GMB Futures
Early in 2003 we made a decision to 're-invent' GMB. That decision meant
many things including new people, new offices and new and vastly changed
products. As a private, family-owned twenty-year old company we have
made this same decision three times previously as the company grew and
began to change its focus. It is a healthy process and one that is
essential for sustainable growth.
In this brief article I will tell you about the new and changed
products and our new focus on knowledge management and new product
paradigm.
Firstly, let's review the current RecFind product suite, version
5.0.0D.
This current product mix provides functionality for records
management, electronic document management, imaging, workflow and
document portals. It also includes a number of very clever integration
tools including the Import Export Engine and the RecQuery TC API.
The latest service pack (5.0.0D, now on the website for
downloading)
includes a large number of improvements to all of the above products. In
addition, over the next couple of months we will be releasing new
versions of GEM (for Exchange, GroupWise and Domino), the Import/Export
Engine (now handling 'Modifies' as well as 'Adds' plus 'Workflow' and 'Movements' and
'Resubmits' AND now being able to be run fully
automatically) and the RecQuery TC API (now allowing you to integrate to
and image enable ANY other application). We will also be releasing a
brand new product (now in Beta) called RecCapture, a revolutionary new
way to handle all the needs of electronic document management fully
automatically, without end-user involvement.
New Processing Paradigm
Now let’s talk about the new
processing paradigm that is the core of all new and changed GMB
products. In a nutshell it is: “Server-centric, Fully-automatic,
Rules-driven.”
What this means to you is
best illustrated by a product like GEM, the first implementation of this
new paradigm.
- GEM
is server-centric. That is, it works against your email server
directly, not with the email client on everyone’s desktop.
- GEM
is fully automatic. It does not require any work from anyone other
than the GEM Administrator. Your staff do not have to do anything.
- GEM
is Rules-driven. GEM allows you to apply sophisticated rules against
each and every attribute of an email (including the full text of the
email and the full text of any attachments) to determine exactly how
each email should be captured, stored, indexed and classified. GEM
even allows you to automatically assign Workflow and Retention based
on the attributes of the email.
Because of this new paradigm you
can implement and roll out a complete email management and archiving
system in days. There is no client software to install and maintain at
each desktop and there is no productivity drag because your users do not
have to do anything. The training required is minimal and we can roll
out an email management system in a fraction of the time of our
competitors and at a fraction of the cost.
RecCapture will be the next
product to be totally based on this new processing paradigm, providing a
completely automatic way to collect, analyze, store, index, classify and
action any electronic document.
As innovative and revolutionary
as GEM and RecCapture are, they are about to be eclipsed by something
that is totally new in concept and design. This new product is
KnowledgeOne, K1.
“To Know is to have the Edge
to be number One”
Surprisingly, we began the
design and development of the first version of K1 over four years ago
but didn’t bring it to market because the prototype didn’t meet our
design or performance goals. It was based on the previous Microsoft
development environment and we simply did not have the ‘tools’
required to get the job done; you could say that our design goals were a
little ambitious for the time. When Microsoft released the .NET
development environment we decided to start again from scratch and
redesign and re-implement K1 as a 100% .NET application. The good news
is that .NET does have the tools we need to realize our goals, it is a
quantum improvement over the Visual Development Studio 6 development
environment.
K1 is the successor to
RecFind; it is RecFind’s replacement. It is a totally new concept of
product being designed as a true knowledge management product from the
ground up. K1 shares nothing with RecFind other than its ability to
ingest a RecFind database and provide 100% upwards compatibility.
I will provide more
information on K1 in a later newsletter but suffice to say it:
- Has
more functionality than RecFind
- Is
faster than RecFind
- Is
easier to learn and use than RecFind
- Is
all ‘thin-client’ (i.e., there is nothing to install and
maintain on the desktop, the K1 client runs in your browser).
The K1 suite will look as follows:
GEM, RecCapture, the Button and
the HSSM will be upgraded to work with K1 just as they now work with
RecFind-Corporate. K1 and a new product called Xchange (more about it
later) will replace all the other RecFind products as follows:
When?
