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Identifi's Implementation team faced a number of challenges during a recent Uplink project that required some late nights and out-of-the-box thinking. Despite myriad challenges the project came in on time and on budget. In appreciation each have been presented with an embroidered Identifi Uplink black-belt that underscores their formidable Fu.
Identifi is very pleased to announce our partnership with Safety Harbor CoderDojo. CoderDojo is a worldwide movement of free, volunteer-led, community-based programming clubs for kids 7 to 17. The CoderDojo concept began in Ireland in 2011 and has since expanded to 1,100 Dojos in 63 countries.
When we first heard about CoderDojo, we knew it was something we wanted to get involved with. We were pleasantly surprised to find that there was already an active Dojo in our own backyard! The Safety Harbor CoderDojo was started in 2015 by Dojo Champions Nancy Vellucci and Anastasia Underwood. Identifi Senior Vice President of Software and Solutions, Aaron Stine reached out to Nancy and Anastasia to see if we could work together. There was an immediate connection and we started collaborating in October of last year.
Since then, we’ve worked together to provide the resources the Dojo needs to be successful. In addition to financial support, Identifi staff also volunteer their time as mentors in the program. That’s been instrumental in expanding the scope of the technology available to learn as well helping each Dojo session run more smoothly.
One of the great things about CoderDojo is how it flips the classroom concept. There’s no lecturing or traditional teaching. Instead, Ninjas (students) learn on their own as well as from each other. We provide resource cards called “Sushi cards” that they can use to learn new skills. Ninjas work at their own pace to create their code projects. We reinforce peer learning with “Team Tickets”. Ninjas can earn a Team Ticket whenever they help out another Ninja. Team tickets are required to complete projects so everyone is motivated to help!
Ninjas earn achievements in the form of belts and badges each time they complete a project. They earn colored belt pins just like a regular Dojo.
They also receive a badge that represents the coding language they used to earn their belt. Ninjas can display their belts and badges by pinning them to their lanyard and wearing them at the Dojo.
As they advance, Ninjas are required to create projects that contribute to the “social good”. For example, they can create a new website that benefits the local community or create an app that helps their school. This reinforces the practical benefits that can come from technology.
We’re thrilled to be supporting the growth of kids in the Tampa Bay Area. Every Ninja in the Dojo will gain a better understanding of the technology that’s driving our world. And for some, CoderDojo may be an avenue to a software or engineering job in the future!
We’re enjoying the ability to give back to the community that has supported us and could not be happier with our combined success!
Approximately 60% of the average employee’s day is spent working on an organization’s records and documents. How much of that time is truly productive and how much of it is wasted? When dealing with content creation, storage, archiving, distribution, and transfer throughout an enterprise, there are often significant areas for improvement. A cloud-based consolidation and distribution center can vastly reduce the amount of time employees need to spend on document management while also improving business outcomes and customer service.
Boosting Productivity and Reducing Time to Market
With the majority of employee time being spent on document management, there are many opportunities to boost productivity and efficiency. Moving to the cloud allows an organization to take advantage of superior resources and an always accessible platform, both of which drive innovation and make it faster and easier for employees to process their documents effectively. Employees will be able to connect and collaborate from anywhere in the world, and thus they can quickly complete products and reduce the organization’s time to market. The enterprise content management (ECM) market is growing faster than the overall software market, as more organizations find that improving their ECM is one of the fastest ways to reduce project time and boost productivity. Time to market can be extraordinarily important for many organizations, especially those with close competition. Through cloud ECM, organizations can remain competitive with other businesses as they, too, invest in newer technologies.
Increased Reliability, Scalability, and Elasticity
Reliability is a key component of success. Up to 27% of businesses have suffered a loss of reputation due to poor document management. This affects customer retention, customer acquisition, and word-of-mouth advertising.
Cloud-based ECM gains all of the traditional benefits of the cloud. Cloud ECM can offer greater uptime than on-premises solutions, it can scale upwards through the deployment of additional resources, and has the elasticity to deploy resources on-the-fly to compensate for sudden or unexpected intervals of increased usage. All of this amounts to better service for customers and a far more productive and efficient environment for employees. Elasticity has the additional benefit of ensuring that the service is reliable and that organizations don’t need to pay for resources when they don’t need them. Scalability prevents an organization from being forced to invest too much in their infrastructure before they truly need it.
