Q: What is the Workflow best practice for balancing workloads across users?

A: The best built-in option for workload balancing is the “Round Robin” routing option in the “Route Entry to Group” activity:

For this to work you need to go to Tools/Trustee Provider Configuration and select working folders for all of the users in this group. The Round Robin feature will just route documents to those user’s working folders sequentially, so it is a pretty simple form of workload balancing. You could put workflow rules on those working folders themselves to manage the queue of documents in each folder.

Have you ever made a life change and seized the opportunity to try something new?  Whether it’s a physical move, career-related jump or other type of  shake-up, a change is chance for a fresh start.

Moving to a new city? You might decide to stop being shy, to try a new haircut or color or to use a new nickname.

Moving to a new job?  Perhaps its time to reinvent your professional identity, to spruce up your cubicle or to try a new way of completing daily tasks.

When I started at Laserfiche, I committed to  staying organized and made a conscious choice never to get caught in a turbulent sea of emails, files and Post-Its galore.

The RIAs who started Palladium Registered Investment Advisors took advantage of their career shift to make a change as well.  When six portfolio managers left their former firm and formed Palladium Registered Investment Advisors in 2008, it gave them the opportunity to break away from their paper-based office.  In the process, they improved their day to day operations and managed to keep pace with compliance demands.

Read Palladium’s story here.

Enterprise Systems Journal recently published an article by Laserfiche Senior Vice President Chris Wacker that identifies four questions organizations should keep in mind when selecting an ECM system for the entire enterprise.

Briefing

New Tracks, Courses to Debut at the 2011 Laserfiche Institute Conference

Every year, the Laserfiche Institute Conference provides customers, VARs and the ACE community with an excellent opportunity to get in-depth technical training on new Laserfiche products and gain insight into strategic Laserfiche initiatives for the year ahead.

In 2011, Laserfiche will introduce seven new tracks to improve the way information is conveyed during the conference, which will be held at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport Hotel from January 10-12, 2011:

• Content Delivery (CD): These courses focus on the user perspective—how information is presented to users in the Laserfiche system, including how to access, store and convey information within the full range of Laserfiche products.
• Enterprise Deployment and Management (EDM): EDM courses provide fundamental concepts for those who need to plan the deployment or ongoing management of a Laserfiche system, from administrative functions to business continuity requirements such as backup/recovery, optimization and troubleshooting.
• Capture and Classification (CC): These courses cover getting information into the Laserfiche system and integrating it into your business processes in the most efficient way possible: scanning documents, filing them in the correct folder and ultimately putting information into a context that is useful to people in your organization.
• Information Governance (IG): IG courses reflect the information frameworks that can be implemented in a Laserfiche system to support an organization’s regulatory, legal, risk and operational requirements, as well as formal and informal standards and strategies for records management.
• Business Process Management (BPM): These courses detail how Laserfiche can be deeply integrated into your business processes to improve your organization’s effectiveness, efficiency and ability to adapt to change by automating repetitive tasks.
• Success Stories (SS): SS courses provide real-world case studies of how Laserfiche is used to solve customers’ business problems.
• Marketplace/Partners (MP): MP courses examine specialized solutions that extend the functionality of Laserfiche; they are presented by members of the Laserfiche Professional Developer Program, a community of developers from specific industries and integrators with decades of experience in Laserfiche implementations.

In addition to these new tracks of classes, ACE members are invited to attend the special ACE Summit during the Conference, where you will spend time getting insider’s information from Laserfiche CEO Nien-Ling Wacker and Chief Software Architect Michael Allen, learn about the state of the industry from an expert panel and discuss current hot topics and trends in ECM.

To learn more about the special conference track for ACE members, please contact Andy Wang, director of ECM Strategy.

Company News

Eighteen Laserfiche Clients Named Most Advanced Digital Counties in America

Laserfiche is proud to congratulate 18 of its customers for being named among the most advanced digital counties in 2010 by the Center for Digital Government and Digital Communities magazine. Charles County, MD, Hanover County, VA, and Chesterfield County, VA, took top honors in three of the four population categories.

In years past, entrants were required only to submit an inventory of the cutting-edge technologies they used; in 2010, applicants were asked to explain how their technologies support employees and citizens alike. Collaboration, transparency and efficiency were three benefits that particularly impressed this year’s judges.

Ten top-ranking cities in the four following population categories were selected: 250,000+, 125,000-249,999, 75,000-124,999, and 30,000-74,999. The Laserfiche customers that made the list include:

• Charles County, MD (category winner)
• Hanover County, VA (category winner)
• Chesterfield County, VA (category winner)
• Nevada County, CA
• Skagit County, WA
• Albemarle County, VA
• Napa County, CA
• Cumberland County, PA
• Gaston County, NC
• Roanoke County, VA
• Mohave County, AZ
• Loudoun County, VA
• Dutchess County, NY
• Placer County, CA
• Guilford County, NC
• King County, WA
• Fairfax County, VA
• Orange County, CA

For a full list of winners, visit http://www.govtech.com/dc/surveys/counties/90/2010

In the News

• Enterprise Systems ran an article by Laserfiche Senior Vice President Chris Wacker titled “Putting the ‘E’ in ECM.” The article identifies four questions organizations that want to standardize on one ECM system should keep in mind.
• ECM Connection published a story about Pulte Mortgage’s use of Laserfiche ECM titled “Nation’s Largest Home Builder Financing Subsidiary Chooses Labor-Saving Equipment To Raise Output.”
• CMS Wire published an article titled “Enterprise CMS: The Paradox of Dept Autonomy with Central Control” that outlines how to achieve a balance between central control and departmental autonomy when implementing ECM as a shared service.

Upcoming Events

Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, FL, October 17-21: Laserfiche is a Silver Plus sponsor of the symposium, and will be on hand to talk about Agile ECM.

2011 Laserfiche Institute Conference in Los Angeles, CA, January 10-12: Save the date for the biggest and best Laserfiche Institute Conference yet, featuring three days of hands-on labs, case studies, keynotes and more.

Participate in the Community

Submit an Article: Laserfiche is now accepting submissions for guest articles to be featured in our weekly reseller newsletter and in our monthly newsletter for end users. If you would like to showcase your expertise within the Laserfiche community, please e-mail Melissa Henley with your proposed story idea.

Certified integration with Laserfiche allows organizations to use Microsoft SharePoint 2010
for records management