Prestigious Canadian Engineering Company Finds Solution to Manage Complex Drawings

Sierra Wireless, a leader in the High Tech space sought out a Document Management Software solution to manage sophisticated product engineering and development processes.

The Business Problem to be Solved

As a world class engineering company Sierra has sophisticated product engineering and development processes. These processes result in engineering documents that are hundreds of pages long and evolved over many years and revisions. These documents are often developed by teams of engineers in most cases working from different business centers. These complex engineering documents need to remain secure and be carefully controlled. As the volume of these engineering documents grew Sierra Wireless needed to find a way to centralize, control and retrieve these documents.

Sierra Wireless determined that a new process and document management tool would benefit the company due to rapid growth and expansion of the company. The review and evaluation process was lead by Sue Parent, Document Control Manager at Sierra Wireless. Under her guidance, a plan was put in place to analyze the business problem in detail, evaluate solutions and locate a vendor that best matched the needs of the organization.

The Solution Process

The first step was to conduct an internal review of current document methods and processes used to manage this engineering documentation. This included an in-depth review of existing tools and methods that might be used or expanded for improved Document Management. It was determined that the existing tools in use were not true Document Management Systems and thus wouldn’t totally address the company needs.

In parallel with the review and inventorying of existing systems, a detailed requirements list for the future/desired system was compiled. There was also an investigation into what other engineering companies; both locally and in other regions, were using for this kind of technical document management.

During the evaluation phase 6 document management software products were evaluated: in depth vendor reviews/meetings and demos were conducted and from this work a short list of 3 products were selected for

further review. The “short listed” vendors were asked to present and demo their systems to Sierra Wireless management and other key stake holders.

Based on the vendors demonstrations a recommendation was made to do a pilot project with the FileHold document management software system. A small team of Sierra Wireless end users (about 20 people) received basic training from FileHold and from Sierra’s internal manager of Document Control. A small internal system was launched for the 4 month pilot program.

The pilot program was successful; Sierra Wireless purchasing the FileHold Software in Oct 2008. Since then FileHold has been widely deployed and adopted within the company. The deployment consisted of employee training (both class room and web meeting) as well as buy-in from key management team members to ensure mass adoption and integration within the company. In the second quarter of 2009 there was additional roll-out of FileHold and expansion of users within the organization.

Sue Parent, Document Control Manager at Sierra Wireless said. “The ease of use and implementation of FileHold’s Document Management Software was key to our decision to move ahead with FileHold. We needed to Pilot the application first and FileHold’s flexible licensing with Registered Users and Concurrent Sessions made the budgeting of this part of the project simple.”

Visit the FileHold.com new product Features area:

Document Management Software: FileHold Document Management Software is the fast track to the Paperless Office. FileHold software is: easy to install, easy to use, feature rich and affordable for small or large organizations. Our software can operate within the Microsoft Office or SharePoint document management environment you already have in your office. For a no obligation public demonstration REGISTER HERE to attend the next Live Demo!

Document Managment Software and MailRoom Workflow Automation

Today we focus our attention on a specific use of the FileHold Document Management software in the Mailroom.

No longer is an organization’s “Mailroom” a physical place, but a workplace function, as “mail” can be:
-Faxes
-Email
-(good old fashioned) “Snail Mail” 

FileHold document management software with its powerful business tools allows organizations to automate the classification, transformation (via integrated scanning and OCR tools), routing and filing (via Scripting and AutoFiling Tools) of daily incoming mail. This is a big first step in theautomation of workflow and the realization of the paperless office.

Achieve higher ROI when your flow of work is:

-Faster,
-Errors are reduced or eliminated,
-Classification of mail adheres to retention and security policies as it enters your corporate Document System.

If you have multiple Full-time Employees in your Mailroom(s) you should investigate a paperless office scanning systems to manage your incoming mail. To learn more about document scanning visit: http://www.filehold.com/product/scanning-overview.htm . 

Processing and placing your incoming MAIL into document Workflow creates tracking and auditing of sensitive documents. Gone are the days of hand stamping “Received” mail, your FileHold Mailroom Manager handles all that in an automated process, along with Faxes and Email. 

The Mailroom flow of work can be integrated across your enterprise so knowledge workers can be informed  of new MAIL or outstanding tasks via Microsoft Office products including – Outlook. They can file their own mail via their most common workplace applications like Microsoft Word , Excel, SharePoint, and the ubiquitous Web Browser, reducing training to almost nothing!

Today’s single CENTRALIZED Mailroom can distribute all your MAIL for your entire organization regardless if your offices are across the street or across the Globe.

FileHold Product Specialists conduct Demonstrations on these and other powerful FileHold business process on a regular basis. To register for a webinar on document management software visit: http://www.filehold.com/business/sign-up.htm .
To talk with a sales consultant about your mailroom workflow contact sales@filehold.com.

