Document management ditches desktop for cloud vaults

Cloud vaults topple desktop hegemony

M-Files cloud vault hosted document management replaces Windows folders with user-defined keywords and tags

ECMPlus – BY PAUL QUIGLEY – Motive Systems has launched M-Files Cloud Vault, a new version of M-Files document management, which proffers info- and DM on secure servers hosted by Motive Systems for less than $20 per month per user.

According to the company, the hosted SaaS version of M-Files requires no set-up and offers advanced document management features such as automated versioning management, document check-in and check-out, compatibility with email systems, and automated processing of scanned paper documents.

M-Files Cloud Vault also promises fast search, secure user-access permissions, email and attachments, and offline use.

Motive Systems said it aimed to make efficient office management accessible to any business, especially smaller businesses.

“We think it’s high time that mainstream Windows users had access to a smart and simple solution for managing important business documents,” said Greg Milliken, president of Motive Systems. “Our M-Files technology sets the standard in high-value document management, and M-Files Cloud Vault builds on our unrivaled foundation of ease of use by eliminating the need to purchase or set up a server. A key to a successful implementation of a solution like this is fast and broad user adoption, and that’s where we excel. Using M-Files is just like using Windows Explorer, so it’s second nature to be instantly productive with M-Files.”

M-Files eliminates traditional Windows folders. Instead, users open from, and save to, the M-Files Vault. Documents are simply classified as a common type, such as an invoice, proposal, message/email, agreement, etc., and a descriptive tag or two is added, and that’s it. And with M-Files Cloud Vault, the vault is hosted in the cloud, accessible from anywhere. Finding a file is as simple as typing in a descriptive tag or performing a full-text search right from the Open or Save dialog box of any Windows application. This is possible due to M-Files’ unique “Virtual-Local” drive technology that allows the cloud-based vault to appear as a local hard drive (the M: drive), in any standard Windows Explorer dialog box, whether online or offline.

The company said that M-Files “Virtual-Local” drive offers performance equivalent to the speed of the local computer regardless of bandwidth – even when no Internet connection is available.

The M-Files “Virtual-Local” drive also has synchronization mechanism that caches data on the computer’s local hard drive and automatically synchronizes data with the cloud-based vault.

Was ist ECM?

Open Text does the SharePoint shuffle

SharePoint opens out enterprise-wide

Open Text touts enterprise-wide SharePoint 2010 roll-out plans

ECMPlus – BY PAUL QUIGLEY — Open Text has launched a new suite of products and services for enterprises to manage large numbers of SharePoint 2010 sites.

According to the firm, the new enterprise-wide system caters for users from content creation through to archiving.

Consulting services will be led by Burntsand, which joined Open Text after a recent acquisition.

Open Text said that Burntsand brings a focus on SharePoint 2010 and enterprise content management implementation.

“The productivity and collaboration tools in SharePoint 2007 and now SharePoint 2010 have proven popular with end users, leading to faster adoption than many IT organizations are equipped to handle,” said Lubor Ptacek, Vice President of Product Marketing at Open Text.

“By combining the Open Text ECM Suite with SharePoint 2010 deployment expertise, we are in a position to help IT regain control over content in SharePoint 2010 sites, improve efficiency and put in place comprehensive governance, risk management and compliance solutions not only for the content in SharePoint 2010 sites, but for content across the enterprise.”

3Par tug-of-war not over until fat lady sings

HP back for more

Squabble turned tiff spiralling into boardroom bun-fight

by Paul Quigley

ECMPlus — Just when you thought it was safe to assume Michael Dell’s boys had won the day in the tug-o-war love tussle against Hewlett-Packard, it has been reported that HP is not done yet.

According to sources close to California-based storage bellwether 3Par, which has yet to make a profit, the deal with Dell has been put on ice once more as the new suitor gets another go to match the $2 billion valuation the unprofirable storage firm can now command. While other data storage players such as Compellent are already strong in the space, they are currently not open to outside buyout offers, hence the interest in 3Par, as is had indicated it was ‘available’ a Dell source said on Friday last. If HP does manage to pip Dell at the post, the upshot for the loser will be uncertain as PC sales worldwide decline and the move to cloud-based storage increases exponentially. In a recent report on data storage by GRC Analytics, the market for data storage in private and public cloud is set to top $10 billion by 2012.

Swiss solves SharePoint size through shrinkage

Swiss going up in the world

balesio releases FILEminimizer for SharePoint

ECMPlus – by Paul Quigley — balesio AG has released FILEminimizer SharePoint, an integrated optimizer based on its FILEminimizer technology to slash file storage volumes on SharePoint.

According to the Swiss firm, FILEminimizer SharePoint cuts down on the size of images and Office files, usually popular files shared via SharePoint, by an average of 70 percent through its content-aware, native optimization processes.

Unlike .LZ and .ZIP file compression, FILEminimizer optimisation preserves the original file format leading not only to enormous storage savings on SharePoint but also to significant performance improvement of the optimized, smaller files, balesio said.