Lower Cost of Deployment and Ownership
By far the biggest driver of cloud-based enterprise content management is cost. When polling organizations, 38% reported that they were interested in cloud-based ECM for the purposes of cost reduction, compared to running their ECM solutions from on-premises servers. Deploying an ECM system on-premises means investing heavily in network infrastructure and physical assets, whereas a cloud-based ECM platform can be quickly deployed and scaled to suit the organization’s budget and needs. ECM deployments may contain as little or as much of an organization’s documents as desired and the costs are fluid; they can be reduced if the organization’s need is reduced. On premise servers and infrastructure often need to be upgraded to compensate for company growth and older equipment. This isn’t necessary with cloud-based ECM deployments, which simply requisition and provision resources as needed.
Integration With Business Process Management
Business process management (BPM) and enterprise content management need to work together for the best business outcomes. For most businesses, their documents are their processes.
Integrating BPM and ECM allows for fewer bottlenecks, improved overall efficiency, increased visibility, improved responsiveness, and fewer human errors. Cloud-based solutions can be easily and quickly integrated with each other for full support and consolidation. Many modern organizations are moving their entire infrastructure to the cloud, including BPM, ERP and CRM systems, and, of course, ECM. By managing and maintaining all of these components through the cloud, an organization can create an always-on completely connected and consolidated network.
BPM and ECM solutions can also be used to reduce liability and improve regulatory compliance, as they create a complete audit trail for documents and procedures, ensuring that the organization always has records for the work completed and the details of that work.
Universal Accessibility and Improved Collaboration
Cloud platforms can be used to effectively connect offices from city to city or nation to nation. Not only can organizations leverage the power of a global office, but they can also empower employees with the flexibility to set their own hours or work from home. Flexible work schedules aid in courting top talent, sourcing affordable talent, and keeping employees happy and productive. Cloud-based systems can be accessed from anywhere in the world and are “always on,” allowing for improved collaboration and the support of multiple time zones and regions.
Through a cloud-based ECM, an organization can freely grow throughout the globe. And by integrating a cloud-based ECM with other cloud-based solutions, better collaboration can be achieved throughout business processes. Cloud-based solutions can work on virtually any platform and generally only need a browser to connect to, freeing up employees to work from anywhere and to work on multiple devices. On-premises ECM applications can cost $1 million or more, with $200,000 or more being invested in hardware alone. Not only do cloud-based ERP solutions have a lower cost of deployment and maintenance, but they can significantly improve productivity and efficiency by creating an always-on solution through which employees can effectively collaborate and share.
Document management is a core business process that has to be effectively streamlined and managed for the overall productivity of a business. Through cloud-based enterprise content management solutions, an organization can improve the efficiency of every level of their business operations, accelerating speed to market and their customer happiness.
For additional information contact sales@identifi.net
Monday, Feb 22nd
6:00 - 11:00 Fishing Charter – Clearwater Beach Marina
Jim Bryant, Integra’s lead Implementation Coordinator will LEAD you out into the Florida Gulf to catch the finest of Spanish Mackerel, King Fish and Grouper on this off shore fishing expedition!
10:00 – 1:00 Winter the Dolphin Tour – Clearwater Aquarium
This is not your typical aquarium! The Clearwater Aquarium is a marine life rescue center and home of Winter the dolphin, star and inspiration of the hit movie Dolphin Tale, which was filmed on location. Winter is not the only animal others include, sea turtles, otters, sharks & pelicans. Come be inspired and educated by their ongoing work of rescue, rehabilitation and release. Includes a boat ride. Meet Abby Ross our VP of Sales in the lobby.
1:00 – 4:00 Beach Tennis/Volleyball – Sheraton Sand Key Resort
Come join Chris Oppenheimer, AVP of Customer Support out on the beach volleyball courts at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort for some fun! Combine, volleyball & tennis and you get the exciting sport of Beach Tennis. You don’t need to be a professional to play and you are always welcome to just come out and watch by the tiki bar.
6:00 – 8:00 Welcome Reception – Poolside/Sheraton Sand Key Resort
Welcome! Join the Integra staff, Partners and other Integra customers for dinner and drinks poolside at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort. Network with your peers and enjoy the live Caribbean music. Drink, Dance and enjoy the beautiful sunset on Clearwater Beach!
Tuesday, Feb 23rd
8:00 - 4:00 Registration – Outside of Palm/Bay Rooms
8:00 – 8:45 Breakfast – Island Room II
Get ready to learn! Join the Vendors and Integra employees and your peers for breakfast. Start out your morning well while preparing for an exciting day of education.
