Research suggests balance between IT control and user autonomy achieves enterprise innovation

53% of employees occasionally or frequently make decisions that “bend the rules.”

Do you know why?

• 51% wanted to be more productive.
• 32% didn’t think the policy was in the best interest of the organization.
• 32% needed to make a quick decision to close a sale or retain a customer.

While leadership teams are struggling to impose centralized processes, employees are demanding more autonomy and decision-making authority. Who’s right: the employees trying to improve business processes or the organizations striving to manage risks and control costs?

The answer: both.

Find out more—including the four steps to creating a better balance between central control and individual autonomy—in this exclusive Economist Intelligence Unit research, conducted in cooperation with Laserfiche.

Click to Download
the full report

Message from the CEO: The Future Is Brighter than You Think

No one’s sure what lies ahead, but the future is brighter when you expand your horizons with better business processes. Companies are continually searching for new innovations to foster growth, IT is always happy to make processes easier by finding new and better ways to manage technology, while senior management is interested in increasing productivity, but not at the cost of large capital investments. So how do you align to make for a happy organization? By increasing efficiency!

Saving time and money, increasing interdepartmental communication, enabling automation, and increasing productivity is at the center of all business units’ radar. Our Briefing this week on Disciplined Autonomy, an Economist Intelligence Unit survey found that the tension between flexibility and control is best resolved when organizations and their employees are equipped with the right information management tools. Moreover, balancing control and flexibility can lead to a motivated workforce and an organization equipped to ride out the tough times-while continuing to innovate and grow.

And as information management is a challenge that all organizations face in today’s highly regulated business environment, I think it important that we continue to look to the future of ECM. We should continue to strategize and deliver scalable solutions enterprise-wide that address today’s information dense workplace environment.

Nien-Ling Wacker
President and CEO

Briefing

Disciplined Autonomy: Resolving the tension between flexibility and control

A recent Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) global survey of 227 executives-in government, education, professional services, life sciences, and financial services-suggests that organizations in the private and public sector believe that increasing both centralized control and local autonomy is needed for organizations to run efficiently and for employees to perform their jobs effectively.

The survey, part of a research report titled Disciplined Autonomy: Resolving the tension between flexibility and control, produced by EIU on behalf of Laserfiche, aimed to discover how organizations manage the tension between the autonomy sought by professionals and the centralized control required for efficiency and risk management.

“Study after study-including ones conducted at the Economist Group-show that the more employees feel empowered, the more productive they tend to be,” said EIU Senior Editor Dan Armstrong. “As long as there’s transparency into employee activities, there’s often no need to impose strict processes and control, which can inhibit innovation and drive away talent.”

“The survey revealed a surprising paradox created by modern information technology,” said Laserfiche Vice President of Marketing Tom Wayman. “To boost responsiveness organizations are becoming increasingly decentralized, and yet with the right tools upper management gains greater control and insight over policy and direction.”

Participants in the survey fit the definition of knowledge workers: over half spent more than three hours per day working with or processing documents, such as: forms, e-mails, manuals, presentations, or contracts, and nearly half spent at least four hours per week following up on documents to see if they have been received, approved, or acted upon.

Among the survey findings were:
• Employees feel that greater freedom leads to better job performance.
• Over the past five years, 68% of organizations said they increased centralization to control risk and increase efficiency, while simultaneously increasing autonomy to enable employees to work more closely with customers and give them more freedom over how much of the work gets done.
• More than half (51%) of respondents occasionally or frequently “bend the rules” to be more productive, while 32% said they did so to make a quick decision to close a sale or retain a customer.
• 57% of respondents said business pressures, over the past five years, to bring products to market faster or respond to customers more quickly caused decision making authority to be given to operating units our other groups outside headquarters.

Respondents from the private sector came from companies with average annual revenue of about $1 billion. A significant portion of the respondents also came from the government and education sectors. For more information please see Disciplined Autonomy: Resolving the tension between flexibility and control, available at (www.eiu.com) and (www.laserfiche.com).

In The News

IDC Opinion on Laserfiche Published

A recent International Data Corp. INSIGHT report analyzed Laserfiche the company, its software solutions, and value-added reseller (VAR) channel. “I was impressed by both the product architecture of the company’s organization and its channel. Laserfiche stands out as a company that IDC believes will continue to be successful even in these difficult times,” said Michael Orasin. “Adjusting to the growing need for both autonomy and control in deploying its solutions and continuously leveraging Microsoft infrastructure and technology should enable Laserfiche to cut a direct path to enterprise IT management.”

The IDC Opinion review also mentioned:
• By closely aligning to Microsoft’s software initiatives, the Laserfiche portfolio should scale well in large organizations.
• The cornerstone of the company’s portfolio strategy is to meet the requirements of IT for centralized control while enabling end-users the freedom to adjust the deployment to meet their specific needs.
• Laserfiche is stable as is reflected in the significant portion of the team being with the company for more than 10 years.
• An informal poll of conference attendees suggested the company is very customer focused.

To read the full review visit www.laserfiche.com/idc.