Version 4.4 May 2009 Edition of Server Preparation Guide Released

The FileHold technical support team has updated the FileHold server preparation guide, and has excerpted a new summary checklist page from this guide to show a simple overview of preparing a Windows 2003/R2 Server and SQL 2005 environment that will allow for an approximately 5 minute install of FileHold Server once completed. This blog post title is linked back to the new FileHold Server and End-User client technical requirements page for your convenience.

The following section is excerpted from May 2009 version 4.4 of FileHold 8.5 Server Preparation Guide.

Both a graphic screen shot of the original PDF document and an extracted simple text list from the table within the original document have been provided.

1. SERVER PREPARATION: Prepare a dedicated, freshly installed hardware or virtual machine system with at least 2.0 GB of Ram with 4.0 GB being recommended. Use 32 bit version of Windows 2003 / R2 with SP2 and all patches / updates (except .NET if you can avoid 2.0 and 3.0 installation) – also avoid .NET 3.5 for now
2. DATABASE: Install and prepare SQL 2005 Standard, Enterprise or SQL Express with SP2 or SP3.

For FileHold Enterprise you can use a 64 bit version of SQL Standard or Enterprise on a separate server or virtual machine. This can also be an existing server or server instance that runs other Enteprise databases if sufficiently powerful enough.

MANAGEMENT STUDIO Installation: Ensure SQL 2005 Management Studio is installed for SQL 2005 or SQL 2005 Express and can be launched successfully to configure FH_Service security login a few steps from now during Service Account setup.

IIS 6.0 Installation and Configuration: Install IIS 6.0 components on Windows 2003 Server

.NET 2.0 SP1: Install .NET 2.0 SP1 – optionally update to SP 2

.NET 3.0 SP1: Install .NET 3.0 SP1 – optionally update to SP 2

.NET 2.0 Web Service Extension in IIS Administrator: Ensure that .NET 2.0 Web Service Extension is configured properly and ALLOWED in IIS Administrator Web Service Extensions List

FH_Service Account Setup: SQL 2005 Login Setup: Create service account (network or local) that FileHold will install and run under. Pick a secure password that complies with domain or local IT security polices. Passwords that are in a dictionary and that do not use special characters, numbers and upper case and lower case alpha characters are not recommended.

• Ensure that SQL 2005 security login membership is completed for FH_Service

IIS_WPG Membership: Adding FH_Service account to domain or local IIS_WPG Group

Security Policy change: Adding FH_Service to domain or local security policy so that it can login as a service. This will allow FileHold to run without someone being logged into log the system.

Document Repository and FullTextSearch Collection Options:
These two folder systems can be on same server as web server or other server. Consider creating a FileHoldData folder and giving FH_Service account full control of this folder and sub folders and placing both folder structures inside this to simplify data backup and recovery procedures. Use this path in the installation and place before existing path.

Example 1: the default choice of C:\ DocumentRepository would become C:\FileHoldData\DocumentRepository during the installer configuration portion.

Example 2: the default choice of C:\ FullTextSearch\DTSIndex would become C:\FileHoldData\FullTextSearch\DTSIndex during the installer configuration portion.

You may use other drives or UNC paths of course – as long as FH_Service has full control of the entire folder structure. We recommend you give this full control to FileHold data folder and child folder(s) if following this recommendation.

Microsoft ADAM Install: Install MS ADAM component using the correct procedure for Standard vs R2 Standard versions of Windows 2003

Windows 2003 Admin Tools Pack SP2 Install: Install Windows 2003 Service Pack 2 Administration Tools Pack

Check ASP Version on Default Web Site (2.0) in IIS Admin:

• Ensure default web site / ASP tab is set to 2.0 instead of 1.1

Restart IIS and Server

Read Server Installation Guide (Optional Step) unless you plan to self install or simply wish to know what to expect when FileHold installs with you

Document Management Software: FileHold Document Management Software is the fast track to the Paperless Office. FileHold software is: easy to install, easy to use, feature rich and affordable for small or large organizations. Our software can also operate within the Microsoft Office or SharePoint document management environment you already have in your office.

For a no obligation public demonstration REGISTER HERE to attend the next Live Demo!

Updated FileHold System Requirements Page - Client and Server

As part of FileHold's never-ending quest to improve the FileHold web site, our web team recently consolidated two individual web site pages for server and client PC requirements into one convenient and well organized page. As many customers and potential customers always ask what our requirements are I wanted to mention this page which you can visit directly by clicking hereHERE

This new page layout works very well, and helps us achieve our goal of having a very informative site. Too many sites want you to contact their sales team for even the most basic information. We believe that potential customers should be able to contact our great sales team when they are informed, or when they are ready to do know even more. This approach works very well for FileHold and we have received a lot of positive feedback on this topic over the years.

We recently implemented a new internal FileHold server system using a nice Dell 2950 server that I plan to discuss in an upcoming blog post. We used Windows 2008 Terminal Services 64 bit, 64 bit version of SQL Server, and a 32 bit Windows 2003 server running the FileHold .NET web application.

Visit FileHold.com New Features area:

Document Management Software: FileHold Document Management Software is the fast track to the Paperless Office. FileHold software is: easy to install, easy to use, feature rich and affordable for small or large organizations. Our software can operate within the Microsoft Office or SharePoint document management environment you already have in your office. For a no obligation public demonstration REGISTER HERE to attend the next Live Demo!

