First Look : Docsvault by Joel P. Bruckenstein (Virtual Office News)

A New and Incredibly Inexpensive Paperless Office Solution Here at Virtual Office News, we get a fair number of unsolicited contacts from companies and PR firms informing us of new or improved versions of various paperless office products; but rarely do we hear about a new (to us) product that claims to offer so much for so little.

Easy Data Access (EDA) recently contacted us to tout Docsvault — feature rich document management software that includes “an ensemble of business applications.” EDA claims that Docsvault differentiates itself through simple functionality, unique features, and overall value. According to the firm, Docsvault offers integrated scanning, PDF creation capabilities, one-click CD/DVD burning with full data backup settings, MS Office integration, and much more at an unbelievably low price.

Currently, Docsvault is available in a free “Home” edition, and a $49.00 “Professional” edition. Both
of these versions are designed for the single user, but a Small Business version for multiple users is due soon. I recently tried out the Professional version to see what it can do.

Installation

Installing the program is incredibly easy. In most cases, you can simply install the disk, click “OK” to the default choices presented, and in a few minutes the program is installed. The only real decision the user has to make is whether to allow all users on the computer access to Docsvault, or only the current user. More experienced users may want to change the default locations of the program files and the data files, but other than that, there is not much to do. If all goes well, as it did for me, the program will automatically recognize one or more of your scanners and allow you to select the scanner you desire from a list when you hit the scan button.

Once the program is installed, you have to register it and activate it. This entails filling in some basic information (name, activation key and email address) and sending the information to EDA. The email address is used to authenticate communications between registered users and tech support. The support team will only respond to emails from registered addresses.

When you launch the program, you are presented with the Docsvault Professional screen displayed
in the figure below. The main screen bears a resemblance to the familiar Widows Explorer interface. On the left, the directory tree is displayed. The main Docsvault branch of the tree is highlighted. Within the Docsvault tree are a number of file cabinets (Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, etc.). These cabinets come installed by default. They may be appropriate for the typical company, but they may not be the ideal setup for a financial planning or wealth management practice. The good new is that if you want to delete some or all of these cabinets, it is simple to do so.

Within each cabinet, you can create folders. If you wish, subfolders can be nested with the primary folder. Each folder and subfolder can store documents. The current view displays all of the cabinets in the Docsvault volume in the center of the page. When you click on a cabinet, all folders within a cabinet are listed. Click on a folder, and a list of all files and subfolders within the folder are listed in the center pane.

On the upper right is the profile section. A profile is a collection of indices. Profiles can be assigned to each file, folder, and cabinet. Different profile sets can be applied to each cabinet or folder. For example, Docsvault comes with a number of preinstalled index sets or profile templates. The “general” set includes three indices: client, document type, and notes. In this case, document type and notes are text fields, meaning that the user can type in whatever they want. The document field is a static index. Only selections from the drop-down list (agenda, biography, letter, etc.) can be applied to this field. The billing index set includes indices for client name, invoice number, dollar
amount, due date, and paid status. These sets can be used as is, edited, or used as templates to create new sets. Advisors can also create totally new sets of indices to suit their own needs.

The Indices are important because they can later be used to search for documents. They can also be used to enforce uniformity in the filing system. This is done by offering only a limited list of choices in each index field via a drop-down menu where appropriate, as was done with the document index in the general set. In the figure above, no document or folder is selected, so the profile section is blank.

The image preview section is just what it sounds like. If you highlight a document in the center pane, a thumbnail of the document is displayed. This option can be toggled on and off at the user’s discretion.

Set Up

Before you can use the system effectively, it is important to establish your file structure and your indices. This is a critical step that the getting started guide glosses over. Your structure should be unique to reflect your practice. At a minimum, you will probably want four cabinets: Clients, Business, Reference, and Personal. The Clients folder will hold everything client-related. The Business folder will hold all of the documents related to running your business, from business insurance to leases, etc. The Reference folder will hold all of the information that does not relate to a specific client. This would include things like stock and mutual fund research, financial planning educational materials and past issues of Virtual Office News. The Personal folder will hold all personal stuff for each user. You will surely have some, and if you have employees, they will have some too. Better to allow for it than to have it gunking up your system elsewhere.

Please bear in mind that the structure outlined above is just a bare minimum. If you have some clients who are “financial planning only” clients, some who are “investment only,” some who are “tax only,” and others who are “wealth management” (all of the above), you might want to create a separate cabinet for each, or you might want to create a folder for each within the Client cabinet. If you have a great many vendors, you might want to track everything related to them in a “Vendor” cabinet, or you might want to group them under Business. There is no right or wrong answer, but the system has to make sense to whomever is using it, just as a paper system had to.

