http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/cpa-exam-software-proven-to-build-strength.html http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/cpa-exam-software-proven-to-build-strength.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:04:01 -0600
In essence it is technologically advanced, absolutely personalized, with a one to one approach. The software has the intention of teaching the knowledge that every individual student requires to pass their exam. The CPA software includes a series of matrixes and algorithms in an array of mathematical equations and elements, which are combined for ensuring each study session is tailor made for specific study requirements. With the CPA exam software or CIA exam prep study material, learning is especially pinpointed with accurateness, much more like having a personal professor, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The software assures that you get the appropriate number of questions with right categories and adjusts after every study session in order to imitate your most recent requirements.

The software also tells you the exact time to read the review textbooks, demonstrating areas to study according to your indicated needs. Nothing more or nothing less, the CPA software is custom made for pinpointing each individual's every changing weakness and strengths plus objectively developing the feasible remedies for your next learning session. This is why the software works so wonderfully for everyone.

In addition, it should recognize that each candidate is important and thus offers individualized training through training programs the candidate alone requires for overcoming their exclusive established weakness and their proven potency.




--
Jon Harwokey, a software developer, is interested in the latest updates in technology. ExamMatrix is the creator of the first computer based CPA Exam review software, and has over 20 years of experience. Whether you are preparing for your CPA, CMA, CISA, or CIA Exam, with the ExamMatrix Pass Guarantee, you are sure to join the thousands who have used ExamMatrix with success!

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-retention.html http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-retention.html Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:56:31 -0600
1. Government regulations require that certain documents, such as accounting records, be retained for specified number of years. New regulations such as Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) have extended the scope further, making it necessary to retain practically all kinds of documents to authenticate the accuracy of published financial information.

2. Other regulations require documents to be maintained to show that the business is complying with regulations. For example, many kinds of records need to be maintained about employees and the calculation of their pay if you employ people.

3. In litigation, claims are proved by producing relevant documents. If care had not been taken to preserve these documents, genuine claims might not be enforceable in a court of law. On the other hand, if all documents had be retained in a manner that enables quick retrieval, the claims can often be settled without going to court through document discovery process.

4. Audit is another situation where production of documentary evidence becomes necessary. The auditors can be auditors checking the accuracy of financial statements or regulators checking that the company has complied with regulatory requirements.

5. While regulatory compliance as above is at best an unavoidable necessity, document retention for providing decision support information is a critical requirement affecting the very success of the business. Without relevant information about past performance and other aspects, business managers can easily make wrong decisions.

6. Historical records can help a company build its brand. For example, old facts about the Coca Cola Company might be used to recreate nostalgia and a favorable impression about the company in the minds of prospective customers.

7. The types of documents that need to be maintained to meet the requirements are varied. They range from transaction records such as invoices and purchase orders through e-mails, correspondence, chat message records and market study reports to audit working papers and registers in standard formats that record specific happenings, such as industrial accidents.

8. Document retention has been made far more affordable and manageable by Information Technology. Electronic documents can be stored in little space, and organized in a manner that enables retrieving any particular document amazingly quick compared to retrieving paper documents from the filing section.

9. Document retention policies must be so framed that privacy of personally identifiable information about individuals is maintained in a confidential manner. Regulations like HIPAA make such confidential maintenance compulsory and make any failures punishable.

10. Retention of documents also involves their eventual disposal when they have expired. Retaining every kind of document indefinitely can prove expensive and a sheer waste of resources. There is also the issue of electronic documents created by legacy systems unreadable as the systems that created them are no longer in use or supported. Hence, periodic conversion of old data into current (or other readable) formats is an additional task that will need to be attended to. Tagging documents by their expiration date and automatic disposal of expired documents can save a great deal of trouble.

Regulatory requirements, audit requirements, management information requirements and recording of history all require that documents be maintained for specific periods or even forever. Document retention policies need to be decided upon and implemented on the ground to meet the varied requirements at affordable costs.

--
Ademero, Inc. develops document management system. Based largely on user experience, the company's flagship product, Content Central™, is a browser-based document management software system created to provide businesses and other organizations with a convenient way to capture, retrieve, and manage information originating in hard copy or digital form.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-indexing.html http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-indexing.html Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:55:29 -0600
1. Search engines use what is called an inverted list index that lists the documents against each word, instead of words in each document. In response to a query, the engines look up the query words in their index and then list the documents against those words.

