A Strategic Partner Conference Update

As we prepare for this years’ Strategic Partner Conference, many of you are calling us to get more details on what to expect, so let me share our planning so far…

Firstly, the beautiful Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach, California is the perfect place for a conference that's designed primarily as a networking event. Not only are the grounds of the hotel layed out, so there are plenty of places to share a quite moment with friends, but it is also located across the famous Pacific Coast Highway, overlooking the beach and the ocean. This location creates the perfect opportunity to make new friends and re-kindle old relationships, all with people using the same software as you.

Next, the conference is filled with useful information from our technical support team, but most importantly from our customers. People like you who use the software every day. We are lucky to have knowledgable customers who are willing to share their experiences with you, so you can learn and take back the knowledge to benefit your business. In 2011 we will be joined by nine speakers, who include Gail Bisbee, Jez Tibbetts and Richard Harris:

• Gail is well known to all the PRISM members as the "queen of imaging" (sorry Gail, I couldn't resists the title. ). Gail is not only a regular speaker at PRISM International conferences but also hosts the Confidential Records Management - Document Imaging School.


• Jez Tibbetts is an ex-employee of O'Neil Software Ltd, who has taken his knowledge and expanded upon it by working in "the real world" at Saracen Datastore in the UK. Jez has extensive operational experience and will be explaining how he uses it to create competitive advantages, especially in relation to tools such as RSMobile.


• Richard Harris runs a small records management business in Australia. He is very proud of the fact that the company was started from scratch and extremely passionate about service and excited to see his business grow a little bit bigger every week. Richard offered to speak by explaining; "When I was first introduced to the records management industry it was as a sales representative, it didn’t take me long to see the potential and I now own 50% of the company. I had my doubts about O’neil in the beginning but this was due to a lack of knowledge and training, I’m pleased to say that the more I and my staff learn about the program the more impressed I am. I would be happy to share my passion for our business and how even a small records management business down under is utilising O’Neil software to grow nationally across Australia." If you are fairly new to the industry, just spending time with Richard will make the attendance worthwhile.

The third component that makes the O'Neil Strategic Partner Conference so special are our vendor partners. These companies are not coming with a show booth and a mission to sell you their products, they simply come to network and help you with questions about their particular industry expertise. Each has worked with many O'Neil customers, so they are familair with the software and how you use it. If you have a question, whether you are a customer of theirs or not, they are more than willing to help you. Of course, they would love you to become a customer, but that would be a bonus. This is a "No Hard sale" Zone!!

One of the most fun aspects of the conference is the Record Center Challenge. The challenge started out as a way of getting attendees to mingle and work with others, who they may not be familiar with. A fun set of challenges have us all working closely to beat the other teams. In the past we have raced boats constructed of record storage boxes, built bicycles for children in need, held a "Masterchef Cook-off" for hungry children, and painted "team" pictures of the Orange County Ronald McDonald House.

Adding a charity component was the idea of several customers, and this has been embraced by all.

Last year the conference raised over $20,000 for this worthwhile charity, and its all thanks to your generosity. The conference provides a vehicle for helping children who are less fortunate than us. Through the record center challenge, donated gifts for a silent auction, and the opportunity for everyone to sponsor a part of the event, 100% of the proceeds go to the charity. The charities have all been grateful for the help, especially in such difficult times, and it's nice that we can use the event to remiond ourselves of how lucky we are and provide an opportunity where, a small contribution by everyone, can add up to a significant amount for the charity. This year we are planning to bring hope, strength and joy to children with life-threatening medical conditions by supporting the the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America and Make-A-Wish Foundation International. Its mission is to grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.

Finally, this is a great opportunity to meet so many of the O'Neil Software team, many of who you will have spoken to regularly on the phone. We look forward to meeting with you and sharing some of our ideas for the future, as well as taking the opportunity to show you many of the features available in the software today. We may even through in a few Strategic Partner of the Year Awards for good measure.

The O'Neil Stratetic Partner show is a unique industry event. A software user conference designed for you to network with and learn from each other. So you can plan accordingly, the dates of this highly anticipated event will be Wednesday, September 14th to Friday, September 16th whether the volcano erupts in Iceland again or not!! So don't delay. Attendance is limited to 150 people and typically spaces sell quickly. You can register at http://www.oneilsoft.com/news-portal/conference-news and we look forward to seeing you in September.

