Fetim Retail Europe is a retail division that provides, creates and distributes Do It Yourself (DIY) products to the trades and DIY chains. Fetim built their reputation on the basis of quality, speed and accuracy. But Fetim discovered that their fax and document archival methods were anything but speedy. A majority of their faxes consist of purchase orders and confirmation exchanges with suppliers and retail outlets. Labor intensive faxing methods, delayed order fulfillment, and antiquated document storage left Fetim in desperate need of a document management makeover.

Metastore, an OpenText Premier Partner out of the Netherlands, understood the challenges facing Fetim. With an impressive track record in content management solutions, Metastore recommended OpenText RightFax and OpenText Alchemy. “We save a lot of time and money, and business processes are now very efficient with OpenText solutions,” states Marrten Post, System Administrator, Fetim Retail Europe. Read more…

Imagine, you just started a new job and your first task is to locate ten years of accounting records from your department. At this point, you are convinced this task falls under the category of cruel and unusual punishment – records are missing, older records are off-site and no sane method of categorizing or indexing can be detected. For an organization undergoing an audit, this can be a painful lesson in compliance and best practice in which no one escapes.

If your organization happens to be a law firm, you are forced to play by a different set of “retention” rules – some documents must be kept for a few years whereas documents related to wills and estates may need to be kept for more than 100 years. Legal firms are often asked to produce financial and billing information long after a case is closed. This equates to an unfathomable amount of paper that must be filed, stored, and easily accessed by legal staff.

To meet this challenge in a cost effective manner and still remain compliant, ProcessFlows, a Platinum OpenText Distributor, worked with Castle Document Management to provide a no nonsense document management solution for a high profile legal customer.

Discover how ProcessFlows and Castle DM addressed a UK law firm’s need to save money, improve accessibility and reduce storage issues using OpenText Alchemy. Read more.

Companies are often bound by law to keep certain documents and records on file for extended periods. The expense associated with storing and managing these documents can be overwhelming. No one knows this better than UK-based CBG, an insurance and financial services broker. To add another layer of complexity to the mix, CBG was burdened with retaining records as a result of 17 company acquisitions. The risk of misplacing documents is huge but an even bigger scare comes from (imagining) the worst case scenario. With no back up or disaster recovery plan in place, how would CBG prove compliance?

As with all UK financial services organizations, CBG must answer to the FSA, a division within HM Treasury that oversees accountability and best practice. Failure to comply with FSA could result in hefty fines and dire consequences. OpenText Platinum Distributor ProcessFlows together with Archive Solutions came to CBG’s rescue with solid advice on how best to conquer the mountain of documents. Using OpenText Alchemy, CBG can now store, index, and secure their documents quickly, in electronic format, plus meet compliance regulations. Read more…

PCI, what is it, how do we support it with RightFax? I’ve seen customers, internal and external; ask this question several times over the last couple months.

Well, it could be an acronym for the Precast Concrete Institute, but in this context it’s not (unless maybe they are a customer of ours). It could be the Peripheral Component Interconnect standard for local bus connectivity, but in this case it’s not (though this is relevant for RightFax due to the Fax Boards we use).

Instead, PCI is the Payment Card Industry (think debit and credit cards) and we are getting asked about this due to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). In October of this year (2010) the PCI Security Standards Council, a global, open industry standards body for this topic, released version 2.0 of the PCI DSS which becomes effective January 1, 2011.

Why is this relevant to RightFax you say? Well, as it happens, PCI DSS applies to companies that process and store sensitive payment card information such as the primary account number, cardholder name, expiration date and service code. Many companies that process and store this type of data are using fax for at least some part of this. When these customers are using RightFax for part of this business process the fax images stored by the RightFax server may contain this sensitive payment card information and fall under the requirements for storage under PCI DSS.

How do we comply with this requirement? Well, in one case, since the requirement for the customer was to get the fax images into an encrypted storage location we engaged our professional services team to develop a solution using the Open Text Document Server, Alchemy Edition to store the faxes in encrypted format using the Alchemy Database Encryption Module. This would meet the storage requirements in the PCI DSS guidelines and still provide employee access to the faxes via an Alchemy client.

If you are in the process of assessing your annual PCI compliance, or needing to understand better how to ensure Open RightFax be compliant with the new PCI DSS v2.0 standard (effective January 1^st 2011); please consult with Open Text Professional Services as soon as possible. Our consultants will work with you to understand your specific business needs and compliance requirements in relation to your RightFax implementation. This includes the option of extending your RightFax system with our Document Server connector and Database Encryption Module. Have you run into a PCI implementation requirement? How did you handle it? For more information on PCI DSS and other payment card industry security standards go to https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/ .

By Matthew Brine

Casey’s furniture, a family-owned business founded in 1921, is one of the longest-standing furniture retailers in Ireland. Their manual paper-based order fulfillment processes were causing costly delays, inefficiencies and errors. Many of the errors were expensive to fix and caused long delays for customers. Some employees were spending the equivalent of a full day per week on paper-based busywork to keep the business running.

