Webmaster's blog

If you are smart, you’ll prepare for the event that you might need to be ready for electronic data discovery. I read an intereting post at Computer World. Robin Harris wrote a post called the Two-minute guide to Electronic Data Discovery. There is some pretty interesting points in there that I believe everyone responisble for data in a business should understand.

I think that this is a prime example of how IT and business managers really need to work together to be ready for eventualities in business especially when it comes to document management policies. One thing that struck me was that it is not IT responsibility to define data retention or destruction strategies. She made three important points:

• Your company’s lawyers and record management folks are responsible for setting electronic data retention policy - not IT
• IT must take the lead, working with policy makers, in architecting an economic and effective infrastructure to ensure compliance
• IT needs a documented process whose ownership lies outside IT for unscheduled data destruction - such as when a VP wants all their emails to a client deleted - and staff must be trained on it.

You may think that your PDF or Excel Document is secure… but… I lost a password for a PDF file and had to have it to make a quick edit. I did a search on Google and in about three minutes found a a little application that simply removes the password. No password, no problem. I got to thinking a little about it and wondered if password protection on an Excel document is any better. Nope… same thing. I did a quick search on Google and found that I could crack that password just as free. What is the solution? Well, if document security is that important, you really need to look at a document management system that tracks versions and changes. Then, if the change occurs, you can track it. Moreover, users have to have access into the document management system in the first place to be able to even access the file in the first place.

ECM or Electronic Content Management allow for the storage of images and information on your network. Byron Aulick at Datavault posted an introduction to ECM at the Datavault Blog.

Enterprise Content Management, by definition, is the ability to gather, organize, and distribute corporate information, regardless of its original format. The ECM industry is rapidly becoming the most highly sought after service for 'Corporate America'. Having said that, let's first understand that ECM has no ‘vertical' market. Simply stated, this means that there is no one type of business served better than any other. ECM can help a medical facility handle its knowledge base just as quickly and efficiently as it can help an attorney's office manage their legal documents.

Vince Ferraro of the HP Laser Jet Blog points us to the PC Magazine Review of monochrome laser printers. Here is what Vince said in his blog post:

This week, PC Magazine featured a roundup of four affordably-priced monochrome laser printers best suited for SOHO use - two of which included HP LaserJet Printers. The roundup included the HP LaserJet P1006, the HP LaserJet P1505 Printer (an editor's choice pick from an earlier review), OKI Printing Solutions B4400, and the SamsungML-1630. The review praised the HP models for their speed and small size, and reviewer David Stone said that while "the ML-1630, for example, offers a designer look, for those who care about such things, [...] the P1505 and B4400 are noticeably faster than the other two models. Any one of them could be your personal monochrome laser of choice." There is a great deal of debate, in the industry, in terms of how fast the market (and users) will covert to color business printing. To be sure, the price and performance of color laser printers is declining - making them more affordable than ever. However, if you are not yet ready for color, mono laser printers in this price range offer surprisingly good value in terms of print quality, performance (usually faster than equivalently-priced color printers), and performance.

HP has released a new eBook for assisting companies with marketing. They are releasing a chapter per month and you might find it interesting.

From the HP landing page:

This book provides actionable marketing and sales information for business owners and marketing managers. Sponsored by HP, all chapters can be downloaded for free six months before the official publishing date (regular retail value is $39.95). Beautifully illustrated and chock full of check lists, worksheets, tips and tricks, the book provides you with updated information on

• Finding your business focus
• Getting more client appointments
• Optimizing your web activities for search engines
• Creating word of mouth through new media tools like blogs, wikis, optimized landing pages and much, much, more

You can click through to the HP Landing Page and download the first chapter right now. If you subscribe to this feed, we'll let you know when the next chapter is available.

"A document management system (DMS) is a computer system (or set of computer programs) used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents. The term has some overlap with the concepts of Content Management Systems and is often viewed as a component of Enterprise Content Management Systems and related to Digital Asset Management, Document imaging, Workflow systems and Records Management systems." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Document_management

TechDirt last year had a blog posting titled Why Keep Personal Information on a Laptop When It’s Much Easier to Steal on a CD.

It is a pretty interesting article and points out that companies, like insurance companies, are not very careful with their data. How often do you compromise your security for a little convenience? – Corey Smith has fifteen years of document management industry experience and maintains the Master the Business blog.

"That networked multifunction printer sitting innocently in the corner of your office just might be the most significant entry point for hackers to hijack sensitive data from your business," warns an eWeek article today. "All the information that's being printed, scanned and faxed is susceptible to theft. Once under an attacker's control, it is simple to covertly save copies of other people's data on the machine's hard drive. With built-in network, fax/modem and network capabilities, there are a variety of ways to smuggle the stolen information out of an organization once it's been captured.” Although this article was released today, the studies it mentions are from nearly two years ago. Multi-function systems have made significant advancements in that period of time. Not to mention, the skill of authorized technicians that support these products. Sure, there are still risks, but those risks aren't any more significant than a computer or server sitting on your network. With the proper firewalls and security measures in place, you can secure your multi-function systems just like you can secure your desktop computers. But, the fact is, most companies aren't overly concerned about the security of a printed document. Most documents that we print aren't sensitive. But, if you do print sensitive documents, make sure that you only work with a vendor that understands the challenges and knows how to mitigate the risks. – Corey Smith has fifteen years of document management industry experience and maintains the Master the Business blog.

We have a lot of data that we use in business. How in the world can we begin to use it? Evan Goldberg of Inc. Magazine had a great article on using your information technology to understand your data better. Take a look here. It should help you get some ideas on how to increase your access to your own information. – Corey Smith has fifteen years of document management industry experience and maintains the Master the Business blog.

If you are looking to implement a scanning solution, it is very important that you have three, very important features. Those features are not scanning to email, scanning to folder and scanning to document management. Then, what do you think they are? Scan to email, folder and document management systems are very important features that can not be over looked. They are never the most critical components, but these are the features that most people consider. Most often, people forget to look at the most critical features first. Most Important Feature 1 - Ease of Use There are so many types of systems out there right now. Some are incredibly complicated. Some required too many buttons to push for something as simple as a scan to email. They require the push of one button to enter an email, the push of another button to add the subject and yet another button to add the note. Not to mention the little screens and virtual keyboards that make any button push cumbersome. Most Important Feature 2 - Tight Integration In order for your scanning solution to be effective, you should look for integration with your current environment. You shouldn’t have to come up with work-arounds to tie it seamlessly to your MS Exchange server. You should be able to send an email from your scanner and have the message appear automatically in your sent items folder. If you want to password protect the system, it should authenticate against your existing server and not have to create a new password system. More over, you want it to integrate with your document management system so that you don’t have to take extra steps to get your documents where you want them when you want them there. But, remember that the definition of "tight" depends on your situation and needs. Don't confuse a product's claim of integration for solving your particular needs. Most Important Feature 3 - Security and Compliance Did you know that most scan to email and scan to folder are open to abuse from malicious users? In most scan to email systems, I can send an email anonymously, or worse, put someone else’s name as the return address? Did you know that in most scan to folder locations, security settings need to be turned off so that scanning can work easily on the network. These problems allow for violations in regulatory compliance with regulations such as HIPAA and SOX. Don’t forget these key features when looking for a scanning solution. – Corey Smith has fifteen years of document management industry experience and maintains the Master the Business blog.