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WESTBROOK NEWS
| Austin Community College Meets Growing Enrollment Challenges with Fortis |
By Mary Ann Bridges, Institutional Records Manager and
Azure Brown, Institutional Records Coordinator
Community College Weekly, Fall 2010 Technology Supplement |
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On Oct. 5, at the White House Summit on Community Colleges, President Obama reiterated his goal to graduate an additional 5 million community college students by 2020. He also discussed the launch of
his "Skills for America's Future" program, a partnership between community colleges and employers created to help meet the job training and educational needs of the nation's workforce. This emphasis on the importance of community colleges ensures that student populations will continue to expand. With growing student bodies, however, comes the demand for increased efficiency in every facet of college administration.
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The ACC Round Rock Campus opened
in August 2010
and is one of eight campuses
in the ACC District service area |
Austin Community College District (ACC) is among the country's largest community colleges. ACC offers 235 associate degree and certificate programs, including university transfer courses, workforce training, adult education, and continuing education opportunities for personal enrichment. The college is serving
44,000 credit students this year compared with 40,248 in fall 2009, an increase of nearly 10 percent. In addition, ACC also serves 10,500 continuing education and 3,000 adult education students.
To keep up with its rapid growth, ACC implemented document management technology throughout the school's administrative departments. Initially, the previous Institutional Records Manager, Kay Barclay, installed Fortis document management software from Westbrook Technologies to replace the microfilming of student records. The college was faced with the challenge of managing millions of pages of student records, including: state residency forms, applications, international documents, high school transcripts and transcripts from other colleges. With student records on microfilm and in paper format, sharing information across campuses, as well as between departments, was time-consuming and labor-intensive.
>>Read more |
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| Pacific Northwest's Largest School District Enrolls Westbrook Fortis to Reduce Document Retrieval Time from Hours to Minutes |
| Portland Public Schools automates paper-intensive processes |
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Portland Public Schools has implemented Fortis to securely share, archive and retrieve student documents. With approximately 47,000 students in 85 schools, the school system is realizing huge savings in time and money.
Portland Public School’s implementation started in their Special Education department where the school district has created a more streamlined process |
for sharing documents withpsychologists and specialists. “Now these professionals use Fortis Web to access documents online for viewing or making changes to student documentation,” said Ramzi Adas, information technology manager of Imaging Services for Portland Public Schools. “We moved Special Education from working with extremely manual and time-consuming processes to a quick, simple method of operation which they love.”
>>Read more |
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| bLogik Partners with Westbrook Technologies to Expand its Software and Consulting Services Portfolio |
| Latin America-based firm will offer Westbrook's Fortis software in Chile, Argentina and Peru |
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bLogik Ltda., a leading provider of business intelligence, document and image management, and digital printing solutions, has joined Westbrook's partner network. |
Based in Santiago, Chile, bLogik will represent Westbrook’s document management software with its customer base in Chile, Argentina and Peru. The bLogik team has broad experience in process improvement, document and image management, along with implementation of business intelligence tools. bLogik also specializes in transpromo marketing, the process of integrating marketing messages into transactional documents, such as bank statements, via digital variable printing.
“After analyzing the market, we chose to represent Westbrook because Fortis offers a higher cost/benefit ratio than its competitors at a reasonable price point. We also appreciate the quality of their customer support,” said Jaime Ramirez, general manager of bLogik. “Our company is expanding its software consulting services division and Fortis is a great fit for our customers, especially those in education, financial services, insurance, utilities and telecom.”
>>Read more |
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| Van Dyk Business Systems Partners with Westbrook Technologies to Help Customers Cut Costs with Document Management Software |
| Pittsburgh-based firm will offer Fortis Software |
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Van Dyk Business Systems, a leading provider of business equipment, managed print services and document management solutions, has joined Westbrook's partner network. |
Based in Pittsburgh, Van Dyk Business Systems will represent Westbrook's document management software with its customer base in southwestern Pennsylvania. Van Dyk customers include businesses of all sizes from small retail stores, non-profit organizations, secondary education providers and churches to many of the area's leading corporations and educational institutions.
