Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Mark's Musing: More Questions Than Answers

Written By Mark Rockwell,
President of Rockton Software
I recently visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, a rich center for science and discovery that rivals any Smithsonian.  Besides being reminded what treasures we have here in America, such as museums, parks, and arts, I felt giddy while I explored with child-like wonder viewing the displays, dioramas, and dinosaurs.

Unlike any museum I’ve seen before, the AMNH’s information displays were written from the perspective of questioning rather than authority.  For instance, one exhibit showed leading theories on how planet Earth was formed.  One theory suggested that a huge meteor struck the sun, at a tangent, and broke off a clump in just the right spot that began to orbit.  What I found so fascinating is that it was one of about four theories presented about how the earth formed, then it gave evidence on what the majority of scientists concur around.  However, it left wide open the chance that I or any other visitor could purport our own theory of what might have happened, but most importantly, no one really knows for sure.

Every exhibit I saw had similar presentations.  They offered what scientists have observed, the scientists’ opinion, what most of us agree on, but also one or two questions on the given topic that we don’t know anything about or needs more exploration.  It left me seeing that science, and in fact almost all branches of knowledge, have far more questions than answers.

I know most of my childhood education consisted of facts from authority that were never to be questioned.  In reality, there’s so much more we don’t know, so what we think we might know . . . just might need to be questioned. Remember, there was a time where we believed the sun revolved around a flat earth. Therefore, what do we not question today that we think we know? When does our assumption of knowledge hinder us? How might asking more and better questions move us forward rather than accepting complacency?

I’m not sure. But, I’m on a quest to find out.

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Monday, May 20, 2013

May 21st: GPUG Minnesota Regional Chapter Meeting

Are you in the Saint Paul, Minnesota area on May 21st?
If you are do not miss out on Rockton Software presenting live at the GPUG Minnesota Regional Chapter Meeting.

Where is the GPUG Minnesota Regional Chapter Meeting located? 
Berger Moving and Storage
2950 Long Lake Road
Saint Paul, MN 55113

What time is Rockton Software presenting?
Rockton Software is presenting from 3:30 – 4:45 PM EST.

Who is presenting from Rockton Software?
Jenn Schoemer is presenting live.

What is Jenn’s background?
Prior to working at Rockton Software, Jenn worked for Microsoft in the Fargo office where she was on the Payroll and Human Resources Support Team for 5 years. In February 2007, she joined Rockton as their Technical Support Engineer. She moved into the Product Development Specialist role in January of 2009 where she worked closely with the Sales and Development team addressing Technical Pre-Sales questions, delivering product demos and working with product development. In 2011, she moved into a Project Management role where she is currently focusing on managing projects throughout Rockton Software.

For more information regarding this GPUG Regional Chapter Meeting—click here!

Keep updated with Rockton Software by follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/RocktonSoftware!

May 21st: GPUG Colorado Regional Chapter Meeting

Are you in the Commerce City, CO area this Tuesday, May 21st?
Do not miss out on Rockton Software presenting live at the GPUG Colorado Regional Chapter Meeting!

Where is the GPUG Colorado Regional Chapter Meeting located? 
SACWSD
6595 E 70th Ave
Commerce City, CO 80022

What time is the GPUG Colorado Regional Chapter Meeting?
8:30 AM – 12 PM MST

What time is Rockton Software presenting?
Rockton Software is presenting from 10:30 – 12:00 PM MST.

Who is presenting from Rockton Software?
Mark Rockwell, President of Rockton Software, is presenting.

What is Mark’s background?
Mark founded Rockton Software in 1999, after finding that working for other people just wasn’t his cup of tea. He has steered the course in guiding Rockton Software to make work simpler and easier. Over the years, he has learned that having fun, honoring our team, and treating our customers right make great business sense.


Is anyone else attending from Rockton Software?
Yes, Alina Filipczak, Marketing Manager at Rockton Software, and Adrienne Lilly, Client Services Manager, will be attending.

