Managed Computer Services

Archived File System, well known to the public as bank check online viewers, email retention and other scan to server systems.

From Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive ;

An archives is a collection of historical records, as well as the place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization’s lifetime.

In general, archives consist of records that have been selected for permanent or long-term preservation on grounds of their enduring cultural, historical, or evidentiary value. Archival records are normally unpublished and almost always unique, unlike books or magazines for which many identical copies exist. This means that archives (the places) are quite distinct from libraries with regard to their functions and organization, although archival collections can often be found within library buildings.

An archive within a company may look more like an application as opposed to the typical file/folder paradigm. A well known Archive product, Documentum Archive Services from EMC, ensures compliance with various regulatory and litigation requirements in very large corporations. Many solutions exist for archiving documents, but the important thing to remember; they are not dynamic file systems for ongoing work. Please contact us for more information.

The art of File Management uses specific resources that fit together to form a Working File System with secure easy access complete with version control and an Archived File System, well known to the public as bank check online viewers, email retention and other scan to server systems. If you are a small business, begin with basic file sharing. Windows 7 Home Networking is a great way to start out. If your still usine XP, fire off the Networking Wizard in Control Panel.

Document management consists of printing, faxing, scanning and file sharing. Most offices take these functions for granted. However, we’ve repeatedly witnessed the turmoil an office experiences when production scanning slows to a crawl, a local network fax server comes to a halt or a worker simply cannot find the correct version of a shared file they need and are certain “it was there yesterday”.

We work with production printing, faxing, scanning solutions most everyday and are familiar with most types of hardware. Contact us if you are experience problems or want to discuss printing, faxing, scanning solutions. We are hardware independent so we can help you deploy the solution that’s right for you.

File sharing and it’s related structure refers to the locations, types, versions and related policies concerning your business critical electronic data. Files are similar to applications in the sense that they can reside most anywhere.

We maintain some files within a shared files account file storage area so that we can access them from wherever we are working, providing we have Internet access.

Recently we replaced a desktop computer for a teacher. Like most new desktop computers, there was no 3.5-inch drive for the old style 3.5-inch floppy disks. Much to her dismay, she stored all of her files on 3.5-inch disks. Our church office has a server with an automatically backed up “shared folder” for everyone to use for files. In spite of the folder, everyone keeps files strewn all over their own desktop computers.

File access, storage, versions and backup is a critical area for a business person to get their mind around. Add in scanned paper documents and printed paper invoices, statements and reports from line of business systems, and the overall document management challenge gets complicated real quick.

Consider that you have two fundamental types of documents; static documents and dynamic documents. Static documents will never change and need to be preserved and rendered as they currently appear. Dynamic documents change in relation to time and human interaction. Both types of documents can be either electronic or paper. Dynamic documents can become static depending upon lifespan, usage and most importantly, company policy.

Static documents require archival storage, a special type of storage that does not change once a document is archived.

Dynamic documents require collaboration enabling storage, a solution that maintains version control, user level security and easy access to documents.

Both static and dynamic documents require off site backup.

Not having a clear plan in this area can cost you your business. If you don’t know what file access, storage, versions and backup means, hire someone you trust that does know, asap. Or, you might consider taking computer related continuing education classes at your local community college.