2. Typically there will be hundreds of documents, if not thousands, against each word. It then becomes necessary to rank the documents in order of relevance to the query. Relevance is determined by using certain rules set by the engine, and typically involves more than the density of the particular query words in each document.

3. The major search engines do what is known as full-text indexing, i.e. they check all the words in the document's content, and list it against each of these words (except perhaps too common words like ‘the').

4. Not all indexing is full-text indexing. Full text indexes tend to be huge, requiring much storage space on their own. Indexing by document meta tags take up much less space. The meta tags provide information about the document that helps retrieve it. For example, a brief note about the content of the document, its date of creation/modification and the author name might be attached as meta tags with each document.

5. Meta tag indexing requires that the user has an idea of what the tags contain so that the person can query using these values. This is typically achieved by having standard practices for describing document contents and document naming. Often, drop-down selection boxes of such descriptions and names are used for manually tagging the document so that different users will use the same terms for similar documents.

6. Indexing is mainly used with unstructured documents, such as correspondence, reports, articles and so on. Structured documents such as transaction records are typically stored in databases, and have unique IDs for each document. Database queries can then bring up the right document in little time (instead of the many documents brought up by search queries).

7. Computer systems typically add certain meta information automatically to each document they create or modify. The date of creation and document author name are examples of such automatically added data. Other data such as document content description can be manually added by the user, or added using such devices as standard-description barcode cards.

8. Indexing can be specialized as when scientific documents are indexed using scientific notation rather than standard words. The key issue is ease of subsequent retrieval. Searchers for scientific documents, for example, will typically find it easier to retrieve documents using the specialized notations.

9. When paper documents are scanned into digital images, they cannot be indexed as such. Instead, the images need to be processed further using such tools as OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software to convert the images of text characters into standard, machine readable ASCII or Unicode characters.

10. Document indexing is not the only way to facilitate their subsequent retrieval. A hierarchical directory structure with meaningfully named folders and subfolders, and proper classification of documents and their storage in relevant subfolders, can enable quick browsing to the correct folder and retrieval. Where necessary, this can be combined with folder-level indexing and search.

Without the facility of indexing the thousands of documents using, say a desktop search facility, businesses might find that retrieving unstructured documents is a tough, and often simply impossible, task. Indexing, full text or meta tag based, changes the situation dramatically making it possible to retrieve even a particular e-mail comparatively quickly. Indexing is thus a powerful business tool.

--
Ademero, Inc. develops document archiving software. Based largely on user experience, the company's flagship product, Content Central™, is a browser-based document management software system created to provide businesses and other organizations with a convenient way to capture, retrieve, and manage information originating in hard copy or digital form.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-imaging.html http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-imaging.html Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:54:00 -0600
1. Document imaging is not something new. Copiers, fax machines and microfilming all involved imaging paper documents, with different objectives. What is comparatively new is converting paper documents into full-fledged electronic documents to integrate them into the electronic workflow.

2. The integration into the electronic workflow involves more than just scanning paper documents into a digital image. Electronic documents typically contain computer readable text characters. The text in the scanned images is in graphic formats that cannot be read as characters by the computer.

3. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) programs convert text images into ASCII or Unicode formats that are readable by computers as text characters. The system can then index the documents by its content and make it an integral part of the workflow.

4. The indexing can also be based on metadata attached to the document. In such a context, the metadata can be bar-coded on the document by affixing a standard barcode card or by other means and then a barcode indexer can index the documents.

5. In large enterprises, documents are typically being generated at widely dispersed locations and these can be immediately accessible from anywhere only if they are in electronic form. Paper documents are imaged and processed at the originating stations and the resulting electronic documents can then go to the central storage at the enterprise headquarters, making them accessible from anywhere in the enterprise or through authorized handheld devices in the field

6. An incidental benefit of converting paper documents into electronic format is the consequent reduction in paper requirements. The original paper documents can be shredded and recycled. Such recycling has great environmental significance.

7. Document imaging also reduces storage media costs. Paper document storage and retrieval requires an elaborate setup involving paper folders, filing cabinets, filing section staff and constant transportation of documents from filing section to users and back.

8. Documents in electronic formats can be backed up and the backups can be stored off-site so that natural disasters like fire or floods that affect the primary site do not affect the backups. Disaster recovery is much faster and dependable in such a context compared to a paper-based system disaster.

