Real Story Group. Make Better Technology Decisions.

Alan Pelz-Sharpe

Follow Alan on Twitter @alanpelzsharpe

Self Service Document Management

8-Apr-2010

Tags: Document Management (ECM), Marketplace at Large, OnBase , Government, Health Care, Higher Ed

When trying to explain what Document Management is to friends and family curious about my work, I often give ask them to think about the last time they visited the doctor or a hospital.

"Remember the clip board and all the forms you had to fill in, and remember also that the healthcare professional seemed to have a lot more paperwork in addition to yours?" I then explain that Document Management is the process and management of all that paperwork, often with the goal to improving the process and making the paper electronic.  As a working example it tends to resonate with people, and they typically "get it." 

Of course after that, they tend to say either out loud or to themselves, "Wow, that must be the most boring job in the world." 

Hence I could not help but be struck by a new marketing and sales campaign launched by Hyland this week. They're promoting a new offering that combines OnBase document management and workflow software with kiosk hardware from PFU, a Fujitsu group company. They have launched industry-specific (healthcare, government, higher education) kiosks for customers to self serve their forms and related paperwork.  It such a simple and smart concept that I am frankly surprised nobody has done it before. 

Hyland is one of the vendors we evaluate in depth in our ECM research stream, so if you are one of the organizations out there considering their products check out our critical reviews first. 

As an aside, I also hope is that Dr Gustafson on Ayer Road along with the Nashoba General Hospital in Groton will read this short post and agree with me that self service kiosks might be a good idea.