Many readers likely know me as the President of DHS Worldwide, the software development firm that markets a full line of records management software solutions under the trade name of 'Total Recall'. As a software developer for the information management industry, we spend a great deal of time predicting trends. Traditionally, most commercial records centers are, for all practical purposes, box storage and retrieval facilities. I believe that, as information management continues to mature, tremendous opportunities are evolving to expand the services that commercial records centers offer to their clients.

It is very important for a commercial records center to recognize trends early, in order to capitalize in the market. Let me give you an example that demonstrates this concept. Web access is one of the areas where, several years ago, we predicted rapid growth. Anticipating this trend, we developed our first client Web Server in 1997. Using this product the clients of the records center can view inventory, order services on-line, check the status of orders and so forth. Since we were early to recognize this trend, we have a very strong and stable Web Server product with great functionality. This provides us with a competitive advantage and this functional superiority is a factor in a large number of sales we close each year. This is not to say that this is the only reason we conclude sales, but this is an important aspect to many of our potential clients and it makes our offering more desirable. It is important to our clients because it is a key element in their ability to win new customers. If marketed properly it gives them a distinct advantage over their competitors.

Now lets move to the future. What's the next big trend? Well, I think there are several.

First, I believe that we will see a large increase in the number of clients that undertake digital imaging projects. Why now? The reason is economics. Yes, it's still more expensive to image documents than to store boxes, but that is a very simple viewpoint. Yes, the majority of organizations will not image all their documents, but if 3 to 5% of your clients make the commitment, your revenues might double. In reality digit imaging now makes economic sense for many companies. If you do not believe it, think of it this way. For a long time, companies have converted documents to microfilm. The handling cost to convert documents to microfilm is similar to the cost of converting documents to digital images. In the past, the barrier to digital imaging has been the cost of hard disk storage. About five years ago we made a proposal to a large fortune 100 company that wanted to move into digital imaging. At that time, the only storage media that could hold the 500 Gigs of digital data was an optical jukebox storage device. Back then, if my memory serves me correctly (it does not always), the cost of a 500 Gig optical jukebox drive was nearly one-half million dollars ($500,000). Well as we all know, today one can purchase this type of hard drive capacity for a few thousand dollars. In addition, the hard drives you purchase today are standard SCSI hard drives installed in a computer. They are much faster, can easily be set up with standard category 5 RAID redundancy and do not require complex programs to operate. This means that the largest impediment to digital imaging has been removed. Unlike microfilm, digital images can be made available on-line or near on-line. Digital images can be made accessible over the Web for customers who can easily locate and view the images with a standard Web Internet browser. Many municipalities are currently migrating to this technology for public records. So it follows that we are seeing a significant number of companies undertake scanning projects in-house as an alternative to microfilm. In fact, many companies are converting microfilm to digital images. In addition, companies which have critical, active documents are turning to digital imaging. Medical records and credit card receipts are examples where imaging can be cost-justified.

Another area where we see significant information management opportunities is in consulting. Many companies are looking for more than just storage and retrieval services. They want help managing information and developing information management programs. For instance, companies are becoming much more aware of the need for records retention scheduling services. Likewise, they want help organizing and cataloging their records and managing the movement of in-house records. As a commercial records center, if you are not prepared to fill these needs for your clients, they will likely seek help elsewhere. This equates to missed opportunities for income, but more importantly, potentially the loss of a prospective customer or even an existing customer to a competitor.

Thirdly, we are seeing a lot of activity in the field of fully integrated, information management. Clients are looking for a way to track records from cradle to grave. In short, they want to know what is on-site and what is off-site. In the case of items on-site, they want to know where the documents are located. Likewise, some want to track electronic documents. In the past, selling the client a software solution that the client utilized in-house was the only way to fulfill this need. Typically these in-house software solutions were not well integrated with the commercial records center software. Clients are seeking one fully integrated software solution that manages on-site and off-site documents.

You are not alone. As a software company supporting the information management industry, we also have to plan for the future. When we developed our newest SQL software solution we had a choice. Should we simply duplicate our standard commercial software solution or should we take the opportunity to redevelop a new program from the ground up. In other words, should we take the easy path and stay with the status quo? After much thought and research, we decided to develop an all-new software solution that would be designed for the next generation of commercial information management. This is not to say our new SQL product does not manage storage and retrievals well. In fact, we believe we have developed a software solution that revolutionizes even standard commercial records management. One of the most exciting new enhancements is our new Web functionality that allows the commercial records center's clients to management their on-site records in the commercial records center database using a Web browser. Our product also includes a full suite of digital imaging tools, including our Scan-On-Demand™. The excitement with which our new SQL product has been greeted and our sales have confirmed that we made the right choices. If you will excuse the pun, I encourage all commercial information management companies to think out of the box. Don't abandon the core business that has made you successful, but don't miss the new opportunities to grow in profitable ways.

No one has a crystal ball, but it seems obvious that records management is becoming more sophisticated. It is clear that commercial records centers that are prepared to provide a higher level of service are going to be uniquely positioned to experience the financial rewards associated with being a leader in the industry. If you are looking for ways to expand your opportunities, we hope that we have a chance to discuss with you how our company might help you reach your objectives.

About the Author: Steven J. Hyman is president of DHS Worldwide, a software development firm specializing in information management solutions. You can visit DHS Worldwide at the trade show during the PRISM International Annual Conference, or point your browser to http://www.dhsworldwide.com/.