em•pow•er
Pronunciation: \im-ˈpau̇(-ə)r\
Function: transitive verb
1 : to give official authority or legal power to
2 : ENABLE 1a
3 : to promote the self-actualization or influence of

The purpose of our group is to provide and promote best practices to Hampton Roads Laserfiche Users so that we can more efficiently and effectively meet the needs of our customers.
Hampton Roads User Group Mission Statement

User Groups have become the rage with Laserfiche, and thank goodness! What an invaluable resource for learning more about this information technology specialty, keeping up with your network (‘cause there’s never enough time!) and maybe even offering some of your time and talent to provide leadership for your group.
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Every time I write one of these blogs, they’re always popular. People like to see all the creative ways that Laserfiche customers are using their systems to stretch their budget dollars as far as possible – especially in today’s difficult economic climate.
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I just set up my first Quick Fields session using Real Time Lookup and it was so amazingly easy! The lookup process is very easy to use if you’ve dealt at all with ODBC Data Sources. Once I had my ODBC data source set up to know what database on what network drive, the rest was simply a matter of knowing the data and where it goes on the document template. I was even able to go to the ODBC data sources configuration from within the Quick Fields window, instead of having to go through Control Panel. The wizard walked me all the way through with no trouble at all.
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Morgan with Diane Hermann-Brown, City Clerk of Sun Prairie, WI

I recently had the luxury of attending the Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Association Annual Convention in Milwaukee on behalf of Laserfiche. In short, the event can be typified by the State’s new slogan “Live Like You Mean It.” Don’t let the peaceful, rolling hills of this pristine State fool you. These municipalities mean business!

I witnessed nearly 400 Wisconsin Clerks descend upon Milwaukee with one goal in mind: better public service. Throughout the week of the Convention these civic leaders hustled between classes, presentations and meetings to enjoy the occasional minnow race and more sharing than I have ever seen. At any given moment one could find dozens of clerks discussing the latest in elections, laws, permits, budgets, technology, facilities, etc., all with the purpose of bringing value back to their towns, villages and cities. Proudly the clerks claim to find “growth through caring, knowledge through sharing!”

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The beauty of Ghana lies in its people. I was fortunate to learn this lesson first-hand from Joseph Amoh-Anti and the Josanti team as the Laserfiche Institute took its longest “road” trip yet, to West Africa.
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In Central Virginia, our Laserfiche User Group is moving right along! In fact, the Central Virginia Regional Laserfiche User Group is meeting Wednesday, September 30th at 1:00 pm at the Albemarle County Office Building. This meeting will feature speakers from the Library of Virginia, who will give a presentation and field questions about records management for local governments and state agencies.

Training will cover electronic records, both scanned documents as well as other electronically stored records (such as databases, Word files, Excel, etc). Retention and destruction requirements and using the retention schedules will all be included as well.
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This past Thursday, August 20, 2009, the Hampton Roads “chapter” of Laserfiche User Groups hosted its third successful meeting, and we showed no indications that we will be slowing down any time soon.

In typical fashion, the meeting provided those 3 key elements to the success of everything: food, folks, and fun. But in the midst of all of this frivolity, a lot of information was shared, too.
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On March 3, the building housing Cologne’s historical archive collapsed into a nearby metro tunnel.

The actual degree of damage to the historical documents housed in the building is still unknown, with a substantial part of the written records of the city’s history believed to have been destroyed. In fact, recent accounts estimate that 90% of the archive’s records were buried in the collapse and may not be recoverable. The archive’s director estimates that they’ve only digitized a “tiny fraction” of their holdings, which includes the private estate of Nobel Prize-winning author Heinrich Boell.
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I was watching the series finale of “ER” last night, which normally wouldn’t make you think of Laserfiche. But as I watched an intern escort a group of medical students around, and as he stopped at the paper chart holder and explained how their paper-based workflow worked (or didn’t, as the case may be), I couldn’t help but think …

Wouldn’t this be a lot easier with a document management system?
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One of the things we get asked a lot is “How much money can I really save with Laserfiche?” We have two great white papers that show the possibilities – one for financial services and one for healthcare - but, as usual, our customers’ success stories speak for themselves.

We have so many customers out there who use Laserfiche in innovative and creative ways to make their budgets stretch as far as possible. Here are some examples.

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The budget crunch is upon all of us, and, as a result, we’re all looking at where the little efficiencies are to stretch our existing dollars as far as possible. With Laserfiche there are many aspects to consider when making decisions.

Repositories and licenses cost money. So does scanning. How can we best use our existing resources?
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What a great time we all had as interested members from 9 different cities converged at the Norfolk City Hall conference room for the kick-off of our newly formed Hampton Roads User Group. For those who might be reading this from outside of Virginia, I’ll tell you that Hampton Roads is a geographic area comprised of many cities and counties along the southeastern shoreline of Virginia. More information about our little “neighborhood” can be found here.
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I was shocked to learn that last weekend Alex Wilson, our PDP manager, lost his mother suddenly. His parents, he called to explain, were in a car accident. His mother died instantly. His father survived the tragedy.

Alex started working with me right out of college. I had only met his mother once.

This put me in a reflective mood. Life is so precarious. A day earlier, Alex told me, his parents, had been happily preparing for a vacation in New Mexico. The next, his mother was gone.

A few years ago, Jeff Huang, our PSG manager, lost his mother when she completely unexpectedly suffered a heart attack. I never really knew either of Alex’s or Jeff’s mothers. But they left their legacy, their human footprint, as I like to call it, in their sons. These women raised such considerate, caring and sensitive young men, they must have truly enjoyed their lives to have such a positive influence on their sons.

