Tampa, FL. – June 29, 2010 - The management teams of non-governmental organizations constantly ask themselves – how can my organization better carry out its purpose and mission?
As they focus their attention on maintaining healthy relationships with the public to meet their goals, the last thing they need to worry about is the back-end operations. These operations may include board management, contract processing and execution, and managing the retention period of documents for compliance.
From an operational standpoint, CFOs, VPs of Finance, Directors of Grants and Contracts, CIOs and COOs must ensure that their staffs are as productive as possible. In order to maintain this efficiency, they continually search for comprehensive and cost-effective technology.
Document Advantage Corporation will be exhibiting its affordable nonprofit NGO software solutions at the 2010 InsideNGO Annual Member Meeting. They will share their experiences on how automated electronic document management and business process automation can assist NGOs to more easily fulfill their purpose.
“More and more NGOs have come to understand that back office operations and compliance should not be a hindrance. This should be the first area they address for improvement. Once they have this solidified, it’s no longer a distraction, and focus can be shifted to carrying out their mission. With online document management, one application takes care of document capture and storage, business process workflow, collaboration between offices, compliance, information management,” says Document Advantage CEO Jana Wiggins.
By streamlining grant and contract processing, funds management and information management, such operations will no longer stand in the way of meeting mission critical goals. Electronic document management allows NPOs and NGOs to eliminate the worry of not meeting compliance regulations or not having enough staff to move information seamlessly through the organization. As execution of operations is sped up, money is also received faster, resulting in the nonprofit more quickly deploying their services and goals to the people who need it.
DocuVantage will be present at the conference July 12 – 14, participating in the Finance, Grants and Contracts Meeting as well as the Cross Operations Day. Visitors to the DocuVantage booth can learn how other organizations have automated their processes and successfully shifted their focus to meeting mission goals.
To see how one NGO is now using DocuVantage technology to more efficiently deliver much needed services globally, please visit http://www.docuvantage.com/non-profit-document-management/contract-management.
About Document Advantage Corporation:
For over 20 years the Document Advantage team has been assisting organizations with their document management and workflow needs.
The company’s flagship product, DocuVantage OnDemand® is an enterprise-class document management solution delivered via Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). It is the first subscription-based online document management system to offer document capture, global text searching, rules-based workflow, electronic signature and records management compliance in one platform.
For more information on how DocuVantage OnDemand can help your NGO or nonprofit improve its operational efficiencies, please contact DocuVantage at 866-367-3467 ext. 1, or visit the DocuVantage website.
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Are you getting the help you need to run your government office? With the current doom and gloom surrounding budget cuts and the reduction in work forces, it is no wonder each day becomes more challenging than the last.
Leading the charge to face some of these challenges is the White House CIO, Vivek Kundra. His mission is for agencies to transition from out-dated and expensive-to-maintain hardware and software to more cost-effective, green and vendor responsible technologies.
Will these new initiatives and cheerleading make agencies tasks easier or work smarter and not harder? The key is in the education and mandates. Most of us do not adapt to change. In order for the initiative to be a success, more education is needed. Purchasing agents need more information, and they need a reason to change the way they buy. What’s in it for them they ask? After all, the purchasing agents are not typically in the first line of layoffs- who would be able to fill out all the paperwork if they were gone?
They also must be incentivized to learn about the new technologies that are available and the purchasing contracts that can be used to make everyone’s workday more productive and less stressful. As a department director, will these changes alleviate the pounding in your head and relieve some of those knots in your back? Possibly, especially since the newer cloud computing and software as a service applications put the burden on the vendors instead of the customer. Now your staff can focus on their goals which shouldn’t include troubleshooting their technology tools.
Let It Rain
Kundra spends his time educating agencies on the myriad of new technologies available to them that will allow more efficiency and more transparency in providing services to their customers. Many days, he can be found traveling in order to promote and explain strategies on how cloud computing, Software as a Service (SaaS), and advances in information security are changing the way organizations operate.
To learn more and benefit from the applications that are available visit the Apps.gov website. There you will find information about how Cloud Computing creates sustainable, more cost-effective IT services. Under the Apps.gov portal, a service provided by the GSA, you can find pre-approved Cloud and Software as a Service applications that are available to you and more in-depth information on apps that focus on business productivity, cloud IT services and social media. It’s time to clear out the clutter, shred the paperwork (not to mention, headache inducer), and move the applications that make sense into the cloud as others have already done.