For more information regarding this GPUG Regional Chapter Meeting—click here!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

May 16th: GPUG Carolinas Regional Chapter Meeting


Are you in the Lexington, South Carolina area this Thursday, May 16th?
If so, do not miss out on Rockton Software presenting remotely at the GPUG Carolinas Regional Chapter Meeting!

Where is the GPUG Carolinas Regional Chapter Meeting located? 
Southeastern Freight Lines in Lexington, South Carolina

What time is Rockton Software presenting?
Rockton Software is presenting from 12:15-1:15 PM EST.

Rhonda Sutliff,
Product Specialist
Who is presenting from Rockton Software?
Rhonda Sutliff is presenting remotely.

What is Rhonda’s background?
Prior to joining Rockton Software, she was working for Microsoft doing Microsoft Dynamics GP support for 11 years. Currently, she is one of the newest members of the Rockton Software team. Her title is Product Specialist, this means that she focuses on making our products work simpler and easier for our customers.


For more information regarding this GPUG Regional Chapter Meeting—click here!

Keep updated with Rockton Software by following us on Twitter https://twitter.com/RocktonSoftware!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

GP Optimizer Winter 2013: Stop Drowning in Paper and Get an Edge with a Transactional Content Management Solution

Written By Holly Condon, VP of Sales and Marketing
at PaperSavePro  for The GP Optimizer Winter 2013
Edition By Rockton Software

What if these two separate, disparate operations could be completed using a single program? Wouldn't that make life easier? If ERP and Document Management systems converged to provide a single, unified system for individuals to perform practically any task, companies would likely be able to enhance efficiency throughout departments, giving them a competitive advantage over firms that have yet to embrace such a strategy.

Companies have relied on individual processes for decades. After all, it was the only thing they knew, as unified systems were not introduced to the private sector until only a few years ago. Today is different, however, and business can no longer waste time by performing singular tasks. The current private sector is incredibly fast paced and if an organization cannot keep up—it will face extinction.

For this reason, decision-makers are looking toward combining ERP and ECM systems into a single business management software solution.

ENTER TRANSACTIONAL CONTENT MANAGEMENT!

Transactional Content is defined by Forrester Research, an independent technology and market research company, as “content [that usually] originates outside an organization from external parties — customers or partners — and relies on workflow or business process management (BPM) to drive transactional, back-office business processes. In some cases, the content not only triggers internal processes, but is the basis for the transaction itself.”

By leveraging a transactional content management solution, organizations can capture, analyze, store, and retrieve a wide variety of mission-critical paper and electronic documents through a single, unified platform. As a result, companies can streamline operations, reduce IT expenses, and enhance productivity in the workplace by eliminating the need to use multiple programs simultaneously.

There are a number of benefits associated with combining processes, including the ability to improve customer satisfaction and responsiveness. When operations are converged under a single roof, employees have easier access to client information, enabling them to make decisions more efficiently and precisely. As a result, organizations can more accurately manage customer queries, making clients happier with the firm's services.

Leveraging a unified solution also reduces the risk of jeopardizing sensitive data, which is becoming increasingly dangerous in today's fast-paced and highly digital business landscape. In the past, knowledge workers had to use separate applications for each task, which would increase the risk of exposing confidential information when taking it from one application and putting it into another. A single platform minimizes this possibility, as employees only need to open a single tool.

As the speed of doing business increases, paper documents and manual processes become burdensome, often creating bottlenecks.  Productivity is slowed since only one person can handle a paper document at a time, unless the document is copied, thus, requiring more resources and negatively affecting efficiency.

Further, with regulatory compliance on the rise, paper can often pose a legal risk.  Not being able to produce a document in response to a legal demand often bears financial penalties.  In addition, the effort to reproduce a missing or lost document can be costly, both in time and resources.

Startling Facts about Paper Documents

  1. Companies spend $20 in labor to file a document.
  2. It costs $120 in labor to find a misfiled document.
  3. 7.5 percent of all documents get lost. 
  4. The cost to reproduce a lost document is $220

Source: AIIM – a non-profit community that provides education, 
research and best practices on information management.