FILEminimizer SharePoint is a plug-in for SharePoint which is centrally-monitoring the upload of files to SharePoint.

balesio said the plug-in also defines the optimisation rules and criteria to be applied and triggers the native file optimisation of uploaded files before they are stored in the SharePoint database. The optimization process itself can easily be outsourced to a dedicated server in order not to consume too much resources of the SharePoint server. The entirely transparent optimization process takes place in the normal Microsoft SharePoint workflow and is invisible to end users.

balesio CEO Daniel Bernard said: “We developed FILEminimizer SharePoint to offer SharePoint administrators a solution to significantly reduce the data volume…”

Legal eagles becoming paper tigers

Legal eagles becoming paper tigers

Open Text EDOCS pushes into law market

ECMPlus – by Paul Quigley — Open Text Corporation today said it was expanding further into the law market including new integration between its eDOCS Edition and its Social Workplace.

“Law firms are recognizing the benefit of collaborating with others on key projects and cases, and require the same type of secure environment that follows existing information governance rules and regulations,” said Todd Partridge at eDOCS and Legal Solutions for Open Text. “By integrating Open Text Social Workplace and eDOCS DM, law firms will have more options for collaborating on ideas, documents and matters with clients and employees that will be secured and stored within their eDOCS repository.”

The new integration, OT saidl, would enable law firm users to collaborate on documents and matters stored and governed within eDOCS, including microblogging and IM. It also claimed that law firms would be able to keep closer more productive attorney client relationships, and provide for more effective knowledge capture and sharing within the practice.

Open Text Document Management, eDOCS Edition 5.3 would further help manage document-based knowledge assets by enabling users to capture, organize, locate and share business content in a secure, integrated, and intuitive environment.

eDOCS DM 5.3 has Windows 7 and Office 2010 support and updated integration is available. 

Also added in 5.3 is new platform support for 32 and 64 Bit versions of Windows Server 2008,SQL Server 2008, and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) support, while deployment costs are lowered through native Windows Installer support.

The company also confirmed that eDOCS Edition can also be Integrated with Open Text Records Management.

Cisco enters CM space with ExtendMedia acquisition

IP giant takes to the big stage

Move into video content shakes and rattles media markets

by Paul Quigley

ECMPlus – Cisco Systems has made a play for the burgeoning content space with a surprise acquisition of video content bellwether ExtendMedia for an undisclosed sum.

According to the networking giant, the move into the video content delivery platform space is part of a wider service provider strategy for rich media and advertising services.

Commentators have suggested Cisco’s play may well be another death knell for cable TV operators as more and more TV and video content is watched over IP rather than terrestrial or satellite-based delivery.

Sources close to the deal indicate that Cisco is keen to see off competitors in the video space such as YouTube and others, and that it has the capacity to carry such data volumes as video requires.

Enterprise Semantic knowledge suite launched by Transinsight

Semantic Web - by dullhunk

Search intelligence breaks new ground for organisations

ECMPlus – by Paul Quigley — Transinsight has released the latest version of Enterprise Semantic Intelligence solution.

According to the company Transinsight’s Enterprise Semantic Intelligence Knowledge Suite offers semantic technologies that take the search process to new levels of efficiency.

• “Over the last year we developed a new and highly scalable system comprising the latest algorithms. We made significant investments to be able to provide our clients with true innovations in the area of enterprise wide large scale information handling,” said Dr. Michael R. Alvers, CEO of Transinsight.

The new version of Enterprise Semantic Intelligence Knowledge Suite contains about 100 custom relevant improvements. The system can now deal with more than 100 million documents and vast background knowledge bases for several million concepts. An improved semi-automated knowledgebase generation is now available to customers that do not have their own ontologies or taxonomies available as background knowledge. Novel algorithms allow untrained users to develop ontologies in practically no time. Users are supported in the generation of terms, definitions, abbreviations, synonyms and relationships to other terms. The algorithms are thoroughly validated against manually developed ontologies and
achieve an agreement of 82% (fully automated.

Why Dell outflanking HP in 3Par tussle matters

Dell boy does data - Picture: Joi

Storage battles spiral into the clouds

ECMPlus.com – by Paul Quigley — Dell’s imminent victory over HP in the bidding war for storage firm 3Par is a definite throwing down of the gauntlet to the big storage players most notably EMC and the big iron players.

If shareholders agree to the marginal Dell overbid, then HP is left with little to show in the upcoming cloud battles, whilst Dell, with its recent acquisition of EqualLogic already well under its belt is upping the ante in the private cloud space, despite the fact that organisations can already tap EC2 architecture from the like of amazon if they need it.

Suffice it to say, this new focus on strorage as a differentiator is a novel twist in the behemoths’n battles – given that open source, SaaS and content are now the biggest plays in town. As the saying goes, and as with storage, size isn’t everything.