Our target delivery date for the
first version of K1 is June 2005.
How long will we continue to
support RecFind?
Based on previous experience (we
are still supporting 10 year old versions of RecFind that refuse to die
even under Windows XP) we plan on supporting RecFind for up to five
years. Starting with the first delivery of K1 to all customers on an ASU
we will continue to support RecFind but will cease adding any new
features to it. We will ensure that it continues to work with new
releases of Office, Oracle, SQL Server, Lotus, etc and will continue to
issue service packs. However, all of our research and development
efforts will be focused on K1; your future and ours.
Why?
It was time. RecFind is a great
product, immensely stable and scalable and configurable (and no customer
ever uses all of its functionality) but it was based on the previous
generation client-server architecture. We are really at the end of what
we can do with this architecture; we needed an entirely new platform to
be able to deliver the functionality and features our customers will
shortly be demanding. We also need to leap-frog our competitors; it has
always been our objective to lead by innovation and K1 is the most
innovative product available. Many, many man-years spent designing and
testing the first K1 prototype taught us a great deal about how to best
build a true knowledge management product. Discarding the first
prototype (and millions of dollars in R&D) and beginning again with
.NET was the only way we could put that knowledge to work without
compromise. K1 is a no compromise application solution.
GEM and RecCapture were designed
from the outset to work with K1 so the move from the RecFind version of
GEM and RecCapture will be a smooth and painless process. Similarly, we
have engineered the changes to the HSSM and the Button so they too will
be painless upgrades.
Xchange is a new concept in
universal data exchange and is based on an XML engine that will allow
you to easily integrate to any application and to produce output in any
XML standard.
The choice of when to upgrade to
K1 will be yours and you will have plenty of time to make the move.
Everything you do in RecFind will be 100% upwards compatible in K1; we
will provide all the upgrade and conversion tools required as part of
the K1 delivery.
RecFind has been around since
June 1986. True, it has been completely redesigned and rewritten many
times (while still maintaining a familiar look and feel) but eighteen
years is a long time for an application. K1 is a clean sheet and we hope
it has the legs to compete with RecFind and last 18 years but I doubt
it. RecFind was a unique product for its time and was unbelievably
robust and adaptable; I for one (as the designer) still can’t believe
that the old 16 bit Btrieve and DISAM versions are still running under
Windows XP. If K1 exhibits just 50% of the resilience of RecFind I will
be a very proud software architect. We love RecFind but it is time to
let go and literally move on to a bigger, better, faster, easier to use
and easier to support and easier to rollout solution. K1 is that
solution.
Frank
McKenna
CEO
GMB Group
» Back to "In This Issue"
We've
moved! GMB's Australasian head office began a new era from the 17th
September 2004, with it's move to the heart of North Sydney's Central
Business District.
 GMB
Australasia
North Sydney, Australia
|
New GMB Australasian office details:
Level 5
56 Berry Street
North Sydney NSW 2060
Australia
Phone: 61-2-8913-9300
Fax: 61-2-9954-6322
The post office box details will not change and will remain at:
PO Box 867
Crows Nest NSW 1585
Australia
|
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» Back to "In This Issue"
Service pack 3 for RecFind 5.0.0B has been released and is now
available from our website for immediate downloading.
This service pack contains a number of fixes for product issues, plus
a number of product enhancements including the ability to initiate
workflow via the Button (eg. define a document type), new attachment
profile search options and improved extended metadata search
performance.
To download the service packs and view the release notes, please see
the "Service Packs" area of our website:
http://www.gmbsupport.com/Support/Service%20Packs/recfind1.htm
To install this service pack you must be running at least RecFind
v5.0.0B. After installing this service pack, your product version will
be updated to be RecFind v5.0.0D.
Please contact GMB support should you have any questions relating to
the service pack.
On-line: www.gmbsupport.com/Support/index.htm#helpdesk
E-mail: support@gmbsupport.com
» Back to "In This Issue"
Training Program
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City
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Scheduled Dates
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» Melbourne, Australia
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19-22 October 2004
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» Perth, Australia
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8-12 November 2004
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» Tasmania, Australia
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6-10 December 2004
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» USA/Canada
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TBA - customers interested in attending RF5 Training in the USA/Canada please email training@gmbsupport.com.