“Worth The Investment”

In the May issue of Financial Advisor Magazine, David Lawrence of The Efficient Practice writes: “Never has there been a greater need for electronic document management.” Lowering costs with a properly designed enterprise content management system is possible and well worth the investment Lawrence highlights. Further, with automated work-flow features organizations significantly increase efficiency and profitability. Citing Avante (www.laserfiche.com/avante) with an initial outlay cost of $4,000, he says: “While it sounds like a lot of money, though, consider what such a system could do in shaving off staff time and increasing productivity and profitability.”

To read the full article visit www.fa-mag.com

Kudos to Laserfiche CEO

Laserfiche President and CEO Nien-Ling Wacker, was recently honored with two prestigious awards. The Long Beach Chamber of Commerce congratulated her for being named City National Bank’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Further, Long Beach Magazine spotlighted her and Laserfiche for its community involvement in its May 2009 issue. “We think Nien-Ling is just the perfect example of entrepreneurism at its very best,” said Chamber President and CEO Randy Gordon. “She is someone that had an idea and vision that was just so far ahead of its time.”

Read More

Upon receiving the Distinguished USC Alumnus Award from the University of Southern California Department of Chemistry for her entrepreneurial career Dean Kenneth Servis said, “Nien-Ling is a vibrant woman and a pioneer in electronic document management technology that we are proud to have as an alumna.” The 37th Annual ceremony recognized students, faculty, and alumni for their excellence in undergraduate studies and graduate research and work.

Read More

Technology Tools for Today

At the Technology Tools for Today Conference, Laserfiche was a prominent exhibitor and sponsor. The event was well attended and predominately by financial advisors (standing room only), despite market turbulence. “We believe that the success of this conference is a leading indicator for the pent up demand by financial advisors to acquire technology to make them more efficient in these tougher economic times, said Tim Welsh, CFP, President Nexus Strategy.

One interesting observation to note is that document management (DM) has become a much more prominent topic in the industry, evidenced by dedicated conference sessions and the prevalence of several DM vendors that have not participated in this conference in the past.

Further, the event sponsors and host “Virtual Office News,” has just become an associate member of the breakaway broker initiative Independent Advisor Technology Forum (IATF). This forum has achieved higher visibility in the industry and we believe that the promotion from Virtual Office News will facilitate the process of new advisor start-up firms.

IATF is a consortium of independent technology providers and industry consultants, including: founding member Laserfiche, Junxure, Black Diamond Performance Reporting, IPS Advisor Pro, Laser App, and Nexus Strategy, LLC.

Upcoming Events

Balancing Control and Flexibility: IT Strategies for the Enterprise

Leadership teams impose centralized process; employees demand decision-making authority. Who’s right?

An Economist Intelligence Unit editor will present the findings of this exclusive report, to learn more visit us at the following events.

Forrester IT Forum-May 19-22, The Palazzo, Las Vegas

Gold Sponsor: Visit us Wednesday, May 20th, 2:45-3:25 P.M., Room Delfino #4103.

Gartner Portals, Content and Collaboration Summit-June 8-10, Orlando, Fla.

Premier Sponsor: Visit us Tuesday, June 19th at 3:15-4:15 P.M.

For more information about Rio please visit http://www.laserfiche.com/rio. For further information about this event please contact aceinfo@laserfiche.com, or call us directly at 866-888-5569.

Long Beach Chamber – Cities National Bank – Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2009

LONG BEACH, CA (Laserfiche) May 1, 2009—The Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce congratulated Laserfiche President and CEO Nien-Ling Wacker for being named City National Bank’s Entrepreneur of the Year at its luncheon ceremony.

Jim Haney, Senior Vice President of Commercial Banking for City National Bank remarked: “Nien-Ling’s training as a physicist has helped her become one of Southern California’s most successful entrepreneurs. Her creativity, determination, and vision transformed what began as a computer consulting business into a pioneer in document management and one of the industry’s most innovative software companies.”

Mrs. Wacker founded Long Beach-based Laserfiche in 1987, and under her leadership, the company has undergone perpetual transformation, becoming an innovative, independent software company.

“Balance between control and flexibility at work and in your personal life is essential, and this is reflected in our business philosophy and software offerings,” said Mrs. Wacker. “A successful solution provides stability across the enterprise, giving IT control over standards and technology, while enabling end users flexibility to make decisions in a fast paced environment.”

“I am deeply honored to receive the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, but more importantly, I commend our staff, resellers, end-users, and the wonderful Long Beach community, for they are the true entrepreneurs, using innovation to achieve real-world results,” said Mrs. Wacker.

Mrs. Wacker has served on several boards as director, including the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) and the International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC) Education Foundation. She has also earned extensive recognition for her contributions to her field, including the AIIM Pioneer of the Year Award, IIMC Visionary Award, and most recently she was honored with the USC Distinguished Alumnus Award.

A native of Shanghai, China, Mrs. Wacker holds a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the University of Melbourne, Australia and a Master of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Southern California. A pioneer in electronic document management technology, Mrs. Wacker is a frequent speaker and contributor to international conferences and seminars.

More than 25,000 organizations—including government offices, Fortune 1000 companies, healthcare and financial organizations, and higher education—use Laserfiche software to digitize paper archives and manage documents, records, and workflow.

In an eWEEK podcast hosted by Michael Vizard, Senior Vice President/Market Strategies & Content Services at
Ziff Davis Enterprise, Laserfiche vice president of marketing, Tom Wayman, talks about the need to balance control versus flexibility when deploying a enterprise content management system.

Click to listen