We would like to thank those of you who participated in our initial round of testing Bizmanualz On-Line.

Bizmanualz On-line is a software service in which quality professionals, departments heads and managers can review, approve and release controlled documentation as required by ISO and other compliance standards.

Recently Bizmanualz issued free trial and test instances of the Editor module.    On Monday, August 16^th, Bizmanualz will release the Bizmanualz On-line Reader module, a companion web site which automatically displays and organizes all documents released by the Editor module.

Starting Monday, log-in will occur through the Reader module. If you are currently testing the software, you will receive an email with your new link. Your old deep-link will still get you into the editor module. After Monday, we recommend that all users log in using the new link and discard their old link.

Within the reader module, editors will be required to click on an “editor module” button to get into the work flow features that they are currently using. JAVA will load as it has been doing when entering the editor module. The reader module on the other hand does not require JAVA.

Additional Release notes:

A. Only released documents appear in the reader module.
To release documents, click on the editor button in the reader module and use the work flow features.
Test software comes loaded with sample procedures and user help files. Only help files are “released” and therefore appear in the reader module. Any documents released through the Editor module will show up in their respective folders.

B. All readers and editors must have a user name and password.
To create or edit user name and password: Go to the Admin > User tab in the editor module. Enter all the required information.  Select reader and/or editor privileges when you add a user.
Current users will not have to reset their user names or passwords.
Right now as we test the software, editors will have to supply their user name and password a second time to move from the reader module to the editor module. Only one-log-in will be required of editors in the next release.

C. Single point of entry
By having editors log in through the reader module, we are providing a single point for all users to log-in. Sending editors through the reader module will give them easy access to the same view that all employees see, providing editors with an easy way to see what has been released and to see exactly what non-editor (readers) see. We will provide short-cuts to help editors move between the modules in the next release.

D. Your account will NOT lose data as a result of this transition.

E. Unlimited number of users
For now, we have removed the cap on the number of users you may create.
Go to Admin > Users and click the ‘add’ button in the editor module. Add as many users as you want.
When we begin charging for the software, a large but not unlimited number of authenticated readers will be able to log on, even at the introductory price point.

F. Two user-help documents are affected. The log-in instructions have been updated to reflect the new log-in procedure via the reader module. Also, a new use-case has been added that shows basic operation of the reader module. 

New reader module home screen.

G. System will be unavailable Aug 14-15th. You may not be able to log in during the transition while we make the changes described above. Most of the changes will occur over the weekend (August 14-15). Help files will be updated in all existing instances on Monday August 16, 2010. All service will be restored by Tuesday.

H. Response time has improved. As mentioned in a previous release note, we moved the test server you are using to an off-site SAS 70 Type II compliant location. Response time has been greatly improved. Please let us know how fast the server is working for you.

Thank you again for your assistance and feedback as we move this product to market.

We will contact all existing users after the transition for a walk-through and to gather your impressions of the software and the new reader module. Free accounts are issued so that we can gain your input. We reserve the right to cancel your access if we cannot get your feedback. 

Pleaes let us know if you have questions or additional comments.

sales@bizmanualz.com

The “Bizmanualz On-Line” Policies and Procedures management software system is now undergoing testing. When you try it, you’ll see it’s primarily an Internet-based application. Very little runs on your local PC or network.

A few people have wondered about working online, asking, “Why would I want an online policy application that Bizmanualz hosts and maintains, rather than a policy application installed locally?”

#1 - It Costs Less

The Bizmanualz online solution spreads the cost of hardware and software across many customers, so you receive one low monthly fee for editors/authors and nothing for read-only access. If your company wants its own policy server, it wouldn’t enjoy the cost-sharing advantages and it would incur the entire cost of purchasing and maintaining the needed infrastructure.

Some still insist on an in-house installation because it gives them greater control. However, the business world, in general, is moving away from local software and toward hosted software services, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and cloud solutions.  Companies don’t want to pay for software and hardware, especially when it sits idle much of the time. The great thing about software-as-a-service is that pricing reflects what you actually use.

#2 - You Get a Policy Management Solution Now

In large organizations, defining policty management application requirements and allocating resources to buy or build are fraught with political obstacles. Gaining buy-in from all stakeholders takes time. It’s easier for stakeholders to agree on what they need from a policy management software application when they can try it out first.

Because SaaS policy management solutions can be turned on instantly and require no installation, they offer an immediate solution. Users can then define their needs in terms of what the SaaS policy management solutions solutions does or does not do.  You can then offer cost-benefit trade-offs in response to specific user needs.

