Agency Opens Virtual Filing Cabinet

Its original office contained 1,500 square feet of basement space used for storage of files that dated back about 60 years. The firm found itself renting out additional space under a bank building. The office later moved to its current location, with plenty of storage space. However, the problem remaineda burgeoning collection of records necessary for the business and hundreds of thousands of files that needed to be sorted through when the transactional information they contained was needed.

According to Michele Newhouse, vice president of operations for Cortes & Hay, the firm needs to keep records for only seven years, but the information within those files is invaluable. Having the information in house allows the firm to do a search over the past 60 years of records in hours. Without that information, the search could take up to two weeks.

The volumes of individual documents can be massive. An account can generate packages that range from 25 to 100 pages, which have to be distributed to attorneys, lenders and borrowers. The firm produces 120 to 180 such packages a month and, in the current hot housing market, that translates into over 2,000 packages a year.

Ms. Newhouse said the agency decided it was time to replace the generation of paper and find an alternative with the help of technology. So, a year-and-a-half ago, the agency began its search for a technology tool it felt would solve the problem.

With the help of Pathfinder Consulting Group, LLC, in Lebanon, N.J., the firm decided on ViewWise by Computhink, headquartered in Lombard, Ill.

The firm had been using a program designed for the title insurance industry called WinTitle. That software, however, does not store data, instead relying upon hardcopy production to distribute and maintain transactions.

The solution, explained Dawn Micele, business analyst for Computhink, was to take the file and folder concept and put it into a computer format, which is what ViewWise is all about. But more importantly, when it comes to searching for documents, the system needs to recognize bits of information such as name, file numbers and social security numbers, which would make finding the client file possible.

Computhink determined what information would be characteristic in all the documents to be searched. It then structured the system to allow for the retrieval of documents using the search criteria it had set up.

The search can be made as narrow or as broad as the user wants, explained Ms. Micele, depending upon what the user is looking for.

As far as format, this is not a challenge for ViewWise, since it can view a document in 255 different file formats, from scanning an original hard copy, to a Word document, to an Excel spreadsheet. When opening the document, Ms. Micele noted, ViewWise does not convert it into another format, but displays it the way it was put in. The program has features to allow a document that is being worked on at a workstation to be saved directly into ViewWise. And there is no limit to the number of documents that can be saved into an individual file, she said. Another advantage to the system is that documents and folders can be e-mailed to parties that need them, replacing the old system of printing and mailing.

The system, which has been used largely by state and local governments, Ms. Micele continued, has special features that allow for different levels of security access. Some levels of security allow for viewing only, while other security levels allow the user to make changes to the documents. Other security level features allow for the blackout of pieces of information on a forma social security number or salary for instance. These bits of information can only be seen by those with the correct pass code for viewing. This is a feature that might be of interest to those agencies dealing with employee benefits, she noted.

Training is not difficult, she explained. To learn search and retrieve functions takes three hours, and more advanced work with the system can be done in a full day. Typical, full-service training, including set-up and downloading a document into the system, takes three to four days.

As for price, the small business edition, which is for five users, and a one-year maintenance agreement costs around $6,000 and includes online access, allowing a user to remotely access the firms documents over the Web. No new hardware is needed, only the software and training, Ms. Micele added.

Cortes & Hay is not copying all of its paper files immediately into ViewWise, said Ms. Newhouse, because the cost, over $700,000, is prohibitive. Instead, it is loading files as it goes forward and uses documents. But, Ms. Newhouse said, there are no complaints.

"We have been very, very happy with it," she stated. "We have had no problems, no issues. Its been great."

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, December 5, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.