Casey’s worked with Inpute Technologies, an Open Text Fax and Document solutions partner in Ireland, to digitize and streamline their order fulfillment process with an integrated, paper-free content solution utilizing Microsoft and Open Text technologies.

Casey’s orders are now routed for approval by Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Open Text Workflow Server, .NET edition and then electronically faxed to suppliers via Open Text Fax Server, RightFax Edition. Finally, they are stored in an accessible, easy-to-manage digital database with Open Text Document Server, Alchemy Edition. Employees also have the benefit of being able to send and receive faxes directly from their desktop and to utilize many of the other features of RightFax and Alchemy.

RightFax is the world’s leading fax server for sending and receiving mission critical documents such as purchase orders, invoices and legal agreements where secure transmission and proof of delivery is required. RightFax is used to reduce costs associated with standalone fax machines and paper-based processes.

RightFax has extensive integrations and product certifications with Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and other business applications and is the product of choice for unified communication vendors such as Cisco and MFP vendors like HP, Ricoh and Xerox. RightFax is a leader in production fax and FoIP (fax over IP) solutions and has over 100,000 servers installed worldwide.

Alchemy is a cost effective document imaging and archive solution for departments, work groups and small-to-medium businesses. Alchemy creates a digital file cabinet for your organization so you can securely store any document type and then find it within seconds, even years later. Thousands of customers use Alchemy today because it is easy to install, configure and use.

Among other results, Casey’s Furniture:

Eliminated fax machines and unessential printing for a reduction in printing and stationery costs of more than 60%.

• Reduced average time for order delivery to suppliers by up to eight days.
• Increased profit margins by meeting discount deadlines and reducing duplicate orders.
• Reduced order-related busywork close to 20 percent.
• Sped response time to customer inquiries by up to two weeks

Casey’s Furniture also improved customer service by increasing quality control and consistency of order-related processes, minimized redundant tasks across branches with central, integrated management and supported distribution efficiency with accurate, accessible information.

To read the full Casey’s Furniture customer success story, go to Casey’s Furniture Success Story.

Do you have a customer success story around RightFax or Alchemy? I would love to hear about it. You can contact me at mbrine[at]opentext.com and you can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mattbrine.

Matthew Brine
Vice President
Fax and Document Distribution Group
Open Text Corporation

http://faxsolutions.opentext.com/ and http://www.futureoffax.com/

Enterprise Content Management Software to Augment Business Processes and Compliance Initiatives for the Healthcare Market

West Caldwell, NJ, January 6, 2010 — Ricoh Americas Corporation, a leading provider of digital office equipment, today announced that it will resell Open Text’s Document Server, Alchemy Edition[1], to the Ricoh channel through the Ricoh Independent Solutions Vendor Program (RiSVP). Open Text Document Server, Alchemy Edition is a document management software solution that enables organizations to capture, store and manage business critical documents. By combining the flexibility of distributed capture with the security of centralized document management, organizations such as those within healthcare benefit through improved document delivery and compliance support from an end-to-end on premise solution that provides a structured home for documents throughout their entire lifecycle.

“We are excited by the continued expansion of our partnership with Ricoh as it provides great value and benefits to Ricoh’s healthcare customers. Now, with Open Text Document Server, Ricoh customers have access to a high value and cost effective document imaging and archiving solution,” said Matthew Brine, vice president of Fax and Document Distribution solutions at Open Text.

Document Server enables its users to gain increasing value from their Ricoh multifunction product (MFP) investment by harnessing the flexibility of a distributed document capture model in the workplace combined with a centralized, secure and auditable document repository. This solution operates alongside users’ existing work environment, allowing them to work with Document Server using the tools and applications with which they are most familiar. Document Server offers seamless integration with Windows Explorer enabling users to access documents through a simple drive letter. Microsoft Office users can work with documents stored in Document Server without leaving Word, PowerPoint, Excel or any of their other desktop productivity tools. Remote users simply need access to Internet Explorer and power users can take advantage of extended capabilities found in the Document Server desktop clients.

“Together with Open Text, we are committed to providing healthcare customers with best-in-class document management solutions that enhance their core business processes,” said Joyce Ouellette, director, solution marketing, Ricoh Americas Corporation. “With our scalable and robust solutions, healthcare customers will quickly realize productivity gains as well as comply with regulatory requirements within their business environment.”

Ricoh recognized the MFP would become the focal point of all business equipment and blazed a path to provide an open architecture platform to expand the products usefulness. Through our patented “Embedded Software Architecture” (ESA), developers have utilized the most extensive tool offering in the industry to create unique solutions, which have far exceeded customer expectations. Developers enjoy a wide range of individualized support options that have allowed them to reduce development costs by speeding up the development process. Customers have benefited from ESA through productivity increases and the use of existing technology to solve the ever-changing myriad of business challenges. Ricoh’s MFP’s running ESA have evolved from merely printing, scanning and faxing to providing end users with the profound realization they have truly purchased a full service business center.

