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FlowFile Pro
10 HARD Questions to Ask Before Writing the BIG Check TECHBLDRS FLOWFILE PRO
TRADITIONAL DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
1) Do you need proprietary licensed software to retrieve the documents? TechBldrs Flowfile stores documents in a standard Adobe Acrobat PDF file. All you need is Windows Explorer and the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to look at documents. Go ahead and upgrade, you just need version 5.0 or higher.
Almost every document management system requires licensed software so that you can retrieve the documents you stored. That’s why they’re sold as a “per seat” license. If you want your whole company to start storing documents electronically, you’d better have a big check book. Also, think about how you’re going to update all those desktops every time a new version comes out.
2) Are you going to keep this software forever? It’s just a PDF. If you stop using TechBldrs Flowfile, so what! Use any PDF reader and search tool to find the files and open them.
If you invest into a document management system or use one built into a package, like accounting, project management or customer services, and you change it later on, how will you get to your documents? You’d have to keep the system going and pay for licenses so you can retrieve the documents on an old system you don’t even use!
3) How do you fix the document index database when it breaks? TechBldrs Flowfile embeds indexing information in the folder, subfolder and name of the document file. Additional information is stored inside the Document Properties of each PDF file. In other words, there is no database to repair.
Most document management systems use a database to hold all the index information and a link to the actual document file. When you have to move your documents for any reason, your links break. When the index database becomes corrupt and is restored from backup, index records that have no corresponding linked files are created. Every time this happens you have to repair the database.
4) Do you need special software to archive your documents offline? Ever burn files to a CD? That’s all it takes. The PDF files are self-contained. There’s no expensive utility to purchase to archive the files.
Eventually, your going to need to archive the documents to some offline storage. That means you need to archive the index and the document. Most document management systems sell you a utility so that you can move the documents off-line. Other packages, like accounting systems haven’t even thought that far.
5) How much training does it take to search for documents? Most users know how to access a network folder, subfolder and file using Windows Explorer. Free search tools like Google Desktop Search, Windows Search, and MSN Search Toolbar can be used to find any document.
Using a proprietary application to retrieve documents requires installation, configuration, separate security access, and training. Your users must learn a whole new filing scheme to search for documents. Every new user needs to get training on how the system works.
Service TECHBLDRS FLOWFILE PRO
TRADITIONAL DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
6) How do you find misfiled documents? You can look for anything about the document, like the file creation date and time or the indexer’s userid. At worst, you can use 3rd party PDF tools to OCR everything and search the full content of every file.
Hope this never happens, but sometimes you have to find the needle in the haystack. Since most document management systems are customized to an application, if you incorrectly index a document, you’d better know how you mis-keyed the information, or consider the document lost.
7) On average, how long will it take to implement the system? On average TechBldrs Flowfile is installed in under 8 hours, including software setup, link to your data sources and training. Most sites are completely in production the next day.
Now here’s a dodgy question? Answer: “It depends.” Most systems that require customization take anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks to implement. Then there’s the training, pilot test phase, the pre-production phase, and finally into production. Expect an overall average of 2 to 3 months.
8) Is custom programming required to link to your data source? TechBldrs Flowfile links to any ODBC data source, Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel, using a click-and-drag interface. There is no programming.
Custom programming and consulting is a primary money maker for vendors of document management systems. To link your data sources to their system, requires configuring tables, linking fields, and ,of course, custom programming. Custom programming is always needed for your extremely special, “we done it a hundred times before, but yours is different” application.
9) Which scanners and storage can it use? TechBldrs Flowfile works with every scanner on the market, because it does not perform any scanning. As an indexing engine, it does not care where the documents were created, so any device that can create a PDF or TIF files can be used, including copiers, fax servers, PDF writers and cameras.
To speed up the indexing, traditional document management systems build their own scanning interfaces. This limits the scanners that can be used, and doesn’t work with multifunction copiers, fax machines, or printers. Scanning is also limited to the scanning station.
As for storage, anything you can write a file to, can be used.
10) What happens if the software vendor goes out of business? Since files are stored as PDF documents, there are enough 3rd party software to search through the file system and view PDF files. Besides if Adobe or Microsoft go out of business, we’ll have different things to be concerned about.
Storage archives are also controlled by the system, and is limited to the products that they have integrated with their library management components.
Remember: A document repository and archive has to last for upwards of 30 years. No document management vendor has existed that long. If you lock yourself into a proprietary system, then you’re shackled to that system forever. Use a system that is vendor-proof!
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