The awards ceremony took place yesterday during the Laserfiche Institute Conference at the Anaheim Marriott in Anaheim, CA. Twenty-two winners across a range of industries were honored:

• Commercial: Stewart Enterprises, LA
• International Commercial: Avis Fleet Services, South Africa
• Transportation: Grand Isle Shipyards, LA
• International Transportation: Qatar Shipping, United Arab Emirates
• Energy: MXenergy, TX
• International Energy: Emirates National Oil Company, United Arab Emirates
• K-12: Adams 12 Five-Star Schools, CO
• International K-12: Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Canada
• University: Oklahoma Christian University, OK
• International University: University of Toronto, Canada
• Community Bank: DL Evans Bank, ID
• Registered Investment Advisor: Heartland Advisors, WI
• International Financial Services: TD Financing Services, Inc., Canada
• Healthcare: Medflight of Ohio
• International Healthcare: Basildon and Thurrock University Hospital, United Kingdom
• Law Enforcement: Shakopee Police Department, MN
• Legal: Illinois Attorney General Office, IL
• City: City of Long Beach, CA
• County: Ramsey County, MN
• State: Colorado Department of Natural Resources
• Special District: Community Action of Ramsey and Washington Counties, MN
• International Government: Corporation of the County of Essex, Canada

“We are proud to spotlight the success of organizations that use Laserfiche to drive better business outcomes,” said Laserfiche Founder and CEO Nien-Ling Wacker. “We look forward to seeing the new and ingenious ways organizations put Laserfiche’s Run Smarter® philosophy into action in 2012.”

For video highlights from the Conference, visit http://www.laserfiche.com/2012videohighlights/

About Laserfiche
Since 1987, Laserfiche has used its Run Smarter® philosophy to create simple and elegant enterprise content management (ECM) solutions. More than 30,000 organizations worldwide—including federal, state and local government agencies and Fortune 1000 companies—use Laserfiche® software to streamline document, records and business process management.

The Laserfiche ECM system is designed to give IT managers central control over their information infrastructure while still offering business units the flexibility to react quickly to changing conditions. The Laserfiche product suite is built on top of Microsoft® technologies to simplify system administration, supports the Microsoft SQL platform and features a seamless integration with Microsoft Office® applications and a two-way integration with SharePoint®.

Laserfiche distributes its software through a worldwide network of value-added resellers (VARs), who tailor solutions to clients’ individual needs. The Laserfiche VAR program has received the Five-Star Rating from Computer Reseller News/VARBusiness magazine.

Laserfiche®, Run Smarter® and Compulink® are registered trademarks of Compulink Management Center, Inc.

• Laserfiche Forms, which provides a graphical user interface for creating custom Web forms and integrating them into business processes.
• Laserfiche Mobile™ for iPad, which makes it easy for employees to securely capture, view and act upon mission-critical content from wherever they are.

“In the information economy, leading organizations look for enterprise content management tools that are flexible enough to accommodate the needs of multiple departments while centralizing control and security,” said Tom Wayman, Vice President of Product Strategy at Laserfiche. “That’s what agile ECM—including Laserfiche Forms and Laserfiche Mobile™ for iPad—is all about.”

Laserfiche Mobile for iPad will be available for purchase at the end of Q1 2012. Laserfiche Forms will follow later this year. Conference attendees can schedule live demos of these products during Empower 2012. To schedule a demo after the event, please contact Sharon Chai at Sharon.Chai@Laserfiche.com.

To view Wacker’s keynote speech, visit: http://www.laserfiche.com/en-us/conference/webcast

About Laserfiche
Since 1987, Laserfiche has used its Run Smarter® philosophy to create simple and elegant enterprise content management (ECM) solutions. More than 30,000 organizations worldwide—including federal, state and local government agencies and Fortune 1000 companies—use Laserfiche® software to streamline document, records and business process management.

The Laserfiche ECM system is designed to give IT managers central control over their information infrastructure while still offering business units the flexibility to react quickly to changing conditions. The Laserfiche product suite is built on top of Microsoft® technologies to simplify system administration, supports the Microsoft SQL platform and features a seamless integration with Microsoft Office® applications and a two-way integration with SharePoint®.

Laserfiche distributes its software through a worldwide network of value-added resellers (VARs), who tailor solutions to clients’ individual needs. The Laserfiche VAR program has received the Five-Star Rating from Computer Reseller News/VARBusiness magazine.

Laserfiche®, Run Smarter® and Compulink® are registered trademarks of Compulink Management Center, Inc.

“With IDC predicting that the volume of digital data will nearly double in 2012, organizations today need an IT infrastructure designed to empower success in the information age,” said Wacker. “Laserfiche provides agile enterprise content management solutions that help organizations harness the power of their information for controlled, rapid change in today’s fast-paced information economy.”

The “Empower 2012” Conference, held at the Anaheim Marriott through January 27, features more than 150 educational sessions on everything from enterprise content mobility to cloud deployment strategies. IT leaders from Avis Fleet Services, Molina Healthcare and the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, among others, will share their Laserfiche expertise during Success Story presentations.

Tomorrow’s keynote will feature Russell Kaurloto, Deputy CIO and Executive Director of Information Technology at the University of Southern California, and John Sifri, Information Technology Manager for the NFL’s Houston Texans.

Epson is the Premier sponsor for Empower 2012, HP is the Platinum Lab sponsor and Infolinx is the nametag sponsor. Exhibitors include Accuflex, Avolve Software, Cambridge Connections, Canon, Cities Digital, Datawatch, Dynamic Document Services, Ezescan, FabSoft, Fujitsu, Kodak, Lincware, LLC, Millennial Vision, Novusolutions, Panasonic, Plustek Technology Inc, Scanning America and United Micro Data.

To view Wacker’s keynote speech, visit: http://www.laserfiche.com/en-us/conference/webcast

About Laserfiche
Since 1987, Laserfiche has used its Run Smarter® philosophy to create simple and elegant enterprise content management (ECM) solutions. More than 30,000 organizations worldwide—including federal, state and local government agencies and Fortune 1000 companies—use Laserfiche® software to streamline document, records and business process management.

The Laserfiche ECM system is designed to give IT managers central control over their information infrastructure while still offering business units the flexibility to react quickly to changing conditions. The Laserfiche product suite is built on top of Microsoft® technologies to simplify system administration, supports the Microsoft SQL platform and features a seamless integration with Microsoft Office® applications and a two-way integration with SharePoint®.

Laserfiche distributes its software through a worldwide network of value-added resellers (VARs), who tailor solutions to clients’ individual needs. The Laserfiche VAR program has received the Five-Star Rating from Computer Reseller News/VARBusiness magazine.

Laserfiche®, Run Smarter® and Compulink® are registered trademarks of Compulink Management Center, Inc.

Note: Don’t forget, to add courses to your schedule, you’ll need to log in with your Support Site username and password.

Filter by Track or Type

Note the filters at the top of the screen that allow you to display classes by specific track or type. Just select the checkboxes next to all tracks you want displayed and clear any you don’t want to see.

Read the Course Description

To view course descriptions, hover your mouse over a specific course block. Alternatively, you can view all courses, instructors and descriptions in a PDF file linked from the Tracks page on the conference site.

Add or Remove Courses

To sign up for a course and add it to your schedule, click the Attend button on the appropriate block. It will then be added to the list of your classes under My Classes on the left side of the screen. If you change your mind, either now or at a later date, and want to remove a course you’ve signed up for, just click the Remove button on the course.

Note that if you choose to attend a course in the same timeslot as a course already on your schedule, the new course will replace the one you’ve previously selected.

Take the opportunity to showcase your 2011 successes and discuss your plans for the upcoming year at this exciting event that brings together VARs, customers, prospects, analysts, reporters and Laserfiche employees all in one exciting environment. Last year 1,400 people joined us for our largest conference ever—and this year, we hope to bring together even more members of the Laserfiche community for the biggest and best conference yet.

Remember, you don’t have to wait until January to advance your Laserfiche knowledge:

• Join us for one of our Regional Training Workshops.
• Register for a live or pre-recorded Webinar.
• View a customer Success Story presentation from the Empower 2011 Conference.
• Sign up for a course in our Certified Professionals Program.

Be on the lookout for more conference information including registration dates, sponsor lineup and presentation agendas posted on the Laserfiche Events Website.

• Register for “Business Process Management: Saving Money and Improving Efficiency” to learn how Lance Dutcher from the Corporate Commission of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians uses Laserfiche Workflow to centralize, standardize, route and audit contracts—reducing operational costs and improving oversight.
• Register for “Enterprise Risk Management, Business Process Management and Green Banking,” presented by Tato Munoz, Chief IT Director of DL Evans Bank, to learn how community banks can solve enterprise risk management issues created by the new financial landscape.
• Register for “How to Quickly Implement an Agile ECM Foundation for a Start-Up Financial Advisory Firm” to learn how Jennifer L. Litchfield, IT Manager of Palladium, used Laserfiche to easily manage over $1 billion in AUM.
• Register for “Creating a Virtual Financial Advisory Back Office in an Integrated Microsoft Environment” to learn how Asset Dedication President Brent Burns uses Laserfiche to link together Microsoft Dynamics, SharePoint and Tamarac PMS, creating an advisor-friendly portal accessible through iPads.
• Register for “Making Work Flow” to learn how Laserfiche helps Xpyria Investment Advisors focus on increasing profitability, increase operational efficiency and grow their asset base without hiring additional personnel.

More Webinars are added each week, so check back soon if you’re looking for a particular session.

