Google Inc.announced Google Desktop Search for Enterprise. The free downloadable application enables companies to provide employees with the ability to search desktop files, email, AOL instant messages, the corporate intranet and the Internet from one search box. The application provides enterprise-level security, configuration and deployment controls, as well as the ability to search the full text of IBM Lotus Notes messages. An optional premium support package is available. Google Desktop Search for Enterprise is free and available at http://desktop.google.com/enterprise.
Day: May 17, 2005
Open Text Corporation introduced a new document management solution to improve the way companies manage and store documents used in large-scale processes such as invoicing, ordering or claims processing. The Production Document Management solution works with Open Text’s new BPM offering, giving customers process management, document management and a single document repository – to improve customer account statements for banks, policy statements for insurance companies or outgoing invoices for utilities. The Production Document Management solution includes imaging and archiving technology to import and consolidate huge volumes of paper documents into an electronic form. The system maintains every incoming document and makes it available on demand to multiple users simultaneously. It can securely store documents for designated or extended periods, and supports all types of storage media. The solution utilizes the Livelink ECM Platform’s Archive Server, providing a single access point and integration with multiple storage hardware vendors. For accounting and other compliance requirements, the Production Document Management solution offers data retention capabilities. Documents are stored in a tamper-proof format, and administrators can define retention timetables for individual documents and categories of documents. The solution also works with ERP or CRM applications. The solution also features a search mechanism that provides instant access to all documents stored in the system. http://www.opentext.com
Vignette Corp. announced the general availability of Vignette Records & Documents release 7.0, a Java-based integrated enterprise document and records management solution that supports Web browser interaction without custom development. Through seamless integration with Vignette Portal, organizations can reduce the cost of managing records and documents, extend the access and power of information throughout the organization, and enhance data security. The integration of Vignette Records & Documents with Vignette Portal allows customers to extend the value of stored records and documents by providing controlled access to data. Vignette Records & Documents allows users with pre-built case processing frameworks to drive efficient business processes that now offer configurable connections access to current and related case information. http://www.vignette.com
This is only tangentially related to content management of course, but events like this remind me it is high time we expected our computers to do a better job of the basic things they are supposed to do.
I am often guilty of not keeping up with the blogs that are worth reading. I recently took to reading Dave Winer’s blog regularly, and it is a real pleasure. He has all kinds of good technical insight, of course, and has been talking a lot about podcasting lately. You could make the argument Dave is the father of blogging, so it is interesting to keep up with where he thinks things are going.
Yesterday the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) issued its
response to concerns that Sarbanes Oxley Section 404 requirements were onerous,
unwieldy, and just too expensive. The PCAOB published a policy
statement that affirmed the goals and requirements in the regulations
implementing Section 404, which requires that public companies have effective
internal controls over financial reporting and requires that an independent
auditor provides an opinion regarding the effectiveness of these controls. No
surprise there.
What was more interesting and important was that the PCAOB did acknowledge
that many first year audit efforts were inefficient and too expensive. The
important parts of the statement called for a top-down, rather than bottom-up,
approach to internal control assessment. The PCAOB also made important
clarifications about the kinds of interactions between auditors and the
companies that they audit that are permissible and useful.
Understanding this business about "top-down" and
"bottom-up" is easier if you put it in the context of how auditing
practice has developed over time. Without that big picture perspective, Section
404 and the PCAOB statements sound like a lot of accounting jargon. But, given
the perspective, it is easier to see that we are talking about some fundamental
changes–and about expense and confusion emerging from not getting the changes
right during this past year.