Data storage giant bolsters VMWare support

Farming today

FalconStor Accelerator for VMware View boosts performance and data protection

ECMPlus – by Paul Quigley — Data storage specialist FalconStor’s new Network Storage Server SAN Accelerator for VMWare View now touts an SSD-enhanced storage solution that increases the performance of VMware virtual desktop environments while delivering integrated, multi-tier data protection.

According to the company, NSS SAN Accelerator for VMware View can be used for performs backup and recovery for the entire virtual desktop environment and for each virtual desktop – and enables integrated self-service file recovery for individual virtual desktop users.

VMware View promises efficiencies in the deployment and management of enterprise users’ desktop and laptop computers. Virtual desktop operation and management can be enhanced by storage capabilities to maximize performance, availability and efficiency. FalconStor NSS SAN Accelerator for VMware View dramatically enhances the efficiency of virtual desktop management throughout the virtual desktop lifecycle – accelerating virtual desktop booting, login, operation, logoff, patch/update and security management through 10x storage performance improvement.

“Virtualization in general and virtualization of desktops in particular have amplified I/O unpredictably as read/write I/O storms occur frequently without warning; the only solution to date has been to add more disk drives,” said David Vellante, chief research advocate, Wikibon. “Wikibon has been emphasizing the requirement for different architectures to exploit the potential of flash to improve I/O performance. We are very pleased with the innovation that FalconStor has shown with its flash-on- storage-controller implementation, which is much more efficient for VDI than SSDs. The FalconStor NSS SAN Accelerator neatly exploits the VMware I/O separation improvements to offer a solution that combines low-cost SATA with 2 to 3 percent high-performance flash as a cache that can adapt in real-time.  Wikibon believes this is a best-of-breed solution for high-performance workloads.” 

“The rapidly adopted paradigm shift of virtual servers and desktops ushered in by VMware’s innovation has created the need for storage environments with integrated data protection designed for the new virtual data center,” said Jim McNiel, chief strategy officer for FalconStor. “Virtual environments not only demand flexible, scalable virtual storage environments, but also require backup and DR systems that work with the unique characteristics of virtual machines. We designed the FalconStor NSS SAN Accelerator for VMware View(tm) to deliver the kind of storage environment that virtual desktops require – improving performance and data protection in one elegant solution.”

FalconStor;s NSS SAN Accelerator for VMware View is available now and costs $175k for an implementation of up to 5,000 users at $35 per virtual desktop.

Vamosa launches WebWorxx 14-day trial

Web Experience Management - the user perspective - Picture: Paul Veugen

Web experience management free trial transforms performance of web properties

ECMPlus – Vamosa is offering a new 14-day trial of WebWorxx. Users can provide the URL of any website to be crawled and the trial can be accessed here.

WebWorxx is a software-as-a-service solution for web teams, allowing them to collaborate on web optimization and enhancing their productivity. It monitors websites on a daily basis to track web properties and focuses the web team on key problem areas. WebWorxx powerful, collaborative dashboard allows delegation by web teams to content owners to resolve problems.

WebWorxx crawls the website content and analyzes the performance based on set policy areas including accessibility, brand compliance, search engine optimization, link cohesion, HTML and language. Users registering for the free trial will receive a site report and be invited to log into the account to view the results. Vamosa’s NALA & EMEA support teams will work with you during the trial period to advise on configuration and optimizing the tool.

Ger Burns, VP of Software Tools at Vamosa said: “Management of web content and site optimization is a challenge faced by any organization with a website – external or internal. The 14-day trial of WebWorxx is designed to give web teams an insight into how they can simplify this process and provide each member of the team with a personalized portal to review progress within their area of ownership.”

WebWorxx is an ‘out of the box’ solution that is set up with 63 policies. The client has control over which of these policies should be implemented through a user-friendly dashboard.

Burns added: “In our experience, many organizations’ approach to web operations is incoherent, because typically web teams are distributed widely over different departments, job functions and geographies. The result is that broken links and accessibility issues which exist on the same web page, may be dealt with by different people using different tools at different times. WebWorxx is the first tool to bring teams together to collaborate, enhancing overall productivity and reducing costs.”

To try it all out for a free 14-day period, check out this link: www.vamosa.com/webworxx-c121

Six of the best from Contensis in Web 2.0 CMS play

Content expanding Web 2.0 - Picture: nswlearnscope

Firm throws down gauntlet to rivals

ECMPlus – by Paul Quigley — One Web CMS provider has just achieved a release that its developers believe will see take-up explode.

According to the latest version of the Contensis web CMS boast, a range of new features put it at the cutting-edge of the content management market, the company said, and throws down the gauntlet to its competitors.

Contensis’ new ‘R6’ release proffers new features and pricing, including multimedia controls for inserting streaming media, galleries and slideshows into pages.

R6 supports social networking and integrates Google Apps accounts using a single sign-on for both the website and Google accounts.

R6 also boasts a module to deploy sites in multiple languages and even with multiple dialects of those languages.

R6 can also deploy any Web 2.0 features such as blogs, fora and commenting.