9. Yet another benefit from document imaging and conversion of documents into electronic is the speed of document retrieval. Electronic retrieval of documents for litigation or audit purposes is dramatically speedier than physical retrieval of paper documents stored somewhere in the filing cabinets.

10. Imaging large volumes of documents can be handled using batch scanning techniques with adequate, advance preparation. Batch scanning can automate the scanning process, and the result can be satisfactory in issues like configuring the scanner to handle different size documents, separating documents into relevant categories using separators and preparing the documents for scanning by removing staples and paper clips.

Document imaging produces concrete benefits in the forms of speeding up the workflow, reducing storage media and paper handling costs, speedy recovery of needed documents in electronic discovery and reducing the ecological impact of high paper consumption.

--
Ademero, Inc. develops document imaging software. Based largely on user experience, the company's flagship product, Content Central™, is a browser-based document management software system created to provide businesses and other organizations with a convenient way to capture, retrieve, and manage information originating in hard copy or digital form.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-backup.html http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-backup.html Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:12:44 -0600
1. Backing up involves copying original data to secondary media, typically off-line media. The result is that two copies of original data exist and the secondary copy can be used to restore the loss of the primary copy.

2. Loss of original data is a common enough occurrence to make a backup procedure an unavoidable document management process. Data can be lost due to electrical problems, system crashes, virus attacks, accidental or intentional deletions, theft of storage media and their destruction in a natural disaster like fire, flood, cyclone or earthquake.

3. Business data is unique to each business, and cannot be replaced if there is no backup copy. This is what distinguishes data from other resources like hardware, software and other infrastructure, which can be replaced in case of loss. It's rare for businesses to survive after a complete loss of their data.

4. Backing up data is not something that can be left to individual users to be done in an ad hoc manner. An ad hoc approach can lead to an incomplete backup, redundant backups and even irrecoverable backups. The result will be high costs and effort, with unsatisfactory results. Above all, it might not be possible to locate the specific backup media that stores the copy of lost data.

5. A systematic approach to backup will involve a cycle of backup that will back up all data. The approach will also minimize redundant backup. For example, a full backup is done only at periodic intervals with backups of only new or changed data being taken between two full backups.

6. Backups will involve not only business documents and records but also applications and system data. Copies of applications along with their activation keys and license details will be needed to restore them. Copies of up-to-date system data will be needed to recreate the original environment.

7. A systematic approach can ensure that all data including system data and all applications with supporting details are backed up. Additionally, by minimizing redundancies, it can also reduce the requirements of storage media, thus reducing costs.

8. Systematic backup will also involve organizing the backup in a manner that makes retrieval of needed data quick and dependable. All media will be labeled indicating their contents and dates. Periodic tests will ensure integrity of the backed up data and their recoverability in case of need. Physical storage of the media will also be done in a logical and intuitive order.

9. A catalog of the media with their IDs, contents and dates will also be maintained up-to-date. This can be a paper list where the number of media is small or a computer database where the number is large.

10. Other backup practices involve data compression to reduce storage space, encryption to maintain confidentiality, a specific time period for backing up (so that regular operations will not be interrupted during the backup; backing up live data is a big problem and hence files might have to be closed for backup) and ensuring long term retention of stored data and its readability where necessary.

Backing up business data, applications and system data is essential to recreate the original IT environment in case some disaster results in losing the original data. Such disasters are unfortunately too common, ranging from power fluctuations to a major natural disaster like a hurricane. If business data is lost, it cannot be replaced in the absence of a backup, unlike the IT infrastructure which can be replaced comparatively easily.

--
Ademero, Inc. develops document storage software. Based largely on user experience, the company's flagship product, Content Central™, is a browser-based document management software system created to provide businesses and other organizations with a convenient way to capture, retrieve, and manage information originating in hard copy or digital form.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-storage.html http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-storage.html Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:10:42 -0600
1. Government regulations stipulate that different kinds of documents be preserved for specified periods, such as seven years. Litigation possibility requires that documents that might be needed as evidence in a lawsuit be preserved as long as there is a remote possibility that a lawsuit might be filed. For these and other reasons, document storage for long periods should be understood as unavoidable.

2. Documents are stored on storage devices ranging from paper and filing cabinets to microfilm, magnetic tape, hard disks, CD/DVD and solid state devices like flash drives. The media differ in terms of costs, durability of stored data, ease of handling and portability.

