ERS IS SHOWN TO ILLUSTRATE THE PROCESS.  ERS V IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED.

ERS V is a robust solution for the Document Management Administrator who has a requirement for more than a destruction schedule.

The unique design and flexibility of ERS provides a complete and professional level information management tool for any size enterprise.

Managing Information Assets
ERS allows you to do a better job of managing the entire life cycle of all information resources. The project goal of implementing such a system is to manage information as an asset as well as a liability.

Managing information as an asset means providing the following:

• Support for information sharing across the network.

• Reduce time (up to 90%) required to store and retrieve documents.

• Improved document security.

• Provide a foundation for operating a "paperless office."

• Improve your company's memory.

Managing information as a liability means providing:

• Control over the entire document life cycle.

• Manage documents consistently in regards to archiving and destruction.

• Reduce physical space required to store documents.

• Avoid having old information misinterpreted by future generations of lawyers.

An Integrated Solution
ERS V combines document management, records management, document imaging, and office suites into one seamless application. It supports the entire document life cycle. Not only does ERS offers all the functionality of each of the individual systems, but because of its integration ERS delivers a total enterprise wide Information Assets Management solution.

Document Management
ERS V provides control for active and inactive records on any media.

The system can:

• state what documents are available,

• where they are located,

• who owns them,

• if they are checked out,

• and what products or organization the documents pertains to.

The system manages documents of any media (paper, electronic documents, file folders, boxes, drawings, sound, video, CDs).

Records Management
ERS V manages all records and has a built-in retention schedules defining:

1. when documents of any media should be archived for long term storage,

2. what media the document should be in when archived, and

3. when documents should be destroyed.

The retention schedule is tied to retention references (citations, laws, industry standards or policy) governing how documents should be stored.

The system tracks the age of each document and its location anywhere in the enterprise whether file cabinet, or warehouse, or server. It notifies users when documents should be archived and destroyed.

ERS V provides consistent enforcement of records management policies while monitoring document status from creation to destruction.

ERS V's heritage is an advanced active records management system, not a typical records warehousing system. Most document management systems only support destruction schedules. ERS V provides a complete set of tools to help manage and control a document's entire life cycle. Other document management systems only concern themselves with electronic documents, whereas ERS V allows you to manage active and inactive documents on all types of media.

Imaging and Viewing
ERS V has imaging integrated into it. It allows the user to scan in new documents and store them in a variety of image formats (TIF, JPG, BMP, etc.). The user can also elect to have the scanned image converted into a word processing file using ERS' Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

ERS V imaging supports all scanners that conform to the industry standard, compatible with over 160 Twain-compliant scanners. This allows transformation of hard copy documents into electronic files.

Classification
With ERS V there is a built-in Class Code field which is a user-assigned classification code. A hierarchical list window displays the classes. Each class is displayed as a branch of a tree relative to classes above it and classes on the same level. You can use the browse feature to see all the class codes in the uniform classification structure.

Document Searching
ERS V performs rapid searches for documents by subject, location, media, organization owner, date ranges, etc. It allows for simple techniques for conducting searches and produces meaningful data, as well as information about which fields to focus on when entering search criteria.

Using the built-in, patented Uniform Subject Classification (USC) system and label-line descriptions, the need for time-consuming, full text searches is virtually eliminated. Users can employ their own personal synonyms to search for documents. Synonyms make it possible for anyone to use industry jargon, acronyms, company terminology, or foreign terms to "point to" the classification by file series.

The Synonym Search facility allows user to enter search criteria to locate one or more classifications. The Synonym Search facility looks through the inventory three label lines and checks the words against a list of synonyms.

Flexible Reporting
With ERS V you can produce 30 Standard Reports. Reports are used to sort and output information in different ways. Each report can be altered in sort sequence and filtering criteria.

Each report has user-specified sorting, subheadings, and contains robust filtering criteria. ERS remembers how each user runs a report, thereby eliminating the need to re-enter lengthy queries. ERS V also allows users to create their own report sub-headings to documents.

Report output can be viewed on the screen, printed, or exported to a file in half a dozen formats.

ERS also allows the use for ad hoc reporting tools such as Microsoft Access. The ERS database is protected so that it allows ad hoc reporting without letting users update the database in an ad hoc fashion. For example, users could run Access reports but not use Access to change the database contents.

Security
ERS has five levels of security. Support is provided for several groups of users with varying acces rights and authority. Menus and windows change dynamically in appearance based upon the user's security profile. Security features are invisible to users. ERS utilizes a security matrix consisting of the document owner and the subject of the document. Administrators can override the default security to cope with unusual situations and specialized needs. Users see only those documents they are authorized to view or edit.

Other systems store individual security rules with each document. As a result, changes to security are difficult and expensive. Imagine rebuilding the database each time changes in corporate organization structure occur. ERS V has a unique, intuitive, invisible security system, based on the user's position in the organization and document subject matter. It is easy to set up and maintain.

Inventory
The system will co-mingle and track the location and usage of any item - from furniture, to magnetic tape, to standard boxes and file cabinets. This means you can not only identify the location of a record, but you can also determine how it is stored - in a desk, file cabinet, and which media. You can inquire about any item in inventory, regardless of the media, and the system will identify, the owner, location, creation date, type of media and retention data.

ERS V Update Inventory facility allows you to change or delete inventory items. It also allows you to change the status of an inventory item. Changing the status provides a means of recording which inventory items will not follow their planned movement from the office to an off-site storage facility, or from an off-site storage facility to destruction. It also provides a way to track which inventory items have been destroyed.

Bar Coding
The system produces bar-coded labels for hard copy documents, folders, boxes, CD's and tapes. Labels can be produced individually on popular label-making printers or laser printed on sheet form.

Replication
Selected file series can be replicated to various servers around the enterprise, providing quick access to major corporate policies and procedures. This enables even remote office locations to have the most up-to-date company information.

In Summary
ERS V is an enterprise-wide solution. Broader than a departmental solution, ERS was developed for "the big picture" in long-range planning and encompasses the organization as a whole. It deals with the entire spectrum of information, making it unique to any other product in the industry today.

Although all document management products claim to be enterprise-wide, they are actually "department" solutions with each department independent of each other. However, because ERS has Uniform Subject Classification, it provides uniformity across the enterprise.

The system also aligns with Electronic Data Interface (EDI), coinciding with Electronic Commerce transaction sets with their standards and formats.

ERS V combines document and records management into one seamless application, Supporting the entire document life cycle.

The implementation of an Information Assets Management system should gradually reduce the volume of paper records your company must maintain on site by about 40 percent. This will yield savings internally in floor space, equipment, and staff time, and externally in your costs to archive records off site. At the same time, it will eliminate archiving duplicate copies of the same document, resulting in reducing the volume of documents now being sent to storage by approximately 60 percent.