OpenText Fax & Document Distribution Group

As much as it appears that the information we create, receive and use is becoming prevalently digital, I still seem to be getting an overwhelming amount of post pushed through my letterbox each morning. Of the mail I receive, 60% is unwanted, 35% comes from the same providers I signed up with online (with new offers to help me increase those bills even further) and then there are the postcards from Grandparents and an occasional copy of Wired magazine.

Aside from the needless destruction of our planet’s natural resources, there is also the issue of content responsibility. In many cases, the unwanted mail I receive contains information which collectively provides more data about me than I am comfortable sharing with the neighbor across the road who can be frequently found going through my trash looking for cans to recycle (there is a whole other blog article there). All this means that I spend far more time than I should, vetting my mail to determine what should be kept, what should be recycled and most importantly, what should be shredded. As frustrating as this may be, what happens when it’s not simply a family of three dealing with their mail but a company of fifty or five hundred employees drowning in documents from countless sources?
 
Do you have enough information on your information? 

Image Credit: Seth Anderson

Organizations have to not only contend with incoming mail but also all the information that is generated within the company; financial transactions, HR files, out bound customer correspondence, legal agreements, the list is endless.

And while businesses will be equally sensitive about the sanitization of company documents they are (or should be) more concerned again with the accountability and responsibility that comes with holding on to that information. In many cases, transactional and/or confidential documents need to be kept for prescribed periods of time and then destroyed according to a rigid schedule. If your business is impacted by MoReq, HIPAA, 21 CFR Part 11, Sec 17a, DoD 5015.2, UCC, Sarbanes-Oxley, UETA, ANSI, NARA, ISO 15489, VERS or FRCP then you are already aware of these significant challenges. If you are lucky enough to have made it through that list unscathed, there will likely be local, regional or national mandates on the usage, storage and disposition of specific types of documents. And lastly, there are your own internal policies that dictate how particular kinds of information need to be managed.
 
Getting Document Retention Right

If you have been researching this subject you will know that there is lot of information out there that discusses the setting up of retention and disposition plans which (when correctly deployed) do a reasonable job of managing the overall document lifecycle. What a lot of these approaches lack however, is a focus on the very beginning of the document lifecycle. The criteria for document destruction are often based on assessing the characteristics of each document. This means that the success of your retention plan is entirely based on the metadata collected about the document at the time it was indexed. This becomes particularly important when dealing with documents that rarely touched once they are captured. If your indexing process lacks accuracy or, you fail to capture the right data, your retention solution will never be the right solution. Also consider how retention requirements have changed over the last ten years. If past behavior is indicative of future behavior then expect to see increasingly stringent regulations going forward. Prepare for it now by setting up a comprehensive capture strategy rather than a “get-by” approach.

Image Credit: Gerwin Sturm

Most importantly, ensure that your solution for document retention is transparent and understandable by normal human beings.  It’s very easy to find your organization flying down an over-zealous formal records management rabbit hole. This might make for a great insurance policy on paper but will likely struggle to work as a solution that can move and bend as the business and external regulations evolve.

Suddenly those six Pottery Barn catalogs and fourteen credit card offers seem less of a burden…

With the desire for the highest quality of patient care in the forefront, healthcare organizations, like yours, are facing many challenges when it comes to secure document delivery and storage. We’ve realized regardless of your size, organizations are looking to technology to reduce cost, safeguard information, maintain the ever-changing regulatory requirements and improve internal workflow processes.

Healthcare IT News wants to know: What are your biggest challenges for developing a centralized digital document delivery strategy that complies with healthcare industry regulations?

Please take part in this five-minute survey, and as a thank you you’ll receive a complimentary copy of the research report that will be published based on your answers.

In my May blog titled “A New Web Service in Town”, I introduced the release of RightFax Web Services—now available through OpenText Professional Services.  In this blog, I’ll tackle the question of how to send a fax in light of the simple and user friendly nature of RightFax Web Services.   

There are many ways to send a fax programmatically…using, for example, COM API, FCL, XML API, Java API and embedded codes.  Each has its own purposes but most are fairly complex and require custom APIs to be installed, print drivers, or the RightFax Production Module to be running.

When using C# (Java is just as easy) and our RightFax Web Services, however, things become much simpler.

Assuming you already have installed RightFax Web Services, the best way to learn this is to work with the NetFormsSample provided with the software.  For the purposes of this blog, I am running the RightFax Web Services on my development environment. 

I begin by adding the Sending Service to my project. 

This is already done in the sample. This is being shown for illustrative purposes only.

The result is that I’ve created a proxy (see below) and all the necessary classes and methods required for sending a fax have been made available to my sample.

The first coding step is to create a “ContractConnection” object with tells RightFax Web Services what RightFax Server to use and the credentials to access the RightFax Server.

Let’s discuss this a little further.

I then need tell it what “FaxServer” to use, what “UserName” and what authentication to use. I’ve left the password blank as I am using a test system with no password.  This sample code above is taken straight out of the sample and the class and objects are fully documented in the documentation we provide, as well.