Chief Technical Officer of Contensis creators, Genetics Ltd, Richard Chivers, commented: “Given that content is the whole point of a CMS, it’s crucial that the people who maintain that content have as many easy-to-use tools at their fingertips as possible. Our focus with Contensis R6 is to remove the traditional roadblocks to making enhancements to a site, such as having to wait for designer or developer input when adding advanced features, like RSS Feeds, or streaming media. We’ve ensured that content managers can now just drop this kind of content into their page and move on to their next task. It makes a huge difference.”

He went on: “If you’re familiar with Contensis you can install, configure and deploy an entirely new site within 15 minutes. We actually do that in demonstrations – it’s not a just a theory or empty boast.

“Of course for newcomers from a development viewpoint there is a learning curve, but that learning curve is vastly less than for equivalent products. A developer familiar with .NET would grasp all that’s needed in no time at all. Our experience tells us that with three days training for the devs, they can have an entire new site, with galleries, streaming media, blogs, and more up just a day after getting to work. When potential customers compare that to the competition they’re always blown away. Because of this we’ve had clients move their existing platforms off PHP and onto .NET, just so that they could use Contensis – although another new feature of R6 is the ability to deploy to any platform, using languages such as PHP, for example.”

A demo of the new controls gallery can be seen at http://www.contentmanagement.co.uk

HP counterbid for 3Par ups ante for Dell

3Par benchmarking - Picture: Fenng(dbanotes)

Three’s a crowd as behemoths battle for market power

ECMPlus.com – by Paul Quigley – Hewlett Packard’s eleventh hour bid for data storage bellwether 3Par has knocked Dell into the sidewall. Aftar having acquired the likes of EDS, Palm and 3Com – as well as the absorption of Compay – over recent times, the move for the data storage firm will be something the two IT vendors look set to fight tooth and nail over.

Given the recent signifcance of EMC and IBM both zoning in on both private cloud and generic, the HP Dell duel looks set to be just the first of a new salvo of similar storage skirmishes.

ERP player tackles SAP certification

SAP making it happen via QIS

Certification for enterprise manufacturing from QiSOFT

ECMPlus.com – by Paul Quigley – SAP certification has been awarded to Leyland based QiSOFT for a new browser-based version of its enterprise manufacturing intelligence software suite, QIS – ERP1.0.

The new version was developed using the SAP NetWeaver technology platform and it fully integrates with the QiSOFT software and other third party systems through SAP XI/SAP PI interfaces.

“In developing the browser version, we have responded to a growing need from SAP customers who seek integration throughout the enterprise. We are offering customers the best of both worlds, combining the stable and functionally rich QiSOFT manufacturing suite with the lean, swift-to-deploy browser version. Customers can make use of the full manufacturing application suite where it makes sense to do so alongside the browser-based version,” says Tim Perris, business development manager. 

“Data can be collected manually or automatically from the process and laboratory and instantly transformed into rich information for analysis and site or enterprise-wide reporting.”

As part of the SAP online solutions directory, QIS ERP 1.0 allows for rapid, cost-effective implementation and is attractive to companies with moderate data needs without investing in costly infrastructure. The QiSOFT mission is to deliver higher and more consistent levels of quality for manufacturers by the gathering, interpretation and clear reporting of data on key process parameters for effective and timely management action. Manufacturing applications arise in food and beverage, pulp and paper, chemical, consumer packaged goods, paints and coatings and textiles.

The ability of QIS software to interpret large volumes of data has also led to the technology attracting wider interest from areas such as law enforcement, healthcare and drug diversion.

Intranets get collaborative, go mobile

Interact Intranet Version 4.6 boasts collaborative features and mobile accessibility

ECMPlus.com – by Paul Quigley – Interact Intranet Version 4.6: New powerful collaborative features and mobile accessibility – Interact, has announced the availability of Interact Version 4.6. Version 4.6 includes a number of additional enhancements and new capabilities that offer a very attractive employee workspace and addresses an increasing demand for advanced collaborative features within the Enterprise.

Enhancements to the staff directory include powerful enterprise networking features increasing cross company collaboration by allowing businesses to take advantage of the social dimension of work and engage employees. It actively promotes internal communication, collaboration, idea sharing and cross participation by using facebook/linkedin style micro posts and news feeds. Staff can post their ideas, sites and documents, submit suggestions to each other, comment on others ideas and suggestions as well as view what a another staff member is working on via their status update. This can increase productivity by giving users a method for receiving fast, efficient answers to their questions.

Another key development is the launch of Interact Mobile. People increasingly expect ‘anytime anyplace’ access and The Jacob Nielsen ‘10 Best Intranets of 2010’ report advocates the provision of separate sites for mobile devices.

Commenting on this development, Nigel Danson, Managing Director at Interact, said:

“Many organisations have non-office based employees or workers that spend a considerable amount of time on the move. Without fast, easy access to important information these workers may find it difficult to keep in touch with vital company developments or make sound business judgments. Having instant access to accurate information is particularly important if information and documentation changes frequently. This can often be the case with product pricing and promotions.