Meeting user needs is not always possible at an acceptable level of investment. But by establishing good communications with your SaaS policy management solutions vendor, you may better understand the trade-offs and even influence the vendor’s development plans. As the polciy manager who uses the system, it’s easier for you to get a vendor to add the exact policy management features you need than for your company to allocate scarce resources. Under a SaaS model, new policy software features and upgrades are part of the value delivered for your subscription fee.

#3 - Continual SaaS Upgrades and Improvements

While large organizations have business analysts collecting user needs and defining what a policy management software application should do for them, smaller companies often do not. Often that role in an SMB is filled on an as-needed basis by an IT manager, and conflicting priorities may require redeployment of resources right after the software launches.

Software-as-a-service vendors on the other hand live or die by how well they support and improve their product. They must deliver value and ever-improved features and performance in exchange so that customers feel good about their monthly subscription fees.

Under the licensed server approach, improvements often come in annual or longer installation cycles with renewal fees attached. It could be a year or longer before you get upgrades. Furthermore, the cost of upgrading often means putting it off, which means you could fall behind companies that can afford to upgrade. Under the SaaS model, you get upgrades continually and you don’t pay any more for them.

#4 - No Unnecessary Technology Investment

For many companies, installed policy servers just don’t make sense anymore. Big, expensive server hardware and software has to be in place to run your policy procedure management software, but the necessary platform is underused. That is, policy management as a category of software demands little in the way of computing power. Unless yours is a vast organization with intensive policy compliance needs, your investment would sit idle most of the time and you’d end up paying for power you didn’t need.

It makes sense to spread the fixed costs across many companies, and get someone else (Bizmanualz) to take care of all that computing power for you, and that is the advantage of SaaS policy management.

#5 - SaaS Monthly Fees are Cheaper and Easier to Budget

Under a dedicated-server approach, IT departments typically pay annual license and maintenance fees of about 20% to 40% of the up-front software license fees. So our SaaS (on-line) policy solution is actually much cheaper to maintain from IT’s perspective. And because Bizmanualz online fully supports the SaaS solution, your IT department doesn’t have to allocate technical time and talent to maintain a dedicated solution.

SaaS enables you to share most of the costs of the hardware and software across all the provider’s (Bizmanualz’s) customers, while protecting your data. As a matter of fact, policy managers and finance professionals (to name two) who use our policy software are commonly surprised when they approach their IT department heads and find that initiatives are underway to identify SaaS or cloud applications like the Bizmanualz policy management system.

Remote hosting is becoming more common. If you approach IT management with a SaaS option, they may consider you to be a real forward-thinking user!

#6 - Compliance with SAS 70 Type II

Some companies like SaaS as a concept but they don’t want their data to reside outside their firewall. Our hosting is fully compliant and audited to SAS 70 Type II standards. Conforming to Type II standards means your data are fully protected. Has your in-house IT department met the SAS 70 standard?

#7 - Polciy workflow Compliance for editors but users don’t have to do anything differently.

While it is true that draft policy and procedure files are stored on our secure server outside your firewall, your company can store “released” documents on your in-house server. In that way, you could use our workflow management tools and still publish the released files to a location behind your firewall. Authors and editors gain policy workflow and compliance tools, and the majority of employees don’t have to change the way they access released documents. They would simply read the released policy documents as they have been doing in your Intranet or SharePoint, and released documents would reside within your firewall.

Our editing module stores Bizmanualz policies and procedures templates, as well as any changes you make or any other documents that you upload. Most customers tell us that their compliance policies and procedures are not considered sensitive documents. There should be no reason to upload sensitive documents. For most customers, released files are published to a secure web site that your employees - or anyone you want - can access them.

With the trade-offs in mind, the online SaaS policy management approach works for most customers. Furthermore, we can customize a solution for you. Just email sales@bizmanualz.com. Sign up for a free trial and see for yourself.

When many of us see change coming, we’re not sure what to do.  We sometimes fear or mistrust change, or we put off big problems because they’re “too much all at once”, and we stick with outdated, inefficient tools, methods, and processes.

“Better the devil you know than the one you don’t.”
Anon.

We sense that the way we go about developing policies and procedures isn’t producing satisfactory results, yet we keep at it. We can’t afford to continue doing what we’ve been doing if we’re to remain competitive.