The second step is to create my fax object and add a sample document that I want to fax.

All I am doing is creating the fields that are required for sending a fax, “ToFaxNumber” and “ToName”.  Then update your coversheet settings (optional). 

Next, I input who is sending the fax in “OwnerId” (Optional).  Lastly we deal with attachments—you can have as many attachments as RightFax allows.  This code is taken straight out of the sample, as well.

Success!  I have successfully created my Fax object.  All that’s left to do is send the fax. 

Sample code is below:

So let’s recap what we did:

·         We added a web service reference

·         We created a connection object

·         We created a fax

·         We sent a fax

…in a small amount of code.

We did not need to install an API on every instance where our custom code runs, or drop a file somewhere with embedded codes, or add a printer.

That is it…that is all we needed to do to send a fax!!

Coming up next: tracking what you sent in “I Just Sent a Fax, How Do I Know If It Was Faxed Successfully?”

The recession has hit countries and organizations across the globe for some time now. Each organization has created their own paths and strategies in dealing with these challenging times in an effort to sustain and grow their business; as well as maintain and motivate their employees.

In the 14^th Annual Global CEO survey report published by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Dennis M Nally, Chairman of Pricewaterhouse Coopers International, opened his foreword with the phrase “Confidence is back”. The report talked about how CEOs have applied cost discipline and patient optimism, setting their targets on immediate growth in recovering regions. CEOs in the survey also identified three focal points to drive change internationally: innovation, talent and a shared agenda with the government (you may wish to read more about this report here: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/download.jhtml).

So let’s bring this a little closer to home. What does this mean for us in the fax solutions marketplace? Frost & Sullivan estimates that, in 2010, the enterprise fax marketplace represents approximately $372m in revenues and is expected to grow to $591m globally by 2017. Which begs the question, what would our 3 focal points be to growing our business?

Here’s my take :

1. 1. Innovation

The Oxford Dictionary defines innovation as “a new method, idea, product”. While a new product could and would draw attention, it would also take considerable effort and time. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that we shouldn’t focus on bringing out new products; that should be part of a longer-term roadmap and strategy. But innovation could also mean evolving our existing product range and making it work more efficiently, addressing different aspects of business needs or introducing adjustments to cater to a new market segment.

1. 2. Marketing the products

Aligned with innovation is also how we sell and market the product. This needs to remain in synch with how customers buy. Taking into account cultural and regional nuances will help to put a fresh perspective on how the product and its technologies can help customers address their needs differently. Alternatively, offering prospective customers new ways of capitalizing a tried and proven technology is also important. Also, leveraging social media platforms to encourage ‘getting to know the product through end users’ could translate into a more compelling dialogue with a potential customer. Forming new alliances/partnerships with vendors supporting cloud computing could open new business opportunities is important too.

1. 3. Shared agenda with our customers

The role of selling has changed over time and has impacted the wealth and depth of information easily available online today. Some prospective customers may already have sufficient knowledge of the product and competitive alternatives prior to meeting with you. When we share a common agenda with our customers, we connect ourselves to their environment and needs. This means we can take their knowledge of our product and put it in perspective by addressing it to their requirements. Customers are buying what they need not what we can or want to sell them.

What would your 3 focal points be?

My Dearest Valentine,

We’ve been together for nearly 25 years.

I can trust you with all my secrets.

You are reliable and trustworthy, everything I’ve ever dreamed of.

You reduce costs, streamline business processes and improve productivity.

You have extensive tracking, auditing and reporting components.

You integrate with SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM and many others.

No one can compare.

It’s no wonder people love you.

You leverage Ricoh, Xerox, Konica Minolta, HP and every other MFD/MFP.

You have a hosted service that is rich, scalable and fully integrated.

Your secure document delivery solution enables certified document exchange between two parties for most file types.

Call centers, mortgage processors, law firms, financial institutions and healthcare organizations love you.

We at OpenText love you.

Companies around the world love you.

You are RightFax, the world’s leading fax server and the fastest growing Internet Fax solution.

–Share your RightFax Valentine poem. We’d love to hear from you.–

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/ .

At Open Text Content World 2010, there was a big push to get our partners, and employees, turned on to social media. We invited Mike Whitmore and Brent Dance of Fresh Consulting to talk to the FDDG partners and show them how important social media is to us. And while Mike and Brent demonstrated how one can find people to follow, I realised that we didn’t have any sort of directory of Open Text Twitter Personas anywhere….at least, not that I know of.

What follows is a list of Open Text employees who are sharing the limelight with me on Twitter. Find the people you know and others you’d like to hear from. I have organized it alphabetically by first name, linked to their Twitter page, and included a brief description of their role and what group they are in. If you notice I have forgotten anyone, add a comment and I will update the page. I have included only public information from their Twitter or Web pages, but the advantage is that they are all listed in one place. To easily follow them all, just use a list under my name: http://twitter.com/#!/Technovangelist/otpeople

Again, if you have any comments, or you work for Open Text and I forgot to include you, leave a comment below.