What is the most important feature in your software?

When everyone talks about software, they immediately talk about features and functionality. Does the software do this or does the software do that, often with complete disregard to what the real questions should be. This approach is so prevalent that it was the first question asked of me for a recent magazine interview. And I know others interviewed will instinctively jump to the feature they want to promote to either promote their software, or attempt to differentiate their company.

I actually took a different approach. At the end of the day, we know that O’Neil has the most feature-rich product available to commercial record centers, but what really matters is ensuring that your business problems are understood and addressed. This is accomplished in several different ways.

First, experience matters. Over 30 years of developing software solutions exclusively for this industry sector has allowed our system business rules to mature and standardize throughout our products. If business rules conflict then data integrity problems occur, and they usually manifest themselves as billing errors, which you may never see. Years of experience and established business rules are there to protect you from revenue "seepage", so don't underestimate their value.

Next, if you haven’t worked in a Commercial Record Center, then you don’t fully understand the issues that need to be addressed - period. I don’t care what logistics experience anyone has, there are particular nuances to the Commercial Records Management industry that makes it unique. Knowledge of the industry is crucial to the delivery of an industry-specific software solution. This industry is not about asset tracking, although to the inexperienced eye that is how it first looks. Software designed for asset tracking should stick to that particular function and not be mistaken for commercial record management software.

The quality of any product offering is critical and quality is easily measured by the number of satisfied customers. For many, purchasing software specifically for the industry, especially if you are new to the particular business sector, can be daunting. After all, this software is going to run your business and changing later can be expensive. This leads to an important point: Don’t be mistaken by cheap deals that look too good to be true. You’re a business entrepreneur and you know those deals really are “too good to be true.” This is all about the ROI - Return on Investment. Understanding the true total cost of ownership, so you can calculate the real long-term value of a quality product is essential. You will be surprised by what you learn and the resuklts will speak for themselves: Quality products will always deliver the best ROI.

Of course, I can never discuss quality without bringing service into the discussion. Buying software without support is like not insuring your buildings, people or vehicles. Don’t do it! Support, like insurance, is a critical factor that needs to be included in any business plan. Unlike insurance, however, support should be more than just calling when you have a critical problem. Support should be about checking changes in advance, or just clarifying something about how the software is used in a particular situation. You should also make sure that support goes to a dedicated support desk, with trained technicians. If you call a support desk at 3am, a cell-phone next to someone’s bed just won’t cut it and if the company’s developers are handling support issues, who is expanding the product for you? Don’t be sold short in this area. Support is a critical part of the whole service you require from a software provider.

An area that has expanded beyond anyone’s imagination is, of course, social networking and today’s difficult business environments you need to be able to network with your peers. User meetings and active online forums are more critical than ever, especially in the current business environment. The ability to discuss issues face-to-face, or online can really help you improve your business, which helps in the delivery of that ROI.

So the best features in our software aren’t features at all… They are a combination of Experience, Knowledge, Quality, Service and Networking. The fact that all this comes with a fabulous feature set is just an added bonus.

Managing Chain of Custody for Off-site Records

The question of being able to ensure that you can maintain the chain of custody is something that has come up a lot lately in conversations I have been having. It is clear that everyone is more cautious in today's highly regulated business environment, and so being able to prove who handled records and when is important. That proof allows you to demonstrate a complete chain of custody as records move your off-site storage facility.

All these discussions reminded me of a short article I write some years ago, which clearly still has relevance today...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Records or data are considered to be in your custody when they are:

In your physical possession
In your view, after being in your physical possession
In your physical possession and then locked up so that theft or tampering cannot occur
Kept in a secured area, with access restricted to authorized personnel only.


Therefore, whenever a record is touched, you need to have proof of that activity, and you need to prove where it was stored. This may seem obvious, but what may not be so clear is that by creating an audit trail you provide two essential functions and, as such, you need a database capable of recording and handling the volumes of activity generated. So what are those functions and how do they benefit the client and you?