“Interact Mobile can easily be used to communicate and collaborate with colleagues by allowing users to update their status, and contribute to document or blog comments”

Mobile users can access information such as HTML documents, uploaded files, documents that provide hyperlinks, blogs, and the Staff Directory. It has a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy for non technical users to get critical information on the move. The interface has been carefully optimised for handheld mobile devices and can be used on many types of smartphones and PDAs, running platforms such as Windows Mobile, RIM BlackBerry, Apple iPhone and the Android Smartphone.

Version 4.6 has extended Interact’s Clever Linker feature. Clever Linker enables users to easily create links to intranet objects – such as documents, events, blogs, discussions, and forms – without needing to know the object’s URL. This popular tool has now been expanded to work in many other areas of Interact, such as the top menu, sections or homepage site menus, or document attachments. Links are easy to create and maintain, and integrate with the Interact security platform. They are also automatically cleaned up on deletion of content.

“This latest Interact release delivers to our customers a range of clever and sophisticated features with enhanced collaborative tools to improve productivity, collaboration, communication and knowledge management” said Nigel Danson, Managing Director, Odyssey Interactive Ltd, “Importantly the introduction of these advanced features is not at the expense of ease of use – Interact remains the most intuitive and user-centric intranet available resulting in rapid user adoption and faster ROI”.

An Enterprise Edition of Interact 4.6 is available for larger organisations with a national, international or group structure. Organisations with offices in multiple countries or locations often have different policies, guidelines and knowledge based on their local laws or marketplace. Interact Enterprise Edition will help them better manage their intranet and be able to serve all staff needs.

Interact 4.6 is also available in a Retail Edition which supports a new sub-license model which provides a cost effective way for occasional users to have full access to all intranet features.

DM boost for Plustek with eFileCabinet approvals

eFileCabinet partnership confirms Plustek’s commitment to the document management

ECMPlus.com – by Paul Quigley – eFileCabinet’s Document Management suite has just certified Plustek’s SmartOffice PS282, PS286 Plus and MobileOffice D428 document scanners.

According to the company, eFileCabinet testing verified that the Plustek SmartOffice PS286 Plus and MobileOffice D248 scanners meet and/or exceed all requirements and are now certified for use with eFileCabinet.

“eFileCabinet’s document management solutions are the perfect complement to Plustek document scanners,” said Mark Druziak, Plustek’s director of marketing and business development. “Together they provide end users with a complete solution for managing their paper and electronic documents. Plustek is committed to the document management industry and this relationship with eFileCabinet further demonstrates that commitment.”

Matt Peterson, president and CEO of eFileCabinet added: “Not only will this new relationship allow us to expand our array of products certified for use with eFileCabinet, it furthers our objective of providing simple and affordable paperless office solutions to our customers.”

All Plustek scanners can be purchased from authorised resellers, DMRs, VARs, and distributors including Northamber.

News agency taps Adeptol for document viewing

Doc viewing app proffers breadth of publishing for social media, online distribution

ECMPlus.com – MyPRGenie has just integrated Adeptol’s document viewer into its Newswire service as a way of sharing content online and publishing for social media.

According to the company, the combination of viewing technology with the newswire service changes the legacy method of publishing and embedding to Web 2.0 and distributing through social media channels.

This new application provides content viewing platform and ability to share content easily, the company claimed. Bloggers, analysts and customers can embed directly into blogs or other social media and add comments.

Miranda Tan, CEO of MyPRGenie commented, “The use of Adeptol’s viewing technology adds a new dimension into social media publishing and serves the needs of bloggers looking at sharing information easily over blogs, twitter, facebook etc. It provides PR and marketing professionals with services that are aligned with emerging Web 2.0 trends.”

Prateek Kathpal, CEO of Adeptol added: “Adeptol has always been a front-runner in viewing technology and this relationship with MyPRGenie further endorses our advanced capabilities.”

Big Blue bolsters ECM play with DataCap grab

Armonk’s finest feel the squeeze, go for content capture bellwether

ECMPlus.com – IBM has acquired Datacap, the data capture specialist for an undisclosed sum.

 According to the company, the acquisition will strengthens its play for digitising, managing and automating information assets, particularly in paper-intensive industries such as healthcare, insurance, government and finance, the firm added.

IBM said regulations such as HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley have demanded new standards and now legislation is compelling firms to adopt new records management practices, including scanning and capture to increase accuracy and speed up business processes to meet regulations.

Datacap customers are currently using document capture and enterprise content management software to streamline and transform their businesses. More than 200 clients across a variety of industries use Datacap software to help capture and manage their data. These include the Chicago Department of Public Health, Virginia Department of Taxation, BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, The Dutch Tax Office, Dow Jones & Company, California’s Orange County Superior Courts, Hawaii Department of Taxation, and St. Vincent Hospital and Health Care Center.

Industry estimates of 15 petabytes of new information is being generated daily, and 80% of this new information is unstructured content.