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Professional Services Update
Written by Gregory Warrilow, GMB Trainer/Consultant
The last quarter has been full of scheduled training and
consultancies which have kept Professional Services on the go with trips
to all corners of Australia and the West Coast of the United States.
 City
of Santa Ana
California, USA
|
Onsite training was conducted for staff in the Housing
Dept at the City of Santa Ana who had recently upgraded to
Version 5. Staff made me very welcome and the training went some way in
equipping them to use the new functionality of v5.
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An implementation consultancy was conducted at Mid West Health
Division of General Practice which was
the conclusion of an ongoing project. The project within the Mid West
Health Division of General Practice allows patients to elect to share
their records with other doctors within the division. This was achieved
by using RecFind 5.0 and RecQuery TC. The final component of the project
will be the implementation of RecCapture when it is released later this
year.
 Port
Hedland,
Western Australia
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A week of implementation and training was conducted at the Pilbara
Development Commission (PDC) in Port Hedland, which is in the Pilbara region
of Western Australia. PDC selected the RecFind Corporate Suite for their
file, document and electronic document management. PDC is the newest
member of the RecFind family in the Pilbara.
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A week of training was conducted at the Western Australian
Local Government Association (WALGA) as part of the Association's roll out of
RecFind 5.0, RecQuery TC and the RecFind Button. The RecFind Corporate
Suite is instrumental in ensuring a smooth implementation of the
Associations new electronic document management system. The
implementation also provided the opportunity to introduce a new business
classification scheme. I look forward to seeing how things
progress on my next visit to Perth.
 Hobart
Ports Corp
Tasmania, Australia
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Hobart Ports Corporation - A week of Post Implementation Consulting
was conducted to reorganize their records management. All
files were barcoded for accurate tracking and the scanning
of all incoming documents commenced.
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A two-day GEM implementation consultancy was conducted at CFMEU in Melbourne
(See Customer Focus below for
more information on this consultancy).
Two days of upgrade training was conducted for
key RecFind users at the Victorian Arts Centre. The Victorian
Arts Centre has rolled out RecFind 5.0 throughout the organization and
wanted to ensure that staff were trained to ensure optimum use.
The last quarter of 2004 looks to be as exciting as the previous
three. With a range of new products about to be released, new
training courses will be structured and offered early in the new year.
If you are interested in attending a RecFind 5 Training course or one
of GMB's Consulting services please email training@gmbsupport.com.
» Back to "In This Issue"
Profile Search and Global Content Search
We have recently added some new enhancements to RecQuery TC that will
greatly improve search and retrieval functions for users of electronic
documents. The majority of these enhancements were made to the “Profile Search”
and “Global Content Search” within RecQuery TC.
Customers using RecQuery TC v5.0.0B can utilize these new features by
upgrading to RecQuery TC v5.0.0D by downloading RecQueryTC v5.0.0B
Service Pack 3 from
the GMB web site.
Profile Search
Profile Search was added to RecQuery TC as part of the redesign of
GEM 5 (GMB's Email Management & Archiving Software) to allow users
to search by Attachment Profiles. Although implemented for e-mail
retrieval it also applies to any RecFind attachment.
The advantage of this is that now you can look for a specific email,
its attachment or any other attachment, in addition to the document
profile searches and content searches.
To search for an email within RecQuery TC, use the following
procedures:
1. To search for an email, select the "Profile search"
option from within the "Text - Email & Attachment" menu.
2. Select "EMAIL" from the list of Attachment formats and
then enter the criteria you wish to search for, for example search by Subject, Key Dates, Authors and Addresses.
If you are only searching for e-mail attachments, select the attachment
format of "EATTACH" and then search by File Name, Key Dates,
Authors and Addresses.
3. If you have configured or added other Attachment Formats (eg.
EXCEL, WORD, PDF) these
can be selected and searched upon as well.