Now we proceed with the ten-step program for developing procedures:

1. Understand the process – walk through it (literally) and map it out. See for yourself where the bottlenecks are. Determine where your resources are going to waste, not value. If an activity doesn’t add value, customers won’t pay for it.
2. Estimate the resources you need to craft the procedure (people, time, etc.). Set your goals and milestones.
3. Now, document (author) the process.  For the best effect, combine pictures and words: either is good but together, they’re great!
4. Once you author the procedure, have the process “doers” and their manager review it.  Note: Here is where a document management system can improve your review process.
5. Based on the results of the procedure review, revise the procedure.
6. Repeat #4 and #5 once. Resist the urge to keep “tweaking” documents before releasing them – there is no such thing as a perfect procedure.
7. Next, have other interested parties review the procedure (for example, the managers of the processes immediately before and after the process in question).
8. Revise the procedure one last time, if necessary.
9. Gain final approval of the procedure from top management. In the case of a small business (or SMB), that might be the owner, the president, your chief financial officer, and others.  Top management needs to be involved because every process – hence, every procedure – is a reflection of the company’s vision, mission, and objectives.
10. Once the procedure is approved, release it to the company.  Releasing a procedure involves:

• Announcing the procedure to the entire company;
• Circulating it, or making sure it’s readily accessible to employees;
• Training the doers – those responsible for carrying out the procedure, and their managers; and
• Explaining the procedure to those who may be affected indirectly (for example, one process forward and one back).

Keep Procedures Fresh and Meaningful

As we said in step #6, perfect procedures don’t exist. The business environment changes, your company changes, and your procedures need to reflect that. Once you’ve released a procedure, there are two more things you must do:

11. Conduct a periodic procedure review. You review a procedure when something really big comes up that has a direct impact (a new or revised regulation, an audit finding, a new owner, etc.), correct? Oftentimes, nothing comes up – or we don’t notice when they do. That’s why we need to routinely review procedures (a rule of thumb is to review annually).

12. After the review, revise the procedure (if needed), review it, approve it, and release it.

What about you? Have any questions or comments? What do you – or would you – do differently? Do you have a system for writing and managing procedures – one you’d like to share with us?

I wonder how many of our clients, on receiving our policy-and-procedure manuals, have asked themselves what in heck they got themselves into. (”There’s a lot of stuff here…where do I begin?”) Well, like a lot of things, it’s probably not as difficult as it looks initially. First, you took a step in the right direction by using our templates to develop your company policies and procedures. It’s always easier to start with some of the work already done for you, rather than you having to start from scratch.

Now, how do you proceed?

Understand Why You Need Policies and Procedures

You don’t need policies and procedures merely to comply with regulations or industry standards (like ISO 9001). Sure, there’s nothing quite like the threat of fines, legal action, and the scorn of the business community to motivate you, but that’s far from the best reason. Much better reasons for developing policies and procedures include:

• Communicating your business goals and priorities;
• Standardizing processes, behavior, and results;
• Training your employees consistently; and
• Identifying acceptable and unacceptable behaviors (and encouraging or discouraging them).

Prioritize Your Needs and Set Goals and Timelines

Now that you understand “why”, you need to decide “what”.  Of the policies and procedures you could work on, you have to determine which one(s) are going to provide:

• The biggest bang for the buck;
• A quick return on your investment; and/or
• The greatest good for the greatest number.

Only you know what you need.  I can offer you suggestions (like “start with a fairly simple process”) but only you have the intimate, day-to-day knowledge of your organization. It’s your company: you decide.

So, decide which process you’re going to document first.  If you have absolutely no idea (you have no metrics and no historical basis for evaluation), try any Bizmanualz policy or procedure.  Document your initial design and development process and use it as a baseline for further development.

Give the first procedure a fair evaluation.  Don’t look at your first policy-and-procedure development, point out all the flaws you can find, declare the project an abject failure, and pull the plug.

Introduce discipline into the development process by setting clear and meaningful (aka, “SMART“) goals and timelines.

Analyze Your Existing Procedure

If you already have a de facto¹ procedure in place, don’t throw it out in favor of so-called best practices that may or may not work for your firm.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” (Anon.)

Now is as good a time as any to document your process.  Diagram it quickly in any manner and medium with which you’re comfortable. Simple is best (“Don’t make a big production out of it!”, Mom used to say).  Next…

Compare Your Process with Bizmanualz Best Practices

Bizmanualz has already looked at many companies’ procedures, blended them together to describe “best practices”, and reasonably modeled these procedures on the Deming, or “Plan-Do-Check-Act”, cycle. You may find that your procedure already looks very much like the PDCA model:

• You develop a set of objectives and a plan (process) for realizing those objectives;
• You implement the plan and immediately start collecting process data (in-process, end-of-process, etc.);
• You routinely analyze the data, to see if the process is performing in line with expectations; and
• You make changes to the process (procedure) in order to improve it and improve your results.