But extracting meaningful information from unstructured content, both paper and electronic, is critical, IBM stated. The company claims that Datacap speeds up this process by automating the conversion of both structured and highly-variable formats such as  email, JPEG and GIF image files and PowerPoint presentations, into what they call ‘actionable insight’ in seconds.

“Transforming the way organizations do business requires not only a powerful and flexible technology platform to accommodate the wide range of business requirements, challenges and goals, but also a deep understanding of the processes of the industries in which our clients operate” said Ron Ercanbrack, VP of Enterprise Content Management for IBM. “We’ve chosen to make Datacap’s approach the foundation of IBM’s document capture strategy. Datacap’s approach to image capture, using sophisticated business rules management, sets it above the rest in the industry and provides the most complementary capabilities for IBM.”

“Datacap has developed the most advanced and flexible document capture platform on the market today. By teaming with IBM, we will now have the reach to satisfy customer demand around the globe,” said Scott Blau, former CEO of Datacap and now Director of Enterprise Content Management for IBM.  “After fifteen years partnering with IBM, we’ll hit the ground running with products that are tightly integrated into the IBM ECM offerings and can compete across the board in document capture.”

IBM will merge Datacap into its ECM business, part of its Software Solutions Group.

Spiritual contact for Rittal in e-commerce initiative

e-Spirit helps behemoth integrate PIM with CMS and e-biz

ECMPlus.com – Rittal has just selected FirstSpirit content management system by to develop its new e-commerce portal.

According to the firm, the project includes integration of multiple components in FirstSpirit as the sole content integration platform, which will act as a central hub to harness content and functions from various systems for Rittal’s web shop portal.

Other solutions to be integrated with the FirstSpirit CMS will include, in addition to the shopping cart software, existing solutions for media asset management and product information management, a product configurator, and SAP. The goal: to offer an attractively designed, well organized, and user-friendly portal that allows customers and other interested parties to access information on Rittal’s portfolio, as well as to customize products and place orders directly online.

Drupal bags EU and UN

Open source slates dates for annual DrupalCon in Denmark

ECMPlus.com – The Drupal Association is to host this year’s European DrupalCon in Copenhagen, Denmark, from the 23 – 27 August.

With over 3000 people having attended the first event in San Francisco earlier this year, DrupalCon is rapidly becoming one of the largest events in the Open Source calendar, the association claimed.

“We expect DrupalCon Copenhagen to be buzzing,” said Dries Buytaert, the projects founder, who will be giving his regular ‘State of Drupal’ update as one of the event’s keynote presentations.

“Our latest figures show that over one percent of the top million global websites now run on Drupal” he added. “With the release of Drupal 7.0 now imminent, and having diversified the project to allow different ‘distributions’, similar to Linux, users can expect some big advances.”

After announcing the Whitehouse website as a new customer ahead of DrupalCon San Francisco, the Drupal community has maintained its lofty track record announcing new Drupal sites at both the UN and within the European Commission ahead of the Copenhagen event.

Doculex partners Panasonic for CMS integration

Both paper and electronic document scanning into CMS just got easier

ECMPlus – Panasonic Business Volume Scanner Plus DocuLex Archive Studio Equals Cost-Effective Content Management System

In a joint announcement, Panasonic and DocuLex have just confirmed compatibility of Panasonic’s KV-S5055C document imaging scanner with DocuLex Archive Studio content management software.

According to the firms, the product combination is an affordable large-volume capacity system to manage all forms of paper and electronic document content by automated and distributive means. It also provides secure, permission-based accessibility.

Doculex;’s Archive Studio is a browser-based content management program to capture and enable secure content access from any location with convenience of use that is similar, yet easier, than an Internet search engine. Searches may be performed using document specific metadata descriptions, full text content, as well as date ranges, search history, search lists and saved searches. Browser-based file indexing accommodates the business process of adding documents via document scanner or electronically generated files. These documents are in need of structured index values for organized filing, searching and records management. The process of generating crucial index values for records can be performed as a post process from anywhere with via a browser and secure access to documents.

Controlled by a convenient dashboard display featuring the program’s functions menu, Archive Studio is a workflow enabler, providing users the ability to share and amend native format documents, while organizing and tracking each amended version. The program’s WorkSpace allows users to group sets of documents together to be shared with colleagues, and a discussion feature has been added for users to comment on document’s content. Auto Notification is available for assignment to files and folders. Users or communities may be automatically notified if files or folders are added, deleted, checked-out, edited, etc. Workflow inbox and folder routing is also enabled, allowing users to customize folder content to meet their business process requirements for routing documents and notifying users to perform their assigned activity.

Documents of any file type may be uploaded directly to Archive Studio, indexed (with additional document identifying metadata added remotely if necessary) for native format storage and ease of access. A Replace/Append Meta field function allows a document file’s existing metadata to be replaced or to append new metadata for a specific field.

