(SharePoint 2010 Server) upon which users
build a system using di;erent SharePoint applications.
;is gives SharePoint an enormous amount
of ;exibility — you can construct a document
management system, Web sites, wikis and
work;ows, and make all of these work cooperatively. What hat SharePoint wears at any
particular time is entirely up to the way components are installed and con;gured.
Creating these configurations, however,
requires a fair amount of technical expertise, not only with the di;erent components
available in the SharePoint system, but in
Microsoft SQL Server, which is used as the
underlying database, as well.
To get an idea of what’s involved and what
SharePoint can do, you can download the
Evaluation and Review Guide and
Walk-through Guide at Microsoft’s SharePoint
site. Together, they comprise more than 200
pages, and that’s before you even start to print
the actual SharePoint documentation.
At the same time, SharePoint is popular
enough that there are lots of value-added
resellers and consultants who will be glad to
install and con;gure a system for you. Just be
aware that SharePoint is not an install-and-forget application.
Documents
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PaperPort Professional
Nuance Communications Inc.
Pricing: Single user — $199.
www.nuance.com
For some smaller practices, the document
storage and retrieval capabilities of the applications that they run, coupled with a scan-and-store application such as Nuance’s PaperPort Professional 12 or Enterprise, may be all
that’s needed.
PaperPort Professional 12 o;ers the ability to scan a document to searchable PDFs
or a variety of image formats, perform optical character recognition to extract text from
scanned ;les, and even create ;ll-in forms
from scanned documents. You can drop e-mails onto the PaperPort Desktop and perform ;le type conversions, searches, and storage and retrievals. It even has a Sharepoint
connector, a sort of software pipeline that lets
Ted Needleman is senior director of the
Technical Services Division of Industry
Analysts Inc., an independent market
research ;rm and testing laboratory. He
was previously the editor-in-chief of
Accounting Technology, and writes frequently on
software, hardware, and technology-related
subjects.
data from a scan-and-capture app ;ow into a
more elaborate document management system. ;is allows Paper Port Professional to act
as a front end to Sharepoint.
PaperPort Professional works well as an
easy-to-use desktop document organizer, but
to implement it ;rmwide will require that you
purchase the more expensive Enterprise version, the price of which needs to be quoted
by a sales agent. PaperPort also lacks Web
browser access, which might present a problem should your sta; frequently need to access your document repository while out of
the o;ce. Inquiries and searches need to be
performed at the PaperPort desktop level.
Of;ce Tools Pro
Practice Management
Of;ce Tools Pro
Pricing: Starts at $500 for a single user.
www.of; cetoolspro.com
While O;ce Tools Pro calls its application
Practice Management 2011, the term is not
quite used the same way that other vendors
use it — as enhanced time and billing. Practice Management 2011 has components that
apply to the ;nancial side of ;rm management, many of which allow you to capture
time and use the captured data in other
applications, such as Word and several tax
preparation programs.
In addition to these functions, Practice
Management 2011 provides capabilities that
deal with work;ow management, including
comprehensive calendaring and collaboration tools, as well as the ability to store and
retrieve documents.
On the document management side, you
can create client folders, and simply drag
and drop whatever documents you have in
electronic format, including PDFs, over into
the folder.
Neither of these functions comprises a full
document or work;ow management system
as de;ned in this roundup, but Practice Management 2011 might fulfill your practice’s
needs if they aren’t too demanding in these
areas. Practice Management 2011 might also
be helpful as an adjunct to a more comprehensive document or work;ow system.
FileCabinet CS
The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson
Reuters
Pricing: Starts at $1,500.
www.thomsonreuters.com
Many document management applications
are designed to stand on their own, though to
a large extent they need to be able to integrate
with other applications that produce and use
the documents stored and indexed.
XCM
XCM Solutions Inc.
Price: $300 per user.
www.xcmsolutions.com
Most of the products in this roundup that are
work;ow-oriented are adjuncts to another
application, such as document management. XCM 8.0, and the edition targeted at
sole practitioners and small ;rms, XCMes-sential, are strictly designed to be work;ow
managers.
XCM provides a ;rm the ability to schedule projects and tasks, establish deadlines,
and attach staff responsibility for specific
tasks. If routing from one person to others
is necessary, XCM will allow you to create a
routing map that integrates with Windows
Explorer and allows an administrator to see
where any task or document resides at a
given moment.
For ;rms that have multiple tasks that are
functionally equivalent, a bulk-update capability saves time by letting you add information to more than one task at a time.
XCM is Web-based, and integrates with
selected Web-based applications, including ProSystem fx Document. XCM is also
available for use by your clients, with XCM
Corporate Edition designed for ;nance departments. AT