3. Storage can be primary as when data is stored on on-line hard disks and can be accessed in milliseconds by the system. It can be stored on less expensive secondary near-line media such as robotic devices that retrieve and mount needed media as called for by the system in seconds. Data can also be stored on least cost (and safer) off-line in removable media as backup or archive, to be accessed infrequently if necessary.

4. On-line storage is necessary for frequently used current data. If too much data is stored on-line, it can affect system performance, slowing it down. Hence it is a good practice to remove infrequently used data to secondary or off-line media.

5. Secondary storage media are near-line in that the data can be made accessible in seconds. The data is stored on removable media that are stacked in a device with robotic arms. On receiving a system command, the arm will retrieve a selected media and mount it on an on-line drive. This operation is typically performed in seconds so that there is no appreciable delay in accessing the data in secondary storage.

6. Data is stored off-line on removable media not only because they are used infrequently but also because the media can be stored away in less expensive and safer premises. For example, backups of data will be needed only if the primary data is lost and can be stored in separate premises so that events like a fire at the primary location do not affect the backup.

7. It is a common practice to monitor the access rates to different types of on-line data and move the infrequently accessed types to near-line storage. This can be done automatically and can optimize system performance.

8. The media stored in the near-line storage devices are catalogued so that the system knows where each piece of data resides and can command the robotic arm to retrieve just the right disk and mount it on-line, when the need arises.

9. Offline storage protects data from the risks to which on-line data are exposed to, such as virus and hacker attacks, power fluctuations and system crashes. Remote storage of off-line data can even protect it from natural disasters like fire, flood and earthquakes that might affect data stored on the primary locations.

10. Electronic data can suffer from readability problems if they are stored long in the same format. File formats, storage media devices and software applications can all go through major changes as Information Technology changes. This can render old data unreadable. One solution to this problem is to transfer the old data to new format media on a regular basis.

Data that are needed for current processing needs are stored on on-line storage media such as hard disks and RAID systems. Data that might be needed only infrequently can be stored on near-line robotic devices with the ability to make them accessible in seconds. Backup and archival data are typically stored on off-line media that can also be stored remotely to keep them away from dangers like a fire at the primary location.

--
Ademero, Inc. develops document management system. Based largely on user experience, the company's flagship product, Content Central™, is a browser-based document management software system created to provide businesses and other organizations with a convenient way to capture, retrieve, and manage information originating in hard copy or digital form.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-security.html http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-security.html Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:07:43 -0600
1. Document security management seeks to prevent data loss from the varied kinds of threats to data. Unless a systematic approach is adopted for document security your business can even close down.

2. Very few businesses survive complete loss of business data and even partial losses can prove extremely serious. Consider losing all your customer data and invoice records. It can mean that you cannot recover your fees from credit customers that can equal a few months of sales. Or consider the secret product formula that gives you an edge in the market being stolen.

3. Document security starts with a careful look at all the risks the documents face and the impact of each. A clear idea about these can make top management aware of the real dangers that can easily occur, and as a result they are more likely to support security-enhancement measures.

4. One of the first security measures is preventing unauthorized access to documents. Only authorized persons should be able to access each type of data. Access restrictions should be placed both on classes of data and levels of employees. Access restrictions typically take the firm of access permissions to each employee or group of employees and the requirement to enter passwords to access the data an employee is authorized to access.

5. All applications must generate automatic audit trails that keep track of who accessed which document when, and what the person did with the document. Most data losses have been attributed to employees, and it's essential that a tag be kept on their activities, and unusual activities should be investigated in detail.

6. Firewalls can prevent access to data on the internal network by external entities, such as hackers. Antivirus programs can guard against virus attacks and repair any files that may get attacked. Anti-spyware programs can detect spyware that various agencies, including identity thieves, manage to install on your systems.

7. Verified backups and their storage at separate locations can help the business recover from data losses caused by different events, such as natural disasters like a fire, accidental or intentional deletion of data from hard disks, data corruption caused by electrical disturbances and system crashes and malicious events like virus attacks.

8. Backups need to be verified to ensure that they are recoverable in case of need. Systematic policies and procedures can ensure that all critical data are backed up in an up-to-date or even real-time manner. In their absence, not all data might get backed up and data loss recovery can prove incomplete.

