appeared within a very limited number of small and medium sized businesses (SMB).

Looking at the Benelux: this is a true SMB-market so professional document management systems where pretty rare. But since a year or so, things have started to change quite dramatically: SMB’s are realizing that document management systems have something to offer to their organizations:

• Organizational efficiency: The ‘file server chaos syndrome’ has always been a great driver for adopting a document management system. With typical annual growth rates of over 300% in volume, the Word/Excel/Powerpoint/PDF and other files produced within companies need to be better managed properly in order to keep them under control. Versioning, integrated search and workflow will also improve efficiency of knowledge workers when adopting a document management system.
• Compliance: Compliance is not only for publicly quoted organizations. Sure, we are not talking about Sarbanes-Oxley like legislation here but every company should understand the importance of being able to control the lifecycle of a document. Who has access to what documents? Who made what changes to the document and when? This explains why within SMB’s, it’s mostly the CEO or senior management who is the driver behind these document management initiatives
• Collaborative document management with customers, prospects or suppliers: A modern document management system also allows opening up some parts of it to the outside world in a secure way: this will allow your customers, prospects or suppliers to access specific documents through your website or extranet in a controlled way.
• Little IT-resources required: SMB’s have mostly limited IT resources. Today’s modern document management systems have become very mature and come with lots of out-of-the-box features and are easy to install and maintain. It’s also easy to integrate them with archiving and back-up solutions. So IT usually likes to see the arrival of a document management system as it should make life easier for them.

On top of these business advantages, one of the main blocking factors for acquiring a document management system has also disappeared: the price tag. Most document management systems pricing are based on the number of users. Today, software prices typically vary between 150 and 550 Euro per user depending on software vendor and selected optional add-ons. So to be honest, these kinds of investments ‘per head’ are really limited compared to the potential returns in terms of efficiency and compliance. Our Small and Medium Sized companies have understood this very well.

Amplexor Webwatch - Useful ECM resources on the Web

Pragmatic use of taxonomies

A growing number of companies are considering to implement a corporate taxonomy. But implementing a useful taxonomy takes several things: a good understanding of both the information within the organisation and how people will try to access it; properly categorised documents; processes to ensure that the taxonomy adapts to organisational changes; and an appreciation of the complexities of taxonomies.
(Source: Infoconomy)

Selling a new intranet to senior management

Intranet managers do not only face the challenge of convincing senior management of the benefits of developing a (new) intranet in the first place, but they also have to convince them of the necessity of maintaining it after having developed one. So how can you justify an ongoing commitment to a system with largely intangible benefits? In this article, Paul Chin explains how intranet professionals can make senior management see the true worth of an intranet beyond the Euro.
(Source: Intranet Journal by Paul Chin)

Usability and content management systems: how to get that one right?

Poor usability of content authoring environments that come with content management tools are very often the reason why content management projects are not succesfull. But as content management systems are rolled-out everywhere and as authoring groups get larger, there is a growing consensus that interfaces need to get simpler. Occasional users should be able to contribute to the system without having to consult a manual.
(Source: Econtent Magazine)

Amplexor News and Partnerships

Amplexor signs partnership with K2 workflow

Amplexor recently signed a partnership with K2 Workflow. K2Workflow allows to rapidly configure complex routing and work management associated with documents in an enterprise, and this on top of Sharepoint. The product is already in use or in test with a number of Belgian companies.

New Amplexor Whitepaper

A large international software company asked Amplexor to have a look at the intranet of its BeLux subsidiary and come up with suggestions to improve it. Peter Hinssen, senior consultant at Amplexor did have a look and wrote down his sometimes surprising but always interesting account of how he experienced that intranet .We believe his experience can be a lesson for all companies thinking of implementing or improving their intranet. Amplexor has therefore made this white paper available through its website.

Every year, CMS Watch creates a "PeopleWatch" list, where "we identify 20 people who could make a difference on the CMS landscape in 2005. Some write columns or blogs. Others hold key positions in CMS vendors or projects for whom 2005 will represent a critical year in their impact on the industry as a whole." This year, Peter Hinssen has been elected to this list. Peter is a Senior Consultant of Amplexor and worked on several high-level studies for banks, insurance companies and media companies. Peter is also a much asked speaker and regularly introduces our seminars.

Amplexor in search of ...

• Software consultants
• Account Manager