Firstly, and most important to the client, they are purchasing peace of mind when they store their records with you. They want to sleep at night knowing their records are safe and secure and you have to be able to prove that, when called upon to do so. There are many activities in a records management business, but some clearly need you to be able to provide date & time stamps of when those activities took place. Some of the most obvious ones are:

* Date & Time of pickup (and who picked them up)
* Date & Time of receipt at your facility (and who received them)
* Date & Time of being placed into permanent storage (and who placed them there)
* Date & Time of a request to retrieve records (and who took the request and who was the requestor)
* Date & Time of retrieval from the permanent storage location (and who retrieved the record)
* Date & Time of delivery (and who delivered the record, and who signed for the record)


These are obvious because they are very similar to what you expect from FedEx® or UPS®. You need to ensure that you have the proper tools and the very best database for recording all this activity. Most people miss an important fact with their activity/audit records when thinking about databases. In the example of obvious audit time stamps above, one stored record created six audit records. This means, in this simple example, your database has to be capable of scaling to encompass activity more than six times the size of the number of records stored. That’s why selecting the right software, such as O'Neil Software's RS-SQL®, is essential, so that you can maintain all this activity/audit history and can call upon it in a moments notice to satisfy a customers' request for proof of chain of custody.

The second and most important point of all this activity is that it accurately records what actually took place. This data is very important for billing and reporting purposes. With accurate activity/audit data, your records management system will be able to quickly create invoices for your clients. Each activity will have a charge associated with it and one of the key factors of a successful records management business is to ensure you charge for everything that has a cost associated with it. Not only can you have detailed, accurate invoices, but you can positively prove every charge was justified, should the need arise. These data records provide you with your peace of mind that the business is collecting all the charges due and your customers have confidence in their invoices. It is not uncommon to hear of more than 10% increases in service revenue, when the O'Neils Software's RS-SQL® records management software is used, simply due to the ability to record activity automatically and accurately.

So who knew that by providing an accurate chain of custody, you can afford both your client and yourself peace of mind? Sleep well.

Open all lines of communications...

Several events this week have reminded me of the constant need to communicate through every available channel. It's like those old episodes of Star Trek where Captain James T. Kirk tells Lieutenant Uhura to "Hail on all available frequencies".

Every day we are bombarded with email, text messages, instant messages, Skype calls, cell phone calls, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter updates... and the list goes on.

As a software provider, we often have important news to provide our customers with, especially from a support standpoint. It could be big news, such as a new release, or an important update to your current release to fix a known issue. Either way, it's important that we get an opportunity to get vital information through to you in a timely manner.

As such, we have several ways that we try to communicate latest news, and it would be great if everyone could subscribe to at least one of these:

Firstly, we have the long-running eNewsletter. This has been a staple of news for more than 5 years and is a great way to learn about what is going on. It's designed to be a quick, easy monthly read with links to website articles, should you wish to read more. If you are not subscribed, you can do so at: http://www.oneilsoft.com/html/subscribe.htm and you can unsubscribe any time you wish.

Next, comes the newer "social networks" of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. O'Neil has a presence on all of these and regularly posts industry news and updates. You don't need to subscribe to them all, as generally we post the same information across all three, but they are a great way to get timely updates.

Another great area for communication is the User Forum. This is one of the most popular communication channels, as it gives an opportunity to get involved in discussions with other O'Neil Software users. With over 2700 posts and over 840 members, there is a wealth of information on hand, as well as the opportunity to ask questions about any topic relating to the software or the record storage and information management industry in general.

If discussions are something you enjoy, you should also make a date in your calendar to join us at our User Conference, which will be taking place in mid-September 2011. Although this is not regular enough to discuss immediate updates, it is a great opportunity to meet with other users of the software, but also a great way tomlearn about the strategic direction of O'Neil Software. You will hear things at the conference that you won't hear anywhere else.

And finally, this Blog is my opportunity to communicate my thoughts. I try to only update this once a month, so as not to add to the communication "noise", but I hope to be able to use it to share one point that has some importance at that particular moment in time.

Whatever is your particular flavour of communications, please take the time to subscribe to at least one service so you can stay up to date in all things "O'Neil".

And with all that said, and with the opening being a Star Trek reference, I suppose there is only one way to sign off...