The awards ceremony was held yesterday afternoon during the Laserfiche Institute Conference at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport hotel. Seventeen winners across a range of industries were honored:

• Commercial: ECOM Atlantic, TX
• International Commercial: Essar Group, India
• County Government: Durham County, NC
• Federal/Tribal Government: Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians, MN
• International Government: London Borough of Tower Hamlets, UK
• Municipal Government: Maple Grove, MN
• Special District Government: Central District Health Department, ID
• State Government: Port Authority of Virginia, VA
• Education: NE Metro Intermediate Schools, MN
• Higher Education: Texas A&M University-Kingsville, TX
• International Education: Hamilton-Wentworth School Board, Canada
• Financial Services: Pulte Mortgage, CO
• Financial Services: Spire Securities, VA
• Healthcare: Dallas Associated Dermatologists Medical Group, TX
• Healthcare: Wythe County Community Hospital, VA
• International Healthcare: South Essex Partnership NHS Trust, UK
• Justice Systems: Long Beach Police Department, CA

“As evidenced by the achievements of these 17 organizations, the Laserfiche community has a lot to celebrate this year, in spite of the recession,” said Laserfiche Founder and CEO Nien-Ling Wacker. “Our community took advantage of the economic downturn to lay a foundation for success with agile ECM. We look forward to honoring the hard work and accomplishments of the Laserfiche community in the year to come.”

For video highlights from the Conference, visit http://www.laserfiche.com/2011videohighlights/

About Laserfiche
Since 1987, Laserfiche® has used its Run Smarter® philosophy to create simple and elegant enterprise content management (ECM) solutions. More than 30,000 organizations worldwide use Laserfiche software to streamline document, records and business process management.

The Laserfiche ECM system is designed to give IT managers central control over their information infrastructure, including standards, security and auditing, while still offering business units the flexibility to respond quickly to changing conditions.

Laserfiche distributes its software through a worldwide network of value-added resellers (VARs), who tailor solutions to clients’ individual needs. The Laserfiche VAR program has received the Five-Star Rating from Computer Reseller News/VARBusiness magazine.

Laserfiche is a registered trademark of Compulink Management Center, Inc.

“During times of economic turmoil, organizations do one of two things: retreat, or invest in their future success,” said Wacker. “For the Laserfiche community, the recession has inspired ingenuity and creativity in their use of agile ECM. We’re delighted by their achievements and honored they made the effort to attend this event even in the face of budget cuts, travel restrictions and unpredictable winter weather.”

The Conference, held at the Hilton LAX in Los Angeles through January 12, features more than 150 educational sessions on everything from capture strategies to advanced security to integrating Laserfiche with Microsoft SharePoint.

HP is the Premier sponsor for the event, and Infolinx is the nametag sponsor. Exhibitors include Bolt Document Management, Cambridge Connections, Canon, CAPSYS, Cerenade, DocuNav Solutions, Epson, EzeScan, FileTek, Fujitsu, LincWare, Millennial Vision, Novusolutions, Objectif Lune, Panasonic, Plustek and United Micro Data.

For video highlights from the Conference, visit http://www.laserfiche.com/2011videohighlights/

About Laserfiche
Since 1987, Laserfiche® has used its Run Smarter® philosophy to create simple and elegant enterprise content management (ECM) solutions. More than 30,000 organizations worldwide use Laserfiche software to streamline document, records and business process management.

The Laserfiche ECM system is designed to give IT managers central control over their information infrastructure, including standards, security and auditing, while still offering business units the flexibility to respond quickly to changing conditions.

Laserfiche distributes its software through a worldwide network of value-added resellers (VARs), who tailor solutions to clients’ individual needs. The Laserfiche VAR program has received the Five-Star Rating from Computer Reseller News/VARBusiness magazine.

Laserfiche is a registered trademark of Compulink Management Center, Inc.

Please join us as we congratulate this year’s winners:

• The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians
• The Virginia Port Authority
• Durham County, NC
• The City of Maple Grove, MN
• The Central Health District of Boise, ID
• The London Borough of Tower Hamlets
• The Long Beach Police Department
• NE Metro Intermediate Schools
• Texas A&M University Kingsville
• The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board
• Pulte Mortgage
• Spire Investment Partners, LLC
• Wythe County Community Hospital
• Dallas Associated Dermatologists
• South Essex Partnership NHS Trust
• ECOM Atlantic
• ESSAR Group

We’d like to thank everyone who submitted nominations for this year’s award – and we’d like to invite you to join us at the 2011 Laserfiche Institute Conference January 10-12 in Los Angeles to congratulate this year’s winners.

Government (Federal/Tribal) – Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians

Spread out over 55 miles and comprising 12 separate businesses, including Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley, the Corporate Commission of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians needed a way to route and track documents in a more timely and efficient manner. With the use of Laserfiche Workflow most documents are now routed within 3 days or less—which used to take weeks. Through the use of stamps and annotations, anyone that has the ability to view the document can track where the document is and how long someone has had the document, replacing the need for separate spreadsheets to log document progress, or, worse, to search from office to office. Microsoft Reporting Services uses Quick Fields to create a monthly report for administrators using metadata from documents in Laserfiche. Finally, the HR department uses Quick Fields to fill in template fields and file documents overnight after identifying the type of document and employee ID. This has resulted in reduced costs, most of all, accelerated processes.

Systems Engineer Lance Dutcher credits Laserfiche’s ease of use and administration. “The only time that the person designing our 22 workflows saw the product was during the hour session at the Laserfiche user conference,” he says. “We did all of the end user training in house without the need of a consultant. We were able to implement Workflow without any outside services or additional costs.”

At the same time, using Laserfiche has shown the tribe the value of standardizing forms and routing processes. “We now have a backup person for every part of the routing process to be able to keep the process moving efficiently,” he adds.

Government (State) – Virginia Port Authority

The Virginia Port Authority needed a robust records management system that could integrate with its existing SharePoint platform. According to Senior Analyst Angela Ellis, “Because we already had SharePoint in place, we wanted to use it as a collaboration platform that could act as the ‘front end’ for a third party records management solution. We wanted to find a solution that would integrate seamlessly with SharePoint, and Laserfiche provided us with that.

“Integrating SharePoint and Laserfiche enables us to tie all of our systems into one central location to access, manage and control information, whether it’s a report from Dynamics, a Word document or an archived copy of a Board Meeting document. Our content is now searchable on an enterprise level, and the results are returned to users transparently, through our already existing SharePoint deployment,” she adds.

Before implementing Laserfiche, the Port Authority had a number of rooms—even warehouses—dedicated to storing paper records. To comply with state-regulated record retention requirements, employees had to manually review boxes of documentation annually for disposal. Using Laserfiche has streamlined and centralized this once cumbersome process for their records managers, who are now able to manage their records from their seats.

Implementing Laserfiche has had many benefits for the Port Authority, including:

• Consistent records management.
• Reduced use of paper.
• Decreased need for document storage. The Port Authority has been able to tear down a warehouse that had been used for records storage and convert it for profitable use.
• Instant search and retrieval.
• Centralized information access for users across the organization.
• Improved collaboration across the organization.
• Automated RFP and bid selection processes.

Government (County) – Durham County, NC

The County Attorney’s Office/Legal Department for Durham County was tired of making multiple copies of documents like medical records and transcripts, which could number thousands of pages. By implementing Laserfiche, the department has drastically decreased its need for paper and printer toner cartridges, and staff time is used more wisely, too.

In fact, the department has experienced a 45% drop in expenditures compared to its previous fiscal year. It also saves approximately 10-15 hours of staff per week, which has allowed it to negate the need for a new position during a constrained budget year. According to Nina Bullock, administrative assistant to the country attorney, “This project is setting a precedent for how smaller departments can create substantial savings while transitioning to a more environmentally friendly way of conducting day-to-day business.”

The Public Health Department has also benefitted from using Laserfiche to manage medical records. It recognized a need to go digital in the face of an impending move to a building that does not have room to store paper records. According to Marcia Robinson, project manager, “The successful completion of converting medical records to electronic records has greatly increased efficiency and enhanced customer service while reducing costs. It’s cut down on delays and errors and eliminated misfiled, misplaced and misnumbered charts.”

Government (Municipal) – City of Maple Grove, MN

On its way to adopting Laserfiche as its ECM standard, Maple Grove has replaced a legacy imaging system (Stellent) in its Finance Department, a legacy document management system in its Administration Department and made its Parks Department paperless in the course of a pilot project. Now Laserfiche is well on its way to replacing another legacy imaging system and document management system as it is rolled out to other departments and has consolidated its support to a single Laserfiche reseller, Cities Digital.

At the same time, users now input their own documents to Laserfiche, and IT staff can now administer the system for the most on their own. Integrations with JD Edwards financial software and the city’s GIS system make information easier to access, while Transparent Records Management has allowed the city to incorporate existing retentions schedules from its legacy document management system while affording users the ability to find and retrieve documents as well. In the future, the City is looking forward to using Workflow to improve efficiencies in other areas such as the routing, coding and approval of purchasing card and accounts payable invoices.

Government (Special District) – Central Health District – Boise, ID

Boise, ID’s Central Health District maintains copies of current and past applications and permits of on-site sewage permits for a four-county area of responsibility. Each county’s planning and zoning authority requires the Health Department to review each subdivision application. Prior to Laserfiche, microfilming applications and permits was so resource intensive, only one county’s worth of information could be archived a year. Records were filed by a file number, but because each application wasn’t always completed in that time frame, documents became harder and harder to find.

After successfully migrating most microfilmed copies into Laserfiche, records are now accessible to all offices at any given time. If the file is unavailable to field personnel, supervisors can answer technical questions by reviewing documents stored on Laserfiche at their convenience. These records are also available to the general public, realtors, and installers via WebLink. Before Laserfiche, one to four staff members were required to spend one-fourth to one-half of their time to research document requests from internal and external customers. Now, most requests can be researched by the person requesting the information. Request from external customers can be handled by e-mail or the web from their desktop. Staff time has been reduced dramatically through availability. Staff can concentrate on customer service—not paperwork.

