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.

Between Elvis impersonators, slot machines and showgirls, educational sessions, product demonstrations and industry research, the Laserfiche team has been working hard at the 53rd annual ARMA International Conference in Las Vegas.

ARMA International has been an exciting show for Laserfiche and our partners. We’ve unveiled Rio to packed crowds in our educational sessions, and we are showcasing the new IntuitionMD product, which has generated interest from prospective customers in the healthcare field. We are also showcasing customer success stories such as the Toronto Region Conservation Authority and the City of Saint John, New Brunswick, highlighting their records management solutions.

It’s been great to meet some of our users from Canada, including Matt from the University of British Columbia and Kim from Westbank First Nation. At our booth, we discussed their planned upgrades to Laserfiche 8 and chatted about our upcoming regional training event in Vancouver this November. The Canadian user community is passionate about Laserfiche, and they never mind sharing tips and tricks with their peers.

We look forward to inviting everyone who attended ARMA to join us next week as we present additional webinars on Rio and records management. You can register at http://www.laserfiche.com/LFEvents/webinar/

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.

You hear us talk about n-tier architecture, thorough integration with Windows technology and things like that, but here’s a little secret:

It’s the on-site yoga. That’s right, while other software companies are cutting down on perks like free lunches, Laserfiche continues to bend over backwards to keep our staff happy. You might say that truly forward-thinking organizations appreciate the power of downward-facing dog. Ok, no more bad yoga metaphors…

I accepted my invitation to attend the 6th annual Municipal Attorney’s Training Conference with open arms. How could I turn it down? For one, it is hosted at the Hilton Waikaloa Bay, a beautiful megaresort on the Big Island of Hawaii. Not to mention that the conference organizers, the County of Hawaii’s Corporation Counsel, are great friends and advocates of Laserfiche and, to reiterate, it was held in beautiful Hawaii.

Little did I know that my acceptance of the invitation with open arms would be, in turn, reciprocated with a wonderful reception by the conference attendees and hosts. Nien Ling, who also attended the conference, felt the hospitality and the sense of community, commenting that “They really treat us like family.”

The primary goal of the conference is to provide municipal attorneys an opportunity to convene in a relaxed and informative environment. Much of the information comes in the form of sharing knowledge, or as the local Hawaiians say, “talking story.” The conference is well organized, thanks to the hard work of Martha Rodillas, Lincoln Ashida and the entire Corporation Counsel staff. Because it is so well organized, attendees are free to spend time learning and “talking story” without stressing out about logistics.

While here at the conference, I have come to the conclusion that the success of Laserfiche in the county of Hawaii can be attributed to two factors. The first can be best articulated by the people that use it every day: “it is so powerful AND easy to use,” a combination that is notoriously hard to come by in enterprise-level software. The second reason Laserfiche has been so successful in Hawaii can be directly attributed to the sense of community among everyone that I have met. When one person finds something that works, they are compelled to share that knowledge with their neighbors, so the benefit of using Laserfiche has spread to many departments throughout the state. In fact, Laserfiche was recently adopted as the accepted document management software by the county’s standardization committee, which means Laserfiche can be purchased by any government agency without going through the normally tedious procurement process.

Overall, the conference was a great success. Many new connections were made among the attendees, information was shared and, in my case, many new friends were made. Thank you to the gracious hosts of the conference for the invitation and if, in the future, you ever need a Laserfiche representative at your conference please put me at the top of the list!

Today’s the fifth anniversary of the largest blackout in U.S. history. Damage - from spoiled food to lost sales - is estimated at $6 billion.

According to the Wall Street Journal Business Technology blog, a recent Emerson Network Power survey showed that only 31% of the respondents had a business continuity plan to prepare for such disruptions, yet nearly 80% said they had experienced at least one power outage in 2007, and two-thirds said they expected another one to occur within 12 months.

Did you know that you can use Laserfiche as the foundation of your organization’s business continuity plan? Despite the recent floods in the Midwest, law firm Arenson & Zimmerman used Laserfiche to continue working, even though power at their offices would be out for at least four weeks. The weekend after the flooding began, staff set up remote computer connections for all attorneys and support staff so they could work from off-site locations.

Without Laserfiche, staff members would have had to carry large boxes of files down nine flights of stairs while holding flashlights. “Although the stair climbing would have put us all in much better physical shape, Laserfiche has allowed us to spend our time producing billable work,” concluded legal assistant Laurie L. Chappell. “Laserfiche definitely helped keep us going during this difficult time.”

What if your offices lost power for four weeks? Do you know how you could use Laserfiche to keep working? Download our white paper, “How Digital Document Management Streamlines Business Continuity Planning,” to learn more about how you can better prepare for disaster, whether it’s a power outage, an earthquake or a tornado.

Are you in a Laserfiche User Group? Then I want to talk to you! We’re looking to put together a “User Group in a Box” package that will help our users start user groups of their own. I’d love to know what goes on at your user group meetings, what kind of presentations you give, what materials you distribute and what materials would help you make your user group even more successful.

It doesn’t matter how large or small your user group is—all your input will be beneficial. Feel free to comment on this post, or you can email me at steve.coy (at) laserfiche.com. Thanks very much!

_Steve

Did you know that entries for the 2009 Run Smarter awards are now open?

Every year, we award Laserfiche users with Run Smarter awards in five categories: government, financial services, healthcare, education and commercial. The only requirement to enter is that you’re using Laserfiche to improve efficiency in your organization!

Run Smarter award winners receive a scholarship and three night accommodations at the Laserfiche Institute Conference, which will take place January 12-14, 2009, at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport. We’ll also write an article about them that will be in the Laserfiche UserNews, and, probably best of all, they’ll get a beautiful, one-of-a-kind congratulatory plaque!

So don’t wait, because the entry deadline is July 31, 2008.

To enter, visit www.laserfiche.com/runsmarter. If you have questions, feel free to contact me at melissa.henley@laserfiche.com.

The Laserfiche marketing department just got set up with Workflow 8, and I’m really impressed. I’m setting up a departmental workflow that will:

• Automatically create project folders whenever we save a document to the “project management” folder
• Send email alerts to our writers, designers and Web designers when there’s a draft of a brochure, ad, Web page, etc, ready for review
• Create a “final” folder whenever an entry gets stamped as “final”
• Move the entire project folder to the Archive repository and organize it by Project Type and date
• OCR the final document so it’s searchable

The multi-value fields in Laserfiche 8 are especially useful, because often a project involves multiple writers or designers. And because all the documents are searchable, it will make it really easy for our account managers and regional managers to respond to user requests for materials.

I know this is just scratching the surface of Workflow’s potential. Is anybody else doing something cool with Workflow? I invite you to share your ideas and plans for Workflow 8–I’m sure yours will blow mine away!