If that’s the case, you don’t have far to go at all. Next…

Make Our Procedure Your Procedure

Make the obvious and necessary changes to the Bizmanualz policy and/or procedure.  We wrote them generally, like ISO standards, so they’d have the widest possible application.  Any resemblance between our procedure and your process is coincidental; that is, you’ll have to customize our procedures – make them your procedures.  For example:

• Change every instance of “Bizmanualz” or “the company” to your company;
• Where you have an existing form (e.g., purchase order, customer order, invoice), use it – and make sure field names, etc., on the form and in the procedure agree;
• Change job titles in the “Responsibilities” section and in the procedure itself to reflect your circumstances;
• Change diagrams² as needed;
• Add visual aids – they add impact and meaning and they complement verbal descriptions very well (especially when they come from your office, your shop floor, your staff, etc.); and
• Leave out what you don’t need.  An entire procedure or just part of one — if it doesn’t apply to your situation, delete it.  Make your policies and procedures simple and direct.

Verify and Validate the Procedure

The people responsible for implementing the procedure have to put it to the test.  Oh, you could write a procedure and thrust it on an unsuspecting workforce but until it’s subjected to “real world” conditions, the results you see may not be the ones you want or expect.

And there’s more to it than procedure verification and validation. Some people call it “getting buy-in”. Whatever you call it, recognize that your employees are stakeholders in the company. They have a vested interest in the company, too – if it does well, they do well. So, keep them in the loop on matters that directly affect them, to ensure their understanding and cooperation.

Even if they’re not directly impacted by the procedure in question, keep all employees informed of this — and most — company matters.

Implement the Procedure

Now, publish the tested-and-verified procedure.  Distribute the procedure to those responsible for executing it, analyzing it, and training employees.  NOTE: A document management system, or DMS, will help you address publication and distribution, as well as improve document control.

Hold a training session on the procedure – make sure trainees are not only capable of doing the work, but that they understand the process and the objectives, as well.  Finally, execute the process.  Collect the data from measuring devices and routinely analyze it.  Look for anomalies and trends in the data, evaluate the process, and aim for continual improvement.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s just that simple! Any questions?

NOTES

¹Just because you haven’t documented it doesn’t mean you don’t have an effective process in place.  Example: my wife and I came to a quick understanding some time ago that I would clean tubs, showers, and toilets and balance the checkbook. It’s very effective, plus there’s no point in documenting such processes because (a) they’re easy and (b) she won’t ever do them.

²We’ve been using Microsoft Visio to build diagrams. Unfortunately, Visio is not automatically included with any version of MS-Office, so far as we know. There are many alternatives to Visio, though – any search engine will help you find them – so your organization need not be constrained by a lack of Visio³.

³No, that’s not a typo.

Why do we bother documenting processes, tasks, and events? What purpose does documentation serve? And, if we’re going to do it, shouldn’t we do it right?

For years, Bizmanualz has offered policy and procedure manuals covering most of the business essentials — accounting, human resources, IT, and so on. We’ve done all the research, writing and organizing and provided you with valuable content.

And we delivered this information in Microsoft Word format, used by more organizations than any other kind of document processing software. But what we cannot do is ensure that, once you reshape Bizmanualz policies and procedures into your own, your employees will utilize them or that the procedures will be updated as needed.

Once you’re done with your policies-and-procedures project, you’ve added to the number of documents you have to maintain. How do you maintain your existing documents? How do you ensure that they’re accurate and up-to-date? How do you make sure that the proper version is in use? For that matter, how do you ensure that they’re being used at all?

Why do we need documents, anyway? They just take up a lot of space, right? Actually, there are many good reasons why we have them. We have documents because we need to:

• Communicate ideas, concepts, requirements, etc., to our coworkers, managers, and subordinates;
• Be aware of and understand our responsibilities;
• Ensure consistency and repeatability in our processes;
• Give assurance that we’re accountable for our actions (i.e., we can show proof of what we’ve done);
• Have information on which we can base our plans for the near and long term; and
• Meet various requirements (customers, regulations, standards, etc.).

But, while we need to document policies for all these reasons, many things that should be documented aren’t simply because (a) the act of documenting is so time consuming and (b) the ongoing task of keeping documents and records organized takes even more time. When you think about it, couldn’t you really use a document and record librarian? Someone to maintain consistency, order, security, and availability of your company documents?

But who can afford to keep a documents/records librarian on staff? Well, that’s where a policies and procedures based document management system (DMS) — like the one in development at Bizmanualz — comes in. A policies and procedures DMS is a way of managing your policy deployment documents (internal and external), keeping them organized, letting you control access to them, enabling a better development and review process, logging activity, and allowing automatic record and document management.

In short, a policy management system makes your  policies and procedures documents more useful — it adds value.