9. Electronic documents can be tampered with comparatively easily, and authentication procedures must be in place to validate critical documents at the recipient's end. Measures like electronic signatures can help ensure that documents have not been altered since they were signed.

10. Above all, regular reviews must be carried out to identify current security vulnerabilities, train employees in document security practices and review practices like taking backups and implementation of document retention and destruction policies.

Standards for information security such as those issued under ISO 27002 can help businesses understand the complex issues involved and implement best practices for document security. With increasing dependence on electronic documents, this is an issue that cannot be ignored or left to untrained staff.

--
Ademero, Inc. develops document management system. Based largely on user experience, the company's flagship product, Content Central™, is a browser-based document management software system created to provide businesses and other organizations with a convenient way to capture, retrieve, and manage information originating in hard copy or digital form.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/linux-vs-windows-which-one-to-pick.html http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/linux-vs-windows-which-one-to-pick.html Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:57:19 -0600
Maintenance and security are one of the significant areas to comprehend the actual differences between the operating systems. Linux are commonly referred to as distributions, also known as `distros`, and are released around the same time frame using the same kernel version (operating system). Linux needs careful consideration of hardware drivers as the hardware newly released should be appropriate and this includes the motherboard as well. Linux installation should be done by people who have proper knowledge to run the operating system and its applications. Linux is stable and more secure than Windows.

On the other hand, Windows offers easy installation and runs even in default modes, besides it includes a series of drivers regardless of the hardware type and has the extensive variety of software. However it suffers with frequent security problems demanding critical patches involving rebooting. Moreover it is expensive right from the purchase price to the applications, besides ongoing maintenance is a must to keep it updated and stable.

The comparison of Linux vs. Window includes other considerations such as the price, specialized options and support. Linux has server oriented versions available with vendors and some are offered with 24/7 paid support. There are less expensive distribution versions obtainable at Mepis, Centos and Xandros and others, which are offered at a very low cost to get started, while Debian, Slackware, Mint, Mandriva, Fedora of Red Hat and Ubuntu are all free versions.

On the other side Microsoft Windows server is regular with 32 and 64 bit versions with specialized options such that it is ideal for small as well as medium sized businesses. However, the biggest hit is that Windows is buoyed up by a multi billion dollar company and is compatible with the majority of software, besides it is very easy in using and understanding that even an average user can make the best of it. Windows pricing varies dramatically based on the numbers purchased and on the yearly maintenance agreement or the licensing plan.

The significant difference in Linux version does not speak about the software quality or the drivers` availability, but the support offered. Depending upon the Linux distribution package, the user may get a quick and 24/7 paid support, and this should well suit any corporate environment. Purchasing the operating system and hardware together ensures the support for installed hardware, else it may be required researching to ensure the motherboard, network adapter, chipset and others are supported by the Linux version. The other non-Linux options include OpenSolaris and many variants of Berkley Software distribution.

--
You can have access to articles about computers in portuguese language from page Computer

Roberto Sedycias works as IT consultant for Polomercantil

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-distribution.html http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-distribution.html Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:59:19 -0600
1. Business transactions typically require collaborative working, which require effective communications among the workers. Well-designed document distribution systems can improve the speed and effectiveness of the communications, and even the performance of collaborator roles.

2. Electronic documents can be attached to predefined or ad hoc approval processses to ensure that they reach all persons who have to work on them. Electronic Document Management (EDM) systems will alert the recipients about the documents that need their attention and thus expedite work performance.

3. Documents can be distributed in different ways. In addition to the workflows that keep the document moving internally, there are e-mails, bulletin boards, Web conferences and intranets that can make documents available to persons inside and outside the organization.

4. One issue that can arise during collaborative working when multiple persons work on the same document is that of avoiding overwrites of each other's updates. If two or more persons work on the same document at the same time, it is possible that one person's updates can be overwritten by another person. To avoid this possibility, EDM systems typically offer check-in and check-out tools that permit only one person to make changes to a document at one time.

5. Different kinds of document distribution require different kinds of actions to ensure that the communication is received (or demonstrated as likely to be received) by the recipients. E-mails have to pass successfully through e-mail spam filters, postal mail might need to be posted under certificate of posting, and so on.

6. Where electronic documents are distributed widely to the public, as in the case of electronic white papers, readability can become an issue. If the document is prepared using a proprietary application, the recipients might not have the relevant software to read the document. Tools like the freely downloadable Adobe Reader seek to solve such problems.

