EDDS Vault

Day Center Serving Children with Special Needs and Behavioral Problems

High Quality, Secure Document Management on a Tight Budget

• Company: An Omaha-based day center serving children with special needs and severe behavioral problems.
• Challenge: Reduce paper storage space and securely share sensitive information with staff in multiple locations.
• Results: Over $30,000 cost savings using EDDS Vault Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model instead of an in-house document management solution.
• Impact: Documents can now be scanned and uploaded from multiple locations to a central repository. Staff in multiple locations can access the documents using Microsoft Internet Explorer on any PC capable of running Microsoft Windows XP. Security measures such as 128-bit SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption, user roles that control access and permissions, and location of the repository at a hardened co-location facility ensure the safety of confidential information.

For Behave'n Day Center, a shoe-string budget did not prevent them from getting quality document management services with EDDS Vault.

The Omaha-based day center, which serves children with special needs and severe behavioral problems, wanted to save space by reducing their paper storage. In addition, with plans to expand to other cities, the daycare needed a way to securely share information with staff in multiple locations. Due to the sensitive nature of this confidential information and email's inherent lack of security, emailing documents as attachments was not an option. Neither was sending information on disks by mail, which can take days and is not safe without encryption.

The daycare's administration knew that online document management solves these issues, but most document management solutions were too expensive for the daycare. Typical in-house solutions were estimated to cost approximately $15,000 for the software itself plus an additional $15,000 for infrastructure items like new PCs, a server, and a specific scanner.

EDDS Vault's pricing and ability to accommodate the daycare's existing scanner/copier and other hardware enabled them to afford a professional document management solution. DOCCENTER's EDDS Vault uses a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, which enables clients to pay for their use of the software rather than purchasing it outright. In addition, clients use major components of the solution over the Internet rather than installing it locally, saving significant infrastructure costs. Furthermore, the SaaS model and EDDS Vault's simplicity of use means that clients do not need to hire IT professionals to install, configure, and administer it. If there are questions, DOCCENTER's support staff members are available to help.

Many clients like the daycare can use existing equipment for scanning and working with electronic documents. The scanning software is compatible with many popular scanners. Documents can be scanned at multiple locations and uploaded to a central repository over a secure Internet connection. The only software and hardware requirements to view and work with the documents in the repository are Microsoft Internet Explorer and a PC capable of running Microsoft Windows XP.

Saving money on the solution did not result in the daycare giving up critical security features. The repository is located at CoSentry, a "hardened" co-location facility. Documents accessed over the Internet are protected with 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security. The ability to set up security roles in EDDS Vault means that the daycare can control who can access which documents and whether people in those roles can only view those documents or also edit them. Furthermore, state agencies that provide funding to the daycare can get temporary secure access to certain documents periodically.

The EDDS Vault scanning software allows the organization to create scanning projects "on-the-fly" to accommodate various document types and index values that can later be used to help find documents. The scanning software comes with a built-in optical character recognition (OCR) engine that allows the text of a document to be stored and retrieved via free word text searches, in addition to searches using specific index values. The software supports the creation of custom drop-down list boxes, alphanumeric text fields, and date fields through a simple project setup wizard. In addition, the software allows drop-down list boxes to be populated with .CSV files and other file formats supplied by other systems. Web services are used to upload the documents to a centralized repository.

"We were skeptical of having an outside agency working with our documents, due to the confidential nature of our business. DOCCENTER has proven to be trustworthy and highly efficient. They provide an easy-to-use and efficient scanning product. They are willing to work with special requests and are completely consumer-driven. I highly recommend DOCCENTER's EDDS Vault for all document management needs."

- Mary Parrot, Business Operations