Now, I have to ask…are you using a policy management system of some kind? Regardless of how long you’ve been using it, what do you think of it? We certainly didn’t cover everything here — what do you want to add?

Thanks for your insights.

As Chris Anderson wrote recently, document management systems (DMS) give you several advantages right away — security, cost savings, easy retrieval, and compliance.

I’d add a couple more advantages, at least in the short run. When you subscribe to the soon-to-be-released Bizmanualz document management system, it’ll come pre-populated with Bizmanualz policies and procedures.

You could download policies and procedures and load them onto your local computer network (for example, locate them on a local server). But, then the documents are organized in a basic hierarchical format. You have to somehow build in the access and version control; otherwise everybody has access to your documents. They can read, write to, and delete them without your permission or knowledge.

You could send an e-mail to “All”, saying that “Manufacturing procedures are on the ‘M:\’ drive, in the ‘Procedure’ folder. Don’t change anything without telling me.”  That’s going to work, right?

On the other hand, when you use our online document management system, you’ll simply send a link with login information.  Procedures, records, and rights to use or edit them would be managed within the web-based system. Deployment — and control — become very easy.

When you use our online DMS, the information comes pre-loaded, pre-organized, and rights-managed. The documents can’t get lost, and you don’t have to pull your hair out sorting through multiple versions.

Why is a Document Management System better than a Shared Drive?

Storing and sharing records on your local network is like having an electronic file cabinet. While that’s easier in many ways than a paper-based file system — because you can access it remotely (saving you steps) and quickly and you can easily back up your information — it’s not a great leap forward. You haven’t improved the process — you’ve merely replicated it in a different form.

True, as long as you can put your finger on your compliance records — the part of your system that proves your company complies with some standard or regulation — you’ve got one aspect of your business under control. Beyond compliance, though…are those records helping you manage your business? Can you easily tabulate information contained in the records and produce visual charts and graphs, showing you and your colleagues unusual behavior, or trends?

In the “shared-drive scenario”, the best you can do is once in a while collect information, dump it into a spreadsheet, and chart it. But, if you keep your information in an online DMS with reporting capabilities built in, you can generate and view reports in real time, as your coworkers are entering data into the system. And, you decide who has permission to enter data, read reports, and so on.

At Bizmanualz, we share the following sales report real time across the company on our on-line system. Everyone can see how sales are doing, and what the most popular products are. We can see trends as they develop while there is still time to react to them to affect real-time improvements.

At Bizmanualz, we can see trends as they develop while there is still time to react to them to affect real-time improvements.

And, when you want to revise policies and procedures, the DMS not only helps you to organize the development and review processes — it automatically performs version control and minimizes risks (like documents disappearing).

Do You Want to Take Part in a Document Management System”Beta-Test”?

Our developers plan to open up the Bizmanualz Document Management System to organizations like yours. Soon, new customers will access their Bizmanualz policies and procedures online, using the DMS.

Would you like to participate in a beta test of this system?  Please post your comments below or contact us at our web site, and we’ll let you know when you can try our online Document Management System for yourself, before it goes on the market.

Thank you for your help.

Companies have a variety of reasons for wanting to get their document management process under control.  What are the four main reasons for investing in a good document management system software?  How about security, saving money, efficiency and compliance.

Document Management Software Security

Electronic files are a lot more secure than paper files.  Document management software can provide an audit trail that tracks every document change and even file views.  Electronic systems can be easily backed-up in case of natural disasters like fire and flood.  Bottom line: your electronic files are safer and more secure.

Document Management Software Savings

The cost of manually producing, storing, retrieving and transporting paper documents and records is high, very high.  People are expensive and using people to file, find and move documents is just not practical anymore.  Think of all the money you can save, and office space you can free up, if you eliminate paper documents and records. Document management software virtually eliminates the cost of searching for, or worse recreating lost documents.

Document Management Software Efficiency

Retrieving paper documents from your storage location (is it off site?) is a ridiculas waste of time. How long do you have to wait to obtain paper files?  Document management software systems let employees quickly access documents and records from their desks, over the internet.  So no matter where you are you can now quicky and easily retrieve important documents and records.

Document Management Software Compliance

If document and records control are a requirement for compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO 9001, HIPAA, or some other regulations then document management software systems are simply the fastest, easiest, and cheapest solution.  All of your policies, procedures, work instructions, forms, regualtions, and customer documents can be tracked, controlled, and managed per your compliance requirements.  Document management software provides compliance at a glance, access control, physical security, audit history, review and approval work flows, email alerts, and comment tracking.  Reduce your document audit findings and keep you company in compliance.

Document management security, cost savings, efficiency and compliance are the four main reasons for investing in document management software systems.