About Open Text

Open Text, an enterprise software company and leader in enterprise content management, helps organizations manage and gain the true value of their business content. Open Text brings two decades of expertise supporting 50 million users in 114 countries. Working with our customers and partners, we bring together leading Content Experts to help organizations capture and preserve corporate memory, increase brand equity, automate processes, mitigate risk, manage compliance and improve competitiveness. For more information, visit http://faxsolutions.opentext.com or www.opentext.com.

About Ricoh Independent Solutions Vendor Program

One of three Ricoh Alliance programs, RiSVP, developed in cooperation with Ricoh solution partners and Ricoh’s direct and dealer channels, focuses on two key areas: expansion of channel marketing opportunities for RiSVP members and simplifying solution access for Ricoh sales channels. By providing RiSVP member products directly from Ricoh, the direct and dealer channels have more opportunities for new revenue growth combined and simplified sales operations. In turn, RiSVP members enjoy faster and greater financial return on the investments they have made in developing solutions that when combined with Ricoh’s award-winning product portfolio address customers’ key concerns. For more information, visit www.ricohalliances.com.

About Ricoh Americas Corporation

Ricoh Americas Corporation, headquartered in West Caldwell, N.J., is a subsidiary of Ricoh Company Ltd., the 73-year-old leading supplier of office automation equipment and electronics, with fiscal year 2008 sales in excess of $20 billion.

Ricoh Americas Corporation is a leading provider of document solutions. Ricoh’s fully integrated hardware and software products help businesses share information efficiently and effectively by enabling customers to control the input, management and output of documents.

Ricoh Americas Corporation directly or through its network of authorized dealers markets and distributes products in North, Central and South America.

All referenced product names are the trademarks of their respective companies.

[1] Open Text’s acclaimed Enterprise Content Management Solutions, including Document Server, have been positioned in the Leaders quadrant of the Gartner 2009 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management, based on the company’s ability to execute and its completeness of vision.

Paying invoices in inevitable. The way in which organizations pay invoices today wildly differs. While most companies have a formalized or semi-formalized method to approve and pay invoices, these methods often fall victim to missing documents and delays in user execution. These inefficiencies can create cash flow issues, credit problems, missed opportunities for vendor discounts and potentially, an inability to effectively pass audits. By utilizing Open Text Document Server, Alchemy Edition, businesses can capture and store invoices and their related documents, enabling users to centrally access these documents in a secure and managed environment. This article explores a few of the challenges our AP departments face every day and introduces a cost effective solution for companies looking to keep on top of their back office processes.

The Challenge

Invoice processing is a critical operation and extremely document intensive, relying on paper from multiple sources arriving through a variety of delivery channels. In an unmanaged, manual environment it can become extremely challenging for AP Clerks to track documents related to a specific invoice. Missing documents prevent users from effectively reconciling invoices, purchases orders, packing slips and other items required to process an invoice. In cases where all the documents are present, workers are still required to walk the paper from desk to desk in order for an invoice to be approved or disputed.

So my invoice process is inefficient – does it really matter?

Inefficiencies in processing invoices leads your organization to not only miss out on valuable early payment discounts from the vendor but also opens you up to late fees and may, block you ability to accurately contest invoices from vendors. This situation will not only adversely affect cash flow but often leads to strained relationships with vendors resulting in unfavorable credit terms. In today’s economy paying late often means paying more. If your business exists in a regulated industry, struggles to verify transactions related to company operations may open the door to increased risk of imposed business restrictions, fines, and even legal action.

Open Text Document Server, Alchemy Edition – Capture, share and process invoices securely

Open Text Document Server, Alchemy Edition enables organizations to capture and store invoices along with other documents relating to the transaction. Invoices can be automatically delivered to secure repositories structured by vendor, department, cost center, in fact any model adopted by the AP department. Documents can be viewed, annotated, transitioned to the next stage in the invoice approval process, filed for dispute or sent to management for payment authorization. Document Server is easy to configure, enabling users to work with a solution that mimics their manual environment without the traditional bottle necks and choke points. Documents can be accessed across the web or distributed using any kind of removable media meaning those involved in the process can participate through a variety of channels.

What this means for you

Organizations who streamline their invoice processing operation with Document Server can reduce the costs associated with managing vendor payments. The cost to process each invoice will significantly drop as the time and expense involved with validating and routing invoices and associated documents is slashed. Working with a central view of all the documents relating to specific transaction allows the business to swiftly contest incorrect invoices, avoiding needless overpayments. From a compliance perspective, organizations will be able to accurately support all financial reporting with their ability to locate those supporting documents in a few simple clicks.

Invoice Processing is one example of how Open Text Document Server, Alchemy Edition enables businesses to transform document intensive operations and reduce operating costs. To find out more about Document Server contact Open Text or one of our global partners.

We have a web demo on Open Text Document Server, Alchemy Edition (formerly Captaris Alchemy) located here.

Written by Darren Boynton with Open Text’s Fax and Document Distribution Group. (Formerly Captaris)