For more information, if you have loaded the latest RecQuery TC service
pack (i.e. v5.0.0B Service Pack 3),
select “Profile Search” under the “Text-Email & Attachment”
search menu and select
the icon
to view the online help screen.
Global Content Search
Long time users of RecFind who have multiple databases have benefited
from the ability to globally search across all databases for metadata
occurrences for many years.
However did you know that if you capture electronic documents (inc. emails) and have ISYS Search functionality enabled within your RecFind
licence you are also able to perform a content search across all
databases with RecQuery TC subject to security clearance.
To perform a Global Content Search within RecQuery TC, use the following procedure:
1. Click on Global Search from the menu.
2. Click on the Attachments, then Contents Search.
3. Enter the term you wish to search for and click on the Search
button. Attachments in all databases that you have access to will be
searched.
Tips & Tricks is a regular feature of the RUG
newsletter to help you get the best from your GMB software products.
» Back to "In This Issue"
CFMEU Victoria's GEM Implementation
CFMEU is short for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy
Union. The CFMEU is Australia's main trade union in construction,
forestry and forest products, mining and energy production.
CFMEU Victoria has been a customer of GMB since 1996. They have been
using the RecFind
Corporate suite (RecFind Corporate 5.0, RecQuery TC, RecFind Button, High
Speed Scanning Module and the Asynchronous Indexing Module) for their
Electronic Document Management System.
CFMEU's Records Management department had previously used the RecFind
Button to capture selected emails for storage in RecFind. However this
procedure relies on end users forwarding emails to Records for capture.
After participating in the GEM beta program, CFMEU decided to utilize
GEM 5.0 to automatically capture, manage and archive their emails.
"GEM provided the most cost effective and efficient way of
managing the Unions email" said Adrian Waterfall, CFMEU's IT
Manager.
Implementing GEM was a natural progression given the successful use of
the RecFind Corporate Suite throughout the CFMEU.
The implementation was rolled out with the combined efforts of:
- CFMEU IT - Installation and Technical setup
- CFMEU Records Officer - Rules configuration
- GMB Implementation Consultancy - Assistance
with configuration
- GMB Support - Assistance with installation
CFMEU currently use Microsoft Exchange 2003 SP1 as their email
server. They receive about 12,000 emails per month - 2-3,000 of these
emails are filtered SPAM.
They are currently monitoring 8 mailboxes with GEM but intend to
increase this amount to 80 mailboxes in due course.
Initially CFMEU applied the all in/all out model for capturing emails
for selected mailboxes, which meant that all ingoing and outgoing email
were stored in a user folder.
More defined rules were added in time to start capturing more
specific emails. GEM allows you to match against any component of the
email, for example the To address, from address, subject, etc.
GEM integrates seamlessly with RecFind 5.0 and can automatically
create a new document profile for each captured email, including
triggering Retention and Workflow.
Using "exceptions" GEM can also exclude emails from processing. For
example;
Additional rules will be configured to capture Enterprise Bargaining
Agreements (EBA) using the unique
number in the subject line and attach them to the relevant file within
RecFind via a GEM rule.
CFMEU's ongoing strategy for their GEM installation is to:
- Increase the number of mailboxes being
captured
- Continue the maintenance of their 'Rules'
configuration
- Have further staff training on RecQuery TC
David
Bloomfield, CFMEU's Records Manager said "GEM gives us the flexibility to capture those emails deemed as
being vital to the business activities of the Union".
If you would like a full demonstration of GEM 5.0's functionality, simply
complete a GEM Demo Request form by clicking
here.
» Back to "In This Issue"
Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan RecQuery
TC API
Integration
GMB is pleased to announce that Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan
has utilized GMB's RecFind Corporate suite with its RecQuery TC API to
build an online integration to the Fineos Front Office (CRM) system. This
integration effectively 'image-enables' and 'EDMS-enables' the Fineos
application providing a seamless path between the CRM application and the
images and electronic documents stored within RecFind Corporate.
The Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan (ASEBP) is a not-for-profit
organization that was created to provide a unique service by providing
employment benefits specifically for the education sector. Jointly
sponsored by the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) and the Alberta
School Trustees Association (now the Alberta School Boards Association -
ASBA), ASEBP services the health benefit needs of Alberta’s education
sector for almost 40 years and is the provider of choice for school
boards across Alberta with close to 100,000 Albertans covered.
ASEBP values people and ethical business practices. They focus on
continuous improvement and quality while demonstrating fiscal
responsibility and respect for privacy to achieve measurable results. One
of ASEBP’s operating principles is to strive for continuous improvement
by developing systems with a focus and on quality, cost effectiveness and
timeliness while regularly measuring and evaluating results.
"After we chose the Fineos Front Office application (CRM) as the
best possible solution for improving services to our covered members, we
investigated various options to best integrate it with our records and
document management system RecFind" said Deb
Phillips, Information
Management Coordinator at ASEBP. "We needed a seamless
solution to view documents that were associated with covered members’
profiles in the CRM, GMB, the makers of RecFind, came to our rescue with
a modified version of its document portal application program interface
called RecQuery TC API. GMB worked with both ASEBP's technical people and
the Fineos technical people to make the systems integration happen".
"Anytime a Front Office user needs to view a scanned or electronic
document pertaining to a covered member, they simply click the “view”
button and the document or image is instantly displayed in the
browser" said Deb. "GMB agreed to add the new functionality to its standard product suite so
ASEBP would not have any future concerns about compatibility and
maintenance. The level of customer service we received from GMB was
outstanding which included an understanding our needs and providing
workable and timely solutions. We recommend that any other organization
wanting to integrate core applications with records and document
management systems, do so by using the RecFind Corporate and the RecQuery
TC API if they want painless integration and easy document viewing".
» Back to "In This Issue"
International RUG Meeting
The annual International RecFind
User Group meeting was held at Old Parliament House in Canberra on
Saturday the 11th September 2004. Old Parliament House was chosen as the
venue for this meeting as it has seen many important speeches, moments of inventive
repartee, and debates of national significance, not dissimilar to those
at our RUG meetings...
It was good to see a combination of old and new users from far and
wide attending the meeting.
Frank McKenna, GMB's CEO, gave the opening speech on GMB's futures.
An extract from this presentation appears in Frank's report above. Greg
Warrilow, GMB's Trainer/Consultant presented an overview on his recent
GEM implementation consulting at CFMEU Victoria (see Customer
Focus above). This presentation
provided a valuable insight for those customers looking at implementing
an email management solution in the near future.
Debra McGrath
Greg Warrilow
Steve Renouf
Chris Adams |
International RUG Meeting Attendees
Canberra, Australia
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Allan Kavanagh
Ann Roscarel
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Qld RUG Meeting
The Queensland RecFind User Group held their first meeting for 2004 on
Friday the 23rd July at the Department of Justice & Attorney General
in Brisbane, Queensland.
Lucy Schelberg from the Queensland Nurses Union was elected Chairperson
at the meeting (as nominated by a fellow colleague in her absence!) and
has graciously accepted the position. GMB welcomes Lucy to the role and
looks forwards to assisting with the next Qld user group meeting.
NSW RUG Meeting
The NSW User Group committee has scheduled their next meeting for
Tuesday, 23rd November and is now calling for items for the agenda. If
you have any agenda items to add or would like to give a short presentation on how you use
GMB products at your organization, please email Jazz
Murgic or Amy Whalan.
To view the upcoming RecFind User Group meeting
schedule, please click here: http://www.gmbsupport.com/Rug/index.htm
If you are interested in attending these meetings or organizing one
in your area please email s.forlico@gmbsupport.com
with 'RUG MEETING' in the subject line and state your name/s,
company name and contact details.
» Back to "In This Issue"
Contact Update
Have you recently shifted office or changed contact person?
For any updates, simply give us your new particulars, as listed
below, and email them to our Sales Department at
sales@gmbsupport.com.
Please include the following details:
Company Name, Contact Person, Designation, Address, Email Address,
Telephone Number, Fax Number, and GMB Customer Number
» Back to "In This Issue"
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