Live long and Prosper

A Global Industry Retrospective

As we close in on the end of 2010 it seems fitting to look back at the year and reflect on some of the things that I have seen, especially in light of another difficult global economic climate. I suppose my main observation will seem obvious; that the world is not all equal, especially in the world of commercial records management. Here are a few of my observations from the different global markets:

In North America, I have witnessed an increase in activity on the acquisition front, with more companies saying that they are actively seeking acquisitions, or plan to make acquisitions in the near future. So what is fueling this desire to buy/sell? I believe it is two-fold: Firstly, I think that many independent companies have reached a size where they feel it’s time to exercise their exit strategy. With employee costs on the increase, inflation rumored to be on the horizon, and the constant media attention pointing to a rise in electronic records (and therefore an assumed decrease in “traditional” physical storage) maybe the time just looks right for many independents to sell. Couple that with the fact that many other companies seem to be buoyed with equity money flooding into the industry along with their urgent desire to spend that money, and the phone hasn’t stopped ringing at the independents in 2010. Now this may all seem alarming to the uninitiated, but this has been a natural part of the commercial record management industry forever. Independents are the pioneers who break out into new markets (the so-called green-field sites) and the larger companies come along with bags of money when they can see a successful opportunity. This consolidation has always created opportunities for new entrepreneurs (or those returning with expired non-compete agreements) to enter a market with new ideas and new visions for the industry. It is this regeneration that makes this an exciting industry that will continue to grow and be successful.

In Latin America, on the other hand, I am seeing what I refer to as a professionalizing of the industry (see my blog titled The Professionals to explain my use of this term). It may surprise many to learn that some of the biggest, and arguably best commercial record centers exist in these markets, and to continue their growth they are introducing new software, management structures, partnerships, and visions. Document management is a mainstay of many of these commercial record centers, in volumes not usually seen in companies in their North American neighbor. Each country is a little different but the trend is the same across them all. Expect to hear a lot more from this growing region in the coming years.

In Europe, to me it has been much more “business as usual”. I was expecting to see more acquisitions, as in North America, but they didn’t really come to fruition. Businesses appeared to continue to focus on their core strengths, with the addition of some exploration into the offering of digital services. Europe does not appear to being driven as hard by media speculation over the “paper-less office” and so traditional commercial records management is still considered to be a very important part of the Records and Information Management (RIM) requirements. I think the one thing that has most encouraged me about the industry in Europe has been the camaraderie of “competitors” clearly seen on our user forum and at trade shows. We all live in a competitive environment, but to see how our customers (and the industry as a whole) pull together in Europe is wonderful to see.

As we continue our globetrotting retrospective to Asia, I have to say that the market where I have seen most disruption in 2010 has been India. In an industry that needs to focus on providing high levels of services, it has been unfortunate that many companies have taken the commodity approach of selling “cheap storage” over “records management”. There are many excellent companies in India that have invested heavily in their business, in order to offer a first-class service, but the buyers of the services are still not educated to the important differences between storage and management. It is very important, therefore, that we all continue to produce articles and blogs, and any other marketing collateral we can, to help our industry colleagues in India educate their clients and potential clients to the importance of engaging with professional commercial records management companies. I hope the government there also gets involved, as regulation is needed and would help the industry. Over time, the message of governance will resonate through to the buyers of services, and then we can watch these entrepreneurial companies grow to their true potential.

So a quick tour of the globe lets us see that the commercial records management industry is very much alive, but facing different challenges depending on your geographical location. Each challenge will be taxing to those involved, but the end result will be a stronger industry that will continue to play an important part of the RIM lifecycle for the next decade.

I am more excited than ever to be involved and look forward to being a part of your successes in 2011 and beyond.

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year.

Reminding Records Managers not to Forget

Originally published on Monday, 08 November 2010 11:58 at http://www.oneilsoft.com/news-portal/ians-blog/258-reminding-records-manager-not-to-forget

As much as the next guy, I can see that the record management world is embracing and moving towards digital solutions. This, of course, is just the next, natural evolution of the industry and is an essential part of the growth of any company in this industry. But, I do get left with a sense that in the trade magazines and ListServ’s the focus has moved almost 100% away from discussing the physical records. Are the traditional boxes on shelves being forgotten about?

This question bothers me because I see so many situations where physical records are being moved to off-site storage that are ill prepared, badly categorized, and sometimes even have no metadata at all to record them accurately. My worry is that many records managers are thinking that they only have to concern themselves with their digital/electronic records and are consequently neglecting the physical records. This can put an extraordinary burden on commercial record centers when those physical records are required urgently, and that happens… a lot!

