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Small
Business Office Productivity Solutions Information Relationship Management Firm Traces Historical Timeline of Productivity Solutions & Concludes Solutions for SMB Market Have Only Begun to Evolve ATLANTA, December 19, 2005 – From the invention of the printing press in the 1450s to the launch of Microsoft Windows in 1983, the office productivity processes used by businesses of all sizes have come a long way in 550 years. However, instead of creating the paperless society some predicted, the development of technology increased the production of paper. That evolved into a greater storage demand for both electronic and hard copy documents and in today’s world, the need to access, retrieve and search for information securely. To trace the advances in office productivity, information relationship management software provider FileVision correlated the timeline of business technology’s evolution with the development of the filing cabinet. “From our research, we concluded that solutions and tools for the small- to medium sized business (SMB) market that integrate people, tasks, and equipment to maximize productivity in their work environments have only just begun to evolve,” says Laurie Shufeldt, vice president of strategic business development, FileVision. “Office productivity solutions available to the middle market that correlate the information created by companies with their abilities to store and access that information to run their business are still lagging behind the high-end solutions offered to the enterprise.” History paints an accurate timeline that purports the separate evolutions of technology versus storage, which together control a business’ ability to be productive. Between 1875 and 1911 the concept for filing documents evolved from a structure that stored letters in square pigeon hole compartments to a government commission reporting that vertical flat filing had supplanted all other systems in all the large companies it investigated. In the meantime, from 1860 to 1924, the telephone, electric typewriter and the fax machine were invented. By the end of that period, the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) worked to improve telephone facsimile technology, and the telephotography machine was used to send political convention photos long distance for newspaper publication. The technological advancements of the time empowered organizations to operate in highly efficient ways, from typing up reports on electric typewriters to transmitting information across the world. To keep track of all the work, however, businesses were still using time-intensive methods for storing and retrieving information. In 1914, the Mayline Group invented the first automated record-keeping system. “But compared to the incredible technology advances made in the last 50 years,” says Shufeldt, “the means for storing and accessing information has not advanced significantly in the last 100 years.” World events also advanced the need to protect documents. In 1951, Herman Knaust found a new use for an old mine: anti-atomic storage. During that period, the world was embroiled in cold war apprehension about atomic security. Both factors impressed upon Knaust the need to protect information from the havoc of wars or lesser disasters and, Iron Mountain document storage company was founded. Over the next 30 years, personal computers (PCs), the Internet, E-mail and Microsoft Windows for work groups revolutionized the way the world did business. By the early 1990s, the personal computer had found its way onto most desktops in corporate America. Electronic documents began to outnumber paper documents and the typewriter became a thing of the past. Faced with an even split between paper and electronic documents, the business world started to use scanning processes. Scanning converts all documents into the same format (the lowest common denominator-paper), and then scanning to a PDF or TIFF image format. Document management solutions for the enterprise also became available. “Today, while many SMBs use PCs, scan documents and digitize information,” says Shufeldt, “the majority are still storing the information they use to run their day-to-day operations in separate silos. One department may store all its customer names in an Access database on an individual’s desktop while the communications and records associated with those names are on a separate computer or in a physical filing cabinet. There is no readily searchable trail of information or efficient way to access the information, store it securely and easily recognize the relationships within the data.” As a result, according to FileVision, the company’s advancements as a business, ability to be compliant with industry and government regulations and growth as an organization are stunted. Many SMBs are stuck in limbo between their established computer to filing cabinet process and bridging the gap between outdated processes and new technologies that are offered in mid-market price range. Solutions for the enterprise market are beginning to scale down to offerings that suit the priorities of an SMB, like versatility and end user-friendly implementations and training. FileVision is an example of an affordable end-to-end information relationship management solution made specifically for the SMB market. “By implementing a solution like FileVision,” concludes Shufeldt, “SMBs capitalize on benefits inventors have strived to achieve for centuries: the integration of technology that enhances the way their human counterparts operate in life and in business.” Government, healthcare and financial services organizations worldwide have experienced advanced operational efficiency with FileVision. They have benefited from a reduction in overhead, expenses, communication costs and filing errors to overall improved process efficiencies, customer service and employee productivity. A complete timeline of record keeping and productivity solutions can be found by clicking on the link FileVision Timeline of Productivity Solutions.
# # # Media Contact: About FileVision |
