Kananaskis, Canada
As I was traveling back from the symposium, I could not help but think about all the great case studies I heard. I was grateful that Xerox Canada asked Sitrof to speak at the event. We heard some great stories about how a whole host of different companies are leveraging the functionality of Xerox DocuShare.
Kellie Barron, of Kawartha Pine Ridge School Division, spoke about their five-year strategic model for document and records management. She shared their road map to document success and how their partnerships with Xerox has resulted in a unique licensing structure and a staged approach to DocuShare adoption. She also shared how Sitrof helped them migrate from EMC Documentum to Xerox DocuShare and the great success of that project.
We also heard from Mike P. Gagel and Maggie Li, of the BC School Trustees Association. They spoke about the evolution of BCSTA DocuShare and how they earned user acceptance through targeted training. One of the key tools they were using for training is called Camtasia Studio. They demonstrated its features and how they used it to record and deliver Xerox DocuShare training. I did further research on the tool and determined it is an inexpensive and easy to use screen capture tool that allow you to easily create robust video demos. I thought this was a great find.
Another interesting presentation came from Judy Cameron, of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), one of the largest unions in Canada. CUPE is using DocuShare to manage its electronic documents, creating a virtual research library and managing its records, archives and e-mail through Xerox DocuShare. How interesting that they are using traditional library bibliographic control to manage the thousands of publications and records produced by CUPE yearly. Because of this indexing, they can quickly find needed documents--making the deployment a success.
After lunch we heard from Mark Bamford of Edmonton Northlands. Northlands is in the business of producing major events to venues all over Canada. He spoke about why document management is so important and how it allows Northlands to manage its business better. I enjoyed learning more about their relatively large implementation and how they approached eating the elephant--implementing a large project--one bite at a time. Much like the others, they chose to move forward with precaution, good analysis and a phased approach. This has created a great experience for all users of the system and strong ROI for the business.
Once Mark was done, it was my turn to present. I spoke about one of our customers, Copernicus Group IRB, and their case study defining how they achieved a 95% paperless office while remaining 100% Compliant. I discussed their back-file scanning project of 5 million pages of legacy documents, the elimination of printing incoming electronic documents and their automated all paper processes and workflows including electronic routing and digital signature approval with Xerox DocuShare and the Sitrof Compliance Module.
Click here to see the slides: Sitrof-Copernicus-Case-Study
One element of the symposium that really rang true had to do with phased deployments. Every case study detailed how they deployed the solution one phase at the time. This is key to their success. The best way to move forward with any document management deployment is with proper planning. It is very important to make sure you allow enough time for strong requirements and design. Furthermore during the process, involving as many users of the system in the beginning ensures that you can achieve total buy-in for the solution. Over the hundreds of implementations I have been involved in, we have found with these fundamental project principals in place, you can always achieve success.
I am already looking forward to next year, thank you to all who contributed at the symposium!