The GSA has already pre-negotiated the contract pricing ensuring all government mandates and requirements have been met and new applications are being used daily by Government agencies, thanks to the one step process.
Look around your office; do you see inefficient paper processes that cause bottlenecks or lost information? The technology is available and won’t take months or years to receive an ROI, won’t take your staff away from their core tasks in order to implement and won’t require your IT services to break away from their core focus.
Visit Apps.gov and explore DocuVantage OnDemand’s productivity platform that includes enterprise level Document Management, Document Workflow, and Records Management functionality delivered as an affordable monthly subscription service. The integrated document capture, imaging and business process automation capabilities and secure platform reduces time spent searching for your documents and information. The days of chasing missing documents and not knowing who is processing what will soon be gone.
To learn more about how DocuVantage OnDemand can help you capture, secure and automate the processing of your documents and information visit: http://info.docuvantage.com/docuvantage-joins-appsgov.
Find out how you too can join other government agencies in the cloud!
What Have You Done to Help?
April 22nd of this year marked the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Appropriately, this past year has seen endless efforts from a variety of businesses contributing to the Earth Day message, doing their part to become environmentally responsible. Let’s take a look at some of these green companies, and see what they have done to make the Earth more environmentally sound.
Announced in January of this year, the Chrysler Group has saved more than $50 million a year through incorporating almost 50 percent recycled materials into a new factory and reduced their landfill waste to zero. Now in its 16th year of its “pro-environmental thinking” program, the company has been able to reduce its CO2 emissions by 370,000 metric tons a year.
This month, Governor of Nevada, Jim Gibbons, announced a plan to add solar panels to its state buildings and installations. The technology and type of project is a small-scale urban solar development called distribution generation. With no need to build transmission lines, animals’ habitats are not affected, and the need for NV Energy to burn natural gas and coal in its power plants is reduced, helping clean the air and fight climate change.
Burger King is doing its part too! It has opened its first energy-efficient store in Waghäusel, Germany. The store design utilizes the latest eco-friendly technologies and renewable energy to power one-third of the restaurant’s energy consumption. By using solar photovoltaic and wind turbines, Burger King will be saving nearly half of this restaurant’s yearly electricity costs. In addition, the restaurant kitchen uses a batch broiler that maximizes cooking flexibility while reducing gas consumption and related costs by about 52 percent and 90 percent. All Burger King restaurants in North America have also installed this broiler and the international rollout is expected to be complete by 2012. Every little thing makes a difference!
Let’s take another look at the American West where Harrah’s Rincon Casino in San Diego, California is now using energy from a nearby solar farm to power its air-conditioning system. The casino’s plant is expected to supply about 90 percent of the power required by the new AC unit. The resort also has a solar-heated pool, energy-efficient lighting, and refrigerators in guest rooms that only turn on when cooling is needed.
Coca Cola Enterprises is also taking the solar route to do their part. They have installed solar light pipe and is testing other lighting in order to further decrease energy consumption. Through these efforts and other energy saving measures in its fleets, equipment, and buildings reduced Coca Cola’s carbon footprint by 10 percent in 2008 and 2009. The company has a list of 2020 goals, including reducing its carbon footprint by 15 percent, making its operations water sustainable by minimizing consumption and replenishing amount it uses to local communities, reducing packaging impacts, helping consumers make informed beverage decisions and creating a diverse and inclusive workplace.
As these companies have made large changes for large impacts, small changes make all the difference too. If you don't call the shots you can still help in the office by asking yourself these questions before you act:
- Do I really need to print this document?
- Does my computer or my office lights need to stay on all night?
- Can I carpool with a co-worker? If you have to drive to work, do your errands on the way in or on the way home so you don't have to make a special trip.
- Can I get my co-workers to recycle at the office? Volunteer to take it home and recycle if your office building doesn't offer it. Your co-workers will then be encouraged to start recycling on their own.
If you are in a position to have an influence on the document management practices of the business, start making an environmental impact by going paperless!
Sources:
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/01/26/chrysler-saves-50-million-with-environmental-efforts/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jun/11/inviting-solar-boom/
http://www.qsrweb.com/article.php?id=18585&na=1&s=2
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/03/19/harrahs-rincon-casino-uses-solar-energy-to-power-ac/
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/06/17/coca-cola-sips-less-energy-and-water-boosts-recycling#ixzz0rDF5X7XK
It’s World Cup time! Time for hard work, teamwork and dedication. With the combination of these important ethics and the addition of technical skill, success is achieved.