Building on this success, the Immunizations department is scanning all client records to eliminate storage and streamline access to old records. Accounting is scanning all contracts and other documents for several reasons that include storage elimination and easy access for its program managers.

Government (International) – London Borough of Tower Hamlets

The Development & Regeneration Directorate for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets consists of three departments: land charges, town planning and building control.

• Prior to implementing Laserfiche, the land charges department had no ECM system in place. Employees manually managed 15,000 paper files, and they still used a typewriter to register land charges on index cards!
• The town planning department had been using a document management system called IDOX since 2000, but it had no BPM component.
• The building control department had no system in place and needed to scan more than 50,000 files consisting of three million pages and 100,000 drawings.

The Digitization project for the Directorate uses Laserfiche Rio as its ECM system of choice due to its ease of use and flexibility. This four-year project will be completed by the end of 2010 and will cost about £1.4 million on completion. Today, the three departments store millions of pages in Laserfiche, which has been integrated with their GIS application. Over the next few months, Building Control will begin using Workflow to process applications, and the public will gain access to documents through Laserfiche WebLink.

So far, Laserfiche has saved the Directorate nearly 100 square meters of storage space. Moving forward, Project Manager Louis DuPreez notes that the organization’s IT department is currently rationalizing its existing IT systems, and he believes that Laserfiche may well emerge as the ECM standard for the entire organization since none of the other systems in use within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets are as comprehensive as Laserfiche.

Justice Systems – City of Long Beach, CA, Police Department

When a legacy imaging system required expensive hardware and software upgrades, the value-conscious Long Beach Police Department saw the opportunity to replace it with Laserfiche late last year.
“Laserfiche now does the work of two separate imaging systems—a TIFF-based archival imaging system and a general information and administrative file storage system,” says Jonathon Stafford, Records and Technology Administrator. “Laserfiche is customizable enough to allow decommissioning of that application, its server and its expensive maintenance contract.”

Besides the cost-savings, he says, staff can now input the myriad document types the LBPD works with (field Interview cards, permits, search warrants, etc.), while adding document types and customizing the UI to meet diverse user’s needs. The addition of OCR capability and Web Access system availability, Stafford points out, “allows us to locate and match suspect descriptions and information from any City computer, helping us solve crimes and save lives.”

For instance, the LBPD is now using Laserfiche to provide officers with access to its Gang Injunction paperwork from their patrol cars. “This is very important because we’ve included embedded links to accompanying documents also stored in Laserfiche,” Stafford adds. “This is an entirely new capability that allows patrol officers to access this critical data in the field.”

Education (K-12) – NE Metro Intermediate Schools

As Administrative Services Director of Northeast Metro 916 school district, Kristine Carr kept hearing how much the other nine other member districts in the St. Paul area needed the benefits of a document management system, but only if it could work into an already-tight budget and not burden any one district with hosting another server. Northeast Metro 916 and three of member districts worked together to purchase a Laserfiche system under a cooperative and shared model, which Northeast Metro 916 houses and supports. “Each district has their own distinct and secure data area on the same server and each district pays for their licensing fees,” Carr explains. This model has helped share in the initial cost to purchase Laserfiche and also in the ongoing administrative costs and training. Carr says she sees success not only in her own district’s use of the system, but in the fact that every other district has renewed their agreement to continue sharing the funding since implementing Laserfiche in 2008.

Additionally, NE Metro 916 has developed a job training program for its special education students, which, as Carr puts it, has “mushroomed into much more. We now actually have some of our students doing each phase of document imaging— transport and chain of custody of documents; preparation; scanning; and quality assurance of the document scan and folder placement.”

Education (Higher Education) – Texas A&M University – Kingsville

After a need for an ECM system brought Laserfiche to Texas A&M University – Kingsville (TAMUK) in 2007 with the promise of overhauling departmental business processes, it was an integration with FabSoft to process documents (purchase orders and bids to start) directly from the university’s remote mainframe that added an important layer of functionality that kick-started enterprise adoption.

TAMUK has since streamlined entire work processes as opposed to just changing a task from manual to electronic. Employees are seeing an immediate return on time savings and cost savings. Overnight delivery carriers, mail service, and long‐distance fax charges have decreased, repetitive/duplicative copies have been reduced, document security is enhanced, information/document sharing has increased, and most importantly, customer service response time has decreased.

What’s more, TAMUK employees that were engaged in this change are beginning to see many other opportunities for business process change. Numerous administrative offices have been greatly affected directly by using Quick Fields and Workflow. Daily, TAMUK produces volumes of Purchase Orders, Bids, and Vouchers, and all of these documents are now being named, filed and routed by Laserfiche. Word‐of‐mouth has led to interest in using Laserfiche to process additional high volume documents (i.e., Travel Vouchers, Payment Card backup, Requisition, etc.), which will affect additional operating and academic departments across the TAMUK campus. The system has started a culture shift so the office works as one unit rather than as individual knowledge silos. As Ralph Stephens, project manager, predicts, “Once these additional offices become engaged with the Laserfiche system, TAMUK will see exponential growth in process change. We started out addressing issues related to filing/storing/destroying paper documents, and we’ve ended up with a cutting‐edge solution to enhance our business processes.”

Education (International) – Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board

For this large school board, managing paper records was an arduous, time consuming and expensive task that forced the organization to rent outside storage facilities. Complying with a myriad of new government regulations made managing paper records even more difficult. Manual workflow processes were inefficient and time consuming.

Laserfiche provided the school board with the means to provide its staff with accessible and secure electronic access to official Board documents. It also allowed the school board to remove a substantial amount of paper, to use office space more productively and to increase staff productivity through process automation.

IT Director Michael Hiltz states, “Although there may be some departments or applications within an organization that have a more urgent or immediate need than others, Laserfiche’s ECM benefits are organization-wide and all departments can benefit. As a result, organizations should focus on rollouts at an enterprise rather than departmental level.”

Financial Services (Mortgage) – Pulte Mortgage

Pulte Mortgage offers mortgages to the buyers purchasing homes from PulteGroup, the largest homebuilder in the US. ECM had been seen as a critical part of the company’s eLending platform, to manage the company’s information cost-effectively by reducing paper costs and enabling staff to find and track documents for efficiency, auditing and risk management purposes. But when it came time to implement an ECM project in 2009, Pulte Mortgage needed a truly agile system that would act as integrative middleware for the many capabilities it had developed in-house, like BPM workflows for core loan operation functions, while supporting Web applications for online loan applications and an internal loan conditioning system, as well as an enterprise messaging architecture that had been established for asynchronous inter-application communication. As Christy Richardson, VP of Applications and Development, puts it, “It needed to be easy to use, easy to integrate and sit at the center of our enterprise from a collaboration and storage perspective.”

The firm purchased Laserfiche in May 2009, and as of August 2010 has completed roll-out of its user system. Richardson says significant improvements have been realized in the form of instant access to information including no more lost documents, improved customer service and response time, as well as time savings related to several processes within loan life cycle management. “Things that used to take an hour now take 20 minutes,” she says. “We’ve also experienced improvements in compliance due to audit tracking and increased visibility into the contents within a loan.”

Richardson also notes a new level of oversight is in place. “The one unexpected benefit we realized after our initial implementation was the additional insight Laserfiche provided our managers with their employees and their work. They now have an easy-to-use tool to verify contents placed into a file and when they were added, modified and by whom. They are also able to keep an eye on the timeliness of documents being added into loan files to help ensure team members are keeping on top of their work.”

“Strategic ECM projects can be complicated, but ensuring you have the right project team, both internally and externally, and the right project structure is important,” Richardson offers. “Laserfiche met our functional and technical requirements and now serves as our electronic loan file, which is core to our business operations.”

Financial Services (Broker-Dealer) – Spire Investment Partners, LLC

Spire Investment Partners is a combination of a Broker/Dealer, a Registered Investment Advisor and an Insurance Agency. When Spire established its B/D business in 2008, it knew that it needed an ECM system to optimize its workflow and facilitate compliance. According to CAO Phillip Fournier, “In a very short time period, Laserfiche allowed us to create a workflow that connected all of our offices around the country to our Operations Center. Now it doesn’t matter if an office is five miles away or 500 miles away; business is transacted quickly and efficiently.”

Fournier details the other benefits of the system:

• Reduced the cost (and delay) of overnight shipping.
• Workflows that automatically push “not in good order” (NIGO) paperwork back to the reps with notes about what is missing for quick correction.
• No lost forms.
• Faster audits.
• Online access to client information.

Spire estimates that the average office saves approximately $3,500 in overnight charges annually from using Laserfiche. Additional savings result from the reduced cost of physical storage, file cabinets, files, lost paperwork, hours of file maintenance and delays in processing, the numbers become even more significant. Fournier also says that Laserfiche “allows our compliance department to be much less onerous in its supervision” thanks to the system’s robust security features.

Spire recently upgraded to Laserfiche Avante for its improved workflow capabilities. “If we tried to remove Laserfiche, our reps would revolt,” he explains. “I tell all of our new reps to start using Laserfiche yesterday. Every day they delay is another day of inefficiency.”

Healthcare (Hospital) – Wythe County Community Hospital

Since deploying Laserfiche in August 2009, Patty Hall, Director of Health Information Management and Facility Privacy Officer, says Wythe County Community Hospital (WCCH) has seen Laserfiche handle the “voluminous amount of paperwork,” as she puts it, generated in large part by its Meditech patient information system, while benefitting various departments’ processing needs enterprise-wide. An integration with Meditech imports documents and reports straight to Laserfiche, while utilizing Quick Fields’ Forms Combo to identify key index fields on the fly. Laserfiche has given immediate access to information for staff who have been granted access rights—with a HIPAA compliant audit trail for administrators – while creating a centralized repository for all business units: Health Information, Business Office, ER & Registration, and Human Resources.