Panasonic’s KV-S5055C is an A3-size, high speed duplex color document scanner, achieving 90-page per minute scan speed from a 200-page automatic document feeder benefiting both large-volume and distributed document capture environments. Panasonic’s unique ToughFeed ultrasonic paper feed mechanism minimizes the possibility of damaging documents of various sizes and consistencies, set in center, left, or right alignment, without the chore of organizing documents according to their size. In so-called ‘Long Paper Mode’, the KV-S5055C accommodates scanning of sheets up to 100 feet long, boosting work efficiency by smoothly scanning long documents including continuous business forms or electrocardiograms.

The unit’s self cleaning ion-filled breeze neutralizes any electrical charges on the documents to be scanned, and reduces the amount of paper dust that clings to their surface. This breeze also flows through the paper path and removes dust from the scanning glass to reduce the need for the user to clean the glass.

Panasonic’s KV-S5055C is an A3-size, high speed duplex color document scanner, achieving 90-page per minute scan speed from a 200-page automatic document feeder benefiting both large-volume and distributed document capture environments. Panasonic’s unique ToughFeed ultrasonic paper feed mechanism minimizes the possibility of damaging documents of various sizes and consistencies, set in center, left, or right alignment, without the chore of organizing documents according to their size. In so-called ‘Long Paper Mode’, the KV-S5055C accommodates scanning of sheets up to 100 feet long, boosting work efficiency by smoothly scanning long documents including continuous business forms or electrocardiograms.

The unit’s self cleaning ion-filled breeze neutralizes any electrical charges on the documents to be scanned, and reduces the amount of paper dust that clings to their surface. This breeze also flows through the paper path and removes dust from the scanning glass to reduce the need for the user to clean the glass.

AnyDoc automates email processing

Data capture applied to documents, attachments in email

ECMPlus – AnyDoc Software has just added email processing to its Infiniworx capture workflow platform.

According to the company, Infiniworx now monitors selected e-mail inboxes and automatically process incoming emailed documents and attachments.

Infiniworx also recognises and opens email attachments in most standard business formats, including PDF, TIFF, Word and Excel documents, and can even unzip multiple compressed files for processing.

Furthermore, the email body and attachments can be classified and passed to OCR for AnyDoc for data capture and further processing. Any document can also be converted to TIFF, PDF, or text enabling output standardisation while still maintaining native formats.

The email processing capabilities, AnyDoc claims, now provide an additional automated method for businesses to process a common input stream of fax, scan, import, and FTP to capture their incoming documents, eliminating the all-too-common and impractical practice of printing emailed documents only to scan them for entry into ECM, ERP or other backend systems.

Infiniworx uses an easy-to-understand graphical drag-and-drop interface allowing users to quickly replicate their existing business process workflow.

“The simplicity of the setup of Infiniworx is another AnyDoc innovation,” said Samuel Schrage, President of AnyDoc Software. “Users can choose from multiple options to classify, prioritize, route and process their documents.” Infiniworx can be set up to classify documents by any of their attributes, including page size, logo, layout, format, text/key words, data, content, or any combination of these methods. This provides one of the most robust engines for an automated and accurate classification solution. Documents can be processed automatically or routed to operators for review if they meet identified criteria (e.g., invoices over $1,000).

“Infiniworx continues to evolve by adding new and innovative tools to address today’s business pain,” said Schrage. “By adding unattended email processing capabilities, Infiniworx is now equipped to serve as a true in-house digital mailroom,” added Schrage.

Seek & Collect to streamline e-discovery processes

ESI experts tackle data spoliation and integrity issues

ECMPlus – Integreon has just released a new ‘Seek & Collect’ service, which promises to capture electronically-stored information (ESI) in a forensically-sound manner, the company claims, without the need for physical collection by forensic experts.

According to the firm, the Seek & Collect device, developed by Integreon’s Electronic Evidence Labs, runs automatically when connected to a computer, collecting data for potentially hundreds of client sites.

Integreon’s process determines the critical files needed for preservation and then configure appliances to collect forensically sound, logical copies of those files and their directories, without altering dates or metadata. Seek & Collect also creates unique hash value identifiers for each collected file, using MD5 cryptographic algorithms, and saves the entire dataset into an encrypted archive container for secure transport, and the device is then returned to Integreon via courier.

Integreon said the Seek and Collect methodology for data integrity and chain of custody controls focuses on eliminating data spoliation. Throughout the entire process, Integreon strictly adheres to industry standards for preserving the authenticity and integrity of evidence.

“Our forensics team saw the unmet need in the market for a simple solution that could quickly pull together a defensible set of evidence from multiple locations worldwide without having to send an expert to physically retrieve that data,” said Jeffrey Fehrman, vice president of forensics and consulting at Integreon’s Electronic Evidence Labs. “Seek & Collect accomplishes this while still complying with the complex framework of data privacy laws around the world. Seek & Collect is also field-proven technology. We’ve already shipped over 1,000 devices to our clients in 10 different countries.”