The setting up of the profile templates may be the single most important step of this process. You can assign a name and description to each file, but odds are that if you need to find a file or a group of files in the future, it will be the profiles that bail you out, provided you set them up properly.

The whole key is to think about the types of documents that are going into the system, and how you would likely think about that document in the future should you need it. Would it be document type, the client it is related to, a date, or something else? Whatever it is, you have to make sure that you include the necessary data point in the profile. Upon creating your file structure and your profile templates, you are ready to use the system.

Getting Documents Into the System

Importing files into the system is a snap. Select the import button, navigate to the location on the hard drive where the file or files are stored, select them as you would in Windows Explorer, add a description, apply profile properties, and hit the import button.

In the figure below, I’ve made a few minor customizations to the program and imported a document for illustrative purposes. On the left, you can see that I’ve added file cabinets labeled Business, Financial Planning Clients, Investment Clients, Reference, and Wealth Management Clients.

Within the Wealth Management Cabinet, I created a folder for Joe and Joyce Sample, with subfolders for their Financial Planning Documents, their Investment Related Documents, and their Tax Documents. Currently, the Investment Related folder is the active folder. Since I already had a current Morningstar report on the Fairholme fund in digital format, I did not need to scan it into the system. I simply imported it. When I hit the import button, I was prompted to supply a document name and description. I also used the profile template for this folder to complete the document profile, which is displayed in the upper right of the screen. As you can see, I’ve applied the General profile template to this folder. However, I did make one minor change to the template; I added a new document type that I call “Morningstar Report.” This is now available to me at the document type drop-down list whenever I use the General profile template. Here, a preview of the document is not available in the preview window, however when I click on the file from the list, it displays perfectly.

Scanning works almost identically to importing. You hit the scan button, and the scanning dialog box, pictured in the figure below appears.

As you can see, I added a name and a description. Using the General Profile, I added a client name, a document type and a note. The scanner settings were selected from drop-down menus. In this case, I’m using a Fujitsu fi-5120C with the WIA driver. This document is being scanned to a compressed TIFF format. For documents, other options are uncompressed TIFF and PDF. For graphics, users can choose from JPEG, BMP, and PNG formats. A preview of the scan appears to the right after the scan is completed. Assuming I’m happy with the scan, I hit the save button and I’m done.

Docsvault also offers MS Office integration. In the case of MS Word, Excel and Power- Point, a “Save to Docsvault” option is added to the “File” drop-down menu. If you have completed work on an Office file, you © Copyright 2003-06, Sunset Financial Management, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Docsvault... Continued select the Docsvault option and a dialog box appears. You then select the folder within Docsvault that you would like the document placed in. Next, the profile dialog box appears. You add the file description and the appropriate indices, and then you click Save. All done!

With MS Outlook, it appears that you can save individual email messages or appointments, but not
whole email folders or sub folders. You can, however, select multiple email messages within a folder, import them as a group, and apply a single profile to all of them.

Finding Things

Once you’ve filed documents in the system, they can be found using the Search box. This box, illustrated below, has two sections.

The top section is used when searching by profile (the profile search portion can be hidden when not in use). Most of the options are self explanatory. If you know the file name, date or description, the search will be almost instantaneous. If you don’t, you can search for text inside the files, but if you have a large library, the results will be slower in coming. As an alternative, you will probably want to try using the profile first.

Other High End Features

Versioning

Docsvault makes it easy to track multiple versions of the same document. When I made a minor change to a spreadsheet that already existed in Docsvault, the dialog box displayed below appeared. As you can see, I was given the option of either adding a new version to the folder, or overwriting the existing version. If I choose to add a new version, I can include a short note about the new version I am saving.

Exporting an Email Attachment

Should you want to email a document residing in Docsvault to a colleague or a client, the program makes it easy to do so. You simply select the file, go to the File menu, select Export to… Email Attachment, and your email program opens to a new message with the document already attached. You provide the email address and the message, and send it on its way.

Burning to CD or DVD

Docsvault makes it very easy to back up your files. A wizard walks you through the whole process. Select File… Backup/Restore... and the wizard does most of the work. If you tell it that you want to create a backup, it gives you the option to back up to a local or network location. If you choose this option, you provide a location (or accept the default) and the program does the rest.

If you choose to back up to a CD/DVD, the program will suggest a backup file name. You then select the backup device from a drop-down list, select a write speed from the drop-down and select a split size (how much data to put on each disk) from a drop-down (this might be 700 MB for a typical CD, 4.5 GB for a typical DVD). You then have to check or uncheck the finalize button (it will no longer be possible to add to the disks) and, if you are using a rewritable medium, instruct the program to erase the existing data using one of two methods. It sounds complicated, but it only takes seconds once you are familiar with the process. You then hit the Start button and your disk(s) will be created.