"Fortis is a flexible solution that allows us to provide value-added service to our customers," said Dr. Ronald G. Linaburg, president and CEO of Van Dyk Business Systems. "Van Dyk is known for showing customers how to save money and by adding Westbrook's solutions to our portfolio, we can help them achieve greater operational efficiencies and quicker ROI."
>>Read more |
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SOLUTIONS IN ACTION
Information Flows through University's Research Grant Processes with Fortis |
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Carnegie Mellon is a global research university with more than 11,000 students, 84,000 alumni, and 4,000 faculty and staff. Recognized for its world-class arts and technology programs, collaboration across disciplines and innovative leadership in education, Carnegie Mellon is consistently a top-ranked university. In 2003, Carnegie Mellon University's Administrative Computing and Information Services introduced a pilot program to better manage documents for the school's Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP). The goal was to reduce the amount of |
grant-related paper documents being produced and stored in OSP while facilitating compliance with government regulations and enforcing retention policies. OSP supports faculty and staff who oversee externally sponsored research, an important revenue source for the university. Today, Westbrook Fortis document management is a key part of OSP's business processes, and the software solution has been rolled out to other departments including the Risk Management and President's offices.
>>Read more |
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TECH TIPS
Troubleshooting a Disabled Index Button
If a user is trying to index an In Basket document but their [Index] button is disabled, check their In Basket permissions; that's a likely culprit. In Basket permissions are a fairly new feature in Fortis 2.4.2 so it's easy to overlook the impact of In Basket permissions on a user's ability to index a document from an In Basket to a database. When indexing a document to a database, a user needs database permissions on the Folder, Document Type, and index fields involved. But additionally, if the user will be indexing In Basket documents, he or she also needs View and Delete permission set on the source In Basket as well as System User Feature Accesses Document:View and Document:Delete. When indexing an In Basket document, permissions are needed at not only the ending point, but the beginning point as well.
Installing the Fortis Workstation with
Microsoft® Windows® 7
Microsoft Windows®7 is becoming the prevalent workstation operating system seen in the field. It's more robust and more secure than previous versions of Windows. These are good things, as long as you know how to work with them. Doing a Fortis Workstation Setup on a Windows 7 workstation (32-bit only) needs just a few things addressed before a successful Workstation Setup can be completed. First, set User Account Control (UAC) to Never Notify, often referred to as disabling UAC. If you are unsure of the steps to accomplish this, several Web sites can provide a variety of step-by-step procedures for disabling UAC via the Control Panel, RegEdit, Group Policy, or a Command Prompt. Next, rather than running WKSetup\ setup.exe with a standard double-click, right-click WKSetup\setup.exe then select Run as Administrator from the pop-up menu. And, as always, before beginning a Workstation Setup on this or any certified workstation operating system, remember to disable virus protection. Once the Workstation Setup is complete, remember to turn UAC and virus projection back on. |
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UPCOMING EVENTS
New Jersey State League of Municipalities 95th Annual Conference
November 16-19, Atlantic City Convention Center
Westbrook will be participating in the New Jersey State League of Municipalities conference. The League seeks to help its communities do a better job of self-government through pooling information resources and brain power. Conference delegates have the opportunity to learn and ask questions at more than 100 panels, clinics, workshops, and other sessions conducted by the League and the 18 associations of technical and professional employees allied with it. Commercial, government and association exhibits display the latest products and services for municipal government. www.njslom.org/95thconf/index.html
Westbrook Webinars:
Westbrook Education and Training:
Great things are on the horizon for Westbrook Technologies University. The 2011 calendars of Fortis classes (westbrooktech.com/support/schedule.html) and FortisBlue classes (westbrooktech.com/services/schedule_fortisblue.html) are now available, and you'll see two exciting new Fortis offerings.