UPDATE: May 10, 2012 – Checking everyone is still here

UPDATE: March 16, 2011 – Added Kim Dezen and Michael Melhem
UPDATE: February 9, 2011 – Added Alisha Lyndon
UPDATE: February 9, 2011 – Added Dylan McConnell, OTCC, Anders Adolfsson, Cindy Schaffer, David McKanna, Russell Davis
UPDATE: December 17, 2010 – Added Peter Gorman, Jeremy Schrack, Peter Jonker
UPDATE: December 6, 2010 – Added Joerg Thoss
UPDATE: December 4, 2010 – Added Jason Varmazis
UPDATE: December 3, 2010 – Added Lyle Bush and Bill Bernat
UPDATE: November 24, 2010 – Added Peter Steggall
UPDATE: November 23, 2010 – Added Jonathan Sze
UPDATE: November 22, 2010 – Added Cuneyt Uysal
UPDATE: November 19, 2010 – Added Lisa Probst
UPDATE: November 16, 2010 – Added Greg Settle and Matthew Hoare

Adam Doti – Vignette – UX Designer Developer

Adam Feder

Alisha Lyndon – Field Marketing Manager – UK

Alison Clarke – Product Marketing Manager for OT Case Management & Contract Management

Anders Adolfsson – Senior Solutions Architect – Social Media – Sweden

Andy Counts – Solution Consultant

Bill Bernat – Fax & Document Distribution Group – Bellevue, USA

Bob Tennant – Product Manager, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Bellevue, USA

Brad Bosley – Director, Enterprise Deployments & Architecture – Phoenix, USA

Chris Myers – Fax & Document Distribution Group – Gates Mills, USA

Chris Scott – Product Manager – London, UK

Cindy Schaffer – Fax & Document Distribution Group – Portland, USA

David Templeton – Software Architect

Deb Louison Lavoy – Director, Product Marketing – Washington DC

Doreen Eatough – Director, Marketing, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Seattle, USA

Dustin R - Fax & Document Distribution Group – Bellevue, USA

Dylan McConnell – Customer Care Team – Waterloo, Canada

Ed Middleton – Marlow, UK

Erik Schmidt – eDOCS – Product Marketing & Business Development Manager

Franz Pauthner

Ginny Bartosek – Marketing

Greg Settle – Business Development, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Portland, OR

Jaap-Jan Pepping – Regional Manager, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Netherlands

James Latham

James Storm – Livelink Product Manager

JDixon – Program Manager for Online Communities

Jody White – Portfolio Manager for Extended ECM for SAP Solutions

Joerg Thoss – Frankfurt, Germany

Jonathan Sze – Director, North America Solutions – Fax & Document Distribution Group – Bellevue, USA

Joshua Butcher – Senior Instructor, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Tucson, USA

Joyce Hostyn

Jurgen Dauk – Fax & Document Distribution Group – Hamburg, Germany

Kim Dezen – Senior Red Dot CMS Consultant – Melbourne, Australia

Kimberly Edwards – Product Marketing Manager for Collaborative Solutions, Social Business and Portal Solutions

Lisa Probst – Territory Sales Manager South Central US, Fax & Document Distribution Group

Lubor Ptacek – VP Product Marketing – Waterloo, Canada

Lyle Bush – Fax & Document Distribution Group – Bellevue, USA

Malia Sleight – Engagement Manager, Fax & Document Distribution Group

Marci Maddox

Marco Landry – Solutions Consultant 

Martin van Ginkel – Strategic Alliance Manager, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Netherlands

Masaru Tsukada – Regional Account Manager for Japan and Korea, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Tokyo, Japan

Matthew Brine – Vice President, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Bellevue, USA

Matthew Hoare – Sales Director EMEA, Fax & Document Distribution Group – London, UK

Matt Williams – International Trainer, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Amsterdam, Netherlands

Matthias Tausendpfund

Michael Melhem – Software Architect – Sydney, Australia

neowilson – Technical Marketing Manager

Owen Brandt – Strategic Alliance Manager, APJ – Sydney, Australia

Patrick Niehot – Solutions Consultant, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Netherlands

Peter Gorman – U.S. Public Relations and Social Media Strategist – Boston, USA

Peter Jonker – Trainer – Rotterdam, Netherlands

Peter Near – Director of Product Management – Ontario, Canada

Peter Steggall – ANZ Regional Business Manager, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Sydney, Australia

Roel Gillesen – Solution Consultant – Netherlands

Sam Trieu – Waterloo, Canada

Simon Wickes – Product Designer for Content Server

Stephanie Fazio – Public Relations – Toronto, Canada

Ted Parkinson – Senior Training Consultant – Kitchener, Canada

Todd Partridge – GM for eDOCS – Boston, USA

Tracy Caughell

Werner de Jong – Senior Solutions Architect

General Twitter Accounts

OpenText – Overall Open Text account

OpenText Customer Care Team

OpenText eDOCS

OpenText Fax Solutions

OpenText First Class

OTLearningServices

OpenText Exceed

OpenText France

OpenText Social Media

OpenText UK

RedDot CMS Blog