Thanks now to the ability to scan charts daily, WCCH has a minimal backlog of loose charting, while physicians now have 24/7 access to patient EKG history by going into Laserfiche and clicking on the patient’s “cardiology” tab. This simple ease of use, Hall says, has gone a long way to ensuring the success of Laserfiche. “End users can access documents by going to the specific template fields that are set up just like the tabs in a patient’s paper chart.”

What’s more, Laserfiche does not require a dedicated IS team, as do other applications within its parent hospital system. Now, inspired by a 2009 CIMS conference at reseller EMI’s headquarters, Hall says she’ll be looking at using Quick Fields to scan loose filing and automatically separate and deliver information to patient accounts, a time-consuming manual process. “WCCH is continually investigating new ways of managing information, and has not yet been able to come up with an idea that Laserfiche can not accomplish,” Hall says.

Healthcare (Medical Group) – Dallas Associated Dermatologists

Dallas Associated Dermatologists was looking for a way to transition to electronic medical charts without changing the way its doctors organized records or interacted with patients. In 2007, the practice added a document management module to its billing software, but the result was less than ideal. “The first time around, I confined my search to software that had been designed specifically for the healthcare community,” Controller Bill Duke explains. “The second time around, I looked further afield.”

Specifically, he looked at Laserfiche, and discovered that it was flexible enough to adapt to the needs of his practice. Duke says, “With Laserfiche, we can create our own templates, our own fields and our own classifications for documents. That flexibility gives us control over our output, and it lets our physicians continue to chart in the way that works best for them.”

Dallas Associated Dermatologists benefits from instant search and retrieval of patient charts, as well as the automation afforded by Workflow. “We’ve automated much of our sign-out process for physician notes,” Duke explains. “Once transcriptions have been imported into Laserfiche, they’re automatically routed to the Transcriptionist folder where they are linked to their .wav files. We’re also testing how to automate other paper-intensive processes, such as prescription refill approval, using Workflow.”

The practice has already been able to use space that used to be allocated for document storage for revenue-generating activities, and Duke anticipates that once Laserfiche has been implemented in areas such as A/P, Inventory and HR, the time savings for staff will be huge. “EMR systems are focused exclusively on patient records, but Laserfiche is going to allow us to streamline operations across the practice,” Duke concludes.

Healthcare (International) – South Essex Partnership NHS Trust

Working with Laserfiche reseller ScanDoc, South Essex Partnership NHS Trust (SEPT) initially implemented a 20-user Laserfiche installation as a pilot project to see how well it could keep up with the round-the-clock scanning and patient-monitoring needs of its Forensics Services department. Laserfiche outperformed a legacy imaging system so well that it is being deployed, in conjunction with Adobe Lifecycle products, to establish an EMR system for the whole hospital that will manage in excess of 60 million images. Dominic Malvern, Head of System Development, says that Laserfiche’s initial effectiveness, coupled with the fact that it can enable shared but secured access to patient records on the network or remotely and be deployed both through a client server and Web browser options via Web Access, has inspired true enterprise adoption. “Initially Laserfiche was envisaged solely as a clinical and medical records solution but we have now realized that it can be a complete multi-functional document management system for the whole organization and for all types of function and service.”

Along with current deployments to non-clinical areas like vehicle service management, Human Resources and Finance, Malvern says that Laserfiche is well on its way to being the ECM standard for SEPT as it replaces several legacy systems. “The enterprise license deal that we have will enable significant cost savings along with greater functionality,” he says. “Laserfiche can do so much more and even a year down the road we are still discovering new things that it can do for us. Laserfiche has great functionality combined with enormous flexibility and is capable of revolutionizing your whole records and document management, both live and archive.”

Commercial – ECOM Atlantic

ECOM is a global trading company headquartered in Dallas, TX, that, among other things, imports 80% of the coffee used by Starbucks in the US. So when two of its 10 departments went to IT Director Willa Zandi with what she recognized as a need for electronic document management in August of 2009, she saw the opportunity to introduce full-scale ECM/BPM functionality into the company, one familiar process at a time. “Laserfiche was flexible enough that a department can implement it in a way that mirrors their current system, but had the potential where once they’re comfortable, they’d say ‘I don’t even need a folder, now I can start thinking about changing my business.’”

To that end, ECOM is now planning to integrate Laserfiche with its Navision accounting software to set up distributed approval A/P processing for its 10-plus departments, updating invoices which Workflow then files according to payment type and date. In its Real Estate department a planned integration with its Timberline accounting system will do the same. More recently, Ecom’s Traffic department is implementing 35 workflows that can have up to 250 different outcomes (!), while its HR is planning an integration with its ADP system to automatically create employee folders.

“What’s so important to us is the scalability of Laserfiche. Once we have integrations with our ERP up and running in our office, we can roll it out to our offices around the world,” Zandi says. “We’re developing what has the potential to be the centralized ECM/BPM global standard for the company’s business processes, and even before we’ve done all our analysis or know where that infrastructure will go and how our repositories will break out, we know Laserfiche has the scalability to do it.”

Commercial (International) – ESSAR Group

The Essar Group is a multinational conglomerate and a leading player in the sectors of Steel, Oil & Gas, Power, Communications, Shipping Ports & Logistics, Projects and Minerals. With operations in more than 20 countries across five continents, the Group employs 60,000 people, with revenues of USD 15B. But with such diversified interests – the group includes 63 companies – Vice President Mandeep Singh saw that Laserfiche agile ECM could offer Essar’s myriad financial processes a central shared service center to address, in his words “visibility , time-bound process execution and accountability.”

Since implementing a 100-user Rio system with an unlimited public portal, Singh says, Essar Group’s finance departments have seen significant benefits, including better work allocation, faster document processing, and most of all transparency of daily and pending transactions in a categorized matter. Laserfiche has been integrated with SAP to implement automated process flows, control framework, and de-dupe checks which has resulted in process efficiencies, increased productivity and enhanced controllership.

With 120 distinct classes offered over the course of three days, this year’s conference will add interactive panel discussions on hot enterprise content management (ECM) topics such as virtualization, metadata design/implementation, workflow optimization, risk management and more.

We’ll also showcase customers’ best practices for using Laserfiche to solve business problems, with presentations from North Carolina’s Gaston County, Pulte Mortgage, Texas A&M University, Xpyria Investment Advisors, the UK’s London Borough of Tower Hamlets, DL Evans Bank and more.

And if all that isn’t enough, our special event at the Petersen Automotive Museum on January 10 will give you a chance to network with other attendees while you dine among some of the world’s most impressive cars!

Registration is $795 for the first registrant and $595 for each additional registrant. Don’t miss out—register today.

Questions? Contact us at cpp@laserfiche.com.

Fourteen new sessions of previously full classes have also been added, so if you had your eye on something in particular, check back to see if there if there is now space available. Recently added sessions include:

• EDM207: Performance Monitoring Tools (Lab) Monday at 11:00am
• CC206: Optimizing Documents and Folders Monday at 4:00pm
• IG301: Advanced Topics in Security Tuesday at 9:45am
• CD115: Hands-on Searching in Laserfiche (Lab) Tuesday at 2:45pm
• CC112: Getting Started with Quick Fields (Lab) Tuesday at 4:00pm
• EDM211: Database Tuning and Maintenance Tuesday at 4:00pm
• CC108: Scanning in Laserfiche (Lab) Wednesday at 8:30am
• BPM301: Workflow Reporting and Process Analytics (Lab) Wednesday at 8:30am
• IG103: Configuring and Using Audit Trail Wednesday at 9:45am
• CD303: Launching Web Access from Web-based Applications (Lab) Wednesday at 11am
• CD123: Improving Search Efficiencies Wednesday at 11am
• IG204: Implementing Records Management (Lab) Wednesday at 1:30pm
• BPM203: Correcting Common Workflow Mistakes (Lab) Wednesday at 1:30pm
• BPM210: Strategies for Extending Workflow Functionality Wednesday at 2:45pm

Also, if you signed up a while ago, take another look at the conference offerings, as a number of sessions for the Marketplace/Partners and Success Stories tracks were recently added. You won’t want to miss out on these exciting classes featuring integrations from our PDP partners and Laserfiche customers, many of whom are Run Smarter winners.

Register now; classes are filling up fast!

User studies give you a chance to provide input on Laserfiche product design. We encourage users at all levels of technical expertise to get involved and meet with our software engineers!

Study sessions will take place each day of the Conference in Santa Monica B. Sign up now to reserve your session.

“Registration is 20% ahead of where it was at this time last year, which is a testament to this event’s successful track record and to the value repeat attendees gain each and every year,” said James Every, President of the Laserfiche Institute. “Many organizations are coming to the conference to do their due diligence for expanding their ECM infrastructure in 2011, and we’re committed to providing an outstanding educational experience for them.”

With 120 distinct classes offered over the course of three days, Laserfiche will this year introduce interactive panel discussions on hot enterprise content management (ECM) topics such as virtualization, metadata design/implementation, workflow optimization, risk management and more.

The conference will also showcase customers’ best practices for using Laserfiche to solve business problems. Featured organizations include North Carolina’s Gaston County, Pulte Mortgage, Texas A&M University, Xpyria Investment Advisors, the UK’s London Borough of Tower Hamlets, DL Evans Bank and more.

In addition to conference keynotes and classes, a special event at the Petersen Automotive Museum on January 10 will facilitate networking and give attendees the chance to dine among some of the world’s most impressive cars.

Learn more about the Laserfiche Institute Conference at http://www.laserfiche.com/conference.

About Laserfiche
Since 1987, Laserfiche® has used its Run Smarter® philosophy to create simple and elegant enterprise content management (ECM) solutions. More than 28,000 organizations worldwide use Laserfiche software to streamline document, records and business process management.