For customers
Power Hour Fortis User Webinars. This live, on-line course comprises 14 sessions, offering a comprehensive curriculum to ensure that Fortis customers can quickly take advantage of the full range of Fortis capabilities. Designed to allow users to attend only those sessions pertaining to their responsibilities, attendees will learn various Fortis features specific to their job tasks, whether they are bringing documents into Fortis, identifying and organizing them, or retrieving them. Designed as lecture and demonstration presentations, each session has time built in to allow for questions at the end of the session. For more information on how the Power Hour sessions can add value to your company, visit out Web site at westbrooktech.com/services/PowerHour_description.html.
For partners
Qualified Fortis Professional Refresher (QFPR). This live, on-line course comprises five half-day Webinars and covers enhancements and new features added to the core Fortis product during the last several product releases. Each topic will be discussed to address business case and best practices for implementation, as well as being detailed in a hands-on environment to ensure its use is thoroughly understood. Time will also be spent reviewing some of the more detail-rich portions of Fortis, including user functions, security, and files and directories. Class culminates in a written exam. Pricing will be available soon; contact your Westbrook Technologies Director of Sales for pricing information.
For everyone
Pricing will be available soon for our 2011 calendar. Contact your Westbrook Technologies reseller or Director of Sales for pricing information. Register for these or any classes on our Web site at westbrooktech.com/education_signup.asp.
| Fortis and FortisBlue 2010/2011 Class Schedule |
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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
Investment in Knowledge Workers Critical to Economic Recovery
Social Business Systems will represent the next frontier of IT investment
According to a new report by AIIM and noted author Geoffrey Moore (Dealing with Darwin, Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game and Living on the Fault Line), one of the keys for economic recovery lies in aggressive investment in Social Business Systems designed to dramatically improve the productivity of middle tier knowledge workers. These "Systems of Engagement" enhance the ability of knowledge workers to quickly cooperate with each other in order to improve operating flexibility and customer engagement.
"We have spent the past several decades of IT investment focused on deploying 'systems of record.' These systems accomplished two important things," notes Moore. "First, they centralized, standardized, and automated business transactions on a global basis, thereby better enabling world trade. Second, they gave top management a global view of the state of the business, thereby better enabling global business management. Spending on the Enterprise Content Management technologies that are at the core of Systems of Record will continue -- and will actually expand as these solutions become more available and relevant to small and mid-sized organizations. However, there is also a new and revolutionary wave of spending emerging on Systems of Engagement -- a wave focused directly on knowledge worker effectiveness and productivity. Social Business Systems are at the heart of Systems of Engagement." >> Read more
State of the Industry: Document Capture Software
By Lesley Hill
Associate, Harvey Spencer Associates, Inc.
In their recently released "2010-11 Worldwide Market for Document Capture Software Report" Harvey Spencer Associates, Inc. reports that, despite the adverse economic circumstances of the past year, the
document capture software market grew 2.1% in 2009 to just under $2 billion. That this is now a global market was borne out by significant gains in Latin America and EMEA being offset by a 10% decrease in sales in North America.
Harvey Spencer Associates segments the market into two main categories based on the purpose of capturing the document: image and transactional processing, which are each sub-divided into capture method categories of batch or ad hoc. The changes in the growth rates of these segments over the past few years illustrate how much business has changed, how it thinks about business inputs and how it has changed its methodology in dealing with those inputs. Basically, the purpose of processing images or transactions can be equated to the old terms of document imaging and forms processing. Image processing captures the image of a document and then feeds that image, frequently in a batch, into an ECM, workflow or archiving system. Transactional processing, akin to forms processing or data capture, extracts whatever data is required from a document to complete a process, such as invoice payment. The image can then be archived or dealt with according to relevant regulatory and compliance parameters.
>> Read more
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