Norwalk, Conn.-Based Electronic Document Software Firm Sees Business Grow
By Richard Lee, The Stamford Advocate, Conn. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
The much-anticipated paperless office never did materialize, but paperless document transfer certainly did.
In a year, their groundbreaking work on electronic document handling has made the staff at FileOn in Norwalk a lot of friends among small businesses and municipal governments.
Founded in April 2003, the document management services company has developed software that allows clients such as law firms, medical offices and town governments to scan printed documents and store them so they can be easily retrieved or transmitted to another computer on the other side of the globe.
Robert Washington, an attorney with his own office in Brooklyn, N.Y., since 1986, and a FileOn customer, recently used the FileOn system to transmit records in a complicated probate transaction involving parties in New York City, Florida and Great Britain.
"Their product allows you to access things from their system and you can e-mail to an address. That comes in handy," said Washington, who learned about FileOn at a church men's group's networking event on entrepreneurship. "I do a lot of filing myself. It tends to grow through the years."
The system allows him to easily do research, avoiding the need to pore through reams of paper files, Washington said. Bethel Town Clerk Sheila Zelensky and her staff have been using the FileOn system for a month. It replaced a broken scanner that they had been using for eight years.
"I love it. There's a big difference between scanners of eight years ago and today. We could scan but we couldn't retrieve it. It wouldn't search by content. You can't put everything in a title. It was a nightmare," Zelensky said, adding that nowshe can do content searches. "This is just starting. They've been great to work with, and I'm very tough."
Zelensky plans to scan in meeting minutes, agendas and other municipal information dating back to 1965 into the system . State regulations, however, still require her to retain the paper records. Washington and Zelensky are using FileOn's recently-launched Information Logistics Services suite, which the company says enhances its clients' ability to use the technology in a secure and cost-effective manner through continuous conversion of documents to the Internet. The software can help law firms and businesses with productivity issues, regulatory compliance, vital records protection, audits and support of industry-specific reporting requirements, according to Anowar Shahjahan, president and founder.
Physicians are a big target market for FileOn. "We're providing services to the medical profession. It makes it easier to transfer medical information," said Shahjahan, former director of Mastercard's technology and architecture services for global technology. "We use the same security as banks -- 128 byt incryption."
FileOn staff will pick up paper filings at client businesses on a monthly basis and scan them into electronic information systems, or they can teach clients how to do it themselves, he said.
"We like to educate our customers. When you have a small account, it's more efficient to handle it themselves. We're on site with them. We train their staff on site," Shahjahan said, stressing the simplicity of the functions. "We created the software and built it on a Microsoft infrastructure."
The data is stored on a compact disc and saved by the client. "That gives them a giant comfort level. The data is theirs, not ours," Shahajan said.
FileOn is located in an unassuming ranch house on Golden Hill Street, which Shahjahan owns. He had no desire to repeat the mistake that many dot-com companies made in the 1990s of doing business out of high-priced offices. As a result, the business is already near the break-even point. "We're losing $500 a month now. I think we'll be in business for a while," he said with a confident smile.
Governmental agencies are requiring companies and the medical profession to keep more accurate, secure and easily accessible records, said Shahjahan, whose staff conducted a seminar this week at New England Financial at the Merritt 7 complex in Norwalk.
It was one of a series of seminars on scanning, document management and productivity improvement it plans to offer on a monthly basis at area businesses.
"They are swimming in paper and trying to keep their businesses afloat," said Shahjahan, whose business is a partner of Hewlett-Packard.
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Published Monday April 05, 2004
© 2004, The Stamford Advocate, Conn. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. MSFT, HPQ,