The Laserfiche ECM system is designed to give IT managers central control over their information infrastructure, including standards, security and auditing, while still offering business units the flexibility to respond quickly to changing conditions. The Laserfiche product suite is built upon Microsoft® technologies to simplify system administration, supports Microsoft SQL and Oracle® platforms and features a seamless integration with Microsoft Office® applications and a two-way integration with SharePoint®.

Laserfiche is a registered trademark of Compulink Management Center, Inc.

Please note that tracks and sessions are not yet posted, but will become available in September.

Of course, you don’t have to wait until January to learn new skills that will help you maximize your system’s value. Simply join us for one of our Regional Training Workshops, where you’ll receive practical, hands-on training that will make you an even savvier user of Laserfiche software.

In the months ahead, we’ll hold workshops in Denver, CO, Minneapolis, MN, New Orleans, LA, New York, NY, and other cities. Click here to review the full schedule and reserve your spot.

[See post to watch Flash video]

Watch Nien-Ling Wacker’s keynote at the Laserfiche Institute Conference.

User attendance, Nien-Ling noted, was up 54% from last year. She also pointed out that the Center for Digital Government and Digital Communities magazine recently published its list of the nation’s most advanced digital cities – and 20 of them, including 3 out of 4 category leaders, are using Laserfiche. 2009 Run Smarter Award Winner City of Norfolk, VA, for instance, was among them. Laserfiche Luminary Rosalind Collins, Deputy Commissioner of the Revenue and Laserfiche Administrator for Charlottesville, VA, another winner, was moved. “When Nien-Ling pointed out over half of those digital cities winners are Laserfiche users, it’s like, ‘Wow, we’re all really part of something that’s making an impact.’”

Users focused on maximizing the value of their existing systems as well as expanding the value of their current systems – as well as their value to their organizations. About 200 Laserfiche professionals and administrators took advantage of free Laserfiche Administrator 1 testing offered by the new Certified Professionals Program as well.

The community spirit could be felt everywhere, from the shared expertise in class, labs and case study presentations to the casual conversations at lunch. “After the class about optimizing our system I feel like I can go back and talk to some of our departments,” said Maureen Duncan, Records Manager for 2008 Run Smarter Winner Thurston County, WA. “I can really see where even with Workflow there are some things we’re taking three steps to do we could be doing in one. I’d also like to see how using RME as a records manager I can set it up so each department can help manage their own records.”

[See post to watch Flash video]

Watch the opening day video, showing the global reach and power of Laserfiche ECM solutions.

Steve R. Harding, Applications Systems Analyst for the City of Eugene, OR, Information Services Division, had the same pragmatic attitude to the conference. He and his nine colleagues from four departments were hungry for the technical know-how and hands-on demonstrations of just what upgrading from their departmental version 7 systems to a single enterprise Rio system would entail in the coming months. They were not disappointed. “I really liked the technical labs where we talked about the SDK,” Harding says.

“And if I couldn’t find a course to answer exactly what questions I have, I’ve been able to make contact with the people that I can call once I get back home. I could spend three days just talking to the developers and engineers,” Harding joked, noting that with the help of he and the city’s Laserfiche reseller, VP Consulting, his department will be upgrading all of Eugene’s custom applications. “We have a vision of what the system will be able to do – we can see where users will be able to search across all the repositories. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting there.”

“Empower 2010” was also an opportunity to see the real-life benefits of using Agile ECM when it is not only a centralized, shared repository, but also a component of integrative middleware between content and other business applications. Collin County, TX, CIO Caren Skipworth, for instance, shared her success and business strategy of deploying Laserfiche enterprise-wide in her “The Three Laws of Agile ECM” keynote Q&A with Laserfiche’s Kimberly Samuelson. “Technology is the catalyst for change, and Laserfiche is a big part of that,” Skipworth said.

[See post to watch Flash video]

Watch Caren Skipworth discuss the three laws of agile ECM.

Likewise, Chief Jeffrey Beahen of the Elk River, MN, Police Department outlined his 2009 Run Smarter Award-winning Laserfiche integration with the department’s police records management system (RMS). He detailed the cost and safety benefits of being able to access Laserfiche through Elk River’s RMS, from reducing storage needs to giving responding officers the ability to know, say, if a suspect has applied for a gun permit and could be armed. Beahen recounted how Laserfiche helped save a stolen Christmas for one Elk River neighborhood just weeks ago. A would-be-Grinch was breaking into homes and stealing presents, but when police were able to match a suspicious person’s boot with photographs of bootprints taken outside various break-ins, they were able to make the arrest – and return the stolen presents.

“I don’t know how you solve crimes out here in California without snow,” Beahen joked. The spirit of community was spontaneous: an IT administrator from Carmel, IN, expressed interest in a law enforcement user group; several other attendees concurred, and within minutes all were huddled up with Laserfiche staff learning how to post in the User Group forum on the Laserfiche Support Site.

But arguably the most valuable resource at the conference was the expanded Office Hours room, where Laserfiche developers and engineers provided one-on-one consultations on any and every Laserfiche product. No matter how general or specific the topic or concern, developers and engineers solved problems, shared best practices and made life easier, one grateful user at a time.

First-time attendees planning their first installations in the coming year got encouragement and ideas, while experienced users asking just what Workflow and Quick Fields could do for their organizations not only received assessments and ad hoc demos, but sometimes ideas for how to find the resources to implement them. And advanced IT administrators, many asking about Web-based enterprise deployment, were able to sit down with product developers and engineers to have their very specific questions answered. As Tato Munoz, IT Director for D.L. Evans Bank put it, “I walked in with some procedural issues that my organization faced regarding our extensive use of Quick Fields and implementing Snapshot. From the IT perspective, it was great to be able to interface with some of the developers that worked on the applications and receive not only answers, but options.”

“The whole conference was a very gratifying experience with many pluses, but the Office Hours alone would have been worth the price of attending,” he adds.

• Laserfiche CEO Nien-Ling Wacker discussing “Agile ECM: A Clear Winner in a New Decade”
• Collin County, TX, CIO Caren Skipworth (Texas CIO of the year) and Laserfiche’s Kimberly Samuelson discussing the “Three Laws of Agile ECM”
• The 2009 Run Smarter Awards
• The Laserfiche Players presenting “Trouble in Lasertown,” where Private Investigator Jake Garibaldi tries to break the case of dead people buying up non-producing orange groves, thanks to help from three Laser County clerks – and Laserfiche, of course. Check out Part One, Part Two and the thrilling finale.

And don’t forget to check out each day’s opening videos, highlighting the global reach and impact of Laserfiche ECM solutions, our Run Smarter winners and the global success of our reseller community.

The awards presentation was held this morning during the Laserfiche Institute Conference at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport hotel. Twelve winners across a range of industries were honored:

• Commercial: RMS Company
• County Government: Collin County, TX
• Financial Services: Cambridge Financial Group
• Healthcare: Spindletop MHMR Services
• Higher Education: Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
• International Government: State of Guerrero, Mexico
• Justice Systems – Courts: LaPorte County, IN
• Justice Systems – Law Enforcement: Elk River Police Department
• K-12 Education: Los Angeles County Office of Education
• Municipal Government: City of Norfolk, VA
• Special District: Central Contra Costa Sanitary District
• State/Federal Government: Texas Medical Board

“Every year, we’re amazed by the ingenious ways in which our customers use Laserfiche to increase productivity, cut costs and maximize ROI,” said Laserfiche President and CEO Nien-Ling Wacker. “We’re proud that we were able to help so many leading organizations accomplish their goals in 2009, and we look forward to enabling even more success in 2010.”

For video highlights from the Conference, please visit http://www.laserfiche.com/en/conference/Video%20Highlights.aspx.

About Laserfiche
Laserfiche® creates simple and elegant enterprise content management (ECM) solutions that help organizations run smarter. Since 1987, more than 28,000 organizations worldwide—including federal, state and local government agencies and Fortune 1000 companies—have used Laserfiche software to streamline document, records and business process management.

The Laserfiche ECM system is designed to give IT managers central control over their information infrastructure, including standards, security and auditing, while still offering business units the flexibility to respond quickly to changing conditions. The Laserfiche product suite is built upon Microsoft® technologies to simplify system administration, supports Microsoft SQL and Oracle® platforms and features a seamless integration with Microsoft Office® applications and a two-way integration with SharePoint®.

Laserfiche distributes its software through a worldwide network of value-added resellers (VARs), who tailor solutions to clients’ individual needs. The Laserfiche VAR program has received the Five-Star rating from Computer Reseller News/VARBusiness magazine.

Laserfiche is a registered trademark of Compulink Management Center, Inc.

“2009 was a watershed year that separated the truly great companies from the rest of the pack,” said Wacker. “Laserfiche is committed to helping great companies succeed, and we worked relentlessly throughout 2009 to make our agile ECM system the clear winner for the new decade.”

Despite the economic downturn and heightened security for air travel, end user attendance at the Conference is up 54% over last year. A healthy number of industry analysts, consultants, partners, journalists and resellers are also in attendance.

The Conference, held at the Hilton LAX in Los Angeles through January 13, features more than 150 sessions on everything from integrating Laserfiche with SharePoint to agile project management to implementing Laserfiche in a multinational environment.

HP and Fujitsu are the Premier and Gold sponsors for the event; Infolinx is the nametag sponsor. Exhibitors include HP, Fujitsu, Infolinx, LincWare, FileTek, NovusAGENDA, Canon, Extract Systems, Cambridge Connections, Plustek, United Micro Data/Affinity, Peladon Software and GEI WideFormat.

For video highlights from the Conference, visit http://www.laserfiche.com/2010.

About Laserfiche
Laserfiche® creates simple and elegant enterprise content management (ECM) solutions that help organizations run smarter. Since 1987, more than 28,000 organizations worldwide have used Laserfiche software to streamline document, records and business process management.

