Xerox DocuShare Express Brings Enterprise-Class
Document Management To SMBs
December 30, 2008 - For small and medium-sized
businesses (SMBs) with limited resources, being able to store and then retrieve
a needed document manually can be a time-consuming task that lowers
productivity—and ultimately costs money. Xerox’s DocuShare Express document
management software can help automate the process. Based on the company’s
popular DocuShare platform, the solution is tailored exclusively for the SMB
market to help manage critical business documents easily and affordably.
For starters, Xerox stripped out the deployment
complexity of its enterprise-class offering. DocuShare Express features an
automated Quick Install Wizard to help business owners get up and running
quickly, as opposed to the dozen or so configuration screens required to set up
the solution properly. The company also made DocuShare Express more affordable:
$1,800 for 10 full-access users plus 10 read-only seats, which is about half
the cost of a comparable DocuShare deployment.
“DocuShare is an established platform that has been
around for 11 years,” noted Jay Ganesh, director of channel marketing for
DocuShare. “Now, we’ve given our partners a solution to bring to potential
small-business customers.” DocuShare Express also gives Xerox dealers and VARs
a way to open the door at a larger company by selling document management to a
department at a time. “You can always see an enterprise as a collection of
small businesses,” said Ganesh. “As customers within larger organizations start
using DocuShare Express, they can see the benefits and eventually some will
move up to DocuShare.”
Features And Benefits
DocuShare Express lets users scan, store, search and
send documents seamlessly. The platform’s electronic filing system can store
not just scanned paper documents but also native digital content such as blogs
and wikis. For foolproof filing, the solution supports the use of coded scan
cover sheets, which tell the system where the subsequent document is to be
stored. This lets the system be used even by untrained employees (temps or
interns) who might not be familiar with a company’s electronic folder
structure.
DocuShare Express is also compatible with the Xerox
connector for its Extensible Interface Platform (EIP) offered by the company’s
newest MFPs. That means by simply touching the screen of an EIP-enabled Xerox
MFP, users can scan documents directly into DocuShare folders. The connector is
available free of charge to DocuShare Express customers. For companies that
don’t have an EIP-enabled MFP but still want a direct connection from the
capture device to DocuShare Express, Xerox notes that third-party connectors
are available from eCopy and Kofax.
Customers that don’t have an MFP capable of connecting
directly to the system can scan documents to a network location using an MFP or
dedicated scanner, then log into DocuShare Express and import the files. The
Web-based platform means there’s no software to load on a client PC aside from
a leading browser (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari and Opera are supported).
DocuShare Express also allows a company to set up “guest” access to stored
documents, so documents like forms and employee handbooks can be accessed by
any user with network access without each such user needing a DocuShare Express
license.
Intuitive To Use
Once a document is scanned or imported into the
system, users can place it in the proper folder (called a Collection in Xerox
parlance). Documents are stored in their native file format and can be marked
as shared, read-only, or private. The system also offers built-in HTML preview
capabilities for dozens of document types.
DocuShare Express automatically performs a full-text
indexing of PDFs and Microsoft Office documents that are imported into the
system, so they are completely searchable. The program’s search abilities are
robust, and users have three ways to execute a search. First, an omnipresent
Search box in the upper right of the UI lets them perform a quick search of
document text and metadata. A second search option lets users enter filter
criteria such as the type of document to search for the specified term. The
third choice is an advanced search interface that lets a user get very
granular, specifying date ranges to search in and employing Boolean search
logic if desired.
When a new document is brought into the system, it is
flagged as new in the folder list for three days, which is a helpful touch. To
work with a stored document, a user can select the checkbox next to one or multiple
files and then choose an action such as Send, Copy, Browse, Edit and so on. The
system also generates a live hyperlink for each folder and file, so a user can
e-mail a link to a document to another DocuShare Express user rather than
sending the actual document (which can lead to version-control nightmares).
Speaking of version control, DocuShare Express can
help ensure that only one master copy of a file exists, rather than having
several older copies spread throughout various directories as is common at
companies with a document management system in place. If a document is open, a
small lock icon appears beside its name in the document list. A user can hover
over the filename to see which registered user has it open. Others can read the
open document, but not make edits.
Document Workflow AND Scalability Built In
In addition to document management, DocuShare Express
can handle document-workflow chores within a company thanks to the program’s
built-in routing engine. Administrators or users can define a process using the
wizard-based UI, then tie that workflow to a folder. So when a new document
arrives to the specified folder, the desired actions (such as placing a copy in
an archive folder and notifying a user that a new file has arrived) happen automatically.
Because DocuShare Express shares its underpinnings
with DocuShare and DocuShare CPX, it is ready to scale as a company’s needs
grow. In fact, to move from one to the next, there’s no need to reinstall any
software or migrate any documents. Customers simply purchase new licenses,
which enable the more advanced features of the higher-end product.
While much of the functionality is identical between
DocuShare and DocuShare Express, the lower-cost version does give up some
features. Buyers get half the number of seat licenses (10 with DocuShare
Express versus 20 with DocuShare), and the Express offering is browser-based;
there is no desktop software client. On the backend, DocuShare Express runs
under Windows operating systems only, whereas the enterprise-focused version
runs under a wider range of operating systems such as Sun Solaris and Red Hat
Enterprise Linux.
Still, for SMB clients or departments within larger
organizations, DocuShare Express is intriguing. It lets them get started in document
management without a prohibitive commitment of time or money. “Probably 95
percent of business customers can install and be using DocuShare Express on the
same day,” estimated Ganesh. “For the other 5 percent that need customization,
the platform is very extensible.”
