Continuity Planning 101 — It Just Keeps Getting Easier
A Continuing Educational Series

The Association for Information and Image Management International (AIIM or the ECM Association) has been recognized for its work in creating industry standards and disseminating information about the document management industry. It has generally not been associated with communications convergence. The AIIM International Exposition and Conference in Boston (combined with The On Demand Conference and Exposition) this past January definitely dispelled that assumption.

Let’s take a visitor’s snapshot view of the Sharp (News - Alert) Document Solutions Company of America (SDSCA) pavilion. Sharp says that their OSA™ development platform redefines how the industry looks at the multifunction peripherals (MFPs). Basically OSA™ turns an MFP into a gateway for document-based business communications by integrating the device with network-based applications. This allows businesses to integrate their MFPs with enterprise document management, reporting and other applications including fax. This is where communications convergence and business continuity enter the picture. Using the OSA™ touch screen interface, a user can scan and fax a document from any MFP on the network or transfer it to an accounting software or workflow application. In fact, in a single aisle of the pavilion, you could view solutions from InfoDynamics (feature-rich document management), LibertyIMS (document imaging and management of records, process automation, workflow, etc.) and FaxCore (News - Alert) (FoIP and legacy fax). All support OSA™ and can be fully integrated.

The key to the OSA™ fit with disaster planning is the ability to integrate MFPs with applications like the above across an entire network. Let’s look at an organization with a central office and four satellite locations. OSA™ -compliant applications will be housed in the central office and the satellites will access them from their MFPs. All documents and fax transactional records will be stored at the central office. This fault-tolerant design can be further enhanced with the deployment of a failover site to backup the central office.

To see the latest in SaaS (News - Alert) and business continuity solutions don’t forget to visit the Disaster Planning Pavilion at ITEXPO West 2008 September 16-18 at the Los Angeles Convention

Center (www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference).

For more information on the Disaster Preparedness Communications Forum please go to: www.tmcnet.com/disaster-planning/Default.aspx or contact Max Schroeder (News - Alert) at [email protected]. For exhibitor pavilion information please contact Joe Fabiano at 203 852 6000 ([email protected]) IT

Max Schroeder is the Senior Vice President of FaxCore, Inc. (www.faxcore.com) and Managing Director of the DPCF.

Rich Tehrani (News - Alert) is the President and Group Editor-in-Chief at TMC and is Conference Chairman of Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO.

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