The Laserfiche ECM system is designed to give IT managers central control over their information infrastructure, including standards, security and auditing, while still offering business units the flexibility to respond quickly to changing conditions. The Laserfiche product suite is built upon Microsoft® technologies to simplify system administration, supports Microsoft SQL and Oracle® platforms and features a seamless integration with Microsoft Office® applications and a two-way integration with SharePoint®.

Laserfiche distributes its software through a worldwide network of value-added resellers (VARs), who tailor solutions to clients’ individual needs. The Laserfiche VAR program has received the Five-Star rating from Computer Reseller News/VARBusiness magazine.

Laserfiche is a registered trademark of Compulink Management Center, Inc.

Please join us as we congratulate this year’s winners: the City of Norfolk, VA; Collin County, TX; the Texas Medical Board; the State of Guerrero, Mexico; the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District; the Elk River Police Department; La Porte County, IN; Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi; the Los Angeles County Office of Education; Spindletop MHMR; Cambridge Financial Group; and RMS Company.

We’d like to thank everyone who submitted nominations for this year’s award—and we’d like to invite you to join us at the Conference January 11-13 in Los Angeles to congratulate this year’s winners.

Municipal Government: City of Norfolk, VA

No municipality has dedicated itself to the growth of the Laserfiche Community more visibly this year than Norfolk, VA. So much so that the city’s in-house Laserfiche champions owe winning a Run Smarter Award as much to their evolving use of Laserfiche as to their role encouraging user interaction by co-founding the Hampton Roads User Group, one of an unprecedented number of user groups that have sprung up across the state in the last two years. Norfolk’s Run Smarter Award is really a Run Smarter Award for the entire Laserfiche community.

What started out as a user group for a small niche of Virginia municipalities has grown to include every industry, and has expanded from one statewide group to three. But the value to the Laserfiche community as a whole, says Laserfiche Luminary and leader of the Technology Team for the Norfolk Commissioner of the Revenue W. Alondo McClees, is unique and beyond compare. “I can’t think of another software product that has a community attached to it. There are many enterprise-level products that have user groups, but they don’t seem to have a community,” he says. “When I talk to people at a Laserfiche user group, I’m talking to my friends. We all care about how each other’s organizations are succeeding. It’s more than people getting together talking about software. When people see what we are doing, they want to be a part of it.”

Read the full story here.

County Government: Collin County, TX

Collin County saw its population increase nearly 50% – from 500,000 in 2000 to 725,000 by 2007 – straining the County’s infrastructure. In 2007, a committee drawn from several County offices selected Laserfiche as the County’s choice for document and records management.

IT Director Caren Skipworth saw Laserfiche as a standard for information management. “Laserfiche fits into our enterprise approach in that every department could use it effectively, it could run in our environment – as opposed to the other way around – and we’d be able to support a single system ourselves with minimum staff,” she says.

Since implementing Laserfiche, the IT Department has reduced a four-person legacy imaging support staff serving just two departments to a three-person staff able to support Laserfiche county-wide. And, according to Records Manager Margaret Anderson, “We process payments much more quickly – up to 10 days faster,” she says. And that’s just in the Tax Assessor/Collector’s Office, where Laserfiche helps recover the almost $1 million lost in interest each day.

Download the Enterprise Government Case Study white paper here.

State/Federal Government: Texas Medical Board

As the state regulatory agency charged with protecting citizens’ health and safety, the Medical Board regulates the practice of medicine in Texas by licensure, discipline and education. It has a legislative mandate to file and track all complaints filed on any doctor licensed in the state—typically hundreds of them a year. Investigating all these complaints led to the creations of hundreds of thousands of paper documents, and shipping and storing them was a considerable drain on agency resources.

The agency initially scanned and uploaded content on file servers, which resulted in redundancy and version control issues. Next, the agency implemented a FileNet document management system, which proved to be difficult to scale and expensive to customize. According to System Analyst Anthony Merritt, the system’s interface was cumbersome, and, due to its limited features, “people were starting to avoid using it entirely.”

Finally, the Medical Board reviewed its alternatives and decided that replacing FileNet with Laserfiche—with its more comprehensive capabilities, lower maintenance costs and easier administration—was worth the upfront investment. “Laserfiche nearly tripled our ability to capture and process complaint documents,” explains Merritt. “It saves us time and energy every day.”

Read the full story here.

International Government: State of Guerrero, Mexico

The State of Guerrero has long been a leading proponent of IT as business technology in Mexico. The relatively poor Mexican state used Laserfiche in 2001 to integrate with the City of Acapulco’s GIS system to increase its rate of tax collection four-fold without raising the tax rates themselves. This increased the City’s tax collection enough that Acapulco now has Mexico’s fourth-best tax collection ratio.

Most Mexican cities – in other words, almost all of Guerrero’s 80 other cities without as lucrative a tax base as Acapulco – rely on the federal government for approximately 85 percent of their funding, much of that devoted to the infrastructural and quality of life upgrades necessary to increase tourism and economic development in the state. In 2006, Governor Carlos Torreblanca initiated “The Global Estate Strategy to a Digital Government” with the belief that investing in technology could quickly boost Guerrero’s economy.

In terms of sheer economic impact on the region, no part of this strategy has been as successful as using Laserfiche to streamline and accelerate the process by which public works funds are distributed. Using a remote checklist capture system to ensure proper documentation is in place for requests for federal grants, Laserfiche Workflow automates a maze of submissions, approvals and disbursements, so much so that a process that used to take from three to six months owing to bottlenecks and incomplete documentation now literally takes days, keeping information – and Guerrero’s economy – moving forward.

Special District: Central Contra Costa Sanitary District

The Central Contra Costa Sanitary District (CCCSD) maintains 1,500 miles of sewer lines and treats an average of 45 million gallons of wastewater per day. But with 56 years of service came 56 years of records—including permits, construction plans and Board documents. Storage space was at a premium, gaining access to information was difficult and time-consuming, and the district wanted to strengthen its disaster recovery plans.

“It was important for us to select a system that could handle many different forms of content,” says IT Systems Analyst John Phillips. “Documents are simple. Maps and drawings are where things get more complex.”

Today, permit job files (including maps and drawings) are scanned into Laserfiche. This practice centralizes content management, reduces the need for physical storage space, minimizes wear and tear on the originals and enables convenient access to them by CCCSD employees. Staff have also integrated Laserfiche with their GIS system, AutoDesk MapGuide, to grant engineers, permit counter staff and field maintenance crews instantaneous access to content right from the field.

“This has eliminated time spent looking up hard copy permits and drawings and enabled our crews to be more productive,” says Carl Von Stetten, information systems analyst, Engineering Support, CCCSD.

Read the full story here.

Justice Systems – Law Enforcement: Elk River Police Department, Elk River, MN

Elk River, MN, Police Chief Jeffrey Beahen knew that going paperless would transform the way his officers dealt with information, both organizationally and procedurally. Along with the rest of the city’s departments, the police department began using Laserfiche to store documents in 2002. However, the records management system (RMS) the police department had in place worked on a proprietary server, so there was no way to integrate it with Laserfiche. “Everybody’s desktop had two icons – you’d pull up the case number and then go into Laserfiche to find the supporting documents,” Beahen says.

In 2007, Beahen was approached by the Law Enforcement Technology Group with a Web-based police records management system to manage information in relation to their core policing entities (people, locations, vehicles, organizations, incidents and property/evidence). “It wasn’t proprietary, so anything we could scan into Laserfiche and store, we could attach right to the record from the RMS. It turned the process of accessing records and documentation into a one-stop shop,” he says. “This is the kind of thing that you hear stories about seven engineers working on and two months and $85,000 later, it still isn’t working right. Our integration was done in less than a week.”

Now, officers have wireless-enabled laptops in their squad cars so all content is immediately accessible, which, says Beahen, “keeps officers safe all the time.” As the Elk River, MN Police Department’s Run Smarter Award-winning use of Laserfiche shows, you don’t have to be the biggest department to realize real and valuable benefits and safety from using Laserfiche, you just have to have some vision. In fact, the Elk River Police Department was recognized with a 2008 award for Excellence in Information Technology from the International Association of Chiefs of Police, alongside some of the largest police agencies in the world.

Read the full story here.

Justice Systems – Courts: La Porte County, IN

For La Porte County Superior Court No. 4 Chief Probation Officer Steve Eyrick, technology plays an important role in shaping departmental strategy. Under his direction, the department recently rolled out a video conferencing system, which has improved security by keeping inmates in jail during their arraignments. The department has also benefitted from the chief probation officer’s decision to implement Laserfiche content management more than seven years ago.

“Prior to implementing Laserfiche,” Eyrick says, “we were storing piles of files that had accumulated over the course of more than twenty years. Organizing everything was a problem, as was finding enough storage room. Laserfiche changed all of that.”

Eyrick’s success with Laserfiche soon attracted attention outside of his department, and it wasn’t long before Darlene Hale, IT director for the entire county, came calling.

Hale had noticed a few problems with the way content management had been rolled out county-wide. Chief among them was that, in the years before she’d taken the helm, individual departments such as Eyrick’s had been allowed to choose and deploy their own preferred IT systems. As a result, interoperability was lacking, sharing information was difficult and costs were high. In the course of Hale’s research, she determined that if one of the content management systems already in use could be expanded, the cost of conversion wouldn’t be quite so high. Two systems rose to the top: Laserfiche and Docuware. Ultimately, after talking to Eyrick and his department, comparing features and functionality and considering ROI, Laserfiche won out.

“Our users love Laserfiche,” Hale explains. “It just has so many more uses and capabilities than what they were using before.”

Read the full story here.

Higher Education: Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi

Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC) implemented Laserfiche to replace their legacy ECM system. When the results far exceeded their expectations, University staff started using the Laserfiche SDK to build automation tools tailored for the University’s general needs, specific unit requirements and the needs of individual departments.