Now, to be fair, it’s understandable as to why this is happening. The digital world is a flurry of chatter about how to control all the new types of “documents”. It wasn’t very long ago when companies really didn’t have to worry about archiving web content, Twitter feeds, Facebook accounts, and that’s not to mention the explosion of emails or the challenges of cloud services. So a firm’s records manager has gone from what some considered a fairly sedate job, to suddenly being thrown into the deep end of a digital/electronic pool, which was previously the domain of the IT department. This sudden draw of their attention brings to mind a very well known and often misquoted saying:

"The objective of all dedicated employees [a.k.a. record managers] is to thoroughly analyze all situations, anticipate all problems prior to their occurrence, have answers for these problems, and move swiftly to solve these problems when called upon. However, when you are up to your ass in alligators, it is difficult to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp."

So we all have to recognize the challenges that face records manager today, that they did not face yesterday, but we must help them to not forget that the physical records management issues show no sign of going away anytime soon. The latest figures continue to support this view.

According to the American Forest & Paper Association's September 2010 U.S. Paperboard Report, total boxboard production increased by 7.2% compared to September 2009. Although clearly not all of this goes into record storage boxes it has proven to be a useful indicator in the past. If we couple this with their September 2010 Printing-Writing Paper Report, which stated that total printing/writing paper shipments decreased only 1% in September compared to September 2009, while two of the four major printing-writing grades posted increases compared to last September, we can see that things haven’t changed much at all. We are still clinging on tightly to paper.

As sexy as digital/electronic records are, I know of at least 500 million boxes of physical records in off-site storage today, and they are getting added to on a daily basis. As such, we must ensure that we continually educate everyone to the initial object, which is the proper management of all business records, so no-one forgets the importance of physical records.

The End of an Era... Coming Soon

Originally posted on Friday, 24 September 2010 13:25 at http://www.oneilsoft.com/news-portal/ians-blog/255-the-end-of-an-era-coming-soon

It’s been a staple of the commercial record center since its introduction in 1996 and is familiar around the world, but we are rapidly approaching the end of this wonderful journey together. What am I talking about? The good old Symbol PDT3100, of course.

When O’Neil software first introduced barcode scanning to the world of the commercial record center it came in the form of the Datawand, a pen type device that just captured barcodes. With no screen and no programming capability, it was very limited but functional. With the introduction of the ground breaking RSWin (Record Storage for Windows) software came the PDT3100. In its day this was a state of the art portable data terminal with a 4-line screen, rotating barcode scanner head and full keyboard. Its memory capacity was limited, but we were able to cram a lot of code into that small space, making it a very capable device.

Every good ride, however, must come to an end and in 2005 Symbol (now Motorola) announced the End of Sale and subsequently an End of Life (meaning no more support or repairs) was set for May 31, 2010. O’Neil Software had no choice but to quickly follow suit and made an announcement that from the end of 2010, we would no longer support the PDT3100. We also stopped selling our software package for the PDT3100 in 2007 and figured that a more than 5-years notice period would be enough for everyone to plan ahead. To clarify that old announcement, we will continue to support the PDT3100 until the first major release in 2011.

Well time has a habit of catching up with us and 2011 is rapidly approaching, so it is very important that a review of your remaining PDT3100 devices is undertaken, with a replacement plan put in place. The good news is that the newer RSMobile devices offer great advantages over the old PDT3100. They include, but are not limited to:

•More memory means that there is a lot more functionality;
•More functionality means a greater return on investment;
•Wireless capabilities provide many time saving options, such as remote upload/downloads;
•GPRS capabilities (with the MC9094k) allow communications from outside the four walls;
•Compared to the PDT3100 they are a more cost effective capital investment;
•The RSMobile software is transferrable to a newer device (the PDT3100 software was not); and
•Full-shift battery capability comes with the MC909x range.

Currently we sell and support the following devices from Motorola:

•MC9090K
•MC9094K
•MC9090G


And shortly we will be introducing a new device(s) to continue to improve on the benefits above. So don’t leave it to the last minute. Contact your account manager today and work with them on your replacement program. Currently they have access to some great offers from Motorola, so don’t wait too long as these won't last forever.