Restoring works in a similar fashion. You use the wizard to designate a backup file, give it the destination, and the wizard does the rest.

In addition to the backup wizard, there is another function on the File menu labeled Burn to CD/DVD. Unlike the backup function, which saves a complete copy of Docsvault data, this function allows you to designate individual files, or groups of files ad burn them to an optical medium. Like the backup function, it is extremely easy to use.

Audit Trail

Auditing is done at the individual file level. You can enable auditing at the folder or cabinet level. Doing so will set the default audit choices for all documents within a cabinet or folder. Audit settings (things you can monitor) include check in/check out, viewed, copied, rerouted version change, etc. The program includes a query tool which allows you to search through the audit log. The audit trail may be of limited use to sole proprietors, but if an assistant (or others) have access to your computer, this could be an excellent security tool. When the multi-user version is released, this feature will become even more important.

Security

Speaking of security, Docsvault offers two safe, encrypted areas within the vault. Both areas use 128 bit file encryption, which is considered more than sufficient for normal use. One portion of the safe is called “safe information.” This is where you would store credit card information, backup information, software licenses, infrequently used passwords to other programs and things of that nature. The other portion is called “safe documents.” This appears to work in much the same way that the regular document section works. The only difference is that documents here are encrypted and password protected. Documentation on this section is skimpy, and I only tried it briefly, but it looks good.

Task Management

The program includes a task manager. For the single user, this functionality may be of limited use, but when the multi-user version comes out, I think it will have appeal. The one nice thing about using this program to store tasks is that you can link documents to a task so, for example, if someone is supposed to review a contract, you can create a task and attach a draft of the contract to the task.

What’s Hot?

Since we are just familiarizing ourselves with this product, it has not undergone extensive testing yet, but the preliminary outlook is favorable. So far, the product has performed as promised. It is very easy to use. It installs by itself with only the smallest amount of user interaction required. It correctly identified my scanner; something that a number of competing programs have had trouble doing in the past. It also identified my optical drives when using the backup wizard. I imported files, scanned files, tried numerous other features, etc., and everything went as expected. For a new version 1.0 product, this is rare indeed.

The feature set is impressive. In particular, the audit trail, secure “safe,” backup and profiling capabilities are well suited for the typical wealth management practice. I also liked the integration with MS Office.

Judging from what is being offered, the price is unbeatable. I can’t ever recall using a program this easy to use with profiling, security and an audit trail selling at anywhere near this price point.

What’s Not?

While Docsvault is a truly impressive value proposition, it is not perfect, and it is not for everyone. At the moment, it can only be used on a single computer. While the multi-user version is scheduled for release soon, it is not here yet, so those working in a small networked environment need not apply.

There are no annotation tools, which could be a deal breaker for some. Many readers we know who currently use products such as PaperPort and CEO Executive Assistant rely very heavily upon their annotation tools to run their businesses. They place great value on the ability to place virtual notes, highlights, etc. on documents. Speaking from experience, Dave and I also place great value on such tools.

Currently, the scanning module only supports TWAIN and WIA (a Microsoft Windows) drivers. While this is not a fatal flaw, I have laid out on a number of occasions the case for ISIS drivers. In short,
they offer the ability to automatically correct many scanning flaws, often without user intervention (for a more detailed discussion of ISIS drivers, see EA for Scanning in our January 2006 issue).

The literature we received claims that the program offers full text searches, but I’d qualify that with the word “sometimes” and perhaps “slowly.” Based upon my reading of the documentation, it appears that the program relies on Windows-based technology for the full text searching. If this is the case, not all documents will be full text searched, and if you have an extensive library, be prepared to wait for results.

I like the easy backups, but the weakest link is you, the reader. This admittedly easy manual backup system requires that you go in there and do the work. If you are willing to do your part, the system is fine; if not, you are in trouble. The other backup-related issue is with regard to restore options. It isn’t clear to me whether or not partial restores are possible. If they aren’t, this is a minor negative.

The documentation needs work. The “Getting Started Guide,” available on the installation disk and online, is a good starting point, but it lacks sufficient detail. There is also an online help system. Again, it is OK, but I felt that it needed additional work and additional detail. We did not try out technical support, so we have no idea of how they will perform if needed.

Bottom Line

Docsvault is new and untested, but my initial impression is highly favorable. It is lacking a few things I’d really like to see added in the future like annotation, ISIS compatibility and improved documentation, but the current feature set combined with its ease of use make it a compelling bargain for the single user. At $49.00, this program is a solid choice as an entry-level paperless office solution.

The upcoming Small Business Edition may be of even greater interest to VON readers. If it includes task routing and document routing as promised, and if all of the other features are as good as or better than those on the single-user version at comparable prices, Docsvault is sure to gain a loyal following.