Manager of Administrative Computing Dennis Raulie, Programmer III Michael Williamson and Computer Operator Bobby Martinez took inspiration from Rube Goldberg’s legacy of creating seemingly complex machines to achieve simple tasks to develop the Report Upload Bifurcation Engine (R.U.B.E.) system. The R.U.B.E. system processes a continuous stream of bundled report files from BPP/FAMIS feeds and distributes the resulting reports to the appropriate destinations in Laserfiche. Each report is split into smaller “reportlets” which are filed in Laserfiche according to their retention schedule. Some reports are thousands of pages long and, before Laserfiche, had to be printed, which required one to two reams of paper a day. Using the R.U.B.E. system hasn’t just saved all this paper; it’s also saved the Accounting department from lagging a month behind in filing.

To move all of the university’s documents from their legacy ECM system into Laserfiche, Williamson wrote a program to pull all the system’s data and associated metadata and convert it using Import Agent. When all the archived data has been moved, the university plans to keep expanding their use of Laserfiche by using Workflow to improve business processes.

At TAMU-CC, user acceptance of Laserfiche has been especially high. When one staff member was asked about her feelings on Laserfiche, she enthusiastically replied, “Laserfiche is easy to use. I LOVE LASERFICHE!”

Read the full story here.

K-12 Education: Los Angeles County Office of Education

The Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) operates the largest Head Start-State Preschool program in the country, contracting with 26 agencies that employ a staff of more than 3,000 people and serve more than 25,000 children—and their families—in the greater L.A. area each year alone. Of course, with that many clients comes all kinds of records: attendance tracking, child abuse and accident reporting, growth charts, fiscal reports and more. Organizing and ensuring fast access to them all was becoming a major problem.

Laserfiche has helped LACOE’s Head Start-State Preschool program improve efficiency by digitizing student documentation. Using Laserfiche, the Head Start program now scans all paper documents and stores them, along with electronic content, in a central, secure Laserfiche repository.

“We thought we were just getting a repository to hold our electronic files, but Laserfiche is so much more,” says Lee.

Read the full story here.

Healthcare: Spindletop MHMR

For the people who struggle with mental health issues in southeast Texas, Spindletop Mental Health Mental Retardation (MHMR) Services has the resources to support their recovery and relieve their distress. But with over 8,000 patients every year and upwards of 400 employees, Spindletop’s ability to respond promptly to records requests—and, by extension, to patients—was being compromised.

Over 80,000 files resided in a hardcopy storage facility that cost more than $2,000 a month to maintain. And even with six full-time staff members dedicated to managing hardcopy documents, some records took as long as three days to locate and cost $4 each to retrieve and deliver; others were lost for good.

“We wanted to centralize access to patient records without forcing our employees to go out of their way,” explains Jerry Carnley, CIO at Spindletop. “Our intranet seemed to be the natural place to do this, but we needed to implement a content management solution that would be easy to implement, easy to install, and eliminate extra work for the people who deal with patient documents every day.”

Spindletop chose Laserfiche and integrated it with their existing SharePoint intranet. “We’ve increased productivity, and morale has jumped in every department that uses Laserfiche,” Carnley says. “There’s no more waiting around for days for hardcopy documents to be found, and no more lost or misfiled records resulting in huge institutional fines. And we aren’t spending thousands of dollars each month on offsite storage facilities.”

Read the full story here.

Financial: Cambridge Financial Group

Cambridge Financial Group, a Columbus, OH-based registered investment advisor managing assets of around $1 billion, is committed to technical efficiency – with good reason. With only 12 employees managing 4,000 active accounts from 32 different brokers and supporting Delivery Versus Payment (DVP) accounts for over 50 banks, Cambridge has to maximize the productivity of each staff member. That meant finding a way to help staff keep up with processing the 50,000 pages of statements that arrived in the mail each month, adding to the 20 years of back files spread out over 400 square feet of file cabinet space that had already spilled over into two storage lockers filled with statements and account records.

“We decided to go paperless,” says Mike Adams, Cambridge’s Director of Information Technology, who turned to Laserfiche reseller Gordon Flesch Company to help tailor a solution that could capture the up to 50,000 pages and merge them seamlessly with the firm’s own business processes and existing information systems. “When they recommended Laserfiche, we decided to go for it.”

Now Cambridge uses Laserfiche Quick Fields to capture the 100 different formats of broker statements arriving each month. As Adams explains, “Quick Fields recognizes the broker account number on each document and populates the Laserfiche template fields with information from Lotus Notes/Domino and our portfolio management software.” Adams’ team also created custom scanner profiles to optimize scanning on documents with background anti-tampering lines or colors that would otherwise reduce OCR accuracy.

The results were immediate. “We get our statements processed and viewable in Laserfiche in less time than it used to take to sort the paper before,” he says.

Read the full story here.

Commercial: RMS Company

As a contract manufacturing company that specializes in medical device implants and surgical instruments, precision is a chief concern for RMS. For over forty years, the company has ensured the accuracy and quality of its products, spurring expansion and business growth. But as the organization grew, some of its processes failed to evolve along with it.

“As a contract manufacturer, we fulfill a substantial number of jobs every year,” explains Michael Eklund, information systems coordinator at RMS. “We used to place all of the order information into a file folder and pass it around to multiple teams throughout our 155,000 square foot machine shop. As you can probably guess, files went missing and people spent a lot of time trying to track them down.”

Now, RMS relies heavily on Laserfiche Workflow to accelerate shared business processes across its plants in Minnesota and Tennessee. RMS has eight major workflows in effect across the company. “From an IT perspective,” Eklund says, “one of the best features is how easy it is to change and test the various workflows. Four of our major workflows could halt production if they stopped working properly. Because it’s so easy to make adjustments, we never have to worry about downtime.”

Read the full story here.

You won’t want to miss this year’s conference – and now, with extended Early Bird registration, you won’t have to. We’ll see you in Los Angeles January 11-13.

Register today!

“With millions of Laserfiche users in more than 27,000 organizations worldwide, there is a great deal of demand for convenient ways for users to further develop their content management expertise,” said Nien-Ling Wacker, Laserfiche president and CEO. “We’re pleased to offer our entire community a simple, accessible way of achieving this goal.”

The Laserfiche Certified Professional Program is comprised of two tracks: one for engineers, and one for general users. The Technical Track consists of three Laserfiche Engineer certifications: Laserfiche Administrator I; Laserfiche Administrator II; and Laserfiche Integrator. The User track consists of three Laserfiche Specialist certifications: Capture; Records Management; and Business Process Management.

Certification classes will be offered online, at the annual Laserfiche Institute Conference and regional workshops, and at authorized Laserfiche training centers. Testing will be administered on an ongoing basis for a moderate fee. Certification training will formally commence at the company’s 2010 conference in January, where there will also be an overview session outlining next steps for participation.

“By offering a rigorous yet accessible certification program, we’re raising the bar for users who want to get every ounce of value out of their investment in Laserfiche,” said Alex Wilson, director of the Laserfiche Certified Professional Program. “This program makes it even easier for members of our community to surmount their organizations’ toughest content-related challenges and advance their careers.”

For more information about the Laserfiche Institute Conference, see http://www.laserfiche.com/conference.

About Laserfiche
Laserfiche® creates simple and elegant enterprise content management (ECM) solutions that help organizations run smarter. Since 1987, more than 27,000 organizations worldwide have used Laserfiche software to streamline document, records and business process management.

The Laserfiche ECM system is designed to give IT managers central control over their information infrastructure, including standards, security and auditing, while still offering business units the flexibility to respond quickly to changing conditions. The Laserfiche product suite is built upon Microsoft® technologies to simplify system administration, supports Microsoft SQL and Oracle® platforms and features a seamless integration with Microsoft Office® applications and a two-way integration with SharePoint®.

Laserfiche distributes its software through a worldwide network of value-added resellers (VARs), who tailor solutions to clients’ individual needs. The Laserfiche VAR program has received the Five-Star rating from Computer Reseller News/VARBusiness magazine.

Laserfiche is a registered trademark of Compulink Management Center, Inc.

“Even during times of economic uncertainty, people recognize the importance of increasing productivity and efficiency,” said Nien-Ling Wacker, Laserfiche president and CEO. “Agile ECM plays a pivotal role in improving organizational effectiveness, and we’re very pleased to give our community the chance to share strategies for best leveraging Agile ECM.”

The conference will offer three full days of more than 60 technical training labs and comprehensive classes, including a number of courses offered as part of the new Laserfiche Certified Professional Program. More information about the new certification program will be available soon.

“Every year we try to improve the conference and offer a more personalized experience to attendees. This year we’ve expanded all of the tracks, added more best practices courses and made it easier for attendees to tailor their schedules to meet their needs,” said Laserfiche Institute Director Jereb Cheatham.

Close to a thousand members of the Laserfiche community are expected to attend Empower 2010, and the deadline for early registration is fast approaching. Learn more today at http://www.laserfiche.com/conference.

About Laserfiche
Laserfiche® creates simple and elegant enterprise content management (ECM) solutions that help organizations run smarter. Since 1987, more than 27,000 organizations worldwide have used Laserfiche software to streamline document, records and business process management.

The Laserfiche ECM system is designed to give IT managers central control over their information infrastructure, including standards, security and auditing, while still offering business units the flexibility to respond quickly to changing conditions. The Laserfiche product suite is built upon Microsoft® technologies to simplify system administration, supports Microsoft SQL and Oracle® platforms and features a seamless integration with Microsoft Office® applications and a two-way integration with SharePoint®.

Laserfiche distributes its software through a worldwide network of value-added resellers (VARs), who tailor solutions to clients’ individual needs. The Laserfiche VAR program has received the Five-Star rating from Computer Reseller News/VARBusiness magazine.