How Small and Medium sized Business can adapt to control Paper and information costs

Today we feature a short article written by Andrew Reiman, the President of McLean, Virginia based Modern Image USA. Modern Image USA is a FileHold VAR partner.

How Small and Medium sized Business can adapt to control Paper and information costs

Today's economic tribulations have created an environment that requires small and medium business (SMB), as well as the Government, physician practices, and associations to adopt a document management system. For SMB's, gaining control of their documents and streamlining paper-based business activity equals higher efficiency and profit from every dollar earned. For the Government, the massive bailouts and stimulus package requires the transparency provided by proper record management. SMB's and the Government also desperately need a way to store documents, including email, scanned paper, files that were born electronic, and paper archives in a single, browsable and searchable system.

As part of the current US Federal government stimulus package, physician practices and hospitals will be moving more rapidly to the Electronic Medical Record (EMR). The purpose of the EMR is to give physicians and everyone involved in patient care the ability to rapidly access and assess patient records, including the current data captured electronically and the historical paper files, captured with a scanner into the same system. Associations have taken a huge hit economically, but the need to provide high levels of service to their members remains the same. This is forcing associations to take a look at their document-based processes and look for places to improve efficiency and reduce costs.


An affordable Cutting Edge Solution
Document Management Software from FileHold is the solution for the past, present, and future. Modern Image selected FileHold document and record lifecycle because the software addresses all the key business drivers for document and record management, with cutting-edge technology at and affordable price.

Each of our clients has an archive of paper-based files and records that must be safeguarded. By implementing FileHold, we provide our clients with the ability operate continuously in the event of disaster, preserve the organizational treasures, and archive vital records.

All organizations must reduce expenses and be compliant to their industry regulations today. Immediately upon implementation of FileHold, our clients will be eliminating costs associated with storing documents onsite, as well as costs associated with search and retrieval. While difficult to quantify, customer service will also be enhanced because one can respond quickly and accurately to customer needs. FileHold certainly plays a big role in required record management, EMR, SOX, and E-Discovery.

The future belongs to those who are most efficient and innovative. All knowledge of an organization will be contained within the FileHold repository, complete with automated workflow, and integration to the Microsoft suite of Office products. Since FileHold was designed to work well with other products and applications, the ability to tune the FileHold system to any organization is both easy due to the open architecture and API's. Lastly, freeing an organization from worrying about documents will free both the human and financial capital to be directed towards innovation.


Modern Image - your world without paper

Andrew Reiman
President
Modern Image USA
1913 Barbee Street
McLean, VA 22101
703.286.7735 office
www.modernimageusa.com

Kodak, Microsoft and FileHold Systems Seminar

January 21st, 2009

This all day showcase event held at the MICROSOFT CANADA OFFICES at 1600 West Georgia St, Vancouver, BC will focus on the key elements necessary to convert your business to a paperless office.

We hope you will enjoy learning more about the Paperless Office...

Document Control Software

FileHold Systems Inc is the designer and developer of affordable electronic document management software for medium sized companies or departments of large organizations. FileHold electronic document management software allows companies to smoothly implement a complete document organization and file management solution.

Version Control Software
Document Scan and Management Software
Document Archives Software
Document Search
Microsoft SharePoint and Office Integration
Document Workflow
Features for Every Stage of the Document & Record Lifecycle


Kodak Document Imaging Solutions

Kodak, the industry leader and digital innovator committed to helping companies - small, medium, and large-capture, manage, archive and deliver business information will lead a discussion and demonstrate a full complement of document scanner products, software, capture-based solutions to meet the needs of customers.

Today Kodak scanners-from the smallest desktop model to the largest production
workhorse-are valued for their paper handling excellence, high image quality
and scanning speed performance.

Microsoft Technology Focus
SharePoint originated as Microsoft's portal platform to provide their customers integration with the Microsoft IT infrastructure and the information workers desktop. As portals and collaboration evolved the need to support content as part of the platform became required. In fact, SharePoint is a great access point in to the world of real Enterprise Content Management (ECM).

Learn how SharePoint is the premium solution for the following elements of your Paperless Office:

- Wikis
- Portals
- More collaboration
- InfoPath Forms capabilities
- WebDav on line editing
- Complex workflows that can kick off secondary workflows

Microsoft .NET 3.0 framework Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) model provides tremendous benefits to customers, product developers and professional services teams.
The Web services are implemented in a highly secure way and require full users authentication. Microsoft provides an ideal technology platform to implement web services and to deliver modern Service Oriented Architecture.

How do SharePoint and FileHold work together? Click here are the answers....

SharePoint Reviews Site reviews FileHold's integration with MOSS / WSS 3.0

Yesterday, on December 28, 2008, FileHold was reviewed on SharePointReviews.com which published a detailed review covering how FileHold integrates with MS SharePoint 2007 / WSS 3.0

Happy New Year to all from FileHold Systems!