8:45 – 9:30 State the Union Address – Palm/Bay Rooms
President and CEO of Integra, Alan Wiessner will open the day’s events with a recap of where Integra has been and where we are going. Get ready for a big reveal!
9:30 – 10:45 Keynote Speaker – Palm/Bay Rooms
Bob Hirschfeld a “Cybersatirist” takes a satirical look at business and technology and the world around us. Start the morning out laughing with Bob who was a contributing writer for Jay Leno from the Tonight Show.
10:45 – 11:15 Break
Safety Harbor, FL -- (Feb 26, 2015) - Integra today announced it has attained Gold Certified Partner status in the Microsoft Partner Program with a competency in Application Development, recognizing Integra's expertise and impact in the technology marketplace. As a Gold Certified Partner, Integra has demonstrated expertise with Microsoft technologies and a proven ability to meet customers' needs. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners receive a rich set of benefits, including access, training and support, giving them a competitive advantage in the channel.
Microsoft Competencies are designed to help differentiate a partner's capabilities with specific Microsoft technologies to customers looking for a particular type of solution. Each Competency has a unique set of requirements and benefits, formulated to accurately represent the specific skills and services that partners bring to the technology industry. Within select Competencies, there are Specializations that focus on specific solution areas that recognize deeper expertise within that Competency. Serving as a specialized path to earning those Competencies, Specializations give direct access to the tools and resources that support that specific area of focus.
Integra's iDentifi.Net product was tested and approved by Microsoft in February. The company achieved its Application Development Competency by meeting testing requirements for its software, its operating system, and other components – and by receiving the required number of customer references.
As an ISV, an application development competency allows Integra access to all of Microsoft’s server platforms to enable seamless integration with those products.
"Customers are looking for partner companies they can trust to build a positive customer experience with the platforms they depend on,” said Aaron Stine, Senior Vice President of Development and Professional Services at Integra. “As a Gold Certified Partner, Integra has demonstrated its expertise in providing customer satisfaction using Microsoft products and technology."
About Integra Business Systems, Inc.
Integra is a software development company that produces document imaging, management and workflow with 20 years experience in the financial services, real estate and other industries. The iDentifi product line delivers a wide range of features for scanning, storing, coding, tracking, finding and viewing documents throughout the enterprise. Modular solutions include storage and management of all document types, workflow, enterprise report management (COLD), electronic signatures, signature and photo ID verification, document version control, document retention policies and document on and off line archival. For more information visit www.franprocess.wpengine.com.
Back by popular demand…
Integra Client Conference & Training Seminar 2016
Costs:
Full Conference: $249 per Institution
Events Only (Perfect For Guest): $99
More to follow as the dates approach...
Santa Claus Is Still Coming To Town
We’ll not forget the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, CT.
While we grieve the slaughter of innocents, this tragic act serves as a reminder of how precious, how fragile, the gift of life is.
Whatever your religious beliefs, let’s not forget to appreciate the Christmas spirit.
Set aside your politics and prejudice, the spirit of Christmas is about giving. In the spirit of Christmas, we need to turn to those we love, family and friends and give of ourselves.
Not to pontificate, it’s easy for people this time of year to find a reason to be unhappy. Let’s not forget those less fortunate and find joy in all we have been given.
These lyrics from Santa Claus is Coming to Town come to mind…
You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
Author’s note: I debated posting the cartoon caricature of Santa and decided it was too compelling (not the message, the picture of Santa). My apologies if you find it disturbing. I wrote this to remind myself what Christmas means to me, how I am dealing with the unimaginable evil of the mass murder at Sandy Hook and I decided to share.
Posted under "Thought Leaders" on the cbanc website cbancnetwork.com
According to IDC (International Data Corp) – between now and 2020… there will be 44X the growth in information BUT… only 1.4X growth in IT professionals. For example, according to MBA Online there are 294 billion emails sent every day. To give you an idea of the impact it would take the US Postal Service two (2) years to process that many pieces of mail. Every day 172 million people visit Facebook, 2 million Blog posts are written (guilty as charged), enough posts to fill Time Magazine for 770 million years!
So why are we waiting to manage and store all this information? According to an AIIM, the leading trade association in a Enterprise Content Management (ECM) survey, “the problem is we don’t think we have a problem!” The number one answer to the survey is “management is still dragging their feet;” followed by “people still want to hold onto their paper.” Finally, “people still think they need a wet signature (signature on paper)” …and so on.