Laserfiche is a registered trademark of Compulink Management Center, Inc.

This year’s conference will “Empower 2010” with three full days of hands-on technical training labs, even more “Office Hours,” and comprehensive classes on hot button topics like Laserfiche security, Workflow optimization, records management and more. (Check out this year’s class schedule. More classes are being scheduled every day!) And best of all, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to network with other users, Laserfiche staff and resellers, so you’ll return home full of ideas to make 2010 your most productive year yet!

Have questions about conference classes or the conference in general? Visit the Support Site Forum Laserfiche Conference topic, where our User Education staff – as well as the Laserfiche developers teaching classes – will answer all your questions.

You’ll want to take advantage of early Conference registration and save $200. Plus, you can book rooms at the LAX Hilton for the very special limited price of just $119++.

Don’t delay – register for the Conference today. We’ll see you in January in LA!

Kenai, AK, Deputy Clerk Corey Hall

Kenai, AK, a city of 7,000, may not have the biggest or most elaborate Laserfiche installation. But the woman behind the modest city’s steady, patient success managing its documents, Laserfiche Luminary Corene “Corey” Hall, knows it doesn’t have to. It just needs to be able to make a difference. And with Hall’s help, it has, slowly but surely turning what was once an unused Laserfiche system into a tool that has helped Kenai not only survive, but thrive amidst economic changes and personnel shifts.

Hall’s been Deputy City Clerk for Kenai since 2007 – coincidentally the same year the City revived its dormant Laserfiche system with an upgrade to Laserfiche 7.2. Laserfiche reseller Pam Barnes met with Finance Director Larry Semmens about having Hall process and catalog the department’s documents. They agreed the best way to bring Hall up to speed on Laserfiche’s capabilities was a nearly week-long immersion at the 2008 Laserfiche Institute Conference.

“I was still very new to Laserfiche, so most of the sessions I attended were over my head, but I learned a little something in each one,” Hall recalls. “I learned some shortcuts and tips that made the everyday part of my job easier.” She even sat in on a Quick Fields session. “I couldn’t wait to come back and use what I learned,” she says.

“Of course, that’s also when I learned we don’t have Quick Fields,” she jokes.

After the conference, what she did have was a better sense of what needed to be done back in Kenai’s finance department. Back at work, she immediately started scanning all the check voucher packets. “This has made the department much more efficient and has cut our storage space in half. All our vouchers can now be searched by vendor name, vendor number, check number or invoice number.”

Between conferences, she took it upon herself to become Kenai’s resident Laserfiche expert. “I learned more about the product by using it each day, depending on my reseller when I couldn’t understand something, and using the Support Site regularly.”

What a difference a year makes. At the 2009 Conference, she says, “I knew so much more about Laserfiche I could choose sessions that would give me a chance to preview products or components we might like to add. I attended as many labs as I could, because I know I learn best by hands-on training.”

The City’s main problem now, she says, is a 30-year backlog of Public Works, Legal and Finance department documents. “We have a room full of boxes of documents nobody dares touch.”

Of course, you don’t have to wait until January to learn new skills that will help you maximize your system’s value. Simply join us for one of our Regional Training Workshops, where you’ll receive practical, hands-on training that will make you an even savvier user of Laserfiche software.

In the months ahead, we’ll hold workshops in Indianapolis, IN, Okotoks, AB, Boston, MA, St. Louis, MO, and other cities. Click here to review the full schedule and reserve your spot.

Nominations are now open for this year’s awards, so please take a few minutes to tell us how Laserfiche helps your organization cut costs, simplify complex tasks and provide clients and constituents with better service. Don’t be afraid of the spotlight—we want to know about the innovative and inventive ways you’re using Laserfiche. And we want other users to know, too.

Nominations are due July 31. Please e-mail Melissa Henley at melissa.henley@laserfiche.com if you have any questions.

This year, we’re accepting proposals for Industry Solutions Track classes. All proposals will be reviewed for the following criteria:

• Content that is challenging, in-depth or practical and is oriented toward using Laserfiche to more effectively and efficiently manage information and/or business processes.
• Innovative or new uses of Laserfiche to meet current and emerging issues.
• Professional experience and background of the facilitator.

If your proposal is accepted, you will receive complimentary registration to the Laserfiche Institute Conference and a hotel room at the LAX Hilton for 3 nights. You are responsible for any travel expenses incurred.

We invite all Laserfiche users to apply to teach a course at the conference and share their stories with others. It’s the best example of the Laserfiche community in action!

Submit your proposal today. Submissions close July 31.

“I found last year’s conference extremely educational. It was chock-full of user-friendly ideas that we could take home and use right away,” says City of Kenai, AK, Deputy City Clerk Corene Hall.

Hall’s not only grateful for how Laserfiche eliminated Kenai’s 30-year backlog of paper files, but she’s also excited about this year’s Laserfiche Institute Conference.

City of Kenai, AK, Deputy City Clerk Corene Hall

This year’s conference will be held at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport from January 12-14. More than 1,000 users and VARs are expected to attend, and Hall will be among them again.

“I’m definitely attending this year’s conference. I’m looking forward to learning more Laserfiche shortcuts, but I’m especially interested in learning more about Version 8, because we’re upgrading to it next year,” she says.

Like last year, this year’s 80-plus sessions are divided into five tracks:

• The Processes and Practices track examines business cases for implementing Laserfiche and provides practical advice to help formalize near- and long-term plans.
• The Laserfiche Labs track proves the best way to learn software is to actually use it, complete with preconfigured laptops for hands-on instruction.
• The Product Overviews track teaches what each Laserfiche product can do and how they can be used to solve business problems.
• The Architecture and Administration track provides a “developers-eye view” of Laserfiche products that’s especially useful for systems administrators, integrators and developers.
• The Industry Solutions track focuses on how Laserfiche solutions are being used to solve business problems and includes real-world case studies presented by Laserfiche customers.

“All the sessions I attended last year were easy to understand, without being patronizing,” remembers Anjy Divine, Supervising OA1C at the County of Riverside, CA, Human Resources Department. “I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions on how others are using Laserfiche. It gave me insight on how to apply new strategies to our current applications to make them even more useful.”

Anjy Divine, County of Riverside, CA, Human Resources Department

“I’m responsible for records management implementation for more than 28,000 employees, 450 of which are in HR, so I really valued these sessions,” she continues. “And the community feel of the conference is extremely important to me. When you’re at the conference, there’s an energy everyone has. It’s exciting to share ideas, and you leave really excited about all the possibilities for Laserfiche.”

Last year’s conference was the first to gather the entire Laserfiche community—users, resellers and Laserfiche staff—together. “To me, one of the most important aspects of last year’s conference was having VARs and users attend together,” Hall says. “I spent some quality time with my VAR and we met with vendors together to discuss possible purchases. So I’m definitely looking forward to that again this year.”

Chris Fiorucci of BC Biomedical Laboratories

While users who have attended before definitely look forward to a return trip to the conference, those who haven’t attended in the past are looking forward to it, too. For Chris Fiorucci of BC Biomedical Laboratories, the benefits of the conference are quite clear. “I’m very much looking forward to attending the conference, especially for the real-world case studies I’ve heard so much about,” says Fiorucci. “I know how much Laserfiche has helped us and how vital it is to our everyday business needs, but learning from other users about how they use Laserfiche is tremendously beneficial.”

For seven consecutive years, BC Biomedical has been voted one of Canada’s 50 Best Employers to work for, and Fiorucci sees her company and Laserfiche as kindred spirits. “Because our company has a strong family feel to it, we love the fact that Laserfiche is so community-oriented,” she says. “Being a part of the Laserfiche community is one of the best things about being a Laserfiche user.”

For Hall, the break from January in Alaska will be nice, but the chance to immerse herself in the Laserfiche community will be even better. “Laserfiche is a powerful tool, so be a sponge and absorb everything you can. Attend all the sessions you can and ask lots of questions. Conference participation is a must for every user!”

In the 1980s, she explained, she dreamed of creating a digital document management system that would enable people to find information in seconds, without requiring them to change the way they work. With Laserfiche, she knew she’d created an easy-to-use, highly-scalable system that would help people better manage information. She now had to get the word out.

“We had to educate people about Laserfiche, and show them how easy it is to use, install and administer,” she said. She praised the hard work of the company’s employees, who traveled around the country to meet with prospects and conduct Laserfiche workshops. She also explained the important role user innovation has played in the company’s success: Both Workflow™ and Quick Fields™, for example, were created to meet specific needs she observed when visiting Laserfiche users and learning about the day-to-day problems they faced.

As the Laserfiche community grew, Wacker noted, users began to take an increasingly active role in working together to share best practices and solve common problems. She specifically mentioned the many users who currently contribute to the forums on the Laserfiche Support Site, and she invited users to share integrations and customizations by posting them to the Laserfiche Code Library™.

No matter how large the Laserfiche community becomes, Wacker said, one of the keys to the company’s success will always be the enthusiasm of individual Laserfiche users. “I’m always pleased when I hear about users who tell their friends and colleagues about Laserfiche, and about how the software can help them work more productively,” she said.

Wacker ended her address by inviting attendees to become Laserfiche Luminaries. Luminaries, she explained, will play an important role in helping Laserfiche gain even greater critical mass in the years ahead. “At this conference, we’ll have a number of presentations and labs devoted to Laserfiche 8,” she said. “I know that everyone is excited to learn about all the enhancements and to upgrade to the new version of the software. But we can’t forget the people who are still ‘in the dark ages’—meaning that they’re still digging through filing cabinets to find information or shuffling paper documents from one department to another.

“Luminaries can really help these people to ‘get connected,’” she continued, referring to the conference’s theme: Power Up and Get Connected. “By working together, we can not only spread the word about Laserfiche and help everyone work more efficiently; we can also create an even stronger worldwide community, which ultimately benefits everyone.”