7. Document distribution can also occur when relevant documents supporting your claim in litigation are sent to attorneys of the other party. In these cases, the issue of "redaction" becomes relevant. While you are obligated to produce information that supports your contentions, you are allowed to remove parts of the content that can harm your case. Care is needed to ensure that this is utilized. Careless distribution can mean that such data can reach the other party, say in the form of invisible metadata attached to electronic documents.

8. Instead of sending sensitive documents outside the organization, external parties can be allowed to inspect them in a data room, virtual or real, in the organization. This is the typical practice in the case of due diligence investigations as part of M&A and loan negotiations.

9. When electronic documents are distributed over the Web, there is a possibility that their content might be tampered with during transmission or at other points in the route. Encryption and document locking are often used to prevent this. Encrypted documents can be opened only by a recipient who has the relevant key. Locked documents cannot be modified further.

10. Document distribution can prove an expensive affair. To reduce costs, and increase effectiveness, you can entrust the task to third party fulfillment services. The service providers will typically have the facilities, procedures, and experience to ensure cost-effective document distribution.

Documents such as brochures and correspondence serve their purpose only when distributed to relevant recipients. Internally, it's the distribution of documents to concerned employees that gets the operations of the business to flow smoothly. Considering the variety of documents and the different document distribution practices, costs of distribution can reach unreasonable levels unless the process is systematized.

--
Ademero, Inc. develops document management software . Based largely on user experience, the company's flagship product, Content Central™, is a browser-based document management software system created to provide businesses and other organizations with a convenient way to capture, retrieve, and manage information originating in hard copy or digital form.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-discovery.html http://www.articletrader.com/computers/software/ten-things-you-should-know-about-document-discovery.html Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:53:48 -0600
1. Document discovery means retrieving and producing documents that substantiate your claims, whether in the context of a lawsuit or a compliance audit. In today's context, over 90 per cent of discoveries are electronic discoveries, i.e. discovering documents stored in an electronic form.

2. If electronic document management systems are good, document discovery is far easier than the physical discovery of paper documents from the mass of papers, files and filing cabinets. However, proving the authenticity of electronic documents can face some special problems.

3. Just opening an electronic document can change the metadata associated with the document, with the user not even being aware that it has changed. Metadata can sometimes prove critical for supporting the claim being made. The substantial content of electronic documents is also quite easy to change, making them suspect as authentic evidence.

4. The metadata attached to electronic documents, such as the automatically recorded "date of modification" and the person who created it can help prove specific points. Electronic documents are often required in their "native file" state to access such metadata.

5. Electronic repositories are often cleared automatically of old files to make space for new documents. Volumes of electronic documents such as e-mails and saved chat messages can mount to huge quantities if such periodic clearing is not done. This can sometimes mean losing valuable documents that substantiate legal claims.

6. Regulations like Sarbanes Oxley Act have made it a serious offence to destroy electronic records once litigation has commenced, or even if one is suspected. A "legal hold" is placed on all documents, including e-mails, once such an event occurs. The inability to produce all relevant documents can also lead to adverse judgments against the defaulter.

7. Producing electronic documents in their native format is not always required. Instead, they can be printed out or converted into such formats as a PDF document before being produced. It is acceptability of the document to the litigants that is important. For example, converting a computational spreadsheet into PDF can lose all the computational details, and might affect the document's value as evidence.

8. Electronic documents can exist in several versions and copies, possibly stored in different places such as local workstation computers, network servers, laptops and even home computers of employees. The document management system has to exercise tight control in such a situation to ensure that the legal admissibility of the documents is not affected.

9. Document management systems restrict access to documents, make unauthorized changes difficult, maintain audit trails of all actions done on each document and exercise strict version control that authenticity of electronic documents is preserved.

10. Where documents exist only in backup or archive media that are not on-line, their discovery can prove expensive and burdensome. In such cases, the parties might agree on sharing the costs of discovery if the documents are classified as "inaccessible" by law.

Electronic discovery, while theoretically easier, faces several problems that affect their acceptability and special training might be required to educate staff about relevant issues. There are resources like EDRM that can help with electronic discovery issues.

--
Ademero, Inc. develops document archiving software . Based largely on user experience, the company's flagship product, Content Central™, is a browser-based document management software system created to provide businesses and other organizations with a convenient way to capture, retrieve, and manage information originating in hard copy or digital form.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>