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‘Paperless Offices’ still need great technology to manage documents
Calgary’s DOCBOSS has developed online and software tools for effectively managing printed documents and business records.
It was some forty years ago that the famous phrase, ‘the paperless office’, first came out of one of the world’s leading technology innovation facilities.
The famous Palo Alto Research Center, founded by Xerox and first headed up by Dr. George Pake, had a mandate to create ‘the office of the future.’ Among its many features, some of which sounded like they came straight out of a science fiction novel, was an absence of paper documents.
Today, while some progress has been made toward that end, we’re still getting bogged down in documentation.
As inpiduals, as companies, as providers and consumers of even the most advanced technology, document management is an incredibly crucial – yet sometimes overlooked – aspect of running a business, large, small or in-between.
Document management today means the use of computer hardware and software to store, manage and process paper documents and images of paper that have been digitized in some way, often by scanning but sometimes at original creation.
Either way, companies are learning that good records management can bring business efficiencies including the processing of and access to important information.
What’s more, managing documents is no longer just a ‘nice to have’ efficiency boost – it can be a legal, jurisdictional and institutional requirement.
So what’s a company supposed to do when it faces a records management task that counts up more than 10,000 separate documents?
Call DOCBOSS.
The Calgary-based technology start-up develops online and software based solutions for sophisticated record keeping, including tools to identify, track, archive, retrieve and transmit important business documentation.
Anything from faxed correspondence to operational log books to tagged equipment and related material data sheets can be tracked in its system.As so many of us feel we are ‘drowning in documentation’, DOCBOSS had a wide open target market.
But, like many early stage companies and technology innovators, DOCBOSS really needed to focus and clearly identify which market segment it was going to tackle first.To do so, company founder Brad Bowyer sought out assistance and advice from the entrepreneurial team at Innovate Calgary. Participating in the Go-To-Market program conducted there, he was able to work with business mentors and marketing advisors to narrow his focus and fine-tune his strategy.
The developmental program stresses the importance of a good marketing strategy for tech start-ups, and of understanding the prospective customer very well.
"Customer identification and development is a value-add process," says Steven McIlvenna, Director, Entrepreneur Development, Innovate Calgary. "When you go to market, you must know why you are contacting a client, and why you have identified them as an important customer."
"By narrowing our focus to one group, a daunting task became much easier," Bowyer agrees. "We realized we were chasing three distinct segments, each requiring their own messaging. Go To Market gave us several practical avenues to pursue, and concepts to try. We are seeing results from our efforts."
DOCBOSS now defines its core customers as industrial manufacturers, their representatives and distributors. Industrial manufacturers supply valves, blowers, pumps, motors, and other control equipment to a wide range of clients – and each piece of instrumentation comes with important printed documentation, including operational instructions and performance test results.
Like DOCBOSS itself, Bowyer sees the Go-To-Market program as well-targeted. Tech companies that are looking to build out an initial marketing strategy can get lots of direction on the how-to, he says, and the program provides structure for creating an early stage marketing strategy.
And, yes, there are some valuable printed handouts and reference material.
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