Yet AIIM also asked the following question, “How much more productive do you think your organization would be…with ECM?” The median answer is “at least 33% more productive.” So where is Enterprise Content Management (ECM) headed? We see the traditional ECM model moving from document centric to people centric, open and collaborative, community oriented and so on… A focus on the customer, rather than on products, is a critical ingredient for financial institutions to maintain and grow their business with their customers.
ECM is an effective approach to helping financial institutions manage the information, the content necessary to achieve a customer-centric focus. As business and consumer customers become empowered by social media and pervasive communications, they are starting to realize they have choices for their financial services. These trends are reshaping the financial industry and are putting financial institutions into a more competitive atmosphere than before.
Technology innovations today and into the future have been turned up-side-down! It used to be business drove innovation, today people do. So how do you manage the information tsunami so your customers don’t end up knowing more about your products and services than you do? That is the imperative for going paperless and more.
We have moved from an era of the PC, to the internet and today the cloud. Each subsequent move has happened more rapidly. You can see how things were processed from the document, to the web page and today it’s an interaction. Consider the best known companies. Look how over time we have moved the cheese from IBM to Microsoft and now to Facebook. Content has moved from microfiche to image, to document, to content to social business systems? We see financial institutions moving from the PC to the web and mobile devices, but not nearly as quickly as their customers and the growth in the devices themselves. What’s next? Go paperless.
What are 2 or 3 greatest misperceptions associated with implementing doc imaging?
Centralized scanning (capture) is NOT the only way to control the document imaging capture and workflow. Scanners become increasingly powerful and inexpensive. Scanners for less than $1,000 include features such as duplex and color document capture. Software as a Service (SaaS) and in-house web-server based ECM applications offer click-once deployment, employ barcode recognition, forms recognition and e-signature technologies which allow for a more automated and accurate method of capture. Centralized capture out! Distributed capture in!
Your ECM implementation happens overnight. False! Technologies such as report archive and a basic backfile scanning application, like signature cards may be in place in weeks, but careful planning and best practices while employing ECM applications for all new account and loan products, HR, accounting, Accounts Payable and so on take time and teamwork.
You're going to go "completely" paperless. False! There are going to be documents you have to keep, such as a mortgage and a deed. Your lawyer must decide.
How long is a ‘typical’ timeline to get a doc imaging system up and running?
If the ECM vendor provides "templates" for the applications the customer wishes to implement and best practices guidelines during the pre-implementation stage and during implementation a "typical" document imaging implementation timeline will be 30-90 days. If the customer is exceptionally well organized in terms of defining their applications and indexes it can be 30-45 days. The customer must provide good feedback and be fully engaged.
Who is best suited to serve as the project owner for implementation: IT, the business line being imaged, or some other area?
The IT department or IT consultant needs to be involved as well as the business line managers of the department or organization being implemented but the ECM project owner should be a person that has project management skills. They might not have all the answers but have the ability to get the answers and keep the project on track internally and be an advocate to promote the system throughout the organization.
Besides loan origination, what are 3 other areas that should be considered for doc imaging?
Deposits, Operations, Legal, HR, AP, Vendor Management, Facilities Management Wire transfer and more...
Are there any business lines or areas that are NOT good candidates for doc imaging? Why?
There are areas that will be more challenging than others. If you are new to ECM, pick an area of the institution where there is a quick ROI like new account signature cards, new account documents, consumer loans, HR then make your way to more challenging are such as commercial mortgages. The primary concern will always be the same best practices and teamwork.
What recommendations can be made to minimize staff keeping ‘ghost files’?
If you cannot access the content, image files, documents and reports easily and quickly from anywhere across the organization, you will most likely have people keeping ghost files. This means stop the flow by capturing documents at their originating point within your organization and conquering the backfile as well. A scanning service is a good way to get that done. It is usually easy though for the bank themselves to go back and scan in all the old signature cards. This is a good way to be successful right off the bat. It has a good impact on the customer and the staff.
I recently did a survey and analysis at a multi-billion financial institution and I expressly advised them they would never catch up with their backfile if they didn’t capture their documents at the source (branch) or in the field and utilize e-signature and auto-indexing methods whenever possible. Centralized capture is out! Distributed capture is in! Managing social business content lags far behind, but we are storing more content from more and more channels of communication.
Can some docs be destroyed immediately after imaging? Any docs that can NOT be destroyed?
This list is extensive and requires the advice from the financial institutions legal counsel. As a general rule, keep everything seven years. Keep the Mortgage, Release of Mortgage and Note permanently.
For more information or an ROI analysis of your needs to go paperless contact sales@identifi.net or visit our website www.franprocess.wpengine.com.