Just as a soccer team creates and executes a strategy, a document management system is about strategy, organization and execution. If executed correctly, the game, or document management system, runs smoothly. So how is document management like the game of soccer?
The document management vendor plays the assistant coach role. Just as the assistant coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team, Lubos Kubik, has 20 years experience at both the professional and international level, the team of your document management vendor will include experts in the field. The vendor will have worked with organizations across various industries. As the assistant coach has dedicated his time and efforts to training the team to its best ability, the document management vendor will train your organization’s employees to make sure your document management implementation and on-going use is successful and effective. The key is to get everyone on the same page.
As the whistle signals game time kick-off, or in other words, once the system is implemented, the show is on. The soccer ball can be compared to your important business document(s). The purpose of soccer is to get the ball from one end of the field to other, to its final destination, GOAL!!! With a document management system, your document is entered into the system through scanning, uploading, or browsing. Once the document enters the workflow, it is moved from employee to employee, through the approval process, just as the soccer ball is passed from teammate to teammate. Anticipation is absolutely vital. Team players know where the ball is headed next. As one player releases the ball, it is sent on to the next person, just as once the employee has completed his or her task with the business document, it is automatically pushed through the workflow onto its next task.
Meanwhile, the head soccer coach decides who takes the field. He decides who plays where and when. He directs strategy and movement. Similarly, the management team of the company decides who has access to what documents. Through secure login settings, management regulates which documents are accessible to specific authorized people.
As the soccer team works together to get the ball to where it needs to be, the business document goes through its entire life cycle, until it has reached the end of its retention period. The forward takes the ball to the goal and shoots, SCORE! Your document management system alerts you that it is time for a specific document to be purged. Now, you are able to dispose of the document after it has fulfilled its business purposes. Done and done.
A soccer team dedicates time and practice to be able to perform to the best of its ability. With committed preparation, the team’s execution can be flawless. A document management vendor strives to continuously make improvements to make its system of highest quality and effectiveness. As the vendor dedicates its time and efforts to a successful implementation, your organization will be streamlined, more effective and organized, and in result, more profitable. Nothing beats a winning team!
To learn more about our Document Management Special Offers, visit http://www.docuvantage.com/document-management-special-offers.
This blog post is dedicated to Sarel.
As Florida County Budgets Shrink, County Departments and Agencies Turn to DocuVantage to Maintain and Improve Services.
Tampa, FL. – June 1, 2010 – Budget cuts can cripple departments. Don’t let this happen to you. Learn how automating the manual processes that consume so many of your resources can save your department.
With decreased funding, government agencies must improve their business processes as a way to reduce costs. By automating many tasks that have been performed manually, departments can lower their costs to avoid further cuts in services.
“Learning how to identify the manual processes that can be automated and using technology to automate non-value add tasks will save a department,” commented Jana Wiggins, CEO of DocuVantage. “With our county customers, we've seen that the departments that automate tend to be spared from drastic cuts. By being proactive and adding a continuous process improvement initiative they are able to reduce costs before they lose funding.”
At the Florida Association of Counties 2010 Annual Conference and Educational Exposition (June 29 - July 2, 2010), DocuVantage will discuss and demonstrate how counties can reduce their costs without the pain associated with forced budget cuts.
Understanding the steps needed to automate manual processes is the starting point. Visitors to the booth can discuss how to create a strategic plan for process improvement and automation. By learning more about how other agencies have automated their processes, they will see how they too can continue to provide improved and more efficient services to their communities.
To read how government agencies and departments have benefitted from a DocuVantage solution, please visit www.docuvantage.com/document-management-for-government.
About Document Advantage Corporation:
For over 20 years the Document Advantage team has been assisting government agencies with their document management and workflow needs.
The company’s flagship product, DocuVantage OnDemand® is an enterprise-class document management solution delivered via Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). It is the first online document management system to offer document capture, global text searching, rules-based workflow, electronic signature and records management compliance in one platform.
DocuVantage products and services can be procured off of GSA, the Florida State Term Contract for IT Consulting Services, and a Hillsborough County Blanket Purchasing Contract. Counties can subscribe to one application for all their document management, business process automation, collaboration and compliance management needs and can be up and running the same day.
For more information on how DocuVantage OnDemand can help your county improve its operational efficiencies, please contact DocuVantage at 866-367-3467 ext. 1, or visit the DocuVantage website.
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