Successful organizations are avoiding those pitfalls by streamlining and automating manual, time-consuming processes with Transactional Content Management (TCM).  TCM leverages the power of a document management software solution, like PaperSavePro, and addresses the following important phases of a transactional system:

Capture - Incoming documents like electronic forms, paper (faxes and print streams which are then digitized), and emails are indexed and stored in a central repository.  The more information that can be captured and stored electronically, the easier it is to automate business processes.

Process - Manual, paper-based processes are automated with Business Process Management (BPM).

Secure – With the appropriate controls, designated employees have on-demand access to content.  Documents can be searched for, viewed and annotated as needed.

Archive – Generally there is a point in a transaction when a document is no longer active and should be locked or deleted.

To some, implementing a Transactional Content Management solution may seem complicated especially when trying to build a tight integration yourself!  However, with experienced professionals helping you transform the way your organization captures, processes, provides access and archives transactional content while providing a seamlessly integrated solution, your organization can be on the forefront of realizing benefits, such as:

  • Eliminating the inefficiency, cost, and risk associated with paper documents
  • Improving customer service with faster and more complete responses
  • Providing control for business processes and information throughout your organization
  • Allowing a 360-degree view of customer data and business transactions
  • Speed Monthly Close Cycles


Just like peanut butter and jelly, Dynamics GP and PaperSave are better when paired together to help you gain the competitive advantage over rival firms while reducing costs and increasing efficiency in yours.

Download The Winter 2013 Edition of The GP Optimizer Magazine: http://www.rocktonsoftware.com/gpOptimizer/Winter2013/!

Thursday, May 2, 2013

What Items are on Your Spring Cleaning List?

Jenn Schoemer, Project
Manager at Rockton Software
I have never been a huge fan of spring—Mud Season as Adrienne Lilly, Client Service Manager at Rockton Software, would call it—and for that very reason . . . the mud. I do, however, love what spring means; it is a time to clean out the old and make way for the new. In spring, change is everywhere; it is one of Mother Nature’s ways to spark movement: longer days, warmer weather, and an occasional shower. During spring, it is hard not to get motivated.

The normal spring cleaning that we think of is about cleaning out the garage or house, sometimes even starting a healthier lifestyle. What about at work? Is there a way to pull the motivation into our work lives, as well?

Here are a few spring cleaning ideas based on what we are focusing on here at Rockton Software:

  • Allow time to sharpen the saw. For the Stephen Covey fans, you know the value of taking personal time to improve your skills. If you continue working on cutting down a tree without stopping to sharpen the saw—it will take twice as long.
  • Focus on continuous improvement http://rocktonsoftware.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-2012-rockton-review.html.  Now is a wonderful time to review processes to see where improvements can be put in place. The best thing that you can do is to pull the entire team together (I would even recommend other employees from different teams) to analyze the process. The old way of doing things isn't always the best way, but you will never know unless you take the time to revisit it. I would also challenge you to starting having retrospectives. Here at Rockton Software, depending upon the team, we have them weekly or every three weeks—these are meant to see how everything is going and make sure we are all still working to achieve our company goals. 
  • Get moving! What is stopping you from trying something new? What is stopping you from taking a new suggestion to the boss or team? Everything starts somewhere. In a lot of cases, we even have to fail. Too often the fear of failure stops us from moving forward, instead, take time to celebrate the failure, learn from it, and use it as fuel to motivate you to continue. A key to failure, taken from the book, “Change Anything,” learn how to fail forward so get moving! 
  • Welcome change. As the seasons change, we too need to welcome, initiate, and be drivers for change. Yes, change is uncomfortable . . . but how else is a company or individuals going to grow if there isn’t some discomfort? Think of a runner, they have conditioned their bodies to the same thing over and over. If that same runner was to climb four stories of stairs, they would be most likely huffing and puffing when they got to the top. This should be the same thing with our work. If we keep doing the same thing over and over, our muscles become accustomed and conditioned; this can be good, but we also need to stretch ourselves in order to achieve levels of greatness.

So, what spring cleaning items are on your list?

To read more great Rockton Software blogs on the ERP Software Blog http://www.erpsoftwareblog.com/members/isv-directory/rockton-software/!