Once ESI is harvested and returned to Integreon, forensic consultants store the data in a secure evidence room within the company’s state-of-the-art Electronic Evidence Labs, a temperature-controlled computer forensics facility with a closed IT network, constant video surveillance, and dual keycard and biometric access controls. The data may then be analysed and processed further as part of Integreon’s other legal service solutions and in accordance with client and case requirements, including maintaining full chain-of-custody at all times.

Eversheds taps Trovus for web intelligence

Trovus enables teams to grow based on accurate web visitor profiles

ECMPlus – Trovus, the intelligence-based web visitor profiling corporation, has just inked a new contract with law firm Eversheds.

According to Trovus, their Eversheds’ deal will be provide support for the law firm’s business development and marketing operations.

The Trovus package deal is intended to assist the law firm in identifying behavioural and ‘buying signals’ from their web intelligence about clients and prospects.

Trovus added that their solution also enables Eversheds to identify potential clients whose interest ‘was previously unknown to them’.

The company stated that the large volume of information already gathered is supporting Eversheds’ business development teams in their engagement with fee earners, along with marketing campaigns, such as client communications and search engine optimisation.

The deal for the law firm also integrates with its customer relationship management CRM systems and processes, the company noted.

According to Trovus, Eversheds uses the InterAction CRM system from LexisNexis, which is designed for professional services organisations.

In a statement, Trovus said its offering would ‘closely integrates with the InterAction CRM to allow customers to match Trovus’s rich data profiling of website visitors with customer records held in the InterAction system, helping organisations build a deeper, more complete picture of the companies that visit their website and the relationship history that lies behind these visits.’

 “At Eversheds, we pride ourselves on being innovative and a key element of that is maximising our understanding and use of web intelligence. Trovus is strategically important to us in not only gathering this intelligence but also in helping us turn it into actionable information for business development and marketing purposes,” said Gareth Pezzack, head of marketing of Eversheds in the UK. “Effective gathering and interpretation of web intelligence is critical to the future of our business. It will deliver many benefits to Eversheds, helping us to plan business-led future communications with clients and prospects, while understanding current customers better. It also means we can prioritise and allocate resources much more effectively,” he added. “We were delighted to be selected by Eversheds, particularly as they spoke to and took up references with our customers to understand our approach and the benefits that can be realised,” said Caspar Craven, Co-founder and Director of Trovus. “The Eversheds contract is testament to the importance of our consulting capabilities as well as our web intelligence tools.”

Avid unveils ISIS 5000 for media shared storage

Improves allocation of creative resources, streamlines admin

ECMPlus – Avid has just taken the wraps off the new Avid ISIS 5000 open shared storage solution to store, share and manage large quantities of digital media assets.

According to the company, customers can also improve allocation of creative resources and support changing project needs with an open shared storage platform that offers access to high-performance ISIS File System technology on lower cost hardware, support for third-party applications and streamlined administration to create more content more affordably.

Ian Burling, head of technical services at Films at 59 Ltd., a post-production house in England, beta tested the new Avid ISIS 5000. “Our clients use a variety of editing systems, so in order to meet their needs, flexibility is a number one priority for us. We were looking for a solution that would allow us to consolidate high and low resolution clients and move media with greater agility and ease. We are extremely impressed by how well the ISIS 5000 has tested. It’s proven to be a flexible, easy-to-use, high-performance standard-bearer—great for post production houses like us that need to integrate third-party editing systems such as Apple Final Cut Pro to handle a variety of workflows.”

ISIS 5000 is designed to address the specific needs of workgroups requiring 40 or fewer client connections and looking for greater flexibility to accommodate ongoing changes and new business opportunities, the ISIS 5000 shared storage solution is fully tested and qualified with Apple Final Cut Pro, as well as support for an end-to-end Avid workflow. Major features include:

• The ISIS file system: Enhances collaborative workflows by delivering centralized media access with guaranteed real-time performance—optimized for digital media file sharing. As a result of Avid’s industry-leading ISIS File System running on lower cost hardware, an enterprise-class, workflow-enabling shared storage technology is now available to organizations for which this level of capability was previously out of reach.
• The ISIS 5000 engine: Offers the ability to cost-effectively create compelling content by increasing the capacity to handle more projects and content in both SD and HD.
• Support for Avid and Apple Final Cut Pro editing systems: Enables customers to work with a variety of project workflows and leverage existing investments–as a result of an open architecture.
• Ethernet connectivity: Delivers high-performance networking that is more cost-effective to acquire, scale and support.
• FlexDrive: Enables customers to respond to changing project requirements and new business opportunities by allowing storage to be resized in real time without interrupting operations.
• Streamlined administration: Reduces overhead with easy set-up, user and storage management, monitoring and diagnostics powered by the intuitive ISIS Management console. Customers can also support a growing business by easily incorporating additional switches and clients without sacrificing performance. 

ISIS 5000 is available from July 2010 in a 32TB or 64TB switched configuration, or a 32TB Direct Connect configuration that offers four direct client connections and the ability to add a third party switch. All configurations support Mac or PC clients and include 40 seat licenses with either one or three years of Avid Priority or Avid Uptime Support.