In my years as a professional I notice that a lot of us can’t wait to finish one project just to get it done and start on another. We are always looking to the future for what’s next. Hence, a lot of the time, we chase the future and miss the fun of the project itself.

As I try to find the meaning in what has happened, I am reminded of just how much we can’t predict the future. All we have is today.
Enjoy the process, enjoy the journey, enjoy the life.

Me giving my speech to the Conference in Lebanon. I was inspired by the strikingly beautiful setting, the vitality of the people, and the spirit of community.

We’re here at the Laserfiche International Conference in Beirut. We have more than 150 attendees in a very strikingly beautiful setting overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

Speaking of which, the food here is incredible, especially the fresh seafood. Lebanon is truly a kaleidoscope of cultures and experiences. There are war-damaged buildings in the middle of shiny new modern buildings, all interwoven into a busy cosmopolitan center. We had dinner a couple of nights in really lively Western-style nightclubs, full of sharply dressed young people.

Out for another incredible dinner with our host, Mitri Doumet, and Laserfiche’s Sean Tang

In my speech at the conference here I spoke about how moved I was by the human spirit of the Lebanese people. They are so resilient and tenacious. Over the years, their buildings have been bombed, but they pick up and rebuild and move on. This is their home, this is their community.

It reminded me of how Florida, New Orleans and Texas rebuild and thrive after the hurricanes. Or how Southern California picks up after an earthquake. Because when people are part of a community, they help each other solve problems and succeed. It’s what I’m so proud of about our company, that we have such a strong community of people who use our software to solve problems and help each other.

Byblos, the oldest port in the world, now home to a fleet of small fishing boats. We also visited the Jeita Grotto, but no cameras were allowed there.

Our host, Mitri Doumet, the president of BMB, and his wife Rita took us to their home to meet their six children, who range in age from 4 to 17. They are a very happy and close-knit family.

Mitri and Rita took us to see the Jeita Grotto, which is a true seventh wonder of the world. It is this limestone cave that has been sculpted into an absolutely incredible sight by thousands of years of slow flowing water. We also visited Byblos, which is the oldest port in the world. It doesn’t seem like much of a port by today’s standards; it’s basically a tiny harbor full of little fishing boats now.

We’re going to Dubai tomorrow to visit some our new customers in the municipality of Dubai. We’ll have more pictures and stories soon!

Welcome to my first blog! Those of you who know me know that writing a blog doesn’t really seem like something I would do. I’m really more of a programmer. I tend to think in terms of zeros and ones. But I travel and talk to so many wonderful people doing so many great things, people in my office kept telling me I should try to write it all down. So here it goes.

Nien-Ling and Chris Wacker with Martha Rodillas and Debbie Richards, ECS

This is the second year we attended the State of Hawai’i’s Municipal Attorney’s Training Conference in Kona. This year was even more significant because the day we arrived, we found out Laserfiche had been made the standard for the County for document management! It’s good news for us, but I think it really speaks to how the user community has embraced Laserfiche here.

I had chance to catch up with our friends Lincoln Ashida and Martha Rodillas from the County of Hawai’i Office of the Corporation Counsel. They, along with Fatima Hicks, (who was actually back at the office on the other side of the island but there in spirit) have all been very enthusiastic supporters of Laserfiche. In fact, Fatima and Martha both wrote about it earlier this year.

That’s what I love most about Hawai’i: the people. They live and let live. They’re very kind. They’re always very grateful. One thing’s for sure, they feed us very well—lots of delicious homemade Hawaiian food. I can’t remember the names of the dishes exactly; I just kept eating.

Steve Hackney with Martha and the staff of the Office of the Corporation Counsel

I was basically supposed to be at the conference as a participant. Our Steve Hackney was conducting the training. He wrote a really nice post about it here.

In one of the classes I sat next to some attendees from the County of Hawai’i’s Prosecutor’s Office. During one of the breaks we started talking and they shared with me that they were having a hard time figuring out where to start. I suggested that they just do what the Corporation Counsel did. They explained that the Corporation Counsel handled civil cases. The Prosecutor’s Office handles more complicated criminal cases that generate a lot more paperwork because they interact with a lot more people—the police department, various courts, various lawyers. It shows you how much I know about lawyers.

What I was hearing was actually pretty typical of new-users, that trepidation that comes from feeling overwhelmed. It can be paralyzing. I offered a couple of pieces of advice to the Prosecutor’s Office that I’d give to any implementation consultant.

Nien-Ling and Chris with ECS’ Debbie Richards with staff from the Prosecutor’s Office

First, prioritize. Break the implementation down into phases. I told the Prosecutor’s Office, “Right now, don’t get bogged down with how the police department is going to use the system. Maybe you still give them paper for now. Just think about who in your own office is going to use Laserfiche the most. Make their job easier.” That’s really why they got the system in the first place.

Second, you have to be sensitive to the paradigm shift that takes place from the paper world to the digital world. Listen to your new users describe what they’ll need to do, but remember, they’re talking about improving what they already do with paper. You have to anticipate what they will be able to do with all the capabilities of the digital world, because they don’t know yet.

A few weeks later, I received an e-mail from Martha: the Prosecutor’s Office is using Laserfiche to scan all its closed cases to get started. They’ve been talking to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in Eaton County, MI, where Jeffrey Sauter and his staff have been happy to share their experience and success. That’s all I can ask for, for that community spirit.

So thank you for reading my first blog. Next, I’ll be traveling to the Laserfiche International Conference and Training in Lebanon and then to Dubai (which is now actually using Laserfiche itself; you can read about it here). I’ll have a lot of pictures and stories to share soon.