Imerge Consulting
EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE, EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS
Bridging the gap between process and technology to help you work better, faster, smarter.
Critical Technologies
Capture
Manage
- Electronic Records Management
- Enterprise Content Management
- Collaborative Systems
- Workflow and Process Systems
Store
Deliver
- Portals and Web Self-Service
- Enterprise Report Management
- Digital Signatures and PKI
- Enterprise Rights Management
Preserve
Manage
Once you've captured the documents and/or data, they must be managed. This may entail:
- Moving electronic folders of documents through a series of work steps
- Managing specific electronic records according to a retention schedule
- Performing a particular process on groups of documents and/or data meeting time-related criteria (e.g., 90 days have passed), usage-related criteria (e.g., haven't been accessed for 90 days), or trigger-related criteria (e.g., last employment date)
- Managing "live" documents as users add to a project in real time.
The following technologies are involved in managing documents.
Electronic Records Management
Consider the benefits of this consolidated electronic system for managing the complete lifecycle - capture, management, storage, delivery and preservation - of documents that have been declared records. Properly managed records are reliable and trustworthy to meet compliance rules, and they are defensible in a legal action. IMERGE consultants are experts in designing electronic, paper, and hybrid record systems. We can plan a migration of your paper records to an electronic records management system. We provide training, too. In fact, we provide certificate training courses in Electronic Records Management for AIIM International.
Enterprise Content Management
From our perspective, "content" includes all of the electronic information in your enterprise. It includes your electronic records and documents, email, report data, intranet and extranet content, even your company website. Content includes output from traditional desktop tools, such as word processing, as well as rich media and non-traditional content.
One of the greatest challenges organizations face today is managing all of this content through the entire lifecycle to ensure accuracy, prevent redundancies and duplication, and leverage this valuable asset. IMERGE consultants encourage clients to recognize that this process is as much about practice and methods as it is about technology and that it requires a comprehensive strategic plan and information technology architecture to be realized fully.
Collaborative Systems
Sometimes referred to as "groupware", collaborative software allows knowledge workers to contribute to a project or task regardless of their physical location and sometimes even while they are detached from the network. Universal web access has fueled collaborative tool usage during the last several years. Understanding whether collaboration will be online but non-simultaneous - people working on the same subject at different times (e.g., email) - or simultaneous - people working on the same subject at the same time (e.g., web conferencing) - will guide the selection and implementation of the right tool for your needs.
Workflow and Process Systems
From its earliest inception, the term "workflow" referred generally to the interaction of business processes and human actors performing a discrete set of activities in a given application to complete a transaction. Sometimes a particular business process can be automated completely, eliminating human interaction. This is where business process management (BPM) systems can save time and money.
When human actors interact with business processes, traditional workflow software comes into play. The goal of workflow systems - with or without BPM - is to deliver to human actors the right information at the right time in the right context. Optimized workflow requires the ability to control a work object or data set through a defined process of work steps while capturing process metrics and audit data at every action. The work object should have "packaged" with it the information and tools necessary to complete the task. To define workflow, IMERGE consultants will work with you to specify the three "R's": Rules (how an object must be processed), Routes (where an object must go), and Roles (who can process a work task and under what transactional conditions).
Workflow and BPM projects are never simple. To realize time and cost savings, someone on your team must have a comprehensive understanding of business processes, technology alternatives, and product architecture. Add IMERGE's BPM and workflow experts to your team. Put their in-depth knowledge to work to help you select the best approach and technologies.