eBridge Solutions Blog

Document Management Industry Of The Week: Death Care

Benjamin Franklin said it best: In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. Could that be why CPAs and yes, funeral directors, are busy year round? Could it also be why they accumulate so much paper?

We love accountants, but this week's industry of the week is the death care industry, which encompasses funeral homes, cemeteries, pet cemeteries, crematories and the vendors that serve them. We've been to quite a few death care trade shows in the past year and you couldn't find a nicer, more professional group of people anywhere.

That's why it's rewarding to provide a service that can actually help THEM: our web-based document management.

Funeral homes, for example, have pre-need (funeral plans made in advance) documents as well as at-need (upon death) paperwork to manage. In most states, the record retention requirements for at-need documents are seven years after death. If someone makes plans when they are 45 and the average age of death is 80, you do the math.

Also, many funeral homes have more than one location. So centralizing records is a time and money saving proposition. The hours a funeral home operates -- truly 24 hours a day, 365 days a week -- also makes document management beneficial, since files can be pulled up on any computer with an Internet connection -- even at home while the funeral director is on call.

“With eBridge Solutions, documents on 'active', 'old', or 'pre-need' files will be at the fingertips of our staff… no matter where they are located… or what hour of day or night.” Bill McQueen,
Anderson-McQueen Funeral Homes

Cemeteries, on the other hand, have it even tougher for a few reasons:

1. They need to keep their burial records FOREVER. Think about it, if there is a cemetery, you're always going to need to know who is buried where.
2. Those cemetery maps and images may be oversized and difficult to store in paper format.
3. Some cemeteries in the United States are 200 years old and they have records dating back as far. Seriously. Some records are so old, they can't even scan them. Those burial record books are actually photographed page by page so the paper doesn't disintegrate.

That's why the death care industry is our Document Management Industry of the Week.

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, is your business more secure?

Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 storm on the morning of Monday, August 29, 2005 in southeast Louisiana. It caused severe destruction along the Gulf coast from central Florida to Texas, much of it due to the storm surge.

Eventually 80% of the city and large tracts of New Orleans became flooded, and the floodwaters lingered for weeks. However, the worst property damage occurred in coastal areas, such as all Mississippi beach-front towns, which were flooded as boats and casino barges rammed buildings, pushing cars and houses inland, with waters reaching as far as 12 miles from the beach. This damage forced a long-term evacuation of a significant portion of the population and labor force.

Hurricane Katrina inflicted incalculable billions in damage, altered millions of lives and destroyed thousands of small companies.

One of its biggest blows may have been to an old-fashioned way of doing business-on perishable, irreplaceable paper records that are easily destroyed by water and scattered by wind. The storm left many evacuees without drivers’ licenses, wills, credit cards or health care records. Without these paper records, storm victims faced fundamental challenges getting back on their feet in the 21st century economy.

Makeup and wardrobe consultant, Adrienne Moncrief Hemphill ran a small but thriving custom-label makeup business out of her Bay St. Louis, Mississippi home that was demolished by Hurricane Katrina. Essentially her most valuable possession was her mailing list of her some 500 customers she kept on her computer.

She lost everything in the storm, her catalogs, her Web site, her inventory of products and most disastrous of all, her mailing list. She was able to relocate to Jackson, Mississippi where she faced the prospect of essentially starting her business over again from scratch.

“I sat down with a woman who worked with me and we tried to recreate my customer list from memory,” she relates. “Eventually we were able to remember about 150 of the 500 customers I had and eventually about 200 more found me.”

But she admits, it has not been easy. But she has learned a valuable lesson. Today all the data on her computer is backed up at a remote location.

Scarier still, there were 3,000 criminal cases in progress in New Orleans alone when Katrina struck, but the District Attorney was forced to suspend many of those prosecutions because tangible evidence, including police reports, interview transcripts, fingerprints and DNA samples are lost.

In response to the disaster, New Orleans officials and the federal government started to beat the digital drum. They want companies to move from paper-based records to computerized records that can be stored off site, backed up cheaply and moved easily out of harm’s way.

Have you taken that step in your business? How long would it take you to get back to work if you were unable to access your office for four weeks? Would you be able to? Could document management make a difference?

Moving from paper to digital records is more than just a good idea – it can be a lifesaver. Ask any small business owner in New Orleans.

Can you eliminate postage with a document management system?

Maybe not entirely, but yes. Yes, you CAN virtually eliminate postage, overnight services and couriers by adding document management to your office toolkit.

How? Great question. Here's how it works:

You work in an office with two locations. You're in Office A. Someone in Office B needs a document. Instead of mailing it, driving it over, inner-officing it or faxing it (which is NEVER legible), you can simply scan the document into your online file cabinet. Once the document is scanned, anyone at Office B -- with the proper rights, that is -- can sign onto the Internet and pull up a crystal-clear version of the document.

And not to make this medical billing week, but eBridge Solutions' medical billing clients have saved THOUSANDS of dollars by adding scanners in their physician client's offices so they can end their daily or weekly courier trips to pick up their client's billing paperwork.

One of my favorite case studies is from long-time eBridge client, Professional Office Management Services (POMS). VP of Operations, Jeremy Evans, realized an unexpected benefit after they added eBridge in their office: a huge reduction in courier fees.

“Our courier fees averaged $5,000 a month, running back and forth from our clients offices on a weekly or sometimes daily basis,” Jeremy said.

eBridge Solutions' CEO, Leslie Haywood suggested that POMS buy their biggest client a scanner for their office. And they did!

"Now, clientscan their EOBs directly into our electronic eBridge file cabinet quickly and securely," Jeremy explained. "No more courier fees. No more fuzzy faxes. No more waiting three days for backup. It’s all online instantly!"

So, whether it's one piece of paper or an entire batch of medical records, by scanning and storing your records online, you can easily make them available to other people. Whether they log into your online eBridge file cabinet or you e-mail them the document, it's money you're saving on postage. And money saved anywhere these days is a good thing.

Just don't tell my postman. I want to keep getting my IKEA catalogs at home...

eBridge for your iPhone? It's closer than you think.

In fact, it's here. We've been testing eBridge Solutions on various phones and hand-held devices at the request of our customers. And in most cases, the devices are able to open up TIFFs and PDFs stored in eBridge Solutions' web-based document management system.

Yes, you'll have to download a TIFF viewer specific to your device.

Yes, you'll have to zoom in real close to read your document.

No, you won't be able to scan or print using your phone... yet.

But, if you are on the road and a client calls up and asks you when their contract renews or what their final invoice amount was, you can use your mobile device to retrieve and view files. Depending on the phone, you may need to wait until you are back in the office to e-mail a copy of the invoice out, but you're still giving first-class customer service on-the-go!

Try it. Let us know what you think!

Your Documents Gone In The Blink Of An Eye!

A few months ago (well, I guess it was more like SIX months ago), I took the family to see ICE at The Gaylord Palms in Orlando. It was interesting, to say the least, and VERY, VERY, VERY cold. But, the kids loved it. I wish I could prove that to you, but one thing I didn't know about ICE before I entered is that 100 degrees below zero temperatures (or however cold it really was) will ruin images on a digital camera. My image card froze and I lost two days worth of photos.

Why do I tell you this? Imagine if you walked into your office one morning and all of your documents were gone. Everything that was there the day before has vanished. Erased from your hard drive. Missing from your file cabinets. What would you do? How would you work the rest of the day? Week? Year? How long would it take for it to be 'business as usual'?

That's one of the biggest benefits of web-based document management, specifically. With a document management system like eBridge Solutions', you actually would know how to work the rest of that terrible day. You could grab your laptop, run to the coffee shop, log into your online file cabinet and find the paperwork you need to re-start/recover your business. Now, document management will only benefit your business if you've actually started scanning and printing your documents into your file cabinet. You aren't protected if the files aren't online.

P.S. Documents are just one part of your disaster-recovery program. Don't forget your e-mails, phone systems, hardware and non-online software programs.

Reason # 2 to love eBridge Solutions: Access your data 24/7, 365 days a year!

Whether you're hard at work in the office on a Wednesday, catching up on some work at home on a Sunday night or you have to find a certain file when the office is closed for a holiday, with eBridge Solutions, your documents are always accessible no matter where you are or what time it is.   

The web-based feature makes eBridge the perfect solution for the workaholic, the traveler and all those weekend warriors who are "just trying to catch up". It can save employers time (why go to the office if you don't need to?) and money (documents don't need to be mailed or couriered to off-site employees). It can also increase the levels of service your business provides.

Several of the industries eBridge deals with REALLY benefit from this any time, anywhere access - funeral directors and realtors. Think of it (sad as it may be): a funeral director gets a call at 3 a.m. from a family who has lost their loved one. Instead of having to go into the office and find out whether the person wanted to be buried or cremated, the director can log into their online file cabinet and pull up the pre-arrangement paperwork.

Or, in a happier example, a realtor who gets a call at 8 p.m. from a seller who has accepted an offer can open their file cabinet and e-mail the acceptance letter to the buyer instead of running to the office.  

As long as you have access to a computer and the Internet, eBridge Solutions is anywhere you want (or need) to be.

Document Management can keep auditors out of your office

One of our current client's favorite features of eBridge Solutions is our index-level security. He is in the financial services industry and he gets annual audits. Each year, prior to the event, he sets up his auditor with a user ID and password and then restricts by index level what documents he can see.

If he needs to see applications, for example, our client gives him the right to see applications, but not certificates. Or, he can allow them to see both. This means the auditor doesn't need to come to the office anymore. He can log in remotely, find the documents he needs, print them out and he's all set.

It saves travel and, more importantly, the stress of having an auditor in your office for three days.

If you work in a regulated industry, a web-based document management system can do more than get you organized. It can make your auditor's life easier, which in turn, will make yours easier, too.

Reason #47: Need to add remote employees? eBridge makes it easy!

There are several benefits to adding remote employees to your staff. And while the idea might be overwhelming at first, eBridge Solutions would like to help make it a little easier for you. 

If you are thinking about hiring remote employees but aren't quite sure if it's feasible for your company, let me share some of the benefits.

First, the average cost of housing an employee in your office is anywhere from 10-20k a year. That's a lot!

Second, adding remote employees means they can be closer to potential new clients and prospects--smart business move if you ask me. 

Also, your employees won't be affected if you decide you need to relocate your company. These small things, in effect, can also increase your employee retention because (let's face it), the majority of businessmen and women dream of one day working from the comfort of their personalized home office.

For some companies, remote employees have become a necessity. An even bigger necessity for companies with remote employees is eBridge Solutions!

By storing and retrieving your documents online as opposed to using actual filing cabinets, your employees can access their files from anywhere in the world--as long as they are connected to the internet, of course.

There is also talk around eBridge that they will be launching a new feature to their system that will give users the ability to not only store closed or archived files, but live, working documents as well. Sound interesting? Let us know.

Email info@eBridgeSolutions.com if you want to know the details first... 

Reason 4: Document management makes it easy to bring your work home

Here I sit. 10 p.m. on a Thursday night. I'm watching the news (so depressing) and working. One of the reasons that I can work late is that all of my marketing documents (trade show applications, proofs of new collateral and more) have been scanned into our web-based document management system.

So, if I need to fill out paperwork or update the web site, it's easy to refer back to the original document I had to hand write.

If you work in a paper-intensive environment like the legal, real estate or collections industry, eBridge Solutions is the perfect way to bring your work home with you. In a few seconds, you can perform a search using the index values you set up OR by keyword.

I think about real estate agents a lot when it comes to this reason in our list of 52 reasons to love eBridge. Realtors often get calls before or after regular business hours. Rather than having to drive into the office, they can pull up client contracts or appraisals in eBridge and then email them off. Better customer service. Nothing added to their to-do list.

If you haven't seen what eBridge Solutions can do for your business, take a 4-minute tour here. Even if you're at home...

Reason Number 34: You can easily e-mail stored documents to customers or vendors

There are more than 101 reasons why you will love eBridge Solutions online document management. Reason 34 - easily e-mail stored documents.

This is probably my favorite eBridge feature. When you show someone in a demo that they can e-mail a scanned document in seconds, they freak. The majority of my prospects are still getting up, finding the paper file in the file cabinet, making a fax cover sheet and then faxing the form or invoice when someone needs it. And that is assuming they find the file.

It is a true 'aha' moment